Adventures In Babysitting

by TheNewYorkBrony

First published 30th of October, 2013

Cadence has a crush on Shining Armour. Not only that, but she needs some extra cash. What better way to earn money and get close to her crush than watching his kid sister?

Cadence is the most popular girl in school. Shining isn't really popular at all. But when Cadence shows an interest in watching his sister, their worlds collide and suddenly they realize they aren't so different after all -with Twilight stuck in the middle of it.

Adventure #1: Meeting The Competition

Cadence Mi Amore Cadenza was the most popular girl in school. She had everything. Money, good looks, friends surrounding her, guys flocking to her side. Everything a teenage girl could ever want. But she didn’t have the one thing she truly wanted though.

His name was Shining Armour. He was in the same grade she was in and in all of her classes. They barely talked for most of the 11 years they had been in school together, but Cadence saw how sweet and kind the boy could be. He was always walking his little sister home from elementary school, smiling and nodding attentively to whatever the child had to say.

She’d watch them from her car, smiling to herself, wishing that she could have a younger sibling like that. Soon, without realizing it, she had developed a crush on the young man. And found herself scrambling for anyway to get closer to him.

That’s when she realized the fastest way to get close to him was his sister. But how?

“Cadence? Did you hear what I said?” Her mother asked, turning to her as they sat at the breakfast table.

“Uh, wha? No, sorry mom. I zoned out for a bit.” She responded, popping a piece of her waffles into her mouth.

“I said the Sparkles are looking for a babysitter for their youngest daughter. Twilight, I think is her name.” Her mother repeated, taking a sip of her coffee as she flipped to the next page in the newspaper that she was reading.

“Twilight, huh? How old is she?” Cadence asked, the gears turning in her head. She could get this job, find out everything about Shining from his sister, and get paid for it. It was a win-win.

“About seven. The old sitter quit, and the boy is in extra curricular activities so he can’t watch her. I think this would be a good opportunity for you to open up and take responsibility for someone else other than yourself.” Her mother told her, flipping to another page in the paper. She grinned at her daughter. “Plus, it’ll look good on a college application. I think it could count as some community service.”

Cadence nodded. “Sure thing, mom. I’ll just go to the Sparkle house after school and see what the qualifications are.” She got up and pushed her chair in before placing her plate in the sink. After washing her hands, she grabbed her backpack off the sofa in the living room and her keys off the counter. After waving goodbye to her mom, she stepped out into the fall sunlight.

When she got to school, she saw Shining Armor leaning against his bike listening to music. She decided to approach him. "Hey." She said, tapping him.

He jumped slightly, and looked at her wide eyed. He quickly surveyed the area around them, then looked back at her, yanking the earbuds out of his ears. "Hi. Hey." He croaked. She could see the poor guy was clearly nervous.

"I know we don't know each other very well, but my mom said your folks were looking for a sitter? You know, for your sister?" Cadence explained, smiling at him.

Shining Armour nodded. "Uh, yeah. The old hag who used to do it quit. Are you interested?" He responded stiffly.

"Yeah. I was actually wondering if I could swing by and see if I could get the job. You mind if I walk home with you?" Cadence told him.

Shining Armour looked as if he was about to drop dead. "N-No. I-I don't mind. I mean we would have to stop by the elementary to get Twily."

Cadence nodded. "Well okay. I guess I'll see you after school?" She smiled at him again, this time a little flirtatiously.

Shining was red in the face now. "Y-Yeah, see ya." And with that, he put his ear buds back in, shoved his hands in his hoodie pockets and walked off briskly towards their first class.

"Smooth, Cady." Cadence sighed to herself. "Real smooth."

As the late bell rang, Cadence made her way to her locker to gather her things. Then she continued down the hallway, trying to scout out Shining. When she finally did find him, he was leaning against the wall in front of the boy's bathroom, hair dripping wet.

He looked sad, and angry.

"Um, Shining?" She asked, getting his attention. He gave her a sorrowful look, and smiled sadly.

"Hi."

"Hi." She greeted back. "You wanna tell me what happened?" She added, nodding towards his hair.

"I fell." He grumbled.

Cadence decided to not push him further. Looking at the angry in his eyes, she grabbed his hand. “Well, whatever happened, I hope you’re okay.” She smiled sweetly at him, before letting his hand drop back to his side.

Shining gave her a bit of a shocked look, but nodded. “Yeah, let’s just go.”

As they stepped outside the school, a few curious eyes were on them, wondering why one of the most popular girls in school was with someone like Shining Armour. Shining wasn’t as popular as people might have thought. He was actually a nobody, a geek in a sea full of somebodys.

Cadence knew that, but she didn’t know how bad it really was.

Shining walked over to the bike rack and sighed once he saw that both the tires had been popped and were now flat and lop sided. It was going to cost him at least fifty dollars to fix the damage. That was the second time that month. Guess it would be another few weeks without lunch again.

Cadence leaned over his shoulder and saw the tires. “Someone thought it’d be funny to do that, huh?” She asked as he unlocked his bike. He didn’t respond, just simply nodded and started walking. Cadence followed behind him, her eyes watching him and her head tilted in an inquisitive way. She wondered what he was really like at home.

Crossing the parking lot and exiting the school yard, Shining walked beside his bike, wheeling it along as Cadence walked beside him. He didn’t say anything, just seethed through his teeth, his grip on the handlebars tightening, making his knuckles go white.

Cadence noticed, but said nothing. Seeing how angry he was, she didn’t want to bring up the obvious. She did wonder who could have done such a thing though.

They walked a couple of blocks and past a few houses before turning at a corner. A large brown brick building came into view. As they got closer, the large letters that said Canterlot Elementary School glittered in the fall afternoon sunlight.

There were kids waiting at the curb for their parents, some were crossing the street with the help of a parent or a sibling, the crossing guard halting cars as they passed.

One child in particular, was leaning against a tree in the front yard, the shade keeping the sun out of her eyes as she read, her bookbag next to her, leaning against the tree. She looked like she had no interest in playing or even talking to the other children.

“That’s her.” Shining Armour said, pointing to the little girl. He walked over the edge of the green and dropped his bike. Then, quietly and carefully, he tiptoed up to the girl, snatching the book out of her hands.

“Hey!” Twilight squeaked, looking up with a scowl.

“You’re never going to make any friends if you keep isolating yourself.” Shining tsked playfully.

Twilight crossed her arms. “B.B.B.F. you’re a jerk.” She grumbled, getting up and putting on her bookbag. He stuck out his hand and she reached for it.

“But I’m your jerk.” He responded smirking.

Cadence had watched the whole thing from where she was standing and thought it was very cute. Now more than ever she wished she had a younger sibling to tease and play around with like that. She thought Shining Armour was so sweet for caring so much about Twilight.

Most boys she knew in school didn’t give two craps about their younger siblings. But here was Shining, looking at his little sister like she was his whole world. His escape to happiness and beyond. She loved that. She loved that about him. His anger from earlier seemed to have dissipated, and now he was nothing but smiles.

“I’ve got a surprise for you.” She overheard him tell Twilight as they walked back over to her.

“Oh yeah? What is it? Is it a new telescope? Or a new dictionary with fourth grade words in it?!” Twilight bubbled, jumping up and down.

“Hmm. No. But I’ll definitely add that to the birthday and Christmas list.” Shining grinned, ruffling her hair.

“Yes!” Twilight shouted, pumping a fist in the air. “But really, what is my surprise?” By now they were a few feet in front of Cadence. When they finally reached her, Twilight looked up to see the older girl smiling down at her.

“Hi.” Cadence said, waving.

Twilight stared her in bewilderment, then looked back at her brother. “This is my surprise? A girl?” She asked, turning back to the teenager, her eyes squinted in a confused manner, her mouth open a bit.

“Yep.” Shining nodded.

“But I don’t like girls. I don’t even like boys yet.” Twilight said, her head tilted up at her brother.

Cadence stifled a laugh as Shining nearly turned beet red. “No, no, Twilly, this is Cadence, she might be your new babysitter.” He explained quickly, rubbing her back.

Twilight fixed her face. “Oh. Okay. So you’re Cadence?” She asked, looking back up at her. She was begining to become annoyed with all the neck craning. She made a mental note to get taller over the next few months.

“Yes, I am. And you must be Twilight.” Cadence responded, bending down to Twilight’s level.

Twilight frowned. She hated when people did that. She was their equal, not some ignorant child that need to feel cute all the time. She was Twilight Sparkle, one of the smartest kids in her school. She was the only child in her class doing advanced academics, and she didn’t even eat with the students. Most of her lunch periods were spent with teachers, helping the upper grades with their homework and class work, and teaching the younger grades to understand what they usually could not.

She was not an ordinary seven year old. And she’d be damned if she was treated that way.

“Look,” Twilight started in a polite tone, putting a hand on Cadence’s shoulder. “I get that you want to ‘relate’ to me and make me feel like we’re going to be ‘best friends’ but let me make one thing clear. I am a gifted child of a rare caliber. And I demanded to be treated as such. I am not a nose picking, paste eating, cookie stealing, mindless second grader. I. Am. God.”

Her face was completely motionless. It took almost everything Cadence had not to burst out laughing. That was one of the cutest intimidation attempts she’d ever seen. It reminded her of those videos of owls being angry about being petted. It was too cute to be threatening. But she took it seriously nonetheless.

This was Shining’s little sister after all. And if she wanted to make some extra money and get closer to him, she was going to have to get along with the girl. No matter how odd she was. Cadence bowed, then smirked. “Yes, Princess Smarty Pants.”

Twilight laughed, her arms clutching her sides before looking back up at her brother. “I like her. Can we keep her?”

“Well, this is it.” Shining said, opening the gate to let both girls in before he himself entered. He patted on a mailbox that said ‘Sparkle’ in purple paint, dropped off his bike in the garage, then pulled out his keys to open the door. Before he could even put it in the lock, the door swung open, and Twilight flew up into their father’s arms.

“Daddy!” She giggled, throwing her arms around him. Cadence rolled her eyes playfully. For a kid who didn’t want to be seen as cute, she was doing a good job of playing the part. Shining stepped aside to let her walk in before him, then shut the door after he entered, locking it and throwing his bag on the floor.

“So, you must be Cadence?” Mr. Sparkle asked, putting Twilight down.

Cadence nodded, holding out a hand to shake. “Yes, I was interested in babysitting Twilight. She’s quite a bright kid.” She watched as Twilight rolled her eyes, making her way over to the couch to turn on the TV.

“You bent down to her level?” Mr. Sparkle asked, laughing a bit.

“How’d you know?” Cadence asked, a little dumbfounded.

“She hates when everyone does that.” he responded, before calling up the stairs, “Honey, the new sitter’s here!”

A few minutes later a woman appeared, putting her cellphone in her pocket. “Are you a friend of Shining?” She asked, shaking hands with Cadence.

She nodded for the second time. “Mmm, yeah, you could say that. It’s nice to meet you Mrs. Sparkle.”

“You too, dear.” The woman said, patting her hand. “Shining! It’s almost time for your job!” She called over her shoulder.

Cadence hadn’t noticed that Shining Armour wasn’t even in the room. She guessed his room was upstairs, because that’s where he came down from in a fast food worker’s uniform. She wondered what his room looked like, but wondered even more as to why he was wearing what he was. “Part timer?” She teased.

“Something like that.” He smiled wryly, putting on his hat. “Mom, give me a ride please? Someone slashed my tires again.”

His mother gave him an incredulous look. “Again? That’s the third time this month!” She put two fingers on the bridge of her nose. “Alright, hurry up.”

Shining ran to where his hoodie was hanging and quickly shoved it on while his parents turned back to Cadence. Just when she was about to say something, her phone rang. She picked it up, and when she was done talking to the person on the other end, she hung up. “Sorry this is such short notice, honey, but can you watch Twilight tonight? We have to go to an event tonight and there aren’t many other options.” their mom asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.

“Sure! It’ll be a great way for us to get to know each other better and spend some time bonding! We’ll have so much fun!” There was a gagging noise heard from the living room, but was ignored.

“Alright. We’ll be back by nine. Make sure she’s in bed by eight!” Mrs. Sparkle instructed, shrugging on her coat as her husband and son shuffled out the door. “Good luck!” She called, as the screen door slammed shut.

Cadence locked the screen door and then locked the actual front door before striding into the living room. “Hey there, squirt. Whatcha watching?” She asked, plopping down beside her.

Twilight didn’t even look up at her. “My Pretty Pony.” She told her dully, her eyes glued to the screen.

“Wow.” Cadence said, earning a side glance from the girl. “You know, I used to watch that when I was your age.”

“It’s a reboot.” the same bored voice responded. Cadence looked to the screen to see a purple unicorn use her magic to teleport to another room. She then turned her attention back the sluggish girl.

“So, what do you want for dinner?” She asked, trying painfully hard to keep the conversation going.

All she got was a shrug. Her shoulders drooped. Oh. She’s one of those kids. She’s the antisocial loner. Thinking bout it, Twilight and Shining weren't that different. But Shining was a teenager, that was to be expected. Twilight was a child, she was supposed to be happy and friendly and cheerful.

And she....wasn’t at all. She was actually really depressing.

Cadence sighed as she rested her chin on her elbow. “Yup.” She murmured to herself. “So much fun.”

Author's Notes:

I got this idea because i really liked the backstory they got in issue 11 of the IDW comics. Also, im going to be babysitting a few kids myself, so it just popped into my head. Well, tell me what you guys think! :D

Adventure #2: Bonding With The Genius

Cadence couldn't take it anymore. Twilight was boring her to death. "You wanna go for a walk or something?" She asked after another hour of My Pretty Pony. Twilight didn't even look up from the screen.

Just as Cadence was about to let out an audible groan, Twilight finally spoke up.

"Whatever. Can we get ice cream too?"

"You haven't eaten dinner yet." Cadence responded, smirking.

Twilight shrugged. "What my parents don't know won't hurt them." She walked over to the coat rack by the door picking up her purple hoodie. Cadence stood up after her and donned her pink one.

As they walked out into the cool fall night, Cadence was feeling a little skeptical. "Are you sure that your parents wouldn't mind that I brought you out at this time of night?"

Twilight shrugged. "Probably not. They'd fire you on the spot if they found out. Honestly, I would let them. "

Cadence laughed. "Man you are brutal."

Twilight smiled wryly. "Yeah I guess that's why the old hag called me a problem child." She stuffed her hands
in her hoodie pockets angrily.

“Problem child?" Cadence repeated, swerving the entire top half of her body to look at the younger girl.

Twilight grunted. “I don’t want to talk about it.” She turned away from the sitter and refused to look her in the eye. Cadence wasn’t one to pursue things, but whatever was bothering Twilight was truly bothering her.

“You can’t bring up something like that and not go into detail.” Cadence scoffed, breathing out puffs of hot air. Her breath materialized into little pockets of heat every time she spoke.

“Just because I brought it up doesn’t mean I’m obligated to talk about it.” Twilight snapped. She lifted her hood over her head before pulling on the draw strings.

“Look at you, using big words!” Cadence teased.

“Don’t patronize me.” Twilight growled, walking ahead of her. She didn’t need Cadence making things worse.

“Hey, don’t walk away from me!” Cadence ran up to her panting as the cold air rushed painfully into her lungs. “I know that you’re upset, but you can’t just walk away. It’s the middle of the night and you’re a little girl-”

“Stop it!” Twilight shrieked. “Stop calling me that! I’m not a little girl! I’m a freaking human being!” Her fists shook with anger, tears blurring her vision. “I’m not little.” She muttered. “I’m not.”

Cadence bend down to her level before patting her back. “Twilight, I’m so sorry.” Twilight clearly was too busy being upset to be annoyed with the gesture.

“No one likes me. No one in school likes me. This girl in my class, Rainbow. She called me an egghead today.” She sniffled. “She said it in front of the whole class.”

“Oh sweetie.” Cadence cooed. That’s all she really could do. Twilight was hurting in a way that Cadence couldn’t help fix. She had never been bullied, or not liked, so she never could understand how being an outsider really felt. That didn’t mean she didn’t want to help Twilight any less.

“I just want someone to like me.” The second grader sobbed. “That’s all I really want.”

A bigger hand than her own reached up towards her face, the thumb of it swiping her falling tears away. The hand and its caring touch warmed her features, contrary to the cold air whipping all around them.

"For what it's worth, I like you Twilight." Cadence comforted.

Twilight snorted. “You don’t mean that. You’re getting paid to say that.” She wiped away another tear that fell with the damp sleeve of her hoodie.

Cadence chuckled. “No Twi, I mean it. I’m serious. You’re so bright and sarcastic for your age it’s amazing. Not to mention you’re never afraid to speak your mind. You’re braver than most girls in my grade.”

“Y-You mean it?” Twilight asked, looking up at Cadence.

“Of course not! I’m getting paid to say that!” She answered, laughing a little. She was just kidding, of course.

Twilight punched her leg. “I hate you!” She tried to sound angry but it came out in a happy giggle.

“I love you too, squirt.” Cadence stuck her tongue out at the younger girl and made a face.

Twilight snorted. “And they say I’m the one who needs to be babysat.” She rolled her eyes, starting to walk again.

Cadence did the same, but not before letting out,“Just for that, you’re going to bed at eight thirty!”

Twilight threw her head back. “Aw c’mon!”

“So, why do you call him B.B.B.F.F.?” Cadence asked, chewing on a gummy bear that managed to make its way to the side of her cup.

“Cause hes my Big Brother Best Friend Forever.” Twilight explained. She munched on a few rainbow sprinkles and played with the napkin on the table. They had arrived about twenty minutes ago, Cadence ordering a triple scoop of vanilla with gummy bears, and Twilight a double scoop of chocolate and strawberry with rainbow sprinkles.

“Uh huh. And how did that name come to be?” Cadence stuck her spoon in her mouth again before flicking a gummy bear into Twilight’s cup.

Twilight rolled her eyes and stuck the red gooey creature into her mouth. “From what my parents told me I couldn’t say Shining. Like at all. So I started calling him the Japanese word for brother.”

“And that is?"

"Onii-san." Twilight mumbled, holding up her spoon watching the scoop on it melt and fall back into the cup.

“Where’d you learn that?” Cadence flicked another gummy bear at Twilight. This time the younger girl was ready and caught the confection in her mouth. The two silently fist bumped as the conversation continued.

“Shiny used to watch a lot of anime. Still does.” Twilight giggled. “You should see the posters in his room.”

“Oh?” Cadence was intrigued.

Twilight nodded. “Yeah, there’s this one where like, all the girls are-”

A snippet of a pop song cut her off. Cadence picked up her phone and sent an apologetic look in Twilight’s direction. “Hey, Mr. Sparkle.” She greeted. Twilight’s ears perked up. “How’s Twilight? Oh she’s doing just fine!” Cadence’s answer was a little bit too cheery even for her.

Twilight scrambled over the table to reach for the phone, banging her knee in the process. She hissed in pain, grabbing at her injured limb trying to soothe the throbbing.

“What was that?” Cadence repeated, glaring at Twilight. The younger girl glared right back, still holding her knee. “Oh that was uh, Twilight. She must have fallen, she’s so clumsy!” A purple size four Converse kicked Cadence in the shin. Now it was Cadence’s turn to groan in pain. “I will get you back for that you little squirt!” Cadence hastily whispered with her hand over the mic. Then she turned back to the phone. “Sorry, Twilight was asking me something. Uh, huh. Mhmm.” Subconsciously she sticks her spoon back in her mouth. She soon regrets doing so because she nearly chokes on it.

“Y-you’re gonna be home in thirty minutes?!” She stuttered spitting it out. She makes a hand gesture towards Twilight that indicated that they need to go- and fast. Twilight jumped up, wincing remembering her knee, before shoving her arms inside her hoodie.

Cadence did the same without hanging up. “No, no, there’s no problem! I-I just thought you guys would be coming back later on!” She threw her cup in the trash and snatched Twilight’s from her hands. Twilight scowled and folded her arms in protest while the older girl shoved her out the door. “Okay. We’ll see you then.” Cadence confirmed hanging up the phone.

The two girls shared a look in silence before sprinting down the street.

Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle unlocked the door to their house to find everything in place. Not a single frame was shattered on the hardwood floor, not a single thing was out of place. And best of all, there wasn’t a seven year old in sight.

Thinking that her daughter was up in her bedroom, Mrs. Sparkle headed in the direction of the stairs, but her husband stopped her when he peered into the living room. “Honey, you have to come see this.” He said, smiling. She walked up behind him and developed a smile of her own.

On the couch were both Cadence and Twilight fast asleep. Cadence, resting her head on one of the pillows, her sock covered feet propped up at the other end, with Twilight nuzzled into her side, Cadence’s arm draped over her lovingly.

“Aw, how sweet. It’s like they’re sisters.” Mrs. Sparkle cooed, taking out her phone and opening the camera app. She quickly snapped a photo of the pair before resuming her position behind her husband. “Should we wake them up?” She asked, still watching them sleep.

Mr. Sparkle shook his head. “Nah. It’s too late for her to go home by herself. Plus, it seems like Twilight really enjoys her warmth.” As if on cue, Twilight smiled in her sleep, wiggling even more into Cadence’s body.

The adults quietly stepped out of the room to let the girls have their sleep. Mr. Sparkle headed upstairs, while Mrs. Sparkle went to the hallway closet and took out an old blanket. She draped it over the sleeping duo and kissed both their foreheads. “Sleep tight, girls.” She whispered, turning the light and the tv off.

Morning sunlight peaked through the windows of the room that they were in, but that isn’t what woke Cadence. “What the heck are you doing?” She asked groggily as a smaller being fidgeted beside her. It was annoying her and she wanted to keep sleeping.

“Trying to push you off’a me! You’re freaking heavy!” Twilight barked as she tried to wiggle out of the arm Cadence had slung over her.

Cadence growled. “Are you really that weak that you can’t even lift my arm?” She lifted the limb as Twilight was about to push again, causing the latter girl to fall off the couch, bringing the blanket that was keeping them both warm with her.

They both groaned, Twilight from the impact of the cold, hard floor, Cadence from the lack of heat. “Get back up here so I can go back to sleep.” She mumbled, turning over.

“Oh no, I’m an early riser.” Twilight said. “I don’t sleep in like you teenagers! Children go to sleep early and wake up early. Haven’t you ever taken Child Development? Or were you too busy popping bubblegum in the back of the cla-” A pillow made contact with her face and for the second time that morning, Twilight was on her butt on the floor. “That’s child abuse!” She whined.

“It’s not abuse if you don’t live to say anything.” Cadence said, her words muffled by her pillow.

“What kind of babysitter are you?! I can have you arrested for saying things like that!” Twilight threatened. Cadence didn’t answer her, just with the sound of her light, but surpisingly loud snoring.

“Fine! I’ll just go do what any normal seven year old would do! Turn on all the electrical appliances, and stick a fork in the toaster!” Twilight declared.

“If you were really a genius, or god, as you said before, you would know that normal seven year old's don’t do that.” Cadence responded, her eyes still closed. There was a faint outline of annoyance on her face, her eyebrows scrunched together.

“Urgh!” Twilight threw her hands in the air and stormed into the kitchen. Loud banging could be heard, along with the sound of clattering dishes.

“She can’t freaking be serious, can she?” Cadence grumbled to herself as she heard the microwave turn on. Water started to run, the coffee maker was turned on, and the toaster was set on the counter, the plug being shoved into the wall.

“Dear god, she cannot be serious.” The second one came out as a statement, rather than a question. What Cadence presumed to be the utensil drawer was opened, and Twilight could be heard grunting, looking through it.

“Twilight!”

No answer.

“Goddamit.” Cadence grumbled, getting up. She ran into the kitchen to find that nothing was on and that Twilight had been sitting at the island the whole time eating a plate of waffles with a cup of water.

“Wha- How-”

“Rule number one,” Twilight cut her off, holding up a digit, “Never, underestimate me.” She smirked at the shocked expression on Cadence’s face. “I made you some coffee and a plate of pancakes. You’re welcome to sit at the table with me if you’d like.”

Cadence watched the younger girl the whole time as she reached into the microwave to find a plate full of warm microwave pancakes. She then went over to the coffee maker on the kitchen counter to find that it was indeed filled with coffee. Cadence snorted, sitting down across from Twilight. “Alright." She sighed, "Twilight one, Cady zero.”

Author's Notes:

so yeah! did this in like, two hours! rushed through this a little because people have been asking me when i was going to updated I Thought You Looked Familiar. That will be up around next Friday. Well, i gotta go start. Laters!

Adventure #3: The Fight And The Fallout

Cadence pulled her gloves off as she exited her car. It has been a few weeks that she's been watching Twilight. The two have become so close that Cadence would come over even when Twilight didn't even need to be sat.

On this particular day, Cadence wasn't greeted with a smiling Twilight. She was met with a frowning Mrs. Sparkle. "Ah, did something happen, Mrs. S?" She asked, staring behind her to see that Twilight was at the kitchen table with her head down.

"You should go ask her yourself. I'm gonna go run a few errands. Make sure she doesn't get into anymore trouble?" The older woman responded, shouldering her pocketbook.

"Ah, sure." Cadence replied. She stepped into the house, pulling her jacket off in the process. She hung it up, then took her boots off before walking over to Twilight. "Hey, squirt." She said, patting her on her back.

Shining Armour was sitting at the island eating a sandwich and nearly choked. Even though Cadence has been coming over more and more frequently than before, he still wasn't used to her being around him.

"Oh, hey Shining. What's Twily's problem?" Cadence directed towards him. She smiled at him, glad to see he was there today. Usually when she came over he was either out or on the way out.

He coughed. "She uh, got into a fight in school." He barely talked to her, and when he did it was very few words. Most of the time he spent avoiding her so that he didn't have to talk to her.

"What?!" Cadence forcefully lifted the younger girl's head to see she had a black eye, multiple scratches on her face, and a lip that looked like it had just stopped bleeding. "What the hell, squirt?!"

Twilight smiled wryly. "Hi, Cadence. It's nice to see you again."

"Don't you 'Hi Cadence' me! What the hell happened to you?!" Cadence yelled at her. She couldn't help but wonder what Twilight could have done to end up in such a bad state. As long as Cadence had known her, (which wasn’t long if she thought about it) She had come to know Twilight had no physical upper body strength whatsoever. She still needed a stool to reach the cabinets above the counter, she still needed someone to reach up for the cereal boxes atop the fridge, and she was so small and possibly underweight for her age that if Cadence pushed her the right way there was no doubt in her mind that she would break a bone in her body.

"Isn't it obvious? Shiny just told you." Twilight looked up at her smiling again. The cut in her lip that had stopped bleeding began to bleed again. Twilight put the wet paper towel beside her up the the wound and winced when the napkin made contact with it.

Cadence glared at her.

She sighed. “Okay. I got into a fight with that Rainbow girl.” She then turned back to Cadence. “There, bubblegum princess. Ya Happy?” She really didn’t feel like explaining herself, after having to explain to her teacher, the nurse, the principal and her mother. She inwardly snorted. Her father wasn’t home from work yet. He would be home late and when he did come home she hardly doubted that her mother wouldn’t wake her up just to make her explain herself again. For the uptinth time. She swore to high heaven if it’s anything that pisses her off more than children her age, it was enforced repetition.

“What?! How?!”

“Do you want me to draw you a schematic graph for you or have you never seen a fight?” Twilight asked sarcastically. Stalling with sarcasm was her specialty. Sometimes she would offend or annoy the other person so much that they’d just tell her to ‘forget it’ and storm off.

“Explain what happened, turd, before I take away your TV privileges for the night.” Cadence bit back, folding her arms. Unfortunately for Twilight, Cadence had grown used to her irritating attitude. While she did want to just give up and walk away before she actually hit the child herself, she soon learned how to calm herself and remember that that is what Twilight would be wanting. For someone to get so frustrated with her that they’d give up on talking to her, or even asking her about anything. Suddenly, Cadence didn’t seem too surprised that Twilight didn't have any friends.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Ms. Cheerilee, my teacher, she was talking about multiplication.” She snorted. “I already knew the material so I was reading a book I had borrowed from an acquaintance in the sixth grade.” Cadence didn’t say anything so she scowled. “Do I seri-”

“Yes, I’m listening.” Cadence cut her off.

Twilight rolled her eyes again, but continued. “So yeah, I was reading, and Rainbow Dash came up behind me and said, ‘Whatcha got there, egghead?’ And I said ‘None of your business you insolent twit’ She took offense to that and pushed me out my chair. So I did what any self-respecting genius would do. I pushed her back. She punched me in the mouth,” -Twilight pointed to her lip- “She got me on the ground and started wailing on me. Now, it’s kinda funny, because she’s like two inches shorter than me, and looks like she belongs in one of those late night ‘Feed The Children’ ads.” Twilight churned her wrist disinterestedly.

“She scratched me a few times and before I knew it I was seeing red. So I pushed her off of me, pinned her to the ground and punched her in the nose. Gave the brat a run for her money too. She had to walk around all day with two ripped up pieces of paper towel in her nose.” Twilight gave Cadence a concluding look, a bored expression that screamed, ‘Can I go now?’

“You beat up a fellow classmate.” Cadence deadpanned.

“She started it.” Twilight shrugged. It’s not like she insinuated the fight. “The brute wanted a brawl so I gave her one. Robert Downey Jr. style.” She pounded her fist and grinned.

Cadence raised an eyebrow, her face taking on a disgusted look. “Okay first, no more Sherlock movies for you. Second, you’re going to apologize to that girl on Monday.”

“Boy, you really are a bobble head cheerleader aren’t you?” Twilight snipped. “Because only a blondey like you would be so dense enough to even consider telling me to do something as absurd and ludicrous as that.”

Cadence’s put her hands on the back of the chair across from Twilight and squeezed on it, her knuckles turning white.

Shining Armour had been quiet during their conversation, having heard the story already, but couldn’t believe that Cadence was letting Twilight treat her like that. She was the bigger girl, the older sibling in a sense, the babysitter. She should be the one calling the shots. He was used to Twilight being a snide little smart ass but when it came to Cadence, her doing that kind of pissed him off.

“Hey, Twilight. Knock it off. Stop being a smart ass and apologize to Cadence.” He had spoken up for the first time in ages, his stern listen-to-your-big-brother voice slicing through the tense silence. He looked at his younger sister expectantly, who snorted and rolled her eyes for the third time.

“Fine. I’m sorry that you fit the systematical high school blonde airhead popular girl stereotype that has been set and portrayed by mediocre teen actresses for the past thirty years.” Twilight didn’t even look at her. She gave her another dull look.

Cadence let out a defeated breath. “I’m sorry too.” She paused for a moment. “I’m sorry that you’re going to have to look for a new babysitter.”

Twilight’s head shot up and her eyes bulged. “Wait what?! You can’t do that! You can’t be serious! Shiny, tell me she cannot be serious!” She snapped at her brother.

Cadence walked over to the door, putting her coat and boots back on. They both hurriedly followed after her, Twilight shaking in fear.

“Cadence?” He asked, unsurely.

The girl gave him a sad look before turning back to Twilight. “It’s been a pleasure babysitting you, Twi. Maybe there’s someone out there that’s more equipped to deal with a problem child like you.” Without another word she flipped her hood up and stepped out into the winter that was as just as cold as her words.

As the screen door banged shut behind her, Twilight felt a chill run up her spine as tears started to fall from her eyes. Her whole body shook, her heart beating like a jackhammer. She took one look at Cadence’s car as she sped off then faced her brother, who was giving her a mixed look.

“Are you-”

“Don’t.” She held up a hand. “Whatever you say isn’t going to make her come back. Just, shut up.” Twilight responded, stomping up the stairs. She slammed the door to her room behind her before climbing in bed with Smarty Pants, the knitted horse her grandmother made for her. She pulled the covers over her head and wept.

She didn’t come out for the rest of the night.

Author's Notes:

Yes I know, "This is an Shining and Cadence story! Why is this focusing on just Twilight and Cadence?!" I know some of you aren't asking that but still, Im going to answer it anyway. I dunno I really like writing their relationship. I kind of based Twilight off of me, I was the smart as lanky kid that always had something way too smart to say. I was a sarcastic asshole, even at seven. Still am. haha. Anyway, the romance will start soon, I just wanted the two to have a fallout. Maybe Twilight will watch her mouth more around the people she cares about, no? Hope you guys liked this! Don't forget to comment and like! Later! :D

Adventure #4: Frost, Tossed, And Lost

The next day it rained, the snow that had fallen the previous few days being turned to frosty slosh. Shining Armour has spent the last few hours trying to coax Twilight out of her room. It was all for nothing unfortunately, because the girl wouldn't budge.

"Twilight, ya gotta come out sometime." Shining said, rapping on her bedroom door. And just like the so many other times he had done this, he was met with silence. No snort, no snide remark, just complete, painful silence. He knew Twilight didn't mean to say those things to Cadence. She was a kid. Kids didn't stop when they needed to. They were motors that ran on eternal gas.

Though, it didn't excuse the way she acted. He knew that. And he was pretty sure Twilight knew it too. She was a smart kid. He sighed as he slid the plate with her lunch on it under the door. He smiled a little when he saw a small pale hand reach for it and yank it closer.

Surprisingly the seven year old still made no sound, but Shining knew it'd be a while before she'd talk to anyone. He shrugged, and walked back downstairs. He felt like he should do something but didn't know what. Should I go talk to her? He thought. But what if she doesn't wanna see me either? The idea was preposterous, but not completely unrealistic.

He sat down on the couch for a moment, staring blankly at the tv. Shining wasn't the bravest, or the most athletic, or even the most good looking. He was always being picked on at school. Whether it was for being so quiet or just not being able to do the same things the boys in his grade. But he knew that there was one thing he was good at, and that was being a good big brother to Twilight. He pushed himself off the couch and put on his coat before heading out the door.

The rain was depressing for Cadence, and somehow made her feel guilty. Not that she wasn't already. She just felt like Twilight had taken her snide comments too far. “I just wanted to teach her a lesson.” She sighed. “I didn’t mean for it to go this far.” She rolled over on her bed. “And I called her a problem child.” She put her pillow on her head and groaned.

The next few minutes were spent in self wallowing, listening to the silent yet noisy pitter patter of the heavy downfall outside. “Cady! There’s a boy here to see you!” Her mother called out from where she presumed was the stairs. She barely lifted her head.

“Tell ‘em to go away!” She shouted lazily.

“It’s the brother of that little girl you babysit!” Her mother called back.

Cadence’s head shot up. “Shining?” She questioned to herself, then stumbled out of bed. “Uh, on second thought mom tell him I’ll be down in a minute!” She yelled, fixing herself in her floor length mirror. There wasn’t much she could do to a pink tank and a grey pair of sweatpants, but being the kind of girl she was, she made it a habit to check her appearance, especially if someone of the opposite gender was at her door.

She shoved her feet in a pair of slipper boots, then made her way downstairs. At the kitchen table chewing on a cookie and sipping on some water was Shining Armour who looked about just as nervous as she felt. “Hey.” She waved awkwardly. After all, she had pretty much dismissed him and his sister the day before.

He nodded, swallowing. “Hey.”

Awkward silence settled in, the only sound being water from Shining’s hair dripping onto the floor.

Cadence was trying so hard not to breakdown, or get on her knees and beg for forgiveness. She knew that it was a stupid thing to do, since, he wasn't the one she needed to apologize to, but after all, he was her crush, and she felt like she let him down too.

“How’d you know where I live?” She decided to ask. Since it a legitimate question and she seriously wanted to know. He gave her a confused look, before he blushed.

“I, uh, pass your house on the way to work.” He scratched his neck. As much as he didn’t want it to seem like it, it really looked like he was stalking her. He tried to look her in the eye, but found his eyes wandering towards the thin camisole she was wearing. It was scrunched up at the bottom, so every time she moved a bit of tan skin showed. When she stretched, he also saw that she wasn’t wearing a bra. Down, boy. he thought, putting his hands on the front of his pants.

“Oh. Makes sense. So, what did you want to talk about? I’m sure you didn’t just come here to mooch off of me.” Cadence laughed, then leaned on the counter. Shining really wished she hadn’t done that. He could get a full view of her chest. His hands reflexively pressed down even more on the front of his pants.

She smiled, and he smiled back. “Well, it’s uh, Twilight.” He answered nervously.

Her smiled faltered, and she sat in the stool across from him. “Oh.” She looked distraught, and he didn’t blame her. “I really didn’t mean to hurt her feelings...I just wanted to teach her a lesson. About you know, appreciating the people she has around her, y’know? Poor squirt...she must be crushed.”

“You did what you felt was right.” Shining assured, reaching out to rub her arm affectionately. A spark surged between them, and both of them stared at each other for what seemed like ages before they both pulled away. Whatever that was, had both their hearts racing.

“A-Anyway,” Shining recovered, “She really misses you. I just wanted to tell you that. It’s understandable if you don’t wanna come back but she needs you.” I need you. He thought and almost added. He gave her a pleading look.

She opened her mouth, about to answer, but before she could, a rock song she vaguely knew broke through their silence. Shining Armour gave her an apologetic look which she nodded too as he pressed the answer button on his phone. She let out a sigh as her body relaxed. That didn’t last long because it tensed up again the minute Shining stood up yelling, “What?!”

She walked around the island to give him a quizzical look, that turned to panic when she saw the white hot fear in his eyes. “O-Okay. I’m leaving now.” He answered before he hung up. He started to gather his coat.

“What?! What happened?!” She asked as he threw his coat and hat on. He was moving so fast that she was having trouble keeping up with him.

“Twily’s missing. She’s not in her room.” He responded, shoving his hands in his gloves.

“W-Well do they know she is, or where she could have gone?” She asked, shaking. Twilight was a smart kid but there was no way she could survive on the street by herself. She could be smart all she wanted. She was still a child and there were things she still didn’t know about the outside world.

“Nope.” He answered.

“Well you can’t just go out in rain like that looking for her on a bike! You’ll catch a cold!” Cadence protested. “Let me come with you! We can look for her in my car! This is my fault anyway...” She added. She really hoped Twilight was okay.

Shining put a hand on her shoulder. "What happened yesterday doesn't matter now. What matters is finding Twilight and making sure she's safe."

Cadence nodded, smiling warmly at him before grabbing her car keys off the table by the door. Shining Armour was right. The only thing that mattered right now was finding Twilight. Whatever happens later will happen later. Cadence shoved her arms into her hoodie sleeves. She just hoped that Twilight knew what she was doing.

“Goddamit, I think I turned the wrong corner.” Twilight mumbled as she pulled the hood of her purple hoodie over her face. The downpour was relentless. Her vision was blurred by the onslaught and her line of sight was skewed by her hood. She had been wandering around for about thirty minutes now.

She really had no idea where she was going, all she knew is that she was looking for Cadence. “You’d think someone as smart as me would pay attention to a detail as minuscule as a freaking address.” She huffed, stuffing her freezing pale hands in her hoodie pockets.

Twilight turned another corner and felt herself slam into something hard. “Okay, either that was a pole or-” Her hood was yanked off by a slim tanned hand, causing her to look up at the face that belonged to it. “A nimrod. Hello, Rainbow Dash.” She greeted sarcastically.

“Sparkle.” Rainbow gritted dryly.

“Do we have to do this now? Because I would love to get on with my day without having to see your ugly face.” Twilight retorted, folding her arms.

Rainbow grabbed at her hoodie and lifted her in the air, which wasn’t really high because she was a tad shorter than Twilight. “I hope that stupid babysitter of yours has some bandages for you because I’m gonna mess you up real nice.” She sneered.

Twilight snorted. “Okay first, that’s not even proper English. ‘Mess you up real nice’ isn’t an oxymoron. It’s just a poorly conceived sentence. Second, Cadence Mi Amore Cadenza has nothing to do with the petty crime of which you are about to commit.”

Rainbow growled and threw Twilight into the wet grass of a neighbouring lawn. Twilight landed with a thud and groaned. “Yep, now I see what everyone’s talking about with my smart mouth.” She grumbled, rubbing her sore bum. “Y’know I still have a black eye because of your aggressive urges to be a complete wench.” She growled, rolling over as Dash tried to lay a punch on her. She pushed the slightly stronger girl before punching her in the stomach.

With her opponent reeling from the hit, the prodigy took the opportunity to dust herself off and high tail it out of there. She took off down the street, knowing she didn’t have much time before Rainbow would recover. The girl may have been shorter than her but she was one of the strongest and fastest kids in their school. She would be on her tail in no time.

Twilight turned another corner before (difficulty) hopping a few fences. She had finally stopped running to catch her breath once she was sure that Rainbow would never find her. She looked around herself, to see the rain was letting up. She sighed a breath of relief, but immediately sucked it back in when she realized she had no idea where she was. “Well now,” She said, sitting down on a curb under a blinking street light. “I’m lost.” She paused, then frowned when the rain started once again.

“God freaking dammit.”

Author's Notes:

did anyone catch the two pole jokes? tell me someone caught that. I know, clever right? Anyway's hello! I woke up late for school so I just stayed home. And since I was home, I decided to finish the new chapter I was writing. Since, tomorrow wouldn't be a good day and Thursday either. (because of Thanksgiving.) Well, hope you guys liked this. Happy (early) Thanksgiving! :)

Adventure #5: New Friends And New Feelings

The rain had let up, and just when it did, it came right back again. Cadence’s grip on the steering wheel tightened every time Shining Armour came back from a block saying no one there had seen Twilight. They had set out almost an hour ago, checking all the girl's favorite places. The library, the park, even the ice cream shop. She wasn’t anywhere they could think of.

“Are your parents looking for her too?” Cadence asked, as she got back in the car after another unsuccessful search for the younger girl.

“Of course. My dad’s staying at the house to see if she’ll come home by herself, and my moms out looking through the neighbourhoods too.” Shining Armour responded, rubbing his gloved hands together to generate heat.

Cadence nodded as she took off down the street. The rain was coming down pretty hard and it was really cold outside. She hoped Twilight found a way to stay out of the rain.

“This is bull!” Twilight groaned, kicking her rain boot in a puddle causing it to splash dirty water into it. “Oh for Pete’s sa-”

“Um, excuse me?”

Twilight looked up to see a girl about her age looking at her timidly. She was petite and fragile looking. Almost like if the wind blew her hard enough it would blow her away. She has willowy pink hair that turned a purple hue under her blue clear umbrella and turquoise eyes that sparkled in the mist that floated around them.

“Yeah?” Twilight demanded.

“M-My name’s Fluttershy.” The girl responded, twirling a strand of her her hair. “I-I’m in Ms. Cheerilee’s class with you.”

“Fluttershy...Fluttershy....” Twilight tased the name on her tongue. When it finially came to her, she snapped her fingers. “Ooooh you’re the quiet kid that always hangs out with Rainbow Crash!”

“Um, it’s Dash.”

“I know what I said.”

“Anyway, I was in my house watching tv when I saw you out here. Are you lost?” Fluttershy asked with a tilt of her head.

“No, I’m out here because I genuinely want to catch a cold.” Twilight snarled. She absolutely hated when people stated the obvious.

“W-What?!”

“Sarcasm, Flutters. If you’re going to hang around me, you’re going to have to get used to it.” Twilight responded, patting her back. Fluttershy nodded as if she was taking down a mental note. “But to answer your question, yes, I got lo- discombobulated, running from that troglodyte you call a best friend.”

Fluttershy gave her confused glance. “A troglo- A trole-”

Twilight held up a hand to stop her suffering. “Just, don't try to repeat it. It is a word that you obviously haven’t learned yet.”

“Okay.” The meek girl gave her a sheepish nod. “So, where are your parents?” Fluttershy asked after a moment. She barely noticed, but Twilight had inched her way under the umbrella.

Sniffling from the cold air, Twilight replied, “Probably out looking for me.” She shrugged. Shining was probably out looking for her too. Maybe Cadence was too....but she knew better than to get her hopes up like that. It was her fault that Cadence quit, after all. Now Twilight was sniffling for a different reason.

Fluttershy picked up on her mood change and gave her a concerned look. “Oh my, are you alright, Twilight?” Her eyebrows scrunched up in worry, those same adorable turquoise eyes shining warily.

Twilight wiped her eyes with her already wet hoodie sleeve. “No. I’m an idiot.” She mumbled. She turned back to face the streetlight in front of them, then focused her attention on the burgundy sedan underneath it. Her reflection stared back at her, her face stained with a mix of dried and fresh tears. Even with her hood on, the rain had seeped through, her hair resting around her neck in wet, tangled lumps. She looked like a tired, sad, mess.

“Huh? Why are you an idiot?” Fluttershy asked, turning to her to see her wipe another tear. Fluttershy wasn’t very good at comforting people, but when someone needed it, she was always willing to help. Even if she couldn’t relate to the problem.

“Because. I drove away the only person I had that was close to, no she was, my older sister. She was my babysitter, the best babysitter I’ve ever had and me, my stupid, selfish, inconsiderate self had to just go and drive her away.” Twilight explained, her lip trembling. She gave Fluttershy a sorrowful look. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to dump my Lifetime movie problems on you.”

Fluttershy smiled. “Nah. It’s okay. Everyone makes mistakes. But my Mommy says what’s important though, it that you go back and fix them. Especially when you hurt someone else’s feelings.” She gave Twilight a warm, caring look. “You’re pretty smart, Twilight. Probably even smarter than most grownups.” She put a finger to Twilight’s forehead. “You’ve got a brain. Use it. Fix the bad thing that you did so everything can be good again.”

Twilight stared at Fluttershy in awe, before turning away from the taller girl. “Fix what I did wrong, huh? Okay. I’ll do that.” She said to herself. Then she turned back to Fluttershy. “You know what Flutters?” She asked as her hand snaked out from her hoodie pocket.

“Hmm?” Fluttershy hummed, as she twirled the umbrella in her other hand.

Twilight’s fingers interlocked with hers. Fluttershy gave her a surprised look, and Twilight smiled.

“You just might be smarter than me.”

As Cadence turned a corner, she saw something weird. “Are those two little girls just standing out in the rain?” She asked more to herself than Shining Armour. Shining Armour had been dozing off but when he had heard her say that, he jumped up to look out the window.

Sure enough there was two little girls standing out in the rain. And even better, one of them looked like Twilight. “I think, I think one of them is Twily!” He shouted, laughing “I think that’s her!”

“What?! Are you serious?!” Cadence said just as loud as him. She stopped the car in the middle of the street (even though she really wasnt supposed to but she didn’t care) and got out, running towards the pair.

“Twilight!” She yelled. “Twilight! It’s me! Cadence!”

“Cadence?” Twilight asked unsurely, her ears perking up.

She leaned forward to see the older girl running towards her. Fluttershy gave her a smile and a nudge. “Go fix your problem.”

“Cadence!” Twilight yelled, breaking into a sprint. They met each other halfway, Twilight jumping into her welcoming arms. Twilight wrapped her own arms around her, starting to cry again. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I was so stupid, I don’t ever want to lose you again.” She sobbed.

“It’s okay, Twilight. It’s okay, shhh.” Cadence cooed, rubbing her back affectionately. As Twilight’s whimpers quieted, she looked back up at Cadence with a bleary eyed look. “Let’s just get you home, okay?” The older girl told her softly. Twilight nodded, leaning her head on Cadence’s shoulder. The last thing she saw before she drifted off to sleep was a pair of smiling turquoise eyes, and then the disappearance of a blue, clear umbrella.

Twilight woke up with a start, only to realize she was in her room on her bed. She relaxed a little, but what really surprised her was that she was not alone. Cadence was curled up beside her, with her arm draped around her waist. Just like the first night. Twilight smiled before carefully and quietly making her way out of her bed and out into the hallway, tip toeing downstairs to see her brother on the couch watching TV.

“Hey squirt.” He greeted.

“No squirt. Only Cadence is allowed to call me that.” She responded, plopping down next to him. She gave him a serious look, causing him to laugh.

“Alright, I see how it is.” He jokingly inferred, turning away from her.

Twilight gave him a confused look.“How what is?”

“You like Cadence better than me.” He taunted. “No, no, don’t spare my feelings. I knew this day would come.” He jokingly fought back tears, clutching at his chest with his fist as if his heart was hurting.

“What in God’s name are you talking about?!” Twilight demanded. “You’re my B.B.B.F.F. no one can replace you. And besides, she’s my B.S.B.S.”

“Your what now?” Shining asked, looking at Twilight incredulously. He was really hoping she didn't know what B.S. really stood for. Though with her as smart as she was, he doubted it.

“Big Sister, Baby Sitter.” Twilight responded. “Why’d you ask?”

“Er, no reason. But uh, you do know babysitter is one word, right?” Shining asked, smiling.

“I know. I just don’t care.” Twilight shrugged. Part of being smart was she could do what she wanted to the English language. Her classmates already murdered it. So why can't she have a little fun with grammar?

Shining chuckled. “You know, one day you’re gonna care. And then people doing that is going to drive you insane.” He ruffled her long hair. The younger girl huffed, folding her arms. She absolutely hated when he did that, and he knew it. Which was all the more reason why he did it.

“I love you guys.” Twilight absentmindedly says after a pleasant pause. “As much as I don’t show it, I do.”

“Ya really mean it?” Shining started to fake cry again.

Twilight frowned. “Oh Jesus Christ.” she slid off the couch to go back upstairs. “Talk to me when you get your brain back!” She called from the top of the steps.

“I have feelings too, ya know!” Shining called back. She didn’t respond, so he just relaxed back into the couch. Smiling to himself, he thought about how he got to spend the whole day with Cadence. And about the spark they both felt when their hands touched.

He couldn’t help it. Now that he was spending time with her, he was noticing that there was something about her that just...made him smile. And made him feel like he wasn’t alone. He liked that feeling. A lot. He was starting to think that maybe he was developing a crush on her.

Shining smirked. Maybe he could take a few days off of work to help Cadence with Twilight....

Author's Notes:

this is short. for a reason! im writing a really huge christmas chapter and its gonna be awesome! Because you will not expect what will happen in it! Trust me! It will be up on either Christmas Eve, Day, or the day before Christmas eve. Well, I gotta go! Tell me what you guys think! Later! :D

Adventure #6: Under The Mistletoe

"Alright children, I've got a special holiday assignment for you all." Ms. Cheerilee told her class, writing on the board. The room full of students rung with collective annoyed groans. "Now, now.” She reprimanded, turning around. “This shouldn't take you all week. Besides, you kids have almost two weeks off this year. What could you possibly be doing that would take up all that time?"

"Going snowboarding with my big brothers!" Rainbow Dash called out. "We're gonna go to the biggest part of the mountain and ride all the way down!"

Everyone wowed at what she had said, while Twilight sat in the back of the room rolling her eyes. "Oh brother." She mumbled to herself. Then out loud so that the rest of the class could hear, "Make sure you don't land on your head on the tumble down. We wouldn't want you to lose the already miniscule amount of brain cells you have now would we?"

The other boys and girls giggled at Rainbow’s expense. She growled. "Yeah, well, all you're gonna do is read books! You freaking egghead!”

“This just in, Captain Obvious is once again, stating the obvious!” Twilight snipped back, in a mock reporters voice, putting two fingers to her ear as if there was a listening piece in it. More laughter erupted. Rainbow was furious. Twilight smirked at her.

“Alright, Alright. Settle down, settle down.” Ms. Cheerilee told the class. The students quieted down quickly. “Good. Now that I have your attentions again, the assignment you all have to do is write about something that happened to you over the break. It’s just a paragraph. And it’s due when you all come back.”

More groans rung out as the bell signaled the end of class. “Have a great holiday! And don’t forget to do your homework!” she called out towards them as they took off down the hallway.

Twilight smiled at her teacher as she made her way to the door. “Don’t worry Ms. Cheerilee. I’ll do it.” She said reassuringly.

Ms. Cheerilee squeezed her shoulders. “Of course you will. You’re one of my best students. Just, promise me you’ll have some fun too? All work and no play makes Twilight a dull girl.” She winked, tapping the child’s nose.

“Sure, yeah. See you later!” Twilight called out as she ran after Fluttershy.

“Hey! Fluttershy!” Twilight called. Fluttershy had been talking to Rainbow Dash when she had heard Twilight call her. The two have been friends since that day, spending time together when Cadence wasn’t watching Twilight. Sometimes when she was, Twilight would invite her over and they would watch My Pretty Pony together. They constantly insisted that Cadence looked like the pink princess of love. (Which totally freaked Cadence out.)

“Oh, hi Twilight.” She greeted, turning away from Dash smiling. Rainbow Dash glared at Twilight angrily. Twilight gleefully ignored her and continued her conversation with the meek girl in front of her.

“I was wondering if you wanted to come over and bake cookies with me and Cadence. We’re gonna leave ‘em out for Santa!” Twilight was genuinely thrilled about leaving cookies out for Santa. (Even though she was smart enough to know there was no Santa. Even Cadence knew she knew. They just wanted to do something traditional.) And she bet Fluttershy believed in him, so she wasn’t going to tell her she didn’t believe in him. It would ruin her Christmas and Twilight didn’t want to be responsible for that.

“Oh well-”

“She can’t.” Rainbow Dash interrupted firmly. “She’s going to go snowboarding with me.” Rainbow put a possessive arm around the tall girl, pulling her close.

“I’ve seen this before. The male wolf asserts his dominance by taking claim to his mate.” Twilight said, a little amused. “Though since you're both girls, we’re not old enough to have mates, and you don’t have a single dominant bone in your body, I would say you’re jealous.” She sneered.

“Jealous?! Of what?!” Rainbow barked.

“Oh I don’t know, the fact that she’s been spending more time with me, than you. Face it, Rainbow Crash, you don't like the fact that Fluttershy has another friend. Especially one you seem to despise.” Twilight gave her a smug look, crossing her arms.

A horn honked in the distance, and Twilight whipped around to see it was Cadence in her jeep. “Well, you can get back to me on that, Flutters. I’ve got to go hang out with my big sister.” And with that, she put on her hat and walked out the door, leaving a certain rainbow haired girl fuming.

Cadence tapped the steering wheel as they drove towards the house. “So,” She asked to strike up a conversation. “How was school?”

“Do you honestly care?” Twilight asked back, laughing.

Cadence nodded and laughed a little too. “Point taken.” She turned a corner, then at a stop sign, picked up her cell phone.

“Who are you calling?” Twilight always wondered who she was about to talk to. Not only was she trying to be nosey and purposely annoying, she wanted to see what high school friends Cadence had outside of babysitting her.

“Shining. We’re going to the mall.” She responded as the phone on the other line was picked up. Twilight leaned over the armrest in the middle to hear what was going on. The incident of Twilight being lost was over a month ago, and since then, Cadence and Shining Armour have gotten pretty close. A little too close if anyone asked Twilight.

“Hello?” Her brother answered. Cadence wanted to continue driving so she put him on speaker.

“Yo, Shining, It’s the day before Christmas Eve, man. Have gotten any presents for anyone?” Cadence asked causing Twilight to giggle. Cadence talking urban was just wrong on so many levels.

“Please don’t...don’t ever do that again.” her brother responded in a pained voice, which caused Twilight to bust out laughing. “That was awful and emotionally scarring.”

“Oh whatever! You do it all the time!” Cadence told him defensively. She began to drive again.

“Yeah but you’re really horrible at it!”

“Gee, Shining, you really know how to make a girl feel special!”

“Was that sarcasm?!”

“Oh you poor sap.” Twilight gasped in between laughs.

“Oh you got Twily with you. That makes it even worse!” Now both girls laughed. Shining groaned in embarrassment. “Well fine! To answer your question, no, I didn’t go Christmas shopping.”

“Soooo...” Cadence started.

“Sooo what?” Shining repeated.

“Let’s go to the mall!”

“It’s going to be crowded. And you know how she likes to run off.” Shining told her pointedly. It was a thing that always happened every time they went. Twilight was smart, but she was still a kid. Put something shiny or interesting in front of her and she’ll follow it to the world’s end.

“Don’t worry. I can handle squirt. You just get ready so we can get there before it gets too claustrophobic.” Cadence told him before hanging up. She looked beside herself to see Twilight was staring at her. “What?”

“Why are you so intent on going to the mall?” Twilight’s eyes narrowed to slits as she continued to look at Cadence with a suspicious expression. “What are you up to, Cadence?”

Cadance let out a nervous laugh. “What are you talking about? We’re just gonna go do some last minute shopping! Besides, I heard Shining’s gonna get you something really special.” She gushed, turning on the block where Twilight’s house was.

Twilight’s mood immediately changed. “Oh! What?! What?!” Twilight demanded, jumping up and down in her seat as they pulled up to the house.

Cadence turned the other way to hide her laugh as Shining came out. Twilight could swear she wasn’t cute all she wanted, the girl was just down right adorable.

Shining Armour greeted the two before helping Twilight in to the back seat and climbing in the front himself. After putting his seatbelt on, he came face to face with a puppy eyed Cadence. “Uh, you mind telling me what’s with the face?” He asked. Though he couldn’t find anything wrong with it. It made her look so cute.

“I kinda sorta told Twilight you were getting her something special for Christmas.” Cadence confessed in a hushed whisper, twiddling with her thumbs.

Shining gave her a skeptical look. “Nice. Well, it’s okay. I’ll just find some book that she’s been rambling about for the past nine months.” He said, shrugging the subject off.

Cadence shook her head. “No! That’s not the Christmas Spirit!” She shouted.

“The what?!” Shining and Twilight, (who was now paying attention to their unique conversation) repeated.

“The Christmas Spirit! You know, singing songs, making cookies, buying really good presents for the ones you love! Stuff like that!” Cadence explained cheerfully.

“How many cups of peppermint lattes from Starbucks have you had today?” Twilight asked, watching the older girl’s hands jitter.

“Two! Maybe three....I don’t know! But they're soooo gooood!” She groaned, her head hitting the steering wheel causing the horn to play a long tune.

“Sometimes I really wonder who’s babysitting who here.” Twilight said, sitting back in her seat with a sigh.

Shining chuckled as he helped Cadence sit back up. “You and me both, sister.”

Just as Shining predicted, the mall was overflowing with last minute shoppers. Each floor was bustling with people carrying gift boxes and shopping bags, hurrying to the next store or downstairs the grab another deal. But what Shining hadn’t predicted, is the reason Cadence wanted to go to the mall so much. Now he that knew, and so did Twilight, they both wished that they had knew earlier.

“Are you out of your bloody mind?!” Twilight demanded giving Cadence a look of disbelief, drawing some attention towards them from some passersby.

“C’mon, squirt!” Cadence pleaded in a hushed tone, seeing how some pairs of eyes were on them. “This could be fun!”

Twilight snorted. “There is no way in he-” -Cadence glared at her- “Heck, I’m going to stand in line with snot nosed brats just to go sit on some sweaty old fat guy’s lap dressed up as the symbol of holiday capitalism!” She never wanted to take her picture with Santa. Ever. She hated the idea of him. Sure she loved Christmas, but she despised the fact that parents would deliberately trick their children into thinking that this obese white bearded reverse burglar would come stuff his fat self through some chimney. Most houses don’t even have chimneys anymore!

“You’re being a stubborn brat!” Cadence shot back.

“Me?! What about you?! You want me to sell myself out so people can look at my mom’s wallet and coo about how ‘cute’ I am!” Twilight yelled at her. “You know I don’t believe in him! Besides, Santa’s not real!”

A group of children that were probably no less then Twilight’s age gasped as they overhead what she said. Twilight and Cadence turned around to face them. “S-Santa’s not real?” One of them asked, on the verge of tears. Their mother glared at Cadence.

“Seven year olds. So cynical, ya know? Haha.” She said, as they walked past to join the already growing line of children and their parents waiting to take their pictures. She spun Twilight around. “Just for that, now you really have to do it.”

Twilight tried to protest. “But I-”

“No buts, Twily, you just inadvertently ruined some little kid’s Christmas dreams. You’re doing it.” Shining said in his big brother and-that’s-final voice.

Twilight growled, crossing her arms. “Shoot me now.” She grumbled as Shining Armour and Cadence both pushed her on line. The kid in front of her sneezed, then turned to face her with a wad of snot dripping out his nose. He smiled, sniffing it back up. Twilight gave Cadence and Shining Armour a vehement look, before choosing to stare a hole in the back of the kid’s head.

The line was moving so slow that Twilight thought about just walking away, but decided against it once Cadence glanced at her, letting her know she knew what the younger girl was planning. It’s not her fault some stupid parent let their kid eavesdrop on someone else’s conversation. It’s not her fault that parents string their idiot children along with the preposterous tale of this Santa Claus character. It just simply wasn’t her fault.

The shorter the line got, the more resentment she held for her older sibling and babysitter. And when it finally got to her turn, she had to be physically pushed into Santa’s lap by one of his elves whom Twilight believed was absolutely too old to be anything so childish. Santa gave her a hearty (and obviously tired and rehearsed) laugh. “Hello little girl.” He said, wrapping his arm around her waist, almost causing her to kick him in the shin. She knew it was just a friendly gesture, something that shouldn’t be scrutinized. But this Santa was a little too frisky with his hands, and the deed tarnished her image of Santa even more. “What would you like for Christmas?” He asked.

Twilight sighed. “Look, my big brother and sister put me up to this. I don’t want to be here, and judging by the smell of whiskey on your breath and five o'clock shadow you have peeking out from under that ridiculous fake beard, I’d say you don’t either. So why don’t we make this as quick as possible so it can be less painful for the both of us.” She gave him a wry smile, satisfied by the incredulous look on his face. “Oh, and you might want to move your hand. We wouldn’t want everyone in the mall to know you have a loli fetish.” The hand was immediately removed from her waist.

“Smile!” The photographer said, as the flash went off. The flash went off a couple more times before one of the elves told Twilight her turn was up.

Twilight patted the still bewildered man’s belly. She then stood on her tippy toes to whisper in the man’s ear, “Merry Christmas, you disgusting pedophile.” Then she turned on her heel and let one of the elves lead her to the velvet rope that closed off a section area in which parents waited for their children and collected the pictures.

Cadence and Shining Armour stared at her as she smirked the whole walk up to them. Cadence folded her arms. “Okay, what did you say to him?” she asked, Shining mirroring her expression.

“What? Nothing! I just told him what I wanted for Christmas.” The older pair looked at each other in confusion and doubt and shrugged, taking Twilight’s word for it. Twilight smirked. They were so gullible.

Finally home two hours later, after watching a few more reruns of the same Christmas specials they play every year, Twilight got up from her spot in between Cadence and Shining Armour. She stretched, then yawned. “I’m gonna go to bed. You guys are welcomed to come read me a story.” She said, yawning again.

The two teens shared a look. “Uh, actually Twilly, we were thinking that maybe you could tuck yourself in tonight.” Shining Armour said, giving her an apologetic glance.

“Oh?” Twilight asked, her eyebrow raised.

“Yeah, squirt. Sorry, but uh, we’ve got some things to take care of.” Cadence agreed. She smiled warmly at Twilight. “We’ll tuck you in tomorrow.”

Twilight gave them both a narrow eyed look. “I know you are up to something. And whatever hormone crazed teenage thing it is, I will find out.”

Cadence blushed feverishly. “N-No, it’s nothing like that! And remind me to stop letting you read my magazines!” she said, turning her head away to hide her embarrassment. Shining gave her an incredulous look. What kind of magazines was she reading?

“Fine. But just know if anything happens, I’m gonna tell Mommy and Daddy.” Twilight threatened, crossing her arms.

“Kinda hard to take you seriously when you just said ‘Mommy’ and ‘Daddy’ while wearing My Pretty Pony footsie pajamas.” Shining Armour commented, smirking.

“Oh yeah? Well I’ll just tell Cadence about that time you-” A swift hand covered her mouth before the sentence even left it. She looked up to see it was Shining’s. He was glaring at her sternly.

He leant down to whisper in her ear. “I’ll let you invite Fluttershy to sleep over tomorrow and give you twenty bucks if you never ever try to say that again.” He said. Twilight nodded wildly, to which Shining released his grip leaving Cadence in a confused state as to what just happened.

“Deal.” Twilight said. Then she ran up the stairs and shut her door.

“What did you tell her?” Cadence asked him after the younger girl had left. To her it looked almost threatening.

Shining waved off her concern. “I bribed her with money and a sleepover.” He explained, as if it was the most normal and socially acceptable thing to do to a seven year old little girl.

“Why, if you don’t mind me asking?” She raised her eyebrows at him. Whatever Twilight was about to say must’ve been embarrassing because Shining was now blushing.

“No reason, just uh, no reason.” He quickly lied. He didn’t want Cadence to know anything embarrassing about him. Especially since he was developing feelings for her. And She definitely didn’t need to know that either. He wasn’t even sure if she liked him back.

But little did he know, the girl beside him already had feelings for him. And she was just as unsure about herself as he was himself. “If you don’t wanna say, you don’t have to.” She told him, putting a reassuring hand on his arm. The electric spark between them surged through them both again, making the two jump apart even quicker than before.

The pair refused to look each other in the eye, the unspoken agreement that the spark was far stronger than it was before lingering in the air like an awkward first conversation.

The near silent buzz of the TV in the background made everything more awkward, and Cadence was the one to break the suffocating silence. She cleared her throat. “Um, well, I-I’m gonna go check on squirt.” She said, getting up quickly, nearly tripping over a pillow on the floor.

Shining nodded. “Ah, sure. I’ll clean up down here while you do that.” He responded getting up, picking up the popcorn bowl on the coffee table in front of the couch and the empty mugs that were stained with traces of what was warm hot chocolate.

Cadence stumbled up the steps and into Twilight’s room. Twilight, unaware of Cadence’s presence, was sitting on her bed playing with her ponies. Cadence playfully rolled her eyes. She knew the girl wasn’t asleep yet. She may have been an early sleeper, but seeing how it was only eight thirty, she wasn’t going to bed for at least another thirty minutes. “Hey, squirt.” She said, sitting on the side of her bed.

Twilight looked up at her and rolled her eyes. “I thought you and Shiny were gonna do teenager things.” She grumbled, throwing the toys down on the bed, making them smash into each other repeatedly. Cadence gave her an incredulous look, before taking the toys away from her. She seriously needed to see a therapist about that.

“Well, yeah,” Cadence smiled wryly. She shrugged. “Change of plans.”

“Do you like him?” Twilight demanded.

“Do I what?!” Cadence repeated, shocked by the question.

“Do. You. Like. Shiny.” Twilight reiterated, separating each word so that Cadence could understand her. She wasn’t going to repeat herself again.

“I- Well-” Cadence stuttered. She didn’t want to tell Twilight the whole reason why she started babysitting her was so that she could get close to Shining. Of course that has changed, but she didn’t want Twilight to know. Then again, since they have gotten closer over the course of the three months that they’ve been spending so much time together, Twilight has told her things that she was sure she would never tell her parents, Shining and definitely not her previous babysitters. So she caved. “Yeah.”

“I knew it! Fluttershy owes me a dollar!” Twilight said, rubbing her hands together.

“Excuse me?” Cadence asked, clueless.

“Well, you two may be older than us, but man you guys are oblivious. Like, seriously, you could cut the sexual tension between you guys with a dull butter knife. I mean, I love Shiny, but he’s a complete goofball around you. And I’d say its becoming vice versa.” Twilight explained, waving her arms.

Cadence blushed. “Really? Is it that obvious?” She asked, sheepishly. She knew she had been having trouble hiding the fact that she liked him but she didn’t think it was that bad.

“Children are more observant when it comes to these things.” Twilight said, waving her off. “You’d be surprised how many times I’ve caught Mommy and Daddy wrestling.”

“You are a seven year old prodigy and you call sex wrestling?” Cadence tilted her head in astonishment. For a girl who hated acting her age she sure did sometimes.

“Would you rather have me say the actual word or have my parents believe I’m blissfully ignorant about the ins and outs of sexual reproduction?” Twilight said, raising an eyebrow

Cadence didn’t even have an argument for that. “Touche.”

“Ignorance is the key to going undetected. You let them see you’re stupid they’re going to believe you’re stupid. Though, it comes with a price. There have been many times in class a girl has said thing that I was itching to correct.” Twilight told her, staring at the toys in her hand.

Cadence didn’t want to find out what those things were. So she said, “Okay well, I’ll keep your perverted underage knowledge on the low if you don’t tell Shining about my crush on him. Deal?” She offered, sticking her hand out.

Twilight stared at it, then gave her a dull look. “You know, I’m just giving you a fair warning. You double cross me, there will be severe consequences.”

“Trust me,” Cadence reassured her as they shook hands. “Knowing that you know about everything in the book is punishment enough.”

"You sure it's okay that I'm here?" Fluttershy asked as she handed Twilight another pile of snow to add on to their lopsided snowman.

Twilight patted down the snow and picked up a skinny fallen branch to use as one of the arms. "Of course. It kinda sucks that you can't sleep over though. But it's understandable since Christmas Eve is when you're supposed to be with family." Fluttershy nodded and handed her another pile of snow.

Then the pink haired girl happened to look inside the house through the living room window to see that Cadence and Shining Armour weren't watching them, but watching each other. "It must be so nice to like someone like that." She sighed, smiling to herself.

"Huh? Where did that come from?" Twilight abruptly turned to her friend, then glanced at the window. She rolled her eyes. "Oh please. They wouldn't know what love was if it hit ‘em in the face."

Fluttershy frowned. "What makes you say that?"

"Look, we're the same age, but I've read things that you couldn't even begin to comprehend." Twilight back tracked. "No offense."

The other girl shrugged. As if it wasn't obvious enough. But Fluttershy didn't mind. When she was around Twilight she got to learn new things. Like words she heard her mother say before or just information in general. Twilight was a smart kid. Fluttershy didn't think anyone could say that enough.

"Anyway, they both like each other. Cadence admitted it to me and Shiny is being an idiot. But they have this thing where they won't address the elephant in the room. It's like they know they like one another but they don't know if they like each other." Twilight explained, giving the poor snowman an eye thanks to a rock she had found buried beneath some snow.

"What?!"

"They like each other. But don't know if the other person feels the same way." Twilight simplified.

"Ooooh.” Fluttershy nodded. Then cocked her head. “Huh?"

"Oh Jesus Christ." Twilight mumbled, seeing that explaining herself further would be a lost cause. "Forget it, Flutters."

A snowball that had came out of seemingly nowhere flew past the pink haired girl and hit her friend in the side of her face. Twilight jumped up, ready to attack whoever had dared to assault her with the frozen weapon. She snapped her head towards Fluttershy, who was wildly shaking her head, indicating that she wasn’t the thrower.

Before she could even register where the ball had come from, she was hit with two more. This time from two different directions, the force knocking her on her bum. “What the hell!” She demanded, wiping the slush off her face.

“What’s the matter, squirt? Can’t handle a little snow?” Cadences voice teased, somewhere behind her in a bush that was obscured by the needlessly gigantic blow up snow man they had put up in the front yard.

“Yeah, Twilly. You need to just chill.” Shining agreed, not too far from her; behind the fake sleigh next to the large snowman, content with his pun.

“I told you to leave the quirky sayings to me.” Cadence reprimanded, stepping out from behind the bush, the disappointment of a good ambush ruined by a bad play on words clear on her annoyed face.

“Yeah, well, it’s not like you had anything better!” Shining protested, crossing his arms. He thought his comeback was just fine.

While the two bickered, Twilight had an idea. She pulled Fluttershy aside quickly, whispering in her ear. When she was sure that the meeker girl understood the plan, the two decided to carry out their assault.

Armed with a hand full of snow balls, the pair attacked their older friends full force. Unthinkingly, Cadence wrapped her arms around Shining. At the same time, Shining put his hands on her waist. The two younger girls noticed and smirked at each other, continuing their onslaught of ice.

Cadence started shrieking and laughing. “Stop! Shiny! Tell them to stop!”

Shining Armour almost fell out. Cadence had called him Shiny. Only Twilight ever called him Shiny. It made him feel special. He blushed.

Cadence, having realized what she had just said, blushed herself. One last snow ball from each girl sent them both on to the ground, Cadence on top of Shining. They had finally stopped laughing in enough time to realize the predicament they were in. They stared into each others eyes, waiting for the other to say something. Cadence’s eyes subconsciously flickered towards Shining’s lips, then back to his face which was slightly flustered. She cleared her throat. “So, uh, do you plan on getting up anytime soon?”

Shining awkwardly chuckled. “I should ask you the same. You’re the one on top of me.” He responded, smirking a bit.

“Ah, right.” Cadence said, quickly getting off of him. She then extended a hand towards him which he gladly accepted.

Twilight and Fluttershy watched the awkward exchange with wide smirks. They totally didn’t know what love was. Even when it did hit them in the face.

“Wake up! Wake up!” Twilight chanted, jumping up and down on her parent's bed. “C’mon people! It’s ten am, and I’m ready to tear some paper apart!” She added, jumping even harder.

Mrs. Sparkle groaned. “Remind me why we decided to have kids?” She mumbled, turning to bring her pillow over her ear so that she wouldn’t have to hear her daughter’s shouts and demands.

Mr. Sparkle didn’t respond. Twilight’s shouts got louder. “Get up! Get up! Drink coffee! Do whatever it is you adults do! I have presents to open!” She commanded, tugging on her father’s arm.

“Oh brother.” Shining grumbled as he watched from the doorway. Cadence was supposed to be arriving later after she spent Christmas with her family. He realized that he hadn’t bought her a present, and nearly cursed under his breath. She probably got him one, and it would be rude if she gave him something and he didn’t do the same for her.

He almost thought about borrowing his mother’s car for a quick ride to the mall, but decided against it. The snow blowing around outside was a heavy indicator that they weren’t going anywhere for a while, and he remembered the mall was closed for the holidays.

He sighed. Whether he liked it or not, he was going to have to tell her the truth. Although...he could ask Twilight for some advice. after all, as much as he hated to admit it, the kid paid more attention to details than he did. Plus, she was closer to Cadence, which means she could tell him what she liked. The two of them rarely talked inside of school, since Shining was loner and Cadence had her friends. So for them to speak more than three sentences to each other would be nice.

“I’m going downstairs. And I’m going to count to three. And if you three aren’t down there by the time i get to three I will throw a temper tantrum so horrendous, your grandchildren will be talking about it!” Twilight threatened, stomping down the steps on her way into the living room.

Shining tried to fight back a laugh. Yep. Still not intimidating in those PJ’s. He heard his parents finally start to stir. They stumbled out of bed red eyed and disheveled. Apparently Twilight had pulled the same stunt at six am. He gave them a sympathetic look. Twilight could be a bit overzealous sometimes. Even when she didn’t mean to. She was still a kid after all.

They sluggishly passed him, staggering down the stairs after her like zombies. He was sure that after their daily dose of morning coffee they’d be fine enough to put up with Twilight’s excitement. Which he totally completely didn’t get because she doesn’t even believe in Santa. But he guessed that getting presents in general was enticing enough. That’s all kids ever cared about when it came to Christmas. He was guilty of it himself. He had a few Christmases where he had been a little spoiled rotten. But he was an only child then, and that was expected. Then Twilight came long, and his endless stream of gifts was split in half because of her.

He was happy to get a little sister, but wasn’t too happy about having to share his things. Which was a normal thing. Most children didn’t like to share, especially with a new baby in the house. He wondered what it would have been like if Twilight had been his little brother instead. He thought about what it would have been like to have one. Absentmindedly, he looked at his parents as they watched Twilight murder the wrapping paper on one of her many gifts. ‘Has mom been gaining weight?’ he thought, noticing her stomach was a little bigger than usual. 'Nah, she can't be pregnant again.' he said to himself, shaking the thought away.

“Oh my god!” Twilight squealed, holding up a box in the air. “You guys got me it! The special limited edition My Pretty Pony castle with Princess Nightfall!” She hugged the box close to her chest. “Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!” She said jumping up and down.

Shining smirked. There was nothing that made him more happy in the world than to see his little sister smile. There was a knock at the door, and since no one else was coming over, he guessed it was Cadence. He jogged over to the door, opening it to reveal that he was right.

“Hey, hey, hey!” She chirped, smiling and wagging her eyebrows. He noticed that she was carrying three boxes that were of different heights.

“Hi.” He greeted back, suddenly feeling a little self-conscious about being in his pajamas.

“I came bearing gifts.” She responded, wiggling the bag in her hand. “Squirt, would you do the honors?” She asked Twilight, who flew over to her and took the bag in a nano second.

“Which one’s for me?!” She asked, the question coming out more of a screamed demand.

“The stripped one with the green bow.” Cadence told her, grinning. Cadence wasn’t even sure Twilight even heard her before she took off running with the box. It kind of reminded her of a movie where an orphan stole a piece of bread or something.

“Hey, I thought you were coming by later?” Shining asked her as they watched Twilight murder the wrapping paper on the box in her hand.

“Yeah, well, me and my mom opened presents extra early so I decided to come. But seeing how everyone isn’t dressed yet, I could just come back later.” Cadence answered him, taking a look around to see that everyone wasn’t dressed yet.

“It’s okay sweetie,” Mrs. Sparkle said. “You’re already here and we wouldn’t want to send you out into the cold again.” She seemed happier than she was a few minutes ago, and Shining was glad she had gotten up to get some coffee, because if she hadn’t, he would have been afraid of what her answer would have been.

“Oh well okay then.” Cadence said to her nodding. She then held up a solid white box. “This one’s from me and my mom. But mostly my mom.” She said, handing the box to Mrs. Sparkle.

Mrs. Sparkle smiled. “Oh thank you, Cadence.”

“And this one’s from me.” She told Shining, bringing his attention back to her. She grinned at him, holding a small red box with a white ribbon wrapped around it in front of his chest. Shining began to feel guilty again, but politely took the item from her hands.

He untied the ribbon, then took the top off the box. In it, was a hat and a pair of gloves. The hat was blue and white, with little shields going all around it. The gloves had the same color scheme, but not the design.“You don’t seem to have these so I made sure you got some.” Cadence told him. “I remembered you were freezing when we were looking for squirt so, yeah.” She rocked back and forth on her heels, awaiting his answer.

“I, uh, I love them.” Shining told her, smiling. He really did. And he was also feeling relief. Gloves and a hat was not a hard gift to top, so now he had some leverage to work with. Though he was well aware that he would have to tell her the truth.

“You’re lying. Oh my god, I knew you wouldn’t like it.” Cadence whined, looking distraught. She ran a hand through her blonde hair. “I’m sorry I just thought it’d be a good idea.”

“It was. No seriously, I really like them. For real.” Shining reassured her.

“For real?” Cadence repeated to make sure.

“For real.” Shining said, nodding.

“Oh brother.” Twilight commented, as she played with her new toys. “Get a room you two.”

The pair shared a look before walking over to the younger girl. “That wasn’t very nice, squirt.” Cadence said, causing Twilight to look up at them again.

“I am many things, Cadenza. Nice is not one of them.” Twilight responded, roughly brushing one of her ponies hair.

“Really? Because the whole playing with ponies and wearing footie pj’s thing is giving me a whole different vibe.” Cadence countered.

“If I say touche will you leave me alone?” Twilight asked, dully.

“No, no, I think we’re gonna spend some quality Christmas time with our favorite seven year old.” Shining said, smirking.

Cadence mirrored his expression. “Oh yes, I think that’s a great idea. You’re getting into the Christmas spirit.” She agreed, plopping down next Twilight. If there was anything Cadence enjoyed doing, it was annoying the hell out of Twilight.

Twilight groaned as both teenagers sat close to her, smiles plastered on their smug faces. She rolled her eyes. This was going to be a long Christmas.

A few hours later, after all the presents were opened, and the gift wrap was thrown away, the dinner table was buzzing with the sound of chatter coming from the family sitting at it. Twilight saw no need to contribute to the loud conversation already going on, so she stuck her head in one of the books she had gotten for the holidays.

She was agitated, angry at Fluttershy for backing out of coming over for dinner. Which really should have been understandable since she did have a family of her own which Twilight had met maybe once or twice in the span of time that they had been friends. Before meeting Fluttershy, she really had no interest in making friends, and now that she had one, she had to admit she was a bit possessive of her. Besides, the poor girl needed her help. She was a submissive quiet pushover, who Twilight had no doubt would get into bad situations when she was a teenager.

Although she would never tell Fluttershy that. While she was a scaredy cat, she was sweet and nice. Plus she owed it to her for helping her fix her relationship with Cadence. So she could deal with a little disappointment.

Speaking of Cadence, the prodigy noticed that her babysitter was acting particularly strange tonight. She wasn’t talking as much as she usually does when she stays for dinner, and she kept looking in Shining’s direction before sneaking a peek at the mistletoe hanging above the sliding screen door leading out into the backyard.

Now Twilight was no idiot. She knew that Cadence liked her brother. She had even told her herself. She could put two and two together. But why was she showing this type of behavior now? She glanced at Shining, who seemed too busy telling a story to pay attention to the two girls looking at him. Come to think of it, she saw Cadence give him a gift, but not the other way around. In fact, she never heard him ever speak of having or getting her one at all. She wondered....

She tapped Cadences arm. The older girl slightly jumped at the touch and whipped her head around to see a suspecting Twilight looking at her with an eyebrow arched. “Yeah? What is it squirt?”

“Did Shiny give you anything?” She asked, putting her book down and keeping her voice to a low whisper. She didn’t want Shining Armour to be aware of their conversation. Especially with the idea that was brewing in her mind.

Cadence shook her head. “No, why?”

Twilight sat back in her seat, shrugging. “No reason. It’s just, you know, what he wants to give you isn't really tangible.” She smirked when she saw Cadences eyebrows perk up, interested.

“What do you mean?” She asked, trying to hide her curiosity and excitement, failing miserably. Twilight hummed to herself. Yep, she had Cadence right where she wanted her. Now all she had to do was lay out the bait and wait for the fish to catch.

“Well, I’m not supposed to tell you this, but he’s planning on giving you something special. A kiss to be exact. Right under the mistletoe. Like in all those movies we were watching yesterday.” The trap had been laid, now all Twilight had to do was wait for Cadence to fall for it.

“R-Really?” Cadence whispered back, clearly blushing.

Twilight smirked. Hook line and sinker. “Oh yeah. But don’t say anything to him. He wants it to be a surprise.” She was such a good liar that she was starting to consider becoming a lawyer when she grew up. Cadence nodded and turned back to her plate like it was the most interesting thing in the world.

Satisfied with her work, Twilight then turned her attention on her brother, who thankfully broke away from the conversation that he was having with their parents. They were both distracted with each other, so that meant she would have little interruptions in carrying out her plan. She tapped him, noticing out of the corner of her eye that Cadence looked up slightly at them before returning to her plate again.

“Yeah, Twily what’s up?” He asked, taking a sip of his drink.

“I know that you didn’t get Cady a present.” She told him, nonchalantly taking a sip out of her own cup.

“How did you-”

“Seven year old geniuses aren’t unobservant, you know.” She said pointedly, glaring at him a bit.

“Yeah, right. Sorry.” He apologized. “Yeah, I didn’t buy her a present. I didn’t have the time.” He told her trying to see where she was going with this.

“Well I have an idea for a gift to give to her.” Twilight proposed confidently.

“What is it?” Shining was all ears. He still felt bad for not getting her anything. Twilight leaned over and whispered in his ear. As what she was saying registered in his head, he felt a blush creeping on his features. Little did he know, the girl that they were talking about was just as red.

“So uh, why do I have to stand here?” Cadence asked as she stood nervously outside of the house in front of the sliding door. She stared at the plant hung there, as if it was going to come off of its binding and bite her.

It was a couple hours after dinner, Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle had retired to the living room, giving the three kids some space. To Twilight, it was the perfect opportunity for her plan to play out. She just had to make sure the players in her game did everything right.

Twilight was on the roof on her stomach like soldier keeping watch on the enemy. “Because that’s where he wants you to be. Now stop questioning what I say.” She responded, wiggling towards the edge to whisper at the older girl. Cadence looked up to see her, but couldn’t, thanks to the light flurry of snow trickling down from the sky, making her vision a little bleary.

“But-”

“Shush! He’s coming! Remember what I told you!” Twilight half-shouted, rolling over so that Shining couldn’t see her. Cadence knew she was up there but Shining didn’t. And if he found out she was on the roof unsupervised she wouldn’t hear the end of it. She took her previous position and tried to stay as quiet as possible.

“Uh, hey.” Shining greeted as he stepped outside in his jacket. He was wearing the hat and gloves Cadence had given him.

“Hey.” She responded. She noticed the gloves and the hat. “Oh. You’re wearing them.” She commented, nodding towards him.

He withdrew his hands from his pockets and rubbed them together for warmth. “Yeah. They’re pretty warm actually. Thanks again.” He said, turning towards her.

Cadence tried to hide her blush. “Uh, yeah, sure. It was nothing.” She said, pulling her scarf up to her reddened cheeks.

An awkward silence passed through them. The only sound being their own respective breaths reaching out into the cold. A car passed, the light from the headlights bouncing off the fence. More silence fell upon them, both in their own little world.

‘I don’t think I should have let a seven year old give me advice on my love life’ Cadence thought to herself as she fidgeted next to Shining. This wasn’t exactly her ideal place to get a kiss. If that was what he was planning, anyway.

‘Why did I let Twily talk me into this’ Shining grumbled in his head, watching the snowfall in front of him. He’d never kissed a girl before. He was pretty sure Cadence had probably kissed a bunch of guys, guys that were probably way better than him. He shook his head. That was some negative thinking right there. ‘Well, I should at least say something.’ He thought.

“So, uh, Twilight told you to wait out here for me?” He asked. Twilight didn’t go into details with her so called ‘plan’ so he had no idea about what she had told Cadence nor what she she was thinking when she came up with it.

“Yeah. She told me you had a present for me.” Cadence told him, nodding a bit.

Oh. That was new. He had the exact opposite. He didn’t understand before, but now it really clicked. Twilight set him up so that a kiss under the mistletoe would be his gift to Cadence. And as clever and deceitful as it was, he didn’t think he could go through with it.

“Oh really?” he asked, playing it off. “I didn’t know she told you that.” He said, nervously. He really wasn’t sure he could actually kiss her. Not like this.

“Yeah. Was she wrong?” Cadence raised an eyebrow.

Shinings hands immediately shot in in surrender. “No! No! That’s not it. It’s just...you’ve probably gotten a kiss under the mistletoe before. By y’know some guy from school.” He frowned, turning away from her.

“Is that what you think? That I’m some blonde harpy that just kisses any guy on Christmas?” Cadence asked him, her voice rising. She pulled his arm so that he could look her in the face.

Twilight smacked her forehead. Yeah, so far things were going very well.

“No! That’s definitely not it! I just...I have a crush on you! Okay?! And you’re all popular and everything, and I’m not so I don’t think you would ever kiss a guy like me!” Shining shouted, flailing his arms at her.

Cadence took a step back. ‘He has a crush on me?’ “What do you mean a guy like you?” She asked in a much softer voice than the one she had used earlier.

“I’m tall, and nerdy, and I have no muscle mass what so ever! I’m a freaking lo-” Before Shining could finish his sentence, Cadence had leaped at him, crashing her lips against his in a passionate kiss.

“Yes! Whoo hoo!” Twilight stood up and cheered. She realized she shouldn’t have done that because she slipped on the snow that had accumulated around her. “Shit, shit, shit, shit!” Despite her best efforts she winded up falling off the roof into the piled up heap of snow below. “Urgh!” She groaned as she collided with the earth.

The sound of her impact must have been muted by the snow completely, because not Shining or Cadence made a move.

Cadence was seeing stars. Ones that probably rivaled ones that now danced in the sky. She didn’t care if she was more popular at school than he was. She didn’t care that people at school would chaste her for kissing a geek like him. What she cared about was the feel of his lips against hers. And she was loving it.

Shining was pretty sure he was dreaming, but he could feel her, see her, and best of all he could taste her. She really needed to lay off the peppermint lattes. Her whole aroma was peppermint. Spicy, inviting and cool. He wanted more, and he couldn’t get enough of it.

When air was necessary, the two broke apart, now pleasant silence filling between them as both tried to catch their breaths. Stupid grins were shared, and the blush on both faces were no longer hidden.

“I don’t care that you think you’re a loser.” Cadence breathed happily. “Just know I think you’re awesome. You’re smart, funny, and the way you take care and look after Twilight makes me believe that you will have something that every boy in school doesn’t have.”

“Yeah? And what’s that?” Shining asked.

Cadence pressed a gloved hand to his chest. “Heart. You’re a kind and sweet guy, Shiny. Don’t ever forget that.” She then raised that hand to his cheek.

“A little help here?!” Twilight moaned, waving her arm in the air.

“Oh my god! Squirt are you okay?!” Cadence asked running over to her. She sat the younger girl up, who coughed and wheezed from having the wind knocked out of her.

“No! I fell eight feet! Who the hell would be okay after that?!” Twilight barked, shoving Cadence’s concerned hands away. She hobbled to her feet, using her brother as leverage.

“You were on the roof?! How the hell did you get up there?!” Shining scolded following after her, watching her limp towards the sliding doors with Cadence close behind.

“There really is so much you need to start paying attention to.” Twilight snorted. She laid herself on the couch, wincing. Yep, that would hurt bad in the morning. But it was worth it to see them both happy. She would never tell them that though. Twilight looked up to see that her parents weren’t in the living room anymore. She wondered if they had saw the kiss.

Just then, Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle came into the room, carrying a white bag that obviously had something in it. And judging by the looks on their faces, it must have been something exciting. Twilight, for the first time in a while, was confused. They had already opened all the presents, all her toys were up in her room, Shining’s stuff in his, and Cadence’s in her pockets so what could possibly be in the bag?

“Twilight, honey.” Mrs. Sparkle called to her. “Could you come here, please.”

Twilight sucked in a sharp breath of air. “Yeah, I’d rather not.” She responded. She wasn’t one to disobey her mother, but seeing how she could barely move...she didn’t want to have to explain her freefall just so she could get her new toys taken away.

“We had a snowball fight outside so she’s kind of sore.” Shining lied for her when he saw the look on their mother’s face. “I’ll bring it to her.” He went over to their mother and took the bag, bringing it over to Twilight. He handed it to her, and she sat up to see what was inside. What she pulled out confused her.

“A baby rattle?” She questioned out loud, looking at everyone else for help. ‘What the heck do we need a rattle for? We don’t have a- Wait a minute!’ Twilight’s eyes slitted as she stared at the play thing.

“We have an announcement to make.” Mrs. Sparkle said, rubbing her belly. Mr. Sparkle stood beside her, smiling. Twilight looked at her parents with a suspecting glare, her mouth open in calculation.

“We’re having another baby!” Their parents said together in unison.

“What?!” Shining shouted.

“Aww!” Cadence cooed.

“You guys had sex?!” Twilight barked. Everyone looked directly at her with incredulous looks. She had forgotten she was supposed to be the oblivious seven year old. “I mean, ah, heheh, yay?”

“Grounded.” Mrs. Sparkle deadpanned.

“Yep. Should’ve seen that one coming.”

What Happened Over Christmas Break:

By Twilight Sparkle

I got to see my brother happy for once. He got his first kiss underneath the mistletoe from my babysitter. I also hung out with my friend Fluttershy. Which meant she didn't spend any time with Rainbow Crash. Which is a good thing because that girl will end up in jail and jail is no place for a sub like Fluttershy. I think my brother and my babysitter are dating now. Gross. But whatever. As long as they're happy. And if they're happy, then I'm happy too. Also I got grounded because I said the word sex in front of my parents. For a genius I really am stupid sometimes. Plus I fell off a roof. It was eight feet. I was sore all weekend. But to top it all off, my parents are having another kid! Like, why?! Am I not cute enough?! I find it highly insulting for them to even consider making me the middle child! Now I have to listen to them coo and squeal about some unborn fetus for the next nine months because my freaking dad couldn't keep it in his pants! Thanks Obama!

Ms. Cheerilee reread the last part of Twilight's paper over again in disbelief before taking out her red pen.

See me after class -Ms. Cheerilee

Author's Notes:

Yes! So I was able to finish this one day earlier! How cool is that?! Also this is one of the longest chapters I've ever written and I'm kind of proud of it! I started writing this on the fifth and did a little everyday! Thank god i did cause look how much I had to write! Haha! Oh and I have a special announcement to make once the new year rings in! But until then I'm going on a hiatus to spend time with my family for the holidays. Expect the announcement the first week of January! I can't wait for you guys to hear it! Welp, hope you guys enjoyed this. And I hope you guys enjoy your holidays and vacations. See you in January! Peace! :D

Adventure #7: Misguidance and Misunderstandings

"Urgh." Twilight groaned as she listened to her mother talk on the phone. She was on the couch upside down watching a boring rerun of My Pretty Pony.

"Yes, that'd be great. And the color? Well we don't know the sex yet." Mrs. Sparkle spoke into the phone.

"Mommy, I'm hungry. " Twilight whined. She pulled at her mother’s cardigan.

"In a minute, honey." Mrs. Sparkle told her in a stern, hushed tone before turning back to the person on the phone. "Yes, I'm still here."

Twilight groaned as she got up from her position to head into the kitchen. It has been two months since Christmas, and Twilight was beginning to hate her life. Ever since her mother announced that she was pregnant, there was less and less time for Twilight. Her parents were never home anymore. Her mother was always skipping out on their weekend quality time to go to doctor's appointments, and her father always went with her.

So it always just ended up being Shining, Cadence, and herself. Not that she minded. But it would be nice to spend time with her parents again. Pulling a tv dinner out the freezer, Twilight tore the box apart and peeled the thin film of plastic off before putting it in the microwave. After throwing the box away, she sat down at the kitchen island and put her head down.

"So...this is what they were talking about." A voice behind her mused.

"What do you want, Cadenza?" Twilight sighed, her voice muffled by her sweater sleeve.

"What did I tell you about calling me by my last name, Squirt?"

"I don't care."

A frustrated sigh left Cadence as she sat down next to Twilight. "What's gotten into you? I haven't seen you this depressed in a while."

"I don't care about a stupid baby. I don't want a stupid baby. This baby is causing me pain and it hasn't even been born yet."

Cadence nodded. "Look, I get it. When my aunt had her first kid I felt like my whole life was over. She used to baby me and consider me the daughter she never had. And then the minute she actually had one, it was like I didn't even exist. It hurt so much to even be in the same room as my cousin. But, after a while, as I got older, I grew out of it. And you will too." She rubbed Twilight’s back affectionately.

Twilight didn't respond. Instead, she got up as the microwave beeped and went to retrieve her dinner. They had stocked up on tons of those things these past few months. That and take out menus. Twilight loved to eat out as much as any other kid, but all the pizza and Chinese was making her sick to her stomach.

"I know what will make you feel better." Mr. Sparkle said as he entered the kitchen. "A new family just moved into the house across the street. They have a girl about your age. Maybe it'll be a good experience for you to meet someone new."

Twilight fought the urge to glare at her father. "I already have Fluttershy, why would I need anyone else?" Her voice was bitter with agitation.

"How do you expect to become friends with anyone if you keep shutting people out?!" Her father demanded. She had been having outbursts and tantrums like this ever since Christmas. He understood she was upset about the baby but she couldn't go around being disrespectful.

"You would know about that wouldn't you?! You and mommy don't even act like I exist anymore! Everything is about that stupid parasite!" Twilight shouted, her body shaking.

"Twilight!" Her father tried to reprimand.

"No! I'm done! The only time you people actually give a damn about me is when I'm doing something wrong! Well screw you guys! I'm leaving!" Twilight turned on her heel and stomped out the kitchen.

A few minutes later Cadence and Mr. Sparkle heard the front door slam. There was an awkward silence before Cadence asked, “S-Should I go after her?” pointing in the direction of the door.

Mr. Sparkle sighed. “No. Just let her be. She’ll be back. There’s still snow on the ground and it’s cold as heck.” And with that, he grabbed a beer from the fridge and headed into the den, leaving a very confused and concerned Cadence in the kitchen.

Twilight puffed out her cheeks, shoving her hands in her purple hoodie pockets. “Freaking family. Always making me feel alone. Urgh! Stupid baby!” She kicked her purple snowboot at a pile of snow, which sent a flurry of it into the air and onto the street. Frustrated, she continued her trek towards Fluttershy’s house.

“Incomin’!” A voice yelled. Twilight turned around to see who the voice belonged to, only to be welcomed with a football to the stomach.

On her knees, teary eyed, and wheezing, for the air that was knocked out of her, Twilight could barely see a blonde girl and a tall redheaded boy approached her. “Mighty sorry ‘bout that. Mac here’s got one heck of a throw.” The blonde girl apologized. “Ain’t that right, Mac?” She asked, turning to what Twilight assumed was her brother.

“Eeeyup.” he said, nodding. He extended a hand towards the panting girl and helped her up. Twilight nodded at him appreciatively, her ragged breathing materializing into hot puffs.

The blonde girl stuck out a tan hand. “Ah’m Applejack. This here’s Mac. Ah’m eight. We just moved across the street with our Granny.”

“I’m...Twi...Twilight.” Twilight huffed. The ball had hit her with almost unimaginable force. She had been hit almost five minutes ago and she was still out of breath. The cold January are didn’t help either. Her lungs felt like they were on fire.

“Well nice ta meetcha, Twilight!” Applejack smiled at her, and then it faltered when she saw the way Twilight started to sway. Her eyebrows furrowed worriedly. “Um, uh-oh. Ya’ll don’t look so good...Maybe we should get you inside...Mac?”

“Eeeyup.” The slightly older boy nodded before picking up the smaller, dark haired girl. Twilight was too weak to even protest. Her stomach growled loudly. She groaned, remembering she had stormed out of the house without eating her dinner. Now she was even more hungry than she was before.

“Heh. No wonder ya look like yer about ta keel over! Ya haven’t eatin’! Well don’t you worry, we’re gonna feed ya real good!” Applejack patted Twilight’s arm as they walked down the street towards a large yellow Victorian.

‘So much for Fluttershy’s house’ Twilight thought as she drifted to sleep in Mac’s arms.

Shining shook some snow out of his hair as he pulled his boots off. He locked the door and hung his coat up. Walking into the living room expecting to find his sister watching TV, he was instead surprised to find his father watching a sports game.

“Uh, where are Cady and Twi?” He asked. He leaned back to peer into the kitchen to find just his mother sitting at the kitchen island on the phone with what he guessed to be another room decorator.

“Twilight stormed out, and Cadence is upstairs in your room.” His father responded, taking a swig of his beer. Judging by the three that were by his feet that were kicked up on the recliner, he had been there for a while.

“Oh, Oka- wait what?! Who let her in my room?!” Shining dropped his keys and ran up the stairs two at a time before slamming his door open.

Sure enough, Cadence was on his bed reading one of his comic books. She looked up and smiled at him. “Hey.”

“Hey.” He greeted back nervously. “How long have you been up here?” He asked, shakily watching her flip through the book.

“Long enough to know you have a poster of me in my cheerleading uniform.” Cadence giggled, putting the book down.

‘Crap.’ Shining thought. “Look, I-”

Cadence put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay Shiny, we’re dating now so you don’t have to be so nervous around me. I’m not gonna suddenly think you’re uncool and just dump you.”

Shining Armour nodded. “Sure, right.”

“How did you get a poster of me though?” Cadence asked, a little bit amused at how nervous the question made him. She quirked her eyebrows up, waiting for an answer.

“I-I know a guy.” He mumbled. Then something in his mind clicked. “W-Wait, we’re dating?!” his head snapped in her direction in an alarmed way.

She gave him a confused look. “Yeah? I thought we were? I mean we kissed under the mistletoe.”

“B-But we haven’t even had a proper date yet!” He shouted pointedly. He was physically shaking now, and Cadence thought the poor boy was going to pass out any minute.

“Okay, okay, calm down.” She cooed, soothingly rubbing his back. “Valentine’s Day is coming up, and that’s when everyone does all the couplely dating stuff anyway, so why don’t we have our first date then?”

The suggestion didn’t sound bad at all to Shining. It calmed him down too. The thought of him and Cadence on a date kind of made him giddy and excited. “O-Okay. Sounds like a plan to me.” He agreed, smiling at her.

Cadence smiled back before she took on a much more seductive look. Shining gulped. “Y-you do remember that my mom and dad are downstairs, r-right?” He stuttered, slowly backing on to his bed as she advanced towards him.

“Mhmm. But don’t worry, I won’t do anything too naughty.” She responded, once she had him backed against his headboard. “Yet.” she then added, pouncing on him.

Twilight awoke on a couch in an unfamiliar house to the smell of what she assumed was some apple centered dish. Her eyes snapped open, and her stomach growled even louder from the smell that invaded her nose.

“Oh, look who's finally up.” A Southern accent rung through her ears. Her head turned in the direction of the voice to see it was the blonde girl from earlier, holding a small redheaded child on her lap.

“Yeah. How’d I get here?” Twilight asked, her memory fuzzy. All she remembered was being hit in the stomach. And that wasn’t something she enjoyed remembering.

“Well, mah brother kinda knocked the win’ outta ya so we took ya here. You were mighty hungry. Looks like ya still are. You feelin’ better now though?” Applejack responded, nodding towards her as she bounced the baby on her lap.

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine.” Twilight assured her. She then proceeded to explain to Applejack why she had been walking down the street before noticing the baby on her lap again. “Who’s the kid?” She asked, nodding towards the child.

“This is mah little sister. Applebloom. She’s about nine months. Man, when she was born, Ah didn’t want nothin’ to do with her.” Applejack told her truthfully. “She was always screamin’ and cryin’ and my parents never had any time for me anymore. It was so hard to even be around her. I hated her.”

The older girl paused. “But then our parents died three months ago, and that’s when everything changed.” she continued in a hushed tone. “I had to stop being a stupid little kid and grow up. I had responsibilities. ‘Corse, Mac takes care of mostly everything, but I take care of Bloom.” She looked down affectionately at the toddler in her arms. “Ah’m not tellin’ ya to grow up like I had to, Twilight. Ah’m just telling you that you’re being selfish for not wanting to share your parents love. Especially since some babies don’t have any.”

Twilight’s eyes flickered towards the drooling child, then flickered away ashamed. She had been acting selfish. And rude. Here she was, acting like another sibling was the worst thing in the world, and all Applejack has left are the siblings she’s got. It made her wince to think about how myopic she had been. “Yeah, you’re right. I’ve been acting so stupid these past few weeks and I just want everything to be okay.”

“Well no one’s got the power to make everything okay ‘cept for you, sugarcube. You’ve gotta be the one to step up ta the plate.” Applejack smiled. “Yer half way there just by admitting you were wrong in the first place.” She said, placing a comforting hand on Twilight’s shoulder.

Mac poked his head out of the kitchen door. “Granny says supper’s ready.” He told them, before retreating back into the kitchen.

“Alright, enough sappy talk.” Applejack said, getting up. She put Applebloom on her hip and extended a hand to Twilight to help her up. “Let’s get some food in ya before ya pass out again.”

Twilight stepped into the house as the streetlights started to turn on, their orange yellow hue reflecting brightly off the snow that lined the streets. She guessed it had to be about five or six. She knew she was going to get in trouble because she was always supposed to come back inside before they came on.

But her time at Applejack’s house really got her to start thinking. She really didn’t appreciate her family at all. Sure she loved her parents, her brother, and Cadence, but she didn’t really care about them. About what they were feeling. She just cared about herself and what she felt, and what she wanted.

When that baby actually is physically in the picture, she can’t act like that. After all, she would be a big sister now. And being a big sister meant having lots of responsibilities. Not as much as Applejack, but pretty close.

Twilight took off her snow boots and hung up her hoodie before attempting to quietly make her way upstairs into her room. She peeked into the kitchen to see of course, no one was in it. There was a note on the fridge saying that her parents were out, and would be back later. The semi hot pizza box on the island was a good indication that later meant late at night.

Twilight sighed and made her way upstairs. In order to get to her room she had to pass the new baby’s room. She sighed, sucking it up, she slowly trudged past the bare room and into hers. She flopped on her bed and groaned. Just when she thought things would go back to normal they got increasingly worse. The only thing she could say is that she was slightly less unenthusiastic about the new edition to the family.

As she wallowed in her self pity, Twilight heard some very interesting noises coming from Shining’s room. Her room was next to his, so almost anything that happened in there, could be heard in her room. She rolled off her bed to listen closely as she leaned against the wall.

“Seriously, we can’t do this, we’ll get caught.” She overheard her brother say.

Twilight’s eyebrow lifted, and she listened in even more by cupping her hand around her ear.

“Aw, please? I’m bored and besides it’ll be fun...” Cadence responded.

Twilight’s eyes widened. She’s seen enough stuff to know where this was going. And she was not going to let it happen. She didn’t care if their teenage hormones were going crazy! They were crazy if they thought they were going to do that while she was in the house!

Twilight stomped down the hall to let her presence be known. “Shh. I think someone’s coming.” Shining told Cadence as Twilight made it to the door.

Twilight flung the door open. “What the heck are you two do-” She stopped when she saw that they both had controls in their hands and headsets on their heads. Shining’s Playstation was on, and some kind of shooting game was playing on the screen. “What?” She repeated in confusion.

“Oh, hey Squirt. Shiny’s teaching me how to play Call of Duty. We were just about to ambush some people on the other team. You wanna watch?” Cadence asked.

“B-But, you said that you were going to get caught!” Twilight directed at her brother.

“Yeah, by the people on the other team.” He clarified. “An ambush is kind of hard to pull off in this game. People are ruthless and will shoot us in a second.”

“B-But, but you said it’ll be fun!” She then pointed her finger at Cadence.

“To watch your brother get his ass kicked. What did you think we were doing?” Cadence questioned confusedly.

Twilight gave her a look. “What normal teenagers do when there are parents not home!” She shouted, waving her hands.

Shining raised an eyebrow. “And that would be...?”

“Frick fracking!” Twilight answered exasperatedly. “You know, sex?! That stuff! I mean come on you guys have been up here together for hours by yourselves and you mean to tell me you guys haven't touched each other in that way at least once?!”

Cadence and Shining Armour shared a glance before blushing profusely.

Twilight’s mouth gaped. “Oh my god you little perverts. You did! Ew! Gross!” She made gagging noises before closing her eyes, shutting out the image developing in her head. “Okay, I’m going to walk out like I never came in. And we’re all going to pretend like this never happened. Goodbye!” And with that, the door slammed shut.

The pair looked at the door for a minute after the younger girl left to go back to her own room.

“Well, that was interesting.” Cadence sighed.

“Yep.” Shining agreed.

“So...double team?” Cadence asked, grinning.

Shining nodded, sharing her grin. “Double team.”

Author's Notes:

heheheh the end killed me. Hello! Hiatus over! Shabooah! Back and ready to write! I started writing this a week ago and decided to post it. Im still working on I Thought You Looked Familiar, but I thought I might as well give you guys this. I really enjoyed writing this chapter. It was surreal. I never had a younger sister or brother because I'm the youngest. so i never had to take on that responsibility. I dunno. If you're a big brother or sister, could you tell me if i got the mixed feelings right? Also the next chapter will be a holiday chapter. Valintine's Day! Ohhh! I can't wait to see how that one turns out! Welp, i gotta go, it's 12 am and im tired as heck. Hope you guys enjoyed this, I'm getting some sleep. Peace! (oh and btw, im not sick anymore. Yay!)

Adventure #8: The Date and The Kiss

Valentine's Day. Twilight didn't have much experience with it, but she's seen enough movies to know what it's about. Getting candy, spending the day with someone special. Of course, being only seven, she couldn't date anyone, but giving and receiving valentines in class was just as nice.

Twilight wasn't really sure if anyone like liked her though. She never spent much time with her classmates to ever find out. Little did she know though, there was someone with their eye on her.

Twilight, Applejack, and Fluttershy sat in the back of the classroom huddled together whispering in hushed tones as they ate their lunches. It was lunch time, and all the children were pretty much doing their own thing. After lunch they had recess, and after recess they were allowed to hand out their valentines.

"You guys, I'm scared." Fluttershy whined as she nibbled on a carrot from the salad in her My Pretty Pony lunch box.

"What? Why? Ain't you one of the cutest girls in class?" Applejack asked, chewing on a piece of beef jerky her brother had packed for her.

"That's just it! I don't like all this attention...Besides, aren't we too young to date?" The meek girl shrank into herself a little.

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Please! Have you heard the stupid story Rainbow Dash has been spreading? She's told everyone in class she has a boyfriend. Does she even know what that is?"

"But she's a total tomboy." Fluttershy responded pushing a strand of light pink hair behind her ear. "She always hangs out with the boys and plays kickball with them during recess. Besides me, I don't think she has many friends that are girls."

"No not boy friends!" Twilight shook her head wagging a finger. "Boyfriends! As in kissing, dating, the other stuff!" She raised her voice an octave at the end of her sentence.

"The other stuff?" Applejack questioned. "What other-" she stopped herself. "Oh sweet Jesus.” Her and her brother Mac weren’t that different in age, he only was fifteen. But she’s caught him looking at a few girls in passing in a way that Granny would smack him for. “W-well. If it makes you feel better Fluttershy, Ah just transfered so no one knows who Ah am.” She shrugged, sipping at her apple juice.

“Actually...” Fluttershy started but stopped. She started twiddling her thumbs, looking warily at Twilight for some help.

“Um, actually...a lot of kids do know who you are. Uh, well, about who you are.” Twilight explained, a little annoyed from being uncomfortably put in the spotlight.

“Huh? Ya’ll wanna explain what’s goin’ on?” Applejack snapped, her patience growing thin.

“They know...about the accident your parents were in. The trial for the driver who hit them...it was all over the news. I just didn’t remember who you were until you told me.” Twilight answered her truthfully.

Applejack frowned for a moment before shrugging. “Oh well. S’not like it was a big secret or nothin’.” She bit into another stick of jerky as her friends a shared wary look.

Twilight, not one to pursue an uncomfortable subject, changed it. “Hey, Cadence and Shiny are going on their first date today.” She said, drinking some of her soda.

Fluttershy clapped happily. “Oh really? How romantic!” she cooed. “That kiss under the mistletoe you told me about sounded so adorable!” She added with a dreamy look in her eyes.

“I fell off a roof. I fell eight feet! Does everyone always conveniently forget about that?!” Twilight shouted, flailing her arms.

Applejack snorted with laughter. “Ah’m,” She snorted again, “Ah’m sorry sugarcube, but that was mighty funny.” She let out a hearty laugh that caused Twilight’s face to turn red.

“Why you-”

“Alright, children, time for recess!” Ms. Cheerilee called to them, cutting Twilight off.

Students excitedly put their lunch boxes away in their cubbies before grabbing their jackets and putting their hats on, racing each other to the door on the other side of the classroom that connected to the playground in the back of the school.

Twilight, Fluttershy, and Applejack, less enthusiastic about the weather than their classmates, trudged behind them in annoyance. “Any reason why recess is still necessary when its below forty and there’s at least six feet of snow on the ground?” Twilight mumbled, flexing her fingers inside her not so warm purple gloves.

“Possibly because they don’t want parents complainin’ ‘bout us not gettin’ enough exercise.” Applejack mused, pulling her bomber hat lower on her head. It was red with a green apple on either flap. It was her brother’s. She really wanted her own instead of his huge hand-me-down, but since money was tight right now, she just had to deal with it.

“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. We have gym for a freaking reason.” Twilight rolled her eyes and rubbed her hands together, wishing she could just go back inside.

Fluttershy had been too afraid to say anything during their conversation, so she shifted her weight a bit before speaking up. “Do you guys wanna-”

“NO!”

Fluttershy squeaked. “Um, okay.”

While Twilight and her friends were at recess, Shining and Cadence were in the middle of their English class. Shining was busy taking notes, whereas Cadence was bored out of her mind. Not surprisingly enough, in addition to being one of them most popular girls in school, she was also one of the smartest.

She didn’t really need to copy down anything in particular, since she was a fast writer, and had already written everything down.

Shining on the other hand, was taking his sweet time copying because whenever he finished something, he would always look over at Cadence. Which was incredibly distracting. He had almost missed half of his math class because of it. And he was good at math.

Trying his hardest to not turn in her direction, he gave her a sidelong glance quick enough to see that she had just thrown a paper at him from across the aisle. Clumsily he caught it, giving her a questioning stare. She shrugged, smirking, then motioned for him to open it. Cadence heard the teacher coming and quickly went back to hunching over her notebook.

Looking down at the crumpled up piece of binder paper in his hands, Shining carefully scanned the room for watchful eyes before unwrinkling the parchment.

So, where are you taking me tonight? -Cady

Really? She couldn’t wait to talk about this later? Sighing, Shining wrote out his response and threw the paper back at her. Since his am wasn’t as good as hers, it landed under her desk by her feet.

Cadence picked up the paper and unfurled it.

Why must you ask that now? -Shiny

Cadence rolled her eyes and wrote her answer before annoyedly passing it back to him. She must have put more anger behind it than she intended to, because the paper bounced of the side of his head causing her and a few other girls in their class to giggle.

Grumbling to himself, Shining smoothened out the note and read her message.

Because I need to know what I need to get to wear, duh. You boys just don't understand. :P

Rolling his eyes, Shining wrote her back.

I can’t tell you, it’s a surprise. -__-

He then threw it back with better aim. Cadence caught the paper and read his message. Rolling her eyes, she answered him with,

Fine. Just know if this date sucks, im not letting you kiss me at the end.

Crumpling it up in anger, she threw it at him. The paper soared farther than she meant it to, hitting the teacher in the back of the head. Shining quickly picked up the note before the teacher could react, and Cadence stuck her face in her notebook to conceal her laughter.

Shining smiled. Tonight was going to be a good night.

Recess was finally over, and Twilight was thanking every god she could think of. They had been standing outside for at least forty minutes freezing their butts off. Well, Fluttershy and Twilight was. Applejack not so much. “Mah family used ta live on a farm. We had winters worse than this.” She had said as the cold seemed to not bother her at all.

Back in the classroom with the heat blaring, the girls sat at their group with grim expressions. “I-I’m scared. I don’t want to be somebody’s special someone.” Fluttershy squeaked, pulling her hood over her face.

Twilight rolled her eyes. Whether she liked it or not, Fluttershy was one of the most popular girls in class. Even though she was incredibly quiet and shy, she was also very caring and kind. She was a sweet and adorable little girl. And Twilight had to give credit where credit is due.

“Alright children, time to give out your valentines!” Ms. Cheerilee announced, encouraging the kids to get up out of their seats and walk around the room. Boys and girls alike sheepishly made their way to their special someone, handing them their valentines before promptly sitting back down.

Applejack held her breath. She seriously didn’t think anyone would give her any. She couldn’t get a class set like everyone else because money was tight, but that didn’t mean she appreciated her friends any less. She just hoped they felt the same.

As Fluttershy moved to pull out the three she had for her close friends, Rainbow Dash showed up by her side, looking nervous and reluctant. “Oh, hello Rainbow. Is something wrong?” She asked, tilting her head.

Rainbow said nothing. She was blushing a rosey red, which looked admittedly adorable on her. She clutched a small piece of paper in her hand. “I-I-I-” She stuttered. “Here!” She hurriedly shoved the card in her friend’s hand and took off running.

“Oh my...” Fluttershy whispered. “That was very weird of her.” She looked at the card in her hand. Judging by the dried glue and messy handwriting, she figured it was hand made. It didn’t look anything like one of the professional cards she got from her mother every year, but it was beautiful just the way it was. Then, a blush crept onto Fluttershy’s features. “Oh my.” She muttered again. “I’m Rainbow’s special someone.”

Twilight snorted. “Well I’ll be damned! The little neanderthal has a crush on you!” She honestly felt bad for her friend. No one should willing to be in a relationship with such a...brute.

As Twilight reached over her desk to further examine the card Fluttershy had gotten from Rainbow Dash, Applejack saw a hot pink envelope sticking out of the inside of Twilight’s desk. She chuckled. “Well sugarcube, ‘Shy ain’t the only one who’s someone’s valentine.”

“Huh?” As Twilight sat back down, she felt something jab her side from inside her desk. She reached inside to find the pink envelope. “Eh?!” She held it up in disbelief.

“Oh that’s wonderful Twilight! Someone likes you!” Fluttershy cooed, clapping her hands. “Open it! Open it!”

A smug smirk developed on Applejack’s face. “Yeah, Twi. Why don’t you open it?”

Twilight rolled her eyes and opened the envelope. Inside was a letter that was written on notebook paper and two small chocolate hearts. She looked at her friends in confusion. Fluttershy and Applejack pushed for her to read the note.

Dear Twilight,

I’ve noticed you for a while. You’re smart, and funny and I like the way you stick up for yourself. Plus, you're really cute. Maybe we should hang out some time?

-Your secret admirer.

“What the heck?!” Twilight barked as Applejack and Fluttershy giggled with laughter. “Is this some kind of joke?”

“Fraid not.” Applejack said between her giggles. “ Face it Twi, some fella in this class fancies you.”

“How adorable!” Fluttershy cooed. “Oh I’m just dying to know who he is! Maybe it’s Thunderlane? Or-or Soarin?!”

“How about no one?!” Twilight shouted, tearing the note and the envelope to shreds. She threw the remains of it in the garbage and sat back down in her seat before unwrapping one of the chocolates and popping it into her mouth.

“Ah love how you threw away the note but kept the chocolates.” Applejack commented with a raised brow.

“Can it, AJ!” Twilight snapped. “We’re gonna find out who this kid is. And when we do, I’m gonna give him a piece of my mind.” She declared, pounding a fist into her open hand.

“We?” Both girls asked.

“Yes, ‘we’. You two deserve it for making fun of me.” Twilight huffed in finality.

Applejack gave Fluttershy as skeptical look. “Somethin’ tells me this ain’t gonna end well.”

Twilight waited until the end of class to find out who her secret admirer really was. Throughout the rest of the school day, Applejack and Fluttershy had been her eyes and ears, listening closely to all of the boys in the class to see if they were talking about her at all. Fluttershy couldn’t really find anything at all since she was adamantly avoiding Rainbow Dash who hung around most of the boys, while Applejack had snooped out who the letter had been written by.

Apparently he was a boy named Flash Sentry, one of the main boys who played with Rainbow Dash and one of the most popular boys in her class. The prospect of someone more out there than she was liking her troubled Twilight. She had no time for boys and such. (Also she was aware that she was just seven and seven year olds didn’t have boyfriends.)

The fact that he was friends with Rainbow still stood, and it raised a red flag in her mind. What if he did it as a joke? Or, even worse, what if Rainbow was the one who put him up to it? What if she was getting her hopes up for nothing?

But still, the idea of a boy liking her excited her. No one has really shown an interest in her besides her friends. So for someone out of her circle, her comfort zone, to take a liking to her felt...weird.

Ms. Cheerilee had a meeting right after class so she left the room as soon as all the children were dismissed. Twilight had volunteered to stay behind to clean the dry erase board and fix up the room just so she would have a valid reason to stay. She was capable of handling herself, plus it Ms. Cheerilee wasn’t the only teacher in school so it isn’t like she would be by herself.

During class, Applejack had told Flash to stay after school because Twilight wanted to see him. He seemed to be a little apprehensive about it, but agreed nonetheless. As Twilight stood on a step stool to reach the top of the board as she erased what Ms. Cheerilee had written for that day, she failed to notice that Flash had entered the room and was watching her with a smile. Everyone had left, so it was just them inside the classroom.

Once she had finished, she took a step to step down, but lost her footing. She squeaked as she fell, but looked up in surprise when she saw that a pair of hands had caught her before she could hit the ground. “Gotcha.” Flash said with a smirk. Twilight stared into his eyes, unaware that a blush was beginning to appear on her pale face.

She quickly righted herself, smoothing out her skirt. She cleared her throat and then spoke. “Um, yes. Thank you.” She cursed herself for even acting so girly in the first place.

“No problem. So, you wanted to speak with me?” He asked, sitting on one of the desks in the front row of the classroom. Twilight came from behind the teacher’s desk and leaned against it.

“Yes. You are the one who put the letter in my desk, correct?” Twilight questioned, giving him a stoic look. Conveying no emotion was important, even if her heart was beating like a jackhammer.

“Yeah. You read it?” He raised his eyebrows in expectation, hoping she truly did read it since he had saw her rip it up and throw it away.

She nodded, letting a silence fall between them. “Look,” She started after a minute or two. “I know you're friends with Rainbow, and that she might have put you up to this so I’m letting you know right now if this is some sick, cruel joke-”

Flash held up his hands to stop her. Then rolled up the sleeves of his flannel shirt and pointed to his right wrist. There was something written on it, but she couldn’t see it from afar. Twilight was also bit confused, but nevertheless, crossed the small amount of space between them to see what he was pointing to.

It was hard to decipher at first, but when she could read it, she felt her ears burn hot. “T-That’s my name. You wrote my name on your wrist?” Her heart was racing now and her palms were sweaty. She was going to be sick to her stomach. She wasn’t interested in boys. While all the girls in class fawned over him, she was in her corner, with her nose in a book. She never wanted to like a boy. But now...something was different.

Here was a boy who actually liked her. A boy who genuinely liked her. She didn’t have many friends her age before meeting Fluttershy and Applejack. She was always a loner. The sarcastic smart freak who everyone stayed away from. And here was Flash, someone who liked her because of that. It made her sick. She was beginning to think that she was developing somewhat of a crush on him. The idea was nauseating.

“Yeah.” He said, nodding surely. “I like you. Alot. You’re smart, and sarcastic, and one of the prettiest girls in class. Rainbow didn’t put me up to it. Trust me, if she did, I wouldn’t have sat up all night Thursday writing that thing.” He rubbed the back of his neck as he began to blush too,

Awkward. This whole thing was awkward. It felt awkward. More so to Twilight than him. She had the urge to thank him, she didn’t know how, but she just wanted to. He was sweet. She liked that about him. She didn’t know much about him, but that was one thing she knew. He cared about her, and that was more than enough for her.

Before she could give it a second thought, her lips were on his cheek. She could feel the heat radiating off of it. She caught him off guard. She smiled. Good. Maybe he’ll stick around now. Pulling away, she giggled like an idiot, (which she will mentally slap herself for later) and grabbed her bookbag off the floor. She walked towards the door and turned around once she got to the doorway. “Thanks. For the note. And the chocolates. They were sweet.” She paused, smiling. “Like you.” She waved to him, before spinning on her heel and walking out the door, leaving Flash blushing madly.

And for the first time in two months, she was happy.

The school day was over for Shining and Cadence finally, and Shining couldn’t be more nervous. Instead of riding with Cadence to get Twilight, he had to ride his bike to go get her so that he couldn’t see what she was wearing for their date. (Which, every time she brought it up, scared the crap out of him.)

When he got to the school Twilight was outside leaning against her usual tree reading a book. But there was something different about her. He couldn’t put his finger on it. She seemed...happier. And that was saying a lot since she had been so down since the baby announcement. “Hey!” He called, smiling, crossing the green, snow crunching beneath his feet.

She looked up at him and grinned. “Hmm. No ride, from your date?” She teased, noticing the lack of babysitter and car. She was in a happy mood, but it was going to be a pain in the ass walking in this cold.

He shook his head. “She wants to get all dolled up and stuff so nope.” He extended a hand to help her up. She took it, and he waited for her to put the book in her book bag before he began to cross back over to the sidewalk. She followed behind, the same grin from earlier on her face. Okay, now he really wanted to know what she was so freaking happy about. “Why so chipper, Twily?” He asked.

The younger girl sighed in content. “Nothing really. Hey, Shiny?” She asked, walking beside him.

“Yeah?” He answered her.

“What’s it like to be in love?”

The question made Shining Armour stop. “What made you ask that?” as he started to walk again. She never showed an interest in knowing that.

“Just...nothing. I just wanted to know.”

She was hiding something, he could tell. Twilight was never soft spoken, nor was she ever afraid to tell him anything. She let her feelings be heard loud and clear. For her to be so...secretive, he wondered if she had a crush on a boy in her class. “Well, to be honest, I don’t know how to explain it.”

She frowned. “Aren’t you in love with Cadence?” She questioned.

Was he? He didn’t know. And he wasn’t really sure if she loved him. He had never said it, and neither has she. It was freaking him out just thinking about it. “Y-Yeah, you could say that. I like her a lot. So I guess for starters being in love is just liking someone a lot.” Shining shrugged.

“That’s it? There’s nothing more to it? It has to be more complicated then that!” Twilight huffed. That wasn’t the answer she was hoping she’d get. That was the complete opposite. She was hoping for some elaborate explanation. Not...that.

“Well I’m sure there’s more to it. But I haven’t really figured it out yet.” Shining admitted to her.

“Good god man! You have a girlfriend and you don’t know what the first thing about love is?!” She demanded, waving her arms.

“Do you?” Shining counted. After all, she was the one who asked him.

Twilight nodded as they approached their house. “Good point.”

A few hours later, Shining stood in the mirror for what he assumed was the hundredth time. It wasn’t like he was trying to impress Cadence or anything, he just wanted to look nice for her. Okay, so maybe he did want to impress her.

Deciding that he would just settle on a sweater and a dark pair of jeans, he grabbed his jacket off his bed and headed down stairs. He was about to open the garage to get his bike when his father called him into the living room.

“Going on that date with Cadence?” He asked.

“Yup.” Shining responded, nodding. His father threw him the keys to his car. Shining’s eyebrows raised. “Are- Seriously?!” He asked in disbelief.

Mr. Sparkle grinned. “Just make sure you bring both girls back in good condition, alright?”

Shining grinned back. “You got it!” He said, walking out the door. Things were off to a good start. He just hoped they stayed that way.

Cadence sat on her bed, waiting for Shining Armour. Apparently he had borrowed his father’s car so that meant she would be the one picked up. It was a nice change of pace for once. Her phone buzzed and she saw that it was a text from Shining telling her that he was downstairs. She took one last glance at herself in the mirror before grabbing her jacket and her purse and heading outside.

“Have fun sweetie!” Her mother called from the living room.

“I will! See you later!” She called back as she walked out and locked the door.

Shining was sitting against the car when he heard her come out. He looked up to see her in a pink winter dress and brown winter boots . She looked beautiful, and he wasted no time in telling her. “You look..amazing.” He told her, astonished.

Cadence twirled. “Why thank you. So, where are we headed? The cliche dinner and a movie? Or some place you used to go as a kid?” She teased.

“You’ll see.” He said, opening the door for her. When she got in, he closed it and crossed the front of the car to get onto his side. He started the car and drove down the street.

After driving for a few more minutes, he stopped at a restaurant that was a couple blocks from the mall. Shining knew he didn’t have that much money, but he did want to give Cadence the best night ever. “Wow, swanky place.” She commented as he held the door for her. “How’d you find it?”

“My dad knows the owner.” Shining responded.

Luckily, the place wasn’t too packed, and they were seated the minute they walked in. The waiter brought them some water and left them to decide what to eat. When they were alone, Cadence decided to strike up a conversation.

“So,” She said. “Our first date.” She was clearly nervous, and so was he. And to be honest, he was was glad she was just as apprehensive as he was. It made him relax, and he thought it was adorable how much he made her sheepish.

“Yeah.” He nodded. “I don’t know about all the romancey gushy stuff. But we could just, you know, hang out and not make it a date date.” He suggested.

Her shoulders relaxed. “Yeah. That sounds nice.” She smiled at him and laughed a little.

The waiter came back and took their orders before leaving them to themselves once again. “Why don’t we play twenty questions to pass the time?” Cadence asked. “When did you get your first kiss?” She quired, smirking.

Shining blushed. “Christmas. Y-You?”

Cadence hummed in thought. “Christmas.” she finally answered.

“No way!” Shining said in amazement.

“True chiz!” Cadence insisted.

“But I thought,” Shining started, but then stopped himself. It would have been rude of him to say he thought she had gotten her first kiss already. And possibly much more. Shining shook that possibility out of his head. Cadence wasn’t that type of girl. She had even said it herself.

“You thought that I had my first kiss already.” Cadence clenched her jaw, finishing his sentence. “Yeah, blonde, popular girl, that stereotype always comes back to bite me.” She bit her lip.

Uh-oh. Now he had done it. He knew he should have kept his stupid insecurities to himself. “Cadence I-”

“Can we not like, talk about it right now?” She sighed, interrupting him. She was clearly upset. And it hurt Shining knowing that he’s the one who made her upset. He just nodded and sat back in his chair.

As if on cue, the waiter came back with their plates. There wasn’t much talking after that. Shining couldn’t blame Cadence. He did kind of put his foot in his mouth. Again. They ate in silence, and it was killing Shining to see how hurt she was.

“Cadence?” He asked, testing the waters as they waited for the check. He was fine with her not responding, but he really wanted to set things right. A few more minutes passed and he was beginning to think that she really didn’t like him anymore.

“Yeah?” She finally answered after what felt like an eternity.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to insinuate that you were a slut or anything. I just thought that since you were popular and all you got everything you wanted.” He apologized, rubbing the back of his neck.

“You basically just called me a spoiled brat.” She deadpanned, a deep frown on her face.

Shining smacked his forehead. “I just can’t seem to get this right, can I?” He grumbled more to himself than Cadence. “Are you mad at me?” he asked, after another long pause played out.

“No.” Cadence sighed. “It’s not your fault. You’re very insecure. Too insecure to be dating a cheerleader.” She snorted.

Shining wasn’t sure if he should have taken that as a compliment or not. “Uh, thank you?” He tried.

“I’m gonna tell you something that I’ve never told anyone before.” Cadence decided. “And you can’t tell anyone else.” She added, pointing a finger at him.

Shining nodded wildly, awaiting what she had to say.

Another sigh. “This is my first date. And, honestly, I’ve never liked anyone as much as you. So you saying awkward things like that don’t piss me off because let’s be real, I’m in a whole different world that yours.” Cadence let out a dry laugh. “But, that’s what I like about us. We’re so different and yet we’re so much alike. So yeah, this date hasn’t been the greatest, but that’s okay because I just like spending time with you.”

Shining was astounded. “Does this mean that I get to kiss you?” He asked, hopefully.

“Wow, you’re so smooth.” Cadence teased sarcastically as she reached over the table and pecked him on the lips. She leaned back in the chair with a smirk. Tonight may have not been the night she had hoped for, but it was definitely something she’d never forget.

The next day, Saturday, Cadence came over to watch Twilight. And what mood she found the child in was one she did not expect. “Wow. Why so happy squirt?” She asked as Twilight hummed to herself while making breakfast. Which consisted of cereal and milk.

“Oh it’s nothing. I’ve just felt happier for some reason.” Twilight responded, pulling the milk out of the fridge. She hadn’t told anyone about her kissing Flash. Not Applejack, nor Fluttershy, and definitely not Shiny. And she sure as heck wasn’t about to tell Cadence.

“Mhmm.” Cadence nodded, observing the way Twilight was avoiding her question. Little girls didn’t just become happy overnight. Especially ones that brood as much as Twilight. Something was up. And she was going to find out.

“So, how was your date with Shiny? Was it all awkward?” the prodigy asked, eating a spoonful of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

Cadence leaned over the island and put her chin in her hand. “Besides him putting his foot in his mouth? It was alright. Plus, I got my kiss at the end of the night.” She expected Twilight to gag or say something sarcastic, but instead watched as her spoon clanked back into the bowl and her cheeks turned a rosy red. “Uh, you okay there, squirt?” Watching in confusion as Twilight slid down from her stool, she asked, “Where are you going?”

“To reevaluate my life.” The seven year old responded, heading for the living room, leaving Cadence in the kitchen with her now unoccupied bowl of cereal. Then, suddenly she spun on her heel. “I’m going to regret this, I know I will, but I am going to tell you anyway. I kinda, sorta, kissed a boy in my class yesterday.” And with that, Twilight took off running.

“What?” Cadence asked to herself in confusion. Then when it finally clicked in her head, “What?!”

Author's Notes:

Sorry this took so long holy shit i was busy trying to finish the TwiSpike fic and yeah it cant be up tonight guys sorry for the delay i promise it'll be up tomorrow. but in the mean time please enjoy this! This chapter is really rushed and bland and im sorry for that. I promise the TwiSpike story will be better. Anyway Happy Valentine's Day! :D

Adventure #9: Prom?

It was a beautiful day outside, and Twilight took advantage of it by making Cadence and Shining Armour take her and Fluttershy to the park. Right now they were swinging on the swings, watching the older pair talk on the bench outside the playground.

“Oh god, they’re so boring I almost forgot they were dating.” Twilight commented, rolling her eyes when Cadence blushed at something Shining had said. “It’s sickening to even look at them.”

“So don’t?” Fluttershy responded. “I mean, if that’s okay with you.” She added meekly, shrinking into her t-shirt.

“Relax Flutters, I don’t bite.” Twilight said, waving her concerns off. “And I would, but I can’t seem to. Something about them is so awkward and cringe worthy that I can’t look away. It’s like watching a Michael Cera movie.”

“I love Scott Pilgrim.” Fluttershy murmured happily. “It was for big kids but one of Rainbow’s brothers took us to see it. It was really funny.” She said, and started to kick at the sand beneath her sneakered feet.

“You’d think that they would have gotten it on yet, but no, they both are as stiff as can be.” Twilight muttered. She snorted. “No pun intended on my brother’s part.”

Seeing the confused look on Fluttershy’s face from obviously not understanding the joke, she added, “You’ll understand when you’re older.”

Fluttershy just nodded.

“I heard prom is coming up for all the big kids.” Twilight said conversationally. “Maybe that’s what they need to do. Go to prom. Maybe Shiny can finally man up.” The gears in her head were already turning. Her plan would be brilliant. Find the most cheesy, dorky, extravagant way for Shining to ask Cadence to prom and boom, they won’t be boring anymore. But knowing how much Cadence rivaled her in intelligence and knowing how much of a bumbling idiot her brother could be around Cadence, there would be a few snags in her operation. No matter. She was a genius after all. She could figure out someway to keep Shining from blowing it and Cadence from find out.

She smirked, looking over at Fluttershy. She just needed a little help from her friends.

“Sugarcube, Ah cannot tell you how many possible ways this can go wrong.” Applejack told Twilight, biting into her apple as they sat up in her room with a crudely drawn crayon map in front of them. They had come home from school and went upstairs so that the older kids wouldn’t know of their discussion. There was a checklist, and each task had to be completed in order for Twilight’s plan to work.

Twilight blew a strand of hair out her face. “Oh yeah? Name one.” She challenged, crossing her arms with a raised brow. She really wanted to see what the farm girl could come up with. Despite her southern upbringing, she was very smart and articulate which was one of the reasons Twilight liked being friends with her. She could finally have a conversation with someone her own age about things that wouldn’t go over the other kid’s head. (Not that she didn’t appreciate Fluttershy’s company, she was just getting really tired of having to explain things.)

“Prom’s a week away.” Applejack reminded her. She knew because her brother was getting ready to go himself. “And how do you know Cadence doesn’t already have a date? No offense to yer brother, but if Ah were her, Ah would want to go with someone else too.”

Twilight shook her head. “The bubblegum princess doesn’t have a date. She would never do that to my brother. Plus she’s stupidly head over heels in love with him. She would never do something to hurt him.”

Fluttershy nodded. “She kind of has a point. Though I think Applejack is kind of right too. How do we know if they both even want to go to prom? Has Cadence said anything about a dress? Has Shining said anything about renting a tux?”

Twilight’s eyebrows raised. That was a great observation on Fluttershy’s part. “No,” She said, astounded, “Actually, I don’t believe that either of them has said anything about it. But I’m sure both want to go but are too chicken to ask each other. Which brings us back to,” Twilight picked up the chart. “This.” She grinned.

Seeing the skeptical look on both her friend’s faces, she sighed. “Come on guys. This may only be junior prom but goddamit this might be the only chance they have at having that spark again. I could see it in their eyes the first time they kissed under the mistletoe. It was like fireworks had gone off or something. Now they’re all mushy and gushy and it makes me sick.” Twilight made a gagging sound.

“That’s what dating is like, Twi.” Applejack rolled her eyes. Twilight may be the smartest in their group but she was also the most immature. “Anyway, shouldn’t you be more concerned about what’s gonna happen you?”

“H-Huh?” Twilight stammered.

“If they go to prom, someone else will have to watch you.” Fluttershy clarified for her. “Which means you have to worry about having a new babysitter for the night.”

“Nope. That’s not happening.” Twilight deadpanned, rolling up the piece of poster paper. “I’ll be damned if I get a new babysitter.” She shoved the rolled up paper under her bed and stretched. “I just got used to Cadence. Adding a new sitter to the equation is not happening.”

“Well then you might wanna think about what yer plannin’ here. if you really don’t want a new sitter then don’t start nothin’ you can’t finish.” Applejack warned her. She took another bite of her apple and wiped her mouth.

“Oh trust me,” Twilight said with determination in her eyes. “I’m definitely gonna finish this.” A devilish grin played across her lips. Time for her first phase of the plan to begin.

A little later, since Shining had to work and her parents had to leave town for something, it was just Twilight and Cadence in the house. Twilight was on the couch as usual watching My Pretty Pony when the teenager walked into the house.

Cadence took her shades off and put them atop her head before striding into the living room. “Sup, squirt.” She greeted, sitting down next to the younger girl. She crossed her pink Converses on the table, and popped her gum to get Twilight’s attention when she didn’t respond. Twilight was always unresponsive when her favorite show was on, so Cadence’s favorite thing to do was annoy her until she said something.

“There’s a reason why I call you Bubblegum Princess.” Twilight said, turning to her when the channel went onto commercial. Having gum popped in her ear was a pet peeve Cadence constantly used to her advantage when it came to getting Twilight’s attention or making her do something. “Nice outfit, girl next door.” Twilight then added snidely, looking over her ensemble of a pink tank top and cut off shorts.

“Hey, it’s like ninety outside.” Cadence responded, pointing to the messy bun atop her head. She usually kept her long blonde hair down but today it was just simply too hot. “So, instead of going to the park like you wanted to, why don’t we hang out here?”

Twilight shrugged. It didn’t matter to her. She really didn’t want to leave anymore anyway. There was a marathon going on that she really didn’t want to miss. Plus she knew Flash was going to be at the park today, and she really didn’t need more than one problem on her plate right now. She still hadn’t even discussed what happened with Cadence yet. Not that she planned to. The older girl probably already forgot. And she wanted to keep it that way.

“Hey, Cady?” Twilight asked after a long pause.

“Hmm?” Cadence hummed, taking a drink out of her water bottle.

“Are you going to prom with Shining?”

Twilight patted her back as the other girl started coughing and sputtering. “W-What?” She barked after her coughing fit ended. She’s thought about it, thought about asking him, but she knew she didn’t have the guts to. She may have been the most popular girl at Canterlot High, but when it came to asking guys out, she was a complete mess. “N-No. I-I mean, I want to, but-”

“You’re a bumbling idiot when it comes to my klutz of a brother.” Twilight deadpanned. She didn’t need to let Cadence finish her sentence in order to know what she was about to say. “I know. I see it. All the time.” She frowned a bit but fixed her face.

“Ya know...” Twilight trailed, a smirk crossing her face as she saw Cadence’s ears perk up like a dog being offered a treat. “Why don’t I help you ask him out?” If Cadence bought into this, then that proved that not only was Cadence unobservant that Twilight was goading her with the same trick she did on Christmas, but also that Cadence was so desperate for love advice that she would listen to a seven year old. Again.

“Really?” Cadence gasped. Yep, Twilight was definitely smarter than her. Shame, she was really beginning to think she finally had someone older than her on her level. (Not that her brother wasn’t. He was smart, just not smart enough.) “You’d do that, Squirt?!”

“Of course!" Twilight beamed, smiling so hard her cheeks hurt. Things weren’t exactly going according to plan, but at least Shining would be caught off guard if she was the one who asked him. Twilight couldn’t wait to see the priceless look on his face once Cadence popped the question. Snickering to herself, her smiled turned mischievous. And she knew just how to do it.

Later that night in Twilight’s room, Cadence began to express her doubtful concerns as the younger girl sewed a stitch in the dress she had on. “Uh, Twilight? Are you sure this is, uh, you know, gonna work?” She watched Twilight stitch another piece of the dress together and winced when the needle poked her leg.

“Sorry.” Twilight mumbled. “And yes, Absolutely positive. My brother’s a nerd, let us never forget that. And what does my brother love most? Girls in maid costumes.” She had completely threw her plan out the window and was winging it here. But she was sure it would work. Shining couldn’t resist a girl in cosplay.

Cadence apprehensively shifted her weight and being careful not to move too much so that she wouldn’t get stuck with the sewing needle. She didn’t know why she agreed to what Twilight had suggested. Next time she was just going to do things her way. (Which she knew wasn’t going to happen, but it was a nice thought.)

“Don’t worry, everything’s gonna be fine.” Twilight told her, her words muffled by the frilly puffs of the maid outfit. She pushed one last pin into the back of it and sighed, standing up to admire her handy work. “Oh yeah, this is so gonna work.” She added, stretching.

Cadence couldn’t help but snort at that. “Whatever you say, squirt.” She said, rolling her eyes. She stepped down from the stepping stool Twilight had her stand on and went to look at herself in Twilight’s floor length mirror gasping at how intricately detailed Twilight’s creation was. “H-How does a seven year old put together an outfit like this in just a few hours?” She stuttered astounded. She couldn’t even make an even sided pillow in Home Ec let alone a dress!

Twilight pointed proudly to herself. “Heh, I am a genius after all.” She gloated.

Just then the front door unlocked, and Twilight ran out into the hallway to look over the railing at the top of the stairs to see who had come in. “Shi- I mean shoot! He’s here! Get in the room!” Twilight yelled to Cadence.

Cadence quickly grabbed the sign Twilight had written for her and headed into Shining’s room, closing the door. Twilight bounded down the stairs two at a time to meet her brother at the bottom of the steps.

“Where are you going?!” She barked at him. She hadn’t meant to sound as loud she did, but for some reason when she was panicking her indoor voice became three times louder.

Thinking his sister’s strange behavior was because of some game she had played, Shining responded with, “To my room, to relax. I’ve had a long day. What’s the matter with you?” He asked, slightly concerned, seeing that she was paler than usual. (And because she was so anti-social Twilight was as pale as pale could get.)

“N-Nothing!” She stammered, startled. “Y-You know what? Why don’t you go up to your room after all?” She said, pushing him up the stairs. “Surely nothing will be there that wasn’t there when you left.” Twilight was seriously going to kick herself for that one. That was absolutely one of the dumbest things she’d ever heard herself say.

“Okay...” Shining said, really confused now. Twilight stopped pushing him when they reached the top of the stairs. He walked up to his room and opened the door. He walked in and turned on the light, before abruptly running out his room and hiding behind his door. “T-Twilight?” He stuttered.

“Y-Yeah B.B.B.F.F.?”

“Why is Cadence in my room,” He gulped, a blush creeping to his face. “And lying on my bed in a sexy maid costume?”

“C-Cause I told her to.” Twilight murmured.

“You what?!” Shining whirled around and bounded back into his room. Cadence looked like she was going to cry. “Cady, what’s wrong?” He asked, worriedly.

“You don’t like it, do you?” Cadence half sobbed. When he didn’t respond she sighed heavily and slid off the bed. “I’m sorry. This is stupid. I’m stupid. I just wanted to ask you to prom. I didn’t mean to freak you out.” She told him, bleary eyed.

Shining just stood there, working his jaw and weighing his options. He couldn’t just let her cry. But if he didn’t act now, he might lose her forever. Sucking up his doubts, and with a surprising amount of force, before a single tear left Cadence’s eyes, he pulled her close to him and kissed her.

Twilight watched the whole thing with her mouth agape. “I can’t believe it! He actually grew a pair!” She shouted, pumping her fists in the air. She was so glad she wasn’t on the roof this time. She really didn’t want a repeat of last time. She smiled though, because her plan worked. Even if she had to change a few things.

Cadence pulled away from the kiss, blushing madly and shocked. “B-But I thought you didn’t like it?” She whispered in disbelief. She couldn’t believe Shining Armour just did that. Usually she was the one to initiate a kiss. It was a new feeling to have someone finally kissing her.

“I do. You just surprised me is all.” Shining responded, caressing her cheeks with a smile. He chose to ignore the eye roll Twilight sent his way and the gag sound she emitted at the same time.

“So, you’ll go with me?” Cadence asked with hope in her voice.

“Why wouldn’t I? I am your boyfriend after all.” Shining responded. A tingle shot through his body as he said it. He never thought that he could finally say it without getting flustered. Maybe Twilight was right. Maybe he was finally growing a pair. Yet, with the look Cadence was giving him now, he could feel them shrink right back into his body.

Twilight whistled. “Welp. This just went from PG to PG-13.” She said, backing out the door. “I’m going to put on some very loud music so uh, have fun!” She said, throwing a thumbs up in her brother’s direction before shutting the door.

Shining had all of about two seconds before Cadence pounced on him.

Author's Notes:

aaaand she's back! Yes, hello! the long awaited chapter is here! I had to change it up a bit because its waaaay past Mother's day. I told you guys I'd have it up on friday! >:D so, tell me what you guys think! I gotta go to night school! :'D

Adventure #10: The Big Night

"Mommy." Twilight whined from her perch on the kitchen island. Her mother, who was on the phone, didn't respond. "Mommy! " she shouted, stopping her foot.

She had a strange sense of deja vu, in which every time she tried to grab one of her parent's attentions she always had to resort to acting like well, a child. In a way she felt like she was going backwards.

"What is it, dear?" Her mother asked through her teeth, her patience growing thin. She was on the phone with the doctor.

"You have to find me a new babysitter remember? Shiny and Cadence are going to the prom and you and daddy have to go out of town tonight!" Twilight reminded her, her annoyance at a matched level.

"Right. I'll just ask Granny Smith to watch you for the night. You can even have a sleepover with Applejack." Her mother told her, ruffling her hair.

Twilight's face went sour. She loved Applejack as a friend, but the girl was boring. Her and her family were as simple as they come. She might have been stereotyping a bit, but it was the truth. Besides being exceptionally smart, (even though AJ was nine in the second grade. She didn't get left back, just started school late) they really didn't have much in common. Maybe she could ask to invite Fluttershy to liven things up.

Sighing, Twilight went into the living room to get the other cordless phone. She deftly dialed Fluttershy's number and waited for her to pick up.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Flutters. Listen, I gotta spend the night at AJ's. Wanna make it a real sleepover?" Twilight offered. Which wasn't really an offer because once Twilight asked something of Fluttershy it wound up happening anyway whether she liked it or not. (She wouldn't even dare try that with Applejack. The girl towered over her.)

“Oh, uh, I don’t know...I kind of already have plans...” The meek girl on the other line whispered.

“What?! With who?!” Twilight barked, slamming her hand down on the counter.

“W-With Rainbow Dash. She wanted to have a sleepover so that she could spend more time with me since I hang out with you more than her now.” Fluttershy explained on the verge of tears. “I-I’m sorry, if I’d had known-”

Twilight pinched the bridge of her nose. “There’s no need to cry, Fluttershy. It’s alright I guess. It’s my fault for demanding you come in the first place. Have fun, I guess.”

“O-Okay.” And with that, the phone was hung up.

Twilight sighed, then dialed Applejack’s number.

“Howdy.”

“Sup.” Twilight greeted back. “Hey, listen, my mom wants to use your grandmother as a last minute babysitter. And everyone’s kinda gonna be gone till tomorrow so is it okay if I crash with you?”

Applejack hummed. “Eh, sure. Why not? Ah could always use help in takin’ care of Bloom since Mac’s goin’ to prom. But Ah gotta warn ya, my cousin from the midwest is visitin’ and she’s well....” Applejack trailed.

“She’s what?” Twilight repeated.

“She’s hyper.” Applejack responded, after trying to find the write word. “And annoyin’. But she’ll grow on ya. Alright, tell yer parents ya got the okay. Ah’ll be waitin’ for ya.”

Click.

Twilight slide off the kitchen island and went upstairs to pack herself an overnight bag. This was going to be a long night.

“Holy crap, just pick one!” Twilight shouted, laying herself out on the chair in the changing room. “I can’t take this anymore! If I see one more pastel dress, I’m going to puke!”

Cadence rolled her eyes. “You’re the one who wanted to come with me, Squirt.” She responded, adjusting the top half of the purple party dress she was trying on.

“Because you bribed me with the promise of McDonald’s and ice cream! You know, I’m starting to think the only reason you brought me here is because you wanted someone to constantly tell you how pretty you looked!” Twilight added accusedly stomping her foot.

“Ya caught me.” Cadence said, turning around to playfully stick her tongue at the younger girl. “Now come help me zip out of this thing.”

Twilight rifled through Cadence’s bag and pulled out a twenty dollar bill. “Nope. I’m going to get me some burgers. You can ask the lady who’s working to do that.” She grinned devilishly and bolted out the dressing room.

“Hey!” Cadence called futilely after her. There was no way she was running after her in a dress like this. Sighing, Cadence reached behind herself and pulled the zipper halfway down before stepping out of it. She put the dress she had been wearing back on its hanger and walked out the dressing room, shocked to see Twilight standing there.

“I may be a genius, but I’m still a child.” Twilight muttered begrudgingly. She handed the twenty back to Cadence. “I just wanted to make you hurry up. I’m starving.”

Cadence rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah.” She said, ruffling Twilight’s hair. “C’mon. I’ll play for this and then we can go grab a burger from the food court.”

“Awesome!” Twilight yelled, pumping her fist into the air. “I want a milkshake too!”

“You know your parents don’t want you having all that sugar. How about a root beer float instead?” Cadence offered.

“Yeah!”

Cadence smiled. Sometimes Twilight just couldn’t help being a kid.

They had arrived at the food court a few minutes ago. Cadence got Twilight a happy meal (with the insistence of Twilight, because she just had to have the My Pretty Pony Rainbow Force figure that came with it) And Cadence got a simple cheeseburger with fries. They sat at the edge of the food court people watching until Twilight spoke up.

“So what’s the plan for tonight? You guys gonna rent a hotel room or something?” Twilight asked eagerly as she bit into her burger that came with her Happy Meal.

Cadence’s eyes went wide and she started to choke on her soda, going into a coughing fit. “W-What?!” She barked. How does a seven year old even know about such a thing?! But then she remembered what seven year old she was talking too, and nearly kicked herself for not expecting that one.

“You know, statistically this is when high school couples have their first time. Do you plan on doing the do with my brother?” Twilight asked her, eyebrow arched.

Cadence blushed furiously. “I-I don’t feel comfortable talking about this topic.” She stuttered.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Fine. Fine. Oh, I’m staying over at Applejack’s tonight since you can’t watch me.” Twilight told her nonchalantly, popping a fry into her mouth. She had been contemplating whether or not it was a good idea, but seeing how it was either that or staying at Fluttershy’s with Rainbow in such a close proximity, her options were limited.

“Oh really? So, are you excited or what?” Cadence responded, taking a sip of her soda, completely relieved that the younger girl had decided to change the subject. The idea of her and Shining Armour having sex was not something she wanted to think about just yet, let alone discuss with his seven year old sister.

“I guess, yeah. AJ said something about her cousin coming over so I guess it won’t be totally boring.” Twilight said, fiddling with her Princess Nightfall toy. Suddenly her expression became serious. “To be honest I’m really worried about Shining.”

“Why?” Cadence asked, her eyebrows furrowing.

“Well,” Twilight started, “We both know my brothers a doofus. He’s also the greatest guy I know, but he’s a nerd regardless. And he would never tell you this, but he gets bullied in school a lot.” She warily took a sip of her soda.

“Bullied?” Cadence repeated more to herself than Twilight. Then she suddenly remembered the first time they met, how jumpy and nervous he was, and how he kept looking over her shoulder as if he didn’t want someone to see him with her. She remembered when she saw him that afternoon and how his hair and entire shirt was wet for no apparent reason and when she asked about it, he got defensive. She remembered all the times his bike mysteriously ended up with slashed tires.

And then it made sense. His constant worrying of not being good enough for her, his low self esteem. It all made sense. And suddenly she felt bad for him. The fact that he kept all this hidden from her made her wonder just how much she knew about Shining.

Twilight glared at her. “He’s a big boy. You don’t need to start babying him. Shiny can handle himself, alright?” The young girl’s warning tone faltered. “Just...keep an eye out for him tonight, okay? He just wants to fit in and ever since you guys started dating he’s been a lot happier. You mean the world to him. And I hate to say this, but probably more than I do.”

Cadence laughed a little, pinching Twilight’s cheek. “You know, for a kid who doesn’t seem to care about anyone, you care a lot.” She teased.

Twilight swatted her hand away, blushing. “This is a one time thing. He’s my brother. He looks out for me so I gotta look out for him.” She smiled despite herself. “If you mess this up I’ll do everything in my power to destroy your relationship with him.” She threatened monotonously.

“Oooh! And we were so close to actually having a moment!” Cadence teased as Twilight threw a fry at her.

Shining Armour stood uncomfortably in front of a full length mirror. Twilight sat behind him on his bed, flipping through one of his comic books. He looked himself over once again, and younger sister groaned.

“I’m pretty sure Cadence will think you look fine, you insecure dork.” Twilight told him, not even looking up from what she was reading. “Besides who you got to impress besides her? Ya know, your girlfriend?”

Shining sighed. “No one.”

Twilight sighed herself, shaking her head. “Look, I know you’re worried that those football guys are gonna say something to you. Especially since a doofus like you got a hold of a girl like Cadence.”

Shining snorted. “Where are you going with this?”

“What I’m saying is,” Twilight started to explain hopping off the bed. “Is that you don’t worry about anyone else but Cadence.” She reached up on her tippy toes to adjust his tie. “I know you can do it because it’s such a simple task.” She smiled sweetly, smacking the side of his cheek.

Shining rolled his eyes as their parents called them down to take a few pictures. Cadence was waiting at the bottom of the steps in a short pink party dress.

“What’s with you and the color pink?” Twilight sneared.

“What’s with you and the color purple?” Cadence snarked back, an eyebrow arched.

“If I say touche will you bring me back one of those glow stick thingys?”

“Sure, squirt.” Cadence promised, pinching her cheek.

“You do that one more time, I’m going to have no choice but to kill you.”

“Kinda hard to take from a girl who started squealing when she saw a puppy on the ride home today.”

“Forget you.”

Cadence smirked. “What? Couldn’t say the real thing?”

“I have permanent markers and I’m not afraid to use them.”

Cadence took that as a sign to back down. “Alright, alright.” She surrendered with a chuckle. She turned to her date. “Wow Shining, you look snazzy.” He was wearing a black suit with a pink rose pinned to it. His hair was styled too.

Shining didn’t responded.

“Yo! Earth to space commander!” Twilight yelled, waving her hand in his face. Nothing. “Yeah, we lost him. Nice going Cadence.” Twilight snorted.

Cadence folded her arms defensively. “Hey it’s not my fault everytime he gets around me he acts like he’s never seen a girl before!”

“He hasn’t.”

“Oh.”

Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle came back into the foyer with the camera after going to look for it in the linen closet.

“Alright kids, time for pictures!” Mrs. Sparkle announced.

“If Shining can stop staring at Cadence’s boobs!” Twilight shouted in his ear.

Cadence smacked the back of her head blushing madly. Shining said nothing, just turned a bright red.

“And that’s how I got grounded for two weeks.” Twilight finished, biting into an apple fritter. After her outburst, Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle gave Twilight a strong talking to that ended up with her on punishment. No TV for two weeks. She knew it wasn’t going to last though, because they were barely in the house anymore, and couldn’t really keep an eye on her like they used to.

Applejack smacked her forehead. “Why do ya always put yerself in situations like this?” She groaned. She knew Twilight was a smart girl. She just had no self control. That was what mostly got her in trouble. In and out of school.

“At least I didn’t fall off the roof this time.” The younger girl grumbled in response. “And besides, they’ll probably forget about it once they hear what Shiny and Cadence are gonna do.”

“What’d ya mean? They don’t seem like the type ta be causin no trouble.” Applejack gave her a confused look. “Unless you’re implyin’ somethin’ else.”

“Well...it’s prom night. They’re teenagers. Haven’t you seen what happens in the movies?” Twilight told her, making hand gestures for the other girl to get what she was saying.

“If you’re implyin’ that your brother is smooth enough to get Cadence to frick frack, you’ve got another thing comin’.” Applejack deadpanned. “You know as well as I do your brother doesn’t have a smooth bone in his body.”

“Actually-”

“Ah meant figuratively, ya nerd.”

Twilight snorted as the doorbell rang. “That your cousin?” She asked as Applejack got up to answer it.

“Could be. Stay here and keep an eye on Bloom for me? She just learned how to walk and she’s been getting into everythin’.” Applejack said before striding up to the front door. She opened it to find her cousin bouncing up and down in excitement, her wild curls flying everywhere.

“Hiya cuz!” She bubbled.

Applejack smiled warmly at her. “Hey, Pinkie.”

The older girl lead her cousin into the living room where Twilight sat with the baby in her lap. “Twi, this is my cousin, Pinkie. Pinkie, Twilight. She’s staying with us for the summer.” Applejack introduced, waving a hand back and forth between the two of them.

“Sup.” Twilight greeted.

“Hiya! I’m Pinkie Pie! I just turn six! Did you know Applejack’s my cousin?!” Pinkie babbled happily.

“She just basically repeated everything you just said except for the ‘I’m six’ part.” Twilight whispered astoundedly. “Are you sure she got enough oxygen in the womb?”

Applejack sat down next to her and whispered back, “We’re not really sure. Jus, let ‘er be. She tends to not make sense when she’s all fired up like that. She’ll calm down in about an hour.”

“An hour?!” Twilight repeated loudly, causing the baby to start to cry. Suddenly she wished she hadn’t convinced Shining and Cadence to go to the prom.

Shining adjusted his tie for the thousandth time. It was obvious that he was nervous, and he knew Cadence could tell from all the worried looks she kept giving him on the ride to the school. “I’m fine.” He mumbled, though he knew he wasn’t at all. He knew that those guys would be waiting for him the minute he stepped through that gym door. And he definitely didn’t want Cadence fighting his battles, nor did he want her to be involved at all. But...what if she realized that he really wasn’t worth it and went over to one of them? What if she dumped him in front of everyone?

He looked over to her as she stared out the limo window. He knew he was being paranoid. Cadence wasn’t like that. She wasn’t some superficial popular girl who used people. She was sweet, and kind, and down to earth. He relaxed a little as they pulled up to the school. He would be fine. As long as Cadence was by his side, everything would be alright.

Though he soon regretted that thought as he walked through the door and found the group of boys he was worrying about standing in a corner by the door. And even though he tried his hardest not to look in their direction, he somehow caught their attention, and they sauntered over towards the couple. Shining’s heart started racing, and he quietly worked his jaw.

“Hey, if it isn’t our good friend Shiny,” The leader, the captain of the football team sneered. The nickname sounded stale and condescending coming out of his mouth. His goons chuckled. “And I see you’ve brought a date along.” He added, giving Cadence a lascivious once over.

Shining instinctively pulled Cadence behind him. “She’s my girlfriend.” He said evenly. He was surprised at how stern and protective he sounded. Cadence must have been too, because she was giving him a questioning look.

“Oh, so she’s your girlfriend? Cadence Mi Amore Cadenza decided to come to prom with a charity case? That’s rich.” The older boy grabbed up Shining by his suit jacket. “I’d be careful there, buddy boy. We wouldn’t want the others to know you’re lying.”

Shining tried to calm his pulse while even-temperedly looking around the room. No one was paying attention to them. Like always. Turning back to his assaulter, he said, “I’m not lying. You can ask her yourself.”

The older boy put him down as Shining dusted himself off.

Cadence had never seen him act so aloof before. Usually he had a goofy smile on his face but right now he looked absolutely pissed. Which is why she felt bad for finding him really attractive in that moment. The leader turned to her with a shit eating grin. Cadence took an involuntary step back but stood her ground.

“Is it true? Are you really going out with this loser?” He asked, deliberately staring at her chest.

“Yeah. You got a problem with it?” She answered back with a bite. She heard the boys behind him whistle. It made her uncomfortable, but she dared not to let them know that. She could feel Shining watching her as she stared the taller boy down. She wasn’t going to let them win. She wasn’t going to let them turn the one night that Shining Armour was supposed to be happy in to a night he’d regret. She promised Twilight she would protect him, and she wasn’t about to break that promise. Even if Shining didn’t know that.

“Is there a problem here?” A thick southern accent boomed.

Cadence looked up to see who it was and let out a sigh of relief when she saw it was Mac. He had come by to pick up Applejack a few times when Cadence would watch her and Twilight together. He also came by her house a lot to fix things that were broken. (She wouldn’t let Shining know that though. It would hurt his feelings. Even though she had no feelings for Mac.) She knew him well and so did Shining espeically since they were next door neighbors.

The boy’s bravado disappeared. “N-Nope. We were just leaving.” He said, stepping away from Cadence and Shining.

“That’s a good idea. We wouldn’t want nobody to get hurt here, now would we?” Mac threatened, cracking his knuckles.

The boys took off running.

Shining smirked. “Mac, dude you are a life saver man.” He said, bumping fists with him.

“No problem. Jus’ lookin’ out for the people who look out for my sister. Ya’ll alright?” He asked, looking more at Cadence than Shining. She knew he was just worried. He would have acted the same way if it had been Applejack instead of her.

She smirked at him. “Yeah. We’re cool.”

He tipped his top hat. “Well alright. Jus’ holler if ya need me.” He said before moseying over to the punch table to refill his cup.

And then it was just the two of them again. Cadence was actually pretty relieved. She wasn’t one for confrontation. And she knew that if Mac hadn’t stepped in, Shining wouldn’t have been able to control his anger for much longer. He was strong in mind, but not in body. If a fight had broken out there would have been no way that he could have defended himself. (As much as she hated putting her boyfriend down, it was the truth.)

“You wanna just, go home?” She asked, rubbing his hand.

“Why?” He laughed, looking at her.

“Cause, I mean you almost got into a fight.” Cadence responded, almost laughing herself. “And if I knew...I wouldn’t have asked you to come with me. We’re dating Shining. You should have told me you were being bullied. I had to hear it from Twilight.” She glared at him.

Shining Armour’s shoulders slumped. “Yeah, you’re right, I’m sorry. I just, I just didn’t want you fighting my battles.” He mumbled. “But then by me not telling you, you wound up doing that anyway.”

Cadence kissed his cheek. “Shining, you don’t always have to be my brave knight. I can handle myself. And sometimes you need to realize that it’s okay for you to be the one who needs saving. Okay?”

He nodded, blushing a little. “Okay.”

Cadence grabbed his hand. “Now c’mon. My favorite song is on, and I refuse to pass it up because my boyfriend’s being a sourpuss.” She teased as she pulled him onto the dance floor.

Shining couldn’t help but laugh.

A little later, Twilight could hear the phone in her pocket buzzing. It was an emergency cell phone her parents usually gave her when she was staying over at a relative's house or when she was over at a friend’s house for the night.

She had been sleeping, she wasn’t really sure what time it was. Between playing games with Pinkie and helping Applejack put the baby to sleep she didn’t remember where time began and where it ended. Looking down she saw that it was Cadence’s number. Groaning, she answered the call.

“Hello?” She croaked.

“H-Hey.” Cadence answered. She seemed out of breath. And apparently there was someone else breathing on her end of the line? “I just, uh, called to tell you- Oh god- That everything's cool.”

Twilight looked confusedly at the phone. “Alright?” She answered in a bewildered tone. “I guess I’ll leave you to- Wait a minute!” She was groggy but she wasn’t stupid. “Eww you guys are about to do the thing! Why are you calling me during foreplay?! I don’t want to hear my brother’s slobbery lips all over your neck! Gross!” She hung up the phone and threw it away from herself as if it were covered in cuties.

Groaning, Twilight laid back down on the bed. “Ugh. It’s going to take me forever to forget that.” But she was happy that her brother finally wasn’t a virgin anymore. (Even if it was none of her business.)

Author's Notes:

Tonight is my senior prom! and guess who's not going? Meeeee! And what better way to celebrate not going by having the characters in my fanfic go for me? This took me a total of two days to complete. It was a really fun write! So, what do you guys think about Pinkie? Is she too random? Is she too young? Tell me!

Adventure #11: Beach Bummed

“You can’t be serious.” Twilight deadpanned, looking back and forth between Cadence and the atrocious swimsuit she had picked out for the younger girl. “You really can’t be serious.” She repeated. They were in the mall looking for bathing suits because later on that day they were going to the beach with Shining.

“What?” Cadence asked innocently, almost defensively. “What’s wrong with it?” She twirled it around so that Twilight could see the other side of it. “It looks perfectly fine!”

“I am seven years old, about to be eight in less than two weeks, and you expect me to wear a My Pretty Pony bathing suit,” Twilight looked up at her with a bored look. “Have you lost your mind?”

Cadence's eyebrows furrowed. “I thought that you liked My Pretty Pony?” She asked, bending down to her level, momentarily forgetting that the child detested when people did that. “Did you suddenly out grow it to appear grown up or something?”

Twilight flipped her hair, ignoring Cadence’s insulting mistake. “No. I still like it. It’s just that bathing suit looks like it was made by a three year old for a three year old. Especially since it’s the Rainbow Force one. It looks like a rainbow threw up on it.” The younger girl made a sound of disgust as she put the monstrosity back on the rack. “Why don’t you go look for one for yourself, and I’ll go pick out one?” She offered. “I’m smart enough to do it myself.”

Cadence tapped her chin. “Hmm. Alright. Meet me at the register.”

Gladly, Twilight skipped away from the older girl and deep into the girls’ section of the children’s department. She flipped through the racks of ridiculously bright bathing suits until she found a purple one with white sparkles. “Perfect.” She mused, reaching for it, failing to see another hand reach for it too.

“Oh dear,” The other girl sighed. “It appears we’re both interested in the same outfit.” She said in a faint British accent. She was tall and fair skinned, with wavy dark purple hair that fell down her face in loose ringlets. She had on a white sundress, and ridiculously large sunglasses perched on top of her head.

“Yeah.” Twilight nodded in agreement, staring up at her. She had grown a few inches since October. She was now able to reach most things now without her step stool, and it was easier for her to climb the kitchen counter. (Even though she really wasn’t supposed to, but she didn’t care.) But she still had to crane her neck a bit to look at this girl who was clearly older than her.

“No matter,” The girl said with a smile. “You can have it. I’ll just go look for something else. After all darling, you did reach for it first.” She squeezed Twilight’s hand in a friendly manner before plucking the swimsuit off the rack and handing it to the younger girl. “It really suits your eyes.” She scuffled Twilight’s hair before walking away.

Twilight just stared after her, astounded. Normally, because she was so small, older and taller girls would have easily knocked her down or pushed her out the way. But this girl was kind, and generous to boot. Just exactly who was she?

“Ready to go?” Cadence asked, jarring Twilight out of her inner thoughts.

“Oh, yeah,” Twilight answered distractedly. She mechanically hefted up the bathing suit to show her.

“Good pick, Squirt! It’s actually pretty adorable!” The older girl praised, patting Twilight on the back. She showed what she chose to Twilight. “Cute, huh?” It was a pink and lilac striped string bikini. It was the kind that the person wearing it would have to tie the sides of the bottoms.

“That is going to give my poor brother a heart attack.” Twilight deadpanned. “Or is that your plan? Give him an early grave with your some how perfect body?”

“Why would you think that I’d want your brother to have a heart attack?” Cadence asked her, genuinely confused. “I mean, I know he really isn't used to seeing a girl’s body up close and personal, but it couldn’t possibly have that much of an effect on him.”

“Are you forgetting who the heck Shining Armour is? This is the the same guy who- Ah, ya know what? I don’t think I’m classified to tell you that.” Twilight told her smugly, folding her arms with a smirk.

“Tell me what?! What?! Twilight!” Cadence whined, stomping her foot. She rarely ever called Twilight by her name, (only when she was feeling loving or angry with her) So to hear her whine it made Twilight nearly snort. Especially since her childish behaviour was drawing the attention of a few bystanders and parents.

“Oh this is too rich.” Twilight mused, her arms still folded. “Though as much as I’m enjoying you making a complete fool of yourself, people are starting to stare, and I’d rather not end up on the Internet as ‘The kid who was being sat by the bigger kid’.”

Cadence frowned. “Whatever.” She growled, flipping her blonde hair and stepping up to the register to pay for their things. “Why would you even bring it up if you weren’t going to say anything about it?”

“Because I’m a seven year old evil genius. I mean c’mon, you’ve known me for eight months now, this should be nothing new to you.” Twilight responded, dismissing her suddenly sour attitude. She laughed when Cadence purposely hit her with the shopping bag.

“I’m hungry...” Twilight groaned, banging her head against the back of the backseat.

“Ah’m hot...” Applejack complained, fanning herself and wiping the sweat off her forehead that accumulated under the brow of her Stetson.

“I’m a little squished...” Fluttershy squeaked, wiggling around until she was sure she could breathe properly.

“I’m so excited!” Pinkie bubbled, bouncing up and down.

The other girls stared at her incredulously.

“What?!” She asked with a laugh.

“Your cousin is very...uh, happy.” Fluttershy said, turning to Applejack, trying to be as polite as possible.

They had been in the car riding for almost an hour now with Shining in the front and Cadence driving. They were hot, cranky, and worst of all sweaty. Pinkie’s cheery attitude didn’t help in the slightest.

“Calm down you guys, we’re almost there.” Cadence reassured.

Twilight wanted nothing more than to walk the rest of the way herself. She couldn’t stand happy children. Especially younger children. They irritated her. She was only quiet because it was too hot to come up with an insult. If they were in colder weather....well, than they would have a crying six year old on their hands. Twilight wouldn’t call herself mean spirited, just easy to aggravate.

Applejack was used to it. She’d know the child since she was a tot, and knew how to handle her obnoxious personality. “Pinkie, if ya be quiet for the rest of the ride, Ah’ll bury ya in the sand.”

“That’s child abuse. Isn’t that child abuse?!” Twilight said to Applejack and then shouted towards the front.

Shining Armour chuckled and then rolled his eyes.

“Have you never been to the beach before, Squirt?” Cadence asked, giving her an amused smirk through the rear view mirror. “People bury people in the sand there all the time.”

“Do you see how pasty and pale I am? The closest to the beach I’ve ever been to is that half deflated kiddie pool in the backyard!” Twilight exclaimed, waving her arms. Which made Applejack and Fluttershy uncomfortable because she was sitting in between them.

“Hey, watch the hands!” Applejack barked, pushing her.

“Don’t push me!” Twilight shouted back returning the favor.

“Oh dear!” Fluttershy gasped as the two started slapping at each other.

Pinkie snorted with laughter. “It’s like we’re a family or something!” She bubbled happily, kicking her feet and bouncing her stuffed alligator on her lap.

Cadence coughed at that. They did kind of look like a family. She looked over at Shining, who was staring out the window, watching the birds fly by. She began to think about the possibilities of her and Shining starting a family. Did she want to marry him? They were kind of young to be thinking about that. And would they even stay together long enough for that possibility to even come up? Cadence shook her head. She shouldn’t be thinking about things like that in the first place. They weren’t even out of high school yet.

As Cadence turned the car into the beach parking lot, both teenagers sighed in relief once the bickering in the backseat had subsided to gasp at the view.

“Wow! Look at all the birds! I’m gonna go kick ‘em!” Twilight shouted, clamoring to open the door.

“Yeah, and watch all of ‘em poop on ya. That pretty little purple suit of yours is gonna be white striped.” Applejack warned her.

Twilight stuck her tongue out at her in response as Cadence unlocked the jeep.

The girls piled out, hopping excitedly as Cadence unlocked the trunk to retrieve the shovels and pails and other various beach toys they had bought on the way. When everyone had at least one toy, she said, “Have fun guys! And don’t go-”

Before she could finish her sentence the girls took off running down the boardwalk. She frowned. “Far.” She mumbled, finishing her sentance. She felt Shining put an arm around her and peck her on the cheek. “Why don’t they ever listen to me?” She whined, leaning into his chest.

Shining chuckled. “Because they know you’re a softy.” He teased.

“Am not!” Cadence protested, shoving him away playfully. “Just for that, I’m going to go ahead. You can take care of the rest of the stuff, Lover Boy.” Bonking him on the head with a laugh, Cadence ran ahead before he could protest.

“When my brother sees what Cadence has on, the sand by the water isn’t going to be the only thing that’s hard.” Twilight joked, patting down a side of the sandcastle she, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Applejack had started to build.

Applejack whistled. “Twi, you know too much. Even for a genius. That’s why you’re always on punishment.” She shook her head with a mock condescending look.

“You knew what I was talking about so you’re just as bad,” Twilight shot back, kicking some sand at her.

“Quit it!” Applejack shouted, kicking back.

“Girls, please, no more fighting?” Fluttershy asked pleadingly. She honestly just wanted to spend time with her friends. Their constant fighting was making their time together less enjoyable for her.

Both girls mumbled their agreements.

“My, I never thought I’d see you again so soon.” A voice gasped.

Twilight looked up to see the girl from the mall standing above her, a giant sun hat on her head blocking out the sun and casting a huge shadow. “Oh, it’s you,” She responded, kind of surprised. The odds of her seeing the girl again, especially since they hadn’t exchanged names, would have been very unlikely.

“I knew I recognized you the minute I saw your hair.” The girl smiled. “Oh, good heavens! How rude of me! I haven’t properly introduced myself. My name is Rarity.” She stuck out a hand and Twilight shook it.

“My name’s Twilight. That’s Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Applejack.” Twilight said, pointing to herself and then the others.

“You talk like a rich person.” Pinkie told Rarity with a head tilt.

“Very good deduction there, Sherlock,” Twilight snipped, rolling her eyes. She growled when Applejack smacked her in the back of her head for the rude remark.

Rarity laughed. “You could say that. My father is the CEO of a tv network.” She responded, sitting down next to them, and picking up some sand to stack onto the castle.

“Oh? Which one?” Applejack asked, passing her a shovel.

“Oh, I can’t really remember. I believe it’s the one that airs that My Pretty Pony show.” She answered dismissively.

Twilight dropped her shovel, staring into space.

“Uh, you alright there sugarcube?” Applejack asked, putting a hand on her. “You kinda just, zoned out.”

Mechanically, Twilight turned to Rarity. “Your dad owns the Wub Network?!” She half shouted. Suddenly she grabbed Rarity’s hands. “We’re friends now. We have to be. It’s like law.”

“Did she just ditch us right in front of our faces?” Fluttershy asked with a confused expression.

Applejack shrugged. “Believe so.”

Pinkie giggled. “Why don’t we all be friends?! I like My Pretty Pony too! My favorite one is the pink one that throws all the parties!” She snorted with laughter.

“You know what, that actually explains so much.” Twilight nodded.

“Yep.”

“Indeed.”

Just like Twilight had predicted, Shining had fainted when he saw Cadence. She was the first to laugh at him to his face too. Cadence scolded her for being so cruel, but despite her stance on the matter, she ended up laughing herself.

Cadence explained to the girls what had taken them so long was the fact that since they had run off so quickly, it took them a minute to spot them. They quickly apologized, to which Cadence said was completely fine. They were kids after all.

Twilight introduced Cadence and Shining to Rarity, making sure to note that she had met her in the mall earlier that day and that she was loaded. Cadence smacked her in the back of the head and said it was rude to go telling everyone she had a rich friend. Rarity giggled and said it was not a problem, she understood Twilight’s excitement. Honestly, Cadence was just glad she had made another friend.

After the sun had set, they all sat around a makeshift bonfire, (Put together with sticks that were collected by Applejack and Shining.) Roasting marshmallows and talking and laughing. The girls left the couple at the fire to cuddle and walked up a little ways to have their own conversation creating a circle around a flickering lantern.

“You actually fell off a roof?” Rarity asked in disbelief, stifling her laughter after Twilight finished recounting her story. “Why were you even up there?”

“She was tryna play Cupid,” Applejack explained, popping open another bottle of fizzy apple cider. “And it backfired on ‘er. Though, Ah can’t say it didn’t work.” She added with a smile, nodding in the direction of the distant bonfire.

Twilight shrugged. “He’s my B.B.B.F.F. I want him to be happy.” She said with a smile, glancing back at the fire too.

Rarity put an arm around her. “I think that’s very generous of you, Twilight.” She complimented.

Fluttershy smiled. “I knew everything would work out just fine.” she mused with a content sigh. Her happiness was cut short when she heard Pinkie screaming.

The youngest girl can running up to them bleary eyed.

“Oh dear! Pinkie Pie what on earth is the matter?” Rarity asked her with out stretched arms. She encircled the girl into a comforting hug.

“We were playing by the water, and Gummy got washed away!” She wailed into Rarity’s chest.

“How did she get close to the water anyway? Weren’t you supposed to be watching her?” Twilight asked, pointing to Applejack.

“Ah told you she had the attention span of a fish!” Applejack shouted back in defense. “Ah told her to sit here, an’ it ain’t my fault she didn’t listen!”

“Maybe that’s where she truly belongs, in the sea.” Twilight quipped.

“Stop talkin’ about her like that!” Applejack snapped.

Fluttershy frowned as the two girls started to bicker again. She picked up a fizzy apple cider and downed most of it. Wiping her mouth with her hand, she sighed. At least it was nice while it lasted.

Author's Notes:

FINALLY HOLY SHIT. I started this chapter before July and I wanted it done before then but nooooo i got sick for like three fucking weeks and now here it is a month late. I'm sorry. The finale chapter will be up in a few days and so will the first chapter of the sequel. Thanks for being so patient. you guys rock.