A deer holding a cellphone was positioned in front of Twilight’s house. Her goal was simple: secretly get footage of Twilight or Spike on the balcony to make millions of views on whatever popular video sites wouldn’t take it down. It was nighttime, but the camera had a night setting which worked, in her words, “okay for a lot of stuff”.

Rainbow Dash came into Twilight’s bedroom, giving the one-time stalker something just as good. Twilight wasn’t there.

“Twilight? I’m here.”

“Just a minute.” After a minute, she came up with a bowl of fruit salad. “I hope you really like cantaloupe or any kissing’s going to be kind of—” The sound of a bell being rung came from below. “What was that?”

“Well, find out.”

She went down a few flights and eventually found Spike on the television floor. Between the television and the couch was a duct tape pentagram circumscribed with salt with lit candles on each point, and inside the pentagon of the pentagram was a pillar about as tall as Spike, atop which was a large game cartridge. Spike himself was standing on the couch and reading from a black book Twilight didn’t recognise.

“Spike?”

He kept reading for a moment before closing the book. “Yes?”

“What are you doing?”

“It worked the last time I tried this.”

“Well, could you keep it down?”

“Probably. I still don’t know if this is what it wants.”

“Keep it down or you’re in for a broken arm.”

She went back upstairs. “So we are having sex, right?”

“That’s all you ever think about.”

“Answer the question.”

“I just came here for a roof to sleep under.”

“Well, the rent is making me come once.”

“Then I still have a lot of credit.”

“Fine, don’t have sex with me. I’m going to eat my fruit salad and then clop right where I stand right now.”

“Sounds good.”

That happened.

“Okay, watching that must mean you’re horny,” Twilight said. “Either you were before or you are now.”

Rainbow was lying on the lower bunk. “I’d rather just sleep.”

“Fine. Sleep. I’ll just clop again.” She went to the balcony. “Hey, is somepony there?”

She teleported in front of the deer, who quickly turned off the phone. “What are you doing?”

“Uh....”

She levitated the phone out of her hoof. “Get down.”

The deer got on her knees. “You don’t have to hurt me....”

“All the way down.” She got on her chest. “That’s better. Now, what’s your name?”

“Cinnamon.”

“Right... and where are you from?”

“Jasminetown.”

“And where do you work, if applicable?”

“If you want to kill me, you can just do it now.”

“I want to burn down your house, not kill you. So where do you work?”

“Pignon’s Bike Shop.”

“Okay. I’ll burn your house down within a week, so make arrangements.”

“I live with my sister.”

“Well, it’s your house or your life, and I think I know which she’d prefer. Also, I’d like if you left Ponyville.” She teleported back up and went inside.

“Hey, Rainbow, you want this phone?”

“I’ve never had much use for worldly possessions.”

“Okay, I’ll see if Spike wants it sometime.”

She put the phone down and went back to the balcony, waited a minute for Cinnamon to leave her sight, then began to clop. Sometimes living in a small town was inconvenient, but it was nice to be able to do things like this.

Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle was asleep, and Applejack was sitting against her bed eating apple slices with apple compote.

“Whah did you start tahpin’? Ah thought we were doin’ a Twahdash episode.”

“Usually their sex is really boring,” said the only transcriber there. “They just do the same thing for half an hour and never talk. So I’m recording you in case we need some filler. We might even get so desperate that we include me explaining to you why I’m here.”

“Ain’t really doin’ anything....”

“It’s a slice of life series, you don’t need to be.”

“Yeah, but... do they really wanna watch somepony eat?”

“They might. It’s not a very tested concept, maybe a minute of somepony eating will actually be really good.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Sweetie Belle?” Apple Bloom said. “Are you awake?” She wasn’t, but she somehow knew this was happening. “You need to wake up.” Apple Bloom slapped her twice on each cheek.

“Apple Bloom? What are you doing in my room?”

“You need to get up or you’ll never make it to school in tahme.”

She got out of bed, then without anyone casting anything, they were instantly in front of the school, which neither of them found at all strange. As they stepped into the building, Sweetie Belle fainted, then forgot any of the day had ever happened.

Half an hour since she left, Twilight came back into the bedroom. Rainbow Dash was asleep, once again irritating her with how easily she could just fall asleep. The only thing she felt like doing for the night was cracking a spell she simultaneously didn’t want to look at because she was so frustrated with it, leaving her in a very awkward place. She mentally ran through some activities she liked, and luckily one appealed to her: continuing her fanfic. And so she got on her computer, got on her browser, got on the site, and got on her document.

“Hmm... oh, I know. Half an hour since she left...” Next Chapter: Chapter 49: Reinforcement Estimated time remaining: 14 Hours, 39 Minutes