I stood in front of a pony-sized mirror at Rarity’s boutique, and smiled happily. “Thanks again, Rarity, for making me a new suit.”

“Oh, it’s no trouble at all, my dear!” she said, her horn glowing as she took my measurements.

After I had told Rarity the news, she had insisted that I come in the next morning to get fitted for a new suit, so that I’d actually look nice. Heh. Me, looking nice. Perish the very thought!

“So, you and Octavia, hm?” The fashionista said, casually wrapping me in various fabrics.

“Yeah, it’s pretty awesome! I’ve really wanted to do this for a while,” I admitted, wincing a little. “Uh, Rarity? Too tight around the neck.”

“Terribly sorry,” Rarity apologized, loosening her grip. “I must have NOT NOTICED THE OBVIOUS.”

“What?”

“Nothing, nothing.”

For a while, I stood there in silence, letting Rarity get me outfitted for my suit. A couple of times it seemed that she was a little off today, as she kept accidentally jabbing needles into me. I figured I knew why she was doing this, but chose to keep quiet.

I’ll have to put up with worse if things keep going the way they are.

“Now then, how did you and Miss Octavia meet?” Rarity asked me as she worked, her brow furrowed in concentration.

“Well, when we were at the Grand Galloping Gala, after the whole…” I coughed slightly, and continued, “Incident…I met up with her, and found out that we have a lot in common.”

“Oh? Does she share your love of learning, or maybe…magic?” Rarity stressed. “Or does she like books too?”

“Um…not that I know of,” I replied, faking confusion. “But we have the same tastes in music, and she’s apparently a fairly big fan of my work.”

“Huh…that sounds like someone else we all know!”

“Really? Cool. Anyways, I’m really hoping that this’ll lead to us getting together more often,” I said, my tone hinting that she should let the matter drop. Apparently, Rarity is about as good at taking hints at I am, because she kept badgering me with questions.

Needless to say, I was ecstatic when the suit was finished.

“Thanks, Rarity.” I passed her a bag of bits, and at her slightly offended/confused expression, I stated, “For the suit. See you later.”

“Oh, thank you…” She reluctantly said. “Now you have fun with Octavia…” She added with a trace of venom in her voice.

“Aight,” I said in a neutral tone. Alright, I’ll admit that I was being rude, but hey, give me some credit: She was jabbing me with needles for what must have been hours, and pestering me with questions that I couldn’t properly answer.

Turning, I walked out of the boutique, my suit neatly folded and placed into a saddlebag at my side. Unfurling my wings once again, I made my way over to my house, trying to get myself psyched up for my night.

“Hmph,” Rarity snorted as she watched Omnius fly off. “I simply cannot believe that he is being this oblivious!”

An angry glimmer in her eyes, she snatched a saddlebag from a peg on her wall, and started filling it with various materials. In a dramatic voice, she declared, “Just you wait, Omnius! I will not stand by and let true love fail to bring you and Twilight together!”

With that, she charged out her door, and dashed towards Twilight’s library, barely feeling the weight of her saddlebags on her back.

“Heh, 007 can suck it,” I chortled, standing in front of my mirror at home, wearing my new suit.

In all honesty, it was a simple suit, just the normal black and white attire that’s standard in all tuxedoes.

Then again, it was a tuxedo. A freaking TUXEDO. I barely get a chance to wear these bad boys, and I fully intend to take every advantage of it I can. Posing for a moment, I pointed my wing at the mirror like a gun, and said in my best Sean Connery voice, “The name’s Traveler…Agent Traveler.”

The sound of somepony knocking on my door snapped me out of my small flashback scene, and I flew down the stairs. “Coming!” I shouted.

Pulling open the door, I beheld a grey mare with a charcoal mane and tail standing outside, wearing a small, yet stylish, red bowtie, and in a light gown. She gave me a half smile, and said, “Mr. Cliff, I presume?”

“Indeed, Miss Octavia,” I replied, bowing. “Would you like to come in? Or should we just head straight for the music hall?”

She flipped her long mane back, and glanced at the inside of my house. Seeing the bits and pieces of garbage that littered the ground, she gave me a lighthearted smirk. “No, I think we should head to the music hall. After all…we have a lot to do tonight.”

“True,” I nodded. “Alright, let’s be off! Say, how did you get here anyways?”

“I rented a carriage. It’s our ride to the hall as well,” Octavia explained, gesturing at the small two-pony carriage parked just outside of my little area.

“Fancy. Welp, let’s head out!” I opened the door to the carriage for her, and followed soon after, not noticing the pair of magenta eyes that were staring at me from the top of a cloud, hovering low in the sky.

Twilight sat on her pillow, giving Rarity the closest imitation she could of Omnius’ patented (he actually had a patent paper for it), “NO!” stare. It basically consisted of making sure that your eyes and eyebrows were perfectly in sync with each other, so you could transfer the message of, “No way in Hell/Tartaraus/Nevernever is that gonna happen.”

“But Twilight, you must!” The white unicorn pony shouted. “I know how you have those feelings for him, and we need to act fast if you are to-”

“No!” Twilight shouted. “There is no way that you’re going to make me wear something like THAT just to get his attention!”

“But-”

“NO!”

At this moment, a cyan and rainbow colored blur shot through the window, halting mid-flight just before she would have collided with another bookshelf.

“Rainbow Dash?” Twilight asked, confused. Rarity was distracted for a moment as well, surprised by the sudden appearance of their Pegasus friend. “What are you doing here?”

Dash spotted Twilight, and said, “Twilight, you’re not gonna believe this! Omnius is-”

“Going out with Octavia,” Twilight deadpanned. “I know.”

“You do? Oh…well, uh, I guess I shouldn’t have gotten the rest of the girls then,” Rainbow Dash said, chuckling nervously.

“What do you mean, ‘rest of the girls’?”

The three of them turned to the doorway to find that Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Applejack had just walked in, giving Twilight a mixture of sad and sympathetic looks. The unicorn groaned in exasperation, and turned her glare to Rainbow Dash.

“Rainbow Dash…” Twilight said in a low, dangerous voice. “Why is everypony here?”

Pinkie bounced around Twilight, saying in a sing-song voice, “Because, silly, you like Omni, but he’s out on a date with Octy! We wanted to cheer you up!”

“What? Why would I need cheering up? I’m fine!” Twilight said unconvincingly. “I don’t care if he goes out with her!” She turned around, and started throwing books unceremoniously back onto their shelves.

“Twilight, what were you reading?” Applejack asked, attempting to look over the bookworm’s shoulder.

“Nothing!”

Applejack scowled, and snatched one of the books from off of the shelf. She raised an eyebrow, and said, “Twi…if yer not carin’ if he’s dating somepony else, then why do you have a book that’s about telling somepony that you care about ‘em?”

Twilight blushed furiously, and used her magic to take the book back. Shoving it back onto the shelf, she said, “No reason! I just hadn’t read it yet, and I wanted to-”

“Um, Twilight?” Fluttershy softly said. “Maybe you should just tell him. I mean, would it really be that hard?”

Trembling visibly, Twilight kept her face to the bookshelf, and attempted to feign an interest in organizing her books.

She didn’t fool anypony.

“Twilight, it’s alright,” Fluttershy continued. “I’m sure that he feels the same way about you.”

Twilight remained silent, but she stopped “organizing” her books. She sniffed once, before she turned and gave Fluttershy a small smile. Giving the animal loving Pegasus a quick hug, she said, “Thank you.”

After a quick group hug, the girls all started chatting, glad that they were able to help Twilight get her mind off of the situation…that is, until Pinkie had a question.

And when Pinkie has a question, is she gonna ask it?

“What do you think he and Octy are doing?” She asked, putting a hoof to her chin thoughtfully.

“Ah bet Omnius is makin’ a fool outta both of them somehow!” Applejack chuckled, imagining the look on that musical mare’s face if Omnius were to pull his harmonica out and just start playing it.

“Most definitely,” Rarity nodded. “Can you imagine him finding out that there isn’t any soda wherever he is?”

They all shared a laugh at that, imagining him holding his hooves to the sky, and screaming in an overly dramatic fashion. Knowing Omnius, that would probably be exactly what he would do.

“No, no!” Rainbow Dash chuckled. “He’s probably trying to tell jokes to some of those snooty upper-class pony jerks!”

“Rainbow!”

“What? You met them, so you can’t deny it!”

“Twilight, what do you think?” Fluttershy asked, not wanting Rainbow Dash and Rarity to start fighting with each other.”

The lavender unicorn hesitated, trying to think of an answer. She tried to think of something funny, but in the end, she just sighed. “I don’t want to admit it, but…he’s probably making sure that they have a good time.”

“What? Are you serious?” Dash asked, rolling her eyes.

“It’s true though,” Twilight lifted her head up, and stared out the window. “He might make a fool out of himself, but he’d never try to make anyone of his friends look like that. He cares about them too much.”

“I suppose that’s true…” Fluttershy admitted.

“And not only that, but if he likes Octavia, then that means that he’ll-”

“What are you girls talking about?” A new voice asked without warning.

“No, really, what’re you talking about?” I asked, closing the library door behind me.

“Omnius?!” Rarity half-shouted in surprise. “W-what are you doing here?”

I smiled widely, and said, “I’ve got some good news, and I need ponies to share it with!”

“Oh…I take it your date with Octavia went well then?” Twilight said, somewhat sadly.

“Date?” I repeated.

“That is typically what they call it when two ponies who like each other spend a night together,” Rarity spat.

“I wasn’t- WAIT, WHAT?!” I shouted, shaking my head, and staring at Rarity with wide eyes. “WHAT DO YOU MEAN ‘LIKE EACH OTHER’?!”

“Hold on, now,” Applejack said, “Didn’t you just go out with Octavia?”

“Yes! To compose music!” I shook my head again, and at their confused looks, explained, “Look, Octavia is a fan of Treble Cliff, my MUSICIAN NAME.”

“…So you WERE going out with her?” Pinkie asked.

“NO! I asked her if she’d be willing to perform one of my pieces, and tonight was the actual concert for it! It’s normally good manners for the composer to appear alongside the musician, or at least to me it is!” I was a little surprised. Jeez, I didn’t mean that we were dating at all! These ponies…

“But you said she had excellent tastes!”

“In music!”

All of the ponies let out a sigh of relief, and I had to face-hoof them. “Honestly,” I muttered.

“Well, if you don’t like Octavia,” Pinkie started, before giving me a huge smile, and asking, “Then what about Twilight?”

“…Beg pardon?”

Pinkie bounced behind me, and giggled again, saying, “You heard me! Weeeeellll? Do ya, do ya, do ya, do ya?”

“Come on, Pinkie, I heard you the first time. Now if you excuse me, I have to go and-”

“Why do you keep avoiding the topic?” Twilight suddenly said, getting up and staring at me angrily.

Oh no…Oh no oh no oh no.

“Look, I jus-” I tried, only to feel myself get forced against the wall by Twilight’s magic.

“No! Answer me right now: Do you care about me, or not?” Twilight shouted, pressing me against the bookshelf. I tried to move, but the sheer strength of her magic kept me pinned, unable to even twitch.

“I do! You’re my friend!” I said, trying one last desperate attempt to delay the inevitable.

“No, not like that! I mean…” Here, she hesitated, as she attempted to gather her courage. “Do you…love me?”

I remained silent. It was as I feared, and it was something I didn’t want to happen. My heart waged a silent war with itself, as half of it leaped in joy at hearing the prospect that she did love me, while the other half plummeted, knowing that now I would have to do something…horrible.

“Well?” She said, while the rest of the girls watched in silence.

“…Twilight, I can’t love you.”

Preview of Chapter 4:

Loveless, Lifeless, & Heartless

“Twilight, I’m sorry…I don’t love you. And if you feel that way about me, it’s best if we never speak to each other again…”

“…”

“I’m sorry.”

“GET BACK HERE! I’LL SHOW YOU WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU HURT MY FRIENDS LIKE THAT!”

Next Chapter: 4) Loveless, Lifeless, and Heartless Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 33 Minutes