It was seven o'clock at night and Twilight had just finished eating breakfast.  That's how you knew you were nocturnal.  Twilight was surprised at how easy the change had come to her.  Waking up without the sun was difficult at first, but Rarity gave Twilight this self-lighting lamp that made the room bright at any time you set it to, solving Twilight's main problem with her new schedule.  And of course, her new friends strongly approved of the change.

Her job was so mind-numbingly boring in comparison with them.  She worked in retail, which she didn't like at all.  Still, she felt socializing with the girls had really helped the skills she needed for it.  Twilight felt much more comfortable talking to strangers after they had forced her out of her shell.  So that much was going well, she was actually making money now, albiet a pitiful amount.

Probably more important than the job was that the check checked out and the money was in her bank!  That one check was more than she was going to make in a year at the pony/11 where she worked.  And that was before Rarity even stepped in to help with Twilight's finances.  Rarity knew so many ways to help Twilight deal with debt and to manage the money she'd inherited.  At the end of it all-

Well at the end of it all Twilight felt like she was rolling in money!  She could actually spend on luxury goods now, something she feared wouldn't happen for years to come, but Rarity kept warning her not to overestimate her wealth and all that.  Rarity gave twilight a strict budget which Twilight kept to religously.

And the best part of having enough money to live was that she got to spend time with her new friends now.  Twilight wouldn't be needing a second job afterall.

She'd gone out with them every single night for the past three weeks and it seemed as though they had a never ending supply of new wonders to show her.  They took her to caves, abandoned buildings, dark places in the woods, and more, to all these dark forbidden places she never would have gone to without them.  And everything they showed her was beautiful.  Despite everything Twilight knew and felt they were all amazing.

But tonight was different!  Tonight Twilight was going to have one of them come to her.  Things kept going up and up!

This was such an exciting day for Twilight!  She'd never had a friend over to play!  Well, not since she was like five or something, but this was her first real play date with a real friend at her actual house!  Though, Twilight resolved not to call it a play date, less she sound 'uncool'.  Dash had been teaching Twilight all about how to be cool.

But she was also showing Twilight some more questionable things, too.  Just the other day, Dash showed Twilight this one song by a band called Nightgaurd.  It was one of those songs, a 'metal' song.  Everypony knew that newer music was tasteless, vulgar and arouse too much passion in ponies.  Celestia had almost considered banning rock and roll once, even.  Like candy it was something you were only occasionally supposed to listen to, and even then comparing metal to actual music was like comparing junk food to a five star resturant.

Yet that song filled Twilight with emotion like no other song ever had.  Not just the song, but that feeling was stuck in her head, heart and hooves for two days straight.  And somehow that was a good thing.  It was this uplifting kind of feeling, that gave Twilight a spring in her steps as that 'dununanana' echoed in her head.  It made her whole day better, gave her this drive to work hard for Celestia, as the saying went.

Secretly, Twilight went out and bought a record of it and listened to it non-stop for hours!  She'd never done that with any other piece of music before in her life, but this one was just different, magical somehow, but she couldn't get enough of this.  She had to hear it again and buying the record was less embarrasing than announcing to Dash that she liked that garbage song.

Twilight thought getting a few stares from ponies as she boutht the delinquent record was bad enough, but far worse was when  Rainbow Dash noticed Twilight humming it to herself under her breath.  Twilight tried denying it and insisting that she still loved classical more but – well one thing lead to another and Twilight invited Dash over to her house to listen to some music with her.

To her credit, Dash agreed to give Twilight's music a chance, just like she wanted Twilight to give hers one.  They were always consistent with their philosophy, strange as it was.

Twilight was expecting Dash at any moment now and was busy setting up.  Actually, she had set up hours and hours ago, meticulously arranging everything for her first visit.  Right now she was just making some final touch-ups, making sure the snacks were facing in the exact right direction, that her record player was in the proper spot to the exact inch.  And yes, Twilight was bringing out a ruler when she heard a knock at the door.

Twilight's heart skipped a beat and she ran straight to the door.  When she got there, Twilight stopped to compose herself, fixed her mane and opened it to find Dash on the other side.  Twilight was so excited it was hard to stay still, but she tried to remain calm and collected.  Cool.

“Hey!”  Twilight leaned against the side of her doorway all cool like.  “You're right on time!  Well, two minutes and fourteen seconds early, but that's within the range of statistical averages for visits!  So-!”

“Remember what I said, right?”  Dash laughed.  “Just relax.  You'll be fine.”

“Er right!”

And the two of them just stood there for a very awkward ten seconds.  Twilight knew it was exactly ten seconds because she was counting the ticks coming from the clock behind her, the loudest thing going on right now.

“So, uh...”

“So are you going to formally invite me inside?”  Dash smirked.

“See, this is what I'm talking about,” said Twilight.  “You girls always go on talking about how stu- nonsensical formalities are, but then you insist about always getting invited into places!  Are you trying to make me think you're a vampire or something?”

“Yeah, probably.”  Dash gave a toothy grin.  “Messing with you?  Sounds like something I'd do!  But then again, being a vampire would also explain this perfectly.”

Twilight groaned and rolled her eyes.  They teased her on the whole 'vampire' thing a bit more than Twilight wanted them to.  She knew it made no sense, but somehow Twilight was never really able to get that thought out of her head.  If anypony was a vampire it was definitely Rarity but, you know, nopony was a vampire.

Then she remembered something she had sitting in the window, that Celestia bobble head Applejack gave her.  Twilight smiled to herself.  Maybe she could have a bit of her own fun.

“Okay.”  Twilight thrust the Celestia bobble head at Dash, shaking it in front of her face.  “Take this!”

Dash had no reaction to this at first.  Then she very slowly shrugged at it.

“Welp.  Guess I'm dead now,” said Dash.  “But don't go driving a stake through my heart next, thanks.”

The two of them laughed.

“But seriously, if we're gonna hang out you gotta get rid of that thing.”  Dash motioned to the bobble head

“Get rid of it?  That's exactly what a v-”  Twilight stopped in the middle of her sentence when she saw Dash's smile widen.  “You're playing with me, aren't you?”

“Well that and I don't like Celestia, if you haven't gotten that through your head yet,” said Dash.  “She's a heartless jerk and tyrant.  Garbage like that belongs in the trash.”

“Rainbow Dash!  How can you talk about the princess like that?!”

“I dunno!  How can Celestia not care about anypony but herslef?”

“Because she's the only one who's immortal!”  Twilight recited the answer.  “At the end of the day Celestia's the only pony who matters.  Everypony knows that.”

“Ugh!  I didn't come here to talk about politics!”  Dash put a forhoof on her head in dispair.  “But we can at least agree that superstition is dumb, right?  I'm surprised you're scared of throwing out a piece of plastic.  It's not even a good picture of Celestia.”

Twilight hesitated.

“Well why not, huh?”  Dash asked.  “It's not like Celestia's gonna know.  She probably wouldn't even care if she did.”

“It's just supposed to be bad luck,” said Twilight.  “You know, my dad kept a newspaper with Celestias picture on it for five years once because-”

“Because he was brainwashed by the system,” said Dash.  “You're supposed to be all logical, right?  You realize there's not such thing as 'bad luck'.  So it shouldn't be a big deal to you.”

“I'm not brainwashed!  And I don't believe in luck, sure, but-”  Twilight frowned at the little figurine.

“Oh, or do you still think I'm a vampire?”  Dash put a hoof against her cheek and gave Twilight a mockingly cute smile.

“You know, I would probably forget all about this vampire stuff if you didn't constantly bring it up.”

“Hey, I'll give you a hint, Twi,” said Dash.  “The way to get us to stop teasing you is to not get so choked up over meaningless stuff like this.”

“I'll tell you what,” said Twilight.  “If you come inside without being invited and with the bobble head in the window I'll... I'll throw it out.”

Without hesitation, Dash stepped inside the house.  She looked at Twilight, unexploded, with the unamused expression a tired parent gives they're foal after showing them there were no monsters under their bed.

Twilight felt humiliated.  Of course Rainbow Dash wasn't a vampire.  What was Twilight even thinking?

“S-sorry.”

“No problem.”  Dash took off her glasses and tapped them against her temple, smiling with mischief. “But we had a deal, right?”

Twilight looked over at the bobble head, then at the garbage and gulped.  She was actually trembling.  This was blasphemy!  She was being squeezed on two sides, pressure from Celestia and pressure from Dash, but only one of them was actually watching.

Twilight levitated the bobble head and moved it over the garbage.  She hovered it over the top of the garbage's flip cover, unable to let go.  What would her parents think if they saw her even considering doing this?  Still, she took the plunge.  She let go of it with her magic and she felt her stomach sink as it fell down and disappeared from view.

She felt a sense of such total defeat in that moment.

Dash snatched Twilight up with one of her wings before that feeling lingered for even a second.  Twilight blushed heavily.  After that night in the graveyard, Twilight got hugged all the time now, with less warning each time.  Yet she actually grown to like having her personal space invaded by them.  Being wrapped under a pegasus' wing felt great, it was warm and soft, but she would have gone her whole life without feeling it had they not broken her down.

“There ya go!”  Dash cheered her on, messing up Twilight's mane with her hoof.  “Most ponies are too superstitious to do something like that.  'Oh no!  Not the cheap piece of plastic crap!  That vaguely resembles our dictator!'  But I knew you were smart enough to get passed it!”

“Heh.  Yeah.”  Twilight found herself laughing despite herself.  She felt a kind of relief now that that tense moment was over.  “I guess getting so worked up over something symbolic is a little silly when you consider it from the outside.”

“Well you can thank me some more for getting you to put that thing where it belongs later, dork.”  Dash gave Twilight a little shove, pushing her out from under her wing, before trotting deeper into Twilight's house.

Twilight didn't protest at being called a dork or getting shoved around a little anymore.  That was normal too, she'd heard that word so much it just bounced off her and she knew it was meant affectionatly, though she didn't like it like she did hugs.  At least not yet...

Slowly easing her in to the corruption.  Sometimes Twilight couldn't get Applejack or that book out of her head, but she quickly dismissed the idea.  Twilight had just gotten proof none of it wasn't true.

“Oh, and Twi?”  Dash backed up a little so she was face to face with Twilight.  She took off her glasses and gave Twilight a sinister, toothy smile.  “Before you get too cozy, you already invited me inside yesterday, didn't you?”

She said that in the creepiest way possible, enough that Twilight felt a chill.  The chill melted away second later as Dash let out a howl of laughter and collapsed back onto Twilight's couch.  She laughed in this cheesy 'evil' way that nopony could possibly take seriously.  Twilight growled a little.

“Dash!  You buc-”  Twilight froze.  She almost said it!

She didn't want to say any curse words, really!  It's just she was around these ponies and their constant cursing!  They constantly threw the b-word in front of things for no reason!  Sometimes it almost slipped out.

“What was that Twi?”  Dash smirked and leaned forward.  “Am I a bucking retard?  Or a bucking doofus?  Or a bucking-?”

“A b-bad prankster.”  Twilight made a bit of a derp face and looked away.

“Eh, we'll get you soon enough.  You'll be cursing like the rest of us before you know it.”  Dash winked.  “But for now we're gonna compare music, yeah?  That's all I'm trying to get you with tonight!”

Dash opened her bag and took out a half dozen records.

They agreed to let Twilight go first, so she took out one of her own records, assuring Dash that she was starting off slow and working up to the good stuff.  In truth, this was the best piece Twilight owned, considered the greatest musical masterpiece in all of history!  She just wanted to make sure Dash liked it is all.

The brilliant cords began to fill the room.  Dash sat on Twilight's couch, listening to Ancient Overture's fifth opera.  Twilight kept nervously glancing back at her, trying to gauge her reaction to the music, sweating so bad you'd think she was the one who wrote the opera.

Twilight was certain that the composed music of the true musical geniuses of history was far superior to modern music, even after hearing that one song Dash showed her.  It was simply that she wasn't used to power metal in the way she was used to classical music, Twilight concluded.  She had a strong reaction to that the same way she had a strong reaction to caffeine the first time she tried it.  Since Dash wasn't used to classical music, Twilight was certain she'd be blown away the moment she heard truly good music!

Dash's reaction didn't seem very positive.  She was listening a bit too closely, leaning her ear real close to the speaker, like she was listening to the mad ramblings of some crazed pony as they barfed out sentences that almost made sense but never actually meant anything.

Maybe she just didn't 'get' it.  Twilight knew that cultured music wasn't something that the uneducated could just listen to and enjoy.  You had to explain the music to them before they could fully appreciate it what with all its nuance.

“See, like this flute here.”  Twilight pointed at the record player as the 'toot toot toot' of the flute came through.  “This represents the regal heroism of Commander Hurricane.  The composer was very bold to put flutes in this, as nopony had ever put flutes in an opera before!  It was incredibly revolutionary, giving a strong political message to the democratic nationalists who dominated opera at the time.  Oh and listen to this harmonic progression!  Pretty great, huh?”

Dash leaned closer to the record player, then shook her head and sat back on the couch.

“That's supposed to sound heroic?”  Dash asked.  “Sorry, but I honestly don't hear it.  Sounds more like the guy's dragging his hooves on the way to work.”

“But it is very emotional!  It's just more balanced than the sharp contrasts of modern music!  A-and again, it's the harmonic progression that makes music great.”

“You want contrast?”  Dash pulled out one of her records and spun it on her hoof.  “Kay!  I'll show you what 'heroic' sounds like!”

And contrast there was.  This record shook the room, blasting the player as loud as it went.  Twilight couldn't name all the particular musical cues like in the music she was used to, but she could feel them!  It surged up her spine.  There was such intense emotion in it, the feeling was right there without having to research it out, it really was heroic.

Way more heroic sounding.  Twilight couldn't deny that.

“Way more heroic, huh, Twi?”

“No!”  Twilight denied it without thinking.

“Oh come on!  How do you like that other stuff better?”  Dash was jumping a little in tune with the heavy beat now.  “Come on!  Jump around with me!  It's more fun that way.”

“But like!”  Twilight stood still and followed Dash around the room with her eyes.  “It's too easy to 'get'!  I prefer the intellectual stimulation of the, uh, complexities of the harmonic progressions of the classical music.  And all that.”

“Sure ya do!”

Dash kept bobbing her head and pumping her hoof to the music.  Twilight needed some restraint to stop from bobbing in time with the music.  It was insane how powerful the beat was in Dash's music.

Even hyped up on this music, the nervousness wasn't entirely gone.  She'd failed to impress Dash!  Twilight had been so sure that the classical music would blow her away, but if anything the opposite was true.

“I guess maybe we just have different tastes in music,” Twilight assured herself.  “That's okay, right?  I mean, you wouldn't be mad at me or anything if I liked different music, right?”

Dash laughed wildly and hit Twilight's back a few times.  She stopped laughing when she saw how nervous Twilight still was.

“You're being serious aren't you.”  Dash leaned against the back of the couch again.  “Hey, I'd be a total bucking hypocrite if I told you what kind of music to listen to.  You wanna listen to that boring crap go right ahead!”

“But w-we're still friends even if I like different music, right?!”  Twilight jumped up onto the couch with her front hooves.  She really didn't want to lose her only friends over something like this.  

Dash patted Twilight on the head a few time and gave a roll of her eyes.

“Sheesh!  Relax already!”  Dash gave Twilight a little shove, pushing her off her own couch.  “We like you, okay?  You don't gotta freak out over everything.  Just be cool.  Like me!”

Right!  Cool!  According to Twilight's reading worrying too much and trying too hard could easily ruin a friendship.  That was certainly one of her main problems.

Twilight sat down and crossed her forelegs, imitating a pose she'd seen from Rainbow Dash plenty of times.

“There.”  Twilight smirked and raised one of her eyebrows.  “Cool.”

“Man, even sometimes I gotta admit you're adorable!”  Dash laughed and jumped off Twilight's couch.  “But seriously, Twi, we both know you like rock and roll better than that old stuff!  I can smell it.”

“What?  No!”  Twilight shook her head a bit too fast.  “I honestly just think there's more genius in the composition of the classics!  Really!”

“Hey, whatever you say!  But you'll feel a lot better once you admit to yourself that you like power metal now.”

Twilight tried to avoid eye-contact with Dash.  The main problem here was that Dash was right and Twilight knew it.  Twilight just wished Dash wasn't right.  She wished those three would be wrong about something even just once.

She felt like she was constantly resisting all these new feelings.  Just like Dash said, it was a huge relief any time she did give in, like a burden had been lifted from her.

Like, whenever they were right about something, which was pretty much always, Twilight got this intellectual stress, where she'd know she was clutching at straws and bringing up logical fallacies and bad evidence.  That stress just stuck with her until she finally gave up and admitted the others were right.  And it wasn't just the feeling of not having to struggle and be wrong that Twilight enjoyed, but what they replaced it with, too.

Hugs, candy, staying up all night with her friends, talking about intellectual stuff – these were some of the best things she had!  Sure it was awkward at first, but as Twilight relaxed and let it become normal these things became better and better.  That's how it was, the more she relaxed and accepted things the better she felt.

Rainbow Dash wanted Twilight to listen to crazy music and watch violent movies with her.  Rarity wanted Twilight to get spiky hair and read seditious books.  Pinkie wanted Twilight to start cursing, rough-housing and displaying affection in public like she just didn't care.  In every area, Twilight got that feeling of resistance, like she was holding her breath.  Some part of her deep down knew she wouldn't be able to resist forever, she'd need to take a breath eventually.  And once she did, Twilight would be a completely different pony.

The two of them listened to a lot more music that night, but through it all Twilight never mentioned her true feelings, only resisted them.

Later that night, so late it was early, Rainbow Dash and Twilight were trotting off towards town.  This was how Twilight usually found the others when she wanted to see them but didn't have any plans.  If she just started walking around at night, Pinkie would always, always find her before long.

Tonight was no different.  Pinkie jumped out of the bushes and yelled in Twilight's face.

“Invisible pink dreadstalker!”  Pinkie shouted.

Like a normal pony, Twilight let out a yelp and fell back, while Pinkie laughed and laughed.

“Oh, Twilight!”  Pinkie whipped a tear from her eye.  “How can something invisible be pink?  I can't believe you fell for that one.”

That was how Pinkie typically 'found' Twilight.  It was an annoying habit to be sure, but Twilight was starting to get used to it.  She vowed not to fall for that the next time.

Pinkie's uncanny ability to just appear whenver you wanted her was typically useful, at least.  Honestly, even the other two seemed perplexed by Pinkie's stealth.

Rarity wasn't far behind, as usual.  She came up much more slowly, walking with great dignity, a smile of controlled exctiment on her face.  Twilight couldn't help but smile back, it was hard not to smile whenever Rarity showed up.  Rarity was fun, there was no way Twilight could deny that.

She nodded at Twilight, then came up close to Rainbow Dash, looked into her eyes and gave Dash a kiss on the nose.  Twilight's smile weakened just a little.  She's seen Dash and Rarity kiss before, but they did it sparingly and everytime they did it made Twilight uncomfortable, or maybe just a little sad.  Twilight tried to ignore the feeling.

“It's nice having some alone time with Pinkie, but I always miss you.”  Rarity put her forhead against Dash's.  “You know how lonely I get without both of you around.”

“Aw, you get mushy too fast.”  Dash pulled away from Rarity and put her sunglasses on.  “What'd the two of you do, anyway?”

“I don't think I can tell you in front of Twilight.”  Rarity winked.

She plucked Pinkie up with her magic and pulled her over.  Pinkie was breifly disoriented for a moment before Rarity managed to snatch her up with her hooves instead.  Dash stepped back to give them some space.

It took Twilight a while to piece together what these three actually had going on, since Twilight always felt it too awkward to ask outright.  They weren't really in a three-way relationship, like she originally thought.  It was more like Rarity had two girlfriends, the other two were romantic with Rarity but not eachother.

Though even then, Twilight wasn't sure that was entirely accurate, just as close as she could get.  They were all very touchy feely with eachother, but that didn't seem to be necessarily a romantic thing.  Rarity had gone on a 'date' with each of them since Twilight met her, so there was obviously something there, unless dating was completely platonic to them as well.  Couple that with the fact that Rainbow Dash and Pinkie seemed perfectly fine with Rarity having a girlfriend in addition to them and it all shorted out Twilight's brain just a little.

Twilight had a small frown now as she watched Rarity cuddled Pinkie pretty hard, rubbing her muzzle against Pinkie's chest, Pinkie laughing.  That somewhat lonely feeling got worse.  She creeped her way over to Dash's side.

“Dash?”  Twilight looked at Dash through the corner of her eyes instead of facing her.  “Don't you ever, um, you know, get jealous?  When Rarity is like that with Pinkie, I mean.”

“Jealous?  Of what?”  Dash asked. “It's not like you can only kiss somepony twenty times and then you run out.”

“Well aren't you, uh.”  Twilight hesitated.  It was awkward, but she avoided asking this question for too long.  “Aren't you Rarity's girlfriend or something?  I mean, I just assumed since-  I could be wrong but, you know-  You three act weird and I don't get what you are.”

“Oh, Twilight.”  Rarity finished hugging Pinkie at the worst possible time and came closer to Twilight again.  “Relationships aren't these neat little things that you can give names to.  There's no reason to shove yourself into roles imagined by society like 'lover' or 'sister' or 'friend'.  Rainbow Dash and I can be all of those things at once.”

“But yes!”  Pinkie blurted out.  “We're both madly in love with Rarity!”

“Well I'm not going to give you a hard time about it,” said Twilight.  She knew if she tried Rarity would just run circles around her in argument and Twilight would be forced to admit there was nothing wrong with it.  “I guess I just don't understand.  Neither of you have a problem with Rarity dating another pony besides you?  I mean, I've never been in love but I'm sure if I was I'd be very jealousover this sort of thing.”

“What do you mean 'if'?”  Dash snickered.  “I bet you're the jealous one.  You probably wish you could be Rarity's girlfriend.”

“What?!”  Twilight staggered back several steps.  “No!  I'm straight!”

“Oh man!”  Dash laughed.  “You're so obvious, Twi!”

“Are you feeling left out, dear?” Rarity smiled at Twilight.  “You know, I bet you'd feel a lot better if I took you out to dinner and brought you back home with me.  Maybe if you begged nicely enough-”

“No!  Absolutely not!”  Twilight threw up her hooves in an X.  “I just said I was straight!  And I get enough physical contact as it is!  Too much, even!”

“Well you know,” Pinkie leaned in to Twilight.  “You can hug more than one pony at a time.”

“What?  No you can't!”

“I found a way,” Pinkie insisted.  “I call it a 'group hug'!  You want to give it a try?”

Group hug?  It was like they were constantly finding new ways to unnerve Twilight.

“That's too far even for me, Pinkie.”  Twilight pulled away.  “This is getting out of hand.  Anyway, I gotta get to work.  Guess I'll see you later.”

“Don't forget we're going with you.  The sun isn't up yet,” said Rarity, “and I'm not going to let you put yourself in danger by walking around alone.  Dreadstalker and all.”

Twilight nodded.  In some ways it was a little embarrassing, needing to be escorted to work every day, but it was for the best.  Besides, Twilight enjoyed chatting with them on the way.

“And don't think I'm gonna let you be lonely!”  Pinkie jumped to Twilight's side and pressed up against her.  “Don't worry, I'm not giving you any personal space until we get there.”

And Pinkie stayed at Twilight's side, close enough they were touching, the whole way.  It wasn't like Twilight could stop her, Pinkie's attempts to slowly erode Twilight's sense of personal space was going well, it was just that Twilight couldn't help but wish it was Rarity next to her as they went.

Before going, Rarity came two inches in front of Twilight and wrapped a forleg around the back of Twilight's neck.  She moved in ever so slowly, lips slightly apart, her mouth coming closer and closer to Twilight's.  She was leaning in for a kiss!  Twilight froze, unsure if she should stop it or not.

Then Rarity kissed her own hoof, and blew Twilight a point blank kiss.  Without another word, Rarity trotted away, giggling.

Talk about mixed messages.  Twilight sighed and went into the Pony/11.  Now Rarity was going to be stuck in her head all day again, probably exactly what that mare wanted.  Sometimes Twilight felt like Rarity was trying to turn her into a lesbian or something.

Twilight tried to change her mind, so she could focus on work if nothing else.  Another thing stuck in her head was the music Dash had shown her, so she hummed a little tune as she came into work.  Another one of her coworkers was punching in just then too, rubbing her sleepy eyes and yawning, while Twilight wasn't the least bit tired.  Her coworkers were always so sluggish and slow when they first got in.  Daywalkers, you know?

She was supposed to get there an hour before the store actually opened every day to get things in order.  Today a bunch of decorations for Nightmare Night had arrived and Twilight was tasked with putting them up.  The manager had taken notice of Twilight's knack for organization and relatively high amounts of energy, so she was always given these kinds of tasks.

So things were going as well as they could for a low-end job.

Still, the work here was mind-numbingly bland, Twilight had actually grown to like it when somepony crazy showed up just to break the monotony, and crazy ponies did show up from time to time.  But for the most part, nothing actually happened.  It was boring, really horrible boring, especially when you compared it to the crazy nights before.

And then Applejack showed up.

Applejack was the bane of Twilight's existence!  Well, no that was too strong, but she was annoying.  Applejack was always showing up, criticizing every new thing Twilight tried, always talking about vampires, warning Twilight about all the horrible things Rarity would do to her one day.

Oh, and she was always telling Twilight she wasn't good enough to hang out with those three.  Twilight wasn't sure if that was true or not, to be honest, but she still felt like Applejack shouldn't rub it in so much.  Twilight was trying to be more confident, you know?  She didn't want constant reminders of how terrible she was.

“What do you want, Applejack?”  Twilight moaned and shoved a plastic bat onto its shelf a bit more harshly than the poor bat deserved.

“Dropping off some apples.”  Applejack raised an eyebrow and motioned to a cart sitting outside, then took a sales form   “You know?  Same thing I always do.”

Same thing she always did.  Twilight decided to start a little game with herself, one called 'how long till Applejack starts complaining about vampires and every little thing Twilight did?'  The title could use some work, granted.

“You're sure you don't have any complaints about me today?  Hm?”  Twilight shoved the remaing bats onto the shelf and moved on to the cheap, plastic spiders.

“I got a job, too,” said Applejack.  “Though now that you mention it, yeah.  That little 'tune' you were humming was rock and roll, right?  That stuff leads ponies to kill, Twilight.”

“It does not!  Argh!”  Twilight snatched the sales form from Applejack and started filling it out as fast as she could.  “Just leave it next to the other boxes and go.”

Applejack brought the apples inside and left them next to the boxes of Nightmare Night stuff like Twilght asked.  She carefully eyed the boxes with a curious surprise.

“Nightmare Night stuff?”  Applejack raised an eyebrow.  “But it's the first of August!  That's a bit too early in my opinion.  Guess I'll have to start extra early this year, too.”

“You celebrate Nightmare Night?”  Twilight looked up from her paper in surprise.  “You don't think it's like Nightmare Moon's birthday or something?”

“Only ignorant ponies think that.  I know it really commemorates Princess Celestia's triumph over her wicked sister!  Shoot, we love Nightmare Night so much that me and my family always run a haunted corn maze every year,” said Applejack.  “It's the best time you can have on Nightmare Night here in Ponyville.”

“I always wanted to try one of those,” said Twilight, “but my parents always said they were too spooky for me.”

“Well you're on your own now.  Nothing stopping you from going to as many haunted corn mazes as you want,” said Applejack.  “Cept maybe that there's only the one in Ponyville.”

Nightmare Night.  With friends!  Twilight couldn't help but smile.

“I can't wait for this years Nightmare Night!  This will be the first time I get to have real non-parental friends for once!”  Twilight threw one of the spiders up in the air and grabbed it on its way down, locking it in a tight hug.  “I bet those three love Nightmare Night, what with their love of dark stuff.  Oh!  We're going to go to haunted houses and Nightmare Nighting and we can tell ghost stories and watch scary movies like Ghost Slide!  I can't remember the last time I was this excited for a holiday that's three months away!”

“Nightmare Nighting?  Ghost Slide?”  Applejack cringed.  “How old are you again?  Cause I'm pretty sure Ghost Slide is for little fillies.”

“I guess it sort of is, but even though it's rated G my parents would never let me see it cause it has a ghost in it.”  Twilight blushed a little.  “You know, now that I'm on my own, sometimes I feel like maybe I was just a little bit over-sheltered”

“Fine, I get that you were a little bit smothered.  But you gotta grow up now and leave kids stuff like cartoons behind,” said Applejack.

“Pinkie says there's nothing wrong with liking 'kid's stuff' and that it's not the same as acting like a foal.  It's perfectly okay for me to watch cartoons or go Nightmare Nighting if I want to because society just arbitrarily decided those things were only for foals.”

Applejack groaned and rubbed her face into her hoof.

“Pinkie is a delinquent and a hedonist,” said Applejack.  “And – I know you don't like talking about this, but how can you not see that your 'friends' are just-?”

“There's no such thing as vampires!”  Twilight slammed one of the boxes down.  “Will you just stop it with that already?”

“Look, let's just pretend those three aren't even vampires for a second,” said Applejack.

“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea,” said Twilight, “except instead of a second lets make it fifty years, okay?”

“Even then,”  Applejack continued, ignoring Twilight, “they're still manipulating you.  Do you really not get that Rarity is just using you?”

“Using me?  What makes you think that?”

“Like what makes you think they'd even want to hang out with you, huh?”  Applejack asked.  “Some shy, nerdy type with no social skills rolls up into town and they want to shower you with attention, hang around you every night, spend all this time slowly bringing you out of your shell?  I get why you act like a filly, but you really think those three are the understanding type?  That they'd waste their time on somepony like you?”

“That's kind of rude.”  Twilight blew some air out of her nose.  “But yeah, I asked them that same thing.  They said that I'm open minded and intelligent enough to give them and their, uh, activities a chance.  And I am!  That's what makes me 'cool', for your information.”

“Asking questions isn't gonna get anypony anywhere.  All it does is undermine the harmony of society.”

“See?”  Twilight raised her chin.  “And that's why you don't get to hang out with Rarity!  Because you're not cool like I am.”

Applejack rolled her eyes.

“Okay, well if I'm such a loser then why would they bother with me at all, huh?  I'm sure they could get a pony a hundred times better than me.”

“That's not what I meant.  Maybe that came out a bit harsh, but-”

“Answer the question!”

“The fact that you're vulnerable,” said Applejack.  “You ain't got nopony or nothing!  Same as Pinkie was.  All Rarity needs to do is waltz on over, give you the least bit of attention and next thing you know you're eating out of her hooves, completely dependent on her for all your love!  And that's exactly how it is, ain't it?  You stay out all night with them, far away from other ponies, laughing the night away about how stuck in our ways the rest of us are.”

“Maybe I am spending a lot of time with them, but it's not like they're keeping me away from my other friends,”  Twilight grumbled.  “I didn't even have any before them.”

Applejack looked down at the ground, momentarily distraught.

“Well, hey!  You can go out and make other friends, right?  Ones who won't be a bad influence on you!  Not to mention won't turn you into a mindless puppet.  In fact, If you want you can come over to my place for supper tonight!  If it'd stop you from turning into a vampire then I'd be glad to-”

“Oh?  But I thought I was so boring and socially inept that nopony would ever want to be my friend!”  Twilight turned back to her spiders, shelving them rapidly as she spoke.  “That's the entire premise of your argument.  By your own logic you must be a vampire trying to suck my blood too.  What are you trying to get out of me?”

“All I want is for there to not be a fourth blood-sucking, homicidal maniac in town.”

“Well then maybe you should be over at the law offices instead.”  Twilight smirked.

Applejack stared at Twilight like she had just started speaking in an entirely different language.

“Cause like- lawyers!  They're blood-”  Twilight blushed and quickly turned away from Applejack, back to her boxes.  “Look!  I'm still a cool pony in training, okay?  I already have plans for tonight, plans with my friends.  You got your form signed so just go back to your job, okay?  Plese?”

“Fine, but let me just ask you one more thing,” said Applejack.  “Don't you think its suspicious nopony's seen this dreadstalker that's been terrorizing the town?  Why do you think that is?”

“Um, maybe because dreadstalkers are invisible?  That's literally what the word means, you know.  Nopony has ever seen a live dreadstalker so chances are they won't see this one either.  What are you, retar-”

Twilight's heart stopped beating.  She almost cursed, in public, in front of Applejack.  It was bad enough when she almost swore in front of her friends, but in front of other ponies it was like being caught in public with your socks on!

“What did you just say?”  Applejack narrowed her eyes.  Whatever she was about to say about the dreadstalker was already forgotten.

“I didn't say it!”  Twilight turned in some other direction.

“You almost did.”  Applejack forced her way into Twilight's view.  “You really don't see what a bad influence those ponies are?  They have you nearly cursing yourself without even meaning to!”

“Well-!”

“Well what?”

Twilight choked on nothing.  She didn't have an answer to that.  There were some things about hanging out with those three that Twilight honestly wasn't comfortable with and this was one of them.  Applejack had a point.  Twilight hated it when other ponies had a point, which was far too often these days.  She was used to it with Rarity, but not with Applejack.  That pobably meant something.

“Look, I got a lot of Nightmare Night stuff to organize!”  Twilight focused all of her effort on taking plastic skulls out from a box and stacking them neatly on the rack.

“Even if you don't want to spend time with me, spend time with somepony else.  Anypony other than those three.  There's plenty of ponies in this town your age!  Ones who won't make you curse like it ain't nothing, and believe me that's still just the start, Twilight.”

Twilight didn't turn around to look at Applejack, instead focusing on her plastic skulls.  Applejack must have felt the point was made, because a moment later Twilight heard the door open and close.  Twilight let out a sigh of relief, but truth be told her mind was anything but at ease.

Maybe Twilight was growing sour on Applejack in general, but she did have a point.  Twilight liked her friends, but they were... maybe a bad influence in some ways.  There was no reason Twilight couldn't have other friends besides them, friends that might be a bit more moral, who wouldn't curse or question the princess.

And she did have options, too!  Rarity had introduced her to several ponies during that party on Twilight's first night.  Actually a lot of those ponies would be going to school with her in a few months.  It might be a good idea to go talk to some of them either way.

She thought back and tried to remember their names, but forgot most of them.  Had it seriously only been a few weeks?  It felt like that happened to Twilight in a past life or something.  Twilight did remember Thunderlane, at least.  She had his address written down somewhere in her house, too.

But was she seriously going to go over to a colt's house and just knock on the door?  A thrill of excitement ran down Twilight's spine.  Yes!  These past weeks had been good in some ways, at least.  Twilight wasn't nearly as scared about talking to ponies now.  She was much more bold than the old Twilight who would have just shouted 'nope' and locked herself inside at the thought of it.

With that resolve, Twilight went looking for his address.

Twilight walked up to Thunderlane's house.  At least, she hoped it was his house.  If it wasn't – well Twilight had played ding-dong-ditch enough times to know what to do in that situation.

So she took note of the best escape route, braced herself and knocked on the door.  She still didn't know exactly what she'd say if and when he answered.  Hopefully it wouldn't be too stupid.  Twilight felt a lot more confident in her social skills now, so this shouldn't be too hard!

Thunderlane answered just moments later.  Suddenly all of that confidence faltered.  For a very brief moment, Twilight was back to her old self, the Twilight that couldn't approach another pony on her own, didn't really even want to.  She got a sudden urge to just turn tail and bolt, but no, she had to be brave, just like her friends taught her to be.

“Hey, Thunderlane.  Do you remember me?”  Twilight just blurted the words out.  She smiled and pointed to herself.

Thunderlane stared at Twilight for a moment, clearly not remembering her.  It made sense, they hadn't spoken in like a month.

“Oh!”  Realization suddenly came to his face.  “You're, uh Sunset Shimmer, right?”

“Twilight Sparkle.  We met at the party!  Rarity, erm, ordered you to dance with me?”  That did sound a little awkward when you said it out loud.  Twilight swallowed hard and continued on, scraping the ground with her hoof between every word.  “I was, um, wondering if, uh, maybe you wanted to maybe do something?  Or something?”

“You mean like with Rarity?”  Thunderlane asked.  “I dunno.  I'll go to one of you guys' parties but going out alone with you four is-”

“Us four?”  Twilight blinked.

“Everypony says you've been hanging around them a lot is all.”  Thunderlane shrugged.  “I figured they let you into the gang.”

Twilight smiled.  She did like the thought that she was part of the 'gang', it gave her this warm kind of feeling to know she was seen as part of something.  But then here she was, trying to not get sucked into said gang.  And the smile faded at that thought.

“And like, no offense, but I don't want to get involved with any gangs, or be around all that swearing.”  Thunderlane shook his head.  “And honestly I have no idea how you manage to stay up every night without collapsing, or not get sick from all that candy.  So like, no offense, but no thanks.”

“Actually I was thinking maybe I could do something with you, but not Rarity and the others?”  Twilight asked.  “Like just the two of us.  Alone.”

“Like a date?”  Thunderlane raised an eyebrow.

Twilight blushed heavily.  Of course that's what it would look like!  How did Twilight not realize that's what it would look like?  She tried to say something, but the words turned to 'dyuh's on her toungue.

“I kind of recently hooked up with Raindrops, actually,” said Thunder.

“Oh good!”  Twilight let out a sigh of relief.

Thunderlane's look just kept getting more perplexed.

“I didn't mean to ask you out,” said Twilight.  “I just wanted to hang out with somepony other than those three.”

“Ah.  They finally got to you, huh?”  Thunderlane chuckled to himself.  “Like I said, they throw great parties, but you don't really want to hang around them too much.  I guess you noticed they're uh, not good company, yeah?”

Twilight didn't want to answer that.  Her first instinct was to defend them, that's what she did when Applejack badmouthed them, but again she remembered that the whole reason she came here was because she was worried they were a bad influence.  Instead she just frowned at her whole situation.

“I got a couple of ponies over right now,” said Thunderlane.  “If you wanna come in that's fine with me!”

“Yeah thanks!”  Twilight nodded and followed him inside.

Turned out it was just Thunderlane and two other mares, both pegasi.

“Hey.”  Thunderlane gestured over to Twilight.  “This is Twilight, dunno if you remember her.  It's alright if she hangs with us, right?”

“Sure,” said Raindrops.  Twilight recognized that one.  “And yeah, I remember you!  I heard you fell in with Rarity's crowd, though.”

“Yeah,” said Thunderlane, “but she realized they weren't really the right crowd.  She decided she'd rather hang out with normal ponies.”

Twilight didn't remember going that far with it.

“I can understand that.  What were they making you do?”  Raindrops asked.

“They weren't really making me do anything,” said Twilight.  “We'd just listen to music, go see cool places, talk about philosophy and books and stuff.  You know, try a bunch of new things.”

“Yeah.”  Raindrops nodded knowingly.  “That sounds like their normal tricks.  Sometimes they try to make you do that kind of stuff.  Those three are pretty sketchy if you ask me.”

Sketchy?  Well maybe they were a little.  From the sound of it, they did occasionally invite other ponies over like they did Twilight.  They did it with Pinkie Pie, if nothing else.  Twilight had never bothered getting a third party perspective on what happened with Pinkie.  She trusted Rarity over Applejack, but still wanted to be absolutely sure.

“Can I ask you something about them?”  Twilight asked.  “It's just that I heard a rumor that they convinced Pinkie to run away from home and-”

Thunderlane chuckled.

“Nah.  Pinkie didn't need anyone to convince her to run away from home,” said Thunderlane.  “She used to do that all the time!  She'd ask people if she could live in their tree houses, always wanted to have a sleepover, and stuff like that.  It happened so often that it became a sort of joke among the other kids.”

“Other kids?  Did you go to school with Pinkie?”

“I used to go to school with Pinkie, sure,” said Thunderlane.  “She used to run away from home from time to time and be absent from school for a while, but the police or whoever would always bring her back to her parents.  Well, that's what I heard anyway, never really knew her too well, you know?  Anyway, I guess there's an age where they won't bring you back to your parents anymore and I think she ended up homeless for a couple months or something.”

“I remember there was this whole thing with her living under the bridge on the edge of town,” said Raindrops.  “A bunch of ponies wanted to run her out of town or something.  But then I guess Rarity adopted her or whatever.  Never saw her without those other two after that.”

Well that all but confirmed that Applejack had been out and out lying to Twilight.  It was a bit of a relief to know that her new friends weren't nearly that sinister, though.

“Heh.  You know Applejack was pegging them as some kind of cult,” said Twilight.  “Guess that was nonsense though, right?”

“Well actually, there are some rumors going on about them,” said Thunderlane.   “There's some suspicious, mysterious things going on with those three.  Some ponies say, and with good reason mind you, that those three are, you know...”

Thunderlane glanced both ways and leaned forward to whisper the word in Twilight's ear, as if he were about to pass on dire information.  Maybe it wasn't just Applejack who suspected them, then.

“Lesbians,” Thunderlane whispered.

Twilight staggered back.  She was not expecting to hear that!  “W-what?”

“Think about it,” he said.  “They're all touchy feely with each other and they never hang out with any colts.  Heck, ask any colt in town and they'll tell you those three are the prettiest mares in town, no offense, but not one of them has a coltfriend.  Very suspicious if you ask me.”

“Well I can pretty much confirm they're lesbians,” said Twilight, “but it's not like there's anything wrong with that!  Even Celestia says some ponies are just born that way.”

“Sure,” said Raindrops.  “I'm absolutely okay with it, I just need to keep track of who's dating who, you know?  It's an obsession of mine!  Oh!  But which one's of them are dating, hm?  It sounded like you knew!”

The correct answer to that was that Pinkie and Rainbow Dash were both dating Rarity.  Twilight knew that was something they'd have a problem with, though.  Even Twilight had a problem with it at first.  She may have gotten used to their weird relationship, but was still embarrased to bring it up, knowing there'd be backlash against it.

“Rainbow Dash and Rarity are like a couple,” Twilight said.  That was technically true.

“Opposites,” said Thunderlane.

“Oh? And what about Pinkie?  Was she hitting on you?”  Raindrops asked.

“No,” said Twilight, “I just, uh, get the feeling she's a lesbian.  It's gaydar, you know?”

“Well you know who else I think is gay?”  Raindrops asked the others.  “Bramble.”

Twilight didn't know who bramble was.  To her dismay, the conversation went down a path Twilight couldn't follow, knowing only like five of the ponies in this town.  Twilight really had no idea who or what they were talking about for a solid half hour.  They just went on and on about rumors about all the other ponies in town.  They sure liked to gossip.

Maybe if Twilight committed to it, she would be able to follow what they were saying, but even then she didn't care too much for hearing about everypony's secrets and all that.  So that was two reasons she didn't say anything for what was almost an hour now.

And as they kept talking, Twilight picked up more and more little things about them that irked her.  Like every now and then one of them would say something like-

“I just love strawberries so much.”  Raindrops or whoever would say, but with no real emotion.

It was hard to pinpoint, but the way they said it just sounded so fake, so inauthentic compared to how she'd gotten used to the others acting.  It almost made her want to cringe.

They were boring.  Twilight came to that realization.  This whole thing was boring!  Even more boring than her job!  Twilight was starting to get annoyed at how boring it was, really.  She could be asleep right now, you know.

But she remembered something Pinkie said.  If you were bored then it was partially your fault, because you weren't trying hard enough to have fun.  You have to put effort and passion into it!  That was the only way you'd have fun, and if you didn't you'd end up being inauthentic.

Maybe she just needed to turn the subject away from gossip.

“Uh, hey!”  Twilight blurted out a bit suddenly.  Maybe too suddenly, as they were all looking at her now.  But then again, that was what she wanted.  “So uh, Raindrops, what are you into?”

“Ah, you know.”  Raindrops shrugged.

“No I don't.  That's why I asked.”  Twilight chuckled and so did Raindrops, probably for different reasons.  “Like, do you read?”

“Not really.”

“Really?  Not even Daring Do?  It's really popular these days!”

“No.”  Raindrops shook her head.  “But I guess I heard of it.”

“Oh, but I think Clear Skies is really into those.”  Thunderlane tipped his drink in the other pegasus mare's direction.

“It's true, I'm such a nerd.”  and she laughed.  “I've seen both of the movies.”

The movies?  Well that was good enough!  Twilight could talk about Daring Do for hours even with just that much.  Time to impress Clear Skies with her encyclopedic knowledge of the books!

“Ah, well did you hear that theory that Ahuizotl is actually a chimera created by Underdrome labs?”  Twilight knew she'd get a kick out of that one.

“Owi-who?”  Clear Skies raised her eyebrow.

“Ahuizotl!  He was- he was like the main villain of the first movie!”  Twilight stared in disbelief.

“Oh.  That pegasus guy?”

“No!  That was Caballeron!  Ahuizotl was like the monster thing!”

Clear Skies had to think about it for a moment.

“Oh yeah.  I think I remember that thing.”

“You think?  But he was like, a huge part of the movie.  How do you not remember him if you're a huge fan of it?”

“I guess I'm not that much of a nerd.”  Clear Skies rolled her eyes.  “Seriously, who'd read a book instead of just going to the movie?”

“Yeah, looks like now Twilight's the biggest nerd here,” said Thunderlane.

They all laughed, possibly at Twilight, she wasn't sure.  Her heart started beating faster again.

Was their something wrong with Clear Skies?  Was she stupid?  But then they were treating her like she was the normal one here.  Twilight decided there was no hope for that pony.  None at all.

“Okay, well do you like music?”  Twilight asked Raindrops instead.

“I listen to it, but I'm not really 'into' music.”

“What about sports?”  Twilight asked. “Or art or, uh, crossword puzzles?”

Just one subject!  One thing and Twilight would be able to have an actual conversation with this pony.  She knew enough about everything that it didn't even matter what subject it was!

“Nope.”  Raindrops laughed.  “I'm just kind of normal, you know?”

Normal?

“Well there has to be something you're interested in.”  Twilight's laugh was just a little unhinged that time.  “History, math, science, anything?”

“I don't know anything about history or science and honestly I don't want to!”  Raindrops snickered.

Thunderlane made sounds of agreement and pumped his hoof in the air.

“Yeah, me neither,” said Thunderlane.  “Like seriously.  DNA?  Planets?  Who cares, am I right?  It's not like any of that is actually useful.”

“Basically what I know about history, literature, math and all that is exactly nothing!”  Clear Skies said with a proud smirk.  “The number zero is all I need to get out of math, you know to count up to how much I care about all that 'book smarts'.  Yeah, I'll take common sense instead, thanks!”

And then they laughed.  Were they proud of their ignorance?!  Twilight bit her tongue and trotted away.  That was the end of that conversation.

Still, Twilight resolved not to give up that easily.

“Hey, how about we do something?”  Twilight looked around for any sense of interest.

“We're already hanging out.  Raindrops shrugged.

“No, like play a game or something.”

“A game?”  Thunderlane gave Twilight a painful look.  “We're not foals, Twilight.  We don't play games.”

“Well we could play like an adult game.”  The others just scoffed at that idea.  “No, really!  There's lots of games that are fun!  And even if you don't want to play a game there's so many other things we could do.  Don't any of you want to try something new?  Like, how will you know you don't like playing a game unless you try it?”

“Sheesh, you really have been hanging around those three a lot.”  Thunderlane shook his head.  Twilight could tell he was getting annoyed with this.  “Look, even if we did want to play tag or something – it's just not something adults do, okay?  It's too kiddy!”

“Well maybe there's nothing wrong with being a little bit like them,” said Twilight.  “Maybe they do go too far on some things, but they still have a lot of good ideas!  Like, who says we need to put ourselves in these boxes, deciding what we do based on our demographic?  Huh?”

“Celestia?  I'm pretty sure Celestia wants us in those 'boxes'.”  Clear Skies snarked.  “What's your problem anyway?  We were having a great time till you decided to bring all this up!”

“My problem?!  Well Celestia doesn't have to be right about everything!  And we don't necessarily have to do what she wants us to.  Right?”

That line they didn't like.  One of them glared at her, one of them shook their head in disgust and the other covered their face with their hoof in disappointment.

“See,” said Raindrops,  “this is why we don't normally let your little gang around us.  Rarity and the others are freaks who like acting like little kids and breaking the rules for no reason.  And if you're like them, then you're bad news.”

“Well they're a lot more fun than you!  And nicer too!  And smarter and they even smell better!  I think they're right to question Celestia because otherwise you end up like, well like you!”

“I think maybe you should go, Twilight,” said Thunderlane.

“Yeah?”  Twilight stood up.  “Well you can't think I should go because I'm already going!”

And with that she started marching towards the door.

“That doesn't make any sense!”  Thunderlane called after her.  All the other mares laughed at that for some reason.

“Hey, look!  I'm still doing my coolness training, okay?!”  Twilight threw the door open and turned around to face the other ponies.  “But next time you get a comeback from me you're all gonna be like 'oh snap'.”

And then Twilight slammed the door shut on them all.  She wished she'd been just slightly faster, though, as she heard even more laughter just before closing those ponies off.

Whelp!  One bridge burned.  Good riddance, though.

You know, this was probably the real reason Twilight was never interested in making friends.  She just never met the right type till coming to Ponyville.  'Normal' ponies were not the kind she liked hanging around with, that was true back then and it was true now.

Twilight was glad she came here if only because it made her realize that.  It was so obvious!  Your average pony was just so boring and dense.  She needed the excitement and challenge that Rarity and her gang gave her.  That was where Twilight belonged and that was where she'd go instead of wasting her time here.

And she was supposed to go meet them in the woods tonight.  There was no way Twilight was going to miss that now.  But first there was something she needed to get.