Twilight Sparkle, M.D.
Ponyville Hospital, Day 27, noon

Perhaps I’m better at magic than I thought.

This is what I tell myself as I watch everypony freeze all around me. I’m not sure if they’ve heard what I’ve said or not, but with any luck, that’s all it is. Just some sudden magical surge, something I haven’t had for years, but something that at least makes more sense than this whole spectacle.

Everypony here is trapped in time. The closer they are to me, the more potent the spell is.

It sounds like one of my brother’s old shows, but somehow, it’d explain everything. It’d be better, at least, than the truth. That love really is a spell, a secret one that ponies like me aren’t supposed to share, and I blew the whole operation by blabbing it. I was so close to keeping it hidden forever, keeping it locked and at bay, and here I am.

“What did you just say?” Scarlet finally asks.

And just like that, the illusion cracks all around me. There’s no longer a point to keeping all of this inside, and with any luck, Flim and Flam will keep any doctors from watching this too closely. As long as everypony in this break room focuses on their patients instead of being insufferable gossips, everything will be fine.

But somehow, I still can’t own up to it, even if the facts are pointing me that way. Even if I wanted to. Which, of course, Equestria knows I do.

“Forget it,” I mutter, imagining myself pulling the plug on the whole thing. Imagining everything I’ve ever heard about how awkward office relationships are, how much things like this tear you away from your job. Wanting more, but knowing I can’t have it.

As I say it, I can almost hear the whirring sound stage lights make when they turn off. Hopefully, she’ll be able to hear the same thing, and I can go back to what I do best. Furthering medicine, making discoveries, and staying away from as many ponies as I can.

“I got a bit too emotional back there and said things that I maybe didn’t mean. Sleep deprivation can do that to you, you know. Which is why we should both get a good night’s sleep tonight and forget all this ever happened.”

I chuckle nervously for good measure, thinking that maybe Scarlet will start to see this as a joke and trot away. But somehow, she stays frozen in front of me, staring into my eyes without coming any closer. My romantic vision kicks in for the slightest of moments, imagining her luscious mane hanging down for everypony to see, blowing in the wind, giving me that same distant look.

“So what?” she asks me. “I’ve seen ponies say a lot of weird things when they’re delirious. But you expect me to believe they’d start confessing their love to everypony they see? I may be below you, but I’m not that stupid.”

Her voice is terrifyingly undecipherable, and this is coming from a pony who’s never really feared anything. That last part, though, is enough to send an arrow through my back. Even after everything I’ve said, she still believes in these rankings, which could have been made by some idiot with a checkboard for all I care. She’s tuned everything else out except the last thing I’d wanted her to hear.

I test this theory, as I test everything, and find out that it’s true. I tell her, over and over, that isn’t true, but she still continues on with it. Little by little, she keeps pushing me away from my lie and towards the truth. A truth that, I come to realize, she might never accept even if I wanted her to.

Just a few weeks ago, if I’d told her all this, I would’ve been afraid she’d use it as blackmail material, and now I fear something else entirely. That I’ll turn myself into a fool for her, and she’ll be the only one who ever knows.

“You know that’s not what I meant,” I whisper as I dial up the awkward act. “I used the wrong words to say it. What I meant was I’m really starting to warm up to you. As a coworker, or maybe a friend. What I just said was a griffon saying before ponies started using it, and they’d kinda say it all the time for friends. Since they’re always in the sky so much, ‘I’m falling for you’ can mean that they have somepony to keep them down to earth. Except we ponies didn’t really understand it when it came to our language, so we...just started using it...for lovers. And that’s why I said it!”

Telling that story is an exercise in and of itself, and so by the time I’m done, sweat’s rolling down my fur, and my throat’s as dry as it’s ever been. On top of that, I swear that the more Scarlet’s eyes narrow, the more choked my voice gets. It’s almost like she’s strangling me with my words.

Even then, the minute I say that last sentence, I immediately regret it. Because I’ve known Scarlet long enough to know exactly what she’s going to do.

“So you did mean it like that,” she muttered. “You’re falling for me as more than a friend.”

With a raise of her eyebrow, she whispered, “As only ponies can.”

I inch away from her as quickly as I can, and she chuckles a little. Apparently, she only said that and got up close so she could get a rise out of me, but everything’s so tense that I feel afraid of everything. Still, though, I’m not able to get away from her completely, and for the first time in awhile, just seeing her face makes me uncomfortable.

“It’s not something that I’m supposed to feel, okay?” I finally tell her. “We’re the best doctors this town has. We have to stay focused all the time, or somepony dies for it. And even if ponies like us can afford the time to fall in love. Plus, in case you’ve forgotten, we used to hate each other. This isn’t something that should be happening.”

Just like that, the room freezes again for the slightest of moments before returning back to normal. But the minute all that comes out of my mouth, I begin to fear that I’ve broken something else, something greater.

Maybe we’ll hate each other again by the time all this is over.

“I don’t think this is something we should talk about here,” Scarlet says. Even as she talks, I can still feel her sizing me up, wondering just how much of a fool I really am.

And then, even as she gives me that weird sort of half-glare, she gives me my saving grace, too.

“Sugarcube Corner should still be open when our shifts are over. So why don’t you tell me everything there?”

As everypony around me leaves for their next patients, I feel a weight coming off my body. Yet I know exactly what she’s going to want in the next few hours, and that should be enough to make me squirm even more.

“I do mean everything,” I hear her say as she leaves the room. As she leaves me alone to think about just what I’ve done.

Twilight Sparkle, M.D.
Ponyville Hospital, Day 27, late night

Time finally speeds up again, even if I have to see patient after patient with weird cider-related digestive problems. And, while I realize that “working my flank off” is not a healthy defense mechanism in any sense of the word, it’s the only way I really have to keep myself together now.

Still, even as I sift through ponies with some of the worst vomiting spells I’ve ever seen, I can’t help but wonder what got into me back there. At this point, I’ve surrendered myself to the idea that somepony injected me with truth serum while I was sleeping last night, or whatever in Tartarus made me so damn honest today. But, even though I’ve considered the pros and cons of being with Scarlet several times, I still have no idea why I shoved her away like that. Sure, it’s how I treat everypony else, but she’s supposed to be different. Romance is supposed to be different.

As the office finally closes for the evening, and the night-shift emergency care ponies start showing up, I think two things to myself. One, I’ll never understand love. And two, I never want to see a rock in a trash can, in a toilet, or in any combination of the two, ever again.

And so, with the Flim Flam cases over and done, I trot over to Sugarcube Corner, feeling surprisingly good about myself. Running away from your problems can do that to you, or to me, at least. Otherwise, I would’ve just skipped out, told Scarlet I’d accidentally drank an unlabeled sample of tainted cider, and cut my losses. But still, I find myself heading towards the second-most dangerous eating establishment in Ponyville.

Actually, considering Dash’s place burned to the ground not long ago, and Sugarcube Corner has yet to experience any real cataclysmic disasters, it’s probably third. Then again, from what I’ve heard, no place is really completely safe in Ponyville. The villagers all accept this with an optimistic sense of nihilism, and I think it’s starting to rub off on me.

As I approach the building, I take a few deep breaths, build myself up, and assure myself that Scarlet and I will probably be the only ponies in a bakery at this hour. There might be a few cops around if I’m especially unlucky, but judging from how little I’ve seen them around, they probably won’t pay us too much attention.

Get it together, Sparkle, I tell myself one last time before pushing the door open with exaggerated bravado.

Sure enough, I figure out once I see the place, it is literally impossible to stress out inside Sugarcube Corner. Even in the dead of night, the wallpaper is so outlandishly bright that it practically sends a smile through my brain waves. On top of that, the furniture and decor have been specifically picked to imitate whatever town candy store your mind might conjure. It’s basically like the science fiction radio shows my brother used to watch, except this time, it’s the good kind of traveling through time.

In true Ponyville fashion, I walk straight up to the counter and order the most sugary thing they have: “unicorn-inspired” hot chocolate (whatever that entails) with a Prench-style cotton candy macaron. I figure with the way the ponies I know talk about this place, it’s best to lean towards the most unhealthy option possible. In any case, I pick Scarlet out from the one occupied table and prepare myself for more awkwardness. Judging from the stare she’s giving me, I can’t help but wonder just how hard this is going to be on both of us.

“Um,” I finally mutter, half to myself. “That pep talk really got out of hoof, didn’t it?”

She blinks as if realizing that was what I’d meant to do after all. Before the whole thing derailed, all she had to do was talk to me about Starlight, and everything would be over. But instead, something entirely different had emerged.

With a quick whisper, she says, “I wanted to talk to you on neutral ground. I figured the cafeteria would be the best place for that, but judging from how nervous you got, this probably would’ve been a better place anyway. I’m usually the only one here at this hour.”

She bites into a strange cupcake as she says this, beige in color and covered with little black dots. I’m about to ask if it’s really made out of cookie dough before I realize that I’m trying to dodge the situation again. If anything’s going to come out of this, I have to address it at the root, even if I don’t particularly want to.

“So unless you’re going to tell me another griffon story, I’d like to hear what was really on your mind when you said that. How would you explain it if you knew nopony in the world was watching?”

The explanation would be the same, I think. Even though it’s something I want, nothing about this relationship made any sense. What would happen if I had to move back to Canterlot? What would happen if I ever wanted to advance in my job, even in Ponyville? What would happen if it turned out I was holding Scarlet back? What would happen if we weren’t meant to be together?

What if? What if? What if?

A tiny light turns on in my brain, even though I know it can’t possibly be there. It’s that one little part of me other ponies don’t believe exists, the part of me that’s supposed to have a heart. I’d turned it off without even thinking about it for years, letting logic and reason dictate my body in its place. I’d gotten pretty far without it, but suddenly that’s not enough. I should be allowed to be happy.

What if? What if? What if?

The light explodes in realization, and the words crystallize into a single thought.

I’m sure.

“I would tell you the same thing I said before,” I reply. “That you don’t give yourself near enough credit and that somehow or another...you made me want to stay in Ponyville. You made me fall for you.”

Scarlet blinks a few more times, but the reaction I get is nowhere near what I expected. It’s a little sly, but in the calming way I’ve come to expect from her.

“That’s what I figured,” she says, her blue eyes locked on mine. “I can’t say I feel the same for you, but I can’t say I’m surprised, either. Ever since the whole Glimmer deal, neither of us have really been acting right.”

“We sure haven’t,” I respond without thinking.

“Anyway, I can’t say I remember the last time somepony told me that. I’m still not sure how to feel about you, but I can’t deny that when you first told me that...I felt really happy for some reason. Maybe...it’s time we both start working towards that, instead of running away from ourselves.”

She’s practically reading my mind, I tell myself, taking a tentative bite of the macaron. Just like the bakery itself, I find it’s hard to feel stressed when I eat it.

For a few short moments, she goes back to her old self, her own little unhealthy defense mechanism. She sizes me up, tilts her head to the side, and looks at me as if I’m little more than another enemy.

“I’m not about to guarantee anything,” she mutters. “That I’ll end up falling in love with you or anything. Or that you’ll be able to put up with me.”

And then, for probably the first time since I met her, her eyes pulse with the slightest spark. A twinkle in her eye, or perhaps even love itself. On top of that, she does the one thing I thought impossible.

She pulls herself in towards me and stretches her hooves along my chest. Earlier today, I would’ve thought it was far too close to my liking, but all of a sudden, it just feels right.

“The con’s in a few days. That’s a good a time as any to try this whole thing, right? The two of us, together?”

My heart practically skips so many beats it almost falls over. Scientifically inaccurate or not, the one thing I never thought possible just happened.

Scarlet Redheart, my absolute equal, the one pony I thought would hate me with her final breath, is now my marefriend.

Author's Notes:

Random inspiration for this part: a bakery by my hometown actually makes cotton candy macarons, and as much as I like macarons in general, I've always thought they were too sugary, even for me. Sounds like the perfect thing for Twi to order by mistake!

Anyway, after three whole months of waiting, Scarlet and Twilight should make it to CanterCon next part. And after thirteen whole chapters...I just now remember that there's a reformed villain character in Precure/Pretty Cure who goes by Twilight as a villain and Scarlet as a hero. Naming Redheart Scarlet was subconscious all along...