I hurried upstairs to take a cold shower, but when I opened the door to my room a detail, an inconsistency, jumped straight into my chaotic mind. My bed was incomplete. One of my three pillows was missing.
How could a pillow be gone if they are magically linked to the bed?
And why would anyone take a pillow when there are far more expensive things to steal?
Estrus.
Would someone really go that far?
"WUT?" I said, incredulous at how absurd it sounded.
Tump-tump-tump.
Quick hoofsteps echoed from afar, someone running down the stairs.
I looked at the other furniture and the window, but everything was in order, exactly as I remembered it. I did a quick scan of the room's magic circuit but found no damage or alterations. Not even a trace of magic I could follow.
I shook my head and let out a snort as I walked into the bathroom. I dropped my sweater on the floor and drenched my head with cold water. My teeth began to chatter. I wanted to step out immediately or raise the temperature, but I endured in silence.
I counted in my mind while imagining a cube floating, slowly rotating, forcing my scattered thoughts to align and drowning out the stubborn voices reminding me how awkward and embarrassing the next few days would be after what happened today.
When the cube finally took clear shape, stable and free of useless thoughts, I stepped out of the shower.
I dried my coat with a light spell and put on another sweater, a black one with the name Sparklet in large letters, gray tones and two crossed swords.
Stella might know something.
As I started going downstairs, a sweet smell reached me. I followed the scent with my eyes and caught Stella's ears twitching at the sound of my hooves when I stopped.
Stella was sitting on the central couch. She had a cake beside her and a book between her paws. Her head was tilted toward the pages, and every few seconds one of her tiny paws reached out to take a piece of cake using a fork. Her tail moved slowly as she murmured some words from the book to herself.
It was one of the basic magic books I had written for her, a simple guide on learning to direct magic and keep it stable.
I watched the scene in silence. There was something odd, something that didn't quite fit. Stella didn't normally mix reading with eating, much less with a cake.
Books make my beautiful sweet cake taste boring, bland, flavorless, ugly, like letters with weird meanings. They don't go together.
I remembered perfectly how she complained once when I tried to use cakes as motivation to study. To her it was simple: either she ate the cake in peace or she studied. There was no third option.
The combination I had in front of me made no sense. Not with Stella.
There's definitely something off here. She's hiding something.
I walked around the couch until I was right in front of her. That simple motion made Stella lift the book higher, hiding the cake and practically hiding herself behind the pages as if the book could serve as a shield.
"Stella…" I said, trying to look at her over the edge.
"Myah!" She gave a small jump in her seat. The book wobbled in her paws, almost fell, but she caught it at the last second with surprising firmness.
"You were home all day, right?"
"Yeeah…" she answered. Her voice sounded tiny, barely a whisper, as if she hoped it wouldn't reach my ears. But the house was quiet, so I heard her perfectly.
"And… you didn't see anything weird upstairs, right?" I asked, stepping a little closer so she couldn't hide behind the book so easily.
"No!" she replied way too fast.
The word shot out like a spring. Her ears lifted and dropped in one motion, and her tail stopped for just one second before moving again in a forced way, as if she was trying to look relaxed.
"Aha…" I murmured, tilting my head. "You sure? A pillow disappeared from my room."
"Ah, that's too bad…" she said with a tone that sounded more like an automatic response than actual concern.
"Stella, my pillows are bound to the bed. None of them should be missing."
"Ah…" she said again, sinking a little deeper behind the book.
I took one more step toward her, not taking my eyes off her.
"Were you in my room?"
"Yes… I mean, no… I mean… I… was here…" her words tangled together, crashing into each other as if they couldn't decide what order to come out in.
"Stella." I raised my voice a little.
Stella raised the book too, just enough so I couldn't see her face at all.
"I don't know anything, I'm studying, I have cake in my muth ad I an't kip taking."
By the end her words were so distorted they were almost unintelligible.
I let out a snort. She obviously knows something but she isn't planning to say it. And pushing her any further was only making me thirsty. Interrogating her wasn't going to get me anywhere if she had already decided not to talk.
I went to get some juice. I opened the fridge with magic and the moment the door lifted, two large cakes fell from the top shelf. My eyes went wide and I caught them before they hit the floor. I put them back in place so I could see the inside better.
There wasn't a single free space. Every shelf, every corner, even the vegetable compartment was packed with cakes. Whole cakes. Lots of them.
I froze for a moment, processing the scene.
Everything connects at once.
Stella + cakes = transaction.
Three names come to mind immediately. Three ponies who usually trade things with Stella in my current environment. But none of them fit something as ridiculous as using cakes as currency to steal a pillow from me. I can't see why they would need it or what purpose it would serve.
I looked back toward the living room.
One curious ear peeked over the edge of the book. Just a tiny, nervous movement, but clearly directed at me. The book was still up, lifted like an improvised shield, though now it trembled a little.
Stella didn't move, but that ear… that ear was listening to me far too closely.
Yes. She definitely knows something.
She must have traded the pillow with one of the mares or someone else. That would explain why I couldn't find any disruption in the magical circuit of my room. If Stella cut the link with her claws, then of course I wouldn't detect anything strange.
I adjusted the cakes inside the fridge so I could reach the orange juice bottle all the way at the back.
"Well… now how am I supposed to get the items from the list… sending Stella to buy the things…"
I looked at her in silence.
She was still just as tense, still hiding behind the book as if it could protect her from my questions. It was an option among others, but not the best.
First, she doesn't like talking in front of strangers, and giving her a letter with the list of items would be a decent solution, but I don't know how the mares might react. Stella probably smells too much like me after spending the whole day in the house…
As for completing the spell, I needed to be able to focus, and today my mind was too scattered. If I rushed it, I might end up with something more dangerous than useful. And I have to test magic to understand how it works in practice, not just in theory.
I sighed and lifted the letter my mom had sent me. The paper crackled as I unfolded it with my magic. While I took a sip of the orange juice, I let my eyes travel over the lines I had already read before, trying to regain some calm or at least a fixed point where I could anchor my thoughts.
---------------------------
Twilight's POV
Twilight took a slow breath and let her shoulders relax for the first time that day. She had decided to give herself a small break and was now sitting at a table by the window in Sugarcube Corner, with a cold chocolate milkshake between her hooves.
A good chocolate milkshake to calm her mind and her heart after such an extravagant empirical experiment about hugs. Just remembering the situation made her cheeks warm a little. To chase that feeling away she immediately hid in the flavor of the milkshake, closing her eyes to savor it, and she also took a small bite of the chocolate cake she had ordered with it.
Quiet and sweetness filled her mind, relaxing even the last traces of tension left from the day. But even in that state, her ears caught something. A faint sound, almost drowned out by the ambient noise. She heard it, but couldn't quite understand it, and that was what confused her.
She opened her eyes and looked around, curious. Then she saw the big group of mares gathered on the other side of the shop.
They were laughing, excited.
"Did you see him? I swear, ever since he said good morning to me I can't stop thinking about him. I went to the Schoolhouse to look for him and there he was, standing there, gorgeous and seductive while taking care of the little colts and fillies. Just thinking about him being the father of my foals excites me."
"Yes, yes, I want to pull that sweater off him with my teeth. I bet pink would look amazing on his cheeks."
Twilight blinked slowly.
The milkshake stopped halfway to her mouth.
What?
A strange feeling began to bloom in her chest. It didn't have a name at first, just pressure and heat. For a moment she considered standing up and interrupting them to ask for an explanation, but held back. What unsettled her most wasn't the words of those delusional mares, but the realization of why they bothered her so much.
Talking like that about her Wizbell…
Twilight pressed her lips together.
"I can't stop imagining him in my bed wearing sky blue socks, how much I want to bend him and make him bite the pillow."
The others nodded enthusiastically, as if they had just described the most reasonable idea in the world.
Twilight felt a small involuntary jump in her heart. The milkshake vibrated slightly in her hooves as she tried not to crush the cup.
"Girl, if you catch him remember to leave something for us."
"Bah, what would I share? I'll lock him in my room the whole season and, if necessary, the rest of our lives," said the most arrogant mare of the group, with far too much confidence.
Twilight blinked slowly.
Then again.
The feeling in her chest was no longer just discomfort. It was a strange mix of indignation, surprise and something more primal she didn't want to acknowledge.
She leaned back in her seat, trying to keep her composure. The chocolate didn't taste the same anymore. Her mind, which a minute ago enjoyed the quiet, was now focused on a single thought.
Why are they talking about Wizbell like that?
And why does it bother me so much to hear it?
The mares kept talking, now complaining between giggles about not being able to find Wizbell's house.
"Is this map really correct? We've circled that area like four times and we still can't find Wizbell's house. Did the Mayor lie to us?"
"I don't think so. Remember he's good with magic, and if he hid himself…"
"That just makes the hunt more fun. Now it's like searching for a hidden treasure. Whoever finds him hits the jackpot: a handsome and available stallion."
Several giggles echoed in the corner.
Twilight narrowed her eyes for a moment, but said nothing. She stored what was left of her cake and milkshake inside a levitation field and began heading for the exit with measured steps.
She didn't want to hear them anymore, and she definitely didn't want to analyze why all of that bothered her so much.
Right as she was crossing the door of Sugarcube Corner, a dry pop sounded behind her.
*Pop!*
The cakes on the mares' table exploded in a cloud of cream, crumbs and frosting that covered them completely, ruining their hairstyles and leaving them in stunned silence.
"Twilight, wait for me!"
Spike ran after her with the order freshly packed by Mrs. Cake. The box trembled in his claws as he tried not to crash into the door that had just closed.
Twilight walked quickly, almost trotting, her gaze scanning everything around her. Every face, every group of ponies, every whisper. She was alert, too alert. It didn't take long for her to detect similar conversations: young mares, her age or slightly older, single, all speaking with uncomfortable excitement about the same thing. Or rather, the same somepony.
Twilight slightly furrowed her brow and accelerated.
"Let's go to Wizbell, Spike. There's something I need to talk to him about."
Something must have happened to cause this whole situation.
It wasn't normal.
It couldn't be.
The mares of Ponyville didn't normally behave this way. Not with that intensity, not with such topics, not with that sort of… obsession.
Nothing like this had ever happened before.
As she walked through the streets of Ponyville, Twilight silently reviewed the dates, fitting the pieces together in her mind. The exaggerated behavior, the nervous giggles, the very direct comments, the almost desperate urgency in their voices…
It was obvious.
It was estrus.
That explained the intensity, the heat behind the conversations… but the truly strange thing was the focus.
They were all talking about a single name.
One single stallion.
They didn't mention other bachelors in Ponyville. They said nothing about Big Mac, or Flash Storm, or any other stallion.
Nothing. As if no one else existed.
Only Wizbell.
Twilight frowned, feeling that uncomfortable squeeze in her chest again.
Why him? Why only him?
Something had happened. Something had to have happened.
Wizbell must have done something to draw everyone's attention.
Maybe without meaning to… or maybe it was a coincidence. But whatever it was, it started this morning. Because yesterday everything was normal.
I need to know what happened.
Author's Note:
Here, have some crumbs.
I hope I'm handling this whole story arc well for your enjoyment.