I have written... one romance in my life? And I'm not too sure it can even count as one... Which means feelings aren't exactly my specialty. Well someone defied me to write a romance so I had to train, and those three romances are my training.

The train whistled afar, farther than the wide curve of rails leading to the train station, farther than the last tunnel opening on that curve, it was still climbing the mountain. Yet they stood up, all passengers who were waiting on the station approached the white line expecting to see the puffs of the train's chimney mark the sky.

"What is taking them so long" Marvel champed at the bit, looking back at the street "they'll miss the train!"

"They?"

Both mares stopped worrying for a second to giggle together, happy to have been exposed. Marvel rubbed her ear, a little embarrassed as she knew how sensible their friend was. Maybe it was the hair slide holding her smooth mane, or maybe her hoofbag at her side with the bunny plush hanging on a key ring but Fluttershy looked even shier as time had passed. So Marvel, as usual, was counting on the youngest of them and Silver Spoon spontaneously answered:

"I asked my brother to come along!"

She said with a big smile even bigger as Fluttershy seemed to melt, suddenly blushing and a little panicked, she looked around and asked, her faint voice trembling of emotion: "You... you asked..." Now all the creamy pegasus wanted to do was to crawl and hide. Her tail, her toes were so casual, she panicked, if he didn't like her hoofbag...

The train whistled again upon the end of its wide curve, engulfed the train station with its smoke covering her friends' giggles. She wasn't prepared, she just wasn't prepared, if she had known... but Marvel put a hoof on her elbow and, with a confident look, forced the pegasus to calm. Then she put both legs on both elbows and as stern as Marvel could be:

"Now, now, 'Shy! It's time for you to admit your feelings!"

"My..." she whispered, "my feelings?"

"You know, with him being a stallion and you being a mare..."

"You love him right?" The impatient youth of Silver Spoon cut through.

She couldn't say a word, fumbling on each of them as her heart wouldn't stop beating. Had she been given time, she would have said, probably, "I like him"... But time had passed, the train was restless as passenger came aboard, they were the only three left on the platform. She suddenly thought, did they tell him? Oh no, if they... she felt weak, barely able to stand on her feet when shouts of voices shattered her angst. The voice of the train chief, and that of the two stallions galloping towards them in a hurry. He was there, and her heart wavered.

"What took you so long" Spoon scolded as she was getting on board, on the stepladder the student heard her brother tell 'Shy a short hello, receive in return what weakest muttering could be heard over the third whistle of the train, then all joined her inside.

This wagon was all theirs, almost empty and quiet, their voices filled it as they sit, the creamy pegasus trying to curl up in the tiniest space between her friends. Silver Spoon's brother was just in front of her, looking by the window as the train departed, he was so close... but they had told him nothing, he was unaware of her feelings and mostly in his own thoughts, enjoying this ride to the aviary of Ponyville. She had put her hoofbag on the side, as another way to hide behind, and the bunny plush was bouncing with the rails.

It was just a friendly trip, she thought, and a sort of weight took shape somewhere in her, watching him not watch her. It was fine that way, as long as she wasn't exposed...

"Eh!" Silver Spoon exclaimed, which took all of them by surprise. She was usually quiet, and Fluttershy quickly understood why the filly was smiling again: "Anypony wants to play?"

The pegasus was about to yelp no when Marvel got what their friend had in mind: "I'm game! Are you?" She said to the stallion in front of them.

Please say no please say no please say- "I don't mind" he answered, as their last friend passed.

"One of us finds an object and the others must find what it is!" Spoon explained while conspicuously rubbing her brother's neck with her head. "Fluttershy, you go first!"

A panicked Fluttershy panicked a panicked no with her head, like a trapped animal willing to suddenly disappear. But just as the last stallion was dismissing it as a foalish game she caught his look on her, a friendly look waiting for her to begin. She blushed, looked down and, in a gulp, she nodded.

"Okay!" Marvel roamed, "I begin! Mineral, vegetal or animal?" And her friend lost an eternity on the last word.

The two mares were watching her, eyes sparkling for her answer. Fluttershy hesitated, a whole second, then murmured it so feebly that she had to repeat, so she gathered what courage she had and, raising her eyes to cross those of Spoon's brother... in a faint, shy voice:

"Mineral."

"Seriously" were screaming the two mare's faces in despair, with Marvel almost pointing at 'Shy in disbelief. She eventually sighed and left anyone take his turn as she herself plunged her head between legs and looked away. Her friend was a desperate case. Silver Spoon, too, put out by such a letdown gave her brother her turn.

He simply said, and 'Shy's heart, again, wavered:

"Is it the bunny plush you always keep close to you since the day we met?"

Commercials were running on the television. Commercials. The buzzing sound of the old set was filling her ears as well as the room. She could hear her brother on the stairs, his heavy hooves, her weak ones holding the blanket close to her, onto her head.

How could she have sunk so low?

All she had to do, to see the outside, was to raise a bit, tend the neck over the screen and see it by the window. But it was too much of an effort. She was a stone, a brick, she felt like a rusted horseshoe that had been thrown away. A few minutes before the press briefing. On the wooden floor was her hoofkerchief, a few shots of the past and her Stetson hat. She sighed.

Mac' had tapped on the door, told her that an old friend was coming to Ponyville. Had to be Fluttershy. The mare was looking at nowhere, afar, while her thoughts roamed free. It would have been perfect, getting up, meeting with her, spending some time outside instead of this mess. Her blood wanted to boil, if only she had some strength left, if only she had just a fibber of will, just a shoot of it.

Her brother's steps deepened on the stair, then she found herself alone again. Had she finished lamenting? 'T was unbearable! She rolled the cover once more, even more in her sorrow. A few more minutes to wait, in front of a stupid television screen, to see his stupid face and make as if one gave a buck.

"Hey Applejack!"

Watching Pinkie Pie standing in front of her, hiding the screen. This bouncing lock, this pinkish pink. Rising in a hurry.

"Pinkie?!" The cowmare blinked, then rubbed her eyes.

"I was just passing by!" Her old friend answered as she finally put her forelegs down to Equestria. "You're watching tv? I like tv! What's on, commercials? Aren't they the funniest?"

"No, they ain't" Applejack sighed, her fatigue already weighing her down on the bed. "Don't ya have-"

"Want corn? It was a hurry to come here so I couldn't make them pop!" The ear she was offering was fresh, still with leaves. "I am not sure where it comes from anyway!"

"Did ya pick them from my field?"

She didn't know what made her more tired, the presence of her friend, what she was saying or the risk to miss the beginning of the press briefing. And it struck her, that she was letting Pinkie stay. She sort of didn't mind her presence anymore, even the noise of her friend gnawing her corn the most ineffective way possible. 'T was as if they were to watch a match together. 'T was... comforting.

'T was pinkish.

A new sound caught her attention as on television was the logo of Canterlot. Then she saw the crowd and before the crowd a little podium. Memories of the podium in front of the Town Hall, the crowd gathered, those good memories. She shook her head. She didn't want to watch, she knew it would hurt her but she was waiting anyway, waiting for him to appear. And he appeared, coming from the left, his mane brushed sharply for the function, a tie and collar keeping him straight. He looked distant. Handsome and distant. Handsome, fabulous, mesmerizing and distant.

"Good day everypony, fillies, gentlecolts..." He said talking to no one, with a smile that wasn't a smile, that of a politician. Lying. Liar. Trying to look good with a cold and senseless heart. "An announcement before we begin..."

"Wait, isn't that Mayor's nephew?" Pinkie Pie caught on. "What's he doing away from you?"

"Pinkie..."

"He should be neaaaaaaaaar..." She added pushing the set towards the bed, so close that the earth mare with straw like mane had to pull herself back to keep watching it.

What was the big idea? All her anger, that she had felt just a moment ago when her friend was talking, willing to throw her by the window, had vanished. She wanted to... cry. Watching her friend's face smiling on top of the screen, her two legs holding it almost touching his head, watching it made Applejack break in tears. She couldn't hold it, she had already cried so many times, and now... Now she was giving up. She wanted him back, she couldn't lie, told her tears, she was begging for a second chance.

"So ask him!"

For Pinkie Pie all was so simple. But it wasn't so simple. He had left her, left her for this career in Canterlot. Without asking her. Without much words. He would have left like a thief that day, if she hadn't rushed to the train station. And even then, he avoided her. So no, it was not so simple. What was simple was, he was in Canterlot, having his life while she was stuck in her own and unable to live it.

"He is just here, Applejack!" Pinkie Pie repeated. "Just ask him!"

"Pinkie, it's a television." She said bitterly. "He won't hear me."

"And I bet you that he will! Now ask him!" She defied.

No, he wouldn't. No, she wouldn't play that filly game. She was tired of filly games. Time to grow up. Even for her friend, it was time for them to admit, not all could go well. 'T was time for herself to admit, she had to go on with her life. Forget about him. She watched him a last time as the press briefing was already reaching its conclusion, as he was asking if there were questions. No, there were none. Even if she did want to, even if she did...

"Actually, sir." A mare had stood up in the crowd.

Applejack felt her blood boiling. And she saw Pinkie smile and she saw him, she saw him shaken and his eyes, a spark in his eyes, a hopeful spark trying to reach her. The helpless need, like hers, that it was really about to happen:

"Twilight Sparkle, for Global U. I do have a question..."

Spike was waiting outside the press room, the dragon without age. He had sit in what others wouldn't call patience and claws on his cheeks the baby was watching those doors closed just at arm's length on his side. They opened in a slam and journalists began to flow out with animation. He got up, looked until the purple emerging horn put him to rest.

"So?" He asked her and Twilight nodded. "Another assignment done! Ready to write it down to the Princess!"

He took out the parchment and quill - it couldn't get older than that - before looking back at the mare that Twilight had become, if she had become one. There was so little changed, as far as he could tell, still the stubbornly studious pony there ever was, who was also giving him a compassionate look.

"What?"

"This report will have to wait just a little bit more" the unicorn said and she began to trot away, pulling Spike along her.

"What do you mean? Did something go wrong?"

Nothing of the sort, the ever to be student seemed perfectly satisfied with the answer she got. Now in the streets they were just two passerby among others and for the first time Spike noticed that they had no plan for later. So that's what it was all about.

This direction was not that of the university. They were, instead, going towards the suspended gardens where sometimes Twilight went to read her books in peace. Like she always had. Like she always would. Always the same trot, always the same peaceful smile. Was she thinking the same thing as him?

"Eh, Twilight..." he caught up with her. "What about you?"

"You mean my special somepony?" So she had thought about it. And, hiding an amused grin: "Oh, Spike, that's funny!"

"Don't funny me! You're, what, a grown-up now, and you still send reports to the Princess! First magic, then friendship, now love, what's next?"

She stopped and pondered, a hoof on her chin. Right now she was being logical. Best way to be blind, it's what had made them fumble two or three times on each love assignment. He braced, parchment and quill still in hands, for whatever nonsense she would find.

"What's... next." She repeated. "What can be next after love?"

"Exactly my point! So let's send that last letter and-"

She had returned to trotting. She was a case for science. He ran after her but didn't attempt to add anything because it occurred to him, she had no book with her. Maybe... maybe she was going to see her special somepony! A quick look at her, this peaceful composure, this confidence in herself, it was... painfully obvious she had nopony in mind. She was now trotting eyes close, caring no more for her surrounding. She was really happy.

"Won't you at least try?" Spike tried, again.

"Yeah, why don't you try?" Pinkie added.

"Yeah, like sh-" they both froze in surprise, then screamed, then Pinkie screamed and they all caught their breath back. The pink mare took a quick peak at Spike's parchment, to see it was empty. It was hard to tell, with her, if she understood what it meant. Only a full time assistant could really follow those sort of things.

Of course Twilight had to ask such silly questions as "Pinkie, how can you be... here?" Which the ever smiling mare answered without difficulty, by the power of love. It was her favorite answer since the unicorn had begun studying said power, and it had always left the lavender mare in dismay.

"Sooooo you have a super-duper new plan for somepony? Who is it who is it who is it oh! Wait don't tell me, I like surprises! Can I get to disguise as a ghost again?"

"Thank you Pinkie Pie", the student said calming her down. "But my studies on love have reached their end."

"Mflblmfhg" repeated Pinkie as her friend's toe was gently keeping her lips shut. She then released it and, just, trotted away, again, happily. Even the pink mare was kind of taken by surprise so she and Spike watched her continue down the street, then watched each other and the dragon suddenly remembered he was meant to go with her.

The evening was majestic, like every evening, a twilight in which the first stars would appear. He looked up in the sky, waiting for the first spark which, legends said, was your own. That made him bump into the eternally young minded student as she faced the suspended gardens. There were the three vast plates of parks over Canterlot's cliffs, adding their streams to the waterfalls. They had arrived just in time to see ponies light the lanterns.

"That's it, Spike." Twilight said.

"Yeah, no more head in the clouds for me..." he answered, rubbing his head.

But she wouldn't answer. She was just waiting, still smiling, forever smiling. He passed in front of her, agitated his hand then finally looked where she was looking. And he blinked. And he looked again at Twilight who was now looking at him, tenderly. So he turned back yet again to face the gardens and, completely at a loss, to face the gorgeous dress that Rarity was wearing.

He faltered. "Rarity?" Then. "What's happening?" And as they approached the pure blushing unicorn: "I thought..."

He hadn't even noticed that, halfway through, Twilight had slowed down to let him go alone towards his love. Rarity, more beautiful than ever, simply offered her hoof to the dragon and they both went to lose themselves in the gardens.

Behind, Spike had left the quill and parchment. Twilight hovered them, her horn brightening in the evening, and she began her report:

"Dear Princess, what is there after love..."