Twilight needed to get out of her castle. The large crystalline palace she called home just wasn’t friendly anymore. It was BIG and empty and silent. It carried echoes down the long corridors again and left behind the impression of an unshed tension in the room. Each and every one of them held an ever growing sense of static between the inhabitants, and Twilight soon felt suffocated in the underlying strain of the situation.
Books could not help her and neither could her spells (although they gave her a brief sense of high with the energy spent). Staying inside wasn’t an option and she didn’t want to think. She didn’t want to feel either, but she had always had phenomenal luck with that.
Restless, Twilight found herself pacing in her study, staring miserably and aimlessly at a wall or crystal pillar, unable to find a suitable distraction or consolation and only getting more depressed as a side effect. In fact, they didn’t NEED the extra food. She was just buying it anyways. For storage, she told herself. Doing her own shopping was uncharacteristic of the mare, Spike generally volunteered to do it for her since she was always so busy, so the fact that she was wandering in zigzags around the marketplace with saddlebags was an immediate red flag.
Mindless, walking aimlessly, she didn’t even realize that her hooves had been taking her in the direction of Rarity’s boutique until she’d bumped into somepony. It startled her out of her thoughtlessness, wings unfurling to catch her balance before she toppled over and her groceries along with her. She blinked, eyes wide, and looking up she was even more surprised by whom she’d bumped into. Mouth gaping, no sound came out, so Twilight shook her head and tried again.
“Cassius? I am so sorry-- I wasn’t looking where I was going-- I wasn’t paying attention.” she stepped back, wings curled back to her sides, eyes searching for something to grab onto but found nothing but the stallion’s face. “I hope I didn’t hurt you.”
