Inside the Carousel Boutique.
Twilight Sparkle stared intently at Ye Ziji’s face, which was a picture of pure awkwardness and embarrassment.
She tried to find even the slightest hint that he was joking.
But there was none.
His shifting gaze and awkward, self-conscious posture spoke silently of a single fact—he was dead serious.
This powerful, mysterious, arrogant bastard who had just been teasing her really, truly didn’t have any money on him.
When this realization struck her mind like a bolt of lightning, something inside her was suddenly unleashed.
“Pfft—”
An irrepressible, strange sound escaped her throat.
Immediately following it, like a dam bursting, a wild, unrestrained fit of laughter erupted.
“Haha… Hahaha… Hahahahaha!”
She doubled over with laughter, her entire body shaking as she clutched her stomach tightly with her front hooves.
Yet she still couldn’t stop the torrential flood of her own giggles.
“(∩_∩)/—Hahahahaha!”
She laughed so hard she lost her balance entirely, finally falling flat on her back.
With her four hooves flailing in the air, tears streaming from the corners of her eyes, she let out a deafening, wildly jubilant laugh filled with a sense of sweet revenge.
This laughter was a reckoning for all the previous humiliation, anger, and frustration she had suffered!
“Oh, my ears.”
Beside her, Spike glanced at Twilight Sparkle rolling on the floor with a “here we go again” look.
Speechless, he stuffed some fabric into his ears and went right back to organizing his balls of yarn.
He muttered quietly under his breath, “Crazy. She’s gone crazy again.”
Meanwhile, the kind-hearted Fluttershy couldn’t make head or tail of the situation.
She looked at the hysterical Twilight Sparkle, then at Ye Ziji, who stood frozen in place with a speechless expression.
In the end, she patted her side pouch, rifling through the little bag that held her snacks and bandages, calculating how much money she could scrape together to help this friend “in need.”
Finally, after laughing until she was nearly out of breath, Twilight Sparkle slowly and deeply contentedly scrambled back to her feet.
She wiped the tears from her eyes and smoothed down her messy mane.
Then she looked up, a dazzlingly bright smile blossoming on her face—one that was a perfect mirror of Ye Ziji’s earlier expression, brimming with playfulness and teasing.
Strutting forward with smug, light-hearted steps, she slowly approached Ye Ziji.
Tilting her head slightly, she spoke in a slow, inquisitive voice dripping with mock “concern”:
“Borrowing money?”
She dragged out her words, savoring the way his expression grew stiffer by the second.
“Why do you need to borrow money? Could it be—”
She leaned in closer, almost whispering in his ear. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
With a tone full of mischievous triumph and mock-tender care, she spat out the devastatingly effective word she had only just learned:
“Because you’re… a… noob?”
The moment the words left her mouth, she couldn’t hold it in any longer.
She burst into another round of clear, ringing laughter, absolutely radiant with the joy of victory.
This time, she laughed even more wantonly, thoroughly vindicated.
Ye Ziji stared expressionlessly at the purple unicorn, who was practically laughing herself into a stupor.
He felt no emotion whatsoever, save for a dry urge to laugh himself from pure exasperation.
Shrugging helplessly, he spoke in a tone of complete surrender and near-numbness.
“Yes.”
He paused, then added with a sigh, “I, Ye Ziji, am a noob.”
As he finished, he watched Twilight Sparkle’s smile grow even wider, and asked in resignation once more:
“So, Twilight Sparkle, can I borrow the money now?”
As he spoke, he resentfully made a mental note in his head:
*Haji-Twilight, you just wait.
Sooner or later, I’ll get you back for this.*
Hearing this triple-confirmed statement, which practically amounted to a formal declaration of surrender, Twilight Sparkle finally felt an unprecedented, deep-seated sense of satisfaction.
She let out a smug, contented “Hmph.”
The rising tone of her voice was filled with the pride of a victor.
She felt that all the grievances and humiliation she had suffered before had been repaid tenfold in this single moment.
“Hmph, that’ll teach you to look down on me.”
With that, she trotted light-footedly over to Spike, who was doing his best to pretend he was invisible.
From the small saddlebag on his back, she retrieved a rather exquisite-looking pouch.
As she untied the drawstring, a brilliant golden light spilled out from the opening.
It was a heavy bag of gold coins—the “operational budget” Princess Celestia had specially allocated to her before sending her to Ponyville.
Twilight Sparkle casually tossed the bag of gold coins up and down in her hoof.
The crisp, clinking sound of the coins was like a sweet symphony of victory to her ears.
She looked up, her eyes brimming with smug satisfaction as she asked Ye Ziji cheerfully, “Well? How much do you need?”
Ye Ziji looked at the glittering bag of gold, then at Twilight Sparkle’s insufferably smug pony face.
He pursed his lips.
All he wanted right now was to end this public execution as quickly as possible.
“Give me half for now,” he said succinctly.
“If it’s not enough, I’ll ask for more.”
She nodded in satisfaction and used her magic to separate half of the gold coins into a spare pouch.
With a flick of her hoof, the pouch containing his “plea” floated gently through the air, landing right in front of Ye Ziji.
Ye Ziji silently caught the coin purse.
“That’s quite a bit.”
Just as the atmosphere in the shop grew incredibly subtle due to this transaction, a timid voice broke the silence between the two unicorns.
“Um… Ye Ziji…”
Fluttershy was looking down at her small side bag with hesitation, as if making a difficult decision.
Then, taking small, dainty steps, she walked over to Ye Ziji’s side.
Carefully, she cupped and pulled out ten crystal-clear, glowing gems from her bag.
“These are… these are what was left on the ground after you summoned those elemental creatures in the town square earlier, and some you didn’t use.”
Her voice was very soft, a faint blush appearing on her cheeks as she continued, “I… I saw that you didn’t pick them up, so I gathered them for you. I originally planned to return them to Rarity once we were done here.”
“But, if you need them…”
She timidly held the ten gems out to Ye Ziji.
Looking at the familiar gems in her hooves, and then into her clear, pure teal eyes, Ye Ziji was deeply moved.
*As expected, Fluttershy is the best!*
Ye Ziji offered her a heartfelt, incredibly sincere smile.
He reached out with his front hoof and gently held the hoof Fluttershy was offering the gems with.
“Thank you, Fluttershy.”
“Really, thank you so much!”
He carefully took the gems from her.
The lingering warmth of Fluttershy’s touch made him feel far more comforted than the bag of gold coins ever could.
However, this tender moment was suddenly interrupted by a distinctly sour voice.
“What about me?”
“Doesn’t a certain unicorn have anything he wants to say to me?”
Twilight Sparkle stood to the side with her front hooves crossed, her face a mix of dissatisfaction and expectation.
Seeing how gentle and grateful Ye Ziji was toward Fluttershy, and comparing it to his perfunctory attitude toward her just moments ago, she immediately felt a strong sense of indignation.
She was the one who had contributed the lion’s share, wasn’t she?
Hearing this, the bright smile on Ye Ziji’s face vanished instantly.
He turned his head to look at Twilight Sparkle, putting on a standard, somewhat perfunctory polite smile as he said, “Oh, right. Thank you too, Twilight Sparkle.”
With that, ignoring Twilight Sparkle’s huff of annoyance, he looked down at the gold coins and gems in his hooves.
*Yeah, this should be enough.*
*If not, I can always ask Twilight Sparkle for more.*