//------------------------------// // Chapter Thirteen // Story: A Turn of Events // by Shadow_Fire //------------------------------// Justin’s PoV The next day… “Ugh…my head…” As expected, I woke up the next morning with a massive hangover. Taking a look around, I noticed I was still in Sugercube Corner, lying on a table. Glancing at the table next to me, I saw Nick still passed out, a long trail of drool running down his chin. I decided to get up and search for anyone else who might still be here, my headache surprisingly disappearing quickly. Checking under the tables, I found a couple other ponies sleeping, as well as Pinkie behind the counter with a balloon sticking out of her ear. Hearing a loud groan, I turned back around to look at Nick. “Owww…my head hurts so much…what happened last night?” “Um, we partied. Hard.” Scratching his head, Nick chuckled a bit. “Oh yeah…heh-ow! It hurts to laugh…” I put my hand on his shoulder and helped him get up. “It’ll be fine, mine went away insanely fast. It shouldn’t bother you much longer.” “Hey, it is already fading! How does that work?” “I have no idea. But,” I turned around and pulled out two cups of steaming coffee, offering one to him. “We should probably drink these; they’ll help at least a little.” “Thanks…wait, where’d you get those?” “I…I have absolutely no idea…” I took a quick sip from my cup, sensing nothing wrong with it. “It tastes great, I just don’t know how I got it.” Nick simply shrugged. “Hey, coffee is coffee. Let’s just drink it.” I nodded in agreement. “Bottom’s up.” Both cups were quickly drained, our lips smacking as we finished the steamy liquid. Deciding that the party was cleaned up enough, we both decided to go out into town, aimlessly wandering around while looking for something to do. This continued for almost 20 minutes before we found somepony we knew. Unfortunately, that somepony was Lyra. “There you two are!” “Who-oh shit Lyra!” “Run man, run!” “Wait! I just wanna talk! And maybe take some samples for studying…” That was all the motivation we needed to keep running. Knowing our luck, “samples” would be hair, fingers, and other… questionable things. We ran everywhere, through alleys, under carts, at one point we even took a detour through the hospital. That turned out to be problematic, however, as then we had Lyra chasing us and security chasing Lyra. We finally lost her in the marketplace; her lust for fruit smoothies at slightly more reasonable prices than normal once again overrode her desire to catch and “experiment on” Nick and I. After that marathon, we went back to wandering, going from building to building in search of excitement. And it once again came, this time (thankfully) in the form of a blue pony that raises the moon. “Luna!” “Greetings Nick, Justin. How are you on this fine day?” “We’re doing fine. Justin and I just got away from Lyra again, so now we’re looking for something to do.” Puzzlement stretched across the lunar deity’s face. “Again? How do you two manage to evade her so often?” I laughed. “She seems to have a huge weakness for smoothies that are on sale.” “Hmm…well, those smoothies are really good…” I laughed. “Yeah…wait, why are you here Luna? I’m not complaining, but I thought Celestia was making you finish your duties.” “She was, but I finished early. I…also may have snuck out before she could confirm I was done…” She smiled sheepishly back at us while rubbing her hoof in a circle on the ground. We talked for a few more minutes before heading out to lunch at the nearby café. As we ate, Luna asked a question I didn’t think I’d hear from the shy princess. “Would you two like to go pranking with me?” Nick almost spat his soda all over the table. “What? You prank?” She smiled. “Of course. It’s so boring around the castle, filled with all those stuffy nobles. That and Celestia’s too busy to spend that much time with me. You two didn’t do much at your dorm back on Earth, so I thought we could…you know, have some more fun together.” She finished with a cute blush as Nick and I looked at each other, our faces slowly growing into a smile. We turned to Luna, Nick speaking up for both of us. “You know what? We’d love to. We have absolutely nothing planned today, and we’ve been meaning to hang out with you again anyways.” A smile took up most of Luna’s face as a loud ‘SQUEE!’ filled the café. She took a quick drink of water before filling us in on her plans. We could tell we were going to have a lot of fun… [INSERT LONG PRANKING MONTAGE HERE] “That… was… AWESOME! That was the most fun I’ve had for forever!” Nick laughed next to me. “Hell yeah, man! That was better than I expected! Did you see Rainbow’s face?” Luna laughed as well. “We did! Although you do realize that she is probably going to hunt you down for what you did, right?” “Haha yeah… but you know, I’m sure the white paint will wash off eventually. I mean, we got the cheapest kind possible. Besides, she won’t find us. We kinda just blinked away. I swear to God, Pinkie did something to us that day she gave us the coffee.” Luna blinked in confusion. “Laughter did something to you? How can you be sure?” I reached behind myself and pulled out an apple pie. “Because I have no idea where this came from. Also, I feel the strangest urge to go out and eat as many cupcakes as humanly possible.” Nick nodded in agreement. “As do I. But as tempting as that is, we have to go. Luna started looking a little sad. “But why?” I ruffled her mane and laughed at her little pout. “Because we need jobs so we can buy our own house.” Luna immediately perked up, smiling at both of us. “Is that all? No problem then, I shall purchase you two a house.” Both of our jaws dropped to the floor. Nick just kind of stared as I somehow managed a response. “But… but why?” Laughter met our surprise. “It’s the least I can do. After all, you did take care of me. Come on, let’s go house shopping!” We walked out of the café and started heading towards town hall, but a loud, angry, tom-boyish voice made us realize that would have to be put on hold. “There you two are! Hey, stop running! GET BACK HERE!” As the cyan pegasus with a now white mane and tail chased after us, only one thought ran through my head… “Totally worth it!”