//------------------------------// // Fun and Games Until You Go Home // Story: Cause, Effect, and Consequences // by Coltsguy //------------------------------// For the record, I can be a very patient man. I usually am one. Rainbow Dash, however, can find that spot that annoys me. What is it you may ask? Well, I'm not telling. I think we all have things that we'd rather not talk about. So why do I bring it up in the first place? Because luck is a fickle thing. You see, what happened is this. After waking Dash up, we decided to just bring her down so we could talk to her sooner instead of waiting for whenever she decided to wake up again. She wasn't exactly happy about having her nap interrupted, but who is really? No, extreme cases don't count. We let Fluttershy calm her down before we got down to business. Things went along well with Fluttershy. I described the time I found her in Him's clutches and though I could tell she wasn't happy about reliving those memories, they had still returned. Of course, describing what had happened was not exactly easy. Not when Rainbow Dash was getting upset over almost every detail. The way she was fussing over Fluttershy made me have to rethink the discussion that people have had over her being a lesbian. I've always been in the 'no she's not' camp. Although, I still have this sneaking suspicion that she's actually bisexual. It would definitely explain some things. But I'm getting off topic. With Fluttershy's memory restored, we then calmed Dashie down to a reasonable level before I started trying to jog her memory. This was where my easy streak ended. Everything I tried with her didn't work. I talked about my rescue back in Jump City with Mousse and Terra. When that didn't work I tried talking about the time we met when she barreled into me. Still nothing. I brought up when I told them about how they were a t.v. show, when I turned every pony into a human, even when she pulled off that sweet sonic rainbolt. If anything I thought that talking about a new stunt she performed would do it. Sadly, nothing seemed to work. It didn't help that she also voiced her boredom over half of the stuff we talked about. We were all stumped. At least Twilight had the good idea of talking about things that happened between Rainbow Dash and the others. I may have been the only human she came into contact with, but she still had plenty of interaction with her friends during that period. However, that ended up being a bust as well. For a while, all we did was think. We racked our brains trying to come up with something. Eventually, Twilight did think of something. She brought up when I turned them all back into ponies after Discord left. Specifically, she brought up that I left the room with Rainbow Dash to discuss what I had to do to make up for putting my hand on her chest. At that point, I considered getting her memory back a lost cause. It's too bad that the others thought differently. After a little pressure, I relented and took Rainbow Dash to a different part of the house and told her about it. Of course, that would be what did it. Her memory snapped into place and then, not for the first time I might add, I wished that I had just left her as a human. At least I got a bit of an apology for what happened. After we came back, we had a quick discussion of what we intended to do. In the end, we couldn't decide on a course of action other than to do some research on memory alterations. With things finally settled, Rainbow Dash took off saying that she would finish getting some sleep at home. I thanked her and Fluttershy for their time before she took off and Twilight and I departed. We both walked back the way we came until we made it to the short road in front of my place. I say short road because it's basically a little more than the same distance from the fence front of Sweet Apple Acres to the building part. It's also a bit wider as well. But, I digress. It was when we arrived there that we remembered that we hadn't helped out Spike in regards to regaining his memory. We both felt kind of bad forgetting about Spike like that. Sure, he wasn't around that much when I was here last, but that doesn't mean that he isn't important at all. Heck, I was beginning to wonder if they kept him around in the show for any real reason other than the fact that they can't realistically get rid of him. He was important in the back story to get Twilight's destiny moving along, but he hadn't done much since then. They really needed to do something to show Spike's importance. By the time we realized this issue, it was getting close to sunset. I was a bit surprised by that considering how we didn't really start that late. Of course, Twilight then stated how long it took us to get Dash's memory back. I didn't think it took that long, but I didn't exactly feel like pointing out that inconsistency to her. I mean, I'm wearing a watch for crying out loud. The part that really stings is that I should know just what time of day it is thanks to it, but since no one will give me the literal time of day I can't get the damn thing set! We went ahead and said our goodbyes and I walked up the road to the house. I stopped up in front of the door and took a look at the sun. It wasn't quite at the horizon yet. Instead, it hung low in the sky emitting a faint orange glow as it sat just to the right of the treeline of the Everfree Forest. In fact, if I walked around to the back of the house, I bet it would be just enough to lose sight of it. It reminded me of the time when I saw that kind of sunset at Rockfest. There, the sun hung low in the sky. I think Seether was finishing their set. The smell of marijuana had faded away. I was there sipping on the last of my lemonade listening to the music and watching the people go by. Good times if you didn't factor in the sunburn. I was red for days and I didn't stop peeling for over two weeks. Still, a good time none the less. I shook myself from my reverie and went inside. Standing in the middle of the front room was Discord. He was busy messing with the controller for the Xbox- Wait. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were there too. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were occupying a chair each while Applebloom was laying in the middle of the couch. What the hell? "You haven't taken them home yet?" I blurted out. "Quiet!" I heard Scootaloo yell. "He's fighting the boss!" I went into the room proper to see what he was playing. I recognized it pretty quickly. "Lollipop Chainsaw? Really?" "Of course!" Discord shouted while still fighting against the current boss. Said boss was the female zombie that was attacking with wheat threshers. "What other kind of madness would I play? A cheerleader fighting zombies with a transforming chainsaw that turns them into sparkles and rainbows once they're defeated? It's like pure joy!" he cackled. "Hard to argue with that kind of logic," I answered. Discord paused the game and sighed. "And now I'm bored," he said while tossing the controller onto the couch next to Applebloom. "I want a turn next!" yelled Scootaloo. And here I was not sure if they would get along. Sure, I knew Discord would enjoy watching them purely for their ability to cause chaos. I mean they were the ones who released him from the statue after a thousand years or so in the first place. That, my friends, is the power of video games. Still... "Don't you three have to get home? Granted it doesn't bother me either way, but you might get in trouble if you stay." "Awwww," all three of them whined. "He's right though," Discord chimed in. "If you all don't get home, I'm pretty sure your sisters will get the torches and pitchforks ready to use." "Well, what if we stay here for the night? We could have a sleepover!" yelled Sweetie Belle. I watched as four sets of eyes converged on me. I still didn't care one way or another. If we all had fun then we all had fun. Of course, being the only one there with any notion of responsibility required me to take on a more measured train of thought. "First things first. You need to get permission. Also, I'm not sure if it's a school night or not. If it is, I don't exactly have anything for you to eat in the morning. I doubt I have a way to wake you in the morning for school." "You don't have to worry about that," said Scootaloo. "We can go and get permission. I mean, yeah it's a school night, but it's Friday tomorrow. And we can just pack stuff to bring!" Well, at least I finally knew what day it was. Now if only I could get the time. "Look, if you can somehow get permission from your guardians, then as long as Discord can take care of you until you leave tomorrow I don't have a problem with you staying." A chorus of yay's went out and the three of them burst into action. "Discord, can you teleport them to their homes to make this go faster?" "I sure can!" he exclaimed while perking up even more. He then snapped his fingers and the three of them disappeared. "Ha. Didn't even give them a warning did you?" "Warnings are for chumps," he retorted. "Now then I have a sleepover to get ready for." "How do you know that they'll get permission? I honestly don't see them getting permission for a sleepover on a school night in this place no matter what we say." "Oh come now," Discord said while flopping down onto the couch. "You underestimate how convincing they can be." "Dude unless you did something to some of these ponies I doubt that this is going to happen. Now, toss me the controller. I haven't played this in forever." Discord shrugged and then grabbed the controller with his tail and tossed it at me lightly. I caught the thing and started playing. A few hours passed and while I had switched to Halo, Discord had been getting really antsy. Of course, I barely noticed because of something I was very curious about. How the fuck is it that I'm the only human on the planet with an Xbox and yet I'm still finding people for multiplayer matches? And how the hell do they keep getting me with so many assassinations? That was the third time bangyurmum had done that to me in just this match! Fuck this. Five kills, six assists, and eighteen deaths adds up to I suck. Also, who the hell was BtnMsh? How did he get twenty nine kills and six assists with no deaths? Who the hell doesn't die at least once in a match with those kind of numbers? I'm just glad they were on my team or else we probably would have lost. Hell, I shudder to think of what they would have done to me if I was playing against them. That thought was enough to take me back to the lobby, lest it doth happen, and take some time to check on Discord. Yikes! He was just laying on the couch again, but that giant smile and the twitching eye were kind of freaking me out a bit. "I'm starting to worry that they have gotten lost," Discord said in a sullen voice that should not have come from the face that I was looking at. "Yeah, look, I don't know if they're coming or not, but I'm getting kind of tired." Discord sat up and looked out the window. "Yes, I do suppose it is about that time." "Not usually for me though. Well, I suppose since I got here it's been like that." "Yes, yes, enough of your prattle. Just go to bed already and leave me alone," he said dismissively with a wave of his paw. "No need to be a grouch," I said as I placed the controller on one of the chairs. "If they come back, don't be too loud." With a silent acknowledgement from Discord, I went back towards my room and got into my new, yet not new, routine. A brush of the teeth, a shower, putting all of the used clothes in a corner, messing with my DS for a bit, and then crawling into bed for the night. I knew it would take a while to get to sleep, but it was something that I had begrudgingly gotten used to by then. At least since I had arrived there I had been able to sleep through the whole night instead of waking up five to ten times for no reason. I just kept the covers up and waited for sleep to come. Maybe I'd even have another nice dream with Luna again. If only I could get past the inherent awkwardness between us. The brightness of the room woke me from my slumber. There was no dream with Luna that time. It was just some vague dream about a beach with nothing but squirrels running around. I think there was a football too. My hand itching got me sidetracked enough to forget the rest. I absently scratched at it while I wondered what I was going to do for the day. I think Twilight wanted me to get Spike's memory back and then help her with research. I wasn't sure how though. I couldn't read almost anything. Learning a new language from scratch would be agonizing. Yeah, I figured that I could eventually do it. After all, they had English on the covers of some of them. That meant it could be translated with only one conversion. Fuck that itchiness was getting annoying! I pulled my hands out from underneath the covers to start scratching more intensely. I barely had started before I stopped in shock at what I saw. It was a very familiar blue horseshoe plastered onto the back of my hand.