One by one, the Rainbooms had gone to the bathroom to change into their pajamas. When Fluttershy's turn came, she was gone a long time; she returned wearing a loose silk robe and blushing furiously. "Umm..." She ducked her head. "I'm having one of my episodes," she said. "Do you girls mind if I...?"
The girls looked at one another. Rarity smiled gently. "Not at all, darling," she said kindly.
"Yeah, we'll have to cool it with the selfies, but it's no big deal," Rainbow said.
"Thanks," Fluttershy said. "Oh! I left my lotion in the bathroom. I'll be right back."
As Fluttershy left the room, Twilight frowned. "Episodes?"
"Oh, right, you've never seen this before," Pinkie said.
"It doesn't happen very often," Rarity put in.
"Yeah, it's only happened at a sleepover like, what, three times?" Rainbow added.
Twilight frowned. "What, does she have violent mood swings or something? Or—"
"It's nothing like that!" Rarity insisted. "It's—oh, let her explain."
Fluttershy walked back into the room, a bottle of medicated lotion in one hand. "Pinkie, you'll help me with my back, won't you?"
"Of course," Pinkie said. "Umm...you probably need to explain this to Twilight," she added. "Do that while I get that sheet you like out of the closet."
"Thanks," Fluttershy said. "Sorry to put you girls through this...again..."
"It ain't no sweat, sugarcube," Applejack said. "We understand."
"Yeah, don't worry about it!" Rainbow said.
"What kind of episodes are we talking about?" Twilight asked, adjusting her glasses and tilting her head.
"Oh," Fluttershy said, her lips thinning. "W-well..." She blushed and looked down. "I have this...really rare type of eczema," she said. "Usually it doesn't bother me, I have a medicine I take for it and I use this lotion that keeps it from flaring up. But sometimes, like when I'm about to start my period or when the humidity is weird or something, I have these little...episodes." She shifted. "It's also why I hardly ever wear a bra. Even the most comfortable sports bras give me a rash."
Twilight's mouth formed a small 'o'. "I always wondered about that," she said. "I just assumed it was a vegan thing."
Fluttershy stared at her oddly. "Umm...that doesn't even make sense," she said. "What would being a vegan have to do with..." She shook her head. "Nevermind. And I'm not a vegan. I'm not even a vegetarian! Why does everyone assume I—"
"Sorry!" Twilight said, scooting away and holding her hands up defensively. "It's just..." She sighed. "Sorry." She coughed. "Anyway, you were saying about your eczema?"
"Oh, right," Fluttershy said. "W-well...when I'm having an episode, I..." She squirmed. "Everything irritates my skin. I mean, anything rubbing on my skin irritates it. Like...like cotton or silk or satin or anything."
"Basically she's gonna be naked for the rest of the night," Rainbow said.
"Oh," Twilight said, her cheeks heating up slightly.
"Does...does that bother you?" Fluttershy asked.
"Not at all!" Twilight said hastily. "I mean, we're all girls, right? It...no, it doesn't bother me..." She ducked her head. "I mean...it'll be a little weird, but I can...I can deal."
"I'll be naked too!" Pinkie said cheerfully as she spread a large linen sheet over her bed. "I always get naked with Fluttershy so she doesn't feel too awkward."
"P-Pinkie," Fluttershy said, her face heating up even more. "Wh-when you say it like that, it sounds..."
"I know," Pinkie said with a devilish smirk. "Come on, drop your robe so you don't get itchy. Have you put your lotion on yet at all?"
Fluttershy shook her head. "The robe would've rubbed it off." She slowly removed her robe and hung it on a hook on the closet door. Pinkie peeled down and flung her nightgown and panties into the corner.
"Woo! Too hot for TV!" Rainbow crowed wildly.
"Oh, shut up," Fluttershy said, ducking her head and hiding her face behind her hair. She lay on her stomach on the bed. "Get my back, Pinkie," she said. "I'll do my front later."
"Okie-dokie-lokie!" Pinkie sat cross-legged on the bed next to Fluttershy. "Wow, it's all red back here," she said. "This one's worse than usual, huh?"
"It's pretty bad," Fluttershy said, tensing up as Pinkie started rubbing lotion on her skin.
Twilight wrenched her head away from the sight. "So!" she said in a strained voice. "How's it going over at Sunset's place?"
* * * * *
"I don't see why we can't just be naked," Ember grumbled as she looked at the dark blue pajamas Rarity had given her.
"You heard Sunset," Starlight said as she examined her own royal purple silk pajamas. "It wouldn't be polite to our host. We are guests here."
"Fine," Ember groused. Tossing the pajamas onto Sunset's bed, she started stripping off her clothes. As she did so, she frowned at her bra and panties. "What the heck?"
"Underwear," Twilight said absently as she shed her own clothes. "I don't entirely understand it except that, well..." Her cheeks turned faintly pink. "Humans are more...aware of their genitalia than most creatures in Equestria usually are."
"I can't imagine why," Starlight said sourly as she peeled off her panties and examined herself in the mirror. "Whose bright idea was it to put that there?!"
"YEEP!" Moondancer squealed, averting her gaze.
Twilight groaned. "The panties stay on, Starlight," she said patiently as she unclasped her own bra. "The bra can stay on or off, it's up to you. I find it more comfortable to sleep without it."
"Oh, okay," Starlight said, grabbing her panties and putting them back on. She frowned at her reflection in the mirror. "How does this thing come off? I didn't really see how you did it."
"There's hooks in the back," Ember said as she fumbled with her own bra, shedding it. Her breasts bounced free, and she stared at them. "Okay what the hell are these?!"
"You're just now noticing?" Starlight asked. "I've been wondering about it since we got here. I just...didn't want to ask." She coughed as she looked from Ember to Twilight, who was busily putting on her yellow felt pajamas. "Twilight?"
"Huh? Oh! They're breasts," Twilight said. "They're, well...teats. Except they're in a really weird place on humans for some reason." She blushed. "I don't totally understand it, but for human girls, they're always...pretty big, and some girls' are bigger than others, and I think there's something about boys liking to look at them?" She flashed the others a sheepish smile. "I don't really know too much about them except that you usually wear a bra to hold them up."
Starlight pressed her lips into a thin line. "Hmm," she said. She shook her head and started putting on her pajamas, not even bothering to try to remove her bra.
Moondancer looked at the other girls, a mild frown on her face. "I don't think I can get used to these weird bodies," she said.
"Don't worry," Twilight said with a smile. "It's alright. Go ahead! Get changed."
"Well..." Sighing, Moondancer took hold of the hem of her sweater and slowly, haltingly pulled it over her head. When she finally managed to struggle out of it, she found the other three staring at her. She frowned. "What?"
"Some are bigger than others, huh?" Ember said with a smirk. "Boy, I'll say."
"Wow, Sunset's aren't even that big," Twilight said.
Moondancer looked down at herself, an unhappy frown on her face. "I'm a unicorn, not a cow," she grumbled. She grabbed the pink nightgown Rarity had given her and examined it. "This looks more like a dress than pajamas."
Twilight shrugged. "Some girls wear one of those to sleep in instead of pajamas," she said.
Once all four girls were changed, they headed back out to the living room. There, they found Sunset lounging in her easy chair, already changed into her purple pajamas with her Cutie Mark on the front. She smiled and waved. "Hey! Took you girls long enough."
Ember snorted. "Blame the ponies who couldn't figure out how these crazy monkey bodies work." She stretched, cracking her knuckles. "So! What was that I heard about pillow fights?"
Sunset winced. "Sorry, girls," she said. "I don't think we have enough room for a good pillow fight. Or enough decent pillows, for that matter." Her eyes lit up. "I've got some cool video games we can play, though! But they only go up to four players, so someone's gonna have to rotate out."
"Video games? What are those?" Starlight asked. In response, Sunset got up and walked over to her entertainment center, opening a cabinet and pulling out four controllers covered in buttons. One was fiery red, another was sky blue, a third was orange, and the fourth was bubblegum pink. She laid them on the coffee table, sat back down, grabbed her TV remote, fiddled with it for a bit until the TV screen was blank, then picked up the red controller and pressed a button on it. Something next to the TV beeped, and the screen came to life, showing a pattern of waves and colors and the logo XStation V.
"What do you girls feel like playing?" Sunset asked. "A racing game? Fighting game? Shooting game? I've got a few dozen games to choose from."
"Fighting sounds fun," Ember said with a grin.
Starlight frowned. "Those all sound awfully competitive and violent."
"They're just games," Twilight said. "I've never played one, but I've watched this world's Rainbow Dash and Applejack play them." She paused. "Okay, the 'awfully competitive' thing is actually pretty right. But that's mostly just because it's AJ and Rainbow."
Sunset laughed. "Yeah, they get way too into it." She tilted the stick on her controller, and a whole list of games scrolled down the screen.
"So, what, this is all just a bunch of games you play on this movie screen thingie?" Ember asked, tilting her head. "How does that even work?"
"It'd take all night to explain the science behind it," Sunset said. "You'll understand when we start. All you need to know is these are the things you use to play them." She waggled her red controller for emphasis.
Moondancer looked up from the book she'd already grabbed. "This world has very impressive technology," she said. "You certainly use it for strange things, though."
"Yeah, if we had those phone thingies in Equestria, or any of the amazing stuff in just this one room," Starlight said, letting the unfinished thought hang in the air.
Sunset shrugged. "Well, when you have a civilization that develops advanced technology instead of magic, you use it in as many aspects of your life as possible." She paused as she landed on a game called "Cat Fight", and broke out in a happy beam. "I haven't played this one in forever!" she said. "Pinkie Pie's the only one who'll ever play it with me because the other girls think it's stupid. Well, no, Fluttershy plays it sometimes. But it's really been a while." She launched the game. "Anyway, this one's pretty easy to play and really silly, so it's a good way to introduce the concept."
The girls watched with interest as a series of logos flashed across the screen one after another before the game's title screen faded into view, depicting fat cartoon cats shooting dogs at each other with bazookas. Music poured from the speakers; it had the air of a bombastic war march, but the atmosphere of the music was broken by flat farting-brass notes and squeaky cat meows.
Ember blinked. "What the—?!"
Starlight stared. "Umm."
"Here, I'll set it up for a quick team game," Sunset said as she started rapidly pressing buttons. Stuff flashed across the screen faster than the girls could follow; when she was done, the word "Loading..." appeared in the corner of the screen underneath an animated cat playing with a ball of yarn.
And then the screen showed a giant litterbox full of sandcastles, upon which stood numerous colorful cats. The cats were clearly divided into teams; one team wore red scarves, while the other wore black scarves. The cats with black scarves looked meaner and more vicious, while the team with red scarves were chubby, playful-looking housecats.
"Okay girls, if you're playing, take a controller," Sunset said. "I'll show you what does what."
Twilight quickly grabbed the pink controller; Starlight and Ember shot each other dubious glances before reaching for the orange and blue controllers respectively.
"Okay," Sunset said. "See how each cat has a name over its head? The different colors of the names show which cat goes with which controller. That's how you'll know which one is yours." Indeed, the cats with red scarves bore the names "Mr. Cuddles", "Fuzzy Wuzzy", "Puddy Paws", and "Tabbikins", each in a different color.
"Ugh, you gotta be kidding me," Ember said sourly.
"The cats move in turns," Sunset said. "I'll show you how it works since my turn's first." She slowly, patiently explained the game's controls as the other girls watched her fingers and tried to figure out how the unfamiliar controllers worked. They watched the screen as Sunset's cat, Mr. Cuddles, crawled down to the base of one of the sandcastles and pulled out a rubber squeaky mouse. "And once you select your weapon, you aim like this, and..."
Mr. Cuddles threw the squeaky mouse at one of the enemy cats in a high, wide arc. The mouse overshot slightly, bounced back down the slope toward the target, and exploded, spraying a cloud of catnip everywhere. A number above the target decreased sharply, and the enemy cat started yowling wildly and batting at the air, spinning in a circle.
"I get it now!" Twilight said happily. "Cat, FIGHT!"
As soon as Sunset's turn ended, one of the enemy cats jumped up into a tree, pulled out a water bottle, and started spraying Ember's cat, Puddy Paws. Puddy Paws hissed and spat angrily as a few ticks rolled off his life counter.
"Oh no you didn't," Ember growled.
"Here, I'll knock him down for you!" Twilight said cheerfully as her turn came up. She guided Fuzzy Wuzzy into the middle of the litter box and, with a few false starts, found her bazooka. Aiming it straight up, she fired a startled beagle at the tree. It impacted with a loud yip, breaking the branch and dropping the enemy cat practically on top of Fuzzy Wuzzy's head.
"This is weird," Starlight declared.
Sunset laughed. "Yeah, it's pretty weird. But it's funny! And pretty addictive."
As the girls got used to the controllers, they got into the action on the screen. Strange and quirky as the game was, once they got past the bizarre ammunition and the fact they were controlling housecats fighting a weird litterbox war, they started laughing and working together as they defeated dozens of enemy cats together using exploding dogs, catnip grenades, yarn balls, bags of flaming poo, spray bottles, and even more bizarre weapons. Once they were all used to the controls, Sunset suggested a player versus player game; each girl had a team of four cats to control, and the battle got pretty aggressive. In the end, it was down to Ember and Starlight, and both of them played dirty. All the while, Moondancer split her attention between watching them play and reading.
An hour and a half later, they decided to take a break. "This is awesome!" Ember said happily. "What else you got?"
Sunset laughed. "Enough that we could spend the whole weekend playing video games, but there's plenty more to do," she said. She smiled. "Don't worry, though! You're welcome to come over from Equestria and play video games whenever you want! Just be sure to give me some advance notice."
Ember grinned. "I'll take you up on that," she said. "Being Dragon Lord is crazy boring."
"So what else can we do?" Starlight asked as she set her controller down on the table and carefully lined it up along the edge. "I'm not quite ready to hit the hay yet."
"Ooh! How about we tell scary stories?" Twilight suggested. "I love telling spooky stories with my friends!"
"That sounds fun," Sunset said. "Let's all head to the bedroom. I'll grab some flashlights, we can turn off the lights for drama!"
* * * * *
"Hey, Pinkie," Rainbow said, "did your boobs get bigger recently?"
Pinkie giggled. "Yeah, I went up about a cup size. I'm pretty glad, too. I was tired of being part of the itty bitty titty committee."
"Speakin' of which," Applejack said from where she was playing cards with Fluttershy, "Ah noticed somethin' about Twilight here. Oh, hope Ah don't embarrass you or nothin', sugarcube," she said hastily.
"Huh? About what?" Twilight looked up from where she was playing checkers with Rainbow while Rarity gave her a pedicure.
"Not t' be crude or nothin', but..." Applejack paused to lay down a card. "Anyone else here noticed this Twilight's boobs are bigger than the other Twilight's?"
"Oh, definitely," Rarity said. "It's rather interesting, isn't it?"
"They are?" Rainbow asked. "Huh. I didn't notice."
"Oh, I bet Flash Sentry noticed," Pinkie said with a smirk.
Twilight scrunched into herself, frowning. "I...kinda wish he'd stop noticing me at all," she said. "I mean, I don't mind him wanting to be friends with me, but the way he walks up to me and tries to talk to me and gets all awkward and..." She shook her head. "It creeps me out."
The other girls sighed. "We'll talk to him about it," Fluttershy promised. "He's a good guy, I don't think he realizes it's bothering you."
"Thanks," Twilight said. She paused, then looked down at herself. "They're not that big, are they?"
Rainbow smirked. "Why do you think guys are always offering to carry your books?"
Twilight blushed. "Oh dear..."
* * * * *
"—and so the hatchlings watched in helpless terror as the blue-eyed albino dragon ripped open their mother's scaly hide, tore out her heart with his massive claws, gave them a ferocious grin, and ATE IT!"
"Gah!" Twilight cried. "EMBER!"
"That's not scary, that's just horrible," Starlight said, frowning.
"So much for sleeping tonight," Moondancer muttered.
Sunset rolled her eyes. "Gory stories aren't scary," she said.
"Oh yeah?" Ember challenged. "Then you tell a scary story, monkey girl!"
Sunset smirked. "Alright." She took the flashlight from Ember, then fished around under her bed for something. The light clicked off, and the girls shifted in place to listen as Sunset began.
"Once upon a time, there was a family so poor they could barely afford bread and cabbage. The mother mended all their clothes by hand with needle and thread, but since they couldn't afford thread, they had to use the threads that had come loose from their own clothes to mend them. They stole the large leaves from a neighbor's tree to patch their roof when it leaked."
"That doesn't make any sense," Moondancer said. "For one thing, wouldn't those clothes fall apart like that?"
"Shh," Twilight whispered.
"They had three children, but the oldest died from cholera and the youngest was stolen from her crib in the night by a fox and eaten. Only the middle child was left, and she cried herself to sleep every night because she was lonely.
"Her parents hated to see her heartbroken and lonely, so they scraped together what money they could and bought her a stuffed gnome doll to keep her company. It was a sad, raggedy thing, not much to look at, but it was all they could afford. It was also the first toy she'd ever owned. The daughter still missed her brother and sister, but every night she went to bed cuddling the gnome and as time went on, she cried less and less.
"Five years passed. The father had found work delivering goods for the local blacksmith, and with the money he earned, he was able to buy flour that the mother could bake into bread. The mother baked the best bread in the village, and soon she was able to sell several loaves of bread every day. They had more money than they'd ever had in their lives, and they bought a new cottage in the village. They packed all their meager possessions up in their wagon and took them to their new house.
"The daughter had so many friends that she hadn't slept with her ratty old gnome doll in years, so it lay forgotten in a dusty corner of her bedroom at their old house. On the fifth night in their new house, the daughter went to the kitchen for a glass of water before bed. There, in the kitchen, sitting on the table, she saw her old gnome doll. 'How curious,' she thought. 'I'd forgotten all about that old doll. I don't even remember putting it on the wagon!' Putting it out of her mind, she drank her water and went to bed.
"The day had been cloudy, and thunder rolled as night set in. Lightning flashed outside, and rain lashed against the windows. Comfortable in her dry bed, secure under a roof that didn't leak, the girl snuggled into her warm blankets and let the thunder and the rain sing her to sleep. But just as she was about to drift off, she heard her bedroom door creak loudly open. There was a bright flash of lightning, and then—!"
The dark room was suddenly lit by the harsh glare of Sunset's flashlight, illuminating a plush gnome sitting on the floor in the middle of the group of girls. Twilight screamed and scooted away from it.
The flashlight went out.
"The gnome was there, in the doorway, staring at her with its worn felt eyes. The girl stared at it, her heart beating rapidly. 'How did it get there?' she wondered. The room fell dark again, and the girl settled down, trying to go to sleep, hoping the whole thing was a dream or her imagination.
"But then, with a loud crack of thunder, the room lit up with lightning again, and the gnome was even closer! The girl sat up in bed, breathing heavily, eyes wide, heart pounding in her chest. 'What's going on here?' she wondered. 'How is this possible? Why is my old gnome doll in my new bedroom, and how is it moving on its own?'
"Again, the room became dark. A floorboard squeaked. The girl considered jumping out of her bed and running to her parents' room, but found herself frozen with fear. Then, the brightest flash of lightning yet flooded the room with light—" Sunset began turning her flashlight off and on rapidly. "And the gnome LEAPT AT THE GIRL'S FACE!" she yelled, throwing the gnome at Twilight and cackling maniacally.
Twilight screamed, falling over on her back and flailing madly at the air.
Sunset put the flashlight beneath her chin, casting her face in an eerie glow. "The storm broke, and morning came. When the mother went to wake her daughter for her morning chores, she found nothing but a ragged felt doll of a girl who looked just like the daughter sitting on the bed, her button eyes black and dead and her felt mouth open in an eternal, silent scream."
Ember stared at her, eyes wide. "O-okay," she said with a soft quaver, "That...was pretty scary."
"I don't think I'll ever be able to sleep through a thunderstorm ever again," Starlight whimpered. "I'm gonna have nightmares for days!"
Moondancer frowned. "Absolutely nothing in that story makes sense," she said.
Sunset rolled her eyes. "It's not supposed to!" she said. "It's a ghost story. It's meant to be scary and fun!"
"It sure was scary," Twilight said as she sat up, throwing the gnome doll at Sunset. "Especially with your little helper here."
Sunset snickered. Then she yawned. "Well, I don't know about you girls, but I'm about ready to call it a night." She stretched. "Besides, we've got a full day of fun ahead of us tomorrow. I wanna show you girls around town!"
"Yeah, that'll be amazing!" Twilight said. "There's so many incredible things to see in this world!"
"Sounds like fun," Ember said.
"So how are we dividing up the sleeping arrangements?" Starlight asked.
"I call the sofa!" Ember said, throwing a hand up. She smirked at Twilight. "I bet you wanna share the bed with Sunset."
Twilight flushed. "Wh-what makes you say that?"
A similar smirk spread across Starlight's face. "I don't mind, so long as you keep the noise down."
"Ugh! BOTH of you?" Twilight groaned.
Sunset laughed. "Well, I guess we'll be taking the bed then. Starlight, Moondancer, I guess that leaves you with the sleeping bags." She yawned again, then started turning down her bed. "Everything's in the living room, just spread out wherever you like."
Moondancer, Ember, and Starlight left the bedroom. Twilight shuffled her feet, twiddling her fingers nervously. "Umm..."
Sunset rolled her eyes as she slid onto the bed and scooted against the wall. "Come on, Princess," she said. "I won't bite."
"W-well...okay." Twilight slipped into bed next to Sunset, who handed her the flashlight she'd been holding ever since her gnome story. Twilight turned it off and put it on the nightstand next to Sunset's clock radio, then pulled up the covers and nestled in for the night. "Goodnight, Sunset," she said sleepily.
A minute later, she let out a loud squeal. "SUNSET!"
"I promised not to bite," Sunset said, her teasing grin audible in the darkness. Laughing, she said, "Goodnight, Twilight."
Twilight groaned and rolled her eyes. "Goodnight..."