“Uhhh…” A pained groan escaped Tempest’s mouth as she reluctantly left sleep’s sweet embrace and returned to the waking world. She struggled to pry her eyes open, only to clamp them shut again just as fast, hissing as beams of light pierced into her eyes and sent a fresh lance of pain shooting through her head.
Stupid sun… Struggling to lift a leg to cover her eyes, she wiggled her other leg around in search of a pillow to hide under. Her head throbbed worse than the time Grubber had challenged her to an ice cream eating contest (which she had won, naturally), her mouth felt drier than the badlands and she could practically taste her rancid morning breath against her tongue.
With a grunt, she continued blindly searching around for a pillow, sparks jumping from the shattered base of her horn in slow-building frustration. Where’s that stupid—
“Mph… Muff… pancakes...”
Tempest froze, her brain finally kickstarting into first gear as her hoof bumped up against something. Something fuzzy. And warm. And mumbling in their sleep. It took but a moment for all the pieces to click together in her mind:
There was somepony in bed with her.
Any other pony might have become filled with abject terror at such a discovery, possibly even leaped out of bed to crash onto the floor with a startled gasp. But Tempest Shadow wasn’t like other ponies. She had been the Head Commander in charge of the Storm King’s army up until a few days ago, and her title had been for far more than just show. Suppressing her shock, Tempest coldly considered her current situation.
I bet this whole thing is just some prank by that pink one, the one with the mane like cotton candy. Ha, ha, wait for some unsuspecting pony to fall asleep and then put her in the same bed as the big mean unicorn. No matter, all I need to do is carefully slip out of bed without waking them up. Easy as pie.
Opening her eyes and tilting her head to the side, she caught a glimpse of the pony sleeping next to her. As her eyes focused, she could just make out the silhouette of a wing against the pony’s side. A pegasus, huh? she mused, now curious as to just who her bedmate was. As more light filtered through the window and across the bed, Tempest could make out lavender fur and a mane of purple hair with a…
A pink streak running through it…
No, no it couldn’t be!
She almost laughed at the very notion of such a thing. Don’t be silly! Lots of ponies have a similar coat and mane colors. I saw at least three of them just yesterday! It couldn’t possibly be her!... Right?
With bated breath, Tempest’s eyes drifted down towards the pony’s flank. The covers had been kicked off at some point during the night, exposing their cutie mark for all the world to see. At that moment, Tempest’s breath caught in her throat and she swore she felt her heart skip a beat.
Staring her in the face was a cutie mark of a purple star surrounded by five smaller white stars.
“Tw… Twilight?”
With another sleepy mumble, the pony rolled over and confirmed Tempest’s worst fears: the Princess of Friendship herself, Twilight Sparkle was lying in bed beside her. Her mane was all ruffled and out of place like it had just waged war against Tempest’s namesake and several of her feathers were askew and in need of a good preening. She looked like Tempest felt, which hammered home even more what a hell of a party last night had been.
None of that mattered to Tempest, however, as she lay paralyzed on her side. She was in bed… with Twilight Sparkle. Princess Twilight Sparkle, the same princess that she had scoured through the Badlands in a mad attempt to capture, the same pony who, against all odds, had chosen to save her when she had been mere moments from being swept up in the Storm King’s hurricane.
Twilight Sparkle, the first pony since Tempest had been a filly that she been truly able to call her friend.
As new to the inner workings of friendship as she was, Tempest was pretty confident that “sleeping together” was not something friends normally did. Especially when they had been friends for barely seventy-two hours.
Stay calm, Tempest, she reassured herself, slipping back into her Commander mindset. Just slip away quietly, and nopony will be the wiser. Slowly…
Before Tempest could make a move, however, a pair of hooves wrapped firmly around her neck and pinned her in place as Twilight snuggled up against her side. “Mmm… flippidy… flapjacks…” Twilight muttered, affectionately nuzzling her new teddy bear.
“Oh, horseapples…” Tempest’s face was hot enough to cook breakfast off of as she lay motionless in bed, an unconscious alicorn cuddled up against her. As she stared up at the ceiling, her only means of escaping her perilous predicament having slipped from her grasp, one question ran through her mind:
What happened last night?
It felt like an eternity before Twilight began to stir, yawning loudly as her eyes fluttered open. Blinking the sleep from her eyes, her gaze eventually settled on Tempest’s terrified face staring up at her, still blushing profusely.
"Uh... morning?" Tempest said, grinning innocently.
For a brief moment, neither pony dared move. A bead of sweat dripped down Tempest’s forehead as she anticipated Twilight’s reaction to waking up next to her. She expected her to freak out, yell, maybe even flail wildly out of bed in a heap before demanding to know why she was in her bed. She could already picture a pair of guards bursting in after that and dragging her off in chains to the dungeon, where she would spend the rest of her days for the crimes she had committed. Maybe the Princesses would instead take mercy on her and decide to execute her on the spot.
That’s what she expected to happen, anyway.
What she didn’t expect was for Twilight to smile at her instead, a noticeable glimmer in her eyes. “Morning, Tempest.”
“Uhh… err… Princess?” she stuttered, taken aback by the lack of a reaction.
“Princess?” Twilight giggled, “Just Twilight is fine, remember?”
“Right…” Breathing deeply, Tempest carefully wiggled her way out of Twilight’s grasp as she regained her composure. “Twilight, about last night—” She was silenced as her headache flared up again, like an icepick being driven into her brain. Shooting up, she held her head in her hooves as agitated sparks crackled from her horn.
“Tempest!” Twilight shouted with concern as she sat up as well. “Are you okay?”
“Do I look okay?” Tempest hissed, still clutching her head.” Ugh… I feel like I just went ten rounds with a minotaur.” Wincing, she added, “Wait, make that twenty...”
“I’m not surprised,” Twilight remarked. “We went pretty hard on the cider last night. What an end to the first ever Friendship Festival, huh?” Lighting up her horn, she levitated a glass of water and a pair of pain-killer pills over to Tempest. “Here, these should help with your headache.”
“Thanks.” Graciously taking the pain-killers and glass from Twilight, Tempest wasted little time in tossing the pills into her mouth and downing the glass in a single gulp. As she licked her lips, a stray thought made her pause for a moment. “Wait a tick…” Glancing at Twilight, she suddenly noticed how perky the princess looked in contrast to how miserable she felt. “How come you don’t have a hangover?”
“Alicorns don’t get hangovers,” Twilight replied matter-of-factly.
Tempest blinked. “... Seriously?”
“Yep. We can get drunk sure, but some part of our biology counteracts the effects of hangovers. I tried to figure out why, but considering there are only five alicorns — one of whom won’t be of legal drinking age for a looong time — I don’t have a large enough sample size to make any definitive conclusions.”
“Huh…” Tempest remarked, only half listening as she cracked several kinks in her neck.
“Well, that and…” Twilight giggled, “... I don’t want to be the one to get Luna and Celestia drunk again. You wouldn't think it, but Princess Luna is a very affectionate drunk. Speaking of affectionate drunks…” Scooting up against Tempest’s side, Twilight leaned over and nuzzled against her cheek, causing a fresh blush to break out across the unicorn’s face. “You were pretty affectionate yourself last night.”
“I… I was?”
Twilight pulled back, her smile slipping into a frown. “Don’t... don’t you remember?”
With a firm shake of her head, Tempest set the glass aside on the nightstand. “No, sadly I don’t. I’ve been able to recall bits and pieces since I awoke, but everything after a certain point is a blur.”
“Oh…” Twilight seemed to wilt, her ears drooping and her wings hanging listlessly at her sides.
The last time Tempest had seen her like this was when she had been imprisoned aboard the Storm King’s airship, completely at her unyielding mercy. This time, however, she felt a pang of remorse pass through her once cold heart. Somedays, I really hate that I was born a pony.
“Perhaps you would be so kind as to fill in the gaps for me?” She said, attempting to smile without making Twilight flee in terror.
“Of course!” In a blink, Twilight perked right back up, happily clapping her hooves together while grinning from ear to ear. “Oh, we could start with—”
“Hey, Twilight!” Came a voice from outside the door. “Are you up yet? I was about to make breakfast and—” As the door creaked open and Spike stuck his head inside, he paused at the sight of the two mares in bed together staring back at him “Uh… am I interrupting something?”
“No!” Twilight hastily replied, her wings flaring out behind her. Plastering a smile on her face, she asked, “You said something about breakfast?”
Spike raised an eyebrow at Twilight’s forced smile, but chose not comment on it just yet. “Yeeeah, I was wondering if you wanted anything special. They’ve got a pretty well-stocked kitchen back here!”
Twilight giggled at Spike’s culinary enthusiasm. “No, I’ll leave the cooking up to you. Just… don’t go overboard, okay? Remember last time?”
“Yeah, yeah, I do,” Spike replied with a roll of his eyes. As he shut the door behind him, Twilight could just make out him muttering, “Never let me live it down, will you?” through the door.
“And go easy on the gemstones!” she hollered, prompting another pained groan from Tempest beside her. “Oh, sorry…”
“Can’t this day just be over already?” Tempest whined, grabbing the covers and pulling them tightly over her head.