The room was dark, and the only source of light came from a projector that aimed at an improvised curtain made from a blanket, where the noise of a screaming stallion was heard from the phonograph that was next to the projector. From it came a visual display that the six ponies, and one dragon, were watching with awed attention from inside the fortress of pillows, while sharing some snacks and juice with each other.
“Now, here is the good part…” Twinkleshine said with excitement as the ponies embraced themselves from the warning and curled up together, anticipating what was about to unfold.
The scream of horror and the cruel noises from the movie made the group of mares gasp in fear as the horror appeared before their very eyes. Then, the screen went black, followed by the words of the credits scrolling up the screen.
Twinkleshine stopped the phonograph and the projector once the movie was over, and Twilight turned on the light to illuminate the room properly, as the group began to relax from the horror thriller.
“Wow! That movie was great,” Minuette complimented as she checked her right forehoof. “I can see my fur standing up after all the scares that movie had!”
“To even choose an accurate creature of the ancient times of the Chaotic period of Equestria has a certain touch in itself,” added Moondancer as she still hugged tightly onto Lyra, who hugged her in return.
Each of them nodded in agreement about how the movie was a good movie in its own genre, while Spike was still hidden under the blanket, hugging it tightly as a small bundle of shivers. “It’s alright, Spike. The movie is over,” Twilight said softly as she gently poked him to make sure he was calming down enough.
“Oh, thank Celestia it’s ov- I mean-! T-that movie wasn’t that s-scary,” Spike said with a slight stutter as he tried to brush off any signs of terror. “That monster was kinda fake anyway,” he defended with a fake apathetic attitude that was betrayed by the shaking of his legs.
Twilight smiled as she patted his head, “Come on, brave boy. We’ll be having dinner, just as we scheduled for tonight, before we delve more into the other activities...” Twilight gestured to her assistant as they both walked to the kitchen, leaving the other five to their own conversations.
“I’ll take care of serving the hot chocolate, while you go bring the donuts and the cupcakes that Lemon Hearts brought,” she instructed to the little drake as she levitated a serving spoon and poured the chocolate in each mug while Spike placed all the pastries on a platter.
“Twilight… you don’t think that a… Grey Widower would come here tonight, right?” he asked in deep concern and was almost afraid of hearing the answer itself. “Because I might have a feeling that Princess Celestia wants me for an important meeting tonight,” Spike almost whispered as he held the platter in his claws.
“Don’t worry, Spike. Those creatures have been extinct since the Era of Harmony started, and nopony has ever seen them since,” she assured him, as she giggled once she saw him take a breath of relief. She took the lead while levitating the mugs and taking the lead as they returned to the others.
Upon their return, they began placing the platters on a small table for each of them to reach. “Alright, dinner time is here!” Twilight announced as the others rushed to her place and selected a pastry of their liking.
“Twilight, we have snacks to eat throughout the night. Why would we be having dinner?” asked Moondancer, taking a bite of a cupcake.
Twilight mentally facehoofed herself for calling it that way, since she was certainly right about the pile of sweets that still remained for the entire night, but she was always prepared to give an answer. “Well, it was just to take a break from that movie. After all, I don’t think either of you would be coherent if you ended up scared of every little thing that crawled right under your peripheral vision, right?”
“Sounds reasonable to me!” agreed Twinkleshine just before she had a good bite of a donut and a good gulp of the hot chocolate. “These movies really get you hungry after so many spooky happenings,” she added before wolfing down her pastry then going for the next one.
“Twinkleshine, you better be careful with eating so many pastries,” warned Minuette as she took a small bite from her own cupcake.
“Oh, Celestia... here comes Colgate, going on her dental lectures,” muttered Lyra, rolling her eyes at the comment of her blue friend.
Minuette gave a good glare at the mint unicorn and scoffed, “I do not wish to be called like that, and you know it, Lyra.” She did her best to keep her cool and continued to eat. “I was just telling her not to get too full for when we have to prepare some s'mores and all,” she notified in her defense as she returned to eating her pastry.
“Then, why did you bring all those dental products with you tonight, hmm...?” Lyra retorted with a winning grin as she took a sip of her hot chocolate, using her well known hand construct.
“Those are for me. I like to have good dental care,” she defended herself as she then smiled calmly at her friend. “Besides, you have a cute plushie in yours,” she countered while the others snickered at the jab.
Lyra blushed fiercely as she saw how easily she was outplayed. “H-he is not for you to ask about it!” she almost shouted, feeling embarrassed by how her friends were laughing.
“I think it’s cute to have a plushie, Lyra,” Lemon Hearts said with a good hearted smile of her own.
Twinkleshine nodded in agreement at Lemon’s words. “Yeah. I sometimes go to sleep with Shooting Star, my plushie from since I was just a foal,” she said with a smile, just to ease Lyra’s discomfort of the plushies.
Lyra was about to ease up and add her words of confession, until Twilight chimed in to say something.
“Why don’t we save these things for when we can play a little bit of Truth or Dare? It can certainly be fun that way, by just making the right question,” she offered while putting a spinning arrow in the middle of the table.
All those present nodded in excitement for the game, as they glanced at one another to prepare for their own questions and challenges for when their turn arrived.
“How about we let Spike take the first turn, and then we rotate from the right side?” Twilight offered to the others as each mare made no claims of disagreeing the order of players.
Spike didn’t waste any second, as he took the arrow and gave it a spin in the middle of the table, twirling around for everypony to see and wondering on who would it stop on.
The arrow began to recede in its speed until it came to a total stop, pointing directly at Twilight Sparkle. “Yes!” shouted Spike happily as he then looked at Twilight with a certain look at the lavender unicorn. “Okay, Twilight, Truth or Dare?”
Taking consideration of her options and thing of any possible outcomes he could make her do should she choose dare, she decided with a light start for everypony. “Truth!”
Twilight never expected her young assistant’s smile to grow as wide as it did towards her response. “Then, tell me... where do you keep the stash of Midnight Amethyst gems hidden?” he asked, which caused Twilight to widen her eyes in surprise.
“That is not a valid question for the game! ...Is it?” the lavender unicorn protested as she looked at the others for support of her objection.
“We never ruled out the extent of the questions, so…” Moondancer pointed out, since no rules had been made except for the most obvious ones.
“Come on, Twilight. Give it up. A question is a question,” Lyra said with a grin of her own.
Twilight could see that there was no way out of it as she sighed in defeat and looked back at Spike. “They are in the basement, in the fourth drawer of the desk where I examine my antique collection,” she replied as she pointed to the door that goes to the lower levels of the tower.
Spike beamed in glee, as he didn’t waste any second to rush off to the door and to the location that Twilight gave him, all while ignoring the calls from the others.
“Well… I think we have the first drop out of the game,” Twinkleshine said as she took her turn and gave the arrow a spin.
“Don’t worry. He will come back…” Twilight said with a smile as she saw that the arrow slowed more and more until it pointed towards Lemon Hearts.
Five pairs of eyes fell upon the yellow unicorn, who was being a bit overwhelmed by the gazes, awaiting for the answer they expected from her. “Alright… I’ll choose Dare,” she said with a defeated sigh but her eyes brimmed upon the improved challenge.
Twinkleshine clapped her hooves in joy as she squee’d at the fun option. “Then, I dare you to do the rabbit dance!” she said as she enjoyed the baffled look from Lemon’s face.
“Would that include-”
“Yes, with the suit and all!” Twinkleshine said, giving the answer she knew that Lemon would not like to know.
“So, where is the suit?” Lemon asked, which made Twinkleshine’s smile shatter as she realized the flaw of her dare.
“I have a bunny suit well preserved in the basement,” Twilight’s words came for the rescue of Twinkleshine and the bane for Lemon, who was now looking at the lavender unicorn in disbelief.
“I don’t think that a filly sized bunny suit will fit me,” Lemon argued in her own defense, just to minimize the embarrassment and the hope to just go on with the simple dance.
“That can be fixed with a growth spell from Elongated Distance’s spellbook. Pretty easy, if you ask me,” Moondancer suggested, while completely ignoring the wordless shout of traitor from Lemon’s piercing gaze.
Lyra, for her part, was barely containing her laughter as a snicker threatened to burst out of her hoof contained mouth.
“Great! Just let me focus and bring the suit here.” Twilight closed her eyes, and suddenly, with a burst of magenta light, a red colored bunny suit was levitated in front of Moondancer, who began to use the growth spell to enlarge it to Lemon’s size.
Lemon Heart, for her part, was only resigning herself to remember the dance from when she was a foal. It used to be a fun activity at the time, but now… it was a humiliating experience, for the sake of fun.
“Don’t forget to sing,” Twinkleshine added, since it was part of the dance itself.
Lemon Hearts grumbled a bit as she began to suit up in the costume and did some stretches with it, to see if she could give a good bounce during the dance.
“Okay… here it goes,” the frowny face Lemon had was now a smile of a happy foal as she began to jump around the mares.
The five unicorns watched her bounce around, and as soon she gave the second lap, she stopped in front of the pillow fort and began to sing.
“With a little squeak and no other sound.
We, little cute bunnies, are jumping around.”
She began as she danced in place by waving her forehooves in a simple rhythm as she bounced in place.
“We rush all as one, staying together,
We, little cute bunnies, protect one another.”
Lemon Hearts now began to give three twirls in place before she went to the next part.
“We see the wolf coming, but there is no fear
We, little cute bunnies, have someone who is near.”
Each mare smiled as they saw how lovely Lemon seemed to be as she waggled her bunny tail on both sides.
“With a little squeak and no other sound,
We, cute little bunnies, arrive safe and sound.”
Lemon Hearts finished the song with a hug of herself as the end of the verse came, and it was soon followed by the clapping hooves of her friends for a well done performance.
Lemon Hearts blushed in embarrassment as she began to unzip the costume and folded it neatly as she gave it back to Twilight, unaware that she was hopping back to her place.
The group of mares giggled a bit at the expense of her hopping, just as Lemon smiled lightly as well.
“Okay, my turn!” declared Moondancer as she gave the arrow the next spin with a little force. It soon pointed directly at Minuette. “Alright, truth or dare?”
The blue unicorn didn’t hesitate to go with a side grin and a puff of her chest, “Dare me, sister!” she proclaimed with a defiant look.
Moondancer hummed at the possibilities to make a good dare for her friend, who could go with almost anything that she could come up with. “Alright… I dare you to juggle three cupcakes in your hooves and while reciting a tongue twister,” she challenged with a proud smirk.
“I could give a better dare to her,” Lyra said with a smile as she shook her head in slight disappointment.
“Let her be, Lyra. You know that this is her first time playing,” Lemon Hearts defended her friend. “Bet Minuette will have a difficult time accomplishing it,” she nodded to Moondancer, who nodded back in appreciation for sticking with her.
“No kidding! I know I can juggle three objects with my hooves, but to be able to pull it off with cupcakes will be a bit of a doozy here!” The blue unicorn levitated the pastries into her fore hooves and tested their weight before she began to throw them into the air.
Once she had the hang of the movement of the cupcakes in the air and a steady rhythm to juggle them with, she began to recite a tongue twister.
“Pretty Pie picked a pack of pickles. A pack of pickles Pretty Pie pic- Aah!” Minuette shouted as she failed her throw of a cupcake and hit her on the tip of her muzzle. Soon after, the others fell down on her eye and horn.
Each mare began to laugh at the mess that Minuette was in, though Moondancer soon helped the blue unicorn get rid of the sugary treat from her face.
“Well, we can call that as a dare completed,” Lemon Hearts said as she aided in cleaning her friend. “Your turn, Twilight!” she added once she knew who was the next in line for the game tonight.
Before Twilight could get to begin her turn, the door of the lower levels of the tower opened, and from in it, the purple dragon returned, mumbling some words as he begrudgingly sat on the floor and crossed his arms.
“So, I guess you burned out all ten attempts on the lock?” she asked with a winning smile at Spike.
“Yeah, and even worse was that you fireproofed the lock,” he added with a huff of his breath.
Twilight pat his head. “You know that those are your special reserves, and you told me to give them on the special occasions of your baking prowess,” she reminded him.
“Yeah, I did told you that…” he mumbled as he decided to rejoin the fun among the mares.
“Okay, Twilight, let’s see who the next victim will be!” Lyra joked, waiting eagerly to continue the game.
Twilight gave a nod and spun the arrow at a good speed. As it went slower at every second, it eventually pointed directly at Twinkleshine, who groaned at being selected. “Okay, Twinkleshine, Truth or Dare?” she asked with a smile.
The white unicorn gave it a thought as she nodded to herself. “Dare!” she exclaimed with a grin.
Twilight grumbled under her breath. She expected that she would choose truth, in order to know more about her friend, but since the others chose the same option, it seemed rather illogical not to go with the flow.
“Alright then,” Twilight began as she smiled at her friend. “I dare you to go to the Royal Garden and tilt the statue of Winning Victory,” she said with a sly smirk that fazed the others from its suddenness.
Each mare, except for Spike and Lemon Hearts, gave Twilight a skeptical look. “Twilight, I don’t think that sounds challenging enough… It’s just a statue” Lyra said, as she was expecting a real challenge from the lavender mare.
Lemon Hearts, for her part, leaned closer and almost whispered. “You’re serious about this?” she look at Twilight and expected a nod from her or anything in relation, but all she saw was a serious look of determination.
“Twilight, you know what will happen if she goes there and tilts the statue right?” Spike asked with a more serious voice. “Remember what happened to the last pony that did that?” he insisted with sheer horror in his eyes.
The lavender unicorn ignored the questions as she gave a serious look at Twinkleshine. “So, do you accept?” she insisted, keeping an eye out for any sign of hesitation.
Twinkleshine, for her part, was silent and began to consider what the challenge was, based upon a simple thing that probably, judging from the reactions of Lemon and Spike, would end up putting her in trouble if the Royal Guard caught her in the act. With that in consideration, the marble unicorn smiled as she was about to give her answer.
“Wait, hold on, what is this about the statue of Winning Victory?” Minuette asked as she waved her hoof in between the two mares in order to gain their attention.
“Winning Victory is the name of one of Equestria’s bravest soldiers, and smartest tactician, from the past. She defended the land against all threats at the border during the Invasion Wars. She was called, by many soldiers and nobles, the Goddess of Victory, due to her well planned strategies and tactics during the war that led the Equestrian forces to win countless of times. That’s why the statue is located in the Royal Gardens, near the training grounds,” Moondancer explained in a matter of fact tone, pausing a bit after remembering a small detail about the statue itself. “There has been a certain rumor about the statue when it’s tilted, but I haven’t got a confirmation about it…” she trailed off as the three mares huddled together as they listened attentively to Moondancer’s explanation.
Only Twilight remained in her place with a soft smile, while Lemon Hearts was trembling in place, as she was nervous about the subject itself.
“What is it? What does the statue do when it’s tilted!?” demanded Lyra, as she was a bit more excited to know what would be expected to happen to Twinkleshine when the moment of truth came.
“Well, something that is almost certain is that the-”
“Moondancer, I do wish to know how much you know about the statue, but it would certainly be better to keep it a surprise.” Twilight was quick to stop the vanilla unicorn from going on and spoiling the surprise for her friends.
Twinkleshine felt a bit uneasy, to be left in the dark, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to learn what she was dealing with in regards to the possible consequences for dealing with such a troublesome dare. “What is in it for those who do not want to partake in a dare?” she asked softly with an uneasy grin.
Twilight was a bit surprised, since there was no rule for those who bailed out of the game, and looked at Spike for an option.
The small drake took the hint, smiled and gave her a single nod. “For those who bail out of the game are going to pay for the morning breakfast at Donut Joe’s coffee shop for all of us,” he recited, as if he made a royal proclamation.
Twinkleshine weighed out the options and considered which one would be worse, which didn’t cause any time to be in consideration at all since she didn’t have any money with her for such an endeavor and gave a small sigh. “Which one is the statue?”
“Take the road through the gardens that lead to the Vigilance Tower that is near the training grounds, just a five minute walk from here to the statue,” Twilight directed as she smiled with glee.
“Right then. I’ll be off to complete the dare,” the marble unicorn said and trotted off through the door and down the road towards the mentioned place.
“So, we’re just going to let her be on her own while we wait here until she completes the dare?” Lyra said with a huff, all while crossing her forelegs.
“She’s right! We can’t be sure that Twinkleshine completed the dare if we aren’t there to witness the event,” joined Minuette with a quick nod.
“I didn’t say that we were going to leave her be. It’s just that we are giving Twinkleshine a head start, so that we won’t be near when the moment of truth happens,” Twilight said while standing up and rushing to the door. “Come on! We gotta keep an eye on her.”
The others quickly rushed behind Twilight and carefully rushed down the stairs in order to follow Twinkleshine.
Keeping a quick pacing, but also maintaining silence with their hooves, the group spotted their friend from the distance before slowing down and watching from afar.
Twinkleshine, for her part, illuminated the road to see through the night while walking down the path that led to the training grounds in order to meet up with the statue and complete the challenge that Twilight had given her.
It wasn’t that much of a walk until the mentioned statue was in sight. She quickened her pace and stopped once she was at the base of the sculpture itself.
“Here it is… So far, nothing bad has happened, nor was I seen by any royal guards,” she mused to herself as she inspected the statue of Winning Victory. “So, how do I tilt it?” she wondered as she began to poke the base to inspect any loose ground from it.
The statue itself was made of a solid stone rock that depicted the figure of a mare standing on her rear hooves, shouting to the skies. On her left fore hoof, she held a banner of Equestria, while her right fore hoof was rising to the air.
Twinkleshine kept her eyes looking for anything that could be used to move the statue itself, all while using her magical grip to probe anything that could come loose from the stone.
“There’s gotta be something here. Twilight would never make things up and have Moondancer as-” while in her ramblings, a soft click was heard from the right leg as it was bent forward, and the statue began to tilt forward.
Soon, a soft humming began emanating from the inside of the podium, as the right hoof began to move slowly down before the statue followed suit by bending forward.
The sudden movement caught Twinkleshine by surprise as she leapt back and kept her eyes open for whatever was about to happen.
The right hoof of Winning Victory reached down to touch the podium and dropped a medium sized plushie of a Twittermite on the podium, right in front of Twinkleshine as the statue returned to its original position. “Nike smiles upon your victory!” the statue recited as the humming noise died down and the silence once more reigned the night skies.
“...What?”
“What?” Lyra joined Twinkleshine in the question as she glanced at Twilight. “What was that all about?” she rephrased, as she was somewhat disappointed about the end of the dare.
“We need to leave first, or a guard will catch us,” Twilight said as she ignited her horn to make a small sparks to signal to her friend, Twinkleshine, and began to run back to her tower.
The moment that the marble unicorn noticed the sparks was when she heard the voice of a stallion from the distance. “Is anypony there!? Identify yourself!”
At that, she quickly took the plushie and bailed out, back to Twilight’s tower along with the others, who were not far ahead.
The group returned to the living room, breathing quickly from the rush as each of them shared a smile.
“Okay. Now, can you tell us what that was all about with the statue?” Lyra insisted while the other four nodded, as they were just as eager to know.
“The statue of Winning Victory was created to bring luck to the soldiers. Then, it was modified into a game for the royal guard to test out one’s luck. It is a mechanical game of lottery, where when the trigger is pulled a random object will fall from her right hoof and a prize will be given,” Twilight began as she retold the mystery of the statue. “In the last era, Princess Celestia modified the prizes when the guards abused it to win a bottle of wine and began to slack off because of it.”
“Last time we played, I got a Star Spider shot right at me in the face when I pulled the hoof. It scared me to no end,” Lemon Hearts replied as she sat down on the floor as she shivered from past memories.
“Well, that is something that I never thought that the castle would have had,” Twinkleshine said, placing her new plushie on the table and smiling a little. “You really did scare me with that whole thing of going down there and tilting the statue, Twilight. Perhaps you do have some mischievous side that we never see in you,” she mused with a smirk at the lavender unicorn.
Twilight chuckled for a moment as she considered that perhaps she went a bit strong in the dare, but with the accepted results, it was still a good idea.
“Okay! It’s my turn now!” claimed Lyra as she snatched the arrow, and without anyone’s permission, she gave one strong spin of it with the force of her energy hand.
The others remained still, watched how fast the arrow spun and held their breaths once it began to spin slower and slower. It soon stopped right at Moondancer.
“Ahhh... yeah! Looks like my first victim will be the mare with the rimmed glasses,” Lyra rubbed her hooves together in a malicious intent with a grin of pure evil.
Moondancer gulped quietly and adjusted her glasses with her magic. “Well, I might go with truth… However, it is preferable to select dare, since challenges are a thing of the moment, but truth is something that last forever,” she said with a smile at her plan to avoid any humiliating questions from the mint green unicorn.
Lyra could almost anticipate the reaction from her friend from what kind of dare she had in mind and was eager to shout it as fast and loud she could, but it was far more sweet to just say it clear and with a good sense of malice. “Then, I dare you to… kiss Twilight!” She shouted out loud, dropping it like a bomb in the middle of the room.
Twilight felt her cheeks burn, as she could only look at Lyra as if she went mad. So did Twinkleshine, Lemon Hearts and Minuette, as they hadn’t thought of something so radical and intimate as a dare.
Moondancer, for her part, was doing her best to keep a calm expression. “Is that all?” she asked with feigned disinterest.
“Sorry, but I won’t cha- wait, what?” Lyra was now the confused one, as she couldn’t believe how calm Moondancer was towards her challenge.”Well, yeah. That’s it,” she replied, confused that her plan wasn’t going as she expected.
“And I thought that you would make it more elaborated than that, Lyra, because it’s just a simple kiss in itself. There isn’t anything beyond a small gesture among friends and all,” Moondancer easily explained with a simple shrug from her shoulders.
“She’s right. You’ve been complaining so much on how easy it was Twilight’s and Moondancer’s dares that we thought you had a better one of your own,” Minuette said after recovering from the shock that Lyra had given to them.
Lyra pondered the words they gave, and when she thought that it would be a good challenge for the mare, it was clearly not giving the effect that she hoped for.
As for Moondancer, she was only waiting for her friend to change her mind as she internally sweated bullets. She really put her best effort to think of puppies playing with butterflies in order to conceal her blush and act naturally from the surprise.
Twilight just remained petrified, as the blush never dared to leave her face for the entire conversation, and just waited for the others to convince Lyra to rethink her challenge.
“Yeah… Guess the idea of a small peck was something less defiant than what it sounded like,” Lyra agreed with a sigh, rubbing her nape with her hoof to reach for another good idea for a challenge. “Okay then, you will… Eat a habanero chilli while saying the number and names of the Traveling Spells,” she said with a satisfying smile of the new dare she proposed, ignoring the face of relief that Twilight gave.
“Okay… Tha- that sounds re- really daring enough. Thank you, Lyra,” the vanilla unicorn said, a bit afraid of the painful experience she was about to get.
“I’ll go get the chilli,” Spike offered as he rushed off to the kitchen, since he knew where it was.
Moondancer looked at Twilight, who was now more at ease from their recent surprise, with an inquisitive look about the nature of Spike doing such a thing and was soon answered by the mare in question. “Spike does have a liking for spicy food, even if he ends up getting burned from the chillies, since he should know that a spicy condiment is not the same as a piece of coal in flames,” she explained to her friend and shied away, since they had collaborated with Lyra for the punishment.
“Hey! I should let you know that I can now eat five jalapeños without doing my dance, thank you,” Spike returned with a habanero on a plate and served it right in front of Moondancer to consume.
As expected Moondancer could see that each pair of eyes were facing her directly and forced her to not dawdle on the matter any further. “Here we go then…” Moondancer levitated the chili pepper and gave it a big bite out of it as the spiciness began to take effect in her taste buds. Soon, her entire body shook as her face became red, and her breathing became more ragged with every second.
“The... hagh… Travelling spells are… Hooh… Six and consist of… hiss… Teleportation… Blink… Cough… High range Teleportation… Ooh, it stings… Flash Step… Warp… aaand… Shadestep!” She finished with heavy breathing and a sour face. She quickly tried to search for anything to turn off the burning sensation from her tongue.
A glass of milk floated right before her eyes, and she tried to take it with her hooves, since she couldn’t trust to use her magic for the action, but it hovered away from her grasp, noticing the golden hand that was holding the drink, heading back to Lyra. “What about Summoning?” she asked with a devilish grin at her friend.
Moondancer glared at the mint unicorn. She knew what her intention was, but she couldn’t downright accuse her. “Even if… it is related, summoning spells have been debunked… since- oh, sweet Regulus… Since the spell brings specific objects to their position and rarely… Haagh... It has rarely been used to call for other ponies… since the caster needs a high amount of mana for such feat,” she quickly answered, as she soon noticed that the glass of milk was once more in her reach and greedily drank it to let the liquid rest on her tongue to ease the feeling from the spicy pepper.
The others watched the dare until the very end and decided to move on, keeping a mental note of being careful of Lyra’s dares.
“Finally! It is my turn to spin the arrow!” Minuette said as she prepared to give it a good spin and watched it spin round and round.
The arrow gave an abrupt halt right in front of Spike. “Alright, Spike! You get to choose,” she said with a smirk at the small drake.
Spike was nervous, but he tried to look brave as best he could. “I can take any dare you have for me!” he exclaimed, puffing his chest out in a sign of bravery to his claim.
Minuette snickered as she hummed in delight. “Guess nopony will ever chicken out now from a dare then,” she mused as she gave a pause for dramatic effect. “Then... I dare you to... Actually, I don't have a dare to give. Can you change it to truth?” she asked with a nervous smile.
Spike considered this, and since he wasn’t eager to have anything that much difficult to do, he simply nodded. “Yeah, I go with Truth then,” he eagerly conceded her request.
“Okay, so what is the funniest thing that’s happened to you?” she asked innocently while expecting his answer.
The purple drake gave it a thought and then snickered.
“It was during the first day of Magic Kindergarden,” he began with a wide smile, as Twilight was wearing a weary expression. She knew full well where this was going.
“...And when Twilight and her family walked closer to the school, Twilight went full panic mode the moment we passed by the entrance,” he stopped for a moment as he snickered at the memory.
Each mare, excluding Twilight, looked at each other, not knowing what the real joke was coming from. “But all foals are nervous to their first day of school, Spike… Well, unless she really did a fit there, then I gu-” Twinkleshine made her opinion made, but she was then cut off.
“The fun part was that Twilight was going to her third year of Junior High, and she believed that she was being sent to Magic Kindergarten, again!” Spike explained further, and his laughter increased, as did Lyra’s from the revelation. Twinkleshine and Lemon Hearts laughed, but they held their hooves on their mouths in order to conceal them.
Twilight just wanted to sink further to the floor and head directly to the grounds below.
“Twilight, are you afraid of Kindergarten?” Minuette asked with a small smile, as she did her best not to laugh like the others.
“That would explain why I never heard of you attending that grade,” Moondancer pointed out, not having a reason to laugh at the... certainly embarrassing story.
“No, Minuette. I am not afraid of Magic Kindergarten, but I did enlist to the first year… I just decided to drop it, since being home schooled was far better than having to learn what I had already learned from books. But I do still have… atychiphobia,” she confessed the last part with a bit of shame and nervousness.
“Wait, really?” asked Moondancer with a certain level disbelief, until it was confirmed by a single nod from the lavender unicorn. “Well, that seems to explain several things when it comes to school projects,” she said with a hint of surprise.
“The main reason that I felt panic was because Profesor High Standards gave me an A in my final project, just because of a slight mistake in the number of words that my report had,” she explained.
“Well, he is certainly the most severe teacher of them all. Most of the students fail his class, and the others can only get a B+ at most,” the vanilla unicorn said with a weak smile.
“Okay then, are we still going to play?” Lemon Hearts interrupted as she levitated the arrow and pinned it on the middle of the table. “Because it’s my turn now!” Once she made that exclamation, she spun the vector with ease and twirled it around the table until it landed pointing at Lyra, something that, at this point, each mare felt was certain to happen.
“Dare me, sister!” Lyra proclaimed, right before Lemon could even make the question, as she made a guts pose to prove her readiness in the matter.
The yellow unicorn smiled with the same aura that Lyra was emanating, taking the challenge up in her hooves, and nodded. “Okay! I challenge you to declare to all our friends that your theories are wrong!” she exclaimed with a shout as she pointed at the mint green unicorn with her right hoof.
The words struck into her ears and echoed inside her mind. Lyra felt as if she stopped functioning and couldn’t say a single word but incoherent sentences. “Bwha?”
Lyra felt confused and betrayed about the mere thought of her being forced to go against all that she had investigated and all that she had collected… to have to deny it all. “But, all the theories and the evidences… Even my professor of ancient history and psychiatry has given me praise about the thesis I had made regarding the facts that I have obtained,” she complained a little, trying to dissuade her friend from pushing her to go with such a dare that was evoked upon her. “Also, forcing me to say something is more inclined to a truth than a dare,” she objected to gain favor.
“I do believe that, to be a category of Truth, one must ask a question to the selected pony. A dare is focused on forcing a pony to do something with a challenge,” Twilight intervened with her knowledge upon the rules that the game had.
“D’oh...” Lyra cursed, since she knew better than to go with the rules from the only mare that would have an entire section of rulebooks. “Okay, fine,” she yielded as she cleared her throat and prepared to begin with her challenge.
“And don’t forget to go into details,” Lemon said before Lyra could even say a word.
Lyra shot a nasty glare at the yellow unicorn, but regardless, she continued on.”I am wrong. All my research and all the little evidence that I have gathered are completely debunked and proven false. Humans are only myth, in all sense of the word,” she proclaimed as quickly as she could, just to get it over with, and then took a deep breath out of mental exhaustion.
“Harder than it seemed?” Twinkleshine asked while offering her mint green friend a glass of chocolate to digest the possible bile that was residing in her mouth.
“I would never say those words ever again… It’s as if all that I studied for is all for nothing. Just pure terror there,” Lyra said as she soon relaxed herself and smiled. “I can say that I wasn’t expecting that. Seriously, I thought I could go and do almost anything that you could tell me to do, but this was in its own way dangerous,” Lyra said as she shivered a little.
Twilight nodded and called the attention of the others around her. “Then, I guess that concludes this small game of thrills,” she said as she stood up from the table to find the book of sleepovers and marked a check in the games section of it. “Would you girls like to move on the next activity?” she offered, which came from several nods and agreements.
The group then walked together to the pillow fort and began to talk for the remainder of the night.
“So, Twilight… what is atychiphobia?” Lyra began with a big smile and a look of curiosity that Twilight knew all too well.
The lavender unicorn smiled softly and chuckled. ”I will tell you, if you tell me why you pursue fantasies?” she retorted back, which was received by the giggles of her friends and a frown from Lyra. “Okay, I’ll go first, then you will tell me about your research,” she then said as the five mares paid attention to Twilight, while Spike made himself comfortable in his spot to listen to the mares talk.