Twilight's Slumber Party

by Furious Thestral


Pillow Fight and starry night

“You see, Twilight, there is this theory that proves that humans exist, and the Guild of Ancient History and the Guild of Majestic Beasts consider it complete balloony, because they fear that it will make them look like complete foals once my investigation bares true!” Lyra said as she showed a drawn picture of a human and a list of locations throughout Equestria held in her magic grasp. “This here is the undeniable truth about humans’ existence and the possible locations where they have set foot so long ago!” she said, ecstatic while delivering the picture to Twilight for her to see closely.

Twilight watched the drawing with confusion, trying to figure any creature resembling what Lyra had drawn. Never had she heard anything that could relate to... what her friend had just explained, nor could she find any related proof of the theories she had explained.

“Your theory sounds… convincing, but most of these dates that you mentioned don’t add up to what history has mentioned, nor the artifacts that you assume are linked to the mentioned creatures,” she said, returning the drawing to Lyra as she didn’t consider that such a creature had ever existed in the land before.

“I warned you about asking her about her theories of her creatures,” Lemon Hearts said as she carried five pillows with her magic. “She gets overboard when somepony asks about her fantasies and what they think about them.”

“Hey! They are not fantasies, but facts,“ Lyra objected as she followed Lemon while picking up three pillows in her own magical hands. “I’ll soon take my research to find the proof about humans all over in Equestria!” she declared with conviction, while bringing three pillows to her side.

The lavender unicorn carried her own set of pillows and joined the two of them. “You do realise that this theory of yours could most likely topple over the entire society of science and technology, if your proofs are right?” she said in a tone of voice that resembled a warning, before changing it into total curiosity. “But then again, there’s nothing that says these… Hoomans have ever been here... Where did you find the proof of their existence?”

“It’s ‘humans’, Twilight, and I know the possible risks for our modern society. But, these creatures need to be acknowledged by everypony,” she began with a wide smile, “And as for the day I heard about these creatures, it was when I was a filly, and it was at nighttime when I went to bed. The next thing that happened was that-”

“Is everypony ready!?” Minuette interrupted the mares from their topic as she bounced on her way with excitement for their next game.

Twinkleshine and Moondancer walked out from the pillow fort, carrying their own selected number of pillows in their own magic, smiling in anticipation for the pillow fight that was about to begin soon.

“You can be certain of that! For you all are going to taste the fluffy wrath of my pillow accuracy!” Lyra shouted, dropping the subject of humans as soon as she glared at the blue unicorn.

Twilight shrugged to herself as she levitated her batch of pillows, and so did Lemon with her own, ready to begin the fight.

Spike, meanwhile, was hiding under an armor of pillows from a safe distace, not really eager to partake in a fight where pillows could fly from anywhere thanks to the unicorn magic that would leave him open to any impact.

“Now is the time to get things started!” Twinkleshine shouted as she took the first attack with determination, launching one of her pillows with force directly at Lemon Hearts, who managed to duck from the projectile and counterattack with two pillows of her own.

Soon enough, the others joined in the assault, each mare choosing their own target to throw pillows at, while keeping an eye on other approaching projectiles around them.

Pillows soon flew at a moderate speed as they made impact against the mares and other things that got caught up in their way of collision, all while the noises of laughter filled the room.

Moondancer received the impact of two pillows and felt her head spinning before she soon regained focus and realized Twinkleshine was the culprit of the aggression. “So, it has come down to this then?” She lowered her stance and levitated three pillows, aiming her sights on the fleeing marble unicorn, only to be interrupted by the impact of another pillow landing on her face. “Wha-? Hey!” she shouted at Lemon Hearts, who was grinning smugly at her.

“You know that you shouldn’t be letting your guard down! You make an easy target for my pi- gack!” Lemon was soon interrupted by the hit of a fluffy projectile on the back of her head.

Twilight held three pillows, dancing around her in her magic field, “I think the same would go for you as well, Lemon,” she said with a grin at her friend.

Lyra and Minuette looked at each other intensely, but after a moment, they nodded to each other in silent agreement as their eyes focused solemnly on Twilight, throwing at the lavender unicorn four pillows at high speed.

Twilight soon caught on to the quick movement of the projectiles, and in a matter of seconds, she raised a force field that stopped the pillows right where they impacted.

“Wha-! No fair! You’re using magic!” Lyra objected, narrowing her eyes at Twilight.

“So are you, Lyra,” Twilight called back, having lifted all seven pillows up in the air with her magic and aimed them at her two attackers.

Lyra was unable to make a retort as she soon noticed that she was being overwhelmed and that Minuette was far away from the battle zone, huddling behind Spike for coverage, abandoning her friend to her fate.

“Oh, haystacks…” the mint green unicorn muttered as the volley of pillows fell upon her, burying her from hooves to horn.

The other four mares, and Spike, cringed at the sight of the impact before they resumed their own battles.

“Don’t you think that was a bit too much?” Twinkleshine asked Twilight, taking the opportunity throw a pillow at the lavender unicorn.

“She’ll be fine. Besides, it’s all in good fun!” Twilight replied as she launched another pillow at Twinkleshine, who managed to dodge it by ducking down out of its way.

Moondancer and Minuette were having their own battle, as they each launched several pillows as they hid behind the furniture around them, only to show their heads for the moment to counterattack with their own pillows at hoof.

Spike was just sitting there with his own armor as he watched how Lemon Hearts was hit by another pillow, directly thrown by Twinkleshine. “I wasn’t expecting this kind of pillow fight. These mares are taking this far more literal than I thought they would,” he muttered to himself as he ducked his head from a miss fire pillow that almost hit him.

The game lasted for another five minutes, but for the six mares, it felt far longer than that, as each one felt too tired and happy after it was all over.

“That was really fun!” Twilight said as she marked on her checklist for another completed activity from their night fueled fun time.

“By the look of the collateral damage… I think we went overboard with that last one,” Lemon Hearts said with a small smile as she glanced around the living room.

Twilight followed her gaze and soon noticed the mess the place was in, furniture turned side up, small objects and other trinkets out of place or on the floor and how feathers were scattered all over the floor and on some other parts of the room.

“Maybe…” Twilight agreed sheepishly as she soon coughed to regain composure and take a deep breath. “So then, anypony up for one last activity? It will be more relaxing this time,” she offered while levitating the scattered pillows from the entire room.

Each mare considered the idea and agreed to her proposal. After all that they have been doing, the fun was still in high spirits, and the night was still at its peak.

“I think it sounds like a good way to end the night!” Lyra cheered with excitement as she stood up and looked everywhere that might hint on the activity their host had planned. “So, what is it that we are going to do?”

Spike passed by them with several pillows stacked on his claws as he pondered on the question that Lyra asked. “From Twilight’s List for the evening, the only thing left to do was stargazing, so I’d assume that would be the one to finish it all,” he replied going to place the pillows back with the fort.

Moondancer smiled at the idea and nodded in agreement. “That really sounds like a good way to enjoy the night sky. Too bad I didn’t bring my telescope for it,” she groaned as she helped in the cleaning.

Spike took the opportunity to dismiss any worries that the vanilla unicorn had in mind. “Don’t worry, Moondancer. Twilight has her own set of telescopes in the highest level of the tower. It won’t be a problem to borrow one of them for all of us to use,” he bragged with the kind way he always did.

Moondancer smiled at the mention of the telescopes as she rushed next to Spike. “What kind of telescopes does she have?” she managed to keep her voice neutral, but her eyes gleamed with an incopius amount of interest on the items of interest.

Twilight soon returned from cleaning the mess when she heard Moondancer’s question, which made her grin in delight, as she soon bumped Spike aside to be closer to her friend. “They are all made by the Copper Nickel company. I have the models: The Starseeker, Constellation Admirer and Plus Ultra. Each of them are made with a stainless steel armazon. The lens is made of a specialized crystal from the Leaking Glass shop, which enhances the lighting to see the celestial bodies more easily, and the base model is enchanted, making it capable being steady on any kind of surface,” she recited with excitement every important aspect of her valuable possession.

Moondancer’s eyes widened in surprise, and her smile grew even bigger. “Those are the best models that any astronomer enthusiast could ever possibly obtain,“ she squealed in delight as she walked closer to Twilight. “I heard that those models of telescope have enchanted lens to have a clear view of the night, even against the light pollution in the cities,” she added with excitement.

“You’re right! The three of them were gifts from the school, my parents and from princess Celestia each respectively. They are truly my most prized items,” Twilight said with a fond smile. “So, what model do you have? I can only assume that you have one, since you know them all too well,” she asked now focusing on her scholar friend.

Moondancer was caught off guard as she felt uneasy at her intrigued tone. “I just recently managed to obtain the Sightseeing model,” she said, looking away at the floor, almost in shame for confessing to have one of the cheapest models in store.

Twilight noticed the reaction of shame, and she wasn’t going to let that downcast expression remain. “That’s wonderful! That model comes with a support of notepads and quills along with a star chart, right?” She asked with excitement, watching how the vanilla unicorn nodded eagerly, brightening her features happily as she merrily conversed with Twilight while walking to the upper levels of the tower.

Both unicorns walked happily, chatting about their telescopes and several related subjects they had while the other five watched them from a distance, giggling at how both of them seemed to be enjoying one another’s company.

“Look at those nerds go, talking about their telescopes as if it was the big topic of fashion,” Twinkleshine said with a giggle.

“I think this last activity will be more entertaining for all of us,” Minuette added while walking towards the stairs.

The others followed up to the next level of the tower and were amazed at the sight before their eyes, as they could see from the lighted oil lamps a study room with a giant hourglass in the middle, including a blackboard, globe sphere, several sets of rulers, scrolls and papers around the place. But, the most important thing that was far more noticeable were the immeasurable number of books that were shelved in bookcases, covering the majority of the walls in the room, that even reached to the roof of the three stories tall tower. The only wall that wasn’t filled with books was the giant window that reached to one story tall.

“Sweet Celestia, this place is filled with so many books!” Lyra shouted, as she stretched her neck upon the scene before her eyes, gawking at the possibility that Twilight had ever read all those books.

Lemon Hearts whistled in amusement as she looked at the bookshelves at the highest levels. “I can’t even imagine myself being able to read all these books myself!” she mused as she looked at Minuette, who was still gawking at the room.

“There must be a thousand of them in this very room,” the blue unicorn mused as she soon looked back at the floor level.

“There are exactly one thousand, two hundred and fifty seven books here, not exactly having more books than Canterlot’s public library but still enough that this place can be a library of its own,” Spike said in a matter of fact tone, as he joined the other four mares at the center of the room. “And yes, Twilight did read them all. In fact, she has the world record of more books read in one day, and the world record of more words read in one minute!” he then bragged, expanding his hands to make it look like a big deal of its own.

Lyra was now the one to whistle in surprise. “When was Twilight in the Record Whinnies?” Lyra was unable to hide her surprise at the bit of information she just heard, not being able to believe her friend’s achievement. “I never thought that she would be the type of mare to show off her talent and call upon a judge to make herself famous,” she mused with her eyes still lingering in surprise.

Spike stepped forward and looked at Lyra with a proud smile. “Actually, I was the one who called for the judge back then. I told Twilight that he came for the search of the most dedicated readers among Equestria and that he was going to help promote the love of reading to all the ponies who would love to read... Honestly, that’s all there was to it in order to convince Twilight on showing her reading skills to the judge and win her a place in the book,” he explained, easily showing how he managed to get away with the entire scheme of having a recognition from the famous book of records.

“In the end, Twilight discovered about it when she received her two plaques for the records she established and because Shining Armor brought the book with him, where the entire family saw how Twilight made history in the greatest book of records,” he finished with a chuckle.

Lemon Hearts nodded as she took ahold of the new information of their friend. “Well, that was an interesting fact about Twilight. Who knew that she had something like that hidden within her life?”

Lyra nodded as she soon looked around, “Speaking of Twilight, where are they? Have they reached the top already?”

“This is the book that I have loaned to you!” The voice of Moondancer was evident as the four mares and dragon spotted the two remaining mares discussing about a book that was held in Moondancer’s magic. “It even says here; To Twilight, thank you for showing me the classics. I can see by the fact that you left it here that it meant a lot to you,” she complained, shutting the book and glaring at Twilight, who was looking around nervously once she realised her misstep.

“We- well... it really was a good book... if that helps?” Twilight replied, doing her best to save herself from her own mistake from forgetting such an important thing.

Moondancer eyed the mulberry unicorn with a stern glare for a moment until it faded away as quickly, replaced by a smile upon her face. “Well, I guess I can forgive you for that. After all, you’re still learning to be a good friend, right?” she said with a simple nod.

Twilight returned the gesture, with a fond smile at how her friend easily forgave her accident from the past. She stepped aside and pointed to a set of stairs that guided to the upper levels. “Thanks, I’ll be more careful in the future,” she promised, giving her a hug, which was returned easily by the vanilla unicorn. “We should go on with our plans for tonight.” She gestured to a set of stairs. “It’s only three set of stairs away to reach the highest part of the tower. Come on, girls. The stars are waiting to be observed,” she took the lead to show the way, while Moondancer walked close behind, while the others soon followed.

“Doesn’t that make your heart melt?” asked Lemon Hearts with a dreamy smile, “I know for sure that those two were the ones that had been together the most out of all of us, and to see them being this close again is really adorable,” she said to Minuette, who nodded back.

“It’s good to have them being closer as friends than ever before, and that Twilight is now being more open with all of us,” Minuette said back as they took the stairs, “She has been growing more and more with her friendships ever since.”

They all nodded, agreeing to each other as they followed the two scholars up to the last level of the building, where the access was on a latch door big enough for the entrance of two ponies. Inside was a room with a low roof that also had a balcony attached. In a corner, there were several objects that had been under the covers of blankets, a lunar orrery that showed the Mare in the Moon was displayed in the nearby window, and a small desk was placed in the middle of the room next to a personal bookshelf, which was filled with several journals and star charts. From the balcony, there were three telescopes placed in line, pointing out at the starry night. One was a small basic model of grey color with a white star as a logo that was imprinted on the top. The second telescope was a bigger, blue colored, telescope model with yellow details that held three dials that adjusted the focus of the lens and resolution. The third one was the biggest of the three of them, a red colored telescope with golden details etched in. It included several periscopes that would allow many ponies to watch the same position that the major lens would be pointed at, along with several enchantments and attachments that made it seem like its owner was a professional astronomer by just having one.

“Wow, Twilight, how did you get the bits to buy three telescopes?” Lyra asked without hiding her amazement in each word. She circled around each telescope in amazement, to check every detail she could from them.

Twilight smiled as she made sure that the adjustments on each of them were in order. “I… They are gifts from the astronomy academy, my family and by Princess Celestia. respectively,” she pointed to each of the telescopes as she answered.

“You must be very hard working to get this many things, Twilight. I commend you,” Lyra said with an amused smile.

Twilight felt embarrassed of the praise as she decided to walk to the set of telescopes, doing her best not to show how happy she was from Lyra’s words, not from the praise itself but as to keep in mind that Lyra appreciates hard working ponies.

”Thanks. These are very special to me, so I do my best to keep them in good condition.” She kept her attention in adjusting the focus on the telescopes to aim on any constellation in the sky. “Now, how about we get to enjoy some of the beauties of the night sky?”

The five mares soon joined in pairs to enjoy the stars together, while Twilight, and Moondancer, helped to check on other constellation or planets to enjoy with some nice chat among each other while laughing together.

Twilight kept an eye on her friends and observed how happy they were and the different conversations they had amongst each other until she felt a hoof upon her, pulling her towards a body.

“Twilight, this is the best slumber party I have ever been in! You sure know how to host one!” Minuette complimented, showing her wide grin.

That made Twilight have a little smile in victory from hearing the words of praise and looked up to her friend’s eyes to look at how sincere those words are.

“It was nothing. I just planned a schedule and made sure that everything was in place and in order once all of you girls arrived,” she explained, giving some modesty as it was. “Besides, Spike helped me plenty during the entire time I planned out the evening. Another thing to point out is that this is a fun slumber party because all of you are having so much fun!” Twilight said as she hugged her Minuette in thanks.

“Hey, Twilight!” called Twinkleshine, interrupting the moment. “Can you tell me where I can find the brightest star?” she asked while her eye was still looking through the periscope of the telescope.

“It’s night time, Twinkle. The sun is already resting,” joked Lemon Hearts as the others chuckled along with her.

“Oh, haha… Then, the second most shining star of the night,” she corrected and specified to her friends as she soon giggled along with them, giving Twilight some space to calibrate the device to her specification.

Twilight happily obliged and began to shift the position of one of the telescopes to the star in question. “There it is, Aldebarán,” she said, stepping aside to let Twinkleshine enjoy the view.

“Thanks, Twilight. You’re the best,” praised the marble unicorn as she wooed in admiration at the sight of the celestial body up in the distant night sky.

The mares continued to enjoy the evening as they went admiring the stars that had been displayed in the black veil of the night.

Lemon Hearts was focusing on the moon with her own eyes as she pondered out loud of something that was calling her attention from the moment she focused her eyes on the orbiting rock. “Now that the Mare in the Moon is no longer in the moon, what will happen?”

“The astronomers will have a hard time updating their books and scrolls about the moon, now that it’s gone,” quipped Lyra from her own telescope, giggling at her own joke.

“That much is true… Although, many ponies never expected that it was Princess Luna who was that figure up in the moon,” Twilight said, giving a long sigh at the sky, “Even when I learned about the prophecy, I was really surprised to see it dissapear when the stars aligned to free Nightmare Moon.”

“When I was a filly, I had nightmares all the time, but when my parents told me the story about the guardian of dreams and tat the Mare in the Moon that it would protect me during the night from nightmares, I began have less troubles with sleep, knowing that it would protect me from the dreadful dreams,” Lyra said, looking at Twilight with sad smile, “I once asked them if it was real. I never got the answer to that.”

The group was now silent as they thought of memories of their foalhood, where they had been told the same story of the guardian of the nights that kept an eye on the good fillies and colts during their slumber. Of course, some ‘knew’ that it was a simple bedtime story, an old mare’s tale as they tag it, to assure them that no harm would happen in their dreams, but the fact was now that the moon was plain white, ever since Luna had returned from it.

“But in the end, it wasn’t all a lie. After all, Luna was not only the alicorn that could move the moon, but also the guardian of dreams as well,” Lemon Hearts added.

Moondancer joined them as she gave a small chuckle. “It’s all still a surprise for most of Equestrian population, but I still find it a bit funny how most of us were surprised that Celestia had a sister when it was written in every book,” she commented, smiling at the memory of the revelation for the ponies of Canterlot.

“Yes, but most of Princess Luna is referenced in stories for foals and some tales of old legends and myths. Most ponies don’t take them too seriously when it came to facts of the more historical editions,” Twilight said, looking at her friends with a small smile. “Even when I had been investigating about the return of Nightmare Moon, I never expected the truth about Princess Luna being the younger sister of Princess Celestia.”

The mares nodded along, showing their agreement on the fact as they huddled together under the cold wind of the night sky.

“Guess we should… probably get to sleep now,” Twinkleshine advised in between yawns, pointing back to the stairs to the lower levels of the tower.

“Yeah… This was truly a fun slumber party, but I must have my shut eye,” Lyra agreed as she yawned between words.

“I should go along too, or else I might end up sleeping here and…” Minuette fell on Lemon’s shoulder and began to snore lightly, sleeping humbly on the spot.

Lemon sighed softly as she levitated the prone body of her friend and placed her on her back. “See you downstairs girls,” she said as she carefully walked her way to the living room.

That only left the balcony with Twilight and Moondancer to watch the stars. Even though the silence was there, it wasn’t awkward for them.

“This was… it was a nice party you made here,” Moondancer complimented, her eyes never stopped focusing on the sky.

“Thanks… for coming,” Twilight replied back, the achievement of her first party being a success was a reward in itself.

Moondancer glanced at Twilight and smiled at her. “Your home is really incredible. It has everything that a student would require for their complete education and even far more books than one can hold in their own room,” she praised.

“You are more than welcome to visit it whenever you feel like it. There are so many books of the different branches of science and magic that you would be surprised to see subjects you never even heard about… Like the Haycarts magical method to insert oneself into a book,” Twilight looked at the vanilla unicorn and offered the welcome invitation to her tower.

“Really!? Thank you, Twilight!” Moondancer hugged the mulberry unicorn and giggled happily. Twilight joined her in the embrace as she laughed along with her.

“No need to. We are friends after all.” Twilight soon felt something hit her mind once she said those words and soon began to think of the weight behind them.

Twilight was considering that the fastest way to a friendship was through gifts and invitations to parties, but it was a hypothesis for her. Further research was needed on the idea itself, along with the need to test it out with the entire group and individually. After all, she needed to learn all about friendship as it is.

“Twilight, you coming to sleep or what?” called Moondancer, waking Twilight from her thoughts of friendship investigation and future plans on her knowledge of friendship.

Twilight was soon glancing around to find her friend, only to locate her at the stairs, where she was looking back at her waiting for her to walk along with her to the pillow fortress.

“I’m coming!” she announced, rushing to be with her friend to join the rest of the mares in the pillow fort.

The perfect end for the best night and Twilight’s first Slumber Party.