Rainbow Dash threw her arms into the air and looked up at the heavens as if it might provide an answer to her current predicament. “This is ridiculous!” she shouted at the night sky as she stood in the courtyard of Canterlot high.
“Which part?” Sunny Flare asked as she idly poked at the buttons on her left electronic arm bracer. “The fact that two of our classmates turned into otherworldly beings that have me seriously reconsidering my personal beliefs on religion, that there’s some sort of horse portal your friend is covering up with a fancy drape that she’s figuring out what color to embroider, or the fact that your pink haired friend has created and printed up ‘Have you seen me?’ fliers for your school’s pennants and has begun posting them?!”
“The last one!” Rainbow Dash griped. “You’d think with the fliers we’d have found it by now!”
“Right,” Sunny Flare replied as she switched to looking at her left bracer and pressing buttons on it. “I see why Sunset Shimmer put me in charge.”
“You’re not doing a very good job of being in charge,” Sugarcoat said flatly as she stood idly by and simply observed the overabundance of shenanigans. Standing next to the white-haired source of dry lines was Sour Sweet who smirked at Sugarcoat’s comment.
Sunny Flare sneered at the unwanted and unsolicited opinion. “How about you try herding a bunch of lunatics and sarcastic assholes?”
“Love you, too, Sunny!” Sour Sweet said in a saccharine tone. “You stick-up your ass reprobate!” she added with a glare.
“Yeah, this is exactly what I’m talking about,” griped Sunny Flare. “I’ve got you two milling around doing your version of the bit with the two old Muppets in the balcony and then I have”—
A manhole cover was suddenly moved from below and clearly terribly vexed Indigo Zap emerged from the dark and dank hole. “Your sewers are filthy!” she griped, as she got back to her feet and brushed muck and grime from her body.
—“That! One of you doing stuff like that!” Sunny Flare said. “And Lemon Zest is too busy in Lemon Zest land listening to like… I don’t know… Misfits or the Dead Kennedys or something.?
“Your references are pretty dated,” Sugarcoat pointed out to Sunny Flare. “You should try watching some shows and listening to some bands that came out in the last couple decades.”
Before Sunny Flare’s words could catch up with her glare, Sour Sweet gasped and once again began to speak in a tone that was so sincere it looped around into the realm of sarcasm. “Oh, wonderful idea, Sugarcoat! Maybe we can all get together and binge some movies, shows, and listen to some albums!”
“Fuck, yeah! Rocking slumber party!” Lemon Zest announced as she seemingly appeared out of nowhere.
Sour Sweet groaned. “Lemon Zest, I was doing my thing, okay? There’s no way we’re all going to get together like a bunch of Canterlot High losers and—”
Lemon Zest dashed up next to Sour Sweet and laid her arm across her shoulders as she held a smartphone in front of her fellow Crystal Prep student and began enthusiastically finger scrolling. “I’ve got like a huuuuuge list of really cool movies and shows we should watch together! Oh man! And my album collection is totally killer!”
“Did you hear what I said?!”
“No! I can’t hear anything you say over my tunes!”
“Right, well I was being sarc…Wait, if you can’t hear anything, how’d you even know what we were talking about getting together?”
“I know! I’m stoked too! It’s going to be so rad just hanging out!”
Sour Sweet sighed and shook her head. “This is just a bonkers amount of fun, you know that?”
“Right?!” Lemon Zest said without a hint of disingenuity.
“Protip,” Sugarcoat said, “I think Lemon Zest only hears what she wants to hear. She’s going to force this slumber party thing until she just gets us all in a room together. Best just lie back and think of Crystal Pep.”
“I heard that!” Lemon Zap said as she thrust her fists into the air. And walked off chanting, “Slumber-par-TAY! Slumber-par-TAY!”
“No, it’s fine girls!” Indigo Zap called out as she whipped her hands on her uniform jacket. “I’ll just stand here literally covered in shit while you bicker about nothing at all!”
“Here and see you, Zap!” Sunny Flare called out. “Your literal situation just seems like such a metaphor for my life that I figured I’d let you experience what it’s like to be surrounded by assholes and dealing with the stuff they produce all the time!”
“Yeah, well…” Zap thought for a second and pointed at Rainbow Dash who had been observing with somewhat detached amusement. “Their sewers are still way grosser than ours!”
Sunny Flare’s forehead crinkled. “Okay, but what does that have to do with me calling you an ass” —
“Wait, time out.” Rainbow Dash said as she formed a ‘T’ with her hands in front of her chest. “Are your sewers are sparkly clean?”
—“Oh, thank God. Finally a break from talking to them all.”
“Well, obviously,” Indigo Zap said. “Everything at Crystal Prep is objectively better than what you guys here have at this garbage school for garbage people.”
Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes. “Says the girl who literally just crawled out of a shit hole.” Rainbow Dash smirked internally. Nice work, brain!
You’re welcome.
Indigo Zap’s eyes narrowed. “Lemon Zest, Ice-water challenge me.”
“Fuck yes!” Lemon Zest shouted as the rocker girl appeared almost out of nowhere and dumped a cooler of ice-cold water all over Indigo Zap, effectively rinsing the girl who only flinched slightly as she was completely drenched with water.
“Does she… does she just keep a cooler and ice on hand in case someone says that?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Yes,” Sugarcoat replied simply.
“Oh my, probably very real from all the evidence I’ve collected today, GOD, Zap!” Sunny Flare interrupted. “Why would you think the pennants are hidden in their sewers, anyhow?!”
“They’re filthy mud students!” Indigo Zap countered as she motioned to Rainbow Dash. “Who knows what they’re willing to do to win?!” She glanced about. “They’re probably figuring out some underhanded way to win this entire thing as the loud one distracts us with her inanity.”
“Hey, that’s completely unfair!” Rainbow Dash countered. “Pinkie’s not even here!”
“The pennants are totally not in the gutters which reeeeaaaallly should be cleaned!”
Everyone looked up and took note of the pink-haired high schooler as she scooped up handful after handful of oddly colorful grime.
“But to be fair, they’re filled with like… fifty percent deflated balloon and confetti, so a lot of it is likely my fault.”
“Oh wait, there she is!” Rainbow Dash said.
“Hah!” Indigo Zap exclaimed. “Our gutters are spotless! One more thing we have that’s simply better than your rink-a-dink school for uh… future retail workers.”
Rainbow Dash smirked. “Did you hurt yourself coming up with that one.”
“Shut up!”
Rainbow Dash’s smile grew. “Also, there’s one thing we have that your school doesn’t.”
“A herpes outbreak?” Sunny Flare suggested.
“Hah! Oh shit, burn!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
Sugarcoat and Sour Sweet exchanged glances.
“That was a pretty good one,” Sugarcoat admitted.
“Right?” Sour Sweet agreed, earnestly. “I wish I could have come up with something even half as good.”
“She got us good! Nice!” Rainbow Dash said as she offered Sunny Flare a thumbs up.
“Huh?” Sunny Flare replied in a confused tone. “Okay, but why are you happy given I just slammed your school—”
“Your school doesn’t have a portal to another dimension!” Rainbow Dash interrupted.
“Or a good exterior decorator~!” Rarity chimed in as she continued to cover the tear in reality with chique, purple curtains.
“I… DANGIT!” Indigo Zap exclaimed. She turned to Sunny Flare. “We need to find Twilight so she can go back to our school and give us a BETTER portal! Also, you should take up exterior decorating.”
“Going to just ignore that last one, but seriously. The portal that might destroy our entire plane of existence? You want Twilight, who has literally turned into a monster mad with power, to open up a portal on Crystal Prep’s campus?” Sunny Flair asked.
“Yes! Absolutely! But bigger!”
“Juuust checking,” Sunny said dryly.
“You’re doing great keeping everything in order, Sunny!” Sour Sweet called out.
“I don’t think she’s doing well at all,” Sugarcoat added.
Sour Sweet rolled her eyes. “Thanks, Sugarcoat! Your ability to state the obvious remains unparalleled.”
“I don’t see you two helping!” Sunny Flare countered.
“Us?” Sour Sweet said while putting on a hurt expression. “We’re here for moral support!”
Sugarcoat chimed in. “I actually stopped caring around the time I thought we were all going to die.” She paused and added. “In fact, we still might. There are still two girls with suped up powers just running around as far as we all know.”
Indigo Zap glared at her schoolmates. “Well, while you stand around and do nothing, the rest of the Canterlot High team is closing on the pennants for sure!”
Sunny Flare looked around. “Well, the angel chick went to dinner, the pink haired one is cleaning the gutters, the purple haired one is figuring out what trim best matches a tear in the fabric in reality”
—“I’m thinking a light-turquoise~!”
“The rainbow-haired loudmouth is here!”
“Wow, rude!” Rainbow Dash said. “Celestia is still whomping on your principal.”
“Oh, and the country girl is taking bets on which Principal is going to win!
“It’s still anyone’s match here, folks!” Applejack announced from near the center of a group that had gathered to watch the two principals exchange blows with each other on the hard concrete of Canterlot High. Or rather, watch as Principal Celestia straddled the much older Principal Cinch and rained blow after blow on the seemingly helpless Crystal Prep official. “Principal Cinch seems only mildly concussed as she continues her cunning plan of luring Principal Celestia into a false sense of security and merely pretends to swat feebly as Celestia rains blow after blow on her face!”
“O-okay…” Cinch said woozily as Celestia sent another first downwards.
‘Pow!’
“Urrggrlle… I’m wi-willing to accept a partial vict-victory! How’s s-silver medalist and a half sound?”
‘Bam!’
“NOT NEARLY AS SATISFYING AS ME PUMMELING YOUR FACE, YOU STUBBORN OLD BAT!”
“GHHcccchhhh… S-silver medalist and th-th-three quarters!”
‘Smack!’
Applejack continued, “Now taking bets for Cinch at 10 to 1 odds! Come on! Don’t be shy! If the cops were gonna stop any of this they’d have shown up when girls started growin’ wings and shootin’ magic lasers at each other an hour, a few weeks, or even a few months ago!”
Sunny Flare shook her head and looked about her immediate surroundings. “Wait… where’s that other friend of yours, the quiet one?”
“Well, not helping me cover up this eye-sore in space and time!” griped Rarity.
Sunny Flare frowned and looked over her shoulder. “Okay, but she’s not going to sneak up on me and slit my throat, right?”
“Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash replied in disbelief in a tone suggesting she was also answering the question.
Rarity ceased working on the stitch-work of the drape long enough to raise an eyebrow in Sunny Flare’s direction. “Fluttershy,” she stressed, “you’re worried that Fluttershy might sneak up and kill you.”
Sunny Flare shrugged. “It’s always the quiet ones, you know?”
“I really don’t,” Rarity replied.
“Erm, Sorry, girls!” a timid voice called up.
Sunny Flare covered her neck with her hands as Fluttershy walked up and continued to speak, “I can’t find the pennants anywhere! I checked all classroom pet terrariums, the nearby doghouses of the neighboring houses, and even the pet store downtown! They’re simply nowhere I care about to be found!”
Sunny Flare pursed her lips and thought for a moment. “You know what? I’ll take it.” She said as she lowered her hands. “That’s the kind of crazy that doesn’t require any energy from me.”
“This is… boring as hell and all,” Indigo Zap is, “but we stilll haven’t located either pennant!”
“Whew!” Pinkie said as she wiped sweat from her brow and walked over to join the group. “Cleaned up the gutters and the sewers! I bet we have the cleanest sewers in the entire city now.”
Indigo Zap sighed. “Dang It! Now I need to clean and wax the sewers at school, again!”
“Definitely got your priorities straight there, Zap!” Sour Sweet quipped. “Good going!”
“Oh, and I’ve been thinking!” Pinkie added.
Rainbow Dash smirked. “So that’s what that burning smell was.”
“So that’s what that bur—DANG IT!” Indigo Zap cried.
Pinkie giggle snorted at Dash. “Good one! But I’ve been handing out these Pennants and posting them for like two whole hours and I’m beginning to think this whole exercise is kinda on the ridiculous side.”
“I’d call it completely ludicrous,” Sunny Flare quipped.
Pinkie grinned wide as she sauntered up well beyond an arms-length to Sunny flare, leaned under the Canterlot Prep student and craned her neck upwards. “Well, thank you for the compliment.”
Sunny Flare took a few steps backward. “It wasn’t intended as one,” she stated.
Undeterred, Pinkie continued to smile, “Well, sometimes those are the best compliments of all! Anyways!” Pinkie placed her hands on her chest and smiled warmly to herself. “Maybe we’re going about this all wrong! Maybe the pennants aren’t about finding a tiny flag and stick just lying around our school… Maybe, they’re like… a feeling deep inside us.”
Sunny Flare groaned and slapped a palm against her face. “You’re being stupid. Stop being stupid!”
Pinkie grinned widely. “How’s this for stupid?”
—“You’re going to do the exact opposite of what I requested aren’t you?”—
“What if the pennants are really just deep in our hearts!”
—“Yep.”
There was a brief moment where Rainbow Dash and Indigo Zap exchanged looks. “Well… we’ve looked everywhere else…” Rainbow Dash said with a shrug.
A split second later, Rainbow Dash and Indigo Zap had begun their own frantic tussle on the ground as each one attempted to navigate the tangle of limbs to claw at the other’s chest.
“Rainbow Dash, no!” Fluttershy cried.
“Rainbow Dash, yes!” Rainbow replied
Lemon Zest through a fist into the air and smiled gleefully at the scuffle below. “Yeeeeeaaah! Tear her fucking heart out!”
“Because, of COURSE the pennant would be inside one of our bodies,” Sour Sweet said in a rather unconvincingly sweet tone. “That just makes oodles of sense!”
Lemon Zest removed her left headphone from her ear. “Pennant?”
“To be perfectly honest,” Sugarcoat began, “these Friendship Games have been a lot more fun than I figured they’d be.”
“How nice for you,” Sunny Flare said sarcastically.
Sugarcoat glared at Sunny Flare. “You’re not Sour Sweet.”
“She doesn’t have a monopoly on sarcasm, Sugarcoat!” Sunny Flare sighed and shook her head as she brought one of her wrist bands up to her face. “That’s it! I’m going to text Cadence. I’m not getting paid enough for this shit.”
“I don’t think you’re getting paid at all,” Sugarcoat said.
“Wow, you figure that one out on your own?” Sunny Flare replied. “What a clever girl you are. Your parents must be so proud.”
“…Okay, yeah, she’s pretty good,” Sugarcoat admitted to Sour Sweet.
“I know! I wanted to fire back, but I’m not sure I’m prepared for the blistering waves of ‘Fuck you’ that are going to follow.”
“You’re both such delights,” Sunny Flare said as she tapped on a bracer. “Let’s see if we can get someone who should be responsible for this to clean up the mess.”
-~0~Meanwhile, in a large dive bar~0~-
Shining Armor, eyes closed, face locked in a massive smile, held onto a microphone and belted out with all his might, “Yo, I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want!”
Sitting in a nearby booth, already littered with shot glasses and still half-full cocktail glasses and beer mugs, Cadance cupped her hands over her mouth and replied, “So tell me what you want, what you really really want!”
Luna also joined in the revels, “Yeah! Sing it, girls!”
“I wanna,”
“Huh?”
“I wanna,”
“Huh?”
“I wanna,”
“Huh?”
“I wanna,”
“Huh?”
“I wanna really, really, really wanna zigazig ha!”
Cadance jumped slightly and looked downward as Shining dove directly into the rest of the song, the adult man singing each line as if he was put on the planet just to do so. Reaching towards her jacket pocket, Cadance produced a phone, tapped the screen a few times then chortled. “Oh man, everyone is losing their shit back at Canterlot High right now!”
Luna let out a guffaw. “Wow! I wouldn’t want to be a high-ranking member of their faculty right about now.”
“Hah! Tell me about…” Cadence’s head wrinkled in confusion. “Wait, you’re the Vice-”
Luna cut Cadance off by holding up a single finger as she began draining a beer mug roughly the size of her head. Within seconds it was empty and placed back on the table. “Excuse me! I need, like, THREE more of these here at the table!”
“Three?!” Cadance replied in confusion. “Luna, Shining needs to drive!”
“Right! Sorry! FOUR more and a Shirley Temple!”
Cadance nodded satisfactorily. “That’s better!”
“Hey!” A dark blue-skinned bartender with blue-rimmed glasses, a black beard, and long black hair replied. “I can’t just bring over that many drinks! Legally you have to finish your current drink.”
Cadence pursed her lips. “If I flash you my boobs right now will you just bring over what we ordered? That’s saving time for everyone involved.”
Luna swatted at her compatriots’ shoulder. “Hey!”
“What?” Cadance protested. “It’s pretty much guaranteed I’m going to end up topless in public at some point tonight.”
“Okay, but I have boobs, too, you know?!”
“Oh, right…” Cadance turned back to the bartender. “How about it?! Two sets of jubilees for just bringing our drink order all at once! That’s a boob per alcoholic beverage. Tit-for-tankard! Plus, I’m sure my husband will flash his dick for that Shirley Temple if I ask nicely… Hell, not even that nicely.”
“Taking is too easy, but that’s the way it iiiIIIiiiis!~”
Cadance rotated her left hand and finger-gunned in the direction of the singing Shining. “See?”
“Wow!” The bartender said, his tone still indignant. “You three totally have a deal.”
Cadence and Luna exchanged a quick glance then nodded.
“Alright,” Luna said as the two faculty members curled their fingers down around the button of their shirts and jackets. “On three! One-two-”
“-Three national awards for scientific achievement from a grade schooler!” Twilight Velvet beamed as she motioned to three gold-plated, palm-sized disks lovingly framed and hung up on the wall of her home that also looked like something of a shrine to her children’s accomplishments - academic, athletic, or otherwise - as there was no shortage of Shining Armor and Cadence smiling at the camera or exchanging loving glances.
Daydream Shimmer, her horn inches away from piercing the ceiling, just chuckled. “Yes, I gathered that Twilight is a huge nerd. It’s praiseworthy for sure.”
Twilight Velvet’s face lit up. “Right? Right?”
Midnight Sparkle, her horn likewise a few inches from causing some constant property damage, just stood there with her face buried in her hands. “Mom! She transformed into some being of magical divine purity specifically to oppose me! I don’t think she wants to be my friend.”
Daydream smirked. “Would you believe that’s exactly why I transformed into a being of magical divine purity?”
Twilight Velvet let out a short high-pitched squeal of maternal delight.
Midnight Sparkle simply sneered at Daydream. “Well, maybe I don’t need a friend.”
“As someone who’s been there before, and I mean pretty much EXACTLY there, you need a friend more than ever at this somewhat critical juncture! There’s a body count associated with you going it alone.” Daydream’s gaze hardened. “Hopefully of just ‘one’ if I can help it.”
Twilight Velvet put on a nervous grin as her eyes darted between the two Amazonian-sized entities in front of her. The mood had gone from simply ‘mildly tense’ to ‘mildly deadly’ in a brief few seconds.
“Oh, girls?” Spike, in all his talking dog glory, called out from below. “Could we maybe table the destruction until after dinner?”
Twilight Velvet tried to force a sense of calm onto her face. It didn’t take. “Right! Right! You’ll both feel better with some food in your bellies, you’ll see!”
“Dinner can’t feed the hunger I feel deep inside, Mom!” Midnight countered with a sneer.
Daydream couldn’t help but giggle snort. “Alright, ‘My Chemical Romance’, maybe take it down a notch.”
Spike chuckled to himself. “Good one…”
Daydream tossed a small smile down at the small dog. “Thanks.”
Midnight turned on her heels and shot a look devoid of mercy at Daydream. “I think I’m handling myself pretty well, considering. Less than an hour ago I was a perfectly normal high school student.”
Daydream smirked. “Who was investigating mysterious cases of magic showing up at a high school.”
Midnight’s face tightened. “Regardless, look at me now! Magic changed me into a walking-talking desire to control-and-consume-everything-on-every-world-I-can-get-my-hands-on despite my best intentions!”
“Yes, that’s definitely the road to hellish energies that transforms one into a demon!”
Midnight grit her teeth. “What ‘Slayer’ song did you rip that off from?”
“Ooooh, burn!” Spike chirped.
Midnight wordlessly shot Spike a smug smirk while her mother looked between the girls like a nervous version of a cat clock mounted on the wall behind her. “Uh… I’m just going to check on dinner while you girls sort this out.” She said, sensing her presence wasn’t really helping much of anything. She turned to leave and took a few steps before a thought occurred to her and she turned around. “And remember! No magic!”
“We won’t…” The girls said out in unison.
Twilight Velvet nodded. “Good! I’d hate to get out the fire extinguisher.”
Daydream winced. “Alright, I doubt that would do much, but it’d certainly be added to the list of things I could have done without happening to me today.”
Seemingly satisfied, Twilight Velvet nodded to herself with a smile, turned, and resumed walking towards the kitchen, muttering worries about whether she should have made a vegetarian dish for the unicorn.
“Sooo…” Midnight began, “Do you have any other band references you’d like to belittle my experience with?”
Daydream sighed. “Hypocrisy of both parties aside, again... I’ve been where you are in a very literal sense. I pretty much was you. Except, you know, I was a unicorn, adopted by an immortal alicorn princess... But the same basic thing. I studied hard, had lots of pressure put on me, was told I had an amazing future ahead of me.”
Midnight was silent, just listening intently, which Daylight took to be encouraging. She scratched the back of her head sheepishly. “I kinda went down my own dark path towards power because I felt like I deserved it. I mean, like it was my destiny, right? I used people, betrayed friends... I was a giant b—” She stopped herself, mindful of the swear jar. “—An awful person. Then one day the opportunity came to claim what was ‘rightfully mine’. I used a magic portal between our worlds to nab a magic crown from a pony princess from the other world, thinking I could use it to turn myself into a Princess, and yeah… that went a bit ‘Slayer’ on me.”
Midnight’s expression was the kind you would expect to see from a small child being taught some new fascinating thing. “What was the Princess’s name?” she asked, breathlessly.
Daydream grimaced. “Princess Not-relevant-to-this-conversation!” she said hastily. “The point is, I have a pretty good idea of what you’re going through, and I want to help you!”
Midnight’s brow furrowed. “How? By blasting me into a crater?”
Daydream winced.
“What?”
“Nothing… just… nostalgia. Funny how you think you hit rock bottom then someone blasts the ground out from under you...” she muttered to herself. Snapping her fingers, she turned towards Spike. “Spike who shot at whom with dangerous magical beams first?”
“Oh, that’s easy!” Spike pointed a paw at Midnight.
“Spike! You traitor!” Midnight hissed.
“What? You did!”
Midnight threw her hands into the air. “Okay, okay! So, I went a little power drunk!”
Daydream raised an eyebrow. “You know the healing process can’t begin until you admit what happened back there.”
“Alright! A lot of power drunk!”
“Midnight, you tried to tear the viel of reality between two dimensions to shreds so hard that they might have needed a team of dimensional wizard seamstresses to put them back together! That was a dimensional black-out bender! There should be a twelve-step program invented just for how overkill you went!”
Midnight’s already sour expression wrinkled all the further as she glared death rays at Daydream. Yet, somehow her eyelids wrinkled even further, and Daydream swore could see the first hints of a cry-fest coming on.
“Hey!” a paternal masculine voice called out as its owner entered the room.
Both girls instinctively jumped at the tone, their horns scorching the ceiling just slightly.
Night Light spared the faintest of glances towards the new marks then continued addressing the two beings wrapped in extraordinary magical power in front of him. “You two are being awfully rude!”
“She started it!” Daydream said as she pointed a finger at Midnight.
Midnight just sighed. “Dad, we were just talking!”
“Yeah! Talking while your old man waits for you to sit at the table and your mom pleads for things to go well with the mash potatoes! Stop making us wait!”
Daydream tossed a hand up into the air. “How were we supposed to know dinner was ready! You never told us!”
“I did! Just now!” Night Light insisted. “This is me telling you all that dinner is ready!” he stated as Spike zipped on by his legs.
Daydream’s face contorted in frustration and a few errant sounds that weren’t remotely close to words came out. She turned to Midnight. “Midnight, why is your dad… such a freakin’ dad?!”
Midnight sighed. “I know, right? He thinks he’s so cute.”
Without missing a beat, Night Light replied. “Bitch, I’m adorable!”
“Honey!” Twilight Velvet’s voice chastised from the kitchen. “That’s a fiver for calling one of the children a bad word!”
Night Light’s hand was in and out of his front pocket holding a five-dollar bill all before one could say “Worth it!” which is exactly what Night Light said. He turned and walked back the way he came. “Okay! Dinner time! Sit down already! You girls are standing around acting like you haven’t had a busy day of solving math problems, riding motorcycles, doing archery, and completely transforming your bodies!”
Daydream and Midnight simply watched Night Light leave for a second, their expressions still smoldering, but markedly less angry than before.
“Your father is exhausting,” Daydream said, “and also right.”
Midnight let out what sounded like a well-rehearsed exasperated gasp as she followed her father. “Now imagine he’s just like that all the time.”
Daydream cringed and fell in step behind Midnight, muttering to herself, “You lucky bitch…”
“I heard the b-word!” Spike called out.
“Ghah! Frickin’ dog ears!” Daydream exclaimed out.
“That’s a dollar!” Spike added.
“I WAS GIFTED A DRESS BY THE INFINITELY UNKNOWABLE POWERS OF THE UNIVERSE TO PERFECTLY COMPLIMENT MY NEW HYPER FEMININE AND ANGELIC FORM!” Daydream shouted. “So, of COURSE, that means no pockets!”
“Wow, rip off!” Spike called out.
“Right?!” Daydream agreed. She shook her head. “I really hope the contents of my pockets come back when this is over. If the infinitely unknowable powers of the universe have stolen my wallet I will be very upset."
Midnight grimaced, feeling around at where her jacket (with its many useful little pockets) had been before her transformation, and noting that her rather large wings were in the place her own backpack had once been. "I suppose that's my fault, too," she said with a sniff.
Daydream punched Midnight lightly in the upper forearm. "Only indirectly, and if you keep me company while I stand in the DMV line to replace my license, all is forgiven."
Midnight stopped for a moment, staring at Daydream as she passed. “Just like that?” she asked, in disbelief.
“I’ve been forgiven for worse, so yeah,” Daydream said with a little smile as she looked over her shoulder. “C’mon, your dad’s food will get cold.”
Despite all that had transpired, Midnight couldn’t help but feel a small smile spread across her own face. Perhaps Daydream’s intentions were simply to forgive and forget after all.
And not a moment later, Daydream clamped her hand around the corner of the dining room entryway so hard that it splintered wood and sent up a fine cloud of drywall as she let out a despairing wail.
Spike let out a started bark.
Twilight Velvet replied with an alarmed “Daydream, honey!”
Night Light replied with an annoyed. “That’s okay. I was going to replace that entire entry-way frame anyhow.
Midnight wheeled on her, her eyes wide with sudden concern. “What’s wrong?” she asked with no trace of sarcasm.
“My phone was in the other pocket!” Daydream all but screamed.
The deep purple of midnight’s face suddenly drained to the point she looked more her former self. “My phone was in my pocket, too!”
Daydreams former happy-go-lucky expression suddenly turned wrathful. “You did this!”
“Hey! I’m just as upset about this as you!” Midnight claimed. “But if we both remain calm, I’m sure we’ll find—”
“Bitch, not only did you suck the magic from all my friends now my phone is God knows where, in a probably literal sense, just because you had a fucking lady-boner for trying to understand everything!”
From the other room Night Light uttered paternal sigh of stern disapproval. “So, this is going to escalate…”
“Girls, calm down!” Twilight Velvet order. “And Sunset, I know you’re a guest, but don’t make me start charging you—”
“Run your tongue across my entire angelic TAINT!” Daydream shouted back.
“Uhh… No thank you?” Twilight Velvet replied in a flustered tone.
“Don’t talk to my mom like that!” Midnight shouted. “Can we PLEASE just calm down and figure this out?”
Daydream’s face hardened. “Better idea. How about I slap your shit until we either get our phones back or I feel a lot better?”
Twilight Velvet. “Erm… a little help here?” she pleaded to anyone in the immediate vicinity.
“I’m doing the puppy dog face as hard as I can!” Shouted Spike. “It’s not working, and I’m an actual puppy dog!”
A mixture of anger and hurt suddenly took control of Midnight’s features. “You’re… you’re serious?”
Daydream raised her right fist in front of her face where it began to glow with fiery red energy that caused all to see it to feel a deep pit open up somewhere inside them. “Serious as the reckoning! I take the loss of something as important as my phone deathly serious. Do you know how long it took me to get that phone just the way I like it?! Oh! And I had to have that titanium case with my personal emblem special made! They don’t just sell those at mall kiosks! Not to mention pictures and videos of my friends lost forever.”
Midnight scoffed. “Like tears in the rain?”
“I was going to say, ‘like wanna-be wizard high-schoolers steppin’ up to be blasted to straight to whatever dark palace coughed up that dresstrosity’.”
“Dear, now would be good!” Twilight Velvet cried, noting her husband was now suddenly absent from what would seemingly be something he really should be backing her up on.
“Hey, maybe if you just took the time to back-up your phone like a reasonably smart person, you wouldn’t be in this mess! You’d still be in that pink eye-sore of an outfit, though.”
“EAT MY DIVINE ASS, MIDNIGHT SPARKLE!”
A maniacal smile suddenly broke through the torment of Midnight’s features. “How about instead I go back to killing you and tearing through reality itself until there’s not a single iota of mystery shrouded from my sight,” Midnight said as she held her hands straight at her sides and dark, flaming energy sprung down from her wrist like blades made out of deep-purple fire. “Don’t worry! I’m sure wherever your phone is, I’ll be sending you to it, very soon.”
“Bring it, tall dark and broody!” Daydream said, adopting a basic defensive stance, her own hands blazing with white hot energy. “I’ve been itchin' to kick someone’s ass that looked just like you for a while now!”
“Is… is it too much to ask you not to do this in the house?” Twilight Velvet asked meekly.
-~o~-Back at Canterlot School-~o~-
Through the haze of rocking tunes and deep bass that permeated her entire body starting at her headphones, Lemon Zest felt a tap on her shoulder. Turning, she saw a pink face framed by curly pink hair smiling at her. She took off her headphones. “‘Sup, party pink gal?”
“Oh, I was just thinking… if someone was telling a story and wanted to build dramatic tension, they should break right here.”
Lemon Zest’s eyes let up and she leveled an index finger at Pinkie Pie. “Holy shit! I was just thinking the same thing! The tension built is going to be off the fucking chain!”
“Right!” Pinkie said as she held up a palm.
The two girls shared a high five than began an intricate hand dance of sliding, finger waggling, and palm tickling as if they had practiced the move hundreds of times as opposed to meeting each other for the first time in their lives.
Applejack looked up from the fat stacks of bills she was counting in her hands and the Rainbow Dash and Indigo Zap still trying to claw out each other’s hearts on the ground. “What in tarnation are those two on about?”
Sunny Flare stared at Lemon Zest for a second, then she slowly turned to stare at Pinkie as the two high schoolers shared a glance as if they knew some sort of deep, unspoken secret no one else did.
Sunny Flare took a deep breath. “Nooooooooope!” she declared as she threw her hands in the air, did an about face, and walked off.