Anxiety ridden, Twilight Velvet watched as her daughter and their family’s dinner guest squared up against each other in their living room. In this case, ‘squared up’ meant charging their hands with magical energies that they planned to fire while standing a few feet away from each other.
What had begun as an exciting day of everyone getting to watch her daughter Twilight Sparkle participate in the friendship game had developed into a magically supercharged duel between the now Midnight Sparkle and one of the rival kids Sunset Shimmer.
Twilight Velvet, being the attentive mother that she was, had defused that situation, or at least she thought she had. Now things had kicked up again because apparently cell phones weren’t built to survive magical transformations! Twilight Velvet herself, her husband, and their, as of this evening, talking dog were in danger! Her house might get destroyed and her daughter magically blasted all because a phone had been lost!
She sighed internally. Teenagers…
Twilight Velvet considered yelling at her daughter to stop, since that had worked before, but now it was The transformed Sunset Shimmer instigating, so interfering might be tantamount to asking her daughter to be blasted a few times and just so maybe things calm down afterwards. Not a very appealing option. Still, something had to be done. The temperature was rising, and she didn’t want to lose her family, house, the contents of it, just because someone’s phone was currently MIA…
Unable to come up with a plan to save life and the living room herself, Twilight Velvet called for her husband. “Dear… A little help?” Come on, Night Light… I could REALLY use some parental support right now. Twilight Velvet looked about and realized her husband was notably not present. “DEAR!” she said more forcefully.
Daydream Shimmer chuckled with a smile unbefitting of someone with an angelic look to them, a smirk seemingly having burned its way onto her face. “What’s he going to do? Dad pun us until we st—”
A blast of freezing atmosphere suddenly shot into the living room and Twilight Velvet flinched at the unexpected noise coming from her left. She looked, and there her husband was, heroically caring a fire extinguisher and shooting both girls center mass with its pressurized contents. Twilight Velvet made a mental note to reward her husband behind closed doors for his bravery.
The girls shifted tactics from getting ready to blast each other to coughing and waving the gas away from their faces.
Night Light glared at them both. “You girls can light up after dinner, also, no smoking inside the house!”
Twilight Velvet cringed and wondered if her husband had taken so much time simply because he was trying to craft the perfect one-liner to say before dousing the girls. Oh well, he still saved the house. Twilight Velvet thought with a smile.
“Also,” Night Light held up a flat, rectangular item, “Sunset, your phone was in the car.”
“You could have led with that!” Twilight Velvet exclaimed.
Night Light expression turned nervous for a moment. “Also, dinner’s ready,” he added.
For a moment, no one said or did anything. Midnight Sparkle and Daydream Shimmer had switched from glaring at each other with murderous intent to both giving Night Light sour looks, Daydream’s expression softening once she got her phone. Midnight adapted a worn expression, her emotions blown out.
A glowing smile once again spread across Daydream’s face before she broke into a fit of laughter. Laughter that seemingly rolled out of her and into the living room encouraging Twilight Velvet and Night Light to join.
Midnight, for her part, held on to her grumpy countenance and marched past her parents.
Everyone else still followed with her mother and father taking up their usual spots next to each other leaving an empty chair for Daydream to sit right next to her.
Just… fantastic… she thought with a small smile.
-ooo-
“Do you cook at all, Sunset?” Twilight Velvet asked sweetly.
Daydream thought for a moment. “Does thinking really hard about baking the raw cookie dough you get from stores instead of slowly eating it over the course of a few days count?”
Twilight Velvet rose a hand in front of her mouth and suppressed a laugh. “Not as much, no.”
Night Light poured himself a glass of red wine prompting Daydream to fully take in her dinnerware set. She glanced at an empty goblet-shaped wine glass at her setting and sighed. Apparently, whoever set the table was a fan of aesthetics at dinner and mocking teenagers.
“Would you like some wine, Sunset?” Night Light asked.
Daydream’s fingers instantly wrapped around the stem of her glass. “Yes, please!” she said as she held the bowl-shaped glass out.
“Honey! She’s in high school!” Twilight Velvet scolded.
His face barely moving a muscle, Night Light responded, “Sorry, I’ll go get my funnel for the next glass.”
Daydream snort-laughed but managed to keep her glass steady enough for Night Light to pour her a generous serving of wine. “That seems… extreme.”
Twilight Velvet nodded in agreement while Midnight leaned forward slightly to serve herself some food, though she was finding her improved reach was quite useful. She quickly scooped herself out some beef, carrot, and potato stew and snagged a roll while barely having to move more than her arm.
Likewise, soon everyone had dished up their own serving and were quietly eating in between small talk mostly made by Night Light.
“So, Sunset Shimmer… What is it you… do…?” Night Light asked.
Daydream felt an eyebrow instinctively lift upwards as if it was trying to ascend to the heavens. “I’m a magical pony from another dimension who is currently imbued with magic from the combined elements of harmony as they’ve chosen to manifest on my best friends, also, a high school student.”
Night Light nodded. “I’ve recently got into amateur photography!”
—"You clearly asked me that question just so you could talk about your hobby, but okay—"
“Got a DSLR camera at a great price on Black Friday! And I only had to punch two people and wrestle it away from an old lady to get it!”
Midnight smacked a palm against her face.
Twilight Velvet took a large gulp of her own wine. “Dear, I don’t think Sunset needs to know about the violent aspects of how you acquired your goods.”
Daydream glanced at the other two women at the table, then looked at Night Light and simply nodded. “Word. I remember getting quite the deal on my PS4. I had to suplex some dude with crutches to get it.”
Midnight looked at Daydream in shock. “You suplexed an injured person?”
“He wasn’t injured until I supplexed him,” Daylight countered. “I think he had cerebral palsy.”
Midnight’s mouth hung open while her parents continued to politely eat their food and Spike shoved as much of his face into his food dish as possible and an effort to maximize kibble ingested per bite.
Daydream, suddenly realizing she was being too nonchalant, shrugged as her expression turned worried. “If it makes you feel better, those crutches seemed like more of a weapon than a hindrance at the time.”
“You attacked a crippled person!” Midnight shouted. “How the Hell”—
Twilight Velvet narrowed her eyes. “Language, young la—”
“I FEEL THE WORD IS VERY APPROPRIATE IN THIS CASE!” Midnight snapped.
“Fine!” Twilight Velvet growled out. “But keep your voice down.”
Midnight took a deep breath and turned back to Daydream. She motioned to all the literal angelic perfection Daydream was. “How the literal Hell did you end up in that form if you’re willing to lay the smack down on the differently-abled?!”
Night Light piped up, “Hey, all is fair in love and war, and not only is Black Friday retail war, who doesn’t love a good deal?”
Midnight groaned and buried her face into her hands. “I’m so fed up with this…”
“Hi, ‘Fed up with this,’” Night Light said in a paternal tone, “I’m—”
“I’m preemptively rolling my eyes as hard as I can against you,” Midnight informed.
“Same!” Spike called out as patrolled the outskirts of the table for fallen morsels and scraps.
“Look!” Daydream began. “Black Friday practically operates off the Purge rules. The guy’s dad snuck up on me and tried to crush my leg with his foot and said he’d turn his considerable influence as a ‘completely legit carwash owner’ to make sure ‘there was no body to find’. In hindsight, he seemed pretty serious, and I felt bad for attacking his son so we joined forces and laid the smackdown on some old lady to get what we wanted.”
Midnight took a deep breath and let it out. “Let me get this straight… feeling bad about attacking someone with cerebral palsy and perhaps fearing a mob attack from a carwash owner…”
Daydream nodded, “Perhaps,” she parroted.
“… you then formed some sort of savage savings alliance with this man…”
“And his son!” Daydream qualified.
Midnight’s frown deepened. “… you three formed an alliance and trounced an old lady to get a game station…”
“Well, it wasn’t JUST the game station or the old lady! The three of us all had lists and there was other competition.” Daydream flipped a palm upwards and shrugged. “The important thing is everyone who was me got what they wanted! OH! Also, I got laid.”
Twilight Velvet, who was already smiling politely with an ‘Oh, God. Please let it stop’ expression, cleared her throat. “Maybe this isn’t the best dinner conversation.”
Night Light shrugged, “I can stand to hear a little more…”
Midnight stood up and slammed her palms on the table causing all the plates and bowls of food to shake and rattle. “You fucked” —
Twilight Velvet sighed, “Why do we even have a swear jar…”
—“the carwash owner?!”
“What? No!” Daydream replied. “He was married! I fucked the dude with the crutches, his son. Kinda figured I owed him one and he was a surprisingly fun lay… pretty sure I popped his cherry! OH, get this. The next day end up with a mysterious bag of some light blue crystal looking stuff.” Sunset began gathering food on a fork. “Felt like part, ‘hey, thanks!’ part ‘I know where you live!’ but either way I think I scored some meth.” Daydream's expression turned slightly wistful. "That was definitely some crazy Black Friday Buzz I was riding."
Twilight Velvet could feel the veneer of her smile begin to crack but before she could chime in Midnight made an exaggerated collapse back into her chair. “And you were granted… a DIVINE transformation for your troubles,” Midnight said dryly.
Daydream devoured the food at the end of her fork and pointed at Midnight with it. “Weren’t you listening?! I felt bad and SLEPT with… one of the people I physically assaulted! I’d call that a ‘net good deed’! Just, you know… not one covered by any book espousing correct behavior! Plus, I’m pretty sure this form is to guide you through your trying time and make sure you don’t destroy a world or two… That’s a completely separate issue.”
“Hey!” Twilight Velvet said with a bit more force than her other protests.
Daydream turned to face the irritated mother. “Sorry, that was graphic, but your husband’s right about love, war, and black Friday.”
“Not that!” Twilight Velvet exclaimed. “Please don’t call what my daughter is going through an ‘issue’.”
Daydream’s forehead tightened and she took a good, hard look at Midnight who was several feet taller, partially made out of the infinite, uncaring void, near as Sunset could tell, and also sporting a very long, demonstrably dangerous horn from her forehead. “Right. Sorry Twilight, that was rude of me.”
Midnight grunted in displeasure. “It’s Midnight,” she corrected.
Daydream visible winced. “Again, sorry, Midnight. I’m not trying to be disrespectful.”
Midnight smirked. “Oh, that’s just how you normally are.”
“Midnight!” Twilight Velvet exclaimed in a shocked tone.
“Midnight,” Daydream began in a dry tone as she leaned back in her chair, “your mom is being amazingly patient with you. You might want to chill before your dad helps in that regard and we all get blasted again.”
Midnight took a few deep breaths and looked at Daydream. “Okay… I just…I don’t want this to end.”
Daydream’s expression tightened. “What part?”
“Uh… the magic?” Midnight’s expression suddenly became very, very Twilight Sparkle as her eyes began to tear up. “Ever. I’ve wanted this my entire life.”
A sad look crossed Daydream’s for a moment and then she smiled. “It doesn’t. You erm… just don’t…” Daydream looked her up and down. “It doesn’t need to be THIS messed up.”
Twilight Velvet and Night Light exchanged winces, Twilight Velvet was the first to speak up. “Dear, we love you but…” she looked at the condition of the house. “We probably can’t do this every day…”
Midnight took a moment to look over the dining room. Still foggy and cold from her father defusing the situation. Her parents were both smiling at her but… but something was off.
Twilight Velvet’s smile softened a bit. “Maybe you should take your friend up to your room, sweetie!”
Midnight flinched. “Uh… sure… I’ll just…” she looked over at Daydream Shimmer. “…do that…”
Daydream seemed to consider this for a second as an unsure expression danced across her face. “Can I get another glass of wine?”