Chapter XXXI: A Mess or Two
My eyelids feel as heavy as a truck right now. I feel pretty warm, all things considered. I don’t remember when I fell asleep. The last thing I remember was watching the movie and… nothing. Opening my eyes, I can’t help but feel stiff on the couch. The TV is still on, playing some movie I’ve never heard of before with the volume at 2. Looking down, I can’t help but smile. Just like last night, Sunset is laying on top of me, her breathing perfectly in sync with mine. Even though I just woke up, it would be a shame to move around now. She needs her sleep.
Leaning down, I kiss the top of her head, feeling a sense of pride in myself that she feels this safe around me. What can I say? I’m a territorial siren. After all this time, this fiery-haired heroine is mine. Funny how she defeated me at the Battle of the Bands, but I got her to fall in love with me. So, who is the real winner here?
“You’re finally awake,” Sunset whispers after my kiss, making me jump slightly. I did not expect her to say anything.
“You were pretending to sleep?” I ask her with a chuckle, shaking my head slightly.
“I wasn’t trying to. I was just resting my eyes until you woke up,” Sunset replies with a clear voice, confirming that she has been awake for a while.
“If you have been awake, then why didn’t you turn off the TV?” In most cases, someone would notice that it has been on all night and decide to turn it off, so I just feel confused now.
“It helped entertain me,” Sunset responds with a small shrug as if there’s nothing more to say about it. The truth is that I just feel confused, but Sunset doesn’t wait to answer my questions. Instead, she pushes herself off of me with a gentle kiss, chuckling to herself. “I have one question before we officially start our day,” she mentions with a more serious tone, looking down at me. “Are you sure about this?”
“Sure about what?” I ask her quietly with a raised eyebrow. “Sunny, I’m sure about a ton of things. Like how beautiful I am, how annoying you can be.” Giving her a small wink, I stand up beside her, wrapping my arms around her. “And I am especially sure that despite it all, you’re the only person I love above all else~”
“I was going to ask if you’re sure you want to get married instead of delaying it due to our recent… troubles. A simple yes would have sufficed.” Sunset returns my embrace with a smile. “It’s only a month away after all.” Huh. Is it that soon? It feels like it’s an eternity away. I guess we should start getting to work on it.
“I’m sure. We already sent the invitations out a while ago. Unless you want to delay it, I would rather get it done to confirm you’re my pony,” I whisper with a teasing growl, making Sunset push me off her.
“You’re so weird, you know that?” With a laugh, Sunset pokes my nose, shaking her head the whole time. “But yeah. I guess you’re right. You’ll have to take Sonata and Aria to get a couple of dresses or such for the wedding. We can probably ask Rarity to do it if she isn’t too swamped.” Stretching my arms, I sigh quietly, wondering if Rarity would even be open to visitors the day after we came back home. I can definitely imagine she would be scheduling her whole day for sleep.
“Why don’t you come with us? It’d be a great opportunity to get you to bond with them,” I state with a curious look. God knows that there’s still some tension between her and Aria. Sonata doesn’t know Sunny very well yet either, so it would benefit all three of them.
In a way, it’s still surprising to have those two dopes back in my life. I don’t regret it though.
“I would love to, but I have to get some preparations done for the catering with Applejack. And you’re not allowed to ask her what is being prepared for the wedding,” she lectures me as if this is some big rule that I am not supposed to break. What is this surprise she’s forming?
“Alright. I guess I’ll let you have that. In that case, you can’t see what I’m wearing until the wedding,” I tell her while sticking my tongue out, walking towards the staircase. A slight yawn escapes my lips, my body telling me how tired I already feel. “I’m going to take a shower before I wake up Aria and Sonata. Care to join me~?” Sunset freezes in place upon hearing my offer before laughing as if I told a nonsensical joke. Narrowing my gaze, I cross my arms with a frown.
“Yeah, about that. The two of them left to get something to eat an hour ago. So… You’ll have to find them.”
…
Great.
“Ow,” Aria mentions with a slight roll of her eyes, her arms crossed in front of her. The back of the boutique is not exactly an area I go to a lot of the time. However, I must compliment Rarity’s sense of interior design. It really does feel fit for royalty. Standing on two even circles, Sonata and Aria make sure to stay very still. However, Sonata’s eyes are still looking around the area as much as she can, taking in every detail. Rarity, on the other hand, is sitting in the middle of the two circles, stitching some reference fabric around both of their waists.
“You really must hold still, Aria. I am not trying to poke you,” Rarity mentions with a cautious tone, trying to warn her that it could happen again. Rarity’s hair is an absolute mess and all she has on is a bathrobe and some slippers. I didn’t really expect much more considering she just got out of bed. The red glasses on her face compliment her eyes a bit, but it makes me wonder why she only wears them when working on her dresses. If it was for reading, I would suspect her to wear them while reading a menu at a restaurant, but she doesn’t.
“Your business is really pretty. I didn’t go for the royal approach with my restaurants. I tried to design my business around the sea, but I still appreciate the decor,” Sonata mentions with an affirmative nod, staring at the pink curtains that hang around the mirrors.
“Thank you, darling. I have always been inspired by a certain… romance. An era of love that seems to be more infrequent these days.” Taking a breath, Rarity carefully removes a piece of cloth from Sonata’s thigh, seemingly happy with it. I can’t pretend to know what she is doing, but I can trust she knows. How exactly can she multitask on two people at the same time? “The only problem I have is getting my lamps to work correctly. Even if I replace them, they don’t seem to work.”
“Have you tried looking at the outlets themselves?” Aria asks with a quiet curiosity, making Rarity look up at her.
“I… What?” Rarity asks in confusion, not quite getting what Aria means.
“The outlets could have a low electrical output. Or you have too many things plugged in at one outlet.” Looking down towards Rarity, Aria’s eyes widen for a moment before quickly looking up, an angry expression on her face.
“I haven’t checked that. Thank you for the suggestion,” Rarity mentions with a small smile, but she seems to notice Aria’s deliberate attempt to look away from her. “Is everything quite alright with you, dear? Do I really look that bad?”
“No, she’s just scared of heights,” Sonata states with a happy tone, making Aria glare at her with the hate of a god. The circle she’s standing on is only a little more than half a meter tall. How could she be scared of that? Isn’t that kind of ridiculou-
No. It’s easy to judge others, but Aria has valid reasons for her fears. Even I have some fears that would probably seem trivial to others. I can’t exactly think of any off the top of my head, but I’m sure they are there. Unless I am just that awesome. Oh, great. Rainbow Dash is rubbing off on me here. It’s one thing to be confident with an ego, but it’s another to declare myself as awesome.
“Why do you wear those glasses, Rarity?” I ask her suddenly to take the conversation off of Aria’s fear. And maybe to distract myself from my thoughts… “I assume they aren’t reading glasses. You never wear them except for when you are designing things like dresses.”
Rarity takes a deep breath before turning herself towards me, pulling her glasses off of her face. Looking at me, it seems like Rarity is trying to think of the right words to say in this specific instance. Was my question that dumb? I figured it was perfectly reasonable.
“Adagio darling. When I am designing ‘things’, I am crafting the clothes that will make each individual feel more confident about themselves. That takes time. I have to look at a lot of numbers and stitches to make sure everything is perfect.” Holding up her glasses so that I can see them better, Rarity carefully removes one of the lens pieces, handing it to me. Looking through it, everything seems blurry. “These glasses help to avoid my eye strain,” Rarity mentions with a confident tone, holding up the measuring tape. Just like a magnifying glass, I can see the numbers of the tape as clearly as the day. When things get close, they get super clear without much effort on my part to focus. Interesting.
“That is… unique. So, you use it to decrease whatever strain you might feel after hours of working on the same project,” I utter with a small amount of intrigue. Honestly, these might be useful for looking at sheet music at the studio…
“Precisely. Less work for my eyes and it lets me think about the project without getting distracted.” Carefully, Rarity places the lens back into her glasses, cleaning it with a special cloth before looking back at Aria. “Now you’re both lucky that I got a cancellation on an order. I should be able to get your attires done for the wedding, but I will need some details about what you want.” Rolling her seat over to a nearby desk, Rarity grabs a notebook and a pen. The way she holds it makes her look like she’s ready to write some notes, but I can tell she’s about to make a few sketches.
“Black,” Aria mentions with a slightly annoyed grumble.
“Just… black?” Rarity asks with a confused expression, making a note of the color. “You don’t have any other requests? What about design ideas?”
“I don’t know. You could incorporate spiders into it somewhere. That’d be cool,” Aria states with a small snicker, the thought making her laugh. Rarity, on the other hand, seems a little distressed by the idea.
“Alright. I guess I will have to softball the idea with you a little more at another time. What about you, Sonata? Any ideas?” Rarity asks, an almost pleading look on her face to give her something to work with.
“Ooh, ideas? I don’t know where to start!” Sonata exclaims with a wondrous look in her eyes. Something tells me she won’t have a problem giving Rarity a vivid idea of what to make…
“Now imagine if you got fucked by a cactus,” Rainbow Dash starts off with her hands in the air as if she has a point. Over half of her body is covered in pink, yellow, and green paint, but her sentence is what confuses the hell out of me. “That would hurt, right? Now multiply that pain by ten and well… That’s how painful this is.” You know, I have absolutely no idea what she is talking about. She called me over here for some ‘emergency’, but all I see here is a bunch of paint on her. I still don’t know why I’m here, standing on her porch for god knows what. I know she was working on the banner for the wedding, but I have no idea why she brought up this analogy. “You ready to go in?”
“Dash, I don’t think I’m ever ready to ‘be fucked by ten cactuses,’” I paraphrase with air quotes, making Rainbow Dash laugh a little. “But fine. Surely this emergency can’t be that bad.” Dash snickers at my words before opening her front door, giving me a look of the interior of the house.
Okay. I admit. This is bad…
The hardwood floor is completely covered in various colors of paint with a splash of red sprayed out onto the living room’s white wall. The red would make this area look like a crime scene without the other colors. Sitting in the middle of the living room, Fluttershy is no longer the same yellow she usually is. Her whole body is painted, unlike Dash. Fluttershy just looks defeated, gently tapping a paint brush against the ground.
“Oh my god. Your parents are going to be pissed,” I tell Dash with a quiet tone, still surprised that the two of them could spill this much paint.
“Hence why I called you over here. This is an emergency,” Dash tells me with an urgent tone in her voice. I don’t know how she expects that I would be able to help with this. The two of them spilled what looks like gallons of paint across the living room. Why did they need that much paint anyway?
Taking a deep breath, I slip off my boots and socks, rolling my jeans up close to my knees. I gently take off my leather jacket, praying that I don’t get any of this on my clothes. Rainbow Dash’s expression brightens, seemingly taking this as a sign that I will help. Walking inside, I take a closer look around the room, almost feeling an urge to kill Dash for this. Looking down at the floor, I can’t help but sigh, knowing there’s no way further inside without stepping in it. The multicolored ooze is spread across the room like some slime. I try to take my mind off it as I step forward, but that’s a little difficult.
“Okay. This is going to be a pain,” I state quietly. Dash follows me, stepping into the paint with her shoes that are already ruined. I’m just glad I kept my boots outside… Those aren’t exactly cheap. Besides, Sunset bought them for me. “Come on, Fluttershy,” I tell her before offering her a hand up. “Time to get up. We have a mess to clean.” Looking up at me, Fluttershy takes my hand and grabs onto my forearm to get up from the paint. Now, my arm looks like it is covered in a rainbow.
“Thank you for coming out here,” Fluttershy gratefully tells me with a bow of her head. I mean, I would have avoided it if I knew what was waiting for me, but helping is what friends do. Still… Doesn’t make me wish I was home in my bed.
“It’s fine,” I respond with a slight groan, rubbing my forehead. The wet feeling from my hand instantly reminds me why I need to be careful where I touch. I swear if I get a call from anyone else who needs help cleaning something like this up, I will pretend to be dead…
Looking down at my gem, an idea comes to my mind. A small hum reverberates in my throat. That familiar spark of magic trickles down to my fingertips, causing a green aura to surround my hands.
“Ooh, what are you going to do?” Dash asks me, looking at the magic swirling in my hands. Huh. She can see it now. When I was getting my magic back, they couldn’t detect it at all. Maybe it was due to Umbra…
“One of the biggest favors of your life,” I tell her with an annoyed tone, bringing my hands together. Within a second, all the excess paint on the floor floats into the air, combining into one large ball. There is still quite a bit of paint staining the floors and walls, but getting rid of this should help get this done a lot faster. Humming another small tune, the ball of paint disappears from the room, leaving only the minimum amount that we have to clean up.
“I… What was that?” Dash asks in a tone of disbelief, walking to the middle of the room to see if I made the ball invisible. If I did that, we would still have to deal with it eventually.
“I teleported it away,” I explain before walking towards the kitchen, prepared to get some cleaning supplies.
“Oh? Where did you make it go?” Fluttershy asks me. If only she knew I am as unaware as she is. I didn’t really decide anywhere for it to go, so it probably just appeared somewhere random.
“Jupiter. I made it go to Jupiter,” I lie, wondering where exactly the paint went. I guess it doesn’t really matter. It’s not our problem anymore. “We should get a move on before your parents get home,” I tell them in a loud voice, trying to make sure they can hear me from the kitchen. I just hope everything can be cleaned.
“Yeah, they should be home in an hour,” Dash responds with a nervous tone, acknowledging my need to hurry. An hour… Just one hour…
I swear I will kill Rainbow Dash one of these days.
At this point, I can’t help but wonder if life is a joke after all. Sure, the true meaning of life is happiness as Sunset taught me a long time ago, but this? This is too coincidental. I can almost swear that things like this bring back the migraines. Actually… When was the last time I had one? Does that really matter right now? Not really. What does matter is the blatant sea of confetti and glitter in front of me…
I just dropped by Sugarcube Corner to check on Pinkie. I didn’t really expect her to start working on the wedding decorations yet, but apparently she has. Amidst the chaos of glitter and confetti, there are tons of other supplies like tape, streamers, and some nicely folded paper swans.
“Adagio? Adagiooooo? Hello? Earth to siren?” Pinkie Pie says in order to get my attention, breaking me from my thoughts. Sonata stands right beside Pinkie with an assortment of glitter in her hair. All the way in the back of the bakery, Aria sits on a table, trying to keep away from the glitter. So, instead of going home, the two of them visited Pinkie. Am I about to be dragged into this mess as well? “What do you think so far?” Pinkie asks me excitedly, handing me a small paper swan with golden glitter on it. “I also made sirens with help from these two. I hope they’re accurate!” Again, Pinkie hands me a paper sculpture, but shaped after our Equestrian bodies this time. It is very impressive, honestly.
“They look great, Pinkie,” I tell her with a small nod, wondering how much time it took to make these. Before I can say anything else, Pinkie runs around the place, handing me more decorations she wants me to look at. Honestly, I’m surprised she closed the whole bakery to work on these. This is probably a little overboard. I don’t think we will need this much stuff at the wedding. However, I should have expected Pinkie to go overboard, so this is my fault if anything.
“Except for spilling the glitter, it was a lot of fun to help make these,” Sonata explains with a smile, proud of her contribution to the decorations. Setting them down on a nearby table, I can’t help but wonder what we will be doing with half of these by the time we’re done with the wedding. “But now that we’re done, we should probably clean up.”
“Oh, yeah! Cleaning this up is going to be tough though,” Pinkie ponders before her eyes turn to look at me. In a second, I can tell what she is thinking… No… Nope. Nuh uh. The second you agree to clean this up, your whole afternoon will be booked, Adagio. Refuse. “Do you want to help us out?” Pinkie asks me excitedly as she picks up a couple tubes of paint that she used on the decorations.
“I would love to help out, but… Sunset needs my help with something,” I tell her with full eye contact, hoping she doesn’t see through my lie. Before I can say anything else to make my escape, a couple thuds can be heard, making me turn my eyes to Sonata. Tubes of paint now lay on the floor, but the way Sonata is reacting makes me concerned. Her hand seems to swell in a second and I can see the color drain from her face. Oh no…
“I… I will be-” Before Sonata can finish her statement, she gags as she almost vomits on the spot, prompting her to run to the bathroom.
“Sonata? Are you okay?” Pinkie worriedly calls after her, but I simply reach into my bag, grabbing a bottle of anti-allergen pills. I knew this might come in handy.
“Oh, great. Did you use the wrong type of paint?” Aria asks from across the room, finally getting off the table. Sighing to herself, Aria prompts me to follow her. “I’ll hold her hair out of the way. You can wash her hand,” Aria tells me nonchalantly, only seeming to confuse Pinkie even more.
“Pinkie, for future reference, Sonata is allergic to some types of paint. It isn’t your fault, but we should probably look at the components of the paint you buy,” I tell her quietly, patting her shoulder. I was just about to escape, but now I will be stuck here, cleaning up another mess entirely. Knowing Sonata’s typical reactions to her allergy, it will be a while before she is feeling better. “Start cleaning up the glitter and confetti. I’ll try to make sure Sonata is back in shape soon.” Quickly walking away from Pinkie, my feet kick up some of the debris. I would usually try to keep glitter away from my boots, but I have to help relieve Sonata from these bad symptoms.
Opening the bathroom door, I can instantly hear the sounds of vomiting. I try my best to not feel grossed out by the sounds, knowing that Sonata feels a lot worse than I do. Closing the door behind me, I notice Aria standing behind Sonata as the latter is hunched over the toilet bowl. Aria holds the blue hair out of the way, nodding to me.
“Hey, Sonata,” I say in a reassuring tone, grabbing a couple of paper towels. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll get you back to normal.” From here, I can see that her hand is already covered in hives. There’s not much I can do about that other than help to clean the area.
“Yo, Dagi. There’s some lotion in my bag,” Aria tells me while nodding to her side. The lotion should help with the hives. Once she’s stopped vomiting, the pill should help moderate her symptoms.
“I’m sorry,” Sonata is barely able to choke out before leaning her head over the toilet bowl again. She’s always hated how bad her allergy affects her, but what kind of friends would we be if we didn’t help? Taking the lotion from Aria’s bag, I gently rub some of it onto Sonata’s hand after washing the area with damp paper towels.
“Don’t worry about it, Sonata,” I tell her quietly, treating her hand. I was not expecting to clean up an allergy mess, but here I am. It will probably be best for Sonata to go home after this. A good nap should help… “We’re here to help. You’ll be fine.”