Book 3: Equestria Abides
Chapter 18
“Are you ready? Huh? Huh? Huh? How about now?” Trigger was being even more hyper than usual, bouncing all over the room on his stubby wings.
“Almost, okay?” Sunny replied. She didn't really care for her dress much anyway... it was too white. Twilight had picked it out for her... but did white and gold really go with her yellow and white colors? It just seemed too overpowering. She had already decided to ditch the faux-gold horseshoes that went with it... and at any rate, putting on a dress around your wings when you had never done it before was hard!
“Well I hope so!” He called back again, suddenly at her side, and suddenly shooting off again. “You are the guest of honor, after all.” She heard a few bounces on her bed, and didn't have to turn to figure out their source. “Whoo! The first new years celebration – this is gonna be so awesome!”
“Ugh,” she sighed, “I didn't really do anything.”
“Are you kidding?” The little orange blur coalesced at her side again. “You raised the sun for the very first normal day of the very first normal year!” He jumped back, shouting again, “You're the most awesome filly ever!”
She just rolled her eyes at the overenthusiastic pegasus colt, and finally managed to get the last clasp around the base of her wings done by pulling it with her teeth. She didn't dare use her magic. Her lessons with Twilight were still ongoing, and though she was pretty sure she now wouldn't send the clasp whizzing through the wall, she probably still would tear the dress. She turned around to face Hair Trigger. “So, how do I look?” ... or she turned to where Trigger used to be, anyway.
The reply came from her side. “You look awesome! I really like your mane!”
She blushed a little. Her mane and tail were pretty interesting these days. It still retained its white-with-just-a-hint-of-yellow color, but now it was longer... and less hair-like. It billowed around in some kind of wind nopony could see or feel, and sometimes it seemed more like a cloud than a mane... It even glowed a little... it was only really noticeable in the dark, but her mane produced its own light somehow.
She laughed. “I wish I only had to wear a little collar and bow-tie like you! It would be so much easier!”
“Nope! Guest of honor, remember – you gotta look extra fancy!” He suddenly popped up by her side again. “Shall I escort you to the festivities my lady?” He could barely maintain a straight face after saying such frippery.
“Hey, I asked you out!” Sunny cried out, launching a pillow in his direction... which he dodged easily. The little guy was fast, after all. “So I'll do the escorting, thank you very much!”
To the great peril of her fancy outfit, they both tried to squeeze through the door at the same time, both insisting on leading the way. Thankfully, though, they were both still quite small, so no actual damage occurred, just a little wrinkling. “Hey, wait up!” Sunny cried as they ran down the hallway, “It's hard to run in this thing!”
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“Aw, Twilight, come on!” Apollo said, leaning against the door. “It's the very first new years celebration, you really want to miss out on that?”
“It's not new years!” Twilight's peeved voice came back through the door. “That's not for eight months now.”
“Well, yeah, but that's the old calendar!” he called back, “The new one starts today with the very first new day!”
“Do you have any idea how much this is going to mess up historical dating!?!” Her voice had a tint of desperation to it. “Starting a new year and a new dating system in the middle of a year?” She sounded close now... she must have been right on the other side of the door. “If this goes on, every single historical date will be off by part of a year, don't you see? Do you really want school fillies having to add and subtract months from historical dates, huh?”
“You know, they could just rewrite the history books using the new dating system...”
“And do you have any idea how much work that would be? Who's going to do that, huh? And what about the old books that are history themselves? And what if they make mistakes? There's just no way it can work!” She sounded more than a little hysterical now.
“Twilight, can you just do this... for me?” He decided to try something a little different now. “I don't want to be lonely out there.”
“NO!” She screamed out, startling him with her volume, “I will not be a part of this travesty! Somepony's got to keep track of the real dates!”
He sighed, beating his head against the door. “Twilight...”
“I said no!” Her voice came back one last time. He heard the slight sound of her magic, and another door lock clicking into place, then footsteps away from the door.
Dejected, he began to slowly walk away. It looked like he wouldn't be able to spend the day with Twilight after all. He had been strangely looking forward to it... maybe even thinking of it like a date? He stopped short for a moment. Wait... had he just thought of going on a date with Twilight Sparkle? ... For some reason it didn't strike him as wrongly as it should have. He started walking again, faster now... he really would be late to the party if he didn't hurry up a little.
Turning around the corner in the hall, he thought he saw another pony at the end, dark blue. He called out, “Hey, who's that?” ... but the other pony just slipped away into the stairwell. Rushing to the stairs himself, he tried to see the other pony again, but couldn't see anyone, even when he ran up and down the stairs a little. Was he seeing things now? Was it a ghost or something? Shaking his head, he made for the party downstairs. Whoever it was, it would come to light soon enough, he guessed. For now, he had a party to attend.
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Now that was an awesome party! Sunny thought to herself, finally in her bed again... she wasn't looking forward to getting up early to raise the sun again. Would she ever get a break again? She sighed... it looked like she would just have to get used to being a morning pony. Still, the party had been great. She hadn't wanted all the 'guest of honor' stuff to begin with... but once it started happening, it was actually pretty cool... and despite having all eyes on her, she had still managed to sneak off and get her very first kiss from a certain cute little pegasus. She blushed and smiled at the thought, even as she laid in her bed. Yep, definitely a good night!
Twilight was already asleep. She had been even before Sunny came back to their room. Sunny just shook her head... what a waste. Her new teacher had missed out on a lot of fun down there, just because of her silly dates and calendars. Sunny shrugged it off... you can lead a pony to a party, but you can't make her have fun, after all.
As she snuggled into her sheets to sleep, she heard a faint voice, “...Sister.... Where's my sister... I want my sister...”
She looked up again. Twilight was still sound asleep, not moving at all, and the voice was still coming. It didn't sound quite like a pony... something was off about it. What was that? “I want my sister” it said again, a little softer this time, as if it had passed by and now was receding. As Sunny listened fearfully, it got quieter and quieter, eventually fading off into nothing. Who was that? Nopony had any sisters here... so who would be wandering the halls at night mumbling about a sister?
It kept her awake for a little while longer, but she knew the door was locked tight, and she knew Twilight was there in between her and the door... and she was an alicorn now, she remembered... a little burst of levitation, and whoever it was would be sailing up into the sky, unstoppable. She might not be able to do delicate things yet, but she had plenty of practice making things fly up into the air! So, eventually, she did get to sleep, comforted that she would be safe... The delay in getting to sleep would only make the next morning even harder though.
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