Chapter 8
Back and forth, back and forth. The two mares continued to pull Jack in between themselves. Jack let out a sigh; the two mares had been playing tug of war for a few minutes now with him being the rope.
‘My arms are starting to hurt…’
“Girls? If you would be so kind as to unhan-hoof me, my arms are starting to hurt.”
Both Lyra and Luna looked up to Jack before reluctantly letting go. Now that Jack had his arms back that was one less problem to deal with, now to figure out how to get out of the next one.
Luna seemed very eager to return to the party almost like she didn’t want Jack and Lyra to be near each other. Lyra on the other hand (hoof?) seemed very eager to spend as much time with Jack as possible which was evident since she seemed to really want to show him around town. Now the question is how to get out of this predicament without pissing off a possibly new friend and a princess. What’s a man to do?
Well obviously we compromise!
So Jack trying to be a diplomatic as he could said, “Alright ladies I can tell you both want me to do something with you both but sadly I can’t be in two different places at the same time,” Turning to Lyra he continued, “Lyra, would it be possible to do a rain check on that tour? Don’t get me wrong I’d love to take a look around town but don’t you think it’d be rude to ditch the party pinkie threw together for both me and the princess?”
Lyra looked down and kicked at the ground with her hoof before replying, “Y-yeah, I guess you’re right.”
“Good now le-“
“But tomorrow you better let me show you around!”
Jack chuckled, “Yes I promise I’ll let you give me that tour.”
Lyra wasn’t convinced, “Pinkie promise!”
'Pinkie promise? How do they do that they don’t have pinkies! Hmm maybe they do it with their tails? Oh well might as well ask.’
“Umm Pinkie promise?”
“Yeah you know? ‘Cross my heart and hope to fly stick a cupcake in my eye!’”
She even went through the motions without poking her eye! +5 skill!
Amused Jack nodded and said, “Heh alright, ‘Cross my heart and hope to fly stick a cupcake in my ey- AHH!”
Jack receives -5 skill.
Both Luna and Lyra chuckled at Jacks expense when he poked his own eye. Happy now Lyra smiled and motioned they follow her back to the party at the train station. As they walked back to the train station Jack leaned over to Luna and whispered, “Hey, not that I mind going back to the party but why were you so dead set on going back earlier?”
Luna frowned just a bit before replying, “We…don’t trust her. We’re not sure if thee saw it but she had a bit of a crazed look in her eye when she asked to show us around. We think she’s up to some-“
Suddenly Lyra sneezed causing both Jack and Luna to jump. Looking back at them Lyra asked, “Hey you two aren’t talking about me behind my back are you?”
They both replied at the same time, “Um, nooooo?”
Liars the both of them!
Lyra stared at them for a moment before shrugging it off, “Hmm well let’s get go we’re nearly there!”
Trotting off Luna and Jack gave a sigh of relief before looking to one another for a brief moment then laughing a bit. As the continued towards the train station a loud explosion was heard followed by somepony shouting, “Pinkie!” apparently she somehow managed to shoot herself out of her party cannon and went flying straight into the cake. Poor cake didn’t stand a chance as she devoured it whole. Jack, Lyra, and Luna were just turning the corner when Pinkie let out a very loud belch earning a few nasty glares from the ponies at the party, she didn’t care much though since after that she spotted the three almost instantly and ran up to them.
“Ooooh hey guys welcome back!”
Jack took a few steps back from her trying to hide behind Luna, Lyra didn’t notice and walked up to Pinkie, “Hey yourself Pinkie, did you really just eat the entire cake?”
“Yup! Sure did and it tasted super amazing! Oh oh! Gotta run, Dash looks like she needs help with a prank! Bye!”
Lyra simply shook her head at Pinkie’s antics and proceeded to join the rest of the party goers. Meanwhile Jack let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding as Luna looked at him with concern.
“Thou sure thee art all right?”
“Y-yes I’m fine I think it best if I avoid Pinkie for now though.”
Luna nodded before going to leave the party but stopped suddenly and turned around to face Jack.
“Don’t forget we still have a discussion to finish.”
Sighing Jack replied, “I know Luna, I know. Just… give me till tomorrow afternoon alright?”
Luna seemed to accept this and proceeded to join the party. Meanwhile Lyra had seen the whole exchange and couldn’t help but wonder what Jack seemed to be hiding.
Jack walked through a group of ponies that were dancing and made his way toward the snack table. Picking up a cup he poured himself some punch, downing the drink in one go. Pleasantly surprised by how good it tasted Jack had several more and then promptly passed out. Apparently someone can’t hold their liquor…did I mention that the punch had been spiked? (Terrible terrible joke I know)
The rest of that evening went by quickly as Luna, Twilight and friends all came to Jack’s side to see what had happened. It didn’t take long to figure out that Pinkie and Rainbow had spiked the punch in the hopes of getting Jack drunk enough to make a fool out of himself, little did they know that Jack and alcohol do NOT mix well. So after a brief lecture from Twilight about being careful with their pranks the group brought Jack to the hotel he and Luna would be sharing during their stay (because staying at Twilight’s is too mainstream).
Upon reaching said hotel they were surprised to see it was one of the fancier hotels in Ponyville, not that there many hotels but still. Of course as is to be expected as soon as Luna stepped inside the hotel the staff where in a frenzy trying to make everything as nice an shiny as they could. Gotta make it look pretty for the princess ya know. And so after several minutes of trying to calm down the staff (to little avail) the group made their way to the room Jack and Luna would be sharing during their stay in Ponyville. Upon reaching their destination Luna levitated the still unconscious body of Jack from Twilight’s grasp and on to her own back.
Opening the door the group let out a collective gasp, the room Luna and Jack had been given was nice enough to rival anything from Canterlot castle. Walking inside Pinkie, Rainbow and AppleJack decided to explore the place while Rarity gushed over how ‘marvelous’ everything was. Luna proceeded to tuck Jack into bed and walked back into the living area where Twilight had taken a seat.
“Well this hath been an…interesting evening wouldn’t thou agree?”
Looking over to the princess Twilight replied, “Oh yes very much so! I had such a nice time at the party yet I feel bad for Jack, seems he’s quite the light weight.”
Both mares chuckled at that but jumped as they heard something break from one of the other rooms.
“Whoopsie! My bad!”
“Dang it Pinkie yah best help me clean this here mess up!”
Just then Rainbow came flying into the living room nervously rubbing her neck.
“Yeah um you might not want to use the bathroom over there, Pinkie and AppleJack somehow managed to break the shower head and its spraying everywhere!”
Twilight sighed practically reading Rainbow’s mind, “Alright I’ll go help them.”
Rainbow smiled at her friend, “Great! Knew I could count on you Twi.”
This left Luna alone in the living room, however she gasped as she nearly forgot to raise the moon and stars. Trotting over to the sliding glass door leading to the balcony she opened it and went outside and concentrated on her magic to bring forth the night. As she did this the others after fixing the shower in the bathroom decided it best to leave, Twilight left a note saying what fun it was at the party and hopped that both Luna and Jack had a good night.
Fast forward about 20 minutes.
Jack awoke to see it was night time out, throwing the covers off himself he shuffled his feet over to the bedroom door clearly exhausted but curious as to the sound he was hearing almost like it was someone panting. Opening the door and poking his head out Jack saw Luna Standing on the balcony on shaky legs. Concerned Jack shuffled his way over to her; apparently she was too focused on whatever it was she was doing to notice him. Taking a closer look Jack saw that she was indeed panting, she looked dead tired and her horn was glowing. Trying to get her attention Jack waved his hand in front of her face to no avail. He even called her name and still no response. With nothing else to do Jack tried to shake her which caused her to jump with fright and look around frantically. Seeing Jack she relaxed somewhat and smiled a tired smile at him.
“Hey Luna, you alright? Looked like you were about to collapse.”
“We are fine…We have something we would like to show thee. Come, look to the sky!”
Casting his gaze upward Jack and uttered just one simply word, “Whoa…”
There were shooting stars, dozens of them flying across the sky. It was amazing; Jack had never seen anything like it before. Sure he’d seen a single shooting star before but this many? Truly a sight to behold. Looking over to Luna with his still amazed expression he saw her with a bit of a smug look.
“Did you…?”
“Cause the shooting stars thou see on this most wonderful of nights? Indeed we have!”
Clearly Luna took much pride in her work. Her expression turned to one of embarrassment though and she looked down at the floor and kicked with her hoof slightly before looking at Jack again and saying, “We…we figured it would be a suitable ‘welcome to Equestria’ present. D-do thou think it adequate?”
Jack simply looked at her dumbfounded; his welcoming gift for coming to a strange new land was this?! Jack stared at her for a moment and swore he saw her blush but paid it no mind as he embraced her in a hug.
“It’s wonderful; no one’s ever done anything like this for me. Thank you, Luna.”
With that he let go of her and looked up to the stars flying across the sky. Luna was definitely blushing now and smiled as they both watched the stars. However it was short lived as Luna suddenly collapsed; Jack rushed to her side asking what was wrong as he helped her up.
“I-it is nothing; we are merely tired from moving so many at one time. It is…taxing to say the least.”
“Well we should get you to bed can’t have a princess passing out, out here now can we?”
Luna simply nodded too tired to talk anymore and let Jack help her to the bedroom. Climbing into bed Luna lay still as Jack tucked her in, expecting him to get in as well she was surprised when he moved to leave the room.
“Wait, where are thee going?”
“Hmm? Oh well I just thought that-“
“Don’t you dare think to sleep on that couch! This bed is much more comfortable and big enough for the both of us. So come to bed!”
Now it was Jack’s turn to blush yet being tired himself Jack nodded his head and moved to get under the covers as well.
‘Ok no need to freak out you’re only sleeping in the same bed as a princess who not only rules a nation but also moves the stars as a welcoming gift! Not to mention she’s cute as well.’
Trying to get comfortable Jack turned on his side facing away from Luna to conceal his turn red face.
“…Did thou forget we read minds?” Luna asked with a smirk.
“Oh come on!” Jack flung his arms up in frustration.
Luna decided to try and help calm Jack down so he wouldn’t feel so nervous around her so what did she do? She hugged him.
‘…Brain permission to freak out?’
‘…’
‘Uhh Brain?’
‘Error 404 Brain not found.’
'Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!’
Luna giggled at Jack’s inner dialog yet continued to hug him. Eventually he seemed to relax a bit an slowly tuned to look at the princess.
“Umm princess?”
“Please we are friends thou do not need to used titles with me just ‘Luna’ will do.” Luna stated with a smile.
“Ok umm, Luna? Why are you still hugging me?”
“We figured it the best solution to help get you to relax around us, everyone is always so prim and proper when addressing us. It gets tiring after so long…we would like to have our friends to be comfortable around us so please, just ‘Luna’ will do.”
As she talked Luna seemed a bit sad, it seemed even her friends were always prim and proper when around her and never really relaxed and acted like an actual ‘friend’. Seemed she just wanted one true friend (maybe more given time hmm?), someone that would treat her as Luna the pony not Luna the princess. Looking her in the eye Jack smiled and returned the hug.
“Ok, Luna I think I understand.”
Luna smiled again, “Good.”
Luna gave him a slight squeeze and ended the hug, saying their goodnights the pair fell asleep quickly thanks to their exhaustion from the party/moving the stars.
Sometime later…
‘Ooo! Is it that time again?! I can’t wait to show you the game I have perpared for you…’
“Shit.”
End of chapter 8.