Apple of My Eye- Ch. 21

Royal Decree Number 1,308

AKA- Pre-Hearts and Hooves Day Lunacy

“Aurora? Aurora, are you back here?” Cup Cake called, poking her head into the back room of Sugar Cube Corner.

“SHHH!!!” Aurora hissed, poking her head out of a cabinet. She’d obviously been watching Pinkie Pie, because there was no conceivable way that she should have been able to fit…

“What are you doing in there?” Cup asked, crouching down to be eye level with the scared looking mare.

“Pinkie’s looking for me… I told her last night that I’d hang out with her on my break today, and then I heard one of the twins talking about a ‘surprise’ she had for me…” Aurora explained, her eyes darting around the room, looking for any hint of the pink menace.

“Well that doesn’t sound so bad… so why are you hiding in the tea cabinet?” Cup pressed, still a bit confused.

“The last time she had a ‘surprise’ for me, it involved being blindfolded, spun around, and walking over a trap door that led to the basement…… true, the landing area was a foam pit and we went out for ice cream later, but still!”

Cup Cake just rolled her eyes and resisted the urge to laugh at the silliness her employees got up to.

“You know, she really does mean well dearie…” Cup said, trying to coax Aurora out of the cabinet. “And as much as I love having an employee so dedicated that they’re willing to stay around the shop during their break, I’m not too happy about that employee sitting on top of my favorite teas…”

“What? Oh! Oh I’m so sorry Mrs. Cake… I’ll get out now…” Aurora said, somehow stumbling out of the cabinet without dislodging anything in the process.

“Thank you dear… now, it IS your break, and technically I can’t make you do anything right now, but seeing as it’s a slow day around here, and you’ve probably spent the last half hour stuffed in a tiny cupboard… I’m going to ask that you take the rest of the day off.”

“But… but if I’m off the rest of the day… Pinkie might find me!” Aurora exclaimed, her eyes growing in terror. Seriously, there was just no keeping up with Pinkie, and working with her most days had made Aurora especially prone to mild panic attacks when it came to her friend’s antics.

“Well you know… that’s just a risk you’ll have to take. I’m not letting you hide away from the world. So unless you have a good reason for why you absolutely can’t be around Pinkie, then you’re on your own.” Cup chided, shooing Aurora towards the door.

“No you can’t, please!” Aurora pleaded, blushing, “It’s more than just fear! Every time Pinkie gets close she gets all touchy and I start feeling weird…”

“I don’t know… but ever since last week, I keep getting these feelings… I feel like I’m burning up from the inside, and it only gets worse when somepony touches my wings or my flank… or my ANYTHING really… and Pinkie is always hugging me and it drives me insane because I don’t know what to do, but everything just feels fuzzy, I can’t focus… I’ve tried looking for an answer at the Library, but I can’t find anything.”

Cup Cake was now blushing right along with Aurora. Unlike Aurora however, she knew the reason the Pegasus was feeling so out of sorts…

“Aurora, sweetie… I know that you’re not going to stay a mare for much longer, the spell wears off next week… but I think we need to have a talk…”

“Talk? Talk about what?” Aurora asked, sniffling slightly as the panic started to subside. “I’m not a freak am I? Oh Luna, you’re going to fire me, aren’t you?! I’m sorry!”

“No sweetie, no… it’s just…” Cup began to say, before getting cut off.

“Found ya!” Pinkie shouted, head popping out of the cookie jar and making Aurora and Mrs. Cake both jump into the air and scream.

“Geez Rory, I didn’t know you wanted to play tag!” Pinkie said excitedly, chasing after Aurora in a blur of pink, leaving Cup standing there in shocked silence.

“…………I swear, if the twins take after those two, I’m closing the shop…” she said, shaking her head and digging out one of the personal sized dark chocolate cakes she kept hidden around the shop… you know, in case of cake emergency…

Luna strolled the halls of Canterlot Castle. She was up late for her, and the midday sun of her sister was starting to give her a headache… briefly, she considered the idea of casting a spell on the sun so that its albido matched that of her moon.

Then she remembered the last time she had tried to mess with her sisters Day, and reconsidered. The most frustrating thing about her insomnia was that she had no idea why she was suffering from it! She had tried relaxation spells, a soothing bath with crystals that were enchanted to help lull the user to sleep, and had even tried counting sheep… She was the ruler of dreams for Faust’s sake! Surely there had to be something that could help her regain her sanity and her sleep…

As she looked out on the city from her balcony, Luna saw families milling about. Children were running around haphazardly, their parent trying to catch them. Lovers and young couples were walking slowly, leaning on each other and nuzzling openly in the streets…. In the years before her banishment, Luna recalled that such open displays of affection were commonly reserved for couples that were bound together for life, and that a pony could risk public mockery for dating outside their “kind”… She recalled that the Unicorns had been especially prejudiced in that regard, and that a family member could be disowned if they were found with an Earth Pony or a Pegasus.

Truly, her subjects had come a long way… Celestia had seen to it that her sister’s 1000 year absence had not been wasted, and had ensured that Luna returned to a much more open and loving Equestria. There was more love in the land than could have ever been imagined in years past. She wondered briefly what it was that had changed in the land to create such a happy populace…

“Something on your mind, sister?” Celestia asked, appearing beside Luna and startling her slightly.

“Neigh Celestia… We are merely having trouble succumbing to the pull of Our own realm of power…” Luna replied, turning her attention back to the city sprawling below.

“You must be tired Lulu… you’re reverting back to the old way of speaking…” Celestia noted, trying to follow her little sister’s gaze as it traveled between the couples walking the streets of their city.

“We are indeed tired… We should be asleep at this time of day, and yet, there is something preventing such a thing from happening.” Luna agreed, shaking her head and going back inside the tower to her room.

Celestia followed, smiling coyly… she loved it when Luna missed the obvious. It gave her the chance to play a being omnipotent.

“Lulu… Do you ever feel lonely?” Celestia asked, sitting on the carpeted floor of her sister’s room across from the dark blue alicorn.

“Tis a cruel question Tia…” Luna replied, “Thou knows that to be a tender subject.”

“So then you don’t have your eyes on a special somepony?” Celestia asked, still feigning innocence.

“… It is not that We do not have Our eyes on somepony… We just do not know what to do in order to woo them…” Luna admitted, blushing. “And the last time We were around them… it did not end so well…”

“Well to be fair, you did leave, shall we say, a rather large impression…” Tia said, giggling, “But I believe that I know how you can make some headway in your pursuit of your crush. After all, Hearts and Hooves Day is just around the bend, and I'd be remiss if my sister were without a special somepony to spend the day with...”

“Truly?! Oh sister, that would be wonderful!” Luna cried out, leaping forward to give Tia a hug.

“Yes Lulu… but after I tell you my plan, you have to promise to go to bed.”

“Oh of course Tia!” Luna replied happily, a saccharin sweet grin plastered on her muzzle as she hugged her sister.

Somewhere in Equestria, a Griffin named Ironclaw, who was deathly allergic to adorableness, keeled over… but that was okay, since everyone that had ever met him agreed that he was a bit of a prick…

“Okay! Okay! I give up!” Aurora screeched, flying out of the bell tower she had been hiding in, only to be found by Pinkie Pie… for the fifth time…

“Awwww… don’t be upset Rory…” Pinkie said, placing a hoof on her friend’s back reassuringly, failing to notice the fact that Aurora’s entire body tensed up at the physical contact. “I’m the champion at Hide and Seek, so it’s not like you really had a chance anyway!”

“Gee thanks…” the grey mare replied sarcastically. “Now, what was it you wanted to surprise me with Pinkie?”

“What? Who told you I had a surprise for you Rory?” Pinkie asked, looking genuinely shocked.

“I heard the twins talking about how you had a surprise for me… and I’m really tired, so please just cut to the chase and tell me what the surprise is…” Aurora answered wearily.

“Well I was going to take you to see a movie with me in the library basement… but if you’re tired, then I understand. You don’t look so good anyway Rory… have you been getting enough sleep? You kind of have that weird look Applejack did when she wouldn’t stop working for like, a week…” Pinkie replied, a look of concern replacing her usual happy-go-lucky grin.

“Well duh. Sure, they’re not all that great… there was that ‘Dusk’ saga… but that wasn’t really a saga, just four really bad movies about some silly filly that couldn’t decide between being a werepony or a vampony… I hated it. If they’re gonna show a movie with vamponies, they absolutely should not have the blood sucking characters glow in the dark.” Pinkie answered, rambling on about how she preferred old school scary movies where the blood was made out of red food coloring and the villains had the style to pull off a fedora and striped sweater, over the newer kind that simply used way too much magic for the effects.

Aurora, for her part, overcame her shock relatively quickly, regaining her ability to talk somewhere between Pinkie’s analysis of Nightmare on Everfree Lane and her rant about the ridiculous concept of House of Glue.

“Pinkie!” Aurora half shouted, snapping her friend out of her rambling one sided conversation.

“Yes?” Pinkie responded, cocking he head to one side and looking at her friend quizzically.

“Whooo! Awesome!” Pinkie exclaimed, jumping into the air and whooping it up. “Come on then Rory! We have to get there soon or Twilight will give our spot to somepony else! Luckily, I have a few options for us, so as long as we get there quickly, then you can pick out the movies and I’ll make the popcorn!”

As Aurora was dragged through town by her hyperactive friend, she couldn’t help but smile… Pinkie may be able to run a pony ragged in a heartbeat, but her enthusiasm and humor were infectious.

Meanwhile, Pinkie was running through possible ways in her mind to subtly tell Aurora that she liked her… Well, she was alternating between planning and arguing over which movie out of the Hayraiser series was the best…

“Never again…” Aurora groaned, walking back to the Apple Family Farm alone as dusk began to fall across the land.
Somehow, Pinkie Pie had managed to find a three part movie that took the better part of ten hours to finish… and almost made Aurora cry uncle and run out of the library basement… “Who the hay watches scary movies in a bucking basement anyway?! That's just asking for trouble! Especially with ponies walking around overhead while the killer was doing the same bucking thing on screen!”

She just kept shaking her head, trying to get the images of several main characters being skinned alive in one of the final scenes out of her memory.

“I swear, as soon as somepony invents eye bleach, I’m buying a gallon and carrying it with me whenever I watch one of Pinkie’s movies…”

As she continued to complain to the empty air around her, Aurora rounded the curve that led to the hill upon which the entrance to Sweet Apple Acres rested. There were even worn grooves in the dirt path where Applejack and Big Macintosh would haul the sales cart on market days. She was rounding the corner to go through the main gate, and imagining the delicious home cooked food waiting at the farm house, when she noticed something weird……

“Did AJ get a new applecart?” she asked, getting closer to the farm house and the strangely shaped object parked at the front steps.

Aurora’s brain kept working, trying to figure out why the dark shape on the path ahead was so familiar… finally, in a mental leap not unlike being tackled by a crashing Rainbow Dash, she realized why the cart was so familiar.

“Oh shit! What is Luna doing here?! This can’t be good!” she exclaimed, taking off and flying quickly to the front door, slamming the door open and seeing Applejack and Luna sitting on the couch, flanked by two Lunar Guards.

Applejack looked like she was about ready to start sweating bullets, and Luna didn’t exactly look comfortable either… but when they both noticed Aurora standing there in the door looking at them wild eyed, Luna at least seemed to relax a bit.

“Ahhh, so good of you to finally arrive.” Luna noted, smiling slightly and patting the couch cushion next to her with a hoof. “Come in Aurora, have a seat… I have an urgent matter I need to discuss with the two of you…”

Aurora sat down and started shifting in her seat uneasily, not much though, just enough for Luna to notice and frown slightly.

“Does my presence worry you?” the lunar diarch asked, doing her best to soften her voice.

“No Princess… I’m just…it’s nothing…” Aurora responded, looking at the floor.

“Hmmm… well, I do not believe you, but I will respect your privacy.” Luna said, trying to get the grey Pegasus to look up, but to no avail. “And please, call me Luna… you used to not have a problem with that…”

“Ya said there was somethin’ ya needed ta talk to us about, Princess Luna?” Applejack said, interrupting nervously.

“Yes. There is an issue of grave importance which I require your assistance in. Aurora, Applejack, I have been reflecting on the current state of Equestria. It has changed much in the time I was in exile, and while there is certainly nothing I can do to change the past, I can hope to alter the future for the better.” Luna said, standing up from the couch and beginning to pace back and forth on the hard wood floor of the farm house.

“What do you mean Luna?” Aurora asked, leaning forward expectantly, “You make it sound like some kind of disaster is coming to Equestria…”

“Neigh dear Aurora, it is not anything that is coming to the land… it is something from the past that must be fixed in order for Equestria to continue to flourish. I fear that if it is not amended swiftly, that it shall be the beginning of dark days for all…”

“What do ya need us ta do Princess?” Applejack asked, getting to her hooves and looking like she was ready to take on the entire Everfree, and the Badlands to boot.

“This ghost from the past is none other than me, honest Applejack… I have upon much this day, and realize that aside from my foray out on Nightmare Night, that I am essentially a relic from the past. If I continue to rule and interact with others as I did those thousand plus years ago, then it will only bring ruin to the land.” Luna replied, lowering her head, her ethereal mane hiding her face and a tearful tone of voice issuing forth from the ruler’s lips. Never before had either Applejack or Aurora witnessed the proud Alicorn in such a pitiable state.

“… What can we do to help?” Aurora asked, sidling up to Luna and wrapping a wing around the night Princess comfortingly.

Luna looked up, a tear in her eye and a smile on her muzzle as she looked at both the ponies before her.

“Ah don’t care if she IS a Princess of Equestria. She had no right leadin’ us on like that!” Applejack griped as she and Aurora walked down the road to Ponyville in the dark. “Ah mean really! Actin’ like she’s in some kinda danger, or makin’ us thin she IS the danger… talkin’ about all sorts uh trouble comin’, and all she wanted was fer us ta put together a dang sleepover at tha farm!”

“Yeah AJ, I know…” Aurora agreed, keeping her distance from the irate farmer, “But come on. You have to admit she at least had a good excuse for wanting a sleepover as badly as she did… I mean, come on, you heard her back there… after she stopped laughing at the looks on our faces…”

“Yeah, Ah know…” the orange pony responded, making a face and trying at a poor imitation of Luna’s voice, “Ah’ve never had a sleepover, and Tia said that it’s important fer every young mare ta have one, and better late than never, and blah blah blah…”

“Don’t forget the part about us being the only friends she really considers close enough to even TRY and have a sleepover with.” Aurora chimed in, silencing Applejack’s grumbling. “I mean, imagine if you only had a small handful of friends after all the years she’s been around? It’s not like she can just make friends with ponies on the street. They’re either scared of her, or they’re too respectful to be honest about anything, or they’re after something.”

“………Ah guess that’s a pretty good reason… but she still coulda just outright told us. Ah mean, Ah’m glad she asked permission fer it ta be at the farm. But asking that kinda thing and then asking us ta go get the others so we could have the dang thing tonight?! She definitely needs some kinda lesson in social skills… maybe some kinda little book on manners too… Ah think Granny has one hid away somewhere ta threaten us if we start actin’ up…” AJ admitted, frowning at the ground.

At least Ah get ta spend some time with Aurora… She’s been actin’ real distant lately… wonder if she’s okay? Applejack though as they walked. Maybe Ah should just ask her?

“What’s on your mind AJ?” Aurora asked, speaking up before the farmer had a chance to figure out how to break the ice.

“Nuthin’ much… just wonderin’ why Luna figures a sleepover’ll help get her up ta speed on makin’ friends… Sounds like Twilight when she went all crazy and hexed that doll.” Applejack replied, edging closer to the Pegasus, trying not to be too obvious about it.

“I guess everyone needs to start somewhere… I’m still not sure how I managed to get you all to be my friend… I didn’t exactly have a lot of close friends before I came here.” Aurora mused out loud, looking up at the stars overhead and zoning out as Applejack closed the distance and they walked past the outer edge of the town.

“Now how is it that a nice pony like you always sounds so upset about life when ya talk about where ya came from?” Applejack asked, her face only inches from Aurora’s, which was certainly enough to startle the grey mare out of her thoughts.

“I-I-I don’t know what you’re talking about…” Aurora stammered out, blushing and trying to back away from the orange Earth Pony, only to feel her side pressed against a building. Applejack had actually cornered her! BUCK!

“And yer blushin’ an awful lot… everything alright with ya sugarcube?” Applejack asked, oblivious to the fact that just being close to the orange mare was enough to send shivers up Aurora’s spine, causing her wings to start extending, the feathers ruffling.

“I-Ah-Uh………” she babbled, doing an excellent impression of a flustered Fluttershy, though a bit louder.

Applejack placed the side of her foreleg against Aurora’s cheek, dragging it down the Pegasus’ neck and frowning.

“Ya feel like yer burning up!” she exclaimed “Sugarcube, we gotta get ya some help… come on, climb on mah back, Ah’ll take ya back ta the farm.”

“No!” Aurora objected, leaping off the ground and feeling the cool night air as it caressed her coat, cooling her down almost instantly. “Really, Applejack… I’m fine… just do me a favor, please, just please don’t touch me…”

She hadn’t meant for her words to sting, but after hearing that the pony she liked didn’t want her nearby, Applejack was hard pressed to keep her spirits up. They ended up agreeing that since Aurora had wings, she’d be better suited to go get Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Rarity, while Applejack would get Pinkie Pie and Twilight. As soon as Aurora was out of sight though, Applejack just sat down in the middle of the street and tried not to cry…

“Was it somethin’ Ah said? Did Ah do somethin’ wrong?” she asked, feeling a lone tear run down her muzzle. “Ah was
just worried about her… and she all but dang near took mah head off.”

You act kind of like that if somepony tells you you’re sick… Maybe she’s just as prideful as you are? Her inner voice suggested.

Maybe it’s the spell? Remember, underneath that feminine physique is a stallion. And that can’t be feeling good… imagine being stuck in the wrong skin. I’ll bet that spell worked over her mind too, so right now she’s probably feeling a bunch of things that she can’t even figure out and that’s only making her act crazier.

“Ah’m a mare too! And Ah don’t have any of those goofy emotion thingies messin’ with mah head…”

You were just crying because the pony you have a crush on said they didn’t want you right in their face… if that isn’t over reacting, I don’t know what is.

“Shut up… ya don’t know nothin’! If she’s not feelin’ good, then come Tartarus or Parasprites, Ah’m gonna make sure she’s alright! And Ah can’t do that right now without looking like one of them control freaks ya hear about in the news… Ah just wish there were some way fer me ta at least ask her how she feels about me… least then Ah’d know where ta go from here…”

Well, you said you’d wait until after the spell wore off and she was back to her old self… but maybe this sleepover thing will give us a shot to at least try and get a bit closer to her.

“But what’s honestly gonna happen that me an’ her end up getting’ closer? Ah can’t try anything crazy like Rainbow, Ah know better than ta treat a pony like a piece of meat… And Ah ain’t got the style of Rarity… what do Ah even have ta offer?”

Well for one, you’re honest, so there’ll never be a shred of doubt about anything in her mind… and besides, you don’t need to work hard at appearances like Rarity because you’re already plenty strong. And besides, if you didn’t have any attractive features, why would so many ponies say you brighten up their day? And there was that time with Lotus…

“Alright, enough of that…” Applejack warned, getting up off the ground. “Ah ain’t gonna start feelin’ sorry fer mahself, and Ah ain’t about ta play psychiatrist with mahself either… Let’s just go get the other two and get back to tha farm…”

Why not go pick up Twilight first? If you go to Pinkie’s, you’ll probably just end up talking about Aurora, and that’ll turn into a competition, and then it’s all downhill. At least Twilight is a neutral party. Besides, she’s studying friendship, so she’s probably got something that can help us out.

“That’s actually a pretty good idea.” Applejack agreed, trotting off down the street towards the library, “Alright then, Twi’s it is!”

Twilight was about to head upstairs to bed for the night, a relatively early night for her, when a sharp knock rang out from the door.

“Ughh… I swear, if this is anything less than the King of Prance, I’m just gonna close the door…” she mumbled, walking over and opening the door to see an out of breath Applejack.

“Oh! Hey there Applejack… what’s up?” Twilight greeted, surprised that her friend was here rather than at the farm house with Aurora. Over the last week, she had learned that the only places Aurora seemed to frequent were her work, the library, or the farm. And it wasn’t exactly a secret in the group that aside from Rainbow Dash and Rarity, Applejack was interested in their friend.

“Ah need yer advice Twi… Ah was walkin’ over here with Aurora ta come get ya fer a sleepover at the farm, and she started actin’ funny.” Applejack began, walking through the door and sitting on one of the reading cushions scattered around the room.

“Whoa whoa whoa… what about a sleepover?” Twilight questioned, her interest piqued, “And what do you mean by ‘acting weird’?”

“Ugh. Sorry Twi, mah brain’s kinda scrambled right now… let me start at the beginning…” Applejack said, apologizing and taking a breath to tell the purple unicorn about Luna coming over to the farm and trying to make small talk in that fancy Canterlot talk she does when she’s all flustered about somethin’, then she covered Aurora coming back to the farm, the awkward conversation with the Princess of the Night, and the subsequent griping and complaining that had happened on the road to town. Finally, she got the part about Aurora burning up to the touch and freaking out when Applejack tried to help. When she was done taking, Twilight looked like she was deep in thought about something or other.

“Well? Ya got any thoughts on what Ah can do?” Applejack asked, the silence weighing on her more than some of the manual labor on the farm did.

“Well… I think that it might just be a side effect of the spell… but there’s always the possibility that she might be trying to figure out her own feelings.” Twilight suggested.

“Well, for the moment at least, she’s completely biologically female… that means different hormones than what she lived with for her entire life up to this point. And it may just be that those hormones are in flux due to the spell starting to wear down as the month ends… But toss in the fact that she has you three chasing after her, and that may be confusing. I mean, we know that Orion was straight… but what if Aurora is too? And you three are pursuing her thinking only about what she’ll be like after the spell is gone, not what she’s like at the moment.”

“So yer sayin’ that fer the moment at least, we’re all barkin’ up the wrong tree?” Applejack surmised, frowning slightly.

“I’m just saying that it might be more prudent to either ask her flat out what she feels about the whole incident, or wait until she’s back to normal.”

“Well… that’s somethin’ Ah can live with at least. Now, are ya gonna come with me back ta the farm? Or do Ah gotta find Pinkie on mah own?”

“Neither!” Pinkie said, poking her head out of the basement with a goofy grin that made Twilight and Applejack jump. “Sorry for eavesdropping Applejack… but I was in the basement watching a monster movie marathon, and I kind of heard everything… well, actually, it was just that you said between the ‘squelchy’ sounds that those silly actors made when they were being eaten.”

“I thought that I kicked you out of the basement already Pinkie!” Twilight said, glaring at her friend, “How did you get back inside?”

“Twi… can we please just skip the argument where she leaves us all in the dust and nopony walks away knowin’ just what the hay she meant when she explained things from her point of view?” Applejack suggested, getting a happy nod from Pinkie as she bounced from the far doorway over to them.

“Ugh… fine… But Pinkie, I don’t want to catch you sneaking into the basement again, okay? What if Spike had walked in and saw some of those movies? I don’t care if he’s only a couple years younger than me, I don’t think they’re appropriate for him to see.”

Meanwhile, in the basement, a certain purple teenaged dragon had the horror movie he’d been watching with Pinkie Pie paused and was listening intently, trying to munch on a bag of obsidian quietly.

“She’s gonna be piiiiissed when she finds out where Pinkie gets all those movies from…” he said to himself, chuckling softly as he thought about all the extra gems he’d managed to get by trading movies to Pinkie. “Speaking of which, I gotta see if Film Reel can hook me up with some fresh stock…”

“Alright, now that we got that headache out of the way… Pinkie, do ya wanna come with me and Twi back to the farm fer a sleepover with Luna?” AJ asked, turning to her fellow Earth Pony.

“Sure Applejack! Just let me get my stuff from downstairs, and I’ll be right behind you gals!” Pinkie responded, zipping off back down to the basement, leaving Twilight and AJ shaking their heads.

“We better start walking then… no point in waiting to lock up anyway, she’ll just figure out a way to get out without using the door.” Twilight said, starting for the door, followed by her friend. “I swear, one of these days I’m going to run a scan and see if she has a unicorn horn inside her head or something…”

And so the pair walked back to the farm in silence. They were a bit worried when Pinkie Pie didn’t show up to walk with them, but their concern was short lived when they noticed an especially bouncy shadow waiting for them at the main gate to the farm.

“What took you girls so long?” Pinkie asked, smiling. If it weren’t for the fact that she said it with genuine curiosity, AJ and Twilight might have thought she was mocking them…

“Some of us can’t seem to bend reality to suit our needs…” Twilight said with a snarky tone of voice.

“Well then I should teach you two how to do it sometime… it’s really helpful if you have to go somewhere or find
somepony.” She replied, leaning in and grabbing them both by the back of their heads to pull them into an impromptu huddle. “Don’t tell anyone… but that’s how I always win at hide and seek…”

“Ya don’t say…” Applejack said, rolling her eyes and pulling her head out of Pinkie’s grip. “Now come on gals. Ah don’t wanna know what kinda trouble Applebloom’s gettin’ up to with the Princess here…”

With that, the trio went inside the farmhouse, and were greeted by a rather odd sight…… Aurora was wearing makeup!

“Well it’s about time you three showed up!” Dash commented, lounging on the couch, “Princess Luna already got the part of the book where we do makeovers.”

“Ah never woulda guessed…” AJ replied, walking forward and sitting on the ground next to Rarity, who was putting the final touches on Aurora’s eyeliner… and while Applejack wouldn’t bother with makeup most days… daaaaaang it looked good on Aurora…

“What do you think Applejack darling?” Rarity asked, leaning back form Aurora, who was blushing furiously underneath the blush Rarity had dabbed on her cheeks. “I was going for a bit of an elegant edge… rather like the manestyle… but I don’t know if they match completely…”

“It looks fine ta me Rarity…” Applejack responded, before realizing how uncomfortable Aurora looked, and remembering what Twilight had suggested back at the library, “But what do ya think about it Aurora?”

“It feels funny…” was all she said, doing her best yet again to imitate Fluttershy, who was watching from across the room and looking just a touch uncomfortable with the Lunar Guards still posted in the living room… and the large blue alicorn sitting next to her…

“So how long did it take ya ta round up these three?” Applejack asked, scooting over to sit next to the grey mare, who in turn leaned a bit closer to the apple farmer, though that may have just been to get away from Rarity’s makeup kit…

“Well… it wasn’t too bad. I went to Fluttershy’s house first and got her. I also saw Big Mac, so I was worried that I’d interrupted dinner, but they said they were just finishing up and were heading for the farm anyway.” Aurora said, staring into space as she recalled what she’d done after splitting up with Applejack. “So they walked here by themselves while I went to go get Rainbow Dash and Rarity.”

“Uh huh… and uh, Aurora, where’s mah brother now?” Applejack asked, gritting her teeth slightly.

“He’s upstairs in his room. Luna said this was a ‘mares only’ event, and that he wasn’t allowed to leave the upstairs unless he heard a fight breaking out.”

“Mhmm… well, that’s alright Ah suppose… So what happened next? Ah kinda ran inta Twi and Pinkie at the same place, so Ah had an easy job.”

“Well, it took a while to find Dash’s place, because she apparently moved it to be closer to the farm, but when I got there it sounded like she was working out or something…”

“Workin’ out?” Applejack questioned, quirking an eyebrow and looking at the couch to see a suddenly red faced Rainbow Dash. She might not be a Pegasus, but she knew full well that workout equipment wasn't in Dash's home, “Whatcha mean by that sugarcube?”

“Well, when I got there, I tried calling out her name, but she didn’t answer… so I went inside, and I heard these grunting noises and some gasping and some heavy breathing… And when I called her name inside, she kind of sounded out of breath, and she was all sweaty when she came down the stairs… so I told her about the sleepover, she said okay, and then we went over to Rarity’s house.”

“Ugh! Rainbow Dash! I hope you at least had the decency to fly through a cloud or something to wash off after doing something like that!” Rarity complained, shooting Rainbow a dirty look.

Unfortunately, Rainbow Dash was too busy trying to hide under her wings for her response to be heard, so Aurora had to explain…

“Well, before we got there, Dash asked if I could help her with something. I asked what she meant, and she said that it was something she didn’t get to finish before I showed up, and I guessed that she meant a shower, so I told her I knew what she meant. She just kind of sat there while I flew off and came back with a raincloud for her to use. She said thanks, I jumped on the cloud, and when she was done cleaning up we went to the boutique.” She explained, looking around at the various looks of anger, embarrassment, and surprise plastered on her friends faces. “And then we picked you up Rarity, and then we came back here… and why is everyone looking at me like that?”

“Don’t worry about it sugarcube.” AJ said, laughing and wrapping a hoof around her friend’s withers, “Just promise me ya’ll won’t ever change.”

“Well, now that everypony is here, I officially declare this sleepover OPEN!” Luna proclaimed, rising from her seat and unleashing the Royal Capslo- I mean, the Royal Canterlot Voice, upon the room, her horn flaring to life and materializing various piles of pillows around the room, a mountain of blankets, and what looked like a double king sized mattress on the floor.

“Why do I have a really bad feeling about this all of a sudden?” Aurora asked, whispering to Applejack.

Apple of My Eye

by musicalreader

Arbitrarily Numbered Royal Decree 1,308