//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: The Party - Part Two [Fun at the Festival] // Story: My Overbearing Aunt // by Sketchy Changeling //------------------------------// Over the next week, I was pumped. I was about to go to my first college party! Granted, I was going to sneak out behind my aunt’s back to get to that party, but the end justifies the means, right? Besides, what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her. The day after Luna offered to help me, she told me her plan. Apparently, she had her sister’s daily schedule memorized to the second. At eight PM on Saturdays, she would have a meeting with the leaders of the Royal Guard. That was our window of opportunity. While Auntie Celeste would be in her meeting, Luna would fly me to the party herself. Once I was there, she would then cover for me back at the castle. How she would do that, I had no clue, but I trusted her enough to get the job done. As far as Rarity and Octavia were concerned, I had gotten permission from my aunt to go to the party, while it hurt to lie to my friends like that, it was for the best. Again, what they don’t know won’t hurt ‘em. All week, I kept asking them what they were going to be for the party, but whenever I brought up the subject to either of them, the conversation would follow the same pattern. “So what are you gonna be?” I’d ask. “You’ll find out on Saturday night,” they’d answer. “Come on, you can tell me.” “No.” Eventually, I decided to just drop the subject and just wait until the party to find out. Finally, the big night came, and I was more ready than ever. Two days before, Rarity got my timberwolf costume done, and after having to try it on to see if it fit, I snuck it home in my backpack. I couldn’t risk Auntie Celeste getting suspicious. I slipped on the costume and waited for Luna to- *KNOCK KNOCK* Right on schedule. “Who is it?” I asked, just to make sure it wasn’t somepony else. “It’s Luna,” said the pony on the other side. “Come in,” I tell her. Luna let herself into my room and chuckled when she saw me. “Impressive costume,” she said. “Did you design it yourself, or is it store-bought?” “Neither. A friend designed it for me.” I picked up the mask that came with the costume, put it on, and then I growled at Luna. “Oh, no! A timberwolf! Somepony, please help me!” she cried overdramatically. We both shared a short laugh at that. “In all seriousness, though, we should depart while the opportunity is upon us.” Luna lit up her horn and I was surrounded by a blue aura. “With the spell I just cast on you, you’ll be able to fly alongside me as we make our way to the party.” “Sweet,” I said. “Well, I’ve got everything I need, so let’s get going.” Luna smiled and opened my bedroom window. She then flew out of it while the spell she cast on me lifted me up and carried me out behind her. Once we were both outside, she closed the window and took off towards the school with me in tow. I’ll be honest, I was a little scared at first, but as we flew over Canterlot, Luna looked back at me with a reassuring smile. I don’t know how or why, but seeing Luna’s smile gave me peace of mind. It took about five minutes for us to get to the school, and we were surprised to see how decked out it was. The buildings were decorated to look like ghosts were flying around them. Those visual effects majors don’t fuck around. The fields of the campus were lined with different booths, some for games, others for snacks, and even a few for kissing. Luna and I landed near the school’s main entrance, and we said our goodbyes. “Thanks again for helping me sneak out,” I told her. “It was my pleasure,” she said with a smile. “Now go have fun, and I’ll make sure Celestia doesn’t find out that you left.” “Sure,” I said, and Luna took off in the direction of the castle. “Okay, Rarity and Octavia told me to meet them outside their room,” I thought, “so I shouldn’t keep them waiting for long.” When I made my way to the girls’ dorm room, I was surprised to see their costumes. Rarity was wearing a short-haired blonde wig, and her tail was dyed brown to match. She also wore brown contacts. Her torso was adorned with a grey long-sleeved sweater that had the British flag on it, along with a black skirt. As for Octavia, her costume was more elaborate. She was wearing a black suit with a red cape over it, along with a white mask that covered the upper left corner of her face. “Hello, Marcus!” Rarity said happily. “You’re still looking quite handsome in your costume.” “Of course you’d say that, considering you made this costume,” I said, and then I took a good look at Rarity and Octavia’s costumes. “Okay, I can tell that ‘Tavi is the Phantom of the Opera, but I’m drawing a blank on your costume, Rarity.” “Why, can you not tell?” she asked. “I’m Audrey Hepburn.” Wait a minute… didn’t I mentally compare Rarity to Audrey Hepburn once? How did she know? “I’ve been watching a lot of old human films lately, and I took a shine to Audrey,” she explained. “She’s probably my favorite human actress now. Granted, this costume isn’t as flamboyant as my usual Nightmare Night designs, but I decided to go for the ‘simple is better’ approach.” “Well, now that we’re all here, let’s go out and enjoy the festivities!” Octavia said, not even trying to hide her excitement. I had never seen her like that before. I guess she must be pretty stoked that she was finally attending a college party. Who was I to deny her that happiness? The three of us got some treat bags, left the dorm, and headed outside, where there was a plethora of booths waiting for us. We wandered through the different booths to see what they had to offer. “Why don’t we get some snacks?” Rarity suggested. “That sounds like a good idea,” Octavia said. “I am feeling rather peckish.” “Did somepony say peckish?” a mare said from a nearby booth. We recognized her as one of the star students among the culinary arts majors. She was wearing a zombie chef costume, and she was holding out a plate full of delicious snacks. “Take as many as you want,” she said. “They’re on the house for the next fifteen minutes!” “Really? Thanks!” I said as Rarity, Octavia, and I took some snacks off the plate and put them in our treat bags and left. As we continued to walk around, I turned to Octavia and asked “So, where’s this haunted house at, ‘Tavi?” “Towards the east entrance of the campus,” she answered, and she guided me and Rarity to the house. “I heard that the Performing Arts majors tried everything they could to make it as scary as possible.” “I still find it hard to believe that you’re the type of pony that would enjoy a good scare,” I told her. “Well, it helps when someone is there with you. Octavia looked a little embarrassed after saying that. That’s probably just me reading into it too much. “Here we are,” Octavia said, pulling me out of my thoughts. “Um… I’ll wait for you two on the other side…” Rarity said apprehensively. “You still don’t want to go?” I asked her. “Don’t worry about it, Marcus,” Octavia said. “If she doesn’t want to go, she doesn’t want to go. We don’t need to force her.” The unicorn smiled and thanked Octavia. “You two go on ahead. Like I said, I’ll be waiting on the other side.” With that, I was practically dragged to the haunted house’s entrance. Before we went in, though, I took the opportunity to ease Octavia of any fear that she had. “Don’t worry if you get scared,” I told her. “You’ve got a ferocious timberwolf protecting you.” “I’ll keep that in mind,” she said with a giggle. I couldn’t help but smile at that. Lately I’ve noticed that ‘Tavi had a cute giggle, one that was contagious as well. The moment we walked into the house, though, two students dressed as a manticore jumped out and roared at us, causing me to scream loudly. Octavia looked at me with a disappointed expression. “Oh yeah, you are quite the ferocious beast, Marcus,” she muttered. And there went my pride… Octavia and I continued our way through the haunted house, with me making sure to stay behind her. Don’t judge me. Those Performing Arts students don’t play. We made it to a dark, dimly lit hallway of wire fences. Behind the fences were students dressed as zombies, and they kept trying to grab at whoever passed by reaching their arms through the holes of the fences. While Octavia was naturally a little frightened, I was scared out of my fucking mind! I mean, I knew that this wasn’t real, but I was too distracted by my fear to think about that. It was then that I realized that staying behind Octavia was a bad idea. Since the hallway was so narrow, I couldn’t walk around her and make a mad dash for the exit, and Octavia opted to take her sweet time walking down the hall. “Come on, ‘Tavi,” I urged. “Can you pick up the pace a little?” “Why? Are you scared?” she teased, and then she stopped dead in her tracks, keeping me from moving forward. “No, I just don’t want to keep Rarity waiting, is all.” “Ha! You expect me to believe that?” “What do you want from me!?” “Just admit that you’re scared and we can leave,” she offered. Is she crazy? There’s no way that I was gonna admit that to her, no matter how scared I was! Just then, however, somepony reached out through one of the holes in the fence and grabbed my arm. “AAAAAAAAAGH!!!!” I screamed. “OKAY! I’M SCARED! FUCK, I’M TERRIFIED! JUST GET ME THE HELL OUT OF HERE!!!!!!” Octavia turned back and smiled at me. “You just said the magic words.” She grabbed my wrist and rushed out of the hallway with me in tow, and we made it out of the haunted house. I was practically out of breath by the time we made it out, and I heard Octavia laughing as I tried to get myself together. “That was not cool,” I said to her. “On the contrary, I found that to be rather enjoyable,” she struggled to say in-between fits of laughter. I glared at the mare. “You have a sick sense of humor.” “I suppose so. In all seriousness, however, I’m glad that you decided to accompany me,” she said. “Why do I get the feeling that you just wanted to torture me?” “You really think that I’m that cruel.” I let out an exasperated sigh. “I guess not,” I admitted. “Wait a sec, where’s Rarity?” “Here I am!” the unicorn said, as if on cue. She was running towards me and Octavia with a small box in her hand. “What’cha got there?” I asked. “Well, while you and Octavia were in the haunted house, I made a quick trip to one of the souvenir booths and picked up a little something for you.” Rarity handed the box to me, and I looked at it with curiosity. “What is it supposed to be?” I asked. “It’s a Blind Box,” she explained. “Inside each one is a random trinket of some kind, but you never know what you’ll get.” “Really? Cool!” I took the box from Rarity and opened it, anxious to see what was inside. It turned out to be a metal wristband with the words “CUFTA Pre-Nightmare Night Festival” engraved into it. “Where did you get this?” I asked. “From that booth over there,” Rarity answered, pointing in the booth’s direction. I’ll have to remember to make a stop at that booth later and get another Blind Box. Several hours later, at around quarter to eleven, Rarity, Octavia, and I went to the back end of the campus for a little bit of peace and quiet. The three of us lied on the grass as we looked up at the stars. Luna really went all out tonight, because the sky looked especially beautiful tonight. It sucked that she couldn’t come to the party with me, but she had her duties as a princess to attend to. Not to mention the fact that she was covering for me. “Man, this was probably the best party I’ve ever been to,” I said to no one in particular. “Mm-hm…” Octavia and Rarity absentmindedly agreed. “I’m glad I’m here with you guys, too,” I told them. “It made the experiences that much more fun.” “Even the haunted house?” Octavia asked with a smirk. “Yes, even the haunted house,” I admitted. In retrospect, while I was really scared, the haunted house was actually pretty damn fun. The three of us got up off the grass, and I looked at Rarity and Octavia, who were both giving me warm smiles. I chuckled and said “Man, I definitely don’t want this night to end.” “Too bad.” My blood froze when I heard those words, not because of the words themselves, but because of who said them. I then heard the sound of hooves stomping on grass, and I turned around and became horrified at what I saw. Standing right in front of me was my Auntie Celeste with a furious look on her face. “For you, this night ends now,” she declared with finality. “P-Princess Celestia!?” Rarity said in shock. “What are you doing here?” she asked. “I came here to pick up my nephew,” she told the two mares. “Apparently he thought that he could get away with sneaking out when I specifically told him not to go to this party.” “Marcus, she can’t be talking about you, can she?” Rarity asked. “Because that would mean-” “That I’m his aunt,” Celeste finished for her. Both Rarity and Octavia were taken aback by the sudden revelation, and they simply couldn’t believe it. “Is that true Marcus?” the earth mare asked. All I could do was nod my head in silence. “So you haven’t told them about me, hmm?” Celeste asked. “Looks like I’m not the only one you’ve lied to.” Damn, as if I didn’t feel bad enough. “Auntie, I can explain-” “I don’t want to hear it!” she interrupted sternly, which made me, Rarity and Octavia flinch out of fear. “Let’s go, Marcus,” she said, turning her back towards me. “You are in SO much trouble.”