//------------------------------// // Chapter 1, in which Twilight hears a lot of first kiss stories // Story: Rules of the (Slumber) Party // by matcha cheesecake //------------------------------// Rules of the Party #1: You do not talk about it. #2: You do NOT talk about it. * It all started with a game. Everything else snowballed from there. "Everypony Has To Answer Truthfully" was either some variation of Truth Or Dare or something Pinkie Pie made up on the spot. To be sure, I grabbed my personal copy of Sleepovers: A Complete Reference Guide from the shelves while somepony-- probably Rainbow Dash-- spun a bottle so we could have a starting point. I wished it wouldn’t stop and point at me, but then I always had this habit of tempting fate. “So, Twilight...” "Your first kiss," I answered without thinking. Rainbow Dash laughed so hard, she was kicking and rolling on the floor. A blue hoof shot out and knocked my book across the room, earning her a glare and a threat of revoking Daring Do borrowing privileges if she didn't respect my books. That sobered her up quickly. "But seriously, Twilight?” Rainbow's words stumbled between some leftover snickering. “That’s the best you could do?" "How ‘bout we start with you, then, RD? Since yer mouth’s moving an’ all." Applejack was leaning casually against one of the beds, appraising the pegasus in question with a challenging smirk. Rainbow Dash took a step back, flaring her wings defensively. "Whoa, what’s up with you?” "What do you think?" I glanced between my two friends and sighed. Here we go again... I was still fairly new to slumber parties, so I didn't know all the rules and conventions. I hadn't read about this in any of my reference books, but ever since my first slumber party, my friends always seemed to end up bickering over one thing or another. And yet come morning, everything seemed peachy as if they hadn't spent the whole night arguing. Was this a normal thing? Was there an unwritten or unspoken rule that this had to happen in every slumber party ever? I tuned out Applejack and Rainbow Dash's argument. It was just their usual back and forth, after all. Instead, I focused my attention to the rest of my friends. Rarity seemed nervous for some reason, her eyes darting around as she furtively whispered with Pinkie Pie. Funny, I was expecting her to be more excited over "the juicy details." Pinkie, on the other hoof, was being her normal giggly self while poking Rarity on the ribs. On the other other hoof, Fluttershy was the one most excited about this, or at least the sparkle in her eyes told me as much. “Besides, Twilight goes first!" Rainbow Dash suddenly declared, interrupting my thoughts. "Actually, I go last. Says so in the Spin-the-Bottle section in page 69.” I levitated the sleepover manual in front of her, but she knocked it out of the way, deliberately this time. A week of no Daring Do, then. I did warn her. "I still don't see why we're doing this instead of Truth or Dare." "Maybe 'cause somepony here,” Applejack mock-glared at said somepony, “never chooses Truth, and we all like to hear what she has to say this time ‘round." "Hey!” Rainbow shot to the air and got in Applejack’s face, the rush knocking the Stetson off the earth pony’s head. “You guys don't call Fluttershy out for never choosing Dare!" She pointed a hoof at the other pegasus, who reflexively squeaked and ducked behind Rarity and Pinkie to avoid Rainbow’s mark. "Girls, settle down!" I cried out before things got ugly. Applejack sort of shrugged and put her hat back on. Fluttershy peeked from between our two other friends, but made no move to scoot out of her hiding place. Rainbow Dash sat back down and ruffled her feathers. "This is boring,” she huffed. "I bet yer just whinin’ to get out of answering." "Well, I'm not hearing you answer the question." "Psh, that's easy. A lil colt I met when I stayed with my Aunt and Uncle Orange. He was so cute’n sweet. Called him Bubblegum, though I’m pretty sure that ain’t his real name.” Applejack smiled wistfully. “Sure, I was feelin' awful homesick my whole stay there, but I liked hangin' out and playin' with him. Come to think of it now, I never got t'stay in touch..." She trailed off, thoughtfully rubbing a hoof under her chin. When she remembered where she was, she shook her head then nodded at Rainbow Dash. "Your turn, pardner." "Mine's with Rarity!" "Pinkie! You promised!" Everypony’s head whipped around to the source of the outburst. Pinkie Pie smiled at us apologetically, or she tried to while having both forehooves over her mouth. Beside her, Rarity was on all four hooves. Her cheeks were a shade darker than a certain party pony’s mane. "But I didn’t promise. You said,” Pinkie then ran a hoof through her mane unmistakably the way Rarity did, “‘I shan’t tell anypony anything! Not ever! That is one, nay, the story I shall take to my cold grave!’ And then I said, ‘uh-huh, sure thing, Rarity,’ which totally didn’t mean I don’t get to tell them my story!” Rarity was turning colors. She opened her mouth several times, but closed it again every time with no retort. Maybe she was grasping for some air. She did seem to be on the verge of either falling into a dramatic breakdown or stiffening into a pony statue. “Rarity? Are you okay?” Fluttershy poked her from behind. Everypony else went silent as they processed what they’d just heard and seen. Except for Applejack. She was snickering. "Geez, Rare,” she playfully nudged the unicorn. “I never pegged you for the fillyfoolin' type." That somehow brought Rarity back to life. "I'm not!” She stomped a hoof to punctuate. “I like stallions!” “You always say that,” Pinkie chimed in, her smile tight. “You say that to everypony, but...” “Ugh, FINE!” Rarity threw her forelegs to the air in frustration. She then screamed her next words all the way to the Everfree Forest in full dramatic glory, ”I confess! Guilty as charged! My first kiss was with Pinkie Pie!" before collapsing on top of Fluttershy. Another length of awkward silence. Save for Rarity’s wails against Fluttershy’s chest and some soothing there, there’s. “Wow,” was all I could say. “Oh. My. GOSH!” Rainbow flitted all over the room, squeeing the whole time. “Seriously? You and Rarity? This I sooo gotta hear!” “Rarity?” Pinkie spoke the name with such softness I never heard from her before. At the moment, Rarity seemed determined to merge either with my bedroom floor or with Fluttershy, but she stopped sniffling enough to shoot Pinkie a pleading look. Apparently, that was all Pinkie needed. "Okay! It happened a few months after I moved to Ponyville to live with my Granny Pie. Me and Rarity first met in school. We sat next to each other because, you know, P is for Pinkie and R is for Rare-y. So we saw each other a lot, but we didn’t get along much because she was a little miss Serious McGrumpypants.” “I was not a, ah, McGrumpypants,” Rarity muttered, her voice muffled against Fluttershy. “I simply didn’t like you back then. You kept beating my scores in math and,” she winced, “art studies.” “Right,” Pinkie Pie giggled then rolled her eyes. “Rarity was super-duper serious about her grades, but Pinkie could care less about that. I mean, I test well and all, but I didn’t study much because I was too busy planning the funnest fun parties for everypony. “Anyway, Rarity didn’t like me and that bothered me a lot. Because, you know, how can I make her smile when she wouldn’t attend a single party I threw, right? We ended up trading a lot of jabs at each other back then. Well, Rarity made a lot of jabs. I just kept inviting her to do some of the cool-mac-awesomest-est stuff with me, but I guess that irritated her more. “That was, until things heated up between us so much that we ended up tangling legs and rolling in the hay and--” Rarity quickly sat up and jabbed a hoof at Pinkie’s chest. “Now you hold it right there! I only let you tell the story because I trust you would tell it as truthfully as possible.” “But that was how it happened!” “You are taking things out of context.” Rarity huffed then properly sat on her haunches to face the rest of us. “We were playing a game for Physical Education--what was it called, again? It’s similar to hoofball, with less rules and more contact. Anyway, it was a rough and dirty game. We were in opposing teams, as was usual of us at the time. During one round, I had possession of the ball then Pinkie Pie tackled me to the ground. Instead of escaping and continuing the game, however, I responded in kind. We ended up rolling all over the field, fighting to get the upper hoof on the other.” “I wasn’t trying to do that, though.” Pinkie shrugged and caught a certain pegasus’ eye across the room. “Yes, well, either way,” Rarity scrutinized the pink mare as if daring her to interrupt again, now that she took over the storytelling. Pinkie didn’t notice it, though. She was too busy exchanging funny faces and gestures with Rainbow Dash. “I eventually had her pinned to the ground. I was fully ready to gloat over my small victory, when all of the sudden--” “I kissed her on the lips!” blurted Pinkie without missing a beat from her ‘game’ with Rainbow Dash. “And she liked it!” “How many times must I tell you? I did not like it at all!” Rarity made another punctuating stomp, this one hard enough to punch a hole on my floor. Pinkie Pie merely tilted her head ninety degrees and smiled wide enough to split her face in two. “So you always kiss back even if you don’t like it?” “When are y’all gonna stop flirting?” interrupted Applejack. She was lying on her side, her head propped up on a forehoof so she wouldn’t nod off so easily. “So you kissed while wrasslin’ at school. Lez just leave it at that.” A yawn. “I dunno about you two, but I wanna hear Rainbow’s story sometime before sun-up.” "Oh, right! It's Dashie's turn!" The sudden attention made Rainbow Dash uncharacteristically wilt and paw at the floor. She seemed to be weighing her options, but reckoned she might as well suck it up and get it over with. "Just to be clear. Nopony else hears about this, right?" She studied me specifically, for some reason. "Anything we say here would never leave this room,” I assured. Everypony else chimed in with their own two bits. "Cross my heart and hope to fly..." "Oh my, is it that juicy a secret?" “...stick a cupcake in my eye!” "Well? Time to 'fess up, RD." It was somewhat disconcerting to see Rainbow Dash emulate Fluttershy’s habit of hiding behind her mane, especially since there's too little prismatic hair to go around. “I, uh, I haven't had mine yet." Applejack made a low whistle. "Now that's somethin' I ain’t expecting from a heartbreaker like you." "Whatever.” Rainbow Dash continued, her cheeks growing redder with each word. “It's not like I have some sappy reason like waiting for some special moment with a special somepony to share that special first kiss. I’m not Rarity.” She snorted then rolled her eyes. Rarity did not appreciate the sentiment at all. “Pardon me, Rainbow Dash, but what are you trying to--” "I-I'm sorry!” Fluttershy, who was silent for most of the night, appeared just as shocked as the next pony at her own outburst. She instinctively curled up, but her eyes shone solidly as she peered at the only other pegasus in the room. Rainbow Dash was just confused. "Say what now?" “Um, well, you see,” Fluttershy shifted side to side, her mane swaying to cover more of her form. “There was this one time at, um, flight camp. We had just finished the day with some drills, and you were tired enough to fall asleep beside me. I thought you looked so cute, I kinda...” "You thought I... you, WHAT?!" A blue blur shot across the room and collided with the yellow pegasus. The two rolled over each other from the force until they ended up with Rainbow Dash standing over a quivering Fluttershy. The way she towered over her oldest friend intimidated Fluttershy into some sort of... explanation? Apology? All I understood was that the more Fluttershy spoke, the more she shrank to sizes I never thought possible for a grown mare. "I really didn't mean to, honest! I-I didn't even know what I was doing until after I did it. Oh, please forgive me, Rainbow Dash." Rainbow Dash was torn on how to feel about the confession and it showed on her face. She eventually settled on a grimace as if she had sat on something hard and pointy. She regarded the other pegasus with a steely glare before getting off her. "You and I have a lot to talk after this, Fluttershy. A lot." What’s with this night and long awkward pauses? Rarity stiffly turned towards me. "So what about you, darling? Have you ever had the fortune, or misfortune, of having kissed or been kissed by somepony?" "Well..." I told my friends about the life of study and magic-- of how, as a little filly of endless curiosity, I stumbled upon a genre of fiction not fit for my young eyes. Of course, this resulted in a flood of questions my books couldn’t adequately answer. I consulted the best resource called first-hand experience, and showered the pony I admired with gifts, flowers, poetry-- the works. Being much older than me, the pony of my affections cornered me one day to explain to me the intricacies of romance and why she could not return my feelings. She did appreciate the sentiment though, and obliged to grant me a small favor. I told them, but not in so many words. “Princess Celestia. I was just a filly.” Right then, I just broke the running record for longest and most awkward silence of the night. “Uh, Twi? Ain’t that like sexual harassment?”