Everything had to be just right, every piece of food had to laid out just so. Savoury snacks on one table, cakes and fizzy drinks on another, and finally sweets on the last. As Pencil Sharpener finally poured the last of the food, a bag of marshmallows, out into a small plastic bowl, and threw the plastic packaging into the large bin bag hanging from the table, she smiled to herself and declared her work finished. The amount of food spread out before her could feed the entire Celestial and Lunar royal guards.
Or ten of her friends.
“Hurry up, Centy,” she called out as she heard the bathroom door open upstairs, as her favourite snuggle pony Century finished up in the shower. “They’ll be here soon.”
“Just gonna dry myself off, and I’ll be right down,” Century called back.
The front door knocked loudly, causing Pencil to roll her eyes with disbelief. Her friends arriving just as Century got out of the shower was further evidence to lead her to believe that her life was a constant example of Murphy’s law. Still, it wouldn’t take Century long to get back down, and she always thought he looked cute with the damp frizzy mane he always got when he was fresh out of the shower. She’d never stay mad at him for a million years.
She checked over the buffet tables, making sure everything was right one last time, as if any of the items had shifted from their places the last three times she had looked. Happy with what she saw, she gave a gentle nod, before strolling over to the door and opening it. She beamed happily as she recognised Doctor Haywick, Sweet Tale and Day-Tripper stood before her.
“Hey guys!” she said happily, throwing herself into an warm hug with Haywick, followed immediately by Day-Tripper, but she paused as she noticed something strange about the third friend whom she had yet to share an embrace with.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Sweet Tale said wryly, the expression on his face clearly showing he had already explained the situation many times to many different ponies. “Ask him,” he explained, gesturing to Haywick.
Pencil Sharpener looked to the Doctor, then back to Sweet Tale, then to the Doctor again. “Haywick, why is Sweet Tale a deer?”
On cue, Day-Tripper burst into a fit of giggles whilst Haywick pawed the ground in an almost-dejected manner. Sweet Tale’s expression never once shifted from one of pure annoyance and unadulterated rage that was at serious risk of erupting at any moment.
“Say it again,” Sweet Tale said through clenched teeth, glaring towards Day-Tripper. “I dare you.”
Haywick trotted inside the house, grateful for the fact that attention had been shifted away from him, whilst Day-Tripper faced up to Sweet Tale with a huge grin on his face. “Oh deer,” he blurted out, followed immediately by a brief fit of giggles which was only cut short with a swift slap from the ex-pony turned deer.
“Haywick was trying out a potion to attempt to become ‘more in tune with nature’,” Sweet Tale explained as he walked into the house, followed by a Day-Tripper rubbing a sore hoof-shaped mark on his face. “Why I agreed to become a test subject, I’ll never know.”
Pencil chuckled slightly, as there was no real lasting damage. Princess Twilight could easily work up a potion to return him to the correct form, but it was already past five on Friday, and the library didn’t open again until Monday. He was stuck as a deer, if only for the time being
“Got enough food here?” Day-Tripper asked teasingly as he unbuckled his saddle bags. Pencil noted that he was carrying quite a few of them too, but a quick glance around at the ponies who had arrived gave her an explanation. Only half the bags were his.
“Is Java working late tonight then?” she asked.
“Well, not too late,” Day-Tripper replied as he stretched his legs, which had gone slightly dead from the heavy load. “Somepony called in sick and she got roped in instead, but she finishes at seven. I’ll head over to the coffee shop and walk her back here.”
“I might go along as well,” Sweet Tale added as he dropped his pack onto the sofa. “I could go for some coffee.”
“Anyway, when’s everypony else getting here?” asked Haywick.
“Well they should be along fairly soon,” Pencil answered. “Stormy and Jinxy should be here any minute, though I think Eiro and Blank Slate will be here a bit later.” She furrowed her brow and brought a hoof to her chin as she tried to remember who had said when they would arrive. “Oh! And I think 8-Bit said he’d fly over as soon as his shift at the arcade finished.”
At the mention of this, the two stallions and the deer shot each other nervous glances, and the color even drained from Sweet Tale’s face.
“He said he was flying here?” Day-Tripper asked.
As if on cue, there was a loud crashing noise outside, and moments later, a black and blue blur shot through the door, skidding on its face. Pencil Sharpener barely had time to leap backwards to avoid being hit, as the blurry mass of a pony crashed through the living room and collided straight with the sweets table. Masses of candy flew through the air, showering the occupants of the room, while the pony responsible for the chaos finally skidded to a halt. He groaned loudly as a mountain of sweets rained down on top of him.
Pencil Sharpener gasped silently, the vein on her forehead pulsating as she tried to contain her anger. The stallions and the deer looked at each other again, only this time, they all erupted into uproarious laughter at the sight of their barely conscious friend.
“I see… I see…your landings…are getting… better,” Sweet Tale gasped between giggles, stopping his laughter abruptly as he felt a small moment of flatulence slip out uncontrollably. He sighed with relief when nopony noticed.
“Mmff mff mffff,” 8-Bit attempted to reply, before he loosened the straps on his saddle bag, which was now filled mostly with candy, and rolled onto his back. He swallowed the mouthful of food before giving another attempt at speaking. “Oh, shut up.”
“Were those the marshmallows you just ate?” Pencil Sharpener asked as she began to frantically sweep up the sweets into the various bowls that had now littered themselves around the living room.
“I think so,” 8-Bit replied, hauling himself onto his haunches as Doctor Haywick was able to compose his laughter long enough to give his friend a quick examination for any injuries.
“Well, that’s Fluffy Bunnies out of the question,” Pencil Sharpener said irritably as she noticed that several of the table legs had snapped in the impact.
“Does that mean I win, Sharpie?”
“Oh shut up.”
“I’ll tell you something,” Haywick interjected before things got out of hoof. “Sweet Tale’s right, your landings are getting better. Other than a few scrapes and bruises, and the inevitable boot to the head you’ll get from Pencil later, I can't see any apparent sign of any injuries. Though I’d put an ice pack on that lump on your head, just to be safe.”
“Let me get him one,” Pencil Sharpener said with a sigh, walking into the kitchen. She was mad, and for good reason, but it had been an accident. 8-Bit was a clumsy flier with good intentions, and would never have caused such a ruckus deliberately.
Day-Tripper and Sweet Tale moved in to help clean up the mess, whilst Haywick helped 8-Bit move out of the way. Haywick sat his friend down on the sofa, before heading towards the kitchen to help Pencil Sharpener with the ice pack.
“Sorry about all this,” 8-Bit said sheepishly as Day-Tripper brought over his saddle pack, now packed with sweets as well as all of his stuff for the party.
Sweet Tale shot him a sympathetic look. “It was an accident, mate. Pencil’s mad at the moment, but just give her some time to wind down, she’ll forgive you.”
8-Bit smiled gratefully at the sentiment, but almost immediately turned back to face Sweet Tale, one eyebrow raised in curiosity. “Were you always a deer?”
All Sweet Tale could do was groan, and facehoof.
It didn’t take long for everyone to put the turmoil of 8-Bit’s overly dramatic arrival behind them, and just focus on having fun. Though the crash had taken out the entire sweet table, as well as the table itself, it turned out that everypony had taken the initiative to bring candy with them. In the end, they had more than enough sweets to make up for the loss.
Shadow Jinx and Stormblaze had arrived shortly after the incident, just in time to help clean up, and Century had been playing his music so loudly as he dried himself off from the shower, that he had been completely oblivious to the enormous crashing noise that had erupted in the room below him. In fact, there had been a rather awkward moment when Pencil Sharpener and Shadow Jinx had gone upstairs to investigate his lack of appearance at the party, to find him dancing exuberantly on the bed to the Caramelldansen song.
The laughter could be heard for miles around.
The party really kicked off later on in the night, after Sweet Tale and Day-Tripper had gone to walk Java Jive back from work, and encountered Pixel Fantasy, Eiro and Blank Slate on the way back. As the pastry supply had begun to run low back at the party, Day-Tripper had suggested the group stopped at Sugarcube Corner on the way back, where they basically bought out the entire remaining stock between them.
Combine that with the large amount of popcorn Java Jive had taken along, and the result was inevitable.
Several hours passed by in a sugar fueled blur, before one by one each member of the group crashed out as their rush hit a low. Stomach pains became rampant, but the mood remained jovial as each pony also donned their respective onesie. It took a while, but they eventually managed to clear up the messy floor enough to make way for all their sleeping bags, minus the two large sofas. Those had been reserved for some of the couples, who might wish to snuggle.
True enough, the combination of the sugar low and full stomachs began to have an effect on the sleepy ponies, and one by one, several members of the group lost their battle to the grasp of sleep. Day-Tripper and Java Jive, in their matching ferret onesies, were the first to go. Sofa number one was their claim, and the ponies still awake tried not to chuckle at the adorable site of Java snoring peacefully with her head lay on Day-Tripper’s chest, while the latter slept soundly, minus the occasional twitch of his leg.
Eiro in her kitty onesie, and Blank Slate dressed as a dragon, lay similarly on the second sofa, whilst Sweet Tale had curled up on a pile of cushions. His red dinosaur onesie hung loosely on him, having been designed for the more muscular frame of a pony rather than the skinny one befitting a deer. Shadow Jinx and Pixel Fantasy, onesies being of Totoro and a bunny respectively, had been too tired to bother with unzipping their bags, and had simply collapsed on top of them.
The remainder of the group, chatting quietly from the other side of the room, sat huddled around the fireplace, swapping places occasionally as they took turns roasting marshmallows on the flame. It turns out an extra bag had been spared the destructive event earlier in the day. Several stomachs groaned occasionally, crying out as they were being pushed passed their capacity limits, but none of the cheerful ponies seemed to mind. The marshmallows were tasty, and nopony dared to be the first to call it quits. Marshmallow eating was truly a game of honour.
“I swear down, best restored game I’ve ever played,” 8-Bit gleefully declared as he gently puffed out one of his marshmallows that had drifted too close to the flame and caught alight. “You guys really need to come give it a try.”
“For sure,” Century replied with a small chuckle. “I bet I humiliate you at it.”
“Uh uh,” 8-Bit retorted, eating the marshmallow in one large bite, before wiping his mouth on the sleeve of his bat onesie. “Nopony beats me at Super Mareio, especially when I’ve had this much practice.”
“I'll put eight bits on me beating you.”
“You’re on.”
The group laughed, in anticipation of the inevitable showdown between the two. 8-Bit’s job at the arcade meant that he always had access to the new games, even outside opening hours. Late night showdowns were a common occurrence among the group, sometimes over petty squabbles, but mostly over silly dares or bets.
"You're full of it, Eight," Doctor Haywick teased. "You'll never win. But I think I can help."
"Help what?"
Everypony looked at each other nervously as Haywick reached into the pocket of his onesie, which looked suspiciously like it was made to resemble the yellow coloured pegasus who lived on the outskirts of the town. He produced a vial from the pocket, a vial filled with a bubbling purple liquid. A couple of the group glanced over at the soundly sleeping Sweet Tale, the last victim of one of Haywick's potions.
"What's that?" Stomblaze asked as she moved over to the fire to roast a marshmallow, adjusting her snow owl onesie as she sat down.
"It's a talent enhancement potion, I got the recipe from Princess Twilight," Haywick explained. "I've been trying to get it right, you fancy testing it out?"
"Hmm..." 8-Bit pondered. He was apprehensive, and justly so.
"So, if he takes it, he gets better at video games?" Pencil Sharpener asked as she gently nuzzled Century. With her in a Toothless onesie, and Century in his Spyro onesie, the pair of them had already attracted several 'd'aww's' from their fellow partygoers that night.
"In theory, yes."
"Give it a go, I say," Stormblaze said. "What's the worst that could happen?"
8-Bit turned to her with a blunt stare. "Have you met Haywick before?"
Stormblaze smiled, raising her hooves defensively.
"I've got my JoyBoy down here, if you want to try it?" Pencil offered.
"Right, fine, I'll try it," 8-Bit said, partially giving in to the demand, but mostly because he was genuinely curious about what the effects of the potion would be. "What game?"
"Legend of Zebra, I think," Pencil replied, standing up to go to the chest of drawers where she was keeping it for the time being. "No, I tell a lie, it's Blocktris," she said, correcting herself as she checked the game cartridge.
"Not bad," 8-Bit acknowledged, pursing his lips and nodding in approval as Pencil sat back down next to Century, sliding the small console across the floor. "We're actually gonna do this, then?"
"Whenever you're ready," Haywick replied, passing 8-Bit the vial.
"Cheers," said 8-Bit, raising the vial in a toasting motion, before removing the cap and downing the contents in one large gulp.
And the group waited for a few moments, but nothing seemed to change about 8-Bit's appearance.
"Maybe give the game a try now?" Century suggested, guessing that the effects wouldn't be apparent until the drinker actually attempted the skill they were trying to enhance.
"I guess," 8-Bit replied, taking the JoyBoy in hoof and turning it on. "I'll tell you what though, that potion was absolutely disg-"
*BOOM*
The room flooded with light as a pink mushroom cloud erupted, expanding outwards from where 8-Bit was sitting. The cloud expanded and filled the entire room within a matter of seconds, bathing everypony in a thick pink fog. All the sleeping ponies, and the one sleeping deer, jumped for their lives at the suddenness of the explosion, having instantaneously gone from sound sleep to being panicked and awake. Everypony started to cough profusely, as Pencil Sharpener and Century made a desperate dash to all the doors and windows, throwing them wide open to clear the smoke out as quickly as was possible.
"Is... is every... pony... okay?" Pencil asked croakily in-between coughs.
A number of voices called out yeses in response, and though most of the voices were somewhat distorted by the coughing, Pencil was still able to recognize them. Except 8-Bit's.
"Umm, 8-Bit?" Pencil asked again.
"Yeah, I'm fine, I just... said... so..."
Something seemed very wrong. Even 8-Bit picked up on it towards the end of his sentence. His voice had gone up several octaves. It was definitely him, the accent was unmistakable. But the voice also sounded alien, it didn't even sound like a him. It sounded like a her. And everypony in the room picked up on this, squinting as they tried to identify 8-Bit through the thick fog.
As the night breeze ran through the open doors and windows, it carried the thick fog with it, and within thirty seconds, the room was clear enough for everypony to see each other. And sure enough, sat by the fireplace, with 8-Bit's unmistakable black and blue mane, wearing his bat onesie which now hung loosely around the smaller body frame, was a mare where a stallion should be.
"Umm, 8-Bit?" Java Jive asked uncertainly.
"Please say it's not what I think it is," he, or rather, she replied shakily.
To 8-Bit’s horror, the eyes of the ponies in the room all shifted away, looking awkwardly elsewhere in an attempt to not avoid being the bearer of bad news. The very act of this was confirmation of 8-Bit’s suspicions. The voice, the looseness of the onesie, even a mane which now hung all the way down to the neckline. He was now a she.
“For what it’s worth,” Shadow Jinx shivered, every breath being released as a small cloud of mist in the night air. “You look sweet as a mare.”
“Shut. Up.”
“Before we do this, at least let us style your mane?” Pencil Sharpener asked, speaking quietly as not to wake up the ponies in the houses around them as they strolled through the town.
“I said shut up.”
“How about dress up?” Java Jive suggested.
“No.”
“Please 8-Bit?” Pixel Fantasy begged. “It’s not every day we get somepony new to have some girly fun with.”
8-Bit groaned again as Stormblaze tutted and rolled her eyes. Being the tomboy of the group wasn’t always easy, but everypony cooing over the ‘new mare’ of the group was getting on her nerves.
Having decided immediately that she wasn’t comfortable in her new body, 8-Bit had resisted the urge to punch Haywick in the face, and instead had started bawling. The hormones had a huge and instantaneous effect, driving her into a full blown panic. It had taken several minutes to calm her down, by which time Sweet Tale had decided they should go to the library to ask for help. He could ask about a spell to make him a pony again, while they were there.
“We’re nearly there,” Sweet Tale said, leading the group around another corner. “The library’s just up here.”
In the chilly summer night air, the group had decided to remain dressed in their onesies, making for a bizarre sight as they crossed the small town. Not that anypony was awake to see them.
“Do you think Princess Twilight will mind?” 8-Bit asked, her now-feminine voice beginning to drive her crazy.
“Are you kidding?” Doctor Haywick asked. “Haven’t you heard that she basically stays up all night reading anyway?”
“Looks like that might be the case,” 8-Bit noted as the large tree came into view, light clearly coming from two of the downstairs windows.
“Anyway, she’s probably well equipped to handle situations like… this,” Century said. “Her group of friends basically destroys the town on a weekly basis. Why else would insurance companies get such good business around here?”
“Here’s hoping she can help,” Blank Slate muttered, ignoring Century's joke as he stepped up to the thick oak framed door and tapped loudly on it.
The group looked at each other in confusion as they heard a number of voices inside, before the door opened a crack, and a sleepy looking baby dragon poked his head out.
“Err, can I help you?” he asked, eyes widening at the sight of the large group of onesie-clad ponies on the doorstep.
Nopony spoke up. Clearly none of them were sure exactly how to explain the situation.
“Cat got your tongues?” he asked, smirking to himself at the pun as he looked at Eiro in her cat onesie.
“Ugh,” Day-Tripper said, facehooving as he made his way to the front of the group. “This guy turned this idiot into a deer,” he explained, gesturing to Haywick and Sweet Tale respectively.
“Err, okay…” the dragon said, not entirely sure how to react.
“And then he went back for seconds,” Sweet Tale added, pointing over to 8-Bit. “She was a he until about twenty minutes ago.”
The dragon sighed and opened the door wider, gesturing for them all to come in as he rubbed at his eyes with a weary claw, yawning quietly. Everypony was basked in a wave of blissful warmth as the door opened, washing over them in a rich orange glow. In the center of the room sat a large campfire, encased in magic to prevent it from igniting the wooden timbers of the library around them. Sat around the fire, six faces looked at the large group entering the library with raised eyebrows.
“Can I help you?” asked one of the ponies. 8-Bit’s eyes widened as the pony stood up from the pillow on which she had been sat. She was unmistakably the Princess they had come to see.
Wings and horns? What a show off.
“Sounds like that potion book you lent out last week went a bit wrong,” the dragon murmured as he made his way across the room to a tatty basket in the corner, diving into it and curling himself up under the blanket. He was snoring within seconds.
“Yeah, my bad,” Haywick said, beginning to step forward but freezing when he spotted one of the ponies sat round the fire. It didn’t take a genius to recognise that Haywick’s onesie was designed to look like her, but nopony pointed it out. Haywick simply backed slowly into his large group, whilst the yellow pegasus at the fire wasn’t sure where to look as she blushed furiously.
“Okay, so who’s been turned into what?” Princess Twilight asked, scanning over the large group, her eyes widening as she spotted Sweet Tale. Deer were not a common sight in Ponyville.
8-Bit and Sweet Tale both raised their hooves, though Twilight was confused by the former. To the Princess, 8-Bit looked like a perfectly healthy mare. However, she got an answer before she needed to ask.
“I’m actually a stallion,” 8-Bit explained, blushing furiously as Pencil Sharpener started to play with her mane, trying a few different colours of bow to put in it. “And dear old Sweet Tale here is actually a pony.”
The look of shock that flashed across Twilight’s face was anything but comforting.
“What’s wrong?” asked Stormblaze.
“Reverse-transmogrification potions aren’t easy to brew,” Twilight explained, grabbing a book from a nearby shelf with her magic and placing it down on the floor in front of her. She gestured for 8-Bit and Sweet Tale to look closer as she found the right page. The list of ingredients looked long and complicated.
“So… how long would it take to make?” Sweet Tale asked shakily, concerned that the answer wouldn’t be a pleasant one.
“Well a lot of these ingredients I have in storage, but some I’d need to talk to my friend Zecora about.”
“Is she that rhyming weirdo who lives out of town?” 8-Bit asked, receiving a slap from Sweet Tale for the bluntness of the question.
“Yes, that’s her,” Twilight asked, smiling in gratitude at Sweet Tale. “Even she might not have them, but we’ll have to wait and see. In any case, it’s too late to go knocking at hers now. We’ll have to wait until tomorrow morning.”
Many of the mares in the larger of the two groups began to smirk, whilst 8-Bit’s pupils shrank to the size of pins. “You mean I’m stuck like this until the morning?”
Twilight nodded sympathetically, though her eyes betrayed small amounts of amusement for the situation.
“Does this mean we can dress you up?” Pixel Fantasy asked, her eyes widening in excitement.
“No way, no way,” 8-Bit said, not noticing the additional half a dozen bows that Pencil Sharpener had snuck into her mane since they’d arrived. “Let’s just get back to the party so I can get some sleep.”
“Well,” Twilight said, gently pawing at the floor with one of her hooves. “We were having a slumber party anyway. You’d all be welcome to join us, if you’d like?”
“Oh no, we shouldn’t,” Century said as politely as possible. “There’s too many of us, we don’t want to take up too much space.”
“There’s plenty of room here,” one pony said from the background. 8-Bit spotted the source of the voice, an orange mare wearing a cowboy hat. She couldn’t help but also notice Sweet Tale starting to go slightly weak at the knees as she spoke.
“We haven’t got any of our stuff,” Pencil Sharpener pointed out.
“Are you kidding me?” asked an excitable pink pony, whose mouth was coated in marshmallow fluff and various other chunks of candy. “Twilight’s got enough slumber party supplies for an army!”
Most of the group looked on with wide eyes as the pink pony gestured towards a cupboard tucked away in one corner of the room, which was literally bulging with pillows and blankets. Everypony except 8-Bit, who had herself gone weak at the knees at the sight of the messy mouthed pink pony.
“But we haven’t brought any food with us,” Blank Slate pointed out.
“We’ve got plenty in there,” Twilight said, gesturing towards the kitchen where a large buffet table was clearly visible. “You can have your share, then maybe pay us back with a party at your place?”
The group shared some awkward glances with each other, except Sweet Tale, Haywick and 8-Bit, who were all staring amorously towards the orange pony, the yellow pony, and the pink pony respectively.
“I think we should stay,” Sweet Tale said.
“Definitely,” Haywick agreed.
“I’m in,” 8-Bit replied with a nod.
“Oh, alright then,” Pencil Sharpener conceded. It did seem like a fun idea, and if it got the transformed among them back into their original bodies sooner, then it was also a good idea.
“Did I hear somepony mention dress up?” asked one of the ponies sat on the floor, a white unicorn.
“Yeah,” Java Jive replied, taking a cushion that Twilight passed to her from the supply cupboard, and sitting down on it in front of the fire. “If 8-Bit’s only going to be a mare for one night, some of us thought we should make the most of it.”
A couple of the mares sitting down murmured in agreement, whilst Haywick sat down next to the yellow pegasus mare his onesie had been made to look like. They locked eyes for a split second as he sat, before they both looked away from each other in a panic. Both of them blushed furiously, but each wore a smile smile on their face.
“Well,” the unicorn replied, a shimmer of mischievousness flashing across her face. “It so happens I was showing off some of my new dress designs earlier. I put them upstairs.”
All at once, the mares in the room slowly turned their heads to face 8-Bit, who was still glaring affectionately at the pink pony who was stuffing s’more after s’more into her mouth, practically inhaling them.
“What do you think, Eight?” asked Pencil Sharpener, sounding as innocent as possible. “Would you be up for that?”
“Yeah, sure, why not,” 8-Bit replied, still completely fazed out.
“Well, that’s all the invitation I need,” Pencil declared. “Hold her down, I’ll go get the dresses.”
“Yeah, sure…” 8-Bit replied distantly, before coming to her senses as several mares converged on her from multiple angles. “Wait, what?”
And that's how the Golden Oaks Library was thrown into an endless fit of laughter.