//------------------------------// // The Best Vacation // Story: A Star Pony Tale // by BlondeSky //------------------------------// Chapter 29 The Best Vacation Astro waited patiently for the end of the week when the sleepover would finally happen. It was difficult, but she did her best to wait graciously for the event to finally come. There was no denying her disappointment that both of her new friends couldn't go, but she was, in the end, able to find joy in the fact that she would have guests. Her only worry was of how her two friends would react to her nighttime appearance. She did however trust them and had faith that they wouldn't say anything against her. Still, when she thought of revealing herself she felt butterflies in her stomach. Both nerves and joy fluttered around inside of her as she awoke the morning of the sleepover. The majority of her things had already been moved up to the house the night before so that they wouldn't have to worry about it that day. Her room was on the second floor of the house so it did take some effort despite her minimal belongings. It was planned that they would stay in her room for the majority of the time. That way should somepony come they could stay hidden upstairs. She didn't think anypony would, but it was never a bad idea to have a plan just in case. She got up and got herself ready while she waited to be invited upstairs. Sail would come to take her up there soon and then all that would be left was the time until they arrived. She wasn't a fan of that concept, but she had of course planned to make sure that she kept herself occupied. Her belongings that were moved upstairs included all of her art supplies that she intended to mess with while she waited for her two friends to arrive. She had never perfected the transition between the sunset and the night sky. She had a goal and that was enough for her to focus on to make the wait take less time. Recognizing that if they arrived while she was working she would have to abandon whatever it was she didn't intend to attempt anything at all complicated. All that it was meant to do was keep her occupied for a long enough stretch of time. Right then however, as her art supplies were already upstairs, she had nothing to do but wait. It felt as though far too much time had passed when Sail finally came in to retrieve her. "Good morning." Sail greeted her as she finished opening the door. "Good morning to you to." Astro responded trotting over to her. "I assume you're prepared to go up to the house?" she inquired. "Definitely!" she answered more than ready to get up there. With that the two left for the manual entrance. "Are you excited?" Sail asked her as soon as they were alone in the stone elevator. "Yeah, but I'm a little nervous too. I'll get over it though." she promised more reassuring herself than her mentor. "I bet you three are going to have a great deal of fun together, and imagine how much better your relationship with those two will be once they can understand this about you. While I can't say I have spoken to them from what you've told me about them they both seem like very nice young foals who care about you very much. I don't see this doing anything other than strengthening your bond with them." Sail reassured her with a nuzzle. "Thanks." she said grateful for the support. The elevator opened up and the two stepped out just in time for the pony who had been watching the house prior to them step in. While the pony that they had just traded places with rode back down to the base the pair who had just stepped out walked into the living room of the fairly barren house. There was some essentials, like food in the cupboards, to make the house look lived in, but for the most part it was empty. Still, it's better to have the sleepover here than not have it at all, Astro reasoned. She trotted excitedly beside Sail in her enjoyment of the moment as they walked through the house. "You may go up to your room if you want. I'm going to make sure that I have everything ready to go as well." Sail told her. "Great!" she answered before shooting up to her room. It looked just like her room in the base for the most part. Her paintings were hung on the walls and everything she owned had been moved up there. She had been sure to put everything in the exact same place that it was before. The room had identical dimensions to hers with a dresser and mirror that looked to be exactly the same as her own. She recognized that if you were to take out her personal belongings this was the same format for everpony's room. Little had been done to personalize hers besides the paintings on the walls which did come off easily. That's going to change soon though, she thought proudly as she imagined her beautiful mural on the wall. She went straight to work as she got up there as she pulled out her art supplies and practiced blending the colors that she hadn't worked with as much. While she did this she made sure to remember how she got every successful result and then replicating it to make sure that it would work out the way that she wanted it to. She let the colors in front of her occupy her conscious thought as the time passed right by her. The exercise was therapeutic as it had been far too long since she'd had a chance to do something of the sort. An unconscious smile crept across her face as she worked through the various shades and tints at her disposal. As every little piece came together she built off of it until it looked just how she pictured or she ran out of space on the page. Soon enough she had a sort of collage of the mural that she hoped to build. Still, she continued to work. By her count almost no time had passed when the doorbell finally rang. At first she was shocked as she took a step back from her current work, but it was barely a second before she recovered and ran down the stairs. When she reached the first floor Sail was already on her way to the door, but she made it there first. She opened it to find two ponies waiting for her on the other side. One of them was Spot and the other a pegasus mare who looked significantly alike to him. Her coat was the same color as his with spots of the same color as his as well. Her mane and tail were of an identical shade to his and of a similar length and tidiness. She looked up at her and smiled. It was in the mare's face that she found the difference between the two of them. Her eyes were a sort of sky blue color as opposed to Spot's which were more of a honey yellow shade. Sail walked up behind Astro and opened the door wider for the two enter. "Please come in." she welcomed them as the filly stepped out of the way. The two walked into the small home as they were invited. "Would you like to go ahead and take your stuff upstairs?" Sail asked Spot noticing his full saddlebags. "Oh, um, yeah." he replied with a nod. "I'll show you where my room is!" she replied excitedly. "Okay." he answered before following her as she bounded up the stairs. He wasn't quite so fast as he had his things to carry, but she was also significantly more excited at that point. When they entered her room she very suddenly became aware of what a mess it was due to what she had been doing to pass the time. "Sorry," she apologized, "I thought I'd work a bit with some of my art stuff to pass the time until you got here." "It's fine, what were you doing?" he asked curiously. "Oh I was just working on some blending stuff. I want to try and put these two paintings together." she informed him as she gestured to the sunset and the night sky on the wall. "Really?" he queried becoming intrigued. "Yeah, but I need to be able to blend the sunset to the sky before I can do that. It's gonna look amazing when it's done." she told him losing herself in the thought of the final image. "I bet. You look really excited about it." he commented. "Yeah. Don't worry though, I won't disappear off the face of the planet to do it." she promised. "That's good." he replied with a grin. "Anyways, you can set your stuff down anywhere, I'm going to go ahead and start cleaning some of this stuff up before Kara gets here." she informed him. "Don't put it all away though. I think it might be cool to see you make something." he responded. "Really?" she questioned slightly confused. "Yeah. Your stuff is really good. It'd be cool to see how you make it I think." he told her simply. "You think so?" she asked excitedly. "Yeah. Kara might not because she can't stand still for two seconds, but I do." he answered honestly. "Okay. Well, maybe later I guess. I think we should wait for Kara to get here before deciding anything." she replied as she finished tidying up the majority of her things. "That's fine." he said back. "We should probably head back down now." she told him. He nodded in agreement and the two went back down the stairs. They found Sail and the other mare talking with each other by the door. They halted their conversation as they saw the two foals approaching. "Are you all situated then dear?" the still unnamed mare asked Spot as they reached the bottom floor. "Yeah!" he promised her as he ran up to her. "Good. Then I'd probably best be going." she replied. "Okay." he said with slight disappointment in his voice. She leaned down and nuzzled him and he returned the gesture. "I'll be back to pick you up tomorrow." she promised as she opened the door to leave. "I know, bye mom." he finished right before she shut the door behind her. "So now we are just waiting for your friend Kara to arrive?" Sail asked. "Yep." Astro confirmed for her. "You two can go and do what you like until then I suppose. I don't think you'll have any problem hearing the doorbell when it rings." she replied. "Maybe we should just stay down here until she gets here." she suggested in turn. "Yeah, we can do that if you like." he agreed. "I don't think she'll be here too much later. She'll probably be here soon I think." she told him. With that the two sat down on the couch to wait for her to arrive. Just as Astro had predicted they hadn't been there for very long when the doorbell was rung. She ran excitedly to get it as Spot followed behind her. She had barely opened the door before the unicorn filly burst inside excitedly. The unicorn mare that followed behind her had a much calmer demeanor about her. She had a coat that was a similar green to Kara, but her mane was a soft yellow color as opposed to the bright orange of the filly's. Her eyes were a soft brown color and looked to be very serene. This was also quite a difference from Kara's striking violet irises. "I'm here!" Kara cried excitedly as she bounded enthusiastically around the two foals who had arrived earlier then her. "I noticed." Astro replied as she laughed slightly, "You wanna go up to my room?" "Totally!" she shouted eagerly. "Wait." the mare said stopping them. "Aw, but I want to go see it!" she complained. "Don't I get to say goodbye first?" she inquired as she raised an eyebrow. "Yeah." she conceded as she trotted over to the mare. "Love you dear." she said as she offered the filly a nuzzle. "Love you too mom." she replied as she returned. "See you tomorrow, and have fun." the mare told her as she exited out the door and shut it behind her. "Anyways, right this way!" Astro called back as she darted up the stairs. It didn't take long for Kara to catch up to her and the two galloped up the stairs side by side. "Hey! Wait up guys!" Spot called up to them as he cantered up the stairs after them. "How about you catch up!" Kara called down to him over her shoulder as she found herself ahead of both of them. She was laughing hysterically as he reached the second floor ahead of both of her comrades. She was still snickering as both of the other foals reached her at the top. "Took you long enough! Now c'mon! Where's your room?" Kara said silencing her laughter. "Right this way." Astro announced proudly as she took the lead and walked onwards to her room. "Sweet!" Kara exclaimed as she was welcomed inside. "So I can just put my stuff anywhere here?" she asked as she gestured to the room around her. "Yep." she replied simply. With that the unicorn simply dropped all of her belongings to the floor beneath her. She then declared with conviction, "This is gonna be awesome!"