//------------------------------//
// A Closet of Fun 
// Story: Luna, The Hide-and-Seek Master 
// by Stargazer129 
//------------------------------//

	"Come on Tia! Can we please play a game?" 

My sister was at the kitchen table, finishing the last of her cheese sandwich. I had finished mine first, so I wasn't going to watch my big sister eat a sandwich for the next two, boring minutes. I turned around in my chair, and ate another hay fry from Tia's plate so she would finish faster. She looked at me, but she went back to her plate to finish off her sandwich. I put my hooves on the table, and grabbed my sister's plate and dragged it away from her, so she would play with me now. Tia looked at me with a smile, and got down from the kitchen table to get her plate back.

"Luna, do you need help with something?" Tia continued to eat her sandwich.

I sighed. "Tia, can we play a game? Pleasey cheesy lemon squeezy? I'm SO bored, Tia!!"

My big sister smiled at me, wiping some bread crumbs off of her face. "Yes, Luna. We will play a game," She finished her sandwich. "But what game do you want to play?"

"Hide-and-seek! Hide-and-seek!" I hopped around Tia's legs, almost out of breath. "Hide...and....seek! Let's Play... Hide and Seek! Please!"

"Calm down Luna. I will play hide-and-seek with you. Now, who wi-"

"I hide first! You count to one hundred, and then you find me! But you might not, because I am the hide-and-seek master!"

Tia and I laughed a bit while she covered her eyes with slices of bread. "Okay, one, two, three..."

I giggled as I ran down the hall, my head turning and my eyes looking left to right for places to hide. The castle I lived in was pretty big, so I was running around each and every hall to find a hiding place where Tia would never find me. I figured hiding under my bed wouldn't work, as every time I hid there, my sister would find me in an instant, so I ran past my room and down to the grand room. The grand room was pretty far from the kitchen, so I listened very carefully for Tia's voice. 

"Fourteen, fifteen..."

I considered hiding in the piano, but I was worried I would never be able to get out, so I avoided the piano and ran past it. I looked out the window and saw our sculpture garden, and for a moment I thought I should hide in the garden, but then I changed my mind. I shouldn't hide outside, because if I cheat, Tia would be sad.  I ran past the window and saw the door to our attic. I ran past it, as once Tia took me up there to explore. It was musty and mice lived in the walls, so I continued to run down the hall. I slowed down and walked around the castle, exploring every room there was, from Tia's room to the castle's front door, but still no place for me to hide. I continued to walk down the hall, until I saw one last door: The old shoe closet.

There was nothing special about this door. Nothing set it apart from the other doors in the hallway. It was the same, boring brown color as the rest of the doors. The door had little bits of paint chipping off, and the doorknob was a rusty yellow color. I pushed the door open, and inside, were Tia's golden shoes. Above the shoes, shelves loomed over my head, and I saw Tia's golden necklaces and golden tiaras. I was so fascinated by this closet, I walked in and closed the door. The inside of the closet smelled like wood, and one single light bulb and string just out of hoof's reach hung above me. My horn glowed a light crystal blue, and the string pulled down, lighting the bulb and revealing all the shoes, necklaces, and crowns. I was most fascinated in the shoes. I picked up one of Tia's shoes and studied it very carefully.

These shoes were amazing, made of gold and some even had small gems encrusted into them. Tia once wore them on her hooves, and that made them even more special. I picked out four shoes and put them in front of me. Carefully, my blue hooves met the base of the shoes with a quiet clip noise. These shoes are cold! I thought to myself. My horn lit up again, bringing down a crown and a necklace from the shelf above me. I put the necklace around my neck, and the crown on top of my head. Like the shoes, these felt cold against my fur, but I was Tia now. Hmm, what would Tia do now? As I thought to myself, I looked at Tia's shoes. I gasped, and I finally thought of what Tia would do. "Ah-ha!" I whispered to myself.

I spread my small blue wings, and ran around the confined space, like Tia flying around. The heavy golden shoes fell off my hooves at times, but I was Tia now, so I let them fall into the 'pit of lava' below. A stack of shoes was in front of me, as this shoe tower was now a super villain of all things bad and mean. I rammed into the shoes, and the tower collapsed.  It made a clattering noise, and I feared that Tia heard the noise. The shoes will hide the evidence! I thought, then I jumped into the pile of shoes. There were just enough shoes to hide the bottom half of my head, so I ducked down, and I guessed almost all of me was hidden by the golden shoes.

I heard Tia still in the kitchen, still counting to the magic number. 

"Forty, forty-one, forty-two, forty-three..."

I was safe for now, so I got out from the pile of old shoes and took out my notebook and started to look at the amazing pieces of art I had made. Most of the pictures were stick ponies of Tia, and below every drawing was a caption of what Tia was saying in every picture. Each picture looked the same, and told the tale of Stick-Tia trying to save the world. The story went on with Stick-Tia defeating the evil Pillowman, and how she used the Couch of Protection to shield herself from the Pillowman's attacks. The story then stopped, and all that was left were blank pages of notebook paper. I took out a pen, and started to write, 'The adventures of Stick-Luna' on the paper. I picked up a pencil and began to think of an epic adventure. As soon as I thought of a story line, I put my pencil to the paper and began to draw. 

I whispered everything I wrote to myself. "It all started, when Stick-Tia decided to become evil. She would never have fun with Stick-Luna, so the young Stick-Princess ran around the world for a place to hide from the evil Stick-Tia. Stick-Luna ran for miles on end, looking for a spot to hide. When all seemed lost, Stick-Luna found a magical door to the Magical closet of wonders and hope. There, Stick-Luna found the magical gear of power, which were the shoes of candy, the necklace of happiness, and the crown of fun. Stick-Luna wore this magical gear and set off to confront Stick-Tia. The evil stick-princess was waiting for her, but Stick-Luna's gear knocked Stick-Tia into the lava, saving Stick-Questria!"

I closed my notebook and looked around. I heard Tia's voice from afar, and it sounded like she was at seventy now. My eyes looked left, then right, then left again. I was surrounded in shoes, and I was running out of ideas for fun. Suddenly, I looked at my hooves. Tia's shoes made me look super tall, so I put on four more shoes, so now I had two shoes on each hoof. I set up the shoes to make them look like skyscrapers, and some like people living in the city. I was way taller than the buildings, so I looked at the city below. I put up my front hooves, and made sounds like a monster. The city fell over and completely fell down when my monster tail whipped the big buildings. My hooves slammed on the ground, and the rest of the shoe buildings toppled to the ground. I rebuilt them, and played my game again. On my forth run, I could hear Tia still counting the numbers.

"ninety, ninety-one, ninety-two..."

My ears perked up as the numbers kept coming. I didn't realize I had been playing this long, so I dove into the pile of shoes once again, and ducked under the shoes, necklaces, and crowns. I kept listening to Tia count, and every time a number was said, I sank down into the shoes. I was nervous that she would find me quickly, because I'm supposed to be the hide and seek master. When I heard her say, 'one hundred', I dove into the shoes and bonked my head in the process. "Please Tia's shoes," I whispered to myself. "Please let Tia not see me, because I'm the hide-and-seek master..." I wondered if the shoes heard me. Then, I heard Tia's voice. It sounded close, yet far at the same time.

"Hmm, she's not under her bed, that's a surprise," I heard Tia say. "I bet she's hiding under my bed this time."

I giggled to myself as she once again failed to find me, and once again, I was still not found. I wonder if I'll ever be found, I thought. I guess I AM the hide-and-seek master! I continued to wait, but no Tias opened the door. I took out my notebook and pen again and started to mark the seconds, one slash after the next. Fifty slashes were now on the paper, and I was still 'alive'. Now, I was pretending that I was a pony in the wild, surviving and trying not to be caught by the big, giant, raging Tia-storm. I waited under a 'tree,' made of shoes and I could hear some hoof-steps in the distance. "Must be the storm," I whispered to myself. The noise got louder, louder and louder! I was trembling in fear, the Tia-storm sounded awfully close to my camp. Then, it became softer. I poked my head out of the shoes, and the crown on my head fell over my eyes. I pushed it up, and one of Tia's shoes fell off of my hoof. The shoe landed with all the other shoes making a clattering noise, and I quickly picked up the shoe, hoping that Tia didn't hear the noise. I heard Tia mumble something in the grand room about me not being in there, then she mumbled something else, and her hooves started to move in another direction. I sank as deep as I could into the pile of shoes, to hopefully keep my title as the hide-and-seek master.

My trembling caused the crown, once again to fall over my eyes, so I pushed it up: and saw a smiling Tia in front of me.

"I found you!" Tia continued to smile at me, but was too upset to smile at my big sister.

"Aww, no fair! I'm not supposed to be found! I'm supposed to be the hide-and-seek master!" I groaned. "Now I'll never be the hide-and-seek master! I'm not supposed to lose! You must have cheated or something! I'm supposed to be the only winner!"

"Luna. Calm down. You're going to get a very important lesson from your big sister."

I looked up at her. "Okay, Tia." I sat down near Tia's shoes, my hooves crossed.

"This rule is always going to follow you all throughout life and hide-and-seek. Whenever you play a game with the other fillies, do you sometimes lose?"

"Yeah..." My hooves uncrossed themselves and put themselves on the floor.

"But here is the most important part," I shoved some shoes away from me. "Did you have fun playing?"

"Um, I guess I did have fun..."

Tia smiled. "See, that's what really matters, Luna. No matter if you lose, if you had fun, you've already won. That is the most important rule of all games, and especially hide-and-seek." 

I thought about the game we just played. Finding Tia's shoe closet. Pretending to be Tia. Drawing the adventure of Stick-Luna. Becoming a monster and destroying cities. Surviving in the wild forest of Tia's shoes. Then, it hit me.

"I did have fun, Tia! And if I had fun, I already won!!" I hopped excitedly around Tia, losing two of Tia's shoes. I looked at them.

"Hey sis, what is this closet used for? Was it your old hiding spot, Tia?"

She smiled. "Not exactly my hiding place, but that was my old shoe closet. All of these shoes are too small for me now. But, I might have a surprise in there."

Tia walked into the closet, and four shoes were being held in her magic. They looked like the smallest pair of shoes Tia had ever worn. I looked at them in her magic, and then Tia changed their color from gold to light blue. She lifted my hooves and slipped the shoes on. They were a little big on me, but I happily marched around in them. She did the same to a crown, and handed it to me. My horn glowed blue and I put the midnight black crown on my head, and put my head up.

"I, Princess Luna, declares that Tia make me a sandwich!" I held an imaginary scepter in my hooves. "And make sure that it has lettuce and cheese!"

Tia laughed, then bowed down. "Sure thing Princess Luna. Tia will make you a sandwich."

I laughed and we both went into the kitchen, and sat down to make our sandwiches and a small side of hay fries. I finished making my plate first, and then we sat down at the dining room table and ate our sandwiches and hay fries. After I finished my sandwich and hay fries, I looked at Tia, and smiled. Tia smiled back and I remembered that she had taught me something important today. If I had fun, I had already won. Even after that, I still had one question for Tia. The only thing that mattered right now.

"Tia? Can we please play a game?"