“What? Why are you all looking at me like that?” It was so bizarre. I felt cornered by their eyes.
“I dunno Twilight, why don’t you tell us?” Fantasia looked at me like she was trying to seduce me.
“Didn’t Rose Petal have a funny story or something?” I was getting really nervous. I wasn’t used to being out of control in a social situation.
“Oh I think this is way more interesting than my story.” Rose Petal made "eyes" at me as well. It was what we did whenever we had something super scandalous to talk about.
“What are you talking about?” I wasn't sure I’d be able to just play this one off. It was obvious what they wanted to talk about. Sundance had been poisoning their imaginations ever since Night Light and I started talking to each other.
“Come on Twilight; you can’t hide anything from us. You are so into him.” Cherry Blossom tilted her head as she held out the word “so.”
“How many times, in how many different languages do I have explain to you girls that I am not interested in Night Light that way?”
Couldn't a mare just have a colt friend? I didn't mean a colt friend, colt friend but just… oh you know what I meant.
“Oh you can say it all you want, honey. That ain’t gonna change what we can see clear as day.”
I couldn't believe they were ganging up on me. What did it matter if I liked him or not?
“Ok, fine. Since you all clearly insist, I’ll indulge your little fantasy. What exactly makes it so obvious that I like Night Light?” I imitated Cherry Blossom’s emphasis on the word “so.” They started giving evidence in rapid succession.
“You spend, like, all of your free time with him.” Sundance finally spoke.
“We’re working together.” I snapped back a little too hard.
“You never used to work on stories this much.” Rose Petal pushed.
“The competition is in a few days, I have to get ready.” I barely had time to answer before the next point came.
“You talk about him all the time now.” Fantasia gave me a viciously suggestive smile. I was pretty sure I taught her that.
“He’s editing my work. I mention him by proxy because the competition is my main focus and I have to bring it up.” I sighed. They didn’t stop.
“You still chose him to do it for you.” Rose Petal offered up another opinion. I wasn’t sure who to focus on. I was literally flanked on all sides.
“He chose me. It was his idea. It just happened to be convenient for me. It’s not because I like him.” I turned to face Rose Petal since she had spoken up more.
“Oh so you don’t like him at all? You’re just using him?” I turned back around to look at Cherry Blossom.
“I’m not using him. It’s a mutual business partnership. We even signed a contract. No emotions involved.” I was getting a little flustered.
“So just a one and done, huh? You two split as soon as you do the contract?”
I looked over to Fantasia. My face was feeling warm. I was probably really red in the cheeks at that point.
“It’s not like that either. He’s a nice guy. I’m sure we’ll be friends as well.”
"So which is it? Is it just business or is it personal?" Fantasia winked at me.
"Don't contradict yourself." Rose Petal winked as well.
"It's not a contradiction. We're friends and we have business, but there's nothing more."
Sundance suddenly jumped into the middle of the circle next to me.
"Ok girls, back down a second. Let's not drill her too hard." Sundance put her arm around me.
"I bet I know a colt who'd like to drill her."
The girls giggled at Fantasia's crude joke. I wished that something big would happen right then so that the conversation could just end.
"Hey, there's about to be a fight in the kitchen!" Somepony shouted into our room. I watched as ponies shuffled over to the kitchen area.
"A fight? Oh no, I thought everypony was friends here." Sundance looked at me with a mixture of fear and concern.
"I'm sure it will pass. If everypony just rushes over there it’ll probably just make it worse.” I put my arm over Sundance so that we were both holding each other.
"Hey, they're chanting something." Rose Petal took a few steps toward the doorway that led to the kitchen. Our room was practically abandoned now except for the five of us. The chanting got louder and louder until we could all hear it clear as day.
"Night Light, Night Light, Night Light..."
My heart sank into my stomach. Just about any colt at school could have creamed that kid. Heck, I could've creamed him if I'd felt like it. He was going to get hurt at this party and it was all my fault. I should have just stuck with him. I could have poured him a drink and introduced him to a few ponies. Sweet Celestia, that was the very least I could have done.
“We have to help Night Light!”
Sundance squeezed my shoulder.
“What can we do?” Cherry Blossom shrugged her shoulders. I got in front of the girls and stood near the doorway so that they would all look at me.
“Five mares can take on whoever wants to beat up Night Light. Come on, before he gets hurt.” I rushed into the next room and the girls followed behind me.
“Wow, you must really care for him don’t you Twi…”
“Shut the hell up, Cherry.” I cut her off. I didn't have time for stupid crush crap. We tried to make our way to the kitchen, but the crowd was too thick. We couldn’t even get close enough to see the fight. There were too many ponies were in the way. I heard the crowd cheer a few times. At one point, it sounded like somepony hit the floor really hard.
“Please be ok.”
If something happened to him, I wasn't sure if I could forgive myself. There was some other sort of commotion and talking going on. It seemed like the fight was over, but another could have started any second. The crowd started chanting his name again.
“Night Light, Night Light, Night Light…”
Did he win? I wondered. I knew he must of won. I didn't think they would chant the loser’s name. Nopony is that sadistic. Heck, I even joined the chant this time. After a minute, the crowd dissipated. I walked to the kitchen but Night Light was gone.
“Where did he go?” I stared at a bowl sitting on the ground for some reason. There was hardly any sign of a fight at all.
“They dumped my candy out!” Sundance collected the pieces of candy from the floor.
“Great Sundance, I’m glad your candy’s ok.” I rolled my eyes. I wished I could be as flippant and optimistic as her sometimes. We managed to gather bits and pieces of what happened from other ponies who saw the fight. Bottom line was Night Light was never hit and the fight lasted less than a second. Apparently, that thud I heard was the other guy hitting the floor. I must say, I was impressed. I guess I underestimated Night Light's ability to handle himself. I tried a few other rooms but I couldn't seem to find Night Light in any of them. I finally gave up and joined Sundance for a drink. Vodka and grape soda was always my favorite.
"Look, I will admit he's cute. He has a quiet, dignified charm to him." I swirled my drink around and took a sip.
"Kinda like Fancy Pants." Sundance was swaying a little bit. I planned to cut her off after that drink.
"Kind of, but Fancy Pants is much more outward about himself. He brings his charm to you whereas Night Light keeps everything inward. He has to invite you in. Which I guess, in a way, is even more attractive." Sundance had a goofy smile on her face.
"I can hear you thinking it Sundance and you're wrong. I don't just fall for every guy who's halfway decent. I'm very picky." I took another sip. I probably put too much vodka in my drink. I always over poured my shots.
"You play hard to get is what you do. You love the chase, and you want every guy to chase you." Sundance mimed her right hoof chasing her left.
"And just what, pray tell, are you implying about me, my dear sweet Sundance?" I did my best to make my voice sound like a stuck up, rich snob. I flipped my hair, trying to look as proper and prudish as I could.
"Hey, I never said you were easy to catch." Sundance threw her arm around my waist and pretended like she was picking me up. I laughed.
"You are such a brat." I pretended to fight her off. She took her arm back and copied my snobbish act. She tucked her chin to her neck and made an exaggerated frown that distorted her face.
"Oh forgive me, my dear. I, by no means, meant to intrude on your personal space. Mm hmm pish posh poppycock and all that jazz." I had to set my drink down I was giggling so hard. Nopony could do a rich, stuck up snob routine like Sundance. The funny part was that her family really was that rich.
A good three hours went by and I still hadn't seen Night Light anywhere. There hadn't been another incident, otherwise I would have heard about it from somepony. I walked through the party several times expecting to see him sitting off by himself somewhere. However, there hadn't been any sign of him.
Did he go home? I thought. Maybe he got spooked after the fight and left.
Crap, what if he hates me now? I worried. I invited him out to a party and he got shunned and nearly beat up. I wished he was still around so that I could apologize. I decided to just ask around a few more times in case he was still there. I tapped some drunk kid on the shoulder.
"Hey have you seen Night Light anywhere? Blue kid, blue mane, talks like a machine?" I think the guy's name was Fun Runner. He played backup running back for our hoofball team.
"Oh you mean the kid who fought the university guys?"
Guys as in plural? I wondered. I had thought he only fought one stallion. I wondered if Night Light knew martial arts or something?
"That's the one, he disappeared on me." Fun Runner swayed a little bit. He had been talking to another girl from our school. Her name was Dizzy Dove if I'm not mistaken.
"Like, O, M, C, Twilight. He's totally hanging out with the hoofball team." She was all over Fun Runner with her arms around his neck and shoulders. They were barely able to stand up together.
"The hoofball team?" I couldn't imagine what was he doing with those guys?
"Yeah, a bunch of the guys are hanging with Night Light in one of the upstairs bedrooms.” Dizzy grabbed his face and shoved her tongue in his mouth.
“How long have they been up there? When was the last time you saw him?” Fun Runner pulled his face away from Dizzy and lazily turned his head to me. His eyes were bloodshot red.
“Hey, we’re kinda busy right now, do ya mind?” I left them to their own devices. It wasn't like I needed a good reason to not watch the two of them suck face. I went up the stairs to where the bedrooms were. I had passed by here earlier but left any closed doors alone. I figured the ponies behind the closed doors were… busy… and Night Light wouldn’t be in there if that was the case. I came up to the largest bedroom at the end of the hallway. It was a mother in law suite that Sundance and I used to play in and have sleepovers growing up. I heard a bunch of loud chatter behind the door and knocked a few times. No one answered the door so I let myself in.
They had beer pong on a folding table set up in the middle of the room. There were teams of two on each end of the table. The rest of the stallions in the room, about a dozen or so, were crowded around watching earnestly. There were red solo cups littered everywhere and beer spilt in various places on the floor around the table. Night Light and Fancy Pants were the team on the left. It looked like all of the cups on their side of the table had been hit by the other team. The other team had two cups remaining on their side. Night Light had a ping pong ball in his hoof and was eyeing the cups at the end of the table as though everything in his life depended on his shot. As weird as it was to see him playing beer pong, the part that stuck out to me was that his mane was all messed up. I'd never seen him with a messed up mane before. The stallions around the table were chanting.
"Redemption, redemption, redemption!"
Night Light's voice barely managed to cut over the crowd.
"Target analyzed. Trajectory is set. Vector looks good..." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The room went nearly silent when he lobbed the ball in the air. It was a big and slow arc that was more exaggerated than how most ponies threw in this game. The ball landed squarely in the front cup and made a little "sploosh" noise. The boys in the room erupted with cheers.
Fancy Pants held out the ball in his hoof and sized up the last remaining cup on the opposite side of the table. The two Colts on the other team waived their hooves over the cup, trying to break Fancy's concentration. They shouted indecipherable gibberish at him, hoping to throw him off of his game. Fancy made it look like he was going to do an arcing shot similar to what Night Light did, but at the last moment he brought his hoof down closer to the table and pushed the ball forward with a quick flick. The other team, surprised by the sudden change, watched as the ball bounced near their only cup. One of them tried to swat the ball away but it sailed over his hoof and landed gently inside the red cup. Fancy's trick bounce worked, scoring two cups worth and denying the other guys a right to redemption throws. The game was over. I threw my hooves over my ears just in time. The amount of yelling over the impressive game winning shot would have for sure given me a headache. Fancy Pants and Night Light exchanged high hooves. The guys supporting their team were tripping over themselves to congratulate the victors.
You know, it was funny. I brought Night Light along that night hoping to see him knocked off his saddle. But something about watching a good chunk of the hoofball team cheering for him as if he were the star player really put me in a good mood. He wasn't even being smug about winning. He looked genuinely humbled and happy to be center of attention. I could tell that he wasn't used to getting it very often. How could a colt who was usually so full of himself be so meek and unassuming at the same time?
I decided to meander a little closer to Night Light.
"Nice shooting there, cowboy. You looked like a regular Colton Manning."
Night Light and Fancy Pants looked over at me. Their expressions were still glowing from the high of their win.
"Twilight, hello." Night Light suddenly remembered he was an awkward kid and looked away from me.
Great, I guess I bring out the weird in him now. Cause that's really what I want to be known for I complained in my head.
"I'd say Night Light's throw had more of a Steed Young vibe to it." Fancy Pants extended his hoof to me and I shook it. I let a little grin slip for him.
"Well I suppose you would know, huh? Glad you could make it tonight, Fancy."
Night Light continued to look away from me. A few other colts were talking to him and patting him on the back so I was pretty sure that I was the only one who could tell how awkward he was being. I let go of Fancy's hoof and he smiled at me. Most girls would have been putty in his hooves for a smile like that.
"A pleasure as always, Twilight." He looked like he was about to say something else but then looked at Night Light.
“I suppose, you came up here to see Night Light.” Fancy gave a little nod toward Night Light. Was this for freakin’ real? Was the whole freaking school in on this? All of Equestria? Was I going to wake up the next day with a royal decree that Night Light was my boyfriend? It was really starting to piss me off.
I saw that Night Light was kind of looking at me weird. Which made me, for the first time, notice that most of the colts in the room were looking at me as well.
That’s when it dawned on me. This little creep had been talking about me. He was gossiping about me to the whole hoofball team. I mean, it wasn't like Night Light had a lot of dirt on me or anything, but still. Did he even realize how embarrassing it can be to walk into a room where everypony has been talking about you behind your back?
“Twilight, I finally figured out a drink that I legitimately enjoy. Would you like me to…”
“You, me, downstairs, now.” I snapped my hoof toward the door and walked away. Night Light followed me out of the room. I was sure they’d make jokes about that comment but I didn't even care what it looked like anymore. Night Light and I were going to have to come to some sort of understanding if our friendship was going to work out. I decided to wait until we got down stairs to explode on him.
“What the hell is your problem?”
****