//------------------------------// // Bonding Time // Story: Chaos and kindness: My Beautiful Bride // by Sapphire One //------------------------------// Fluttershy and the girls went to their appointment and Ocean Breeze, Wolfie, the Doctor, and I went out for some “bonding time” together. “Dear, if you see the bride’s dress before you marry her, then it brings de je vu and bad luck.” “Alright dear if you really want your dress to be a surprise, then I’ll go and do something else,” I said rolling my eyes. “How about you boys get some bonding time together, after all, you are all going to be future in-laws," Fluttershy said winking before closing the shop door. There was one of those long awkward pauses I hate. "Well, I suppose, since she wants it to be a surprise, what does everypony like to do?" Doctor asked. "I have an amazing idea!" I exclaimed before I teleported us. When the smoke cleared, Wolfie, Ocean, the Doctor, and myself stood outside the Paint Bomb. "The Paint Bomb? What kind of a place is this? I don't recall the name," the Doctor stated in confusion. "This was just built this year. How about we play some paintball?" "What is this sport 'paintball'?" Wolfie asked me. "It's a game where teams of four are equipped with paintball guns that shoot small balls of paint filled pockets and we have to fire them at another team. Once you're hit three times, your suit goes rigid and you can't move until another player on your team drags you back to home base or another team wins, unicorns magic is disabled and all suits are wingless. To put another twist on the game, we play in an anti gravity chamber and there are many different places to hid," Ocean Breeze answered. "That sounds chaotic! And Awesome! I'm in," My father said. "Sounds splendid!" my brother exclaimed. "I'm not sure," my future father in-law said, nervously pawing the ground. "Aw, that's too bad, looks like my newest old man's....chicken?" I said slyly. "What did you say?" he asked still looking down. "Bawk bawk bawk bawk bawk!" I answered. He looked up, with the very gates of tartarus in his eyes. That's when I found out where Fluttershy got her stare, but his was more of a glare. He suddenly smiled. "If I'm so big of a chicken, then, let's see how your lovely bride's old man does when we team up with each other. Let's make a bet, shall we?" "Let's hear it pops," I said just egging it on. "I bet you, fifty bits, that I can get hit less times than you, and you can't use any magic, Discord," he put a smug face on. I thought for a moment. "And if I win, I get the okay for as many pranks as I want with a guaranteed pardon. If you win, you get to pick out my tux," I said smile on my face. He was not aware that he was making a deal with a devil. He smiled at me and spit onto his hoof and held it out to me. I copied this and shook with Fluttershy's father. As we walked to the stadium I heard faint whispers behind me. "Twenty bits on Discord, no matter what I bet him, it always bites me in the flank later," I heard the Doctor tell dad. "No way, not this time. Did you see the look in Ocean's eyes? Twenty on him."Dad agreed to the deal. "Deal!" the Doctor shook his tiger paw and went on walking until we reached the desk. "Yes, is there room for one more team?" "Just in time, get into suit and go to the south entrance of the west game room," the mare behind the window replied. "Thanks!" the Doctor said to the mare. I warped the suits to fit me and dad and put a heat detecting spell on the glasses. Since I'm not a unicorn, the magic dis-abler didn't work on me. We headed to the entrance to the game room. "T minus two minutes til game," the familiar sound of the mare in the front voice filled the locker room. "Ready to lose, son?" my father in-law asked with a smirk on his face. "In a parallel universe, maybe," I returned the smirk. "T minus ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, begin," the mare's voice said. The deadlocked door opened, and my father stepped out. "This feels like there's nothing holding me down!" My father whispered/yelled. "Come on, we're still fair game until we're the last ones standing," I said as I put my protective glasses down and jumped into the maze of anti gravity. "Yes, let's keep moving," the Doctor said. We heard a cannon, the signal of somepony's team has been eliminated. We heard celebration cheers. I pressed the small button on top of the frames on my protection glasses. The setting around me turned blue and I looked around. I saw some red pony figures. They were just on the other side of the wall, an entrance to the small area not fifty feet away. Another cannon sounded. I signaled for my teammates to come closer and to follow me. Four ponies were in this small grove. We latched onto the wall near the entrance. I peered inside. "Yes! We totally wiped out the northern team and the western team! Next we get the southern," I looked around, I was by myself, I caught a glimpse of my father's paw. The others must be guarding the four exits. I saw his eyes watching for my signal. I nodded. He made the first three shots. the pony on his side was frozen in his tracks. Nopony noticed. The Doctor made the next move. Three direct hits. Ocean shot the next pony. My turn, three more direct hits, I knew for a fact that they were frozen in their tracts. "Hello there, I must say, what team are you? I'm the southern one," The doctor said as he stepped out into plain view. "Hey, somepony shoot him!" A stallion yelled. "We can't Gruff, we're frozen," the pony tried to move. "Come on out boys, they're stuck," he called out. We each moved into the grove. "Dang, we're beat Thunder," one of the ponies said. The anti gravity suddenly turned into real gravity. We all fell ungracefully on the hard floor. "How many times did you get hit?" Ocean asked me. "None, you?" "Same thing, looks like we both get pardons for prank wars when we meet," Ocean said grinning evilly. "I think so, looks like we each keep our bits, dad. They tied!" "Oh, well," Dad shrugged, "let's go check up on the girls." We agreed. We put the suits in the basket and the guns on a conveyor belt to be reloaded. We walked out the door. "Good game gentlecolts, good game," The Doctor said as we started to walk to the shop where the girls were at.