//------------------------------// // Seventh Chapter // Story: "Iolai!" or "Heroic moments Are Cheap." // by Daxn //------------------------------// Sunset Shimmer, after coming back home to complete her homework, took her phone up and flopped onto her bed with a faint sigh. "And Khnebish Bokhirnokhoi's rants about philosofy, Tengri willing, are done for the year," She muttered to herself, as she pressed the phone's main button to turn the screen on - revealing the screensaver depicting the sun setting over the Great Temple in Tenochtitlàn - before fully turning it on with an index swipe, and then she then tapped on the chat program's icon. "Let's see what the others have been up to, while I was busy talking to Twilight." The chat loaded up, showing five alerts and the exact number of messages for each chat, making sunset widen up her up her eyes. "Four hundred and four messages in the main chat? In three hours?" Sunset muttered, as she tapped on that first group chat "People must've been up to something interesting for sure!" Only to greeted by several walls of text written in Arab by somebody called "Tahabba," which kept repeating themselves with no apparent change for several messages, causing Susnet shimmer to scroll past them, only to be greeted by more of them. With a sigh, Sunset made a strong swipe downwards, which brought her to the end of the chat, revealing yet another couple of Arabian walls of text, followed by the message "User Tahabba has been banned from the chat." Below, TengriRoadkill's message, which read "nice try, but noone of us live anywhere near Nejd and I already own a lifetime supply of Viagra." Sunset chuckled, as she typed up a message quickly. "I take it was a spambot spamming adverts? :P" She wrote, before sending it. Shortly after, Appiano/ TengriRoadkill wrote back. "Oh, yes, he advertised alright. He also kinda said you'd need to get in Nedj to get all of that shit it promised." He wrote, follwoed shortly after by yet another message "Btw, sent you a pm." Sunset nodded to herself, wrote "Okay" and changed chat with the pression of the only button avaible. She then tapped onto the private chat with Appiano, bringing up the message he had wrote to her. Specifically it said: "I've organized a party that, if a comet isn't sighted in the sky, should be hosted at my house in two days. Do you think you be able to come over?" On such a short notice? Oh well, it'll be Sunday in three days and Appiano's parties are said to be really fun, so I think I'll come! She thought, as she typed down her affirmative message as "Yes, I'll come. Just tell me where and when it starts and I'll be there for sure!" Two days of regular school and daily activities - and a quick trip to the outskirts of the town on a motorbike - later, Sunset walked in the front yard of Appiano's will, looking around for sport where to park her motorbike. As she looked around herself, she heard the music's vibrations and loud chatter coming from inside the house and, as she turned her heard from left to right, she caguht glimpises of shapes drinking and gesturing at other. "Well, seems that they started already," Susnet said with a shrug, as she brought her motorcycle next to blue bike and, with a push, parked it nearby, leaving just enough space for the bike owner to pull it out withotu scratching out the motorkbike's chassis or break the handle in half. Done so, Sunset quickly walked the path paved in cotto tiles that lead to the burly oak door covered in bronze bas relief depicting battle scenes of the Conquest of Tlaxcalia - specifically from the founding of Vera Cruz to the raze of Tzintzuntzan and the resulting Purèpecha/Tarascan Diaspora - which caused Sunset to frown a little, before ringing the plain brass bell hanging next to the aforementioned door. The bell rang and, shortly after there was the sound of boots approaching. "Dè, who's there?" Appiano said very shortly thereafter. "It's me, Sunset." She said. The door produced a loud bang, as it opened inwards, revealing Appiano, dressed with poofy white and red trousers akin to his ancestors' tastes and his usual white shirt with red chkered and oblique stripe, opening the door while bowing at the same time. "Dè, come in, we've started not too long ago!" Appiano gestured for Sunset to follow him into the house proper, which she did. Looking around her, Sunset saw on her left four black sofas set in a quadrate shape and a short neocolonial-style coffee table covered in plastic and papers glasses in the center of the sofa square. Some of the guests laid or sat on the couches and chatted, other stood upright and drunk from the glasses or, in certain cases, directly from the bottles, and a couple of guests tried their best to dance at the music that a stereo inside a semicircular niche in the wall played. On her right, Susnet saw one long oak table covered with a green tablecloth with golden arabesque decoraions and, on top of the tablecloth, silver dishes covered in mini-sandwiches of all tastes, beef and dog jerky, accompained by colorful and minioutsly-decorated bowls full of popcorn and potato chips, and bottles of both water and mid-range wine and hard drinks. Along with those, there were two small piles of paper dishes and bigger piles of paper and plastic glasses. Sunset immediately headed for the table, picking up five wuster and mustard sandwiches from a plate. "And this will be my dinner," Sunset muttered to herself, as she now looked at her left, paying more attention to the guests. Sunset saw Fluttershy smiling as he Flameboy's head as he held a glass of water with one hand and Fluttershy's skirt with the other. Appiano was meanwhile speaking with a burly show brown bald guy wearing a leopard-skin shirt that barely held on his torso with a dark red sweatshirt underneath and dark green long trousers, with Appiano gesturing with his right hand occupied by a glass clarly full of spritz. A yellow girl with cherry-colored hair was laying on the couch while eating up a handful of chips while she spoke to Rarity playing around with a black and purple cigarette holder with an unlit cigarette at its end. Applejack was standing by a column in between the two halves of the room, drinking the airag straight from the bottle. She also saw Lyra and Bon Bon holding hands while dancing and a load of other people Sunset did not recognize right off the bat. "Well, what am I waiting for? Let's meet the new guys!" Sunset muttered to herself with a shrug, as she then grabbed a paper dish, setting her food on it. She took one of the sandwiches, eating it, before walking towards Appiano and the bald guy, wearing a friendly grin in her face. "Hello there! What's your name?" Sunset asked as she waved her right hand towards the bald man, once a lull in Appiano's covnersation happened. Appiano turned around towards Susnet with a small jump, as he then gestured with his right hand, and he opened his mouth, only to be interrupted by the guy. "Oh, hello there, good lookin', my name is Intestinal Beetle." He said, furiously adjusting his shirt's neck and puttign a button back into place after it had popped out "Okay, actually my true name is another one, but I'll kill you if you pronounce it." Sunset recoiled a little at his declaration, as she then nodded. "Oh, don't you worry, he's a bit short-tempered, but he isn't that violent, an, unless you provoke him, he doesn't go the step below either." Appiano said with a chuckle "So relax." "Oh yeah. I know when there's a honest mistake or somethin' behind it." Instestinal Bettle said, before buttoning up his shirt again and pulling up his trousers. "Anyways, what's your name?" "My name is Sunset Shimmer, ncie to meet you." Sunset said, tending her right hand forward, feeling relieved but still a bit nervous about Intestinal Beetle now. He gripped on her hand and shook it strongly, causing a fit of pain to go up her arm into her pain and making her yelp. "Ouch! Too strong!" Sunset said, making Intestinal Beetle to chuckle and undo his handshake. "Sorry, I keep forgetting that not everybody has my same strenght... or resistance, for that matter." He said, before walking towards the table "That begin said, nice to meet you too. I take you're one of many girls that friendzoned Appiano?" Sunset Shimemr blushed and looked away, as Intestinal Beetle grabbed a plastic glass and the rhum, pouring some in it. "No! What made you think that?" Sunset said with a sligh squeak that betrayed her flustering. Intestinal Beetle grabbed the airag bottle, shrugging as he poured the yellow ish white liquid into the glass. "Just a hunch." Sunset stomped her left feet, opening her mouth, before closing it back upimmediately. Anger him would be unwise. He's giant, for one, and he hasn't exactly called you a whore, but her rather called Appiano a womanizer. Sunset thought, still blushing, as she took the bottle of water to drink from it. "And how did oyu meet Appiano, if you don't mind answering me?" Susnet Shimemr asked, attempting to get away from the previosu topic as quickly as possible. Intestinal Beetle gulped the airag in one sip, then he wiped his upper lip clear, before burping and then adjusting his shirt's neck. "See, six years ago we were just two guys learnign how to fight and gettin' some muscles..."