The Morning of the Dance
“Ugh! Really Shining?!” Twilight complained when she saw him glaring, unimpressed, at Flash over the dinner table as they were eating breakfast. Flash finding the floor by his hooves very interesting at the moment.
“Just making sure his posture doesn't slump on the job,” Shining answered, running a critical eye over the Lieutenant. “Chin up, Soldier, eyes front!”
“Yes sir!” Flash answered, fearfully, not daring to go against his CO's orders less he get stuck with night patrol in Las Pegasus again. He shuddered at the thought.
Twilight groaned, turning to Cadence as she floated a piece of toast up to her lips. “Cadence! Shining's being mean to Flash!” Twilight whined, causing Shining to turn to her.
“Are you being a tattle tale?!” He complained, before being silenced by Cadence's silent stare. “Sorry Cadence...”
“Apologise to Flash, Shining,” Shining Armour made an indigent whine before he flinched at his pregnant wife's even sterner look.
“Sorry...Flash,” He said through gritted teeth, turning his glare to Twilight when he saw her stick her tongue out at him again. In response, he returned the taunt, causing Twilight to wave her hoof in a dismissive manner, clapping them together in a rude gesture.
Flash, unfortunately in the middle of this...'sibling disagreement', just decided to silently eat his food and hope to Celestia that he could have, at least, a few moments alone with Twilight before he had to go back to the Crystal Empire.
Cadence glanced at him and gave him a sympathetic smile.
“Well thanks for looking after him,” Thunderlane said, glancing over at Rumble curled on the Apple Family sofa with Babs. “I just...didn't know he wanted to sleep over.”
“Aw shucks, no problem Sugarcube,” Applejack answered, smiling. “It's not like he was tha only pony we had ta look after. Shoot, we had a whole, gosh darn house full o' ponies last night! They mostly stayed in Applebloom's room...Though Ah guess Rumble and Babs wanted a moment alone. Want me ta git 'im up?”
Thunderlane looked over the two unconscious ponies, Rumble nuzzling into Babs' cheek, causing her to giggle and nuzzle back, and smiled. “Nah, let him sleep. The dance isn't til seven anyway, plenty of time.”
Applejack nodded, motioning to the kitchen. “Ya want some coffee? Mac an' Ah just put a pot on.”
“That does sound good, actually,” He mentioned, yawning dramatically. “Was up pretty late last night, looking for that no good brother of mine.”
Applejack grinned, rolling her eyes. “Least yer brother doesn't blow anything up on a regular basis,” She mentioned, as she led him into the room where Mac sat, nursing his own mug of coffee. “Ya got enough fer one more, Mac?”
“Eeyup,” He answered, sparing Thunderlane a smile, before quickly pouring him a mug and sliding it over to him.
Thunderlane took a swig and sighed, smiling. “That's the stuff,” They both laughed at his comment before taking drinks of their own coffee. “Seriously though, I have a hard enough time with just one little brother, how do guys handle...how many kids stayed over?”
“Well Ah think it was: Yer brother, Babs, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Featherweight, Button Mash and Spike,” Applejack answered, shrugging, noticing that Thunderlane was gawking at her.
“Eight kids!” He exclaimed, quietly, looking over the two. “How did you guys get any sleep?”
“We didn't,” Applejack answered, motioning to her coffee. “What did ya think this was fer?” She grinned, taking another sip before she heard some hoof steps and noticed Rainbow Dash enter the kitchen, blinking.
“...This isn't my house,” She stated, confused, scanning the area as if it would suddenly transform into her quaint little cottage. Applejack chuckled, rolling her eyes.
“Course it ain't, ya ninny, this is our place. After playing a few games with tha kids ya just zonked out on tha floor an' Mac let ya have his bed fer tha night,” Applejack explained, sipping her coffee before pausing. “Oh right, want some coffee?”
Rainbow blinked again, before loud yawn escaped her and she nodded, almost falling into the empty space left by Mac as he went to get her a mug, drinking from his. “Thanks...But how did you know I'd be up right now?”
Thunderlane rose an eyebrow at her while Applejack let out a little chuckle. “We didn't, ya just drank Mac's coffee,” Rainbow's eyes bugged out as she spat the liquid from her mouth, leaving the spray on the table, and rubbed her tongue. “Um...Why did ya do that?”
Mac turned to face Rainbow as well, her fresh mug of coffee in his hoof, watching as her face lit up redder than his fur. “Uh...Well, it's just...germs and stuff...” Mac blinked, crossing his eyes to look at his muzzle in confusion.
“Aw c'mon Sugarcube, ya really think ya gonna catch something from that?” Applejack asked, shaking her head in amusement. “Hate ta see how you'd cope with kissin' him.”
If it was possible, Rainbow's face may have burned even brighter. Though Mac's did go a noticeable shade redder than usual too. “Th-That's different!”
“How is it?”
“I...well...it's...” Rainbow struggled, fighting her tangled tongue, her morning mind haziness and her own blush. “Shut up!”
“Ah see yer taking witty comeback lessons from Scootaloo then,” Applejack mentioned, causing Rainbow to stick her tongue out at her, turning her back to her.
Though her face, when she was sure Applejack couldn't see it, took on a much paler hue. How did she know?!
“Hey keep it down guys!” Rumble suddenly interupted, causing them to turn to the doorway and notice that he was standing there with his mane sticking out in awkward positions, feathers ruffled and bloodshot eyes. “We're trying to sleep out here!”
The group mumbled out apologies before Rumble nodded and got back up onto the sofa to continue cuddling his fillyfriend.
They continued to sit there in silence as Soarin came down with a cheerful smile, having always been a morning pony, and sat down next to Applejack, only for his face to morph into confusion. “Uh...What did I miss?”
“We were just told off by a twelve year old...” Thunderlane mumbled, quickly draining his mug of it's brown liquid.
“Oh c'mon! This is ridiculous!” Applebloom complained as she moved her character forward, only for several hundred crossbow bolts to hit her from multiple directions and killing her. “I don't even know if my character died from blood-loss or suffocation!”
Right now, she, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and their dates for the night were in her room, everyone having slept round last night, playing a game on the playstallion that Button had brought round. They may have gotten very little sleep in the process, but they didn't feel too bad considering their brains were being in constant use and the empty cans of energy drinks lying around may have had something to do with it too. “Why is this game so hard?!”
Button and Sweetie Belle rolled their eyes simultaneously, as they moved their characters to a much safer area. “You're the one who wanted to play on hard mode.”
“Ah thought Ah was clicking medium!” Applebloom grumbled as she waited with her hooves folded, for Spike to get his character into a position to revive her. Featherweight and Scootaloo mearly watching the screen from atop of Applebloom's bed. “What deranged developer thought it'd be a good idea ta have four difficulty settings?! Ah'm a medium pony! Ya know, since easy ain't exactly a challenge an' Ah don't have tha time of day ta get good enough fer hard!”
“Well why didn't you pick amateur? That was technically in the middle too,” Button explained, reacting quickly enough to win a melee combat when an enemy tried to sneak up on him.
“Cause Ah thought it'd be too easy, an' Ah did remember ta put on mah big girl bow today! Ah didn't think it'd be this bad!” Applebloom continued to complain until she realised that Spike had revived her and she fumbled to get the controls again. “An' this story is so boring! And what kind of pony thinks increasing tha enemy health and making them do so much damage that tha armour our characters are wearing is about as useful as sticking tea cups ta their foreheads, means a better challenge! It's tha bare bones guide to difficulty changes!”
“Uh...You're the one who picked this game,” Spike mentioned, picking up the game box when his character got stabbed in the back, showing it to have several Royal Guard charging into an army of Changelings, the title displaying 'Hive: Royal Guard' in a large, bold text.
“Cause Ah thought those reviews on tha box sounded good...” She was interupted by a giggle from beside her as her character stepped on a landmine and got blown up, and turned a heated glare at Sweetie Belle. “What?!”
“Oh you can't expect to enjoy a game because they have good quotes on the back! Heck, these days, game companies take quotes way out of context!” Sweetie Belle explained as she and Button made it to the end of the level. “Like when it says here: 'It'll blow your mind...', with the ellipses, that means they've left something out of the sentence. It could say 'It'll blow your mind with how bad it is!' for all we know!”
“...Then why did Button buy it?!” Applebloom exclaimed, turning to face the brown colt. Button just shrugged.
“I have a section in the Foal Free Press for game reviews,” He explained, motioning to the several games beside him. “I buy and play all these games and tell everyone in the piece a little about: the story, the gameplay, pros and cons. And then I give my opinion and a score at the end. It's to help save somepony from wasting their bits on a bad game since you can't get a full refund on opened games anymore.”
“Yeah, it's one of our most popular sections,” Featherweight continued, causing the group to look up at him. “Some adults even buy the paper just to see what Button thought of a recent game to see if it's worth their bits. Heck, sometimes game companies send him a review copy of their latest game so he can point out a few polishes they could make!”
“So that's why we were playing all those games at that convention!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed, having gone with Button to Gamer-Con last month to try out demos like 'Mare Cry: Instinct' and 'Cataclysm 4'. “You said that was a date!” She continued, narrowing an inquisitive eye, causing Button to rub the back of his head sheepishly.
“It was! It just...Well...I can multi-task! You had fun!” Button quickly said, looking at his fillyfriend's face, before he turned to the pile. “Well, since Applebloom doesn't like this game and I've got more than enough for a review, how about a different game like...” He paused as he got out a board game by mistake. “Monopoly! Who wants to play Monopoly?!”
Featherweight sighed at the awkward colt's futile attempts to distract Sweetie Belle from...He wasn't sure what, and rolled his eyes. “Fine, but only if I can be the dog.”
“Hey, I'm always the dog!” Spike complained, causing Featherweight to sigh again.
“Fine, I'll be the cart...”
“Hey Ah'm always tha cart!” Applebloom joined in, causing Featherweight to flinch back away from their heated stares.
“Fine, I'll be annoying pony!”
“Hey, I'm always the annoying pony!” Sweetie Belle suddenly interjected, unaware of what she said. Scootaloo sighed, smacking a hoof to her forehoof.
“And suddenly, I miss being round Featherweight's house.”
“Hey, I'm always Featherweight's house!” Button complained, hugging the board game to his chest, protectively.
Meanwhile, Discord was mending the hole in the side of Fluttershy's cottage, placing the bricks in place with his hands rather than his magic because...
...Anyway! While he was doing so, his ear suddenly twitched and he turned towards Sweet Apple Acres.
Fluttershy, who was busy helping Tank get ready for his hibernation, turned to him quizzically. “What's wrong, Discord?”
He placed a paw to his chin in contemplation. “I'm not sure. I just feel like something...odd is going on.”
“Odd?”
“Yes. Like there are references that nopony's going to get being thrown around...And they're not funny,” He explained, clicking his talon and finishing the wall behind.
Fluttershy blinked at the wall, before turning a deadpan stare at Discord. “Why didn't you just do that in the first place?” Discord turned to the wall, which used to have a Discord shaped hole in it. It was odd since he was trying to teleport.
“Huh? There was a hole here,” He muttered, looking over it with a puzzled expression. “It's gone now.”
“Now who's making unfunny references!” Pinkie exclaimed as she raced past the two and into the cottage. The two blinked in confusion before Cheese appeared in front of them.
“Hey guys, you seen Pinkie round? She's winning twenty two to nineteen and I need to make some points back!” He explained, pulling a whoopee cushion out of his mane, as well as a lemon meringue pie, before stuffing the two together. “I figured I could get double points with this!”
Fluttershy glanced at her cottage, then at Cheese, then finally at Discord, who looked about as clueless as her, before sighing. “She ran into my cottage, probably under my dining room table...”
“Traitor!” Pinkie screamed out, giving her position away as Cheese let the pie fly and it smacked into her face with the traditional fart noise, smearing pie on her face in the process.
“Double points!” Cheese cheered, before he noticed the look on his friend's face and decided to run as fast as he could in the other direction.
“Oh I'm going to get you for that!” Pinkie declared, racing after him, leaving a flummoxed Fluttershy and Discord behind them.
After a few minutes of silence, Discord slapped his talon over his face. “I think we need new friends,” He muttered, Fluttershy just nodding in silent agreement.
Rarity smiled brightly as she secured one last pink band around Cadence's left fore hoof. “There you go dear, I made sure to pad your baby bump to keep the little one nice and warm.”
“I love it Rarity, thank you for doing this on such short notice,” Cadence replied, looking over the elegant, dark blue gown in the mirror before her. Rarity waved her comment off.
“It's not a problem Dear, I've had a little more free time since Discord helped me out. I was just on my way out to get my little sister's Hearts Warming present,” She replied, watching as the Princess carefully removed the dress to lay it over her back, replacing it with her dark pink sweater.
“Do you mind if I join you? I need to get something for Shining, Spike, Twily and Flash,” Cadence asked, grabbing grabbing her saddlebags and heading towards the door that Rarity held open for her.
“Of course you can, Cadenza, I'd love to catch up!” Rarity answered happily, already knowing where she had to go and what she had to get, so knew that Cadence couldn't distract her. “And buying a present for Flash, are we? You're certainly happy about Twilight's relationship.”
Cadence gave the Unicorn a smug grin. “Who do you think set them up?” She asked, causing Rarity to giggle. “Twilight wouldn't ask him out since she didn't know much about his character, so I tricked her into going to dinner with him.”
“That's when she started learning about who he is, yes she told me,” Rarity finished, smiling fondly at the girl talk they had. It wasn't often that Rarity got to talk her friends about relationships, but when she did she absorbed every little detail she could, if only to help with her own situation...which seemed to do the trick.
“Yes, but enough about her! Tell me about this stallion that you're going with?” The Alicorn asked, causing Rarity to jump out of her thoughts. “Twilight was talking about how you and your friends all got dates to the dance and I just love talking about budding romances!” She clarified. Being the Princess of Love, it should come as no surprise that she would jump at the chance to hear about how her friends got with their stallions.
Rarity flushed a little but, at the same time, felt very giddy. She's never had the opportunity to boast about her own relationships before...namely because they hadn't really lasted more than a night.
“Well...His name is Thunderlane, a Wonderbolt reserve and weather pony for the town.”
“Wow, a Wonderbolt! Good catch,” Cadence teased causing Rarity to flush a little more.
“I guess, yes, but that's not what attracted me to him...though it certainly didn't hurt. No, he helped to save my life when my friends and I were thrown out of Twilight's balloon,” Rarity explained, sighing with elation at the memory.
Cadence giggled a little, holding a hoof to her chest. “So a knight in shining armour, huh?” she asked.
Rarity smiled and nodding her head. “I guess you could say that, but what I mostly liked was after that, when we were talking. As it turns out, he had a little brother and it's just the way he cared for him. It was just...I don't know, so loving and almost fatherly.”
Cadence blinked. “Fatherly? Does he not have one and Thunderlane felt like he had to fill the role?” Rarity shook her head.
“No, he does. He just works a lot and doesn't have a lot of time to spend with him...Well I guess you could say that he was filling in the role somewhat. It doesn't matter though. I just thought...”
“He'd make a great dad someday?” Cadence burst out laughing at the cherry faced, speechless pony next to her, waving her hoof dismissively. “I'm joking, Rarity, sorry. But the look on your face!”
Rarity sighed in relief, chuckling slightly at her playful nature. “Of course, no need to worry Dear. I can take a joke.”
“Boy am I glad to get away from him for a while,” Twilight mentioned as she and Flash made their way towards Sugarcube Corner, a check-list held under Flash's wing. He was also in his Royal Guard armour, which Shining insisted(ordered) that he wear to seem more professional.
She turned to her coltfriend, noticing a light sheen of frost start to form on the metal of his armour. “Are you sure you're not cold?” She asked, concerned. She, herself, wearing a large purple parka. He smiled back, teeth clattering slightly.
“Don't worry, T-Twily! W-we Royal Guard are tr-trained to be able t-to survive the harshest of w-weather,” He explained, holding his head high, proudly, to try and impress her. This, however, resulted in him not being able to see an incoming patch of ice.
Inevitably he slipped on it and crashed to the floor on his side, rather painfully given the extra weight. “ARGH!”
“Oh my gosh!” Twilight exclaimed, immediately igniting her horn and tearing his armour off and moving him to his other side, noticing a large bruise start to form under his left wing.
He, too, noticed that and grimaced. “Oh, that's going to make flying a pain in the flank!”
“Flash, what's the point in this armour if it doesn't actually protect anything?” Twilight asked, using a quick spell to float the wing guard over it.
“I don't know. We've never really had a proper war before, so it's mostly for show,” He explained, easily able to make it back to his hooves, like any good soldier, but now even more vunerable to the cold.
The Princess ignored his response, looking over the piece before she found the problem. “This armour isn't insulated!” She said, pointing to the inside, which was also just metal. “You're supposed to wear chain-mail or, at the least, a woollen jumper to stop the metal just smacking into you!”
“...Huh?” Flash replied, using a violently shivering hoof to grab the piece of metal. “Y-you know, n-none thought o-of th-that...Might explain s-some o-of the i-injuries we've had.”
Twilight sighed, taking a mental note to talk to Shining about this, and walked up to a tree, shoving her hoof into it, and extracting a blue parka and holding it out for him.
He blinked at her as he took, a questioning look on his face. “What?” She asked, turning to the tree he was pointing at. “Oh, Pinkie has parkas in trees all over Ponyville, for parka emergencies.” She explained, as if it was as normal as the sun rising in the morning.
Flash just blinked a couple of times, before shrugging and putting it on, not really caring at this point. Then sighed in content as the warmth started to flow into his wings and such. “Better?” She asked.
“Better,” He smiled, extending his wing out of one of the convenient holes in the coat to wrap around her barrel, stuffing the check-list in his pocket. “Thanks.”
Twilight blushed, still not used to the intimate gestures, but nuzzled into his cheek all the same. “You're welcome.”