Eternal Nightmare

by Jgame

Chapter Fourteen

Idle Hooves, Infectious Cheer, and I stood at the door of Star's house.

It was about half-past twelve in the morning, with almost no lights on in the houses in Canterlot, except for Star's.

I waited for Idle Hooves to knock on the door to his house.

Nothing happened as we simply stood there.

I took a deep breath to calm my nerves.

Idle Hooves gave me a silent prompt.

“Please,” I said, “it's your parents house.”

“Well, yes,” Idle Hooves admitted reluctantly, “but you should have the honour of knocking, as Princess.”

“And this is the home of your parents,” I reminded him, “it would be polite if the son knocked, regardless of other circumstances.”

“Well, yes, but-”

Three loud knocks on the door from Infectious Cheer interrupted the somewhat akward debate.

Idle Hooves gave Infectious Cheer a dirty look.

“Standing around here arguing wasn't going to help us open the door,” Infectious Cheer said defensively.

“Yes, but-” Idle Hooves started to say, before being interrupted by the door being swung open.

I recognized the pony that had answered the door on sight. She was my personal hairdresser that had done my mane for my first reappearance to Canterlot. I had sought her out as my hairdresser ever since. “Idle! Cheer! Oh, and Princess Luna as well! It's an honour to have you here! Well, don't just stand there, come in, come in!”

Idle Hooves waited for Infectious Cheer to walk in first, and then watched me somewhat nervously. “Mares first?”

Deciding that now may not the best time to argue the technicalities and complications of etiquette, I took Idle Hooves's invitation and stepped into his parent's home.

“I'm absolutely surprised by your visit here, Princess Luna! If I had known, I would've spent a little bit of time cleaning up around here!” my hairdresser said.

I looked around. The home was a small, two-story house, and for the most part, it was fairly well-kept. A room that was apparently remodeled for hairdressing had a tile floor clean enough to find a momentary glimpse of my reflection as I passed by.

“It was a... spur of the moment idea,” I said.

“Is Star still up?” Infectious Cheer asked.

“Oh, no, we just sent her to bed. She was completely exhausted by the time we got home. Night Mare Night ran so much later than it usually did, lots of ponies running about in Night Mare Mo...” my hairdresser trailed off.

Idle Hooves's and his mother's expression made the air so laden with nervous tension I could almost taste it.

I gave my most welcoming smile as I said, “I appreciate your consideration towards my feelings on the subject of Night Mare Moon and Night Mare Night, but you may feel free to discuss such things in my presence. I do not take issue to either of those subjects.”

“Oh... thank you, Princess Luna,” my hairdresser said, somewhat awkwardly.

I immediately berated myself for resorting to formal answers in what was supposed to be a casual and friendly visit.

An earth pony with thick spectacles trotted down the stairs. “Gel, who's this?”

I realized that I had never asked my hairdresser for her name, in spite of her doing my mane for months. A tinge of embarrassment came over me.

“My name is Princess Luna,” I said.

He pushed his glasses further up his nose, and then smiled. “Ah, I thought you had looked familiar. Please, make yourself at home, Princess. Or, if you'd like, we could use an extra set of hooves to sort out Star's candy.”

Idle Hooves's father casually stuck out a hoof, and I shook it, much to the nerves of his son and wife. Infectious Cheer was trying not to laugh at their facial expressions, and Idle Hooves's father seemed to be utterly oblivious to the situation.

“Thank you,” I said, “if thou... you... would not mind, I would like to help sort out the candy. And what is thy name?”

“My name is Sort It Out, but please call me Sort,” Sort said, before leading me up the stairs to a makeshift living room with a large pile of candy on a coffee table in between two metal bowls.

“And before you ask,” Sort said, “the place where the living room is supposed to be is Gel's workplace. We had to shift the living room to the top floor so that the first floor could be where my wife works.”

“Some customers tend to feel somewhat alienated when brought up to the second floor, and we wanted this floor to be
guaranteed privacy,” Gel added.

“I see,” I said.

Infectious Cheer trotted over to the pile of candy. “Maybe you should just sit and relax, while Idle Hooves and the Princess and me sort the candy for you?”

“That would be lovely,” Gel said as she took a seat in an easy chair.

“Pray tell, what are we sorting these candies by?” I asked, “shape? Size? Type?”

“It's by whether the candies have been damaged or not,” Idle Hooves explained, “someponies put poison in the candy, so we check to see if any holes have been made in the packaging.”

“Poison in children's candy? Despicable,” I said.

Infectious Cheer nodded. “Most of the time, it's just that a hole got accidentally made and germs got in. Most of the time, anyways.”

Sort reached over from his living room sofa and grabbed a pink piece of candy, and held it out for my inspection. “Like this one over here, for example.”

I levitated it up and brought it close to my face. I spun it around, examining it, and I found the tiny hole that was made.

“I'm sure the Princess doesn't need help knowing what a hole in packaging looks like, dear,” Gel said nervously.

I shook my head. “This has helped me greatly. Thank you.”

We proceeded to sort the candies. I immediately noticed that Infectious Cheer was a quick worker. Every time I had inspected a piece of candy and placed it in the correct bowl, Infectious Cheer would have already put in two, and sometimes even a third.

Idle Hooves was much slower, only putting in one piece of candy for every two that I put in, but he went through the motions like a pony that had sorted candy for years.

Originally, I attributed his unusual sluggishness to him taking his time. However, I noticed that every time I looked over to see what he was doing, I found him watching me as he worked, only to quickly dart his gaze back to the candy he was inspecting when his gaze attracted mine.

I bit my cheek. I had wanted this to be friendly occasion, but Idle Hooves and his mother seemed to be overtly stressed at my presence, and no doubt my anxiety were only fueling theirs.

Infectious Cheer and Sort, however, had seemed to not mind my presence, but welcome it, a fact that made me determined to fix my current scenario.

“Is there any reason you keep looking my way?” I asked.

“No, Princess,” Idle Hooves answered immediately.

“They say it's bad courtesy to lie to a Princess,” I said.

“We're only trying to pay the proper courtesies to a pony like you,” Gel said meekly.

“'A pony like me,'” I repeated slowly, “and what would that entail?”

“Just relax, Princess,” Infectious Cheer interjected, “it's not your problem if he doesn't wanna loosen up.”

Idle Hooves snorted, as if he was trying to blow out his frustration.

I couldn't take it anymore. “Idle Hooves, may I have a word with you in private?”

Idle Hooves nearly dropped the piece of candy he was holding. “Of course, Prin-... Luna.”

We went downstairs.

“Why are you so nervous?” I asked.

“I'm not nervous,” Idle Hooves said quickly.

“You watch me, look back at what you were doing when I caught you multiple times, Infectious Cheer herself commented on your inability to 'loosen up', and yet you claim that you're not nervous. Forgive me if I think you are lying to me. Once again,” I said dryly.

“I'm very sorry as to my lack of conduct, Princess. It won't happen again,” Idle Hooves said stiffly.

“It's not the 'lack of conduct,'” I said, “it's how you insist on treating me like a Princess.”

Idle Hooves gave me a blank look. “I'm not sure if I follow.”

“I want to be thy... your friend, Idle Hooves. Please treat me like one,” I said.

Idle Hooves blinked. “Then, why did you come visit my parents's house?”

“Because I wished to spend time with you,” I said.

“So... this isn't a test?” Idle Hooves asked.

“Why would I want to test you?” I asked.

“I'm new and you ask out of the blue to come to my house... that's usually what Captains of the guard do to evaluate individual members...”

“If I wished to test you, then I would have done so before you were made a part of the Lunar Guard.”

Idle Hooves let out a massive sigh. “For the past week, I had been driving myself insane waiting for something to happen so that I could prove myself in the pop quiz I knew I saw coming. When you asked to come by my house I thought that that was the test for sure.”

“If you want my opinion on you, Idle Hooves, it is that you're a caring older brother that gets his work done admirably.”

“Thank you, Princess.”

“Now, shall we get back to the sorting? I would hate to leave all work to Infectious Cheer,” I said.

“Of course,” Idle Hooves sighed.

“What is wrong?” I asked.

“Infectious Cheer kept telling me that I was being paranoid, but I didn't believe her. I guess she was right all along,” Idle Hooves said.

Idle Hooves and I rejoined Infectious Cheer, Gel, and Sort, were waiting anxiously for us.

“Is everything all right, Princess?” Gel asked worriedly.

“It is fine. I simply have one request to make,” I said.

“Just say it, and I'll see what I can do,” Sort said.

“Call me Luna,” I said.

“Well, Luna,” Infectious Cheer said, “you still up for some sorting?”

“Yes,” I said.

It was rather enjoyable. I was rather slow in comparison to Idle Hooves, who managed to sort three candies by the time I put in one, out pacing even Infectious Cheer. Gel was still slightly tense, but as soon as she realized that her son was at ease she decided she could be as well.

After some small talk, I asked Gel about her work with clients other than myself. Gel proved to be even more passionate about her work than I ever thought one could possibly be. I learned more that night about personal mane care then I ever thought I would acquire in my lifetime.

Soon, we were done, the work passing by quickly.

“I think it is time for me to go,” I said, “the Moon must lower soon.”

Gel nodded. “It was wonderful having you over to visit.”

“Thank you for allowing me your hospitality,” I said.

Idle Hooves smiled. “The pleasure was all ours, Luna.”