Pipsqueak

by thisnameisironic

VII Part I - Distractions (Edited)

Once the portal shut, there was a long silence between Pipsqueak and Dinky as the two were left in the room alone. Out of all the things that could happen, in Pip's eyes, this was the worst possible thing. The only "girl" he was comfortable talking to was Luna or even any of the other princesses. Otherwise, he was a blabbering idiot in front of girls that ultimately led to his own humiliation. He tried to make as little conversation as possible so she would leave, but without much success.

"What happened?" she asked.

"None of your business." he responded.

Silence.

"What was that mouse thing?"

"I don't know."

More silence.

"You wanna go swimming now?"

"I don't feel like it today."

The conversation continued like so until Dinky, unfortunately for the boy in swimming trousers, put her hand over his own. Both jumped in shock.

"What are you doing to me?!" Pip shouted.

"I don't know! It just happened!" Dinky panicked. She knew now that her subconscious motion probably cost her some chemistry between them.

"Well..." Pip trailed off, leaving the rest of his words to his face's sudden bright red hue. Dinky giggled.

"You like it," she said.

He held a finger to object but found it pointless to. Puberty is a weird thing. So what if he "like-liked" her? She saw her as nothing more than a friend...at least, that's what he hoped.

"It's okay," Dinky reassured. "Want to hear a secret?" Before Pip could answer, she continued. "I kinda like you too."

"I don't like you!" he screamed. "...at least, not that way."

Dinky sighed.

"To be completely honest, I'm not so sure either," she said. "It's just in my dreams I keep seeing Luna-"

"She's bothering you too?!" he interrupted. Dinky nodded, then laid on the bed.

"I don't even know what she's talking about, or whatever puberty is," she said. Pipsqueak agreed.

Once more, a period of silence passed, though this had an awkward aura as both children were noticeably blushing, facing in opposite directions attempting to resist looking at the other's face. This time, Pip broke the silence.

"Well, uh, I need to get showered. We are swimming, aren't we?" he asked.

"Only if you want to," Dinky replied, smiling. "You are the captain, after all."

He never realized how much he liked her smile. Something about it just seemed to pull him toward her like a magnet. He hadn't really noticed before, but her blonde hair seemed to reflect the beams of light protruding from the window. He liked that factor. He liked a lot of things about her, as if it wasn't already obvious enough to him.

"Yeah, but..." Pipsqueak trailed off again. His social skills with girls seemed to be at toddler age right now. He wanted something, but he knew it wasn't appropriate to ask. "I'm...still trying to forget what I just saw. Now I'm crazy, because I don't want him to taunt me again."

"Paranoia?" she asked. One positive aspect of living in a wealthy family was her seemingly limitless vocabulary compared to her peers. Too bad her spelling could use as much work as others if not more. It made writing letters absolute Tartarus for her.

"Whatever that is," he answered, his own rather limited. He usually used words that Luna used, even without knowing what they meant.

"Basically what you're describing. You know, if you're not comfortable right now-"

"I need to get showered."

"You could shower with me."

"Yeah, okay...wait, what?!"

He looked in shock. Did she just seriously ask that? He couldn't do that. He was already shy enough about having his bits hanging in the Princess's company. No, there was something that scared him more.

Can she read my mind?

"Just kidding!" she giggled. "And even if we did, I wouldn't look." She smirked at him. "That is, if you don't want me to."

"Of course I wouldn't want you to look!" he panicked. "You're a girl! And I..." He stopped before he could go any further. What sense was there in arguing with a girl?

There was a long silence between them. Again, Pip was the first to speak.

"I guess I could go swimming," he decided. "but I still don't trust you."

"I don't blame you," she replied. "Now come on. Aren't Rumble and Featherweight waiting?"

She held out her hand innocently as to draw Pip toward her. Hesitantly, he jumped from his bed. He clasped her hand, to which Dinky blushed, and went to the floor below.

"I still don't like you that way," Pip enforced.

"Neither do I," she agreed, before her face reacted as if though she forgot something. "My swimsuit! Shoot, I need to get it!"

"Then go get it," he replied calmly as she ran toward her room, letting out a sigh of relief when she disappeared. Quickly, he rushed to the showers so he could wash himself as quickly as possible before she could meet him. If there was one thing for certain, he would never allow her to use the same shower as him. Looking down each end of the wall, he scurried to his floor's bathroom and climbed into the bathtub, before pulling down his bathing suit and turning the shower knob.

---

Luna searched frantically throughout the Canterlot Royal Library's lore section. There had to be something in one of the thousands of bestiaries about her childhood nightmare, whether it be rumors or otherwise; she seemed to be finding everything but that. Minotaurs were mainly dominant in the underground labyrinths beneath surface Equestria, and were known for promiscuous behaviors and or hotheaded attitude. Hydra, though near extinct, could be found in Everfree Forest's swamps, and when one head is removed, three more grow in place. Manticores were thought to be extinct until one was found in Everfree Forest around when Nightmare was freed from her after she returned from the moon. Celestia always told her to forget about the past, but she never did remember her time on the moon, nor how she ended up there in the first place. Occasionally she would have dreams where she was a young girl on the moon, and meanwhile having monochrome adventures with friends she would meet there. For some reason, despite being the Princess of Dreams, she still wasn't able to tell if they were all memories of her past or if they were manufactured by her own distorted mind.

She continued to search through scrolls, textbooks, and even occasional forgotten note cards left inside documents to no avail. Luna failed to stifle a yawn. She was getting tired of having questions and not finding answers...as well as tired from not having her sleep. It was around noon and Luna had adapted her schedule to work nocturnally for her sister's sake, and noon for her was like two in the morning for Celestia. She managed to read an entire shelf of lore and mythos (it was apparently a popular subject to be written about) before footsteps were heard toward the entrance.

"Luna?" Celestia's voice called. "My guards informed me that you arrived."

"I have, sister," she responded, still focused on the task at hand. Luna was clearly exhausted, her usual galaxy-like head of hair replaced by a familiar periwinkle cut. Celestia hadn't seen her sister's original hairstyle since after Nightmare Moon's invasion. Luna was left magically exhausted after reformation, unable to cast many spells, and thus why it didn't flow. Now, Celestia could see, Luna was in the similar state again. It went without saying that she was concerned for her.

"Luna, you need your sleep," she reminded.

"Yes, Tia, I know," Luna groaned. She wasn't going to rest now. She still had to find that creature that so frightfully scared her in her youth.

"Luna. Rest."

Celestia glared at her, and as she was elder, Luna obeyed.

"Now," she began. "What are you doing here at one in the afternoon? You told me you would be with your little pirates."

"Yes...but things changed."

"Things?" Celestia asked.

"Yes...things."

Celestia stared at her, the type an older sibling would give to her younger when they know they're hiding something. Her face was demanding an explanation, especially considering the disorganized pile of books behind her that would give her former obsessive compulsive student nightmares. Luna, unwillingly, explained her reasoning.

"Remember when we were kids and I kept asking to sleep with you because of the 'monster in the closet'?" she asked, making quotation marks with her fingers.

Celestia's face stayed unmoved.

"Well," She paused a moment. "He may have escaped Tartarus and is terrorizing little Pipsqueak both in and outside his dreams."

Celestia kept her expression.

"You do realize," she began. "that he was a figment of your imagination, correct? You had a lot of nightmares like those when you were coming of age to dream travel."

"I'm not a toddler anymore, sister!" Luna shouted. "I demand an answer to who or what Gregory is!"

Rather than reminding her younger sister to use her indoor voice like she normally would, she sighed. She motioned her exhausted sister to move as she walked toward the shelves. Celestia examined the books still left to be searched through.

"You won't find your answers here," she simply said.

"What?! But the Canterlot Royal-"

"Use your inside voice, Luna," Celestia interrupted, to which Luna sighed.

"The Canterlot Royal Library is the largest of its kind in all of Equestria. Not even Stalliongrad has a library this massive!"

"That may be, but what a library might not lack in size might lack in one's topic of interest," she explained.

Luna just stared. It was clear she was desperate. Celestia turned toward her.

"There is only one library that has been left forgotten, Luna."

Luna felt a chill down her spine.

"You mean..?"

Celestia's look had become determined.

"We're going to Everfree. It's time we give our old castle a visit."

---

Pipsqueak led Dinky back to her room after a long day of fun. Both were still wet from their ocean playtime, and by this point they were exhausted of any energy they had at the beginning of the day. Dinky was surprised at how much could be done at a beach, especially on the rather small crescent-shaped island around the fortress. She remembered how she was scared when Pipsqueak jumped off the castle roof into the water, only to find out that that particular area of water was deeper than it looked. She even tried herself, and she almost lost her breath swimming back toward the surface. She couldn't even feel the bottom of the pit, and no doubt she was frightened, much to her embarrassment when she surfaced to Pipsqueak pouncing on her.

There was also fruit from the palm trees along the shoreline. Rumble would climb (with some help from his wings) to the fruit and knock them down before hovering to the ground. Oh, the taste of coconut milk! Dinky had never drunk it before, but already she seemed to fall in love with it. Not even grape juice could keep her away! All the tropical fruit she tasted were delectable, and she didn't know how she was able to live her life before this without a juicy pineapple or ripe banana.

Her swimsuit wasn't the restrictive one-piece like she had in Port Canter, but rather a two-piece bikini similar to what she would see other schoolgirls wearing. Its cute look, a periwinkle color trimmed by lavender, appealed greatly to her after all. However, while the change would be simple to anyone else, this took some adapting for Dinky. She wasn't used to her belly being exposed as she swam, and at first she was sheepish about that. Her developing breasts and bottom were still covered, but she still felt naked nonetheless. Was it ethically appropriate for a girl to expose her stomach when swimming? Her bottom piece was easy to put on, but her top was a different matter. She couldn't reach that far on her back to tie it properly, so she had to ask Pip to do it for her. He was willing to do it, but when he was done, she turned back toward him uncomfortably looking away before glancing down at a suspicious bulge coming from his trunks. Even now, it was clear that he was still self-concious about the incident.

"That was enjoyable," Dinky exclaimed with as much muster as her body would allow. She took a bite out of her kiwi in hand.

"Too bad we have to leave tomorrow," Pip agreed. Dinky stopped midway of a second bite.

"What?" she asked. "Don't you guys stay here a few days usually?"

"When nothing's going on, yeah," he explained. "I don't want to leave, either. But...something's wrong. I don't know what, but it's just a feeling, and I'm..."

I'm scared. I want to wake up from this terrible nightmare. I want to live a happy life with my pirate friends, and I want to live without that damn bloody mouse!

Did he just swear? Twice? Did he really say two bad words right next to eachother? Lucky for him, he trailed off his words into his head, and didn't look bad in front of his crush.

Well, I can say I'm a pirate now if I couldn't before.

"It's okay," Dinky reassured. "That mouse guy left you in shivers. In fact, you still look like you are."

Pip didn't realize until now that he was trembling, and the creepy monster in his mirror from that morning seemed to only be one reason as to why.

"I'm..."

Pipsqueak paused as to avoid using any words relating to fear. He was a captain (a pirate captain, at that), and captains were fearless and brave, not timid in nature. Too bad that's what Pipsqueak admittedly was most of the time. Dinky waited patiently for him to finish, but he felt that no matter what replacement word he used, Dinky would know how he truly felt.

"I'm nervous, that's all," he finally excused. "It's just...this hasn't happened to me before. I've been on adventures, but this one feels dangerous, even for my tastes. I don't want something bad to happen."

Dinky just listened. She did that a lot whenever he talked. Even when he was scared enough to wet, just listening to him talk felt nice, as well as the feeling that she could make him feel better.

"Well, let's not worry about it right now," she said, purposely changing the subject. "What's for dinner?"

"I'm not sure," he replied. "Luna usually tells us, but she's not here."

"She seemed weird," Dinky recalled. "Isn't she usually loud and bold?"

"When she's in her serious mood, yeah," he responded. "but when she's not, she's a funloving princess who makes sure us pirates have the most enjoyable time possible. That's why SALCS is surrounded my freshwater, and why I can jump off the fortress parapets like a diving board and land smoothly."

"But that wasn't the Luna you just talked about," she pointed out.

"I know. That's what scares me."

There was a moment of silence for the realization to kick in. Pip didn't even care at that point that he used a word attributing to fear, because he was right. Either Luna was serious and bold or fun and adventurous. He had never seen a Luna that was grim or quiet, especially of the latter. He prayed in her name that she was able to come back by dinner.

She didn't.

The elliptical, oak dining table was awkwardly silent, with the four adolescents facing each other. The plates in front of them were empty, and there was nothing to eat. Instead, Pipsqueak improvised with fruit snacks and juice boxes from their Port Canter raid. The throne that Luna would be sitting in originally was empty.

"Captain, where's Princess Luna?" Featherweight asked. "I'm hungry."

"Quiet, Featherweight. We have fruit snacks," Rumble asserted, though his expression toward Pip asked the same question. Knowing that an explanation would have to be addressed sooner or later, the captain cleared his voice.

"Luna...left back to Canterlot for...uh, princessy matters, and we..."

Despite his frequent stuttering from his lack of public speaking, their attention was kept on him.

"Well, we might be in for a doozy. As you know, this week is Nightmare Night..."

How the bloody hell does Luna do this?!

"We're going to Ponyville," he said. Rumble did a spit take, as Featherweight tilted his head in confusion. Dinky was the only one that didn't make a reaction.

"But Pipsque-" Rumble bit his tongue to not seem disrespectful to his leader in his questioning. "Captain Pipsqueak, you and I both agreed we would never go back there. We ended up much better here at sea than in that country town."

Pipsqueak banged his fist onto the table, making Rumble flinch.

"That may be, Rumble, but our closest friends live there, what few we had!" he exploded. "My mum lives there! Your brother Thunderlane lives there! Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo live there! The group that saved Equestria half a dozen times live there! Ms. Cheerilee, Pinkie Pie, all of them live in what you just called a 'country town.' And so what if Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon are still there? You know what the difference between us now and then? Our bloody cutie marks and experiences that would give them nightmares!"

The room was tense. Realizing his emotions overtook his rationality, Pipsqueak observed his crew. Dinky had a look of shock on her face, not anticipating the outburst. Featherweight, though it was not directed at him, hid under the table in fear, sobbing. His best friend, Rumble, who would stick with him thick and thin, had tears running down his face. It was clear that Rumble was trying to ignore them, but his voice still hinted at his melancholy. Pip's nightmares were turning him into a monster.

"I miss Thunderlane..." the second-in-command muttered, his voice shaken. "You're right, Pipsqueak. I'm sorry."

"It's settled, then," Pipsqueak decided, attempting against joining along with the currently emotional crew. "We're leaving for Ponyville tomorrow, and be on the ship by first light. If the schedule goes according to plan, we should arrive a couple days early."

Without anything more to say, Pipsqueak left his chair and exited the room, almost expressionless. Against her better judgement, Dinky followed.

"What did you do that for?" she questioned, firm yet respectfully.

"I'm sorry, Dinky," Pipsqueak sighed. "Things aren't going to be rainbows and sunshine for awhile."

"What do you mean?" she asked. "Is it about the mouse?"

Pipsqueak didn't answer, and instead ignored her as he ran upstairs.

Comments

[Bloodmoon]

Ya new awesome chaperone loved now keep them coming ☺