A Twinkle and a Sparkle

by xzillerationer

Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

“So, how did the first date go?” Moondancer asked. I should’ve mentioned; I’m at her house again. I went here the morning after my date with Twilight, to give her my ‘relationship report’. She was moderately impressed.

“Did you do anything after?” she asked, pouring herself her third cup of tea. I never did like that stuff.

“What do you mean, after? I wished her good night, and we left. What else was there to do?”

“Well there is...” she began, then decided not say what she was going to. “Nevermind. A silly filly like you wouldn’t understand.”

“I am old enough to talk about big pony stuff.” I said with a frown.

“I was just joking around,” she said. “I never said you were too young.”

“So, you’re going to tell me?” I said, getting slightly hopeful.

She took a brief sip from her teacup, and placed it on a small plate on the table in front of her. “I never said that.” she said with a slight smirk.

Well, I guess I’ll have to force it out of her. “You know, I came close to getting laid JUST last week.”

“Woah! Came close. Last week!” She looked me dead in the eye. “Know what, darling? I got laid ten minutes ago.”

I swallowed. I’ve been here for 15 minutes. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a stallion walk out of the bathroom, see me, and sneak slowly back through the door. I didn’t question it.

“Listen, kiddo, I’m not going to tell you. You just don’t do that on the first date with a mare you really like. Especially with a mare like Twilight Sparkle.”

“Why not? I thought that...after stuff was fun.” In reality, I seriously had no idea what that meant. The after stuff. Even after I learnt of its nature, it still was the stuff of myths and legends in my small group of friends. That was, until Moondancer decided to crash one of our little D&D sessions. The rest is ancient history.

“Because it’s not what uptight ponies like you and Twilight do.” I blushed furiously.

“I’m not uptight!”

“Honey, I hate to break it to you, but you’ve got a lot of stallions that want a piece of that flank. And yours is apparently reserved for somepony who’s probably never going to use it.” I glanced towards my flank, not ever even considering a stallion. Well, except for one time, but that’ll never happen. Except if it does. Which is impossible.

“I’m not uptight!”

“Alright, listen, what you have to do now is snap her against a stone.”

“What!?” I seriously had no clue what she meant by that.

“You already hooked her in, now you make her stop squirming.”

“You’re not very good at metaphors.”

“What I meant was that you hooked her in, but you still need to make sure she stays! Or, at least, doesn’t dump you past the first date!”

I blushed, looked away, and bit my lip a little. “Well, she did kiss my cheek and say that she can’t wait for the second date...”

She spit her tea out. “By the Two! Why didn’t you tell me that! That changes everything!”

“What do you mean?”

“It means that she wants to continue this! She likes you enough to want you again!”

I smiled a little. “But if she likes me, why didn’t she ask me out before?”

“It’s more than likely that she didn’t know you really, so never really considered you. Then when you asked her out, she decided ‘what the hay’, and rolled with it.”

“Oh. Well, it’s still good, right?”

“Yes, very good.”

“So, you think I’ll be able to take her out on that second date?”

“Well, you still have to have the initiative to actually plan the date before getting your hopes up. Do you have any ideas?”

“Dinner went quite well last time. How about that again?”

“No, no, you need to have something a little different than that. Also, have you ever considered that maybe she’ll ask you to go on the date?”

“I really never thought of that.” I had, actually, assumed that since I was the one that asked her out in the first place, that therefore I would have to plan all the dates.

“Exactly. What we’re doing now is what we call, in my business, the waiting game.”

I bounced a red rubber ball against the wall of the room for the upteenth time. So bored. How could Moondancer ever even suggest something like this? Maybe I should be doing something constructive during this time, like trying to to study magic, or whatever else I do in my free time. What do I do in my free time? I spent several minutes mulling over this thought. There! Although I accomplished absolutely nothing, I succeeded in wasting time, leading up to, when was I expected to get a call from Twilight? Moondancer never really mentioned much in that regard. What if it took, FOR EVER?

I disregarded that thought as I walked over to my phone. I just realized I never gave Twilight my number. Well, phones really weren’t all that common yet in rural places like Ponyville. Hay, they still weren’t all that common in Canterlot. Celestia never really warmed up, no pun intended, to the idea of everypony having access to the same type of magic that every unicorn has, even if it was very limited in its scope. I guess she’s a bit old fashioned, which makes sense, due to her being thousands of years old and stuff. Either way, they’re here to stay, so she might as well get used to them.

I thought about who else I could call. Moondancer? No she said something about being busy. With a party. A super private, nopony at all invited party. I’m not quite sure what that meant. Maybe she was having a Me Party? Maybe she invited one pony and didn’t want anypony knowing? Surely she’d tell me, her best friend! I am her best friend, right? Right.

So, who else was there to call? There was Lyra. No, she’s in Fillydelphia on honeymoon with Bonbon. But there’s Carrot Top! No, forget it, she wouldn’t forgive me ever since that accident with the pumpkin catapult. How was I supposed to know that was her prized pumpkin patch? What about Derpy? She’s alwa-no. Luna? Does she even have a phone? What the hay, why not.

I picked up my phone, and dialed. ‘4’. I wondered what it would be like once we had to dial multiple numbers. I had no idea who I was calling, but a pony picked up. “Hello, Royal Palace, Princess Luna speaking.”

Well, I actually got it right. “Hi, your majesty, it’s me, Twinkleshine? We met at Twilight’s?”

I had to turn my speaker down at this bit. “YES! TWINKLESHINE!”

“Yes, your Majesty. You requested I keep in contact.”

“No need for the formality, Miss Shine, is it not perfectly acceptable for friends such as you and I to speak in a less formal tense than the common nobility? We are friends, right?”

Well, a Princess would make a nice friend. “Yes, Luna, I guess we are. It’s just that I find it slightly difficult to be informal with you with your, well, position of royalty.”

Luna chuckled softly “It is quite alright, I barely do anything anyways. I’ve managed to delegate the majority of my work towards the nobility. They weren’t exactly doing much other than going to formal ballroom dances and getting paid to make stupid flank decisions.”

“So, you don’t have anything to do right now?”

“Not now, not most days. Occasionally some things will come up that require my immediate presence.”

I smiled, maybe tonight wasn’t going to be as boring as I thought? “Perhaps we could hang out tonight, then?”

“Sure! Want to come over and hang out at the castle? Also, I don’t really understand this phrase hang out. Isn’t the phrase hang a bit morbid for a recreational setting?”

I stopped myself from facehoofing, despite the fact that Luna would be unable to see me through the phone. “That sounds like a plan, I’ll be over in a few!”

“I think you forgot to say minutes after few.” Luna said, a bit confused. “Oh, ah! It’s more commoner slang! I’ll see you in a few!” The phone clicked, and there was the default line-not-busy tone.

I thought of what I would would bring to go hang with with the princess of the night. Slumber party materials, perhaps? No, stupid idea. Either way, they probably have all of that in the castle, anyway. It is kind of a castle.

In the end, I decided only to bring a half full spellbook that I’d been working on, just in case I learned any cool tricks from one of Canterlot’s premier magic extraordinaires. Luna was right, this slang kind of is fun!

With all of that ready and done with, I began the brief trot over to Luna’s (and Celestia’s) castle. My mind wandered as it usually does as I walked. What would I talk about? What would I talk about with one of Equestria’s co-rulers? I gave the thought a rest. No use fretting over what I don’t know about. Wow, that was rather thoughtful of me, not badgering myself with useless worrying and nonsensical thoughts and endless ramblings and dear Luna I’m doing it again aren’t I. By disjointed thought chain was rudely interrupted by my walking straight into one of the white pegasi that always guard every entrance of the castle.

“Stop, citizen. What business do you have at the castle?” he said in a commanding voice, not quite unlike Luna’s infamous Canterlot Royal Voice, while blocking the door to the castle.

“I’m here to meet Luna.” I said cheerfully. “Could you tell her I’m here?” The guard looked extremely insulted.

“How dare you refer to the royal princess of the night sky and lunar celestial body in such an informal tone?!” He barked in my face. “If you have an appointment ratified by the princess commission to meet with her for a maximum of a twenty minute interval, you may use the main castle entrance, and wait your turn like everypony else.”

“Um, well, Luna just kind of said that I could come over for visit, so I just kind of came over.” I said, giving my best Fluttershy impression.

“Do you have evidence that this conversation ever transpired?” he asked, leaning forward slightly.

“Well, no.” I said, backing up against the wall behind me. “She kind of just invited me over on the phone.”

“If you do not have any method to prove that this is in fact true, I believe that you should be on your way.”

I was on the verge of turning tail and running at that point when the door slammed open, hitting the guard in front of me rather hard in the flank. I backed away, for some reason fearing impending retribution in case he thought I did it. To my surprise, out of the door came the only mare who could actually help me at this point- princess Luna. She was wearing some sort of headset over her left ear and a warm smile on her face, levitating a bag of what appeared to be barbeque potato chips along with her.

“Hey Hammer you’ve been out here a while.” Luna said, addressing the guard in front of of me. “Do you want something to eat?” She hovered over the bag to him as emphasis.

“Excuse me Princess Luna,” he said, rubbing his bruised flank with one of his wings, “but this mare here claims to have a informal meeting set up with you. Are you aware of these transactions?” Luna looked around Hammer, noticing me backed against the wall.

“Oh hello there. I didn’t expect you for around another hour.” Luna said.

“So you do know this mare?” Hammer said, slightly confused.

“This Mare has a name.” I said. “And her name is Twinkleshine.”

“I apologize, miss Shine.” the guard said, bowing slightly.

“Why does everypony think my last name is Shine?” I said to nopony in particular. “My name is one word. Twinkleshine. Even my marefriend gets it wrong!” Luna winced a little, then shrugged, and the Hammer looked a bit frantic.

“I’m apologize, miss Shine. I mean miss twinkle. I mean....” Hammer trailed off, and stared at his hooves as if they were suddenly the most interesting things in Equestria.

Luna glanced at him with a slight mischievous smile on her face. “I think that maybe you should take a five minute break.” she said to Hammer.

“Yes, Princess. Right away.” Hammer walked through the door, and disappeared around the corner.

We started the slow trot into Luna’s...room. She spoke up to me “Sorry about the guards, they’re always so high strung. We have, what, three murders a decade? Not to mention everypony loves us so we’ve never had any attempts on our lives.”

I found myself smiling for the first time since arriving. “It’s okay, Luna. Living in Canterlot all my life had really made me rather adept at...err...dealing with pesky guards like Hammer.”

Luna let out a rather unprincess like giggle. “I can tell you are rather skilled at illusion.”

“And how’d you guess that?”

“Because you sure fooled me.” She openly laughed, and, well, I did too.

When the laughter died down, we found ourselves outside her room. I decided to ask about her headset. “Luna, what’s that thing on your head for?”

“Oh, this?” she pointed to her headset. I nodded. “It’s a headset, for talking to ponies online, over Xmare Live.”

“Xmare Live?” I sort of was afraid to find out what exactly that was, but asked anyway.

“It’s an online gaming service. I...play a little.”

“Define a little.”

“Remember those ‘royal duties’?”

I nodded. “Well, my clan had a tournament, the top prize was 15,000 bits! A mighty fine chunk of change, if you ask me.”

“So I take it you won?” If she was a princess, why did she need money?

“Yes! I was so excited, I could hardly think of what to spend the money on!” She squeed, as she opened the door to her bedroom. “Then I realized I’m a princess and don’t need money. So I gave it to my clan leader for hosting costs of our clan page. They’re very expensive.”

I looked puzzled. “You mean you’re not the clan leader?”

“No, of course not. The clan is mainly based in Ponyville, I found it one day and joined.”

“Who’s your clan leader?”

“I don’t know exactly, but her username is gallowsActivator36. She seems very...aggressive, yet somehow soft spoken and bashful at the same time.”

I looked confused, that name sounded familiar. “Well, nice room you have here.” I took a good look at the room. For the most part, it was almost exactly what I would have imagined a princess’s room would have looked like. The princess sized bed (much better than king sized) was draped in the most extravagantly dark sheets, pristine with not a single wrinkle. There was a windowed door on the far side of the room leading to a decently sized balcony, with a perfect view of the moon hanging in balance above our heads. A second, slightly more average door lead into a large walk in dresser, and a third to a private bathroom, with what appeared to be bathtub of a size rivaling that of smaller swimming pools. The entire room was shined, polished, and entirely spotless, except for one corner. There, everything fell apart.

In the corner was a television screen, which had only been recently been introduced to Canterlot, of what looked to be around sixty inches. In front of it sat several faded bean bag chairs, worn with age into a permanent shape of what I could guess to be Luna’s flank. Around this chair was strewn chip bags, soda bottles, fried daisy sandwich wrappers, et cetera. On one of the bean bag chairs sat a slightly boomerang shaped device, that appeared to be a controller of some sort. At a closer look, I could read the inscription Xmare set into the controller. Oddly enough, I noticed the same inscription on a black box next to the enormous television.

“I’m guessing that’s your corner?” I said to Luna.

“Yes. Nopony touches The Corner, per my orders. Unless I say they can.” She finished with a wink.

I looked at her, not sure whether she was making a joke or trying to seduce me. Perhaps both? “Am I allowed in The Corner?” I made sure to capitalize The Corner in my head, apparently it was a proper noun.

“Yes, of course you are.” she said. “Also, I noticed that you found the Xmare. I’ve spent more time than princess like on that piece of Elysium.” Luna sighed, although I couldn’t tell if it was happy sigh or a sad sigh.

“So...what exactly is a Xmare? I know it’s used for some sort of games, but I’ve not heard much beyond what the advertisements at Walpony said.”

Luna’s face lit up. “You use the controller to control the games, like, you press this button and your character moves forward. Actually, it would be easier if we showed you.”

“Wait, what do you mean by we?”

“I’m sorry,” Luna said, surprisingly looking slightly ashamed of herself. “I slipped back into my old manner of speaking. I’ll try to limit that, but I do appreciate you telling me.”

With a brief flash of her magic, the whole system lit up. The television flashed to life, a brightness and intensity that obliterates the idea that any other television I’ve seen was “good”. The console sprung to life a moment later, with an odd vwoom noise. The controller seemed to spring to life as well, a small light in the center lighting up, indicating that it is player one. Luna’s horn glowed as she magically picked up the controller, and selected her profile. ‘LunarBiologist0’. Why would her username not be Princess Luna? I’m fairly certain that as a Princess she should be able to get whatever username she wants. I quickly abandoned the thought as she loaded up the game ‘Call of the Cutie: Kingdoms, Limited Collector’s Alpha Edition (With accompanying fully functional, match grade AR-2 assault rifle)’ What a long title. It loaded up with a fully rock and roll soundtrack, which felt...rather out of place for a picture of several rather cute mares running around shooting each other.

It was also very violent. “So...this is CoCK?”

Luna blushed at the acronym, “It’s perhaps not the best title, nor best game, but I enjoy it. Also, it is better not to pronounce the acronym as a single word.”

Looking around, I couldn’t find the ‘rifle’ that the title spoke of. “Where is the AR-2?”

Luna’s eyebrow raised at the statement, as if my question was weird. “Oh, it’s, somewhere. I don’t really care for violence.” She used her magic to tilt a small knob on the top of the controller to the left, moving her on-screen cursor over a button that said “PVP”. Doing something else with the controller that was too quick for me to make out, she popped up into some sort of lobby, with a list of several names. ‘iwanaurmom’ and ‘carnageandpie’ were two standouts. The game quickly loaded up, and went into a three dimensional model of what appeared to be...the Royal Throne Room after a megaspell blast.

“Oh, this is my favorite map!” Luna said, rather excited. “I had helped the level designer with it, so I know all the secrets!” Her ears drooped down a little. “Although I couldn’t show him all the secrets in the Throne Room due to it being...secret, I had helped create new secrets! Did you know there is now a passage to the bakery under Sister’s throne? Dear Sister got mighty angry and made me patch it up though.”

“The game lets you eat?”

“Oh, no no no, I meant in real life. I had it installed a little while ago in case I got hungry. Apparently, it was a huge security breach.”

“Really? Couldn’t you just have somepony bring it to you?”

“I could, but that was more fun. Oddly enough, it was also when Sister and I stopped getting along so great, and also, oddly enough, when I started gaming.” Her mood visibly drooped.

I had to do something, I couldn’t let her be...sad on me. What kind of guest makes a bucking PRINCESS get all droppy!? “Is there a way for me to play with you?” I asked, sitting down next to her on the beanbag chair.

“I apologize, but we only have one controller to use.” She appeared to lean towards sadness again. Suddenly, she seemed to brighten up. “However, I could have one of the guards trot over to a nearby GameMare to grab a second controller for you to use. What is your controller type preference?”

At my blank stare, she clarified, “Because there are three different races of ponies in Equestria, there is also three different controller types. There is the type easily operated by magic, such as the one I use.” with this, she shook the controller for emphasis. “There is also the type that is specially fitted for use of pegasi wings. Their grace also allows them to use them as basic hands. The clan leader prefers this type, but I believe this type may not be preferable for you.”

I glanced back, realizing once again that I’m a unicorn, not a pegasus. Some mares get all the luck. What was a hand, anyway? Was it something like a claw? Luna interrupted my rambling thoughts by continuing her lecture. “The third and final type is usable by all types of ponies, but is most often used by earth ponies. It is operated with the mouth, which is, from what I’ve heard, not delicate on the palate.”

“I think I’ll use a magic controlled one, thank you.” I said.

Princess Luna turned towards the chamber door. “GUARD!” she shouted in what I now know as the Royal Equestrian Voice. Almost immediately several guards rushed through the door, and hesitated when they saw no bodily harm was coming to Luna.

“Excuse me, but what seems to be the problem?” One of the guards asked. I recognized him from the castle entrance. Hammer, I believe his name was. “Is this mare bothering you?”

“Quite the opposite. Could one of you please head over to the local GameMare to pick up a deluxe magic operated Xmare controller for my distinguished guest?” At the sound of the request, all of the guards, save Hammer, took a large step back.

“Ah, I see you have volunteered, Hammer. I thought you were on your break, so this is quite kind of you.” Hammer took a hurried look around himself, realizing that he was several hoof lengths in front of his comrades. He sighed, saying “Yes, your highness. I shall be right back.” With that, he meandered out of the door, still with a slight limp from before. The other guards filed out behind him.

A/N: The Soon to Be Made Bonus Chapter ‘Hammer the Controls’ takes place here.

I looked back towards Luna, who had a smile on her face the size of the moon as she turned back towards the game station. “How long do you think it’ll be?”

“Oh, just a few minutes. The store, by my orders, isn’t very far away. I need to always have the latest games for My Royal Eyes to enjoy.”

I rolled my non royal, eyes then giggled a little. “Yes, your very royal eyes.”

Luna told me about the game for a little while. “Here, why don’t you play a match or two?” She hovered the controller over to me, which I took it awkwardly with my own magic. At first Luna informed me that I was holding it upside down. I fixed that mistake, accidentally joining a new multiplayer game. That was my second mistake. The character on screen was immediately hit dead on with a rocket, causing the cheesiest death animation I’ve ever seen. Seriously, she just flopped over dead. No Shakesponian enactment of death, no overly gory explosion. Nothing. Just. Fell. Over. How a game like this made any money was beyond me.

So I tried again. I loaded up the game, and chose the only weapon I’d actually heard of, the AR-2. I started playing, and walked forward. This felt good. The controls were surprising easy and quick to figure out. I turned the corner and found myself face to face with a zebra. He had a rather large tube sort of object in his hands. Later Luna told me that this was a rocket launcher. Weird. I ‘respawned’ and found myself outside the throne room. I meandered in, saw zebras, and shot. I must’ve hit them, because they fell over dead, with slightly better death animations then mine. This was fun.

“Way to go! You made your first kill! And a spawn camper, no less!” Luna said, almost shouting. I could hear the guards shifting nervously outside the door.

“Really?” Okay, this was a lot of fun. I continued down the hallway, and found myself standing next to the thrones. I looked around, and activated the throne. It slid out, and underneath was indeed the bakery. I hopped down, saw several zebras, and shot. I took them out swiftly. Apparently they didn’t see me coming, as afterwards I heard such pleasantries such as “buck you! Noob!” and “I bucked your mother, how does that make you feel you noob!” resonating from the rather impressive speaker system.

“What’s a noob, and what does it have to do with my mother?” I asked Luna, innocently.

“Err, it’s someone who’s not very good or new at a game.” she said. “Also, they have nothing to do with your mother. However, that is them giving you permission to shoot them in the face.”

I proceeded to do so for next few zebras I found, firing short, measured bursts to conserve ammunition. “WHO’S THE NOOB NOW?!” Luna shouted over her mic, causing me to inch away from her to keep any shred of my hearing.

“Ow... could you, maybe, not do that?” I asked through the sudden pain.

“Oh, I am sorry. By the way, are you sure you’ve never played this before? You appear to excel, at least against this cannon fodder.”

I started up again, running out of the bakery. I turned around to make sure the room was empty, and I saw five zebras, each armed impressive form of weaponry. I managed to take three of them out before one of them hit me with some sort of undermounted tube thingy on their gun.

“He used a noob tube!” Luna raged over the mic.

I continued playing for what felt like a few minutes, but was most likely actually more along the lines of hours, until I heard a feeble knock on the door. The door opened, revealing a badly bruised, cut up, and Luna-knows-what (actually, I don’t think she did) injuries. He also had in his mouth a perfectly immaculate controller built for a unicorn. Luna called for a medic pony before presenting the controller to me. Hammer gladly collapsed onto the portable cot, and was wheeled off into the depths of the castle.

“Here you go, my little pony.” Luna said, floating the controller over to me as if she was knighting me. “This is your first controller. May you take care of it, and may it guide it across you safely across many a battlefield.” I giggled at the joking formality of it all, and took the controller from her with my magic, our color auras mingling as I did so.

“I shall, your royal highness.” I said with a small mock bow. It was Luna’s turn to giggle, in a rather defined, princessly manner.

“And with no further ado, let the gaming begin!” Luna punctuated this by opening up a split screen game, cutting the enormous screen television into still rather impressive sized screens. This would be the first game of many.

A few games later I look to see a bright light on the horizon, okay, maybe it was more than a few. I’d stayed up all night! It was fun, and Luna was still wired. Maybe it was her superpony stamina that allowed her to game so much. Maybe it was the caffeine. I rub my eyes as I tell Luna. “It’s really getting...early...I have a gig soon so I have to go. I want to get some sleep.”

Luna frowned, “Well, you’re always welcome here. Even if we didn’t intend it, this was my first sleepover!” She giggles with excitement.

“Technically it’s an awakeover.”

“Oh! you’re right, heh, well, without any further ado, I bid you goodbye. Maybe we could do this again sometime soon?”

I smile and nod. “Yeah, I’d love to.” And see myself out of the castle.

Comments

[Yobikir]

wait a moment 4 is not Lunas number, it is the Number of K-Colt

[Xx-Sniper_Masters-xX]

LAWL CoCK