Shrinking Lavender

by Yinglung

Chapter 5

And – I immediately regretted this.

Really, I did. As I didn’t really know what activities a slumber party should have, I consulted some library books that I would not have touched with a ten-yard stick, if I had still been Spike the Dragon.

The first activities, according to Slumber Party 101, were hoof painting and giving each other facials.

I could barely hear the loud complaints from Applejack. She seemed to be decrying the unfairness of discriminating against mud on hooves, but not mud on faces. Rarity was, as expected, giving her a look of derision.

But that was all filly’s play compared to my inner turmoil. Each filing on my hooves and each slice of cucumber on my face was like a brutal whipping of my remaining sense of masculinity. I mindlessly regurgitated the small talk, but I felt like I was dying inside. I tried to maintain a barely convincing smile, while lamenting what in Tartarus did I get myself into.

By the end of the session, I was feeling light and spinning in my head. This level of torture was certainly illegal by Equestrian law, I just had to find the relevant section in the criminal code.

Now, where were we? Ah, ghost story! This one should be much better.

************

Oh dear! Was I really that convincing a storyteller?!

Applejack tutted her tongue, as she went to the kitchen to retrieve something to wake Rarity up.

She was a tougher mare than Rarity, but there were still some tears of fear after I told them about an embellished version of the horrifying legend of hidebehind.

I mentally grumbled. They should be tougher materials for goodness’s sake! We six had faced off Nightmare Moon, the prototypical villain of the dark. All this folklore about darkness lurking in the woods were likely offshoots from ponies’ fear of the Nightmare herself.

Sighing helplessly, I bemoaned the unfortunate fact that I had scared my friend into unconsciousness. Let’s hope that there wasn’t any long-term-

A splash of water wetted my hooves, as I observed with real horror about what Applejack had done. She simply poured the bucket of cold water down Rarity’s face!

The white mare loudly gasped and shot up from the ground, her curly coiffure was all but undone.

After Rarity shakily stood up, she shook her head rigorously to shake herself out of stupor. Noticing the dripping water on her face and the smirk on Applejack’s face, she immediately accused. “W- What have you done to me and my carefully done coiffure, you uncultured ruffian?!”

Applejack’s smirk turned into an angry scowl. “Is that how you ‘mannered’ pony call somepony who help you up after you fainted at a fake story?”

“I don’t care! The only thing I know is that you did that on purpose and it was to get back at me!”

“So what if Ah’m? You’re just a phony who obsessed over manners, but wouldn’t spare some for the one who help wake you up!”

“You!” Rarity was seething at the seams, tears of anger and humiliation dropped off from the corner of her eyes.

Dang! I had to find some way to defuse this situation before it evolved into a full-on hoof fight! I knew they were fighting all night, but not physically!

What could I do? What could I do?

Ah, they said they wanted me to have fun at the beginning, so if I threw myself out there, maybe they would give face to me!

To grab their attention, I had to do something even more dramatic than what’s already going on between them…

Hmm, I had an idea! It’s not the most honest thing to do, but desperate situation would call for desperate measures.

My tears shall be my weapon.

And… time to recall some of my saddest memories.

Nearly failing the entrance exam- wait, that was Twilight’s memories. I didn’t think I would be as sad about it as her.

Ah, here it was. The time when I was punished by Twi because I stole a whole vase of ruby and drew graffiti on the wall with burnt marks of my flame. She threw me out of the tower and yelled that she would never let me back in… I was devastated, and I thought she was being serious! Now that I knew that she just wanted to scare me a bit, but it was totally not cool and very traumatizing!

By concentrating on my sad memories, tactical tears began to rush across my cheeks.

“R- Rarity, Applejack, please don’t fight!”

I made the most pitiful face possible, using the puppy-dog look that I had learnt over the years which had a proven track record of eliciting the maximum amount of guilt and compassion.

I sniffled and continued. “I’m so sorry, my selfish desire to keep you two in my company have caused this. I really am an inadequate friend!”

The tension between the two mares was immediately dissipated. They both gave me a sad, wrenched look and came up to cuddle me.

“Don’t say that, Twilight! You invite us in because of the storm, and you’ve been the most gracious host I ever have!”

“Yeah, yer a great friend by allowin’ us to stay over. Please don’t cry.”

I then immediately seized on their attention. I put up a hopeful face and said. “R- Really? If so, then can you promise me not to fight over some minor misunderstanding anymore?”

Rarity gave Applejack a side glance, and said through gritted teeth. “It’s not a mi-“

I leaned in again with the sad puppy-dog eyes. Rarity took in a breath and gulped.

She eventually reluctantly said. “I guess I can overlook this transgression for once.”

I then turned my gaze towards Applejack. The orange mare seemed even more helpless against my relentless attack of puppy-dog gazes. Maybe that’s because she kept a dog herself.

The orange mare heavily sighed, and said. “A’ight. Ah’m sorry fer dumpin’ the bucket of water on ya, Rarity. Ah could’ve used gentler ways that’d not ruin yer mane.”

Rarity seemed surprised at Applejack’s apology. She then also lowered her head. “I must also apologize, Applejack. I shouldn’t be that critical of your over-the-top way to wake me up. And, uh, your personal hygiene, however hard to tolerate in my eyes.”

I immediately intervened before their small talk became toxic again. I rubbed my eyes and brightly grinned.

“Excellent! We all should get along, you know, if only just for this little gathering?”

“H- Ha ha… Yeah…” Rarity and Applejack half-heartedly chuckled.

************

Fortunately, the rest of the night passed without much overt antagonism. Passive aggression still flowed through between the two, but as long as they did not break into hoof fight, I was cool. I intentionally skipped pillow fight exactly because of that.

I sighed at my inability to help them mend the fence. Perhaps they’re too different to become friends? Ugh, if this was one of the friendship lessons the Princess told Twi to learn, then I was failing hard at that.

Still, I tried my best to supply half-baked jokes and curious anecdotes of our lives in Canterlot. I paid extra notice at the reactions from Rarity. It made me feel irrationally sad that my… Spike’s antics did not seem to elicit much interest from her, as opposed to the general glamor of life in the capital. Strangely enough, it was Applejack who bellowed belly-laugh after another.

“… Twilight, you’re a different mare than I first thought you were.”

As I was deep in my thoughts, Rarity suddenly dropped this bombshell of a statement, causing me to widen my eyes and straighten myself.

Heck, was I being out of character again? Was I going to be exposed?

“W- What do you mean?” I raised the corner of my mouth in an attempt to look inconspicuous.

“Heh, Ah think so too. Yer kinda high-strung and neurotic when we first met. Ah figure that you mustn’t have lotsa pony contact. But you seem to be well-adjusted as we talk longer now.”

“Indeed. Maybe you’re just a bit shy at first?”

The two mares for the first time in the night laughed together, and I joined in politely.

Duh, I was of course more well-adjusted than Twi. I mean, at least I talk with Royal Guards and Donut Joe when she was slaving away in her laboratory. But phew! At least they weren’t getting suspicious of my demeanor.

“Alright, girls. We should wrap up our chat and go to bed, lest we will oversleep tomorrow. I should have a guest bed up there in the upper floor, you two can go first. I will go check around the treehouse to make sure everything’s held tight.”

“Twi, we can help-“

“Nah, I’m the host and you’re the guests. It’s my duty to look after your comfort. Just go first, I will join you two later!”

The two mares again gave a reluctant gaze to each other, but they heeded my advice and went up the stairs. I whistled as I galloped towards the one of the larger windows of the treehouse. I have already added some adhesive to the edge of the window, but I still wanted to make sure no water would seep through and wet the books.

Suddenly, a bright lightning struck somewhere right outside the treehouse. I gasped aloud as I instinctively stepped backwards. I heard some rumbling amid the rain and the wind, but before I could make sense of it, something rushed towards the window at a speed so high, I barely had the time to react.

The next thing I felt was an incredible, piercing pain on my head, and all that was left was darkness.

Comments

[honeyhoneyhoney]

This is just so nice.

You deserve hundreds of compliments :o

[Blaze Song]

Oh dear.. head trauma, not good.