A Pony Displaced: Homeward

by NoLongerSober

Chapter 62 - Fun, Games and Family

Fleetfeather was feeling absolutely energized as she and Daring sang on stage. While the few drinks had loosened her up a little, both were only mildly affected when they took to the stage and started to serenade their fellow patrons of Moonlight Melodies.

“So long as someone else gets the Phluuuuuuume!” The pair sang in harmony, drawing cheers from the thestrals in the crowd.

“Very nice, ladies,” a pegasus mare, the bartender and manager, said as she approached the stage. Her white coat contrasted her black mane and purple eyeshadow. “Still, your time’s up unless you’d like to buy another round.”

“Hmm…” Daring looked to a clock above the bar, seeing the clock was just a bit past three. “I think we’re gonna pass.”

“Indeed. Thank you for this, though. It was quite fun,” Fleet interjected as she took off from the stage. “We should be checking on the household. Thank you for the good time, Mrs. Mixture.”

“Take care, now!” The snowy mare gave a wave as the pair took off.

The pair flew swiftly out of the Midnight Mall and took to the skies, wincing as their eyes worked to readjust to the daylight.

After a few minutes of flight, the two gently set down in front of the manor’s steps and walked inside. The scent of tomato sauce reached their noses as they drew closer to the kitchen, where they found Barrier standing before the stove and stirring a pot of bubbling sauce.

“Hey there, Barrier. How’s things going?” Daring asked as she and Fleet stepped up to the table.

“Pretty good, all things considered,” Barrier replied, glancing over his shoulder. “We’ve made arrangements for the cake and the magician while Forge, Hatty, Gem and Swift have already got their presents for Windy all purchased. They’re being wrapped upstairs.”

“Excellent,” Fleet said before giving Barrier a quick hug from behind. “I really appreciate this.”

“Say, where’s Verdant?” Daring inquired as Barrier’s horn flared, pulling out a second pot and filling it with water.

“He had to take care of something at the Pear farm, so I figured I’d make dinner tonight instead of getting take out.” Barrier placed the second pot on the stove. “I’m going to be making some spaghetti with some homemade tomato sauce and shredded Parmesan.”

“That sounds great, Barrier,” Daring said as she and Fleet took seats at the table. “Do you have an ETA for this stuff?”

“Not sure. I don’t have too much experience with preparing pasta and I’m using one of Verdant’s recipe books for the sauce. I have the feeling I’ll know when the noodles are cooked enough.”

Just as Barrier finished speaking, the front door quickly opened and shut before Wind Whistler made her way towards the kitchen. “Hi Mom, Uncle Barrier, Aunt Daring. How goes?”

“Pretty good, kiddo.” Daring gave the filly a smile before rustling her short mane. “Your Mom and I just went out to check out this one part of town.”

“How did your time with your little friend go, Wind Whistler?” Fleet asked as her daughter took a seat by her side.

“Great, Mom!” Her tail shook wildly as she sat up. “High Stakes and I were able to get most of her business all set up. Now all we need is a few extension cords and we’ll be open for business.”

“Great to hear, my dear.” The cycloptic mare nodded, mentally making a note to ask what an extension cord was later. “Did you have fun doing it?”

“Eh, it was a bit tough, even with her dad helping out, but it’s looking really good. I even helped paint some of the signs we’ll be using,” Windy said before taking a sniff of the succulent sauce and happily sighing.

“It’ll still be a while before dinner’s ready, kiddo,” Barrier said without looking back at her.

“You know, if you want, we can play a board game while Barrier cooks dinner.” Daring slid out of her seat and trotted closer to the mother and daughter. “I’ve got my old Marinara Party game up in my room.”

“That sounds great!” Windy giddily squealed as she hopped out of her seat. “Mom, would you like to play with us?”

“Well… I don’t see why not.” Fleet shrugged and exited the chair. Windy excitedly dashed towards the stairs, only to halt when the door opened up. In front of the doorway was Verdant with a small basket of pears in his mouth.

“Hi, Verdant! Save some pears for us later,” the pegasus filly said before dashing up the stairs. “C’mon, Mom! This is gonna be great!”

“Coming, dear,” Fleet said with a chuckle as she and Daring followed her up the stairway. She just caught the end of Windy’s tail as the filly bolted into the room.

“Hey Forge, can you come play with us?” Windy called out just as Fleet reached the top of the stairs.

“Just a second, Windy,” Forge replied, though to Fleet’s mild surprise, his voice came from Hatty and Gem’s room along with the sound of tape being stretched and paper crinkling.

Fleet stepped into the room and sat down with her daughter. A brief moment later, Daring and Forge strolled into the room with the pegasus carrying a large box in her mouth.

Setting the box down between the four, Daring cleared her throat. “Ahem. Alright, so which of the boards would you like, Kiddo?” the saffron mare asked as she pulled the top off the box.

“I wanna play on the Tropical Paradise board!” Windy excitedly fidgeted. “I’ve always wanted to see a tropical island.”

“You got it,” Daring replied before pulling out a piece of cardboard that showed a colorful island setting with an assortment of different colored spaces dotted all over it. “Hey, Fleet. Since you never played this before, how about you pick the first character?” She pulled from the box a small plastic container with a series of colorful figurines.

“Yes, please.” Fleet carefully examined the six pieces. Most of the characters looked to be ponies, but the brown piece seemed to be some sort of dog creature. After a moment of thought, Fleet picked up a figurine that depicted a cross-looking plump earth pony mare. “I think I’ll go with this one since yellow’s my favorite color.”

The cycloptic mare placed the game piece at the start position on the board. Before she could pull her hoof away, the board started to glow and shake as an incredible force began pulling her towards the board. A flash of light blinded Fleet and she soon felt herself falling, her body seeming to shift about as she appeared to be traveling down a dark tunnel. She tried to fly away, but found her wings were now gone.

“Daring, what’s going on?!” Fleet’s scream echoed as she travelled down the dark void.

“Don’t sweat it, Fleet!” Daring’s voice came from above just as she spotted a light approaching them from below. “You’re perfectly safe! It’s all part of the game!”

“I hope you’re right…” Fleet bit her lip as she was engulfed by the approaching light before her. She suddenly felt herself hit the ground, but to her great shock, she landed on all fours and felt as if she only fell from about a foot up.

“What… What the…” Fleet was astounded to see that she found herself standing on a sandy beach with colorful palm trees scattered about. It was then she noticed her voice seemed oddly deep. “What happened to my voice?”

“Don’t sweat it, Fleet.” A voice came from behind her, making Fleetfeather pull a quick about-face. Standing before her was a light green mare with a two-toned green mane and some sort of melon or cantaloupe for her cutie mark. “I thought you knew this was an enchanted board game and you’d take the place of your character.”

“My character?” Fleet looked down and was somewhat taken aback at the fact the hooves she now possessed weren’t her own. The toned, athletic blue pillars that had struck down many a griffin in the past had been replaced by a pair of flabby yellow legs. What surprised Fleet the most was when she opened her left eye, she was able to see. The eye of her character was fully replacing the one that was lost in the Crystal Empire. “So, I’ve turned into my game character?”

“Bingo,” the green mare replied as she was approached from the side by a fuzzy canine creature and a pink alicorn stallion with an expertly styled mane. “We all turned into the Marinara Party characters when we set our pieces on the board. You became Heavy Cream. I’m Honeydew Sweetie. Windy became Doggie Klaw and Forge became Prince Radish.”

“I really hope we get some of those expansions for this,” Forge grumbled as he twitched his character’s wings. “I’m not fond of being a pink stallion.”

“If you’re hoping to get Prince Star Bright, good luck,” Daring said as she trotted between Fleet and Forge. “I heard some jerk decided to buy all the figures so that no one could play as this character he hated.”

“It’s so cool playing as a dog!” Windy happily said, seeming to tune out Daring’s words. “I get to be super tall, I get to see stuff with weird colors, and I’ve pretty much got super senses! This is awesome!”

“Welcome, everybody!” A young voice called from behind the quartet. Quickly turning around, they spotted a pink unicorn filly with a light green mane that was holding a flag. “I am your guide, Radi LeBlanc. This is where the—”

“Skip!” Daring gave a roll of her eyes, much to the filly’s annoyance while Windy chuckled at Radi’s pout.

Suddenly, a ten-sided die appeared over each of the players heads and started to quickly spin.

“Alright, quick run down,” Daring said as she carefully eyed the rapidly rotating block. “Each of us hits the die to roll it. Right now, the highest number determines the turn order. After that, you go around the board and collect crystals so you can buy a Silver Sun from Radi. Blue spaces get you crystals. Red spaces drain them. The ones with the question marks make stuff happen and the ones with a dragon mark summon the evil Bibinba. Once everyone takes a turn, we play a mini-game to earn more crystals. Got it?”

“I think so,” Fleet said as the other three jumped up and hit their dice. Daring got a two, Windy a six and Forge a four. Fleet leapt up and struck the block. She was rather surprised by the height she got considering her current form. When the die was stuck, a large number seven appeared in its place.

“Alright. So Heavy Cream goes first. Doggie Klaw goes second. Radish goes third and Honeydew goes last.” Radi smiled as she walked up to the players. “Here’s ten crystals for each of you. I’ll head over to my space and try to avoid Bibinba’s wrath. Bye!” The radish-flanked filly then suddenly vanished. Fleet quickly looked around, soon spotting Radi was now on a space on the far side of the island.

“Okay, Fleet. You get the first turn.” Daring patted Fleet on the back just before a die appeared above the yellow mare’s head.

Fleet focused on the spinning die before jumping up and striking the block with a hoof. The die vanished and an eight appeared in its place.

“Here goes nothing,” Fleet muttered to herself as she felt herself being guided down a specific pathway. She smiled until she spotted the space she’d be landing on. It was a black space with the image of a fearsome dragon face on it. When she came to a halt, the sky started to darken and ominous music started to play.

Suddenly, a large beast fell from the dark sky and landed in front of Fleetfeather. The ten-foot tall beast seemed to be a mix of pony and dragon. She had bright yellow scales with a cream colored underbelly. She had a long dragon-like tail and a spiky mane that was fiery red, matching her draconic eyes. Atop her head was a pair of viciously curved horns that looked like they could impale a pony with little effort. The last thing Fleet noticed was the dark green cape that lay draped over the creature’s back.

“Well, well, well,” the draconic pony said as she drew closer, flashing her razor sharp fangs to Fleet. “Looks like someone’s run into some bad luck. Let’s have the roulette choose your fate.”

A large board appeared by the beast’s side with a list of possible fates. Amongst them were things such as two instances of ‘Thirty Crystals for Bibinba’, ‘Bibinba Revolution’, ‘Bibinba’s Inside Story’, ‘Bibinba Mini-Game’. The one that stood out the most was a golden one that read, ‘100 Silver Sun Reward’.

Before Fleet could ask what some of these would entail, a pointer resembling a dragon’s claw appeared at the top of the board and started to move through the list of fates multiple times before it eventually started to slow, coming to a halt on ‘Bibinba Mini-Game’.

“Excellent!” the beastly mare flashed a fang-filled grin at the result. “Now we’ll see how you do at one of my games!”

The world all around Fleet quickly darkened before she and Bibinba found themselves in a place with brick walls and a smooth concrete floor. In front of the pair was a metal replica of Bibinba’s snarling face atop a platform with five different colored plungers in front of the face.

“Welcome to the single player version of Bibinba’s Big Blast!” The draconic titaness spoke with grandiosity as she stepped onto the platform. “In this game, you have to pick one of these five plungers to press down. Pick the right one and you win ten crystals. Pick the wrong one…” She rushed into Fleet’s face, baring her fangs with sadistic glee. “You’ll be blasted away and lose ten crystals! Bwahahaha! … Do you need another explanation before we start?”

“Uh, no. I’ve got it.” Fleet said as she tried to move around Bibinba’s large form.

“Good! Then let the game Begin!” Bibinba hamily yelled before she vanished in a puff of purple smoke. “Start!” Her disembodied voice echoed through the chamber as the sound of a whistle blowing followed.

“Right, no pressure,” Fleet muttered as she trotted up and stood before the plungers. Now, red, blue, yellow, pink or green? … Well, yellow already was a bad pick for me, so that’s out. I’ll go with… blue!

Fleetfeather pressed down on the plunger and looked up at the head’s eyes. She felt like a ton of bricks had been dropped on her as the head’s eyes rolled downward, replacing the pupils with a pair of threes, followed by twos.

“D’oh, I missed!” Fleet exclaimed as she braced herself for the explosion.

***

It seems Daring’s winning streak for board games had come to an end at the hooves of Iron Forge with Fleetfeather in second and Wind Whistler in third, leaving the esteemed archaeologist in dead last and her character being chased by a giant hungry fish.

After the game had wrapped up, the household had a pleasant dinner and chat before they started to prepare for bed. Once Fleet had emerged from Windy’s room after tucking her in, she felt an autumn chill that made her shiver.

“Damnable cold,” Fleet grumbled as she started for her room.

“Yeah. It’s one of the downsides of Vanhoover this time of year.” Fleet halted as Daring flew up the stairs before landing beside her. “We should probably get some of this wrapping stuff to put on the windows.”

“Probably,” Fleet replied as she pushed her door open. Before she could take a step in, she paused and looked to the mare heading for the guest room. “Daring?”

“‘Sup, Fleet?” Daring looked over her shoulder at the mare that was now rubbing her foreleg.

“Well, since it’s somewhat cold, I was thinking that perhaps you and I should…” Fleet gulped as she tried to keep an eye on the golden pegasus. “Share a bed tonight?”

“Hmm…” Daring rubbed her chin in thought before giving Fleet a smile. “Sure thing. Just a warning though. I think that sauce Barrier whipped up will end up making me turn your room into a Yakyakistani oven.”

“A what?” Fleet asked as Daring slung a foreleg over her shoulder.

“You don’t want to know,” the professor said as the two entered Fleet’s bedroom. In a few moments, the two had slipped into her bed.

Daring moved closer to the cycloptic mare and slung a foreleg around Fleet’s waist. A smile came to Fleet’s face as she did the same to Daring. “Goodnight, Daring.”

The golden mare moved closer, giving Fleet a soft kiss on the lips. “Goodnight, Fleet.”

What followed was the most pleasant night’s sleep Fleetfeather had known for a long while.

The smell that awoke her in the morning was a much different story.

Author's Note:

Alticron: Hey folks, hope you enjoyed this latest chapter, despite it ending on a fart joke. I'd been wanting to give a focus chapter to Daring and Fleet for a good long while, as well as do some more stuff with the enchanted board games seen in a previous chapter.

For this chapter, I've actually got two pics for you. First is Sweet Mixture, the owner of Midnight Melodies.

And second is the cast of Marinara Party because I had a lot of time on my hands back then.

Next time is party time as we have Wind Whistler's birthday party with pizza, cake, presents and even a magician.

See ya then!

Comments

[Xanderfox]

So a hybrid of Jumaji and Mario Party is just a normal board game in Equestia.. I believe it!

[Amos Anon]

“Alright, quick run down,” Daring said as she carefully eyed the rapidly rotating block. “Each of us hits the die to roll it. Right now, the highest number determines the turn order. After that, you go around the board and collect crystals so you can buy a Silver Sun from Radi. Blue spaces get you crystals. Red spaces drain them. The ones with the question marks make stuff happen and the ones with a dragon mark summon the evil Bibinba. Once everyone takes a turn, we play a mini-game to earn more crystals. Got it?”

"Mario Party Three, ha ha!!!"

[Alticron]

10671913
More like Mario Party 1.

[Amos Anon]

10671972
Lol, I grew up playing Mario Party 3 on N64. The opening gets me every time.

[Amos Anon]

10671972