29: Sleepover
Chapter 29
How can this possibly be happening? At the start of today, I never thought I’d end up here without causing a major issue for everyone involved.
Off to my side, a familiar dark blue foreleg reached forward to spin a plain plastic bottle. “’Tis Our turn now, fear Our wrath,” Luna laughed out. The bottle spun in the centre of a familiar group of ponies, before settling upon a smiling Sunny Mare.
As it pointed towards her, Celestia’s smile diminished slightly. Probably out of fear from what punishment her sister would cause. “Hmm, I think truth this time Lulu,” Sunny said, hiding her worry well with a grin.
Matching the Sun’s smile, the Moon boldly asked, “did thou, or did thou not, with the bottle as Our witness, read my most private diary? Somepony opened it, and it was not Us.” Oh dear. I think that was me.
After a quick glance at our fellow players, under the bottle’s duress Celestia admitted, “only a few pages. I did miss you.” That’s a good reason to read someone’s diary. Reading it because you haven’t seen them for a thousand years. Shame Loony probably won’t see it like that.
“So, thou admits it? See Twilight, thy role model is not perfect,” Loony professed, while pointing a hoof at the purple unicorn sitting across from her.
From the group of six regular ponies playing with us, Twilight started to say, “I don’t think that Princ-.” Before she was quickly interrupted by the sun clearing her throat. “I mean, Celestia is just incredibly wise.”
Yep, didn’t think I’d be playing spin the bottle with the elements today. Just a few hours ago, I was getting ready for my usual nightly routine of night court with Loony.
It basically started with me finding Loony in her room, still applying her makeup, rather than sitting on her throne. “Erm, Loony, wasn’t night court supposed to start an hour ago?” I was quite confused at the time, as to why she was still getting ready.
She did enlighten me though. “Eclipse, dost thou not recall our plans for this evening?” she said, while finishing off her eyeshadow. “Night court is cancelled for us to attend the party young Twilight is hosting.”
The largest sigh I’ve ever made, escaped me at that news. “Bleh, I can’t believe this is tonight.”
Tidying away her makeup, the dark blue mare turned to me with sceptical eyes. “Whatever dost thou mean? We discussed this at length during last night’s activities.”
“I may have been a bit distracted last night.” I was too busy flying two pegacorns around for over an hour.
With a shake of her head, she continued blaming me for my ignorance, “thou had plenty of opportunities to find out.” The only reason she’s finally told me, was because I asked about night court. How was that plenty of notice?
My next reply only consisted of a low grumble, that could probably have been mistaken for thunder. Those ponies are going to hate me coming along. Why did I have to agree to this?
“Please do not be like this. It will not be as fun without thou,” Loony said, inadvertently reminding me of the one reason I agreed to come.
With that, I just sighed in defeat.
That at least earned me a pretty victorious smile from the pegacorn. “We are glad thou still wishes to accompany us.”
“Only for you. Most of those ponies don’t like me you know.” I was Pretty sure Rainbow might even assault me the moment we walked through the door.
That earned me a light nuzzle. “We will ensure our friends treat thou with the respect thou art due,” she reassured, before nudging me with a wing, “now get ready. A carriage is already being prepared.”
What could I have possibly done to get ready? My form is always like this. The only thing I could possibly have needed was a clean. The combined sweat of two hard working pegacorns that permeated my form last night did take a while to remove, but that was sorted by Loony straight after my smaller self, went back to my room. That thought gave me an idea on how to improve my odds of surviving the coming party. “Okay, I’ll just sort some stuff out.”
“Do not be over long, our friends will be waiting,” Loony informed, while collecting her regalia.
About half an hour later, the two of us headed to our transport. Luna almost skipping along, with me trailing behind, my corded tail between my legs.
Said transport, was Loony’s usual Batmobile with an unusual pulling team, which consisted of three thestrals and three pegasi. That was probably due to the third member of our group, who was uncharacteristically nervous, waiting by the carriage door. “Ah, you are both finally here,” Celestia said in a slightly relieved tone, “where have you been? I have been waiting for five minutes.” She might as well have expected us to be late. I don’t think we’ve ever made a rendezvous with Sunny on time.
“Sorry we are late, Eclipse wished to prepare something in his room before our departure,” Loony apologised, while casually throwing me under the bus.
It wasn’t my fault; it took me a while to find an interesting book. “Look, Loony wanted me at my best, so blame her.”
Rather than acknowledge my attempt to pass the buck back onto her, Loony leaned slightly into my side and said, “thou art as regal as usual. We are sure the elements will be glad of thine attempts.”
“Thanks, still probably not as regal as a diarch.” What could possibly be regal about a slab of metal? Then again, their regalia is made of metal.
Loony just smiled in response, while using a wing to gesture to the carriage looming behind Sunny. That caused the solar pegacorn to shuffle her hooves slightly. “Sister, do you really think this is a good idea?” Wow, even she thinks I shouldn’t be coming. That’s fine by me. Two votes against one.
Loony just cocked her head in confusion. “Why would it not be? A get together with Our friends should be a momentous occasion.”
Undeterred by my blue pegacorns words, Sunny simply said, “I worry our appearance might affect the enjoyment of our little ponies.”
After she gave me a quick look, Loony walked behind her sister. “Nonsense, the elements are some of our closest friends, now come on,” she said, before using her head to shove Sunny head first through the carriage door.
The shove may have surprised her, but Sunny took it like a champ and used it to involuntarily reach her seat. “Sister, I was not finished,” Celestia said with her eyes narrowed.
Without acknowledging her sister’s complaint, the Moon climbed in after the now irritated Sun and held out a hoof to help me aboard. “Come now, let us make haste. Twilight may be getting worried.” Seeing no way to escape, I gingerly accepted the assistance and followed the two pegacorns aboard. Upon entering, the door immediately closed behind me, allowing the waiting guards to get the carriage moving.
During the flight, Sunny’s earlier comment about ruining the party was expanded upon immensely. Her worries actually quite surprised me. Rather than being concerned that the spooky ghost armour would cause the issues, she in fact thought it was her and her alone. That was simultaneously a positive and negative revelation for me. Positive, because Sunny thinks the ponies won’t mind my attendance. Negative, because it highlights some potential issues of Celestia’s.
The main worry was that Twilight would take issue with her mentors’ attendance. Loony finally managed to quash some of these worries by saying, “thou art invited to this get together. Sister, it would be rude for thou not to attend.”
Those final words finally got the sun horse to relent. “I suppose you are right,” she admitted before starting to smile, “I will admit to have been wanting to spend more time with my student.”
“Ah, young Twilight does seem to be almost like a daughter to thou,” Loony quipped, while trying not to look in my direction. The beginnings of a smirk forming on her face. Seems she’s going to hold that earlier revelation over me for quite some time.
The joke, thankfully, went over Celestia’s head. All she did was cock a brow, while saying, “not quite, I see her as my student and hopefully, a friend.”
As our carriage descended towards the sleeping Pony town, I couldn’t help thinking of Celestia as a kindred spirit for this party. We both had a very similar reason not to want to go. Not wanting to ruin the party. Granted, she thought she’d ruin it due to her status as Equstria’s ruler, while I Knew I’d ruin it due to being seen as a demon. Hopefully Rainbow’s eased up a little.
There was no acknowledgment of our presence from the town as we landed, due to the late hour, allowing us to disembark in peace. Exactly how I was hoping. The only real sound was that of our three pairs of shoes tinking upon the cobblestone path.
“Okay sergeant, please return for us once Our sister sends thou a message,” Luna said to dismiss the guards. The six winged ponies each saluted, before immediately taking off, carriage in tow back to whence they came.
Sunny’s gaze seemed to linger on the escaping carriage for a few moments, before she began making her way towards Twilight’s tree. “Come along you two, the girls will be waiting for us,” she said in a more upbeat tone that expected. Suppose if she can put on a brave face, so can I.
Loony, quickly hurried to her sister’s side to complete the journey, while I trailed a little behind, still not really wanting to reach our destination. Sadly for me, our destination was only a few metres away. It seems our taxi was quite good at making deliveries. Damn them for being so accommodating.
It wasn’t long before the three of us were standing at the trees candle lit door. From inside, the sound of happy ponies could be heard. Welp, lets prepare for that to end.
The wait outside however, seemed to last a little longer than expected. Sunny had her hoof raised ready to knock but wasn’t. Instead, she was going through a variety of different facial expressions, all the way from a flat expression, right the way up to a wide grin.
Luna also noticed this and began to laugh, “honestly, this is not like the first time we met the Griffonian ambassador. No pony will be stabbed if a mistake is made.” Well, you might not get stabbed.
In her defence, Celestia said, “the first impression will set the tone. We need to appear warm and prepared for fun.” She then made a couple more practice attempts.
“Oh, We have an idea how to do that perfectly,” Loony beamed, as her own hoof raised up to the door and knocked loudly against it, instantly interrupting the laughter escaping the building.
For her part, Sunny just looked at her sister who was staring at the door. The look lasted for just a moment, before both sisters laughed. Welp, better put my own face on. Annnnd done. Guess not having a face does have a few benefits. Saying that, using that stuffed toy would probably have been an improvement. Wish it wasn’t a secret.
Without any further warning, the library’s door swung open, revealing the expected purple unicorn. “Princess, Eclipse you’re final…” Twilight began in a welcoming tone before noticing the third member of our group. “Princess Celestia? You wanted to come?” I was wondering when Twilight had asked Sunny. Turns out it was never.
“Really? Luna assured me you requested my presence,” Sunny said, slightly downtrodden. “Do not worry, I can just see these two off and come collect them at the end.” Wait a second, is she really going to escape from this?
Quickly back tracking from her surprise, Twilight rapidly shook her horned head, “no no no, you’re always welcome Princess. Oh dear, I don’t have any tea ready.” She then disappeared from view in a cloud of smoke, leaving the doorway empty.
Since the two pegacorns were just looking at the space the unicorn once occupied, I decided to ask, “should we follow her inside or just wait here?”
That seemed to shake them to their senses, causing the duo to look to me and then back to each other. Luna just guiltily said “whoops” as Celestia shook her head and wandered inside the library. Loony then turned to me while scratching her head, “We really thought she was invited.”
Before I could respond, Celestia could be heard saying, “good evening my little ponies, hope the party is going well.”
Well, seems Sunny wants to face her problems head on. Turning to my friend I reluctantly said, “we should probably back her up in there.” The two of us then made our way inside to what I was expecting to be the ruining of a pleasant party.
After a few minutes passed, the worries Sunny had once possessed, seemed to have almost completely faded. Getting straight into the ongoing game of spin the bottle, was probably the best thing she could have had us do. Seems the ancient horse knows what she’s doing.
Back in the present, Celestia turned to her student, who had already served the tea, and said, “thank you Twilight. It is nice to receive a genuine compliment.” As it was now her turn to play, she reached a hoof forward and spun the bottle. Each of the present ponies winced as it passed over them, clearly worried about what their ruler might ask of them.
That was all except for one, who the bottle in fact landed upon. “Ha, bring on the dare Princess, there ain’t nothing you can throw at me,” the overconfident rainbow maned mare declared. From the way she stood, it appeared like she was preparing to run a race.
For her part, Sunny just eyed the pegasus and hmm’d slightly. Clearly, she had many ideas going through her head. Luckily for Rainbow Dash, she began by saying, “well then, let me start off small. I would not want to break you straight away.” Her gaze was then turned to the window, “I know Rainbow, why don’t you go to the library’s roof and howl like a timber wolf for, hmmm, thirty seconds?” The way she said that, it actually sounded like a serious question, rather than a question of someone’s sanity.
The Pegasus in question saluted her diarch, before taking to the air. “Ha, consider it done,” she called out before disappearing with a smoke trail leading to the closest window. The awful sounds of a wailing pony soon followed.
“You show em sugar cube,” the orange mundane pony called after her. Hmmm, mundane sounds a little insulting. I should probably call her something better, seeing as she's seen fit not to assault me. She’d probably see it as unneighbourly or something. Then again, she does still keep giving me that suspicious look. Maybe that’s just how her face looks?
Speaking of being unneighbourly, a soft giggle off to Loony’s left, regained the groups attention. “That should wake the neighbours,” Sunny said without bothering to suppress her delight.
For the next thirty seconds, the remaining eight of us just sat listening to the racket. Each with varying reactions. Clearly the awful sound was affecting Rarity the most. She’d lost the good-natured smile she had when we first greeted her, and was now scrunching up her face in apparent pain. Suppose it does sound a little bit like nails on a chalk board. “Not that I’m questioning your royal decisions, but don't you think thirty seconds was a bit long?” she said questioning the sun. Poor pony, she probably didn’t sign up for this either. Still, it’s nice to see her again.
As the howling continued, Rarity complained numerous times finally saying, “maybe it should be called off. Somepony might get upset.” A sly hoof was simultaneously being pointed at the shy butter pegasus to her side.
The apparently timid pegasus, was having nowhere near as strong a reaction. She just ignored the obvious pointing and said, “she isn’t doing any harm, she’s just greeting the local dogs. It’ll be quite nice for them.” Hmm, there does seem to be more than just one howl going on out there.
It’s strange seeing Fluttershy this up close. Every other time I’ve seen her was from a great distance, either running away from me, or some other unfathomable evil. Here she’s just sitting calmly, taking part in the game with her friends. Saying that, I haven’t noticed her looking in my direction even once. Hopefully she isn’t that freaked out. Feels like everyone’s tried to ignore the armour in the room at least once. Apart from my friends, obviously.
For the first time, Twilight was the voice of reason. “I agree with Rarity, other ponies might get a little stressed out, seeing as it is quite late.” She said that while looking between the two princesses, one of which was smiling innocently, while the other just rolled her eyes.
As if on que for the thirty seconds to end, an unknown voice called out from outside, “will you shut up, for Celestia’s sake.” Pretty sure that’s the exact reaction Sunny wanted.
After that, the sounds of howling swiftly stopped, as the Rainbow pegasus shouted back, “why on Equis do you think I’m doing this?” Her form soon darted back in through the open window, returning to her place beside the bottle. “And there you have it, one royal dare complete,” she seemed to swell with pride as she spoke. “Next time, make it an actual challenge.” Don’t poke the beast.
“Oh, do not worry Rainbow. I will,” Sunny assured, while lowering her head down to the dwarf pony’s eye level. That actually made the pegasus gulp for a moment, before she regained her composure and reached for the bottle.
This is actually going rather well. Not only do the elements not seem to care too much that I’m here, but they aren’t panicking over the presence of the royals. It’s even more surprising considering how badly I messed up when the game started.
Just thirty minutes earlier, Pinkie made a loud declaration to the three of us. “Okay everypony, you may be royalty or nobility, but you all have to complete this part to begin,” the pink pony said in an unusually serious way, while pacing in front of our newly arrived group. “All participants will be required to complete one Pinkie promise. One that says they’ll follow every dare, or truth, to the letter.” The pink pony then lightened up a bit, “this’ll be so fun. I always wondered what the princesses’ favourite cakes were.”
Still reeling from being compared to nobility, I simultaneously began the same mantra as my friends. That was probably the cause of my mistake. “Okay, cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye. I’ll play the game properly,” I said without really thinking.
A few seconds passed and it suddenly dawned on me that everyone was staring in my direction. Well, everyone except for Fluttershy. Even Loony was trying her best not to look at me awkwardly. “Is something wrong?” I queried, while looking over the judgmental ponies. That’s a Pinkie promise right? We all even spoke in the exact same rhythm. Then again, it did sound like Sunny said something about cupcakes. Maybe that’s just because she likes cake?
It didn’t take too long for Applejack to voice what apparently everyone else was thinking. “That don’t mean obey the rules or die now does it?”
“Errrrm, noooo?” Pretty sure this has gone wrong somehow.
“No way I’m letting anypony play a death game!” Rainbow all but shouted in my direction. She seemed a lot more surprised than angry at least. That’s a nice change I suppose.
“They’re just words.” Really should have asked what I was supposed to do.
Luckily, Celestia latched onto my words, “exactly, words cannot harm you. There is nothing to fear my little ponies.”
That probably would have been the end of it, if it hadn’t been for a ghostly voice on the air. A ghostly voice that sounded strangely like Pinkie. All it whispered was, “forever,” causing everyone to turn to the pink horse.
Her only response was to smile and say, “that isn’t ominous or anything.” Thank you for that one.
While four of the gathered ponies were trying to hold in a freakout and my friends tried to contain the fire, Twilight had put on her researcher’s hat. “That promise you made, it was the same one you made when we first met, wasn’t it?”
Glad for any social life line, I tuned out the rest of the room and attempted to engage the friendly conversation. “Yeah.” It wasn’t the best attempt.
Luckily it was all that was needed to steer the conversation away from death games. “Hmm, I’m curious where you learned it. You obviously knew it before you met anypony,” Twilight said while scratching her chin.
Before I could tell her how it just seemed right, Loony chimed in, “no more talks of magical research during game time. We wish to play this spinning bottle Pinkie has suggested, it sounds most enjoyable. Erm, may We go first? We have yet to experience this game.” Thank goodness those two had my back.
Back in the present moment, my thought process and Rainbow’s turn on the bottle was interrupted by our games all seeing deity. “Cake break!” Pinkie exclaimed, while placing a large sponge cake in the circles centre.
Much to the chagrin of a certain Rainbow pony. “Hey! It was my go.”
After being almost silent since the whole Pinkie promise debacle, I finally decided to speak up. “Can we just have a quick break? We’ve been doing this for ages.” Well maybe about half an hour.
“Oh yeah, you’d just love that Spooky, wouldn’t you? You haven’t even had a dare yet,” the irritable pegasus jibed while giving me a smirk. That’s probably the politest thing she’s ever said to me. To be fair, she doesn’t even look like she wants to murder me. Maybe the Discord fight was better PR than I thought.
Sounding a little more defensive than I’d like, I said, “I take up almost twice the amount of circle as you.” The Princesses do as well.
Twilight chimed in with a slight grumble, “I know, it’s an absolute travesty.” She emphasized her feelings on the matter by rubbing her eyes and grumbling to herself. That’s probably because she’s already had four separate dares. Her last one was actually pretty great. Having her burp pie was ingenious, granted Pinkie probably didn’t mean the number from the way she held an apple pie in confusion. It was still great though.
“Don’t worry, my time will come… eventually.” No matter how long it takes, it’ll happen. There’s nothing I can do to put it off.
My favourite pegacorn let out a light giggle at that. “We are looking forward to it.” A dare from Luna is basically my everyday life. She tells me to do a thing, I try to do the thing. The bottle makes almost no difference.
The next to comment was Rarity, who had a slight glint in her eyes. “Oh yes, I hope it’s me who gets the first shot.” From the way her gaze slowly listed to the side, it was clear she was daydreaming of what she would have me do. She probably wants to make another dress out of me. As much as I respect her, I’d rather that not happen today. Maybe tomorrow I’ll see if she wants a visit.
Before the cake took everyone’s attention, Applejack finished by saying, “seems we all have some questions we wanna have answered.” She was eyeing me with that same suspicion she felt for me at my first party. Seems she thinks everyone wants me to take truth. Shame there isn’t anything interesting for me to say. Still, if she gets me, I’ll be sure to throw her a bone. Saying that, she’d probably prefer some hay.
Seeing as it was her party, Twilight began cutting the cake and hovering out the slices. “If we get through the cake, maybe we’ll actually catch them,” she said, while attempting to offer a slice to the Sun. I say attempting, because of Loony’s reaction.
The moment Celestia leaned forward to take the plate into her hooves, Loony’s magic lashed out and gripped the floating desert. Not only that, but the cake flew straight to her mouth where a huge chunk immediately disappeared. Celestia just stared impassively at the pony currently enjoying her treat, waiting for an explanation.
The response she got was probably not what she was after. “No, cake, for, you… remember your diet,” Loony said with a grin. She also punctuated each word by poking her sisters muzzle with the now empty plate. A few crumbs flew across the room, as Pinkie laughed with her mouth still full, adding insult to injury.
Poor Twilight, had frozen in the process of cutting another slice and was just nervously looking between the two sisters. One of which was looking way too pleased with herself.
After taking her sisters words on bored, Sunny turned back to the nervous unicorn and sweetly asked, “Twilight, could you pass me a smaller slice, please?” The honeyed words served to increase Twilight’s nervousness tenfold, but she shakily obeyed, cutting a slice and transferring said slice steadily to her teacher. All the while, trying her best not to look at the smug Moon pony enjoying her own cake.
When the cake finally arrived at its destination, Celestia’s eyes snapped to Luna who was still smiling before thanking the relieved Twilight. Seems Loony just felt the need to inform everyone of Sunny’s diet. I’m sure that’s going to go down well later on.
Once everyone had a slice, including me, Twilight sat to enjoy the last remaining piece. With nothing better to do, I watched each of them steadily finish their treats, while mine went uneaten. The first to notice the continued existence of my slice, was none other than the hungry sun. As she savoured the last bite of her half slice, she licked her lips and asked, “so Eclipse, are you not going to eat that?” She already knows I can’t eat on my own.
Snapping my useless metal jaw for effect, I said, “I don’t really have a proper mouth. Would anyone like mine?” Rather than just presenting the question to Sunny, I asked the surrounding ponies. Each of which perked up. Apart from Fluttershy, who receded a little. Snapping my jaw might not have been the best thing for her, seeing as her eyes had now become glued to her own plate.
A wing gently nudged my side, followed by Loony starting to say, “thou may borrow ours if thou wi…”
Before the words finished leaving her borrowable mouth, a certain pink pony leaned forward and swallowed the slice whole. As she sat there chewing away, her eyes closed due to the apparently amazing tasting treat, Loony gave her a dead pan stare. Just to make it worse, Pinkie quickly swallowed it before licking her lips and saying, “Thanks smoky.”
“Don’t mention it,” was all I could think to say, while glancing back to the now irritated Moon. Really don’t mention it. On her other side, I caught sight of Celestia puffing up a little, apparently happy her sister didn’t get any more cake.
Seeing the last slice be consumed, Rainbow impatiently said, “everypony’s finished, right? Can I spin or what?”
The greedy pink pony sat for a moment, clearly contemplating the idea. Apparently, it was an important thing to consider. “Hmmm, more spin the bottle,” she said to herself while tapping her chin. After making dash wait another ten seconds she suddenly said, “oki doki.”
The moment the first syllable escaped Pinkie, Rainbow pounced upon the idle bottle and spun it with all her might. “Ha, you lot better prepare yourselves, I’ve got a real doozy for you,” she boasted as the bottle began to slow down. Her bravado seemed to evaporate when the bottle slowed to a stop at the rooms only other pegasus.
For her part, Fluttershy sat up a little and nervously said, “I suppose… I’ll choose dare.”
“You know you don’t have to, right?” Rainbow said, sounding a little unsure. Wow, she doesn’t want to dare the poor defenceless Fluttershy.
Fluttershy just seemed to steel herself and said, “don’t worry, I'll be fine.” A ghost of a smile on her face.
Before going any further, the spectrum coloured pegasus looked to each of us, even having her gaze settle on me for a moment. Not sure what she’s hoping to find doing that, I have no answers. Seeing as none of us were going to assist, she sighed before attempting to come up with a, most likely, new dare. “Erm, okay, Shy… you gotta erm. You haaave to…” She paused for a moment to tap her muzzle. With each tap, the butter pegasus seemed to shrink back ever so slightly, while everyone else appeared to lean in with anticipation.
Eventually, Rainbow’s eyes settled upon something, giving her an apparently brilliant idea. Raising a hoof to point behind Pinkie, she regained her usual bravado and said, “I have the perfect thing. Shy, you gotta pop one of those balloons.”
“My balloons!” Pinkie cried out before happily bopping one in Shy’s direction. “Here ya go. There’s loads more where they came from.”
A soft squeak met my earless helmet, as Fluttershy attempted to duck out of its way. “D-do I have to?” She then started to gently nudge the balloon away with her hoof, like it was a bomb waiting to go off. Can’t believe she’s one of Equestria’s greatest heroes.
Seeing the result her dare caused, Rainbow immediately started to perk up even more. “You know the rules. Get popping.”
Now, I feel like everyone watching was expecting a bit of nervous knocking about, before Fluttershy either gave up, or used her hooves to squash it flat. What we were sadly treated to, was a period of Fluttershy gently poking the balloon and frowning at the fact it still existed. This would have been fine, but she refused to give up on it. Even an ageless being like me has limits.
In the interest of preserving everyone’s sanity, including my own, I eventually decided to step in. “Er, Shy. I have something to help you out.” For the first time of the night, she actually looked up at me, as I formed a small quantity of my mist into a needle and floated it towards her. That should do it.
She did take the small needle in her hoof, but ended up sat staring at it, eyes steadily widening. Hmm, welp, I tried my best. When she eventually looked up, she looked at each of us until her gaze settled on a bored white pegacorn. Said pegacorn, decided to casually raise a hoof to one of her eyes and then wink at the little pegasus, for some reason.
That reason became apparent, when Fluttershy started to hyperventilate before screaming out, “don’t take my eyes!” as she thrust the pin into the balloon. Not finished, she then attempted to throw the pin across the room, while simultaneously hiding from our sight.
Seeing as the pin was still attached to me by mist, I just had it revert to its usual gaseous form, before attempting to console the apparently traumatized pony. “Hey, you know that thing I said earlier doesn’t apply to you guys?” That at least got her to look up.
Ignoring my comment, Rainbow let out a laugh and said, “awesome death-defying stunt.”
Sunny seemed to be radiating some pride for the little pegasus as well. "Congratulations on defeating your adversary. I always knew the element bearers were well chosen.” A light titter did escape her as she looked to her less impressed sister. Loony on the other shoe, didn’t seem amused in the slightest and actually seemed to be hiding her disappointment. Probably at the fact that one of her nation's greatest warriors was afraid of a balloon.
Rarity had clearly made a similar assessment of the situation. “Don’t you think everypony’s being a little… melodramatic?”
After giving the fashion pony an eyebrow raise, Applejack turned to her victorious friend. “Hey partner, ya’ll went and did it. That means you get a turn.”
With the comforting words of her companions, Fluttershy finally sat up and triumphantly said, “Yeah, I did.” She immediately followed up by giving the bottle a light flick, causing it to complete almost half a rotation, before it sadly settled upon me. Still on her victory high, she looked at me and quietly said, “erm, hi.”
Before I could make a choice, Rainbow had a slight complain, “why couldn’t that have been my go!?” Just going to ignore that.
Okay, don’t ruin this moment, she’s actually looking at me, just be polite. “You know, seeing your display has inspired me to pick dare.” Hopefully that’ll encourage her.
“Knew they wouldn’t pick truth,” came a barely audible mumble from the cowpony. Seems I can’t please everyone. Pretty sure she’s a lost cause for me. It doesn’t matter, from the sea of inquisitive faces, everyone else seems to be pretty interested in my dare.
They were so interested, that a chorus of groans came from all parties when Fluttershy decided to politely ask, “so, what would you like to do?”
That sounds like a truth to me. “Probably read a book and then go to bed.” Jokes on them, because back in my bed room, a one-foot-tall copy of me has been reading this entire time. Reading about pony grooming techniques is quite interesting by the way. The wings have some pretty complicated stuff going on.
Back in the library, Rarity was busy saying, “Fluttershy, I’m not quite sure taking Eclipse out of the party like that is in the spirit of things.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean to,” the nervous pony tried to backtrack. For what it was worth, I only shrugged. Sitting off to the side of the game reading would probably be a blessing. No potentially embarrassing dares to contend with, while simultaneously getting to watch the show.
Sunny decided to help me out as well with her rules lawyering, “technically, the rules don’t say the dare can’t extend the full length of the game, or even further beyond. Right Pinkie?” She finished by directing everyone’s attention towards the pony in charge of all things party.
For her part, Pinkie just agreed, “sure, get them to read a book while we party.” Her eyes then shrunk to pin priks as some realization dawned upon her. “What a horrifying punishment!”
Oh yeah, I’m actually going to get away with this, was a short-lived thought that permeated my helmet. Who’d have thought Twilight would try to talk the dare down. “It doesn’t need to be as ‘bad’ as that,” she said with almost solid air quotes.
Fluttershy seemed to take the horrifying punishment seriously and attempted to rectify her shocking dare with, what she thought, was something a little milder. “I-I have another idea, it’ll let Eclipse keep playing,” she said that with the faintest of smiles in my direction.
But I wanna be non-maliciously kicked out by my own idea. Looks like that isn’t going to happen. “Okay, shoot.”
With my direct response, Fluttershy’s smile increased. “Would you like to, dance?”
Dance? Not particularly, but then again, it doesn’t seem to be the most difficult dare. All I’d need to do is wave my shoes about a bit. “Alright.”
Seeing me easily agree, had Fluttershy let out a relieved sigh. Is she really that worried about a little dare? It seemed she was, as she immediately ducked her head again when the rainbow pegasus complained, “dance, seriously? That’s hardly a challenge for that tin can.”
Off to my side, Celestia nudged Luna’s side with a wing and coyly said, “having him shake his rear could be quite entertaining, right Lulu?” For her part, Loony just ducked her head slightly and subtly attempted to avoid eye contact with me for a few seconds. Why would I have to shake my rear? Is that part of pony dancing?
Seeing as Loony was choosing the right to remain silent over answering Sunny, Rainbow immediately threw hers away again, “yeah, for a little while, but there’s nothing to it.” That’s why it’s a good idea.
The parties purple host swiftly agreed with her companion, “I agree, they need a timer at a minimum, otherwise they’ll probably stop immediately. Let’s say five minutes to make it fair.” No Twilight! How am I supposed to fill that length of time? Tap fore shoes, tap rear shoes and ‘apparently’ shake rear twice was the whole plan.
As the dare was still clearly insufficient; Rainbow, the current bane of my existence, said, “that’s a good start, but there’s a way we can make this a little more interesting.” She rubbed her forehooves together a little menacingly, before turning to me. “So, Twilight says ponies can wear you, is that true?”
Oh no, I don’t like where this is going. “If I let them.”
“Perfect, why don’t we add to the dare that he has to dance, while somepony is wearing him,” Rainbow announced like it was the greatest idea ever. Which it wasn’t. The initial dare was to dance. These ponies are unfairly high jacking Shy’s dare.
Seeing the blatant unfairness of the situation, Luna heroically ended her silence. “Thou should not make such requests. They could be seen as demeaning to those involved.”
“Come now sister, lighten up. It is just a bit of fun,” Celestia said diplomatically. “Everypony else has completed their dares without much complaint.”
“Thou better hope We do not dare thee. We will remember thy words,” Loony smirked, before becoming thoughtful. After a moment she then said, “We believe this dare will be unfair on the pony who is chosen.” Is she acting like this is a political debate? At least she’s on my team. Saying that, she probably still wants me to dance.
Continuing with the diplomacy, Sunny made a suggestion, “how about we choose the pony at random, spin the bottle style? That would be fair and in keeping with the game.”
Seeing as this debate could last all night, I intervened. “Look, it’s not up to you lot anyway. Some of you might be Princesses, but the bottle says Fluttershy chooses.”
That unwittingly caused all the gathered ponies to stare at the shy pegasus, eager for a decision. As expected, she shut down a little and actually tried to shield her head with her hooves. Not before squeaking out, “just do what’s best, I’m sorry.” Maybe she shouldn’t be playing this game, you can’t keep everyone happy all the time.
Seeing as she didn’t add anything to the dare, I nervously said, “so… just dance for however long, yeah?”
Everyone shared a look, before letting out an almost unanimous nah. This was followed up by Rainbow spinning the dreaded instrument of pony, and spirit, torment. Seems there isn’t going to be an escape from this. Wonder who the unlucky sucker is going to be. Part of me hopes it’s Luna and part of me hopes it’s anyone else.
As the bottle began losing speed, something became apparent. The slightest of golden light was surrounding it, seemingly affecting the speed at which it slowed down. Looking over to the impassive Sunny, the tip of her horn also had the faintest of glows. Is she trying to stealthily choose the unlucky pony? She was the one suggesting fairness earlier.
When the inevitable happened and the bottle stopped moving, Sunny clearly suppressed a grin, while the victim immediately lost her happy demeanour. The first major reaction came from the Apple pony, who appeared to almost fall over due to her laughter. “Ha, Rainbow, you dug your own grave with that one.”
After shaking off the slightest of pouts, Rainbow immediately stood up to take on this apparent challenge. “I refuse to be beaten by anything,” she then flitted in front of me. “Come on then smoky, let’s get this over with. At least I’m gonna look awesome doing this.” Pretty sure that was a complement at the end there.
Anyway, I’d better get to modifying myself. My current form is a bit big for the tiny pegasus. This would be much easier if she didn’t move around so much. The Pegasus in question had started flying around my form, still bearing her look of determination. Eventually, she began gripping onto my helmet and pulling on it with some force. When she was unsuccessful in removing it, she moved to my shoes. She only managed to lift one from the ground before giving up separating my pieces. Seems I can hold myself together pretty well nowadays. “Could you please stop that.”
At my remark, her irritated face filled my vision. “Are we doing this or what?”
On my terms, yes. With only the smallest sigh I said, “just give me a second to get ready.” This caused the pegasus to float a couple shoe steps away from me and stare at me impatiently.
Okay, now I can actually see what makes her up, this should be easy enough. The first step was to reduce my size by converting my metal to mist. A further step of shortening my legs was then needed, seeing as regular ponies have smaller legs in proportion to their bodies. That’s probably why they look so young. The longer legs pegacorn’s have, like Loony, makes them look so much more majestic than regular ponies. Along with her proportionally slender neck and regal wings, Loony has one of the more impressive forms when it comes to ponies.
Whoops, getting distracted a bit. So back to Rainbows form. She does have quite large wings compared to other pegasi. Maybe some flare on my armour would be appreciated? Mimicking the shape of her wings, I added some Rainbow highlights to my plated feathers. There, that should add to her awesome opinion of my appearance.
With my transformation into armour fitted for the pegasus, she immediately clapped her forehooves together and said, “yeah, that’s what I’m talking about.”
“Glad you think so, just hold still for a second.” Now to put myself on I suppose.
“Why, don’t you need me to pu-, bleh hey!” escaped Rainbow as I wrapped some mist around her barrel to hold her in place.
As I held her stationary in mid-air, I began sliding my form over her own. The chest piece was easy enough to position, slipping neatly over her head and resting snuggly on her chest. My greaves and shoes on the other shoe, were another matter entirely. Due to some unforeseen alarm, the energetic pegasus refused to remain still. Avidly kicking her legs at every opportunity. Thus, she forced me to use my mist to hold each leg in place as my appropriate armour piece was applied. It did get easier once each piece was applied as I could use Rainbows own limbs to assist me.
“This is so creepy you guys,” Rainbow called out to her surrounding friends, before admonishing me, “you know I know how to put armour on, right?”
Ignoring her complaints, I pulled her tail out of my rear armour causing the pegasus’s eyes to bulge out for a moment and her back legs to kick the air a few times. “Could you please stop twitching so much? You’re making this more awkward than it has to be.”
“I’m making this more awkward! You’re the one getting all hoovsy,” she again complained. She at least decided to give me a helping shoe, by putting on my wing guards. That left just my helmet to apply, which she allowed to glide over her head. A little more gently this time, I pulled her mane out the back, making it visible to her friends.
After the apparently awful ordeal I put her through, Rainbow made a quick loop around the group and said, “look at me, loyal knight of Equestria.” Her jovial face fully visible due to the absence of my faceplate.
“Be careful with that fella,” the Apple pony shouted at her revolving friend. Not sure if she’s nervous Rainbow is going to harm me or I’m going to harm Rainbow. It’s the second one, isn’t it?
Once the third loop had been completed, I closed her wings dropping us to my four shoes.
“Hey! What gives?” The now ground bound pegasus complained for the millionth time.
“Can we please get this over with.” She was the one who wanted this over and done with. Now she’s the one dragging it out.
Seeming to realize what she’d been doing; Rainbow tapped the ground a couple times with a hoof. “Right, erm. There’s no putting this off, is there?” she asked the room. A number of smiling, shaking heads met her gaze. “Okay, just don’t go to overboard with this.” Oh, I get it. I hate being forced to do stuff too.
“I’ll just stick to the dare,” I said sympathetically, before walking over to the circle’s centre. Okay, so there’s no music. That’s probably a good thing, no beat to follow and all that. Actually, it’s probably a really good thing. I could just make my own beat maybe. The tinking of my shoes could make it sound like tap dancing or something. Who am I kidding? This is going to be a disaster.
“Eclipse, We are all waiting,” Loony’s voice sang out everyone’s opinion.
“Alright, here goes.” Starting out slow; I began tapping my fore shoes steadily to the beat of left, right, right, left, right, right and repeat. Okay, this isn’t too hard, no one’s laughing yet anyway. After about ten seconds of that, I got my rear shoes involved and mimicked the same pattern. The tapping of pony hooves around me drew my attention to Loony who’d started tapping her fore hooves in the same pattern.
Well, that’s encouraging. Still, there has to be a way I can make this more interesting. Five minutes is a long time. Tap dancers wear clothes, right? Of course they do. Steadily as I tapped Rainbows hooves, I began adjusting my form once again. This time changing from my usual metallic armour to that of a stiff fabric. My helmet was changed into a top hat, where my chest piece was changed into more of a tailored suit. To finish off I modified my rear greaves into that of a short skirt. That didn’t go over too well.
“I can’t believe this. You said you’d stick to the dare,” Rainbow complained as she attempted to reach back and grip the skirt. I say tried, because her hooves were too busy following my simplistic beat. “This isn’t what I signed up for.”
The spectators clearly didn’t agree, as they continued to enjoy the show. One with a particular eye for fashion even said, “marvellous Eclipse, I’ve been trying to get her into a dress forever.” All that resulted in, was the gradual heating up of my wearers face as she attempted to grin a bear the situation.
After the one-minute mark passed, the tune started to feel stale, even to me and I’ve spent eons in a soundless void. Right, need to spice this up a little. I know what to do, my balance has improved quite a bit since my arrival, ha I can even levitate. After the next round of the beat, I had Rainbow rear back onto her hind hooves and continued the dance with just her hind legs. That’ll hopefully look impressive, a pony dancing on two legs.
It did seem to surprise everyone, including my wearer, who just shrugged at her spectating friends. All the while, still attempting to reach her forehooves to my skirt. That brings up a good point, what to do with my fore shoes? They’re just sort of flailing in the air now. Don’t tap dancer’s use a cane or something? Maybe, maybe not, but it’ll give me something to do. Forming a black cane with my mist was easy enough, it’s just a pole, giving me instant access to something to spin around with my fore shoes.
I will admit to getting a bit lost in the moment, especially due to the cheering of the spectators, because the next thing I realized Rainbow was letting out the worlds loudest sigh. “It has to be five minutes by now, right guys?” she almost seemed to plead.
“It has been nearly ten. We did not wish to interrupt Eclipse when he was so clearly enjoying himself,” Luna said with a cheeky smile.
Loony’s words caused me to immediately dematerialise the cane and flop back onto all fours. That gained me an aww and the slightest of applauses from those around me, led by my two best friends. What a confidence booster this has been. “Sorry everyone, I just got distracted trying to keep it interesting.”
In my haste to apologise, I may have inadvertently used a certain someone’s mouth to talk. That immediately elicited a shiver from the now free to move pegasus, before she stuck her tongue out and said, “bleh, get out of my mouth. I wanted it to end as soon as it began.”
“Sorry about that.” Seeing that Rainbow was still embarrassed by the situation, I began quickly undressing myself from her form. An act that she clearly appreciated, as she began quite forcefully assisting me. If I’d not been made of sterner stuff, she’d probably have torn me. Once I was stood to her side, I held one of my shoes forward in the hopes she would take it. “It was just a bit of fun, right?”
Happily for me, she accepted the shoe shake and said, “yeah it’s cool. I’ve got some good dares for you lined up.” Oh great.
As we returned to our seats, Loony tapped my side with a wing. “Thou will have to dance with us one time like that. We would love thou to be our dancing partner.”
Sooo, does she mean as her clothes or another dancer? I think I’d prefer the second option. Doing some dancing with Loony leading could be fun. Well, when I’m not the centre of attention anyway. Trying to think of what to do was distracting enough, but if we plan it out, I’m going to be thinking about those stranger’s eyes on me.
Before I could answer in the affirmative, Sunny beat me to it, “I am certain Eclipse would love to be your partner. He practically already is.” She finished off by giving her sister a couple of eye brow raises. This caused Loony to blush slightly, before she used a hoof to lightly jab her sister. In response Sunny only smiled before winking at me.
Okay, they can have their weird sisterly in jokes. “Sure Loony, but erm, could we try to avoid being the centre of attention.” Something quite difficult for a Princess and an animated suit of armour. Oh yeah, I should probably change back from this suit, dress combo thing.
As I returned to my usual form, Loony attempted to reassure me, “We would attempt to keep thou out of any uncomfortable situations.”
Sure, she will. Loony seems to want me to go everywhere she does. That means unavoidable awkward moments almost every day. “I’m sure you’ll try your best.”
Back with the elements; Applejack and Rarity had clearly been embarrassing Rainbow, while we were talking. Applejack on purpose and Rarity seemed to be trying to convince the colourful pegasus she would look beautiful in a dress. The fashion pony’s honest opinion, is probably twisting the knife way more than the farmer.
Catching the tail end of the conversation, Rainbow finished by saying, “at least the Wonderbolts didn’t see me.” Her cherry red face had almost completely returned to its usual blue, marking hopefully the end of her embarrassment.
In an attempt to get further into the Elements good books, I decided to ask, “who’s Wonderbolt?” Showing an interest in the pony she values is bound to get me some brownie points.
The reaction was almost immediate. “Seriously, you haven’t heard of the Wonderbolts? They’re only the best flyers in Equestria. They keep our skies safe from the bad guys,” Rainbow quickly rattled off.
Pretty sure they’ve missed every problem I’ve witnessed, and that includes my own arrival. Suppose none of it did involve flight. Well, except for the whole Discord situation. Rather than point out how little work they seem to do, I instead tried my best to be polite. “They sound pretty interesting.”
“You bet they are, one day I’ll be joining up and getting myself one of those flight suits,” she pridefully said with a hoof to her chest. Seems like they really are heroes. Weird that I’ve never heard of them.
“Thou should mimic a flight suit someday. Thy abilities would put the Wonderbolts true uniforms to shame,” Loony said joining in the conversation.
“I’ll think about it.” If they’re interesting, I could give it a go.
Rainbow’s eyes appeared to light up at the mention of my abilities. “Wha-t sort of abilities?”
“Baring his form has given Us access to many benefits,” Luna warmly began, before pulling me to her side with her good wing. “Eclipse is quite impressive in many areas, but the one thou would likely value the most is the increased speed.”
“It’s not that good.” If I could blush, I would.
My words earned me a light nosing from the night Princess, as Rainbow watched on. “I’ll have to get one for myself.” Well, that’s a bit of dampener. No one has me.
As I was distracted with my internal complaint, Rainbow reached forward and flicked the bottle. Wait a second, that was my go. Heedless of my desire, the bottle chose to obey Rainbows hoof and began rapidly spinning, regaining the attention of the distracted ponies.
It took but a moment to slow down and finally settle upon my fluffy prison. “We choose dare,” she said while staring her challenger down.
That should be me being stared at. “Hey, the rules say it’s my go.”
“What do you mean? That was way worse for me, I have to see these guys every day,” Rainbow said, while punctuating her remark by pointing at Twilight.
“Well, I did all the hard work.” Kinda feels like my rewards being stolen here. If I have to play the stupid game, I wanna dare someone.
“We agree that Eclipse was the original barer of the dare. Thou were pulled into it through thine own intervention,” Luna said, thankfully siding with me.
“Oh yeah, of course you’d side with the tin can,” Rainbow said while getting to her hoofs. She then gained a devious smile. “Well, since you love him so much, why don’t you give him a big old smooch?” You can’t just include someone else to be a part of your dare. We spun the bottle again for the dance. There are rules, right?
The wing across my back promptly disappeared as Loony eyed the pegasus. “Is that thy dare?” she cautiously asked.
Rainbow steadily nodded in response, never once losing her grin.
I’ve got to put a stop to this. “Hey, this isn’t fair. Pinkie, we need a rules lawyer in here.”
Said party pony just shrugged at me, while looking between the two darers in a confused manner. “But the bottle landed on both of you, who’s dare would it be?” she asked herself before putting a hoof to her muzzle in thought. Well, that’s helpful.
This is so unfair; I haven’t dared anyone yet, not to mention how uncomfortable that dares made Loony look. She looks so conflicted right now.
Seeing my attempt to reclaim my rightful dare, Rainbow mockingly said, “what; is the tall, dark and scary slab of metal afraid of a mare?”
“Of course not, Luna’s the best,” I said in defence of the best pony. Wow, this is getting a little cruel. Do ponies really not know how she feels about people fearing her? Suppose not.
“We shall be brave for the both of us,” Loony declared, causing me to turn to her.
“You don’t have to do her dare just because she insulted you.” This game sucks.
It was then that Loony decided to complete the dare, irrespective of the insult she had just received. This resulted in the Moon slightly tilting her head to the side and placing her warm lips against the tip of my faceplate for a few seconds. She’d even closed her eyes for the exchange. Seems Rainbow won the dare then. Still, it’s nice that Loony’s willing to do that. It seems to be taking a while though.
After, I’m not sure how many seconds, Loony pulled back with a half-smile and asked, “how was that?”
Erm, I’m not really sure. Receiving a kiss is supposed to be a good thing though. As I thought about the kiss, Loony appeared to become increasingly nervous, she even made to take a slight step back. Probably because of the blank stare I always have giving away none of my thoughts. In order to placate her nerves and not having any frame of reference to go off, I said, “you’re good at that. It was… nice?”
At my admission, Loony, happily leaned forward with her ears flopped forward and nuzzled me. As she did so she quietly said, “well, if thou art lucky, We shall do so again.” She then returned to her cushion beside me, the slightest of red to her pleased face, and looked to the surrounding ponies.
Apparently, they’d all been stunned to silence during the dare and were just now escaping their stupor. Pinkie was the first to comment saying, “wowee, you really went to town Princess.” It didn’t seem like it was that difficult.
Her sister then turned to the group and with a slight giggle said, “well, it is not the first time my sister has tried such advances.”
That elicited an “ooooo” from the assembled ponies.
Loony just took it on the chin, cleared her throat and changed the subject. “Ah, who’s turn is it? Oh yes, ‘tis ours.” She then leaned forward and spun the bottle. So, do I not get to dare anyone then? Fine, Loony can have my go. She was forced to kiss me after all. Looking across at the smug Rainbow, I couldn’t help wishing I’d gotten to dare her to kiss Applejack or something.
As the bottle spun, there was the familiar sight of magic affecting its spin. This time however, the magic was that of the navy pegacorn. Seems Sunny isn’t the only one willing to cheat at this. The bottle still put up a good show of spinning fairly, but inevitably landed exactly where my friend desired it. Right upon her sister. This is probably revenge for her earlier comments.
Celestia, just raised an eyebrow knowingly before saying, “Dare.”
At that, Loony opened her mouth, but hesitated at the very last second. She was probably hoping for truth or something.
Another light giggle escaped Sunny before she said, “come on sister, you clearly want to dare me.” That’s probably to highlight her knowledge of Luna’s cheating.
“Thine earlier words gave Us an idea, buuut it seems a little too… outlandish,” Luna admitted. she’s probably been holding onto this one for a while then. You’d think she’d have just gone straight for it. Suppose Rainbow’s dare does seem to have left her in a bit of a funny mood.
Rather unexpectedly Sunny began mimicking Luna’s speech in reply, “Sister, thine puny dares could do nothing to affect Our royal person in the past.” Celestia might have actually spoke like that 1000years ago. Wonder what I spoke like back then?
The light mocking of her speech patterns, caused the Moon Princess to lose her indecision and immediately straighten up upon her cushion. “Now thou have done it sister. We hope thou art prepared for something earth shattering.”
“Thou cannot shake Us sister,” Sunny said, continuing her good-natured teasing.
Loony didn’t seem to think so, as she began narrowing her eyes. “Can we not? Then how about this, a dare for thou to complete tomorrow.” Wait, Sunny did say something about dares lasting more than a day, didn’t she?
Sunny seemed to lose some of her assuredness, but did not back down. “If it interferes with my duties, you would have to step in.” At least she’s stopped mimicking Loony’s accent.
“That shall be fine,” Loony said swiftly agreeing to the terms, before extending her wings and almost shouting, “We decree, that thou shalt allow Pinkie pie to… use Discord’s zipper on thou for a few hours tomorrow day.”
The response was immediate. Each and every being, including myself, cried out, “What!”
Twilight, the still being the voice of reason, then overshadowed the rest of us by saying, “I haven’t had time to figure out how dangerous that thing is. It could have any number of side effects on both ponies.” This is one of those moments where things have gone way too far. There must be some sort of veto system in this game, otherwise you could dare people to commit crimes or even murders.
Everyone present was clearly horrified, all except for one. “Lulu, it seems you will have to cover day court, because you, are, on,” Sunny declared before turning to the group with a smile, “I would not want to lose an eye or anything.” I’m never going to live that down.
Without even pausing to take a breath, Sunny then flicked the bottle. The two sisters both shared a knowing look, as the bottle spun with the slightest of golden glows. To everyone’s surprise, but mine, Luna’s and Celestia’s, the bottle landed upon the navy pegacorn.
Without leaving eye contact with her sister, Loony firmly said, “Dare.” I really don’t like where this is going.
“Tit for tat,” Celestia began before leaning closer to her sister, “your dare, will be to eat some poison joke. Eclipse has plenty within his bedroom.” You can’t make her eat poison!
For the second time, to everyone’s surprise Loony said, “foals play, We accept thy pitiful challenge.” She then without skipping a beat flicked the bottle, which immediately landed on Celestia. Something tells me this is going to end with the two of them rolling around on the floor. Would that count as a civil war?
Before the nation could be torn in two, Twilight rapidly clopped her forehooves together and said, “okay, okay, we should probably put an end to the game before it gets out of hoof. No sense going crazy, right? Heh.” She finished by looking nervously between the two diarchs, who were both still staring at each other.
Gradually, the stares started to soften and a light chuckle could be heard from the two. Celestia then broke the impromptu staring contest and turned to her student. “What do you have in mind, my faithful student?”
Seeing the now calm demeanour the pegacorns now possessed, the little unicorn took a calming breath, before reaching for a small book. “Well, we’d completed most of the events Slumber 101 talks about before you arrived.” She winced a little at the admission. Not sure why though, we were pretty late. She quickly recovered however when she started flicking through the pages. “The only thing left is, well, a pillow fight. We should probably skip that one.” I think that’s for the best.
Sadly, one particular pegasus didn’t pay attention to the end of Twilight’s words. “Oh yeah, Let’s go,” Rainbow called out while taking to the air with her pillow in tow. A moment later, said pillow was bouncing off of my helmet and landing just in front of me. “Ha, ten points.”
That sort of opened the flood gates really. Each pony took their own pillow and scattered to the far sides of the library, probably hoping to avoid instantly losing the game. On that note, I looked over to Rainbows expended munition. Welp, there’s only one thing for it. “Oh no, I’m dead,” I announced while simultaneously falling to pieces upon both my pillow and the spare. Now I don’t have to do anything but watch, perfect.
A loud “Noooo,” echoed from behind my prone form. Almost at the same time, a glowing blue pillow, flew overhead and collided with Rainbows stomach, knocking the wind out of her. “Thy honour hast been avenged,” Loony proudly declared before again wielding her weapon in the rooms centre. “Come all who dare face the wrath of the night.” Well, this is hardly fair. She did face down Discord.
For how impressively ‘the night’ was standing, it was a little anticlimactic what happened next. From directly behind her, a fluffy pink pillow flew and impaled itself upon her horn. The remnants of a golden aura quickly fading from it. With the slightest groan of disappointment, Loony laid on the ground beside me and said, “wo is me, We are also slain.”
Standing over Luna’s now prone form, was her victorious sister, who only let out a light giggle, before galloping after her fearful student.
Seeing as the two of us were now out of the fight, I quietly said, “at least we got to die together,” while pushing my spare pillow under Loony’s head.
She only smiled back and said, “indeed,” before continuing to watch the unfolding chaos.
Said chaos, involved the remaining elements rallying together and teaming up against their all-powerful ruler. It wasn’t long before they managed to lay low the sun beast, as they each possessed a pillow, the kryptonite of everyone here. The moment she fell, the remaining Elements started to celebrate their victory together, right up until a certain party pony wapped Twilight in the face and called out, “let anarchy reign!”
By the end of the chaos, only one pony remained standing, that being Applejack. She went to start celebrating, before being lightly tapped from behind by the last pony anyone expected to be an assassin, Fluttershy. The last act of the ground pony, was to stare in disbelief, before begrudgingly rolling over and sticking her legs in the air. That sort of proves that it’s always the quiet ones who get ya. At least now all the running about is over.
With the game over, everyone rolled back to their hooves and congratulated Fluttershy for her super cheap victory. At least with her victory, we can bring this party to a close. As if almost hearing my thoughts, Twilight then turned to the group and said, “excellent effort everypony, let’s have another round.” Her words were met by a chorus of cheers as I could only sigh. It all brings home time.
We ended up playing another three rounds. For the first, I teamed up with Loony and made a real good go of it, right up until she decided it would be funny to betray me. The second, where I immediately gunned for Loony and we both took each other out. Then there was the final, which was my proudest moment of cheating.
In each round, the horned members of our group would try to catch pillows and sometimes even produce magical shields. Well, my idea was to form as many pillows from my mist as possible, and try to throw them like a comfortable cluster bomb. My plan ended the round almost immediately, penetrating all defences and taking out everyone, (including myself).
As the round was declared a draw, Sunny popped up from under the pile of maybe five pillows, and looked at the collapsed ponies around her. “It appears everypony is quite tired. Twilight, that marks your slumber party as a great success.” I probably should get rid of all of these pillows.
The official host of the party, now no longer obscured by pillows, nodded in agreement before smiling to her friends. “It went a little smoother than the last one.”
Both Rarity and Applejack seemed to nod emphatically at that. Seems they don’t have the most luck with these sorts of parties.
As they continued to laugh and joke amongst themselves, an important question came to my mind. “Sooo, was that the last thing we had to endu- enjoy?”
The tired gazes of each of the ponies clearly aligned with my point that the party had reached its natural conclusion. For a moment I thought something else was going to extend this event when Twilight reached for her book. Thankfully, she flipped to the final page and said, “yes that’s it. All that’s left is to complete the slumber part of the party. Okay girls, get out your sleeping bags.”
With that, each of the ponies moved over to various bags they’d brought and began getting out various supplies meant for sleeping. Even the two royals had some, with sun and moon patterns on because of course they did.
As each of them began rolling out their respective sleeping cocoons, it steadily dawned upon me that I didn’t have one, because why would I? “Erm, Twilight, you wouldn’t happen to have a large spare I could borrow?”
From her position by her friends, the little unicorn looked up at me in slight confusion. “Did Princess Luna not tell you to bring one.”
A slight distance away, Loony bit her lip, before getting into her own bag. Seems she forgot to mention another thing. As she made herself comfortable, she looked at the other ponies, snuggling into their own makeshift beds and beckoned me over with a hoof. “It does not matter, Our sleeping bag is plenty large enough for thou to squeeze in.” That does seem to be true, her bag seems to be even larger than Sunny’s. Still, it would probably be tight.
The flipping of pages in another book drew my attention. “Hmm, maybe a duplication spell wo…” Twilight began, before suddenly stopping mid-sentence. A golden aura surrounding her mouth. If I could have raised an eyebrow, I would have.
Seeing as no other solution presented itself, Loony again tried to advertise her makeshift sleeping arrangement. “Come, there is plenty of room.” The way she looked at me while saying that was a little strange. She had a nice smile, but her eyes had a strange affect to them. All she’d done was partially close them, but it felt like she was trying to communicate a sort of desire towards me.
“Well, if you’re okay with it, sure.” Seems she really wants to be the one to help me out. Suppose that’s what friends are for.
This did however leave me with a slight conundrum. Loony was already within the bag, pocking her head and forehooves out the top expectantly. Said appendages were kind of blocking my access. “Is there any way you can budge up?”
“Mmm, sadly no,” the pegacorn said while appearing to stretch out further for a second. Seems she wants this to be as difficult as possible. Oh well, she asked for it I suppose. Turning my rear to the bags entrance, I carefully inserted both of my rear shoes and gracelessly started to back into the bag. The shoes slid in almost no problem, but the rest of me was still pretty large, forcing me to have to awkwardly worm each piece individual piece past Luna’s lightly giggling head.
It was practically impossible not to bump into her each time a piece of me entered and when my form joined hers within the bag, we were practically pressed together. Pressed so close in fact, that my chest piece slightly engulfed her chest. She seemed to welcome the contact and even wormed her own wings around me, shrouding me in a second cocoon of soft feathers.
As we were both stuck facing each other, she looked into my eyes and basically stated, “Cozy?” like it was impossible for it to be untrue.
To be honest, it really is nice and warm in here with her. Not to mention the fact I basically have free reign to touch her soft fur. With that in mind, I gently petted Luna’s side before saying, “Sure.” The happy hum my shoes elicited would have brought a smile to my blank faceplate.
In between the humming, Loony turned to the other ponies in the room, who’d long since gotten comfortable and said, “We will ensure thy dreams are most sweet tonight, even thy own sister. Will we not Eclipse?” She then nuzzled me to prompt my response.
“Oh erm, I’ll try my best.” Is she talking about dream walking again?
Rather than explain further, Luna leaned forward and began using my helmet as a makeshift pillow, before whispering, “of that, We have no doubt.”
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God I love me some long chapters. Nice..nice indeed
I wish Eclipse and A.J. would just sit down and talk for goodness sake.
That said, love the new chapter and looking forward to the next one.
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I'm glad, because chapter 30 might be almost as long. :)
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I'm sure an opportunity for a nice discussion will come along at some point. :)
Most enjoyable! Thank you for writing this story :D
I feel sorry for Celestia here, she can't even go to a friend's party without putting on that diplomacy face.
Good chapter
Then the door bursts open and Cadance poked her head in. "Aunty stop! Shipping is my shtick!"
Luna pulling off so many moves on our oblivious hero. 😅
Wonder if the kiss would have gone better if she'd thought to ask Eclipse to form actual facial features? After all, it's not like it's physically limited to shaping like that only. 🤔
Surprised they didn't keep the bottle going, clearly some ponies had vendettas. 😇
You did a very good job of keeping track of everyone and not letting them vanish (except Fluttershy, but that was deliberate use of her ninja assassin skills, so it doesn't count).
The not-so-hidden shipping continues.
For being a painful chapter to write, that wasn't so bad! I know that this is already the case with a lot of "transported into Equestria" stuff but keeping the story mostly slice of life and generally believable compared to canon is appreciated.
If you want feedback on the flashback, personally what might have made it a bit weird is it's written in past tense, and then transitioned directly into the story present time, which is also written in past tense. It also might've been a bit long compared to the whole chapter for my tastes, but overall it was fine and I got the idea of it.
Looking forward to the next chapter!
Interesting, I'm wondering how you'll play it that Eclipse strikes me as pretty much ace.
Ik this is romance, but with how uninterested he is beyond making luna happy bc she's his best friend, that's the vibe lol.
another splendid chapter :D it's nice seeing eclipse get into all these antics, and the progression of his relationship with luna is just adorable as always
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I thought the flash backs overstayed their welcome a bit. There are some plans for a few in future chapters, I might just leave them out instead. Apart from one anyway.
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I'm glad people still seemed to enjoy this chapter. I was getting a bit paranoid that it was going to be a bit sub-par. :)
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Ah relationships, how do they work? I have no clue. Neither does Eclipse to be honest. :)
Ok it's cute but still Eclipse is walking suit of armor with the only thing else I can think of to describe him as is a possessing spirit and while he can feel it's not going to be the same and the others shouldn't espect it to be. Kissing metal is not likely enjoyable and his confusion on what to feel is understandable. Work around is possessing someone else since he gets true feeling from that but everyone can see the problem with that.
Lastly they REALLY need to fix the Discod zipper because that it horrendously dangerous if anyone can just control one of the strongest being's by crawling into her back while she's asleep. Or say another magic consuming spirit the author has already hinted at that may or may not have escaped the void and into the dream realm
At first I thought I would like this story but I'm glad that I was wrong. It's very enjoyable and it made laugh a few times so that a plus has well.
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I thought that was going the other way for a second there. The start of the story is still a bit janky, but I like to think it shows how my writing has improved over the year.
Anyways, glad you're enjoying it. The next chapter's coming on the 6th of December.
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Me too! Do you have any recommendations? Cuz I’ve been searching for days with no luck.
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Here's a few Luna/Nightmare Moon related ones.
Substitute demon
Finding Artemis
I am the Nightmare! and so is Luna?
Time & a half, what a nightmare
Lunar Soul
The Evil Paradox
There's probably more, but my memory sucks.
I finished all 29 chapters available within 2 days in one go, and barely slept during the night
, this is just so amazing, especially the relationship between eclipse and Luna, every little cute interaction between them just makes me smile.Can’t wait for the next chapter!
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I hope you remembered to take breaks for meals. :)
Anyways, if you're interested in continuing your binge, the next chapter is coming tomorrow.
anarchy rein
Not sure if that is a horse pun or a typo.
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Can it be both, considering who said it?
I'll fix that when I get home tomorrow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5yk1sYqcq4&ab_channel=Belak
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Cheers, I've made those corrections. :)
Magnificent chapter!
RD was a ass all night long ,but all was well in the end.
Fluttershy assassination movements are to cute for her target to not coohing at their slayer
Eclipse needs someone body borrowed for snuggeling with Luna, a Changeling would be best I think ♡
camo.fimfiction.net/HGKOVNTrPh_dQIegq-4XQTTfq37sBPSPcGN3_7ZAMFg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fderpicdn.net%2Fimg%2Fview%2F2014%2F7%2F10%2F671941.gif
Pillow fight? We need more pink! Like that:
Cadance missed a great pillow fight