Our Winter Story

by Meteor_Mirage

Chapter 6 - Romp

While the Canterlot Academy campus was briefly lit up by their conversation of spell slots and party compositions, the two stallions’ lively chat quickly tapered off as they reached their destination.

The problem came when they arrived at Ms. Copper Vase’s classroom, the home for any Ogres and Oubliettes playing at Canterlot Academy, only to see two stallions had gotten there before them.

The first was a light grey pegasus who stood over a large table sitting at the center of the classroom, setting up a few chairs for the players as well as maps, dice, figures, and other Dungeoneering Supplies.

The other was sat in one of the seats set up, a bright orange unicorn with familiar white markings who seemed more interested with the sheets sat in front of him than anything his friend was doing.

But both of them looked up at Shining and Sunburst as they graced the doorway to the classroom.

Shining entered first, a large grin on his face as he quickly removed his saddlebag and tossed it onto the table. “Boys! It is time to induct another young adventurer into our troupe of merry stallions!” Turning to Sunburst behind him, Shining gestured to him broadly and with more theatrics than expected. “This… is Sunburst. And this is his first O&O experience, so please go easy on him.”

Sunburst gave a quick, shy wave as he cautiously entered the room to stick very close to Shining.

“And Sunburst, these are our more seasoned adventurers. First, we have our trusty 8-Bit.” Shining gestured towards the grey pegasus. “Never misses a session, unlike someponies, but always manages to make the strangest characters.”

“There was nothing wrong with my kobold barbarian, you’re just wrong in general.” 8-Bit scowled over at Shining, but as his gaze turned to Sunburst his expression warmed and he waved kindly. “Hiya, Sunburst. I’d say I’ve only heard good things, but I don’t think Shining said anything about you.”

“Obviously, I’ve just been prepping him in secret, just like whatever horror you’ve cooked up for tonight’s one-shot.” Shining’s eyes narrowed at 8-Bit for a moment, but he quickly moved onto gesturing towards the other stallion. “And this is Gaffer. Used to be our Forever DM, but today is finally letting someone else give it a go.”

Gaffer shrugged, an easy grin pulling across his face. “I wouldn’t have to do it if you guys were better at it! I mean, remember when Gizmo gave it a go?” The orange stallion shuddered, then looked onto Sunburst with a smirk. “Aaaanyway, good to meet you, Sunburst! Nice to finally meet another dappled stallion in the wild.”

Sunburst blushed at all of this sudden attention, looking down towards his dappled hooves and shifting uncomfortably on them for a moment. “Oh, um, it’s nice to meet you both. I hope you don’t mind my joining today.”

“Oh, ‘course they don’t mind.” Shining said with a laugh, clapping him gently on the shoulder. “So, how’s about we get started? I’m sure you’re all interested in what I’ve cooked up.”

Sunburst breathed a sigh of relief at that.

The stallions all gathered around the table, 8-Bit and Sunburst finding their seats next to Gaffer while Shining took his behind the DM screen at the head of the table.

As the other three stallions began to set out various dice trays, dice, sheets of paper, and cards, Sunburst looked on with both vested interest and discomfort as he had little to do.

That was, at least, until 8-Bit looked over at him and slid over a small tray with glittering blue dice.

“Shining didn’t even get you a set of dice?” 8-Bit asked, a glint in his purple eyes as he smirked. “What a dork!”

“That’s King Dork to you, 8-Bit.” Shining sighed as he moved papers around behind his screen. “So, I think the best way to start off is introduce your characters, then we can go from there. Sunny, as our newest member, would you like to go first?”

“Oh, um, sure.” Sunburst mumbled as he stared down at his character sheet, all knowledge of what was on it disappearing as soon as Shining asked the question. “Well, um, I’m playing an Elf-Unicorn Paladin named-”

“Hold on, hold on.” Gaffer interrupted the nervous unicorn as he spoke, waving a hoof. “Hate to say it, but that’s not quite how we do things around here.”

8-Bit nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I wouldn’t say we’re, like, a roleplay-heavy group or anything. But we do try to get into character a little bit.” Thinking for a moment, putting a hoof to his chin, he hummed. “Like, for example…”

8-Bit’s relaxed posture shifted, instead sitting up straight in his chair and glaring down at the other ponies at the table, a smug smirk pulling across his face. “My name is Proufessour Couttenswourth the Gilded.” He said tersely, his voice rough and affected with an overly exaggerated Trottingham accent. “My single goal is to find popularity for my work and then, perhaps, regard those beneath me as irrelevant.”

“More like Cottonsworth the Gelded.” Gaffer snickered to himself, the rest of the table rolling their eyes. “As for myself…”

To contrast 8-Bit, Gaffer instead curled in on himself. Leaning forwards in his seat, he looked between Sunburst and 8-Bit quickly. “The name’s Scratch, and that’s what I’m tryin’ to make.” He said, his words quick with a nervous energy and tainted by a Manehattan-esque accent. “Get in the way of that, and you’re gonna get The Claws.” As he said that, he whipped his hooves out in such a way to symbolize sharp claws.

And now, all eyes fell on Sunburst, who was torn between cringing hard at this or rushing out of the room with his tail between his legs. But, as he turned to look at Shining, seeing the stallion’s soft and calming smile as he gestured Sunburst on, he began to feel at least a little bit calmer.

Sunburst took a breath, breathing in deep as he puffed out his chest. He looked at the two characters before him and let out a small sigh. “I’m, uh, Glittering Shield.” He said, making an attempt to bring his voice down lower. “I guess I’m… mostly trying to protect as many ponies as possible?”

There was a moment of silence as Gaffer and 8-Bit looked at each other.

But then both nodded in approval simultaneously, assuaging any of Sunburst’s fear.

“Awesome! With that, let’s get into tonight’s game.” Shining said, grinning over at Sunburst with all of his pride. “So, the three of you begin your adventure in a tavern, called by a mysterious stallion…”

---

Hours later, after a series of adventures and misadventures between the four stallions, the session of fun and merriment finally drew to a close.

Gaffer and 8-Bit were the first to leave after, both citing the fact that they’d been the ones to set up for reason to leave before cleaning. This just left Shining and Sunburst alone to take care of it.

Not that either stallion minded a bit.

Sunburst hummed gently to himself as he wiped down the table they were using of crumbs, soda residue, and various other stains. As he did that, Shining was gently putting away all of the O&O supplies back in the locked cabinets of Ms. Copper Vase’s classroom.

“So…” Shining started as he cradled the large minifigure of a Tarrasque, moving it also to the locked cabinets. “Did you have fun?”

Sunburst jumped a bit at the question, but was unable to keep the shy grin from his face. “Of course! It, um, started off a bit weird, but I definitely enjoyed myself!” He giggled gleefully, tapping his hooves on the table. “I’d be happy to join again if you guys are interested.”

Sitting down opposite Sunburst, Shining shot him a grin. “Well yeah! You're totally one of us now!” Shining giggled himself, grinning even wider at Sunburst. “I mean, you were even the one to solve my Soup Puzzle. And you were only slightly weirded out when the shopkeeper started to flirt with you.”

Sunburst let out a surprised little laugh. “W-well, we really did need those discounts.” He smiled nervously, scratching the back of his neck. “It was a bit… interesting to be able to flirt with someone for once. Even if I knew it wouldn’t really fail.”

Shining hummed. “Well, it still musta been weird to flirt at me, even if I was playing a mare.”

“Oh no, I, um…” Sunburst stared down at his hooves, returning to tapping them on the table’s surface nervously. “I didn’t mind it.”

A slightly tense silence formed between the two stallions for a moment, Sunburst looking away from Shining with a blush while Shining stared pensively at Sunburst.

Taking a breath to calm the tension, Shining leaned in towards Sunburst. “Sunny, are you-”

“Into stallions?” Sunburst interrupted tersely, his lips pursed. But he let out a sigh a moment later, his shoulders slumping and ears folding back. “I mean, I guess? It’s… not something I’ve put a lot of thought into. But I suppose I’ve always found stallions a bit.. enticing?”

“I know what you mean.” Shining said simply, smiling a small, shy smile at Sunburst.

Sunburst blinked. “You, um… you do?”

“I do! I’ve, uh- Well, there’s been a few stallions I’ve liked in the past.” Shining said nervously, briefly looking away from Sunburst with a blush. But, he turned back to look Sunburst in the eyes moments later. “Recently there’s been a certain stallion who I’ve, uh…”

Trailing his sentence off uncomfortably, Shining hid his face in his hooves and groaned rather than finish it. “Ugh, this is so dumb. I’m gonna start over.” Taking a deep breath, then letting it out as a sigh, Shining removed his face from his hooves to look at a blushing Sunburst once again. “Sunny, I like you. And I like spending time with you. I dunno if you’d be interested, but I’d really like to go to that bookstore with you again, and maybe, I dunno, grab some lunch after?”

“Y-yes!” Sunburst said almost immediately, his face lighting with an even brighter blush. “Yes, yes, absolutely yes. We can even go to that cafe I told you about. They have a very lovely hayfry recipe.”

“Just let me order my own coffee this time?” Shining asked with a soft chuckle. His posture relaxed considerably as he leaned back in his chair, breathing out a heavy sigh. “That was way easier than I thought it would be.”

Sunburst opened his mouth to respond in kind, but was interrupted by a flash of green light between them.

From nowhere, green dragonfire briefly plumed in front of Shining Armor. It circled for a moment, then took form into the shape of a simple scroll wrapped in blue cloth.

In contrast to Sunburst’s clear shock at these events, Shining simply took the note in hoof and read its contents.

‘mom says bring home eggs’

Laughing a bit, Shining quickly scribbled out a response on the same paper and sent it off with another plume of fire. “Well, I guess Twily’s home.”

Still staring in shock, Sunburst finally managed to tear his eyes away from where the fire had appeared and looked over to Shining. “Your sister is quite theatrical with her messaging, isn’t she?”

Shining tilted his head questioningly at that, but quickly brightened as he realized what Sunburst meant. “Oh no! She just sends all her messages through our littlest brother!”

Sunburst blinked again. “So your little sister, you’ve said, is strong enough to break special-grade curses. Meanwhile your even younger brother can seemingly apport objects with dragonfire?” Shaking his head, Sunburst fought back the urge to laugh. “You have quite the interesting family, Shining.”

“Yep, I really do.” Shining said, flashing a large and prideful grin. “Hey, if you ever wanna meet them, you could always come over for dinner some day!”

At that, Sunburst briefly blushed hard enough to momentarily fry his brain.

Taking no notice, Shining Armor stood from his seat and quickly shook off the aches and pains of a long night of dungeon crawling. “Well, I should probably hit up the shops before they close. Want me to walk you back to your dorm?”

Standing as well, Sunburst was mostly thankful for the quick change in subject. “Oh, no. I couldn’t possibly take up more of your time.” Slowly approaching the door, though not a part of him wanting to leave yet, he looked back at Shining with a soft smile. “I had a lot of fun tonight. I’ll, um, see you tomorrow?”

Shining Armor beamed. “Totally! I hope you walk safe.”

---

Not too many minutes later, after his quick detour to the shopping district, Shining Armor finally arrived home with a sigh.

He wasted no time in dropping off his package of eggs on the kitchen counter, dodging most attempts for his mother to ask how his day went. Normally he’d wish to chat with her for at least an hour or two, especially about tonight, but he couldn’t waste the time.

No, he had promises to fulfill.

In the bedroom down the hall, the one opposite his own, he could already feel the thrumming sense of arcane potential emanating from it. One that had been missing for so long.

Twilight really was home.

Quickly grabbing Sunburst’s cloak, sealed tight in plastic wrap, from his own room, Shining moved to knock on his little sister’s door.

And, after a moment, he knocked again.

And again a moment later.

“I’m coming!” Twilight cried through the door, though Shining only began to hear movement quite a few moments later.

The sound of lightly stomping hooves soon followed, so angry and yet… so adorable as they tried to make that anger known. Shining had to fight off the urge to giggle as only a true big brother could.

The door opened, just a crack, and Twilight peered one purple eye out. “What do you want?”

To this, Shining simply smiled down at his little sister. “What, can’t an older brother just welcome his favorite little sis home?”

Twilight rolled her eyes, her expression remaining neutral. “I’m your only little sister, Shining.”

“I dunnoooo~” Shining said coyly. “I’ve seen how you and Spike like to dress up! Maybe he could be my favorite little sister instead.”

This brought a smile, though very small, to Twilight’s face. She may have still rolled her eyes, but she pulled the door open to fully regard her older brother.

Only to recoil as she saw what he carried with him. “Oh, dear Celestia, what is that?” She asked as she leaned away, then leaned forwards to inspect the packaged cloak on Shining’s back.

“Heh, figures you could already tell.” Shining laughed slightly. “A friend of mine got himself cursed, and I was hoping you could do me a favor…?”

Twilight’s eyes remained locked on the package. “Favors come free. You know my price by now.”

Shining sighed, rolling his eyes. “Two books.”

“Three.” Twilight responded, smugly smirking up at her older brother. “Or you can find another unicorn strong enough to break curses.”

“Two books.” Shining repeated, a bit sterner this time. “Aaaand I’ll take you and Spike out for ice cream this weekend.”

Twilight thought on this for a moment, really considering the offer and any wagers she could make.

“Deal.” She finally decided, the lure of free ice cream far stronger than anything she could have asked for. “Give it here, and I’ll see what I can do.”

“You’re a lifesaver, Twi.” Shining smiled as he hoofed over the cursed cloak. Though, as it passed into Twilight’s possession, his smile took on an air of unease. “Just, you know, be careful.”

This earned him another eye roll from Twilight. “I know what I’m doing!” She grumbled, then turned her attention to the cloak itself. She inspected it with great interest, poking at it through its plastic prison. “It’s a pretty tight curse. The pony who made it, whoever they were, definitely knew what they were doing.”

Her eyes narrowed briefly, then her expression changed momentarily to one Shining couldn’t quite discern.

Twilight quickly pulled the cloak into her room, sliding it out of view as she forced a smile up at Shining. “I’ll, uh, I’ll take care of it!” She said.

And then she stepped back and slammed the door between her and Shining.

Shining blinked briefly, then pressed himself closer to the door. “Thank you, Twilight!” He cried.

Comments

[Mix-up]

Still a fun story, looking forward where this leads to.

[DiscordantDisciple]

This story is the sweetest slice of sunshine on this site

[Bicyclette]

“More like Cottonsworth the Gelded.”

gottem

And now, all eyes fell on Sunburst, who was torn between cringing hard at this or rushing out of the room with his tail between his legs. But, as he turned to look at Shining, seeing the stallion’s soft and calming smile as he gestured Sunburst on, he began to feel at least a little bit calmer.

embrace the cringe Sunburst! eat the cringe!

Sunburst took a breath, breathing in deep as he puffed out his chest. He looked at the two characters before him and let out a small sigh. “I’m, uh, Glittering Shield.” He said, making an attempt to bring his voice down lower. “I guess I’m… mostly trying to protect as many ponies as possible?”

Sunburst might be just as bad as Shining Armor at subtlety

Shining hummed. “Well, it still musta been weird to flirt at me, even if I was playing a mare.”

hehe ok Shining might be better at subtlety than i thought

Trailing his sentence off uncomfortably, Shining hid his face in his hooves and groaned rather than finish it. “Ugh, this is so dumb. I’m gonna start over.” Taking a deep breath, then letting it out as a sigh, Shining removed his face from his hooves to look at a blushing Sunburst once again. “Sunny, I like you. And I like spending time with you. I dunno if you’d be interested, but I’d really like to go to that bookstore with you again, and maybe, I dunno, grab some lunch after?”

i was worried Shining was gonna stop short of confessing so i am glad he did not!

From nowhere, green dragonfire briefly plumed in front of Shining Armor. It circled for a moment, then took form into the shape of a simple scroll wrapped in blue cloth.

In contrast to Sunburst’s clear shock at these events, Shining simply took the note in hoof and read its contents.

‘mom says bring home eggs’

ahaha, Shining Armor’s life really is just extra magical and weird compared to Sunburst’s

Twilight’s eyes remained locked on the package. “Favors come free. You know my price by now.”

Shining sighed, rolling his eyes. “Two books.”

“Three.” Twilight responded, smugly smirking up at her older brother. “Or you can find another unicorn strong enough to break curses.”

auauagh i love this

Her eyes narrowed briefly, then her expression changed momentarily to one Shining couldn’t quite discern.

Twilight quickly pulled the cloak into her room, sliding it out of view as she forced a smile up at Shining. “I’ll, uh, I’ll take care of it!” She said.

ooh mysterious… i would wonder if Twilight was the one to make the curse if the timing made sense at all