Twilight's Friends come to visit her at the castle and end up being the ones surprised.
Twilight, thanks to her new royalty, has been in Canterlot very often recently. In fact, for the past two months she hasn't been able to make the trip to Ponyville.
Though, she has wrote them all plenty, her friends all want to see her. With this thought, the five close friends head out to surprise the new princess.
However, they may very well end up to be the ones who get surprised.
The mane six are obviously in here but I cannot put that tag up thanks to limitations.
Mornings in Canterlot castle are normally a very quiet affair, the only ponies truly awake being the royal pony sisters.
Having just brought about the morning, Celestia was making her way to have breakfast with her sister Luna. They always made sure to at least have breakfast and dinner together, even if one of them is always tired during the meals.
As she made her way to where her sister waited, she came across a peculiar sight: five of the elements of harmony were in the middle of a hall bickering.
"I'm telling you it's that way," Rainbow Dash argued as she pointed one way.
"And Ah'm telling you that it was this way," argued Applejack while pointing the opposite direction.
Rarity held a hoof to her chin as she spoke. "I'm quite certain she had mentioned it being on the other side of the castle."
Fluttershy looked as though she was trying to get a word in; however, due to how quiet she was being, even Celestia's enhanced hearing couldn't make out what she was attempting to say.
Pinkie, on the other hoof, wasn't giving any advice or directions; she was waving at Celestia. As Celestia neared the group, they finally took notice of her and gave a quick, informal bow, having long since grown used to the diarch. "Hello my little ponies.”
"Mornin' princess," Applejack said, nodding her hat. "We were just lookin' fer Twi's room."
Rarity nodded in agreement. "Indeed we were. Pinkie convinced us all to give a surprise visit to her," she explained as Pinkie nodded vigorously. "However, we seem to be lost as it t'wer."
Celestia gave a light chuckle. "Would you like some directions to her room?" A series of nods answered her question.
After giving the five mares directions and a promise of a lunch together, Celestia had left once again to meet with her sister. When she entered the dining room, the table was already set and her sister was staring at her mug of coffee, which was a gift she had obtained from a traveling magic show. Sitting directly across from her sister, Celestia used a little of her magic to bring herself over some tea and waffles, her magic ensuring they were the optimal temperature.
"I am sorry for being late. I came across a few ponies that needed assistance," she explained.
"There were ponies that needed assistance this early?" Luna asked.
"Indeed," Celestia said as she sipped her tea. "The element bearers came to surprise Twilight and got lost in the halls."
Luna nodded her head. "I can understand that. It took me a good month to memories this castle." A sigh escaped her lips. 'The old one was so much simpler. Greater defenses and less secret passages,' she thought. Luna had always had a passion for strategizing and was let down by just how open this new castle was, especially to airborne attacks.
Luna was brought back from her thoughts as recalled something her sister had said. "You said that Twilight's friends have come to surprise her?" she asked as worry crept into her voice.
"Yes. Why? Is there something wrong?” Celestia asked with a brow raised.
Being the mistress of the night meant that Luna was privy to many things that the casual pony, or even her sister, was not. “No, no. Just… I’ll be right back.” With that Luna teleported away, leaving her sister alone.
Celestia gave a small chuckle and shook her head. ’Well, more waffles for me I suppose,’ she thought as she levitated Luna’s untouched waffles towards herself.
Luna appeared in front of Twilight's room just as the young princess' five friends turned the corner. The sudden sight of the rarely seen princess of the night caused the five mares to stop. When no pony spoke, Pinkie took it upon herself to break the silence. "Hiya Luna! Are you here to surprise Twi too?"
With the silence broken, Luna remembered her reason for coming. "Ah. Well, I wished to talk to you all about that. Twilight... has been under a lot of stress recently, so I believe it would be best to leave her be until at least after noon," Luna lied, with a too large smile.
Applejack eyed her curiously, the lie plain as day. "Well, Princess, that's part of the reason we came. If she is so stressed, then we plan to help her relax the best we can," she explained as she started moving forward.
Realizing that she had just attempted to lie to the element of honesty herself, Luna moved out of the way and shrugged. 'Well, I tried. Not very hard, I admit, but I tried. They were going to find out one day anyhow.' She internally giggled when she thought of what the five mares faces would look like when they opened the door. 'Good luck, Twilight. You might need it.'
Luna's eyes went wide as she remembered what she had left behind in the dining room, and more importantly, with whom she had left it. "My waffles!" she shouted aloud as she teleported away. The five mares stood in confused silence, staring at where the alicorn had just been standing.
Rainbow Dash was the first to speak, successfully saying what was on all of their minds, "What?"
After a moment they all decided to just treat it as they would a Pinkie moment. Meaning they ignored it and promptly moved on. Opening the door, they peered inside. To say they were surprised at what they saw would be an understatement.
Twilight was in the most comfortable slumber she could remember. Her pillow being just the right mixture of soft, firm, and warm, making it the greatest pillow she had ever had. She was also surrounded by some of the most comfortable heaters she had ever been lucky enough to have.
She could have stayed like this all day if not for the pervading light that hit her eyes. With a groan, she shut her eyes tighter and tried to will it away. When it persisted, she attempted to convince her pillow to stop it. “Mphmi.” she mumbled to her pillow. The pillow didn’t react. Trying once again, she called out to her pillow. “Trixie.”
A small groan came from the pillow, telling Twilight that she had, at the least, been heard. Adjusting her head slightly she poked Trixie with her horn. “Trix.” Another poke and another groan. “Trixie. Go vanquish the light.”
A mumble came, followed by more mumbles that at least sounded like words. “Mhmi nus nh hanhi heho nw.”
"Trixiiie," Twilight nearly whined as she followed up with another poke, finally drawing an understandable answer from the mare, albeit not the one she wanted.
“Trixie does not vanquish before noon.” With that, Trixie fell back into both her slumber and self-appointed role as Twilight’s great and comfortable pillow.
The light continued to intrude upon Twilight’s sleep. Looking behind her, she found herself being used as a pillow, much as she had been using Trixie, so she decided to try again.
“Tavi?” Nothing. “Tavi, turn off the light, please.” Nothing aside from a slight stir.
’Ugh. Such a heavy sleeper,’ Twilight thought before trying her next option, who was being used as a teddy by Trixie. “Hey Vin-“ she stopped as she put more thought into her current option. ’She sleeps harder than Tavi.’
With a sigh, Twilight turned to her final option. She really didn’t want to go with this route since it would mean losing her amazing barrel warmer and current snuggle buddy.
“Finn?” Using her wing, Twilight poked at the mare.
“Finny?” Once more and she finally got a groggy response, but a response nonetheless.
“Ja?” The mare answered, her eyes still not open.
“Could you get the…” Twilight trailed off as she looked for where the light was coming from. “The door. Pleeeeease?”
With a yawn Twilight was answered. “Ja, ja. I vill.”
After a few steps, she finally made it to the door and was about to close it when she opened her eyes a bit more and found somepony familiar on the other side. “Ah. Hallo, Flootershy.”
Broken from a stupor, Fluttershy answered. “H-hello. Photo Finish. Um. How are you doing?” Fluttershy asked, unable to think of anything else.
Photo Finish turned her head slightly to look back at the bed. “Gut. Guten nacht, Flootershy,” she said as she sleepily shut the door and went back to the bed.
Finding her place in the bed again, she snuggled up to Twilight’s warm body.
Twilight noticed she no longer had to clamp her eyes shut and that Photo had returned. With a nuzzle and kiss to her cheek, she thanked the mare and put one of her warm wings over her as an extra thanks, quickly falling asleep.
On the other side of the door sat five very confused mares. They had just seen their friend surrounded by mares. They had suspected their friend swung that way, but to say that this confirmed their suspicions was like saying a toaster that had exploded into pieces was out of order.
“Do any of you think they’re still serving breakfast?” Rarity asked the group, never taking her eyes off the door.
“That sounds like a fine idea,” Applejack agreed, prompting the others to nod their heads in agreement, Pinkie being the only exception as she drew up party plans for Twilight and her mares. With that, they made their way to the dining room, hoping that the princesses had a left some food for them. They would deal with all this later.
Twilight was making her way towards the dining room followed by her four mares. One of which lie over the back of Octavia still asleep. This was a normal thing for Vinyl though and gave none of them pause. Around this time of the day, the dining room was usually quite empty. This was perfect for Twilight’s entourage. However, they all froze when they opened the large doors to find Twilight’s fellow elements of harmony all sitting on one side of the table along with both of the royal pony sisters sitting on each far end. Luna waving sheepishly from the south end of the long table did little to help the atmosphere.
With the rising tensions, the first pony to speak was Trixie, who spoke, not to any of the ponies who were struck in silence but to the waiter who stood off to the side.
"Trixie will take some bourbon and a glass of Whiskey." The waiter jumped slightly in surprise before nodding and quickly making his way away from the tension heavy room.
With the tension slightly broken the five mares not yet seated, did so. Well, four of them did. Octavia dropped Vinyl on the pillow next to her. She tried to at least, but with a slight movement from the sleeping mare, Vinyl ended up on the floor next to the pillow. Even with a heavy impact of mare to floor, Vinyl still did not wake. After a small amount of time, a different servant came back with Trixie's drinks. Trixie passed the glass of whiskey to Octavia, eliciting a nod of thanks from the cellist.
Finally somepony else spoke. "So. Twilight. Are you going to introduce us to your friends?" Rarity asked, earning a scoff from Trixie.
"Trixie is no mere friend to Sparky." Trixie announced, earning a groan from Twilight.
Rainbow Dash, on the other side of the table could only mouth ‘Sparky?’ in confusion.
"Trixiiie! Why do you always call me that? You know how much it annoys me," Twilight whined.
"Because you're so cute when you’re annoyed," Trixie explained. Had Twilight been paying more attention, she would have noticed the two other conscious mares by her sides, nodding in agreement.
Heaving a sigh at the magician’s antics, Rarity was finally answered by Twilight. "Well. These-" Twilight began waving her hoof around to indicate the four mares she entered with as she had entered the room with. "-are my, heh, my marefriends." As she explained, her face turned a heavy shade of red.
All the other ponies in the room that did not have millennia of time to train their facial features had looks on their face with varying degrees of shock and surprise. Twilight could have sworn she saw a look of jealousy in the mix, but it disappeared so quickly that she figured she had simply be seeing things.
Shaking her head, Applejack spoke up, “Now, I may not know much about how things go around Canterlot but Ah’m pretty darn sure that’s not how it works. Least Ah’ve never heard of such a thing in the Apple family or Ponyville’s history.”
”Oh, but, um, herd relationships…” Fluttershy begun, only to trail off as she saw no pony was paying any attention to her.
“Aw, there’s nothing wrong with it! Silly Applejack. Most ponies only get one special somepony. Twilight has three! That’s like, triple the love!”
A cough from the other side of the table caught Pinkie’s attention. Looking over Pinkie saw a familiar looking grey earth pony pointing at the floor next to her.
Quickly, Pinkie looked under the table to see a sleeping mare that she definitely recognized. “Make that four,” Pinkie stated before looking straight at Twilight.
Twilight began to feel a bit awkward from the look Pinkie was giving her. At the least, she knew that Pinkie was happy but that large of a smile never meant too many good things.
“Twilight, you shoulda told me you were dating Scratchy!” With a gasp, Pinkie’s eyes went wider. “Now we have Scratchy and the party pony herself in one place!We could've set up such an awesome party together!"
Pinkie turned her head to the Princess’ so quickly that most of the ponies had to cringe, imagining the whiplash any normal pony would have gotten.
“Can we have a party for them!?” Pinkie asked, her eyes darting between the two princesses so quickly that they began to look less like eyes and more like blurry blue orbs. “Can we?! Can We?! Please?! I can take care of everything!” Pinkie begged with a pleading look on her face.
With a small chuckle, Celestia looked at the pink mare with a smile. “If Twilight and her herd agree to it, I shall even allow you to use the ballroom.”
If the constant jumping and rambling of plans was anything to go on, the pink party pony of Ponyville was definitely pleased by this.
With a laugh, less regal and more from the gut, Luna shook her head. “Yes, yes, Pinkie. I’m sure the party will be glorious. However, it will have to wait for a little bit. As I’m sure we are all very curious about all this,” Luna said sweeping her hoof towards Twilight.
Luna may have been privy to Twilight’s relationship, the different ways she and her mares slipped in and out of the castle at night and she herself may have been the one to place a sound proofing spell on the room some nights, but she didn’t know everything. She was quite curious about a few things. She also wanted to see how many times the new Princess would blush throughout her explanations.
Rainbow Dash was the next to speak, her voice relaying her confusion. “Wait, wait. What’s all this about a herd? I could swear I heard about that somewhere.”
Twilight, finally feeling as though she could get a word in, began to explain. “You probably heard about them in a history book back in flight school.”
“No wonder I didn’t remember. I hardly paid any attention to that class. I mean, why do I need to know about Commander Hurricane to fly?” Rainbow Dash said with a groan.
Frowning at the pegasi’s dislike of learning for the sake of learning, Twilight continued her explanation, “Yes. Well, way back when, ponies weren’t monogamous as all.” Noticing a look of confusion from the pegasus, Twilight clarified, “Ponies who are in a relationship with strictly two ponies are monogamous. Ponies in a relationship like mine are polyamorous.” Noticing a look of understanding come across Rainbow’s face, Twilight continued her earlier explanation as her frown dissipated, “Like I was saying most ponies then were polyamorous, having multiple partners. The ponies that all mated together were known as a herd.”
A heavy blush came over some of the assembled ponies. Realizing how the use of ‘mating’ in her explanation might be put to use with her own group she quickly clarified herself. “B-but that’s not necessarily how things are now. Our herd is an emotional bond, not a physical one.”
This explanation caused some of the blush on the cheeks of Twilight’s friends to dissipate.
“Oh please, Trixie knows you love what Trixie does to your horn.” With Trixie’s declaration, no pony was safe from the blush. Even the Princess’ couldn’t hold it off. Twilight’s blush was such a shade of red that Celestia made a mental note to add it to the spectrum of the sunset. She would call the shade ‘Red of Twilight’s Embarrassment’. The only two ponies not currently in slack-jawed silence were Pinkie and Octavia. While both were blushing heavily, they were also trying their best to stop the influx of giggles that were coming to them.
Realizing what she had just said in front of not only Twilight’s fellow Princess’ but all of her best friends, Trixie attempted to shrink herself away from the slack jawed expressions of the elements of harmony as well as Twilight’s intense glare but not before letting her pride speak. "Trixie does not regret what she said, she merely regrets who heard it."
“Yes. Fine. It’s both. Can we move on?” Twilight groaned out. As annoyed as she was by the embarrassing outburst Twilight was relieved to see the look of confusion had left Applejack’s face at some point and was now simply sporting the same slack-jawed look as the rest of her friends.
The number of awkward silences that happened on this day would have surely broken some equestrian record, had somepony been keeping track.
With the silence, Fluttershy took a chance to speak. “Um, Twilight?”
Startled out of her embarrassment-enhanced silence Twilight spoke slightly louder than she meant. “Yes?!” Seeing the yellow pegasus recoil from the volume Twilight internally scolded herself. “I’m sorry. How can I help you Fluttershy?”
Trying not to focus on all the eyes that were now on her Fluttershy began her question. “Well, it’s just that, herds were known for being promiscuous. Does that mean you’re all…”Fluttershy trailed off, finally feeling the weight of the eyes on her. “Never mind. It was a stupid question…”
It didn’t take long for Twilight’s mind to connect the dots and figure out what the pegasus was going to ask. “Oh! No, no, no. No, like I said we’re all connected emotionally and as Trixie pointed out there is physical attraction between us all as well. But, no. We all have each other and that’s more than enough,” Twilight explained, resulting in a chorus of ‘daw’s from her mares as well as nuzzles from each of them. Octavia happily taking two to make up for Vinyl. With a smile Twilight returned their nuzzles before turning back to Fluttershy. “It was a good question though, Fluttershy.”
Celestia smiled at the happiness she could see between Twilight and her mares. “So,” Celestia began, “Who’s the alpha?”
“A-alpha? Well, I don’t… I mean, we haven’t-“ Twilight stammered out. Only to be cut off by her mares.
“Shparkle,” Photo Finish announced.
“Sparky,” Trixie said with a nod toward Photo.
“Twi,” Octavia agreed as she poked Vinyl.
“Mmphight,” If Twilight didn’t know better, she would have thought that Vinyl had just called her the alpha in her sleep.
With her face yet again, red Twilight allowed a goofy smile to grace her face.
“Well it seems to be unanimous that you are the alpha, Twilight.” Celestia said with a chuckle. Twilight merely nodded, the goofy smile still stuck on her face. “Could you introduce us to your herd then Twilight? I’m sure we would all love to get to know them better,” Celestia asked with another small chuckle.
With an enthusiastic nod, Twilight answered. “I’d be happy to.”
Starting the introductions, Twilight pointed her hoof at Trixie. “This is Trixie Lulamoon. I think you’ve all met before.” A series of grumbles and nods came from her friends as Trixie raised her muzzle into the air slightly.
"Showmare, story teller, part time lighting technician and magic tutor at Celestia's school for gifted Unicorns.” A collection of surprised looks met Twilight’s statement
Rarity was the first to speak. “That is quite the surprise, I must say. She isn’t exactly somepony I expected to see in a teaching profession.”
“She may not seem like it to you, but she does love to teach young fillies and colts. Celestia herself actually did her interview for the position.” Trixie had here muzzle high in the air but there was a definite slight red tint on it.
“I thought she looked familiar.” Celestia stated, earning the attention of the ponies in the room. “I actually thought there might have been more to Twilight’s recommendation than just a kind gesture with how Trixie spoke about her.”
Twilight blinked. “Talked about me?” she raised a brow before asking with some trepidation, “What exactly did she say?”
Trixie’s eyes widened and muzzle got redder than before she looked straight at Princess Celestia and shook her head while mouthing “No” many times.
Celestia gave a small chuckle at the showmare’s embarrassment. “Nothing bad I assure you. In fact it was nothing but good things.”
“Wait,” Rainbow Dash said, bringing attention to away from Celestia and to herself. “You’re saying not only does she actually teach ponies but you let her teach foals?” She stated incredulously
Trixie bristled at the pegasi’s tone as her face immediately lost its red tint. "What?! Do you have a problem with that? Hmm?!” She shouted.
"Well you did kinda whip Snips and Snails last time you 'visted' town." Rainbow shot back
"Trixie never struck them!" Trixie retorted, eyes showing a mix of remorse and pure rage.
"You tried to kill me and you didn't even have the amulet on!" Rainbow shouted, her voice cracking under the force.
"Trixie," Twilight softly said as she wrapped a wing around the fuming unicorn.
"But, she, Trixie," Trixie stuttered.
"Rainbow." the way Twilight called to her friend asked for no response, only her attention. "I studied up on it after everything had calmed down and, the way the amulet worked was that it took any of her ideas and twisted them. By the time we took the amulet off her, any small thought was twisted so terribly that it ended up like it did. I bet Trixie's thoughts at that time wasn't anywhere near as dark as you think." Twilight nudged Trixie under the chin with her muzzle gently making her look up at her alpha. "Am I right? What exactly were you thinking then?"
"Trixie just wanted her to go away. She was the first heckler and Trixie just didn't want to see her anymore. Trixie never thought about killing or harming her. She just kept making Trixie remember that show and what happened in the months that followed." Trixie admitted as her head drooped again.
"See Rainbow? She never wanted you dead. She just didn't like being reminded of her first visit."
“Fine, I'll buy it for now. But there's still the other thing!” Rainbow exclaimed much to Twilight's confusion. “I know you and her got a thing going but honestly Twi, how do you put up with how much she loves the sound of her own name?”
“I must say that I was a bit curious about if she talks like that all the time or not,” Rarity admitted.
Trixie tensed up strongly. “That is Trixie’s business! Trixie- I can talk just fine. I have no problems speaking in first pony!“
"Trixie, calm down or I'm going to take my wing back." Twilight warned. Instead of arguing further as many of the ponies in the room would have expected, Trixie merely grumbled incoherently as she snuggled deeper into the lavender alicorn's warm and soft wing. Rainbow and Fluttershy, recognizing how intimate and act it was, found themselves blushing.
Twilight was looking sweetly at the pouting mare in her hold before she froze. She had, for a moment forgotten that they weren't alone in the least. With her face turning crimson, Twilight cleared her throat.
Looking back at the pouting showmare, Twilight spoke. “Trixie?”
“What?” Trixie mumbled
“Would you mind if I explained it to them?” Twilight asked, causing the mare in her wing to tense up again. “Please, Trixie. Things might go a lot easier if they knew.”
Trixie looked up at her alpha with worried eyes. However, the moment her eyes met with Twilight’s comforting look she relaxed. “Fine. But Trixie will not be present.”
Before Twilight could ask Trixie what she meant, Trixie had pulled Twilight’s wing completely around her, hiding her upper body completely.
With a smile, Twilight turned back to the group who all had slight looks of confusion and a couple with smiles after seeing how Trixie acts around Twilight, awaiting some clarification of what they were to be told.
With a deep breath, Twilight began speaking. “Alright. Before I tell you girls, I want you to promise me that what I’m about to tell you won’t leave this room. I don’t think Trixie would forgive me if it spread. She’s a bit sensitive about it.”
“Trixie is not sensitive about it! She just happened to have a sudden urge to snuggle!” came a muffled shout from inside Twilight’s wing. Twilight rolled her eyes at the mare in her wing.
"You always want to snuggle." Octavia announced from the side with a slightly amused face.
"Trixie's point is proven!" Yet another muffled yell came from inside Twilight's wing.
After allowing her friends to stop giggling for a moment and quietly enjoying the feeling of a snuggling showmare under her wing, she used a stern look to remind them of her earlier request.
After a series of nods, a stern glare from Pinkie and a series of Pinkie Promises, Twilight began.
“Well, the thing about how Trixie talks is that-“ as Twilight began, she could feel Trixie pushing further into her side. Twilight pulled her wing tighter around the mare. “The thing is that she can’t help it.”
Looks of confusion and disbelief reigned supreme in the room. The only ponies without one of these looks were Celestia, who still wore her constant kind smile and Luna who had a looked more curious than confused.
“Well what do ya mean by that? ‘She can’t help it?” Applejack asked, resulting in a vigorous nod from Rainbow Dash.
“It’s a speaking disorder. She has to make a conscious attempt to speak in first pony. Otherwise she naturally speaks in third pony.” Twilight explained.
Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened as any response she could have thought up died on her lips. Having known Ditzy Doo for many years she had long since learned not to say anything when it came to disorders. Since whenever she did say something it was almost always the worst thing she could have said. With three princesses in the room, Rainbow didn’t exactly feel like getting yelled at by the Royal Canterlot voice.
“You mean she always talks like that?” Luna questioned mercifully taking the spotlight off of Rainbow Dash who had originally asked the question. “I simply assumed it was something she did as for her stage persona to make sure her hecklers knew exactly who they were bested by.”
Twilight could almost feel the frown on Trixie’s face. She pulled her into a hug with her wing and one of her legs. However, before she could continue, Twilight felt the mare stop moving. Before Twilight could question her, Trixie had managed to wriggle her head above the top of Twilight’s wing.
Looking directly at Luna, Trixie spoke, “Y-you’ve seen Trixie’s show?”
With all eyes on her, Luna gave a sheepish smile. “I, may have snuck out of the castle after the night court adjourned once or twice and happened to come across it.”
Celestia rolled her eyes and elbowed her sister. “Come now Luna. I don’t remember you being so shy about it around me.”
Trixie quirked a brow at the display. When Luna developed a blush and got quiet Celestia merely turned Luna’s mug around. Once Trixie’s eyes came across the mug, they widened immensely.
Upon the mug was an image of Trixie herself. Princess Luna, mistress of the night and guardian of dreamers, was using a mug that she had, for a short time sold at her shows.
“She’s a fan,” Celestia announced to the showmare with a sly grin aimed towards her sister, who had taken on a shade of red all her own. “You should see her room.”
“What do you mean, Celestia?” Twilight asked as Trixie was struggled to stop herself from squealing in joy though the grin was unstoppable.
“Well…” Celestia began, purposefully dragging on.
“Sister. Don’t you dare,” Luna warned.
Celestia pulled up her hooves between herself and her sister and gave a giggle. “Alright, alright. Your collection can stay secret,” she said with a sly smile.
“Collection? Trixie does not sell much at her shows. What could you collect?” Trixie asked with her head cocked to the side, the nervousness from previous conversation about her speaking lost in the joy of talking to such an important fan.
With a sigh of resignation Luna spoke. “Well since, as they say, the dog is out of the bag-“
“Cat,” Celestia corrected.
“Whatever. It doesn’t make much sense anyway. Like I was saying, I collect pictures of how you deal with hecklers,” Luna admitted, looking away.
“Why would you collect that?” Trixie asked, allowing some pride into her voice at the memories of the many hecklers she had dealt with in the past, three of which sat on the other side of the table.
“As princesses we deal with many nobles and politicians. You understand this, correct?” Luna asked. After receiving a nod, she continued. “Nobles are not smart. They do not think as highly of me and my sister as you would think. They constantly insult our intelligence by attempting to hide things in their propositions. One had even made propositioned to build an orphanage and inside the proposition, he had hidden a huge and unnecessary payment to himself. He didn’t even include plans to for continued financing for it. He just wanted it built so he could cash in on it and leave.
“That’s horrid!” Trixie shouted. “Making money from the misfortune of foals,” Trixie said before she snarled, “Scum,” she said, speaking of the noble the same way a pony would speak of the most disgusting of insects or how some ponies may speak of their mothers in law.
“I agree,” Luna said, nodding. “I was about to nip his selfish proposal in the bud when I thought of your shows. I thought of how you would deal with ponies that don’t show you enough respect.”
Trixie’s grin grew as she began leaning on the table. Hearing about normal ponies getting their comeuppance was fun but, hearing about a noble getting his? This she had to make sure she heard every word of.
“Now obviously, a challenge of skills, like you do, wasn’t possible for a few reasons. But then, I had a stroke of genius.” Luna said, easily earning the attention of all the ponies in the room. Even Celestia had an obvious look of interest.
“What did you do?” asked both Trixie and Celestia. The former asking with excitement while the latter asked with worry.
“Well, I also didn’t want to say no to building an orphanage so I decided to give him his bonus. You should have seen the look on his face,” Luna began to explain only to be cut off.
“What!?” Once again, Trixie and Celestia shouted together though this time a few of the other mares at the table joined in.
“But,” Luna began. “Only on the condition that he uses that money to build, staff and maintain the orphanage to the standards that an upper class Canterlot day care would be. That stupid looking grin was gone in a flash. I almost lost my composure trying not to laugh at him.” There was silence in the room and Luna began to fear that her idea had not gone over well with the others in the room.
“You are Trixie’s favorite Princess after Sparky,” Trixie stated as a grin grew on her face and a groan came from Twilight.
After a few moments of talk between performer and fan, Trixie had once again snuggled herself within Twilight’s wing.
Aiming her free hoof past Trixie bundled within her wing, Twilight pointed toward the bespeckled earth pony mare who was in the process of pouring a glass of bourbon from Trixie's forgotten bottle. Photo Finish nodded. Taking this as an indication to begin, Twilight began her introduction.
"This is Photo Finish. As some of you know, she is a well known fashion photographer. What you may not know is that she is a magic enthusiast.”
Photo Finish could hear the sighs coming from Fluttershy and Rarity. “Not ‘ze magicks’. Magick.” She explained to the two. “Completely different.”
“Like being cool and being awesome.” Rainbow stated with a nod.
Twilight raised a brow at the still ridiculous idea of the pegasi’s. Shaking her head she continued speaking. “She was even the one who set up the most recent revision of restricted spell for fashion shows and the like.”
This caught Rarity’s attention as the gears in her head turned. “Wait. Twilight darling, how long have you all been together?”
Twilight was confused by the off topic question but answered nonetheless. “A few months now. Why?”
“And the new list was released two months ago.” Rarity said to herself causing Twilight more confusion.
Heaving a sigh Rarity looked straight at Twilight. “You helped her make the new list didn’t you?”
Twilight’s eyes widened slightly in surprise. “How did you know?”
Rarity laughed lightly at how obvious it was to her. “Because, while the new list is indeed much more comprehensive, it’s also ten times the size. With the knowledge of who put it together and your relationship to her, it becomes quite obvious.” Rarity explained, trying to prevent any annoyance from getting into her voice. It may have taken her two days to read the new list, only to discover that none of it applied to her or her works anyway but, that was no reason to get annoyed at Twilight and Photo Finish for being comprehensive. At least not in front of them.
“Ah. That makes sense.” Was all that Twilight could think to say
“Also few ponies even know that the ‘Want it-Need it’ spell exists, let alone what it does. The only reason I do is thanks to that one day when, well you know.” Rarity stated, ending on a shrug not wanting to announce Twilight’s worst flight from common sense to date in front of her marefriends.
“Yeah, I know,” Twilight cringed as her ears drooped at the memory
Seeing Twilight’s mood begin to droop like her ears, Photo decided to change the topic. “So Flootershy.” She announced loud enough to catch attention but not enough to seem as though she was yelling. “How have you been doing? You look as elegant as ever,” she stated, much to Fluttershy’s embarrassment.
“Ah. Zat reminds me. I must apologize to you,” She said as her ears drooped a bit.
“For what? You didn’t do anything to me,” Fluttershy said, speaking up for the first time in a while.
“But I did.” Photo admitted with a sigh. “Tvilight told me about her friends. She told me about how shy you are and you often try to not be ze center of attention.”
“Oh.” Fluttershy said quietly.
With a nod Photo Finish continued, “And zhere I vas forcing you into the spotlight over und over again.”
“Oh! But, it’s my fault for not saying anything. You couldn’t have known with me being so quiet all the time.” Fluttershy explained, attempting to get the photographer to feel better.
“I thank you. But, I am known for my attention to detail and being able to see what others do not. I had been blinded by success for far too long. It caused me to stop truly caring about those I vork vith. For that I am sorry.” Photo said with her head bowing slightly.
“Oh, but-“ Fluttershy began
“But nothing. I vas a fool. But, thanks to you valking avay from ze spotlight I got a new outlook. Sure, many ponies may vant to be famous, but not all of zem. I started paying more attention to vhat my models are saying und vhat zey vant. Thanks to zis, everypony that verks for me is much happier. For that, I thank you. You walking out on me vas one of ze best things zat could have happened for me.” Photo explained with a sincere smile.
Fluttershy felt as though any refuting of fault would be quickly dismissed and simply gave a small, gentle smile back to the mare.
“Photo- You don’t mind if I call you that do you?” Rarity asked, worried that she may offend before she ask her question.
“Nein. So long as you don’t call me Finn. Zat is for Tvilight alone.” Photo answered causing a small grin to grow on Twilight’s face.
“Oh, excellent. So photo, I have noticed that you refer to yourself differently. What caused you to change that? If you don’t mind me asking of course.” Rarity asked in a way reminiscent of an interview.
Waving a hoof, Photo gave a smile before she bagan to speak. “Vell as I said, thanks to Flootershy I became a bit more..” Photo moved her hoof in the air as she looked for the right word. “Modest. But I only lost my habit of saying things like, ’I, Photo Finish!’ when I began vorking vis Trixie.” She said pointing toward Twilight’s wing that held the showmare.
“Oh? How did that come about?” Rarity questioned
“She is very gut at doing the lights for my shows. Even if she over does it sometimes.” Photo stated simply
“I actually meant how did working with Trixie change that.” Rarity said, causing a small ‘o’ shape to form on Photo Finish’s lips.
As though she never made that mistake Photo Finish continued. “Vell…It’s actually a little embarrassing. I stopped using it around her because she thought I vas mocking her. As I am sure you have figured out by now she is very vocal ven she feels insulted.
A series of groans came from four of the five young mares on the other side of the table.
“Yes. We are quite aware of how vocal she can get.” Rarity said through slightly gritted teeth.
“Gut. Vell, I stopped using third pony around her and eventually I had gotten so into not using it that I forgot to use it around others as vell. They took it as me getting friendlier and started to act more casually around me as well,” Photo gave a slight chuckle before continuing.
“You see I had long vorried zat if ze vorkplace vas casual zey vould slack of during vork. Turns out I vas wrong. Zey actually started enjoying zhere job even more und zherefore did it even better.” This brought a smile to both Rarity and Fluttershy. Both remembering the attitudes they had seen from Photo Finish’s employees.
“Oh, that’s wondrous.” Rarity said happily.
“Agreed. But, enough about me. Zhere is still a mare und a half for you you all to be introduced to.” As Photo said this, a loud snort came from Vinyl’s sleeping form, causing all the ponies in the room to laugh.
“This is-“ Twilight began, only to get cut off by a wave of a grey hoof.
“I can introduce myself perfectly fine, dear,” the owner of the hoof informed the bookworm princess. With an understanding nod from Twilight, Octavia faced the crowd with a, slightly larger than was expected by formality, smile on her face, Octavia spoke.
“This definitely isn’t who I expected to be the first ones to learn of our little herd.” Octavia thought aloud, giggling after saying ‘herd’.
“Anyway, I am Octavia. Royal cellist and part-owner of the Iron Hoof nightclub and you all are, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and of course, their highnesses Princess Celestia and Luna.” Octavia named all of the ponies at the table along with a point of her hoof. “Between Twilight and my cousins constant letters about all of her, and I quote, ‘best-est of best-est pony friends’, I feel as though I’ve already known you all for years,” she explained using hoof quotes.
Rainbow Dash was the first to speak, beating Rarity whom had been about to speak by a second or two.
“Wait, you own the Iron Hoof. Like, the Iron Hoof? The biggest nightclub in Canterlot?”
“Part-owner. I’m sure Vinyl will tell you all about it. But I may as well preemptively say this,” Clearing her throat, Octavia began to speak as though reading off legal terms and conditions that no pony ever reads. “In taking part-ownership of the Iron Hoof nightclub there was no bribery, begging, fawning, seduction, lust filled gazes, blackmail, autographs, socks, wait. Yes, No socks, child sized meals, soda, dancing, dragons, dungeons, damsels, evil villains in need of being defeated or promises of riches, wings, magic or whatever her ridiculous mind can come up with this time. If something seems odd about her story come to me and I will, willingly give you the truth of the events that you saw as odd.”
Rainbow had quickly lost her focus on the mare once her tone started to remind her of the lectures at flight school giving Rarity the chance to speak.
Clearing her throat, Rarity was finally able to voice the question she had on her tongue “Darling.” Rarity began, catching Octavia’s attention. “You mentioned a cousin speaking of us. Who might she be? Surely if she knows us well enough to write you so many letters we must know her as well.”
Octavia’s polite smile grew into a grin. “Well. I don’t know. I may just have to keep you in the dark on who it is. Make you wonder.” Her grin grew all the larger at the sight of the fashionista trying to figure out where this tease came from and the royal cellist Octavia had gone. “For all you know it could be your mail-mare or dentist.”
Before another statement of teasing could come from Octavia or another sputter could come from Rarity, Twilight gave a loud sigh. “Allow me to reintroduce you. Girls, this is Octavia Philharmonic Pie.”
Octavia leveled a playful pout towards Twilight “Spoil-sport.”
Rarity’s sputtering had stopped along with all other sorts of noises. The look of surprise on her face causing most of the ponies at the table that weren’t currently looking at Pinkie to laugh. Meaning Pinkie was laughing while her friends were staring at her.
Fluttershy tapped Rarity’s shoulder, attempting to release her from her stupor. “Rarity? Uhm, Rarity?” When her valiant attempts at roughly, by her definition, rousing Rarity failed, she looked toward her other friends for help only to notice Pinkie had gone to the other side of the table and was whispering into Octavia’s ear.
“Oh, that’s terrible Pinkie.” Octavia said with a glare. Pinkie merely bobbed her head. “I want to do it.” Octavia announcing with a dangerous grin.
With a playful bow from Pinkie, Octavia made her way toward the frozen fashionista. Leaning down to Rarity’s ear, she began to whisper. “Cutie Mark Crusaders, plus Blueblood, fashionista’s.” The result was nearly instantaneous.
“What?! Where? No Sweetie! Don’t do it and get…him…out…” Rarity’s shout quickly got quieter as she began to trail off after noticing a few facts. She was in fact nowhere near the boutique. She had just had a very unlady like moment in front of all but one of Equestria royalty that mattered, if Princess Mi Amore Cadenza still counted as Equestria that is. After all, she wasn’t quite sure where exactly the crystal empire fell legally. The last thing she noticed was easily the most distracting. Pinkie was leaning on the table laughing just like every pony in the room and Octavia was leaning on her, somehow managing to laugh raucously while still sounding dignified. Rarity made a mental note to ask her how she does that later.
Through her laughter, Pinkie was able to speak. “I-hehe-didn’t say anything-ha about Bluebutt.”
Octavia, allowed herself to calm down from her laughter before speaking, “Yes, well I wanted to make sure that it worked.” After a disbelieving look from Twilight and Photo Finish was caught from the corner of her eyes she let out a sigh. “I also thought it would be funny. Which it was, might I remind you?” With another giggle and a pat on the back Octavia and Pinkie went back to their respective seats while they waited for Rarity to stop imitating a tomato.
“Forgive my reaction. I was simply surprised.” Rarity explained, resulting in a quirked brow from everypony in the room. “Fine. I was completely taken off guard. I just didn’t expect somepony as esteemed and seemingly dignified as Octavia would be related to own very own Pinkie Pie. No offence, of course dear. Though, now that I think of it, I’m no longer confused as to why you actually played her song at the Gala. At least from what I heard from the gardens.”
Octavia gave a gentle smile and nod. “Indeed. I was not surprised in the least with how those stuck up nobles reacted to a foals song. I just wanted to give my dear cousin something a little exciting at something as dull as the Gala. No Offence, Princesses. But, it was.”
Luna gave a small laugh and waved her hoof. “Why do you think I skipped it? Though I wish I had caught the tail end of this one, for the most part noble get togethers haven’t changed in the least. Droll, boring and utterly dreadful. Though I think my sister has some plans in her slippers for spicing up the next one already.” Luna finished, looking up at her sister with a smirk.
Celestia let out a laugh somewhere between nervous and regal. “Well. I might have something planned. Do you remember the noble soirée of 237?”
Luna looked deep in thought for a moment before her eyes lit up in recognition. “You mean the one where-?” Celestia nodded and put a hoof over her sisters’ mouth before she could give it away.
Turning away from her sister, she looked towards the ponies at the table. “Oh, you most definitely must come to the next Gala. Just be sure not to wear anything you don’t want to get dirty and stay away from the punch bowl. The punch is fine to drink just stay far away from the bowl. Oh, and the cake. Stay away from any blue pieces of cake.” Luna explained while both she and her sister wore mischievous grins.
Rarity had a look of panic on her face as she tried to even imagine owning any clothes that she had that she didn’t mind getting dirty; Pinkie, Octavia and Rainbow dash had the grins of pranksters plastered to their faces; Twilight and Photo Finish were going over notes they had taken of what should be avoided to make sure they both got everything, they both agreed that the punch should be avoided until they looked over some history books concerning noble get togethers; Applejack had a simple look of confusion; Fluttershy was hoping that one of her animals needed her help that night and she promptly felt terrible about thinking it; Trixie made no reaction from within the warm comfort of Twilight’s wing and Vinyl? Vinyl snored again.
After the confusion and discussion had died down, Celestia was the first to speak.
“Well, Twilight. Only one of your mares are left to introduce themselves. I haven’t heard her speak once yet. Is she shy?”
At that question, Pinkie and every conscious mare on the other side of the table burst out laughing.
Wiping away a tear Octavia looked at Princess Celestia and took notice of a thoroughly confused look. “Oh, wait. You’re serious?” What followed was even more laughter, this time with Luna accompanying with her own poorly hidden laughter at her sisters now flustered look.
With her wing lightly flitting due to her flustered state Celestia spoke, “Would somepony please explain to me what I am missing?”
As most of the ponies laughter quieted down, save for Pinkie and Octavia, Twilight gave an apologetic look to the embarrassed Princess of the sun.
“I’m sorry Celestia. It’s just that, Vinyl is one of the least shy ponies I know. She’s very outgoing.” Twilight explained.
“Not to mention crude,” added Octavia as she finally finished laughing. “Honestly I think she could set a world record for how quickly she could get thrown out of a restaurant. Actually,” Octavia set a hoof to her chin. “I’m quite sure she does hold it.”
“Ooh! Ooh! I know this one!” Pinkie announced before digging in her mane for a moment.
Pulling out a large book, she set it on the table. The book was titled “Whinnies Comprehensive Book of World Records”
Opening the book, she was instantly on the correct page.
Record: World Record for the fastest time to be ejected from a restaurant without trying.
Holder: Vinyl Scratch / DJ Pon-3 (Pronounced Pony)
Time: Ten Seconds
It was a quiet night for this particular restaurant, who wished for their name to be kept out of this book, when the Vinyl Scratch, better known as DJ Pon-3 walked in.
According to Ms. Scratch, she did nothing out of the ordinary. She claims to have simply asked for a booth where she could work and even complimented the mare working.
When we asked, the manager directed us to the pony that was working that night. Turns out that the mare Ms. Scratch complimented was actually a feminine stallion. When we asked for what she said, the stallion working said, while claiming to quote word for word,
“Heya, toots. I need a booth quick, so I can get my wubs on? Can ya help me out?”
The stallion working said that, he took offence to being called “toots” and misunderstood “wubs” as a synonym for a sexual activity and promptly threw the mare out after only being inside the building for merely ten seconds.
When we asked the friends and associates of Ms. Scratch we received plenty of verification and just as many face-hooves that Ms. Scratch was in fact not trying to get herself kicked out and was in fact acting as she usually did.
Therefore, Ms. Scratch is the surprisingly proud holder of the world record for the fastest time to be ejected from a restaurant without trying, easily beating the previous record of one minute and twelve seconds set by Prince Blueblood.
“Ugh. That was during her “Wub” phase. She just would not stop using that ridiculous word.” Octavia complained.
Putting the book back in her mane Pinkie looked toward Octavia with a smile. “Aw. But she’s so wub-able.”
Heaving a heavy sigh, Octavia let her head fall heavily to the table resulting in a loud thud, causing the ponies around to wince.
Twilight patted the mare on her back as she seemingly attempted to fuse her face with the table. “There, there. At least she stopped and it’s not as though she’s one of those ponies who say swa-“
Octavia’s hoof swiftly cut Twilight off as she brought her head away from her attempted osmosis through fancy furniture. The serious look in her eyes speaking volumes. “Don’t. Do not say that ridiculous word. That one or the “Y” one. Never, ever. Please?” Octavia fished her piece with a begging look in her eyes.
Twilight knew how irritated and annoyed Octavia had gotten during that phase of Vinyl’s, since she had once gone on a two hour long rant about the degradation of the equine language while they had been drinking. Twilight didn’t intend to allow her to go through it again. The need to rant that is. The drinking would happen again, though in smaller doses. “Don’t worry. I’ll make it our first…” Twilight trailed off as she looked for the right word before her face got a light dusting of pink. “Our first herd rule. Would that be okay?” The answer she got was a thankful nuzzle followed by a kiss on the cheek.
With a smile, Octavia gave a light chuckle. “You’ll have to run the idea of “herd rules” by the rest of the girls but I like it.
Twilight looked towards Photo Finish who simply gave a small chuckle and nodded. “Ze name, it seems a bit silly but, it does sound like a fine idea. Everypony has boundaries und sings zhey vould like to avoid in a relationship.” Photo said, agreeing with the idea before her eyelids lowered slightly as she looked intently at her alpha. “I’m sure ve can make a fine, comprehensive list tonight.” The way that photo had said it left Twilight forcing her wings down.
“What is this? Tease Twilight day?” Twilight muttered as she calmed herself down.
Octavia moved close enough that her breath could be felt on Twilight’s ear as she spoke. “Oh, no. That’s tonight. But, don’t worry. It’ll all be completely worth it.” Giving a small lick to the edge of Twilight’s ear, Octavia quickly moved away, giggling at the flushed look on Twilight’s face.
On the other side of the table, Luna moved over as to whisper into her sisters’ ear. “So sister. How does it feel?”
Cocking her head a little, Celestia looked towards her sister, “How does what feel?”
“The fact you’re student is getting more action at a lunch get together than you have in over a century.” Luna explained with a cheeky grin.
“I-I, that is, I- uh.” Celestia sputtered quietly as to not draw attention away from the now tomato faced element of magic and to herself.
Composing herself enough to speak but not enough to retain her previous facial color, Celestia answered. “I am happy for Twilight. My own paramours are of no consequence in these matters sister.”
Luna nodded as though she accepted her sisters’ answer, patting her on the shoulder. “I’ll order you some toys.” She stated simply, with a serious look on her face.
The sputtering of the sun started anew. After a few moments, Celestia gave a sigh and looked back out towards the newly created element of embarrassment.
“So, Twilight,” Celestia began, years of experience the only thing that kept her current agitation from being noticeable. “We still have yet to meet this record breaking mare.”
'She didn't say no,' Luna thought not even bothering to hold back a giggle.
Twilight immediately perked up, “Oh, right! We still need Vinnie!”
Before anypony could ask about the nickname, Twilight turned towards Octavia. “Octavia, if you would please?”
Octavia quickly jerked her head to right and left, eliciting a series of cracks, causing most ponies at the table to cringe. “My pleasure.”
Octavia looked over the sleeping form of Vinyl as her near-manic grin slipped into a gentle smile. ’Maybe It’ll work for once. Wouldn't that be nice?’ She hoped as she leaned down to Vinyl’s ear and whispered.
“Scratch? Scraaaatch? Time to wake up Vinyl.” After receiving no reply, Octavia heaved a sigh as the gentle look she sported left. ’Strike one.’
Leaning even closer she attempted again, no longer whispering. “Scratch? Vinyl? Wake up. You get three chances. This is two. You won’t like it when you use up all three.”
The neutral look from earlier had completely changed into a full frown now as she nearly yelled at the rock like, pony. “Wake your lazy hind end up or else.” Heaving yet another heavy sigh Octavia heaved another large sigh.
Now sporting a grin once again, Octavia shrugged. “Can’t say I didn’t give you a chance Scratchy.”
Luna lowered her ears for what was to come.
Octavia spread her fore legs out wide as she took in a large breath. With all the strength she had acquired from years of playing her cello she slammed her hooves together as she yelled, ”Get up!”
The result was almost instantaneous. Almost. There was a bit of stumbling, half-asleep yelps and a number of new bruises courtesy of the table.
“Ah! What the hay was that for?” Vinyl shouted as she fumbled about to steady herself.
“We have company.” Octavia simply stated.
“Yeah? You coulda told them I was out.” Vinyl retorted, not noticing where she was. Her mind still fuzzy from the dredges of sleep.
“Royal company,” Octavia clarified, hoping that the white unicorn would finally get it.
“But we were just with Twi.” Vinyl asked as she struggled to bring her mind to clarity. As she was doing that, Octavia merely pointed her hoof towards the two ancient alicorns. Vinyl’s eyes followed the outstretched hoof and widened when the situation finally clicked in her mind.
“Oh…We weren’t that loud last night were we?” Vinyl asked causing another bout of facial trauma to Octavia.
“Vinyl!” Twilight cried out, having decided to ask Luna if she would teach her shadow molding magic so she could hide after all, there is no way something as simple as an invisibility spell could hide the glowing red of her cheeks as illogical as it sounded.
’You would have been if not for my spell,’ Luna mentally quipped, suppressing a laugh.
“What? When you, Octy and Trix get into it, even I nearly go deaf, and that’s saying something,” Vinyl stated, causing deep shades of red all around.
“Ugh,” Twilight groaned, having given up at this point.
“Besides, why do I have to be awake when she gets to sleep?” Vinyl pouted, pointing to Twilight’s wing.
“What?” Lifting her wing Twilight revealed Trixie, sleeping soundly curled up next to her.
As the light invaded the inside of Twilight’s wing, Trixie began to wake. The first thing Trixie saw when they opened was Twilight looking down on her with a small smile. Without thinking, Trixie moved forward and rubbed her nose against Twilight’s and stared into her eyes afterwards. “Trixie loves you.” A cough broke Trixie out of her stupor and she crash-landed straight into reality.
Trixie waved her hoof slowly in front of the group as she slowly moved back into her previous spot inside Twilight’s wing. “You saw nothing.”
“Well, that was-“ Rarity began, only to be cut off.
“Nothing!” Trixie yelled as her hoof poked out of Twilight’s wing and blindly waved in front of the group.
“Adorable,” Fluttershy quietly said as the spectacle ended.
Vinyl looked at the group, most of whom were wearing either looks of surprise or disbelief. “Why are you all acting so surprised? She’s always like this. In Twi’s wing is like, her second bed, or would it be her third? Either way, she’s the cuddle bug of us all. When none of us are around we usually find her sleeping with a –“
“Vinyl, so help Trixie, she loves you but, if you say a word about Snuggle she will hide all your wires,” Trixie threatened as she extricated herself from the wing, having decided that keeping an ear on Vinyl will require being awake.
“Got it,” Vinyl said as she shook her head quickly.
“Snuggle?” Rainbow repeated, as she laughed.
“Anyway,” Vinyl began, ignoring Rainbow’s inquiry. After all, Trixie was not a pony to anger. If you were warned, she considered it free game. “I was woken up for a reason right? No offence to you all but, I usually sleep later than…whatever time it is now.” Vinyl said, as she looked around the room, trying to figure out what time it was.
“Three twenty-five and 32 seconds in the afternoon.” Celestia automatically answered.
As the ponies in the room turned to look at the solar powered clock of a princess, her wings began to fidget a little. ’I really need to break that habit,’ She thought as she prepared to explain. “Well, being the Princess of the day, I need to know what time it is at all times so that I know exactly when to raise and lower the sun.”
“She used to actually call out what time it was.” Luna explained, much to her sister chagrin. Clearing her throat Luna began to imitate her sister “The time is now nine thirty-nine and three quarters. The time for night has arrived.” Going back to her normal voice she continued, “I never really saw the point of it but, it seems that she’s still the all-powerful clock of Equestria.
Twilight saw a pleading look on Celestia’s face that she knew all too well. A look that said, “Help me. My face can’t keep going red like this.” Twilight had been giving the very same look throughout most of the day and though Celestia was never able to save her from her embarrassing marefriends, Twilight would do what she could. “Celestia and Luna asked to be introduced to my marefriends and we just finished up Octavia, which leaves only you.” Twilight explained, glad to finally be getting back on track.
“And?” Vinyl asked, still not hearing an explanation.
“Introduce yourself, and please, try not to embarrass me.” Even though Twilight wanted to be firm, her expression came across more as pleading. Even her parents wouldn't embarrass her this much. ’Oh, Celestia. I dread the day I introduce them to my parents. Maybe I should ask Luna about shadow molding sooner. I’ll need it then.’
“Go for it. The rest of us have already had our fun.” Octavia whispered into Vinyl’s ear, with a mischievous grin on her face.
With a smirk, Vinyl cleared her throat, “Well, I’m sure you all know me already. DJ Pon-3, Best DJ in Equestria, queen of the turntables, duchess of the dub-,”
Leaning to over to her sister, Celestia began to whisper as Vinyl continued to announce more titles. “Luna, you know more about nightlife. Is that true?”
With a small shrug and growing smile, Luna gave her answer, “I’m not sure. She is, in fact, the most popular in Canterlot and I haven’t heard anything about DJ’s in any of the other countries. But I couldn’t say for sure.”
Raising an eyebrow at her sister’s smile, Celestia spoke again. “What about you personally? You seem to be getting quite enthusiastic about meeting her.”
Luna’s eyes widened for a moment as she realized just how much of her emotions were showing. With a quiet cough, she finally gave her sister an answer, though her face seemed to be straining to stay neutral. “I have found her shows and music to be satisfactory to my personal tastes at times.”
Celestia just stared at her sister for a moment. “So if I go look through your records, at least half of them won’t have at least one of her many names?”
“You stay out of my records!” Luna whispered harshly with a glare. As a smug grin appeared on Celestia’s face Luna quickly turned her attention back to Vinyl who had finished naming off as many titles as she could imagine at the moment.
“So, yeah. That’s me. Any questions?” Vinyl said, her cocky grin still on her face.
“Yeah, I got one.” Rainbow announced, calling attention to herself. “I mean I like your stuff ever since Pink’s introduced me to it, but I gotta say, I can’t see how you two get along. I mean, I don’t see you as the type to study the… the mating habits of eels or something.”
“Hey! I made two new discoveries in that study!” Twilight yelled, causing all the ponies at the table to slowly turn their heads to her.
“You-you’ve actually studied that?” Rainbow asked as she attempted to hold her laughter inside.
“I was bored one week…” Twilight said meekly, attempting to defend herself only to cause Rainbow Dash’s laughter to finally escape.
After about five minutes of the laughter or chuckles of nearly everypony in the room, save Fluttershy, who didn’t want to embarrass her friend by laughing and mentally noting to ask Twilight for her notes later and Celestia, who wasn’t surprised in the least, Vinyl was finally able to answer.
“You’d actually be surprised. When Twi lets go, she can get pretty wild, well wild for her at least.” Vinyl said with a chuckle.
“Oh yeah?” Both Applejack and Rainbow Dash asked at the same time.
“So, what’s Twi like when she drinks?” Applejack asked with a grin.
“What do you girls know about Science?” Vinyl asked, surprising the other mares with her question.
“Uhh. Not much really. Ah mean, when it comes to plants, there ain’t much ah don’t know but, aside from that ah was never really too interested.” Applejack offered with a shrug.
“Bout the same for me and weather.” Rainbow added with her own shrug.
“Vinyl…I’m warning you… Don’t you dare mention that.” Twilight warned as she glared at Vinyl. After a few moments, the bottle of bourbon from earlier came floating towards her in Trixie’s magical aura. With a sigh, Twilight grabbed it in her own magic as she realized that Vinyl wouldn’t be stopped. “Thanks Trixie.”
“Just leave some for Trixie and keep away from sodium chlorate and Trixie will be fine.” The next sound that followed was that of Twilight’s head landing on the table.
“Okay, now you must tell us what has affected Twilight in such a way.” Rarity said, eagerly awaiting the answer to the mystery of Twilight’s behavior.
“Drunk science.” Was all Vinyl said, resulting in a raised brows and a repeated thumping noise coming from Twilight, who was repeatedly hitting the table with her head.
“Stupid. Alicorn. Pain. Resilience.” Twilight grumbled as she attempted to knock herself unconscious only to be stopped by a golden aura. Grumbling more she took the bottle and poured herself a glass.
A small pop next to her signaled that a summoning spell had been performed. “Would you like Trixie’s hat?” Trixie said as she held her hat out towards the embarrassed and annoyed alicorn.
“Not to be rude but, what good would your hat do right now Trixie?” Twilight asked but before she could wonder any farther, her world went black.
Quickly pulling whatever it was off her head, she now understood Trixie’s offer seeing that she could easily hide underneath Trixie’s large hat. Seeing Photo walking back to her seat, she also saw a straw inside her glass of bourbon. Pulling the hat back over her head she proceeded to hide from reality and drink.
“So…” Rainbow started “Drunk science?”
Vinyl got a large smile on her face as she remembered. “Oh yeah. When Twi gets drunk, she goes all mad scientist. Though, it usually revolves around booze and whatever ideas we get. Nothing crazy like Frankenhoof or anything. But, it was still nothing short of awesome! It started with small with soda and some kinda candy. I don’t remember what kind but it turned into a geyser. Then we got complicated. I think I remember mixing sound waves, booze and light waves. I don’t remember what happened, but it must have been awesome. We woke up piled on each other, sweaty, hung over and there was a bear in the middle of the room.”
“He was okay, right?” Fluttershy asked quickly.
“Yeah. He was fine. I think he was hung over, but he was fine.” Octavia said, calming Fluttershy down quickly. “I think he actually left towards Ponyville after we had a bit of tea. Quite a nice bear really.”
“Was this two weeks ago? If you don’t know though, that’s fine. Not that I’m saying you can’t remember or anything. I was just wondering.” Fluttershy progressively hid more and more in her mane as she spoke.
“Oh, ja. I don’t sink I could ever forget ze day I had tea vith a bear.” Photo finish said with a smile.
Fluttershy had a soft smile on her face “I think that may have been Harry. He really liked having tea with you all. He said he would love to do it again. Well, as long as he isn’t teleported into a vat of glowing green vodka, that is.”
Rainbow Dash’s eyes went wide. “Green glowing vodka? What the hay were you all doing?”
“Rainbow! We may know them but, it’s still not right to use such crass language around royalty.” Rarity said as she admonished Rainbow.
“Oh, come on Rares. Glowing green vodka? You can’t tell me you’re not curious.”
“That’s not the point.” Rarity defended.
“So you are interested.” Not getting an answer out of Rarity who was looking away with her nose in the air, her ear perked towards Vinyl giving away her curiosity, Rainbow Dash turned to Twilight who was in the process of filling her glass again, Trixie’s hat still upon her head. “Right. So, how did you do it Twi?”
Twilight merely looked her eyes up at Rainbow for a moment before pulling the hat back down and taking a long sip. Undeterred, Rainbow simply changed her target. “Okay. So, Vinyl, how’d ya do it?”
Vinyl gave a small laugh. “Yeah. I have no clue. That’s the craziness that is drunk science. We did all this awesome stuff but none of us have any idea how we did it.”
"But doesn't Twilight take notes on like, everything?" Rainbow asked, still eagerly hoping that glowing green vodka was in her near future.
"Yeah, about that. Most of her notes were kinda...hot. She was taking notes on our hindquarters half the time." Vinyl said with a chuckle as Twilight poured herself another drink.
“So, Vinyl dear. I do believe that Twilight has been embarrassed enough for now.” Rarity said before eyeing the nearly empty bottle in front of the hat wearing alicorn. “And enough to drink it seems.”
Twilight opened her mouth to speak but Luna beat her to it. “Alicorns healing properties make it a bit difficult to get inebriated. Do not worry about Twilight for now. Though, I will not disagree to not giving her a second bottle. You will not escape your embarrassment by drinking. Also, you, me, Celly and Cadence are going drinking this weekend with a recording crystal. I am eager to see this, drunk science.”
Once again, Twilight opened her mouth to speak only to have her bottle taken from her by Trixie. “Trixie told you to leave her some.” Trixie said as she looked inside the bottle with a frown. “Though she did wish for you to leave her more than a single shot.”
Attempting to reel the situation back in Photo Finish spoke up. “Vell zen.” She announced loud enough to bring attention to herself. “Vinyl. I do believe zat you vere introducing yourself?”
“Oh come on. They already know who I am.” Vinyl complained.
“Ja. But zey do not know you.” Photo retorted causing Vinyl to groan.
“But-“ Vinyl began only to have her ear cuffed by Octavia’s hoof.
“Just do it, you git.” Octavia told vinyl with a tired look on her face and her hoof poised to cuff her again if she was stubborn about it.
“Alright, alright. Jeez.” Taking in a breath and flinching away from Octavia once, just in case, Vinyl began. “Right, so I’m Vinyl. Best DJ you’ll ever hear and owner-I mean part owner of the Iron Hoof nightclub. I work with Photo every now and then for her shows, which is how I met all but Octy. Her I met at the club.”
“Wait. You met her at a club?” Rarity questioned.
“Yup. She was onstage before me.” Vinyl said with a chuckle.
This time it was Rainbow who spoke up, “Wait. She-“ She began pointing at Octavia “Played at the same club as you?”
“Heh. Yeah. She has a little band she messes around in every now and then for fun. It’s called-“ Vinyl was once again cut off by a cuff to the ear and a sharp glare from Octavia. “Uh, never mind. But, yeah I met her there. We got along fine enough but never really connected till we got together with the others.” Vinyl pondered for a moment before she spoke again. “Yeah, that’s about it. Not much about me to know outside of my music.”
“What about your addiction to the Doctor Whooves books?” Octavia offered
“Or how you sometimes listen to Beethoofen vhen you go to bed?” Photo Finish added
“There is also you’re love for romantic dinners.” Trixie said with a grin as Vinyl’s white face was sporting a bright red.
“You also really like fruity drinks and wine.” Twilight said with an even more mischievous grin than Trixie’s as her hat was kept up by her horn.
“Alright! Fine! I think they got it!” Vinyl yelled as she sported an imitation of a tomato that could have won a few awards.
After a couple chuckles, Celestia spoke up. “Well Twilight. I must say, I’m glad you’ve finally been able to come out with your relationship to us.”
Twilight gave a small nod as to not cause the hat to fall. “Yeah, I’m glad I-“ Twilight blinked a couple times as exactly what Celestia had said sunk in. “Wait. You knew?!”
“Oh Twilight. Of course I did. Every one of your marefriends is in some way or another famous. Why do you think none of the guards checked up on you or stopped Trixie when she went to the kitchens?”
“But I thought that she was able to sneak down there?” Twilight said, confused.
“I wouldn't call singing about being too sexy for her hat and cape, through the halls, ’sneaking’. Celestia said using hoof quotes.
Trixie turned toward Twilight. “May Trixie have her hat back?” Without even thinking about it, Twilight used her magic to put Trixie’s hat over her eyes. With a muffled “Thank you,” Twilight turned her attention back towards Celestia only to notice Luna staring at her sister with a slight twitch.
“Are you seriously saying that I helped hide their relationship for nothing?” Luna asked her sister through gritted teeth.
“Oh I wouldn’t say that, dear sister. Many in the castle are immensely glad for your soundproofing spells.” Celestia told her sister with a smirk as she saw Twilight and her herd blush.
Luna let loose a sigh as she spoke again. “Then why did continue to pretend as though you didn’t know?”
“Well I wanted Twilight to tell us on her own and you seemed so excited to have a project during a few nights every now and then.” Luna’s glare towards her sister intensified as her grin grew.
“You thought it was funny didn’t you?” With this accusation, Celestia’s eyes moved off her sister.
“Maybe. Seeing you run around claiming nothing was wrong and hearing how Twilight turned away the morning maids so often may have been a little bit humorous.” Celestia laughed as Trixie summoned her cape for Twilight to hide under. “But enough of that. I’ve heard a little bit but, how did you all get together?”
“I don’t mean to be rude but,” Photo Finish began “Vould it be possible to just eat and get to know you all first? After all, I am qvite hungry and vould love to get to know you all.”
Celestia gave a much more innocent smile before her faced turned red thanks to her stomach announcing that she was hungry as well. “I quite agree. Food sounds like a wondrous idea. We can talk about how you all got together tomorrow.
With that, food and non-alcoholic drinks were ordered as the Sparkle herd was introduced to the heroes and Princesses of Equestria.
