Polished Floors and a Silk Sash
"Welcome girls!" Twilight beamed as she stepped back to usher her friends into the warm light of the library's main floor. "You're just in time for Spike's nachos. Make yourselves at home while I finish up one or two things."
Rarity and Fluttershy smiled at their friend as they stepped in, Rarity's pristinely cared for hooves making a soft clicking against the hardwood floor while Fluttershy stepped lightly enough that not even the dust bunnies stirred. The pair moved over to a large pile of cushions gathered in the center of the room where Rainbow Dash and Applejack were cheerfully waiting. Twilight nodded happily before closing the door and trotting to the stairs while a muffled click signaled her locking of the front entrance. Without another word, the purple alicorn trotted up the steps, leaving her four friends to chat.
"Heyya Rares, Fluttershy," the farm-pony greeted with a tip of her hat. "Ya'll looking forward to tonight as much as we are?"
Rarity put on a mask of mock indignation, lifting her chin and looking down at her two friends for a moment, as if deciding whether to reward such an obviously foul question with an answer...before breaking into a grin and chuckling demurely. "But of course Applejack. I may be busy during the day, but you know these little get-togethers are simply one of my guilty little pleasures." She raised a perfectly stenciled eyebrow, "I do hope you are prepared though. Your last... offering was rather lackluster."
Applejack's expression fell to something more fitting a bar-fight than a friendly get together, but the cyan pegasus cut her off with an almost comically conspiratorial tone. "Figures she'd complain about a shortage of luster."
Applejack smirked while Rarity's mouth hung open in shock. "Y-you foul litt-...oh, very funny. Laugh it up you insufferable ruffians." She finished with a smile, realizing the ribbing she had just received and deciding to accept their lighthearted fun. "But, in all seriousness, I do hope you put a bit more thought into your story for tonight than ' the plow broke but somehow the fields were still planted that night....oooooooooooo" she mimed while waggling her forehooves in the air.
Rainbow Dash rolled over laughing. "Sh-she got you there Applejack." The pegasus flipped over again, snapping her head nose to nose with the orange earth pony. "You better be ready tonight 'cuz the story I brought is AWESOME."
Applejack's response was a wry smile and raising her hoof halfway to her chin as she teased back. "Ya mean it'll be more terrifying than your story about the little puffy cloud that you couldn't land on? I'm sure to wet-myself if I hear another that scary."
Rainbow jerked her head back. "Hey! That IS scary! Clouds don't work that way! It'd be like.... I don't know... you falling in the dirt or... something!"
"Fallin' in the dirt? Really?"
"YHEAH! Like, you fly up to it and you expect to lay down for a nap and you just fall through!"
"RD."
"Mmmm?"
"You know we can't fly right."
".......... trust me. It's scary."
"Like falling in the dirt?"
"YHEAH!"
"You mean like... tripping?"
"YHE... um... maybe not just like that..." Rainbow rubbed the back of her head as Applejack smirked at her.
"'Cuz, you know, when we learn to walk we fall a bunch and all..."
"W-well, it'd be more like walking along the street and suddenly falling through the ground. Tumbling end over end, and too scared to even reach out and catch yourself as you fell, the light dwindling to a speck as your very idea of the firmness of the ground betrayed you," a soft voice from next to Rarity said.
Applejack and Rarity gaped as they looked to Fluttershy, who squeaked and attempted to hide behind her mane again.
Closing her mouth and taking a moment to clear her throat, Applejack responded first. "Well, when you put it that way, I s'ppose it is a might more scary. Sorry RD, didn't think of it like that."
Rainbow Dash nodded crisply with a smirk. "Yheah yheah. It takes Fluttershy to explain it to you... figures." Her grin was cut short by the sudden impact of a merrily tossed pillow, resulting in a bout of laughing from all four mares.
-~oOo~-
"Well A.J.," Rainbow started once the four had calmed down enough not to break into fits of laughter again, "don't worry, I made sure to cook up a story that should have you all shaking in your beds for the rest of the night."
"Oh? Is it about dry rain or breezes that don't flutter curtains this time?"
"N-no! It's about, um....Lightning!"
"Like tha storms that come around to water my orchard?"
"You didn't let me finish! It's about Lightning..... apples!"
"We got those.... called Zap Apples? Make 'em into jelly?" The apple farmer smirked again right as Spike walked in carrying a large plate of nachos."
The five friends continued to converse and tease each other for a few minutes before Twilight came down the stairs with an old lantern and a large bed sheet floating behind her in the magenta glow of her magic. "Hey girls! Just about ready?"
With grins all around, the four mares and Spike all looked up and nodded their assent.
Twilight's cheer turned to a patient smile of disapproval as she looked at Spike.
"Fiiiiine. I'm going. Night everypony," the young dragon huffed with a resigned frown before Twilight wrapped him in a hug and sent him on his way with a small emerald as a reward for keeping his bed-time.
When Twilight finally heard her bedroom door click shut, she turned to smile at her friends again. "So, who wants to go first?"
The friends glanced between each other before Rainbow Dash suddenly shot to her hooves and shouted "WAIT! Where's Pinkie? She's supposed to be here too right?"
Chuckling, Twilight rolled her eyes as she addressed her pegasus friend, "Rainbow, relax. She said that she had to babysit the Cake's foals until Mr. and Mrs. Cake got back from the play. She'll be here soon."
"Figures," Applejack chuckled as she took her hat off and tossed it to land on the hat rack near the door. "That mare can throw a party in half a minute but can't ever seem to get here on time for scary stories."
Though normally not one to question her friends, Rainbow seemed to be thinking hard, which is to say she suddenly had a look of intense concentration interrupted by brief bouts of blinking. "Now that you mentioned it, can anypony remember the last time Pinkie actually was here for the scary stories?"
For a second the girls laughed before Twilight suddenly froze. "Actually Rainbow, I don't think she ever has been here for the scary stories... even when she was here before everyone else... I'm pretty sure she always was out of the room." Her brow furrowed as she thought back across the last several months, realization dawning as she couldn't recall a single time Pinkie had actually shared a scary story.
"Aw that's silly Twi. Pinks's been here for 'em a number of times. Why, wasn't it just last month that she doled out those little gingersnaps after Fluttershy told about the things in the rafters?" Applejack tipped her head with a smile as she reached for a few nachos.
"Well, yes, but that was after Fluttershy's story. Does anyone remember actually seeing her during the story? I'm pretty sure she was baking the cookies while we were telling the stories." Twilight's horn lit up as she floated a small blue book over to her from the shelf next to "Slumber 101". While her friends took on thoughtful expressions, she flipped through a few pages before her eyes snapped wide open.
"She's never told a single scary story!" Twilight exclaimed causing her friends to look at her with confused stares. Rainbow suddenly frowned.
"What's up with that? I mean, she's always about 'giggling at the ghosties' or whatever, but she's scared of a scary story?"
For a moment the friends all glanced between each other before a loud noisemaker squealed out from behind Twilight causing them all to jump in surprise.
Pinkie Pie grinned as she looked up to where Twilight was hovering in the air a few yards above, her mane sticking out and her pupils pinpricks. "Whatcha doin' up there Twilight? The party's down here silly!"
-~oOo~-
After a minute of two of getting everyone settled, Rainbow Dash turned to Pinkie and jumped right in. "Hey Pinks, why aren't you joining in with the scary stories?"
Rarity coughed softly, waving a hoof slightly before Pinkie could respond. "What she means to say is that we were wondering if you wanted to go first since you seem to always miss out on your turn to share." Her smile was genuine, if a little curious.
Pinkie laughed lightly. "Oh girls, I'm here for all of the stories. Like, remember when Twilight told us all about how the Aracam Faucet was off and magic fishies were eating her plants?"
Twilight may have muttered corrections to the order of "arcanum focus" and "magic fallacies tainting patterns," though it wouldn't have mattered since her friends didn't have the requisite background to appreciate the horror that was a dissolution of Ley Line's theorem of arcane synergy.
"Or the one about the black coal mine with the glimmer of diamonds that lured hapless ponies to their doom that Rarity told us about? Or the one with the cute little fuzzies that started showing up as more and more ponies disappeared from the town that Fluttershy told last month? Or Rainbow Dash's story about the winter storm with the creepy warmth that always smelled like copper and iron?" Pinkie smiled with cheer as she looked at her friends in turn.
Applejack chuckled again, "Well, See Dash? I guess she has been here after all. I bet you were just too spooked to see her, what with the pillow over your head." She smirked, earning herself a snort from her friend.
"Yheah, she remembers 'em allright, but that doesn't mean anything! Do any of you remember her telling a scary story? I mean, REALLY remember one? This is Pinkie.... nopony forgets one of Pinkie's stories.... well... nopony remembers them right either, but that's because they're weird." Rainbow Dash looked to her friends in turn, her hooves out as she waited for a response.
"Well?"
"Ah guess I don't reckon I do remember any of 'em Pinks." Applejack frowned as she scratched the back of her head with embarrassment.
"Um, n-no." Was all Fluttershy managed as Rainbow Dash looked at her.
"Nor I, though I hardly think that this is necessary." Rarity offered as she raised an eyebrow at Rainbow Dash.
"I know, for a fact, that Pinkie hasn't told us a story," Twilight declared when her pegasus friend's glare leveled at her. "I checked my book of scary stories that I update whenever we've had a slumber party, and there's simply not a single story that Pinkie's told us ever."
With a nod, Rainbow Dash turned to smile at Pinkie with a hungry look in her eyes. "Time's up Pinkie.... Your turn to scare us."
For her own part, Pinkie remained smiling for a few seconds before a bead of sweat formed and started to run down her forehead. She glanced around anxiously before gasping, "I just remembered I have to go make snacks!"
"Spike made nachos," was Dash's cool reply.
"I meant that I had to close down Sugarcube Corner."
"The Cakes got back home... you were watching their foals, remember?" Rainbow raised an eyebrow.
"Um, Discord's evil again and rampa-"
"He's with Angelbunny making pincushions that yelp when you use them," Fluttershy offered as she looked at Pinkie with curiosity.
"Sombr-"
"No he's not. Pinkie.... is there something you don't like about scary stories?" Twilight cut in with concern on her face as she stepped over to her nervously shaking pink friend.
"Uh....." Pinkie glanced around for a few seconds before taking a deep breath, closing her eyes, and then slowly letting it out. "I.... I don't know any scary stories and you all seemed to have so much fun telling them that I didn't want to break your slumber party and make everyone sad and then you'd all be unhappy and if you're unhappy then the slumber party would be ruined and we couldn't have s'mores and then there would be giant trees in your bedroom and topiaries would be everywhere and I didn't want you not to invite me back so I just kind of hid when it was my turn so you'd all keep having fun."
Pinkie looked from one confused face to the next as she waited for them all to break into an angry mob at her ruining Twilight's slumber party.
"Pinkie, Darling, whatever do you mean? It's perfectly understandable if you don't know any scary stories. A little odd perhaps, but you're always trying to make everyone smile so I don't think anyone would fault you for not knowing any." Rarity's smile brought a little hope back into her pink friend.
"Shucks, Ain't nothing wrong with that. Heck... for years, the only one Mac knew was about a can o' worms that fish would crawl outta the stream to get." Applejack's smile grew as she shook her head. "Walkin' catfish...." she smirked.
"Um, actually, some catfish can walk." Fluttershy's response caused Applejack to blink in shock before she shivered and muttered "never again."
Pinkie smiled as she looked around at her friends. "You girls are soooooooo great!" She reached out to hug them all when Rainbow Dash held up a hoof and frowned.
"I'm not buying it. Pinkie. Everypony knows a scary story. You can't honestly tell me that your granny Pie taught you to giggle at the ghosties if you weren't scared of something." Rainbow Dash stared at Pinkie Pie hard. "What gives?"
Her friends sat a moment, stunned at Rainbow Dash's behavior, before Pinkie sighed. "Well, I don't know any scary stories.... but I know a poem that my great uncle Mincemeat taught me. When I recited it to Miss Cheerilee for the talent show, she said it was a little creepy.... does that count?"
Rainbow was about to roll her eyes, but Pinkie looked desperate to make her happy. "Ugh.... fine."
-~oOo~-
It was a few minutes before everypony had settled in for Pinkie's story. At her request, Twilight had snuffed all the candles and pulled the curtains as Pinkie had lit the beaten up old lantern as the room's only light source. Rarity had floated the bedspread over the doorway from the kitchen, muffling the quiet ticking of Twilight's clock and blocking out the soft glow of the pilot light from the stove. Rainbow Dash had cleared away the remaining snacks while Fluttershy had helped to make sure that Owloisious was settled in. When everypony was settled down again, Pinkie carefully placed the lantern down and sat up, her shadow wavering on the bookshelves behind her.
"I hope you don't mind but It's not a really scary poem so I figured that every little bit helps." She smiled nervously.
Rainbow Dash just rolled her eyes with a smile while Twilight patted Pinkie's shoulder. "You'll do fine Pinkie. We're all friends here so I'm sure it'll be great."
Reassured, Pinkie nodded.
"Ok. So.... everypony close your eyes and just ... um... get scared ok!"
Applejack chuckled softly. "Ain't how it works Pinks."
Even so, one by one her friend's closed their eyes.
"Alright... so, my great uncle Mincemeat taught me this a loooooong time ago. He said it was about a real pony that really really existed and that he totally didn't make up," she started. "So, I suppose it's not really a poem but history... or maybe that would make it a histerom or a postery? Well, whatever, it all started in the winter of the thin harvest. He said that back then, you could just wander into towns and find a meeting house in the winter where everypony would gather to stay warm, but sometimes they'd get together for fun too!"
Rainbow Dash sighed to herself.... booooooooring.
"So anyway, he said that he heard it from a friend who heard it from a neighbor who heard it from a travelling minstrel who heard it fro-"
"Pinkie, just tell us the poem!" Rainbow Dash cut in, though she kept her eyes shut.
"Okay... but, you have to understand that ponies would get together in the winter sometimes for it to make sense," Pinkie plead.
"Ugh... we got it Pinkie."
"Alrighty. So... this is how it goes!" Pinkie chirped while Twilight frowned at how rude Rainbow Dash was being. Slowly, so that she wouldn't make any noise, Pinkie stood up and took a step backwards before beginning.
-~oOo~-
"The door opens to a floor littered with ponies.
We take the first tentative steps.
From across the room our eyes lock,
The expression intense.
We drift as angels,
Or as wraiths,
Through the assembled,"
Rarity blushed slightly, imagining the pair of star crossed lovers gazing longingly at each other across a marbled ballroom as pairs of courtesans spun slowly through her mind's eye.
"Our hooves reach but the rhythm will not let us touch.
We bob and sway - dodging the others,
Eyes only for each other and the careful dance we weave.
Others eyes widen,
Their own intentions lost as they gaze in wonder,
In a silent admiration,"
Applejack smiled. She could just see the dance, pony folk wading through one another, treats and cider along the rough cut walls of the family barn as her kin gathered for a celebration. She remembered cousin Squaredance and Snakedodge dipping and bowing to the cheers of family and warm tidings. It wasn't a scary story, but she wouldn't trade it for the world.
"Or a silent fear of being outdone.
We glide as no other in the room.
The color of passion flows from our hooves,
As others watch,"
Fluttershy covered her muzzle with her hooves as she blushed furiously. Oh my she thought as she could just imagine the frolicsome pair spinning through the glowfly lit grasses atop a beautiful pastoral hill in the night to the smiles and longing sighs of a crowd. All those ponies.... watching.... that.
"Soon the music twists to a new tune.
Echoing chords as clean and clear as any dream,
Notes impossible to sound again as instruments clatter.
All eyes are on us.
No one can break the gaze they have,"
Rainbow Dash was really starting to regret this. Pinkie was telling a story... kind of, but it was boring and about mushy stuff. Where was the action? Where were the zombies or vamponies or creepy old mares with rusty horseshoes chasing you through the night?
"And the waltz echos on in our heads,
While blood pulses and breath quickens.
A final sweep,"
Pinkie took this moment to take another silent step backwards, raising her voice just a bit to match the distance.
"So very low,
And the last bow."
And another step backwards with a tiny increase in volume as she inched towards the plate of brownies she had brought.
"So finally it ends,
This epic serenade.
The final motion,"
Just another inch....sooooooo close to the brownies.... Pinkie thought.
"The terrible dance of blades."
Twilight's ears snapped up as her face grew pale.
"And the victor bows as no one claps,
All eyes are glazed."
Rarity's muffled gasp shocked her friends out of their imaginations as they opened their eyes and quickly noticed their absent story teller. With sudden confusion, the friends looked around but the shadows seemed all too dark in the sudden, flickering light of the beaten old lantern.
"Pinky?" Twilight called out tentatively.
"mmmph?" came the muffled and strangled reply from the dark recess of the room.
Rainbow Dash hopped up and snorted. "Oh come on... that's it? Some stupid dance?"
It was then that Rainbow Dash screamed as she saw a dark figure move and a sudden glint of razor sharp metal as the flickering light caught the murderous gaze of the intruder.
Rainbow Dash nearly exploded out of the window as Pinkie Pie looked on in confusion from cutting her brownie. "Huh? I guess ice skating really IS a scary story."
-~oOo~-
Later that night, after everyone else had gone to sleep after fetching Rainbow Dash, Twilight sighed as she snuggled into her makeshift bed of piled pillows and warm covers. She was just drifting off to sleep when a niggling feeling worried her eyes open.
If the story was really true, and only one pony 'won' the dance... it would make sense not to tell anypony else that they had been there, she reasoned.
So, if they wanted to tell the story, but not get caught, they would have to say they heard it from somepony else. But that doesn't make sense since nopony else survived, which would mean that Pinkie's uncle Mincemeat....
Twilight's eyes opened wide as her pupils shrank. What kind of a name is Mincemeat anywa... oh sweet Celestia.
Just as Twilight's heartbeat began to speed up and her breathing quicken, she caught the slightest flicker of movement in the dark of the main room. Staring wide eyed, willing her night vision to get miraculously better, she lay paralyzed as she listened.
There was no sound... like angels or like wraiths her memory taunted from Pinkie's "poem."
And then she caught the glint of metal in the moonlight from the window Rainbow had broken.
"Shhhhhh Twilight, we don't want to wake the others, do we?" came a soft voice from the darkness, followed by the soft scraping of a knife being sharpened as tiny, brilliant sparks arced from the pitch to illuminate a set of staring eyes and a bright, toothy, grin from across the room.
Twilight lay shaking in bed for hours even after Pinkie had eaten the brownies.
Pinkie is not allowed to recite poetry, she thought, never again.
Author's Note
And that is why environments are a key feature in puppet shows. You never can tell when brownies will be used as psychological warfa....er....I mean, I hope you all enjoyed.
Not sure I like this style of storytelling... it feels a little too broken for my tastes.
Thoughts?
