NaNoWriMo2015 Oneshot Colletction

Sun smiled. It was rare that there was a large gathering that he felt any comfort in, but this wasn’t so bad. It was a party for an old friend of his. Really, it was more of a friend of a friend, but Sun knew just about everypony at the gathering, so it wasn’t truly like he was at a party, per say, so much as a group of friends just meeting up for a bit.

Moonlight was hosting the party. She really was one of his oldest friends, and had come barrelling into his life when they were only in primary school, not even old enough to have their cutie marks yet. He glanced over at her across the room. Thick, wavy black mane thrown back as she laughed, green eyes sparkling with mirth at whatever Night had just said. Her normally snow white coat was currently dyed an ashen grey for reasons she refused to tell Sun.

Across from her, smiling teasingly, was probably one of the biggest ponies Sun had ever met. Taller than the average stallion by about a head, Night Stryker’s traditional Mohawk added another six inches to his height. His midnight blue stripes matched his mane, and his wings, folded at his side, were nearly proportional to what a pony would need to fly via physics, rather than the magic they actually used. It was good to see the normally so serious half-zebra smile. Sun slipped around the edge of the exceptionally large room that made up the vast majority of Moonlight’s apartment leaving them to their conversation.

He’d congratulate Night on his Honours graduation from the Royal Equestrian Police Guard academy later. For now, he’d find another pony to speak with. He looked around the room, finding Shadow, moonlight’s palette swapped, blue-eyed brother at the snack table speaking with Zekkonia, Night’s full-blooded zebra mother. In another part of the room, Clear Night’s, Moonlight’s mother, was speaking to Thunder Strike, Night’s Pegasus father and—oddly enough—Sun’s boss at Obsidian Martial Arts Academy.

A few feet from them, Starlight, Moonlight’s unicorn sister, was speaking animatedly with one of the few ponies Sunrider didn’t recognize at all. She was a turquoise Pegasus with a short, practically cut orange mane, with matching eyes alight with energy. Moonlight had told him it was one of Night’s friends from the Academy. Her family and a fair few of hers and Night’s mutual friends and classmates were scattered around the room, too, but Sun knew enough ponies there that the ones he didn’t weren’t overwhelming as they might have been.

Finally, he found who he was looking for. Hope Dawn was on the other side of the room. She was standing by a wall, keeping quiet and generally just being herself. Her long, thick, deep green mane covered the right side of her face, completely covering her right eye and reaching almost to the floor. Jade, right eye was carefully focused in such a way that she wouldn’t meet anypony’s eyes, and her general bearing simply didn’t bare notice. To most ponies. She was an average sized mare with a curvy figure, and would have been drop dead beautiful if she could find any confidence in herself.

Even as it was, with the complete lack of said confidence, she was still a very pretty mare. One of the few mares that Sun found himself able to talk normally to. It was almost humorous that the mares he had as friends, the ones he could actually hold a conversation with, were usually the ones considered to be some of the more beautiful types of mares in Equestria.

He smiled at her, grabbing a pair of cups with the punch from the table as he passed it and brought them over, smiling at her. “Hey Dawn,” he greeted once he was in earshot.

She turned over to look at him, smiling softly. “Hi Sunny. Enjoying the party?” she asked.

“Yeah. I am, actually,” he stated softly. “I know most of the ponies here and I can stay in the background. That’s always nice.”

Dawn giggled. “Of course it is. How you manage to do that with a bright yellow coat is a little beyond me,” she replied. “Bright yellow coat, orange mane, and yet, in a room painted back you could blend in.”

Sun chuckled. “It’s a gift,” he told her teasingly. “I have the gift of invisibility.”

“And somehow, that talent never seemed to extend to the high school wrestling coach,” Dawn shot right back, eye twinkling with mirth.

Sun groaned. “Please don’t remind me. The number of ways I came up with to dodge that pony….” Sun shook his head to banish the memory.

Dawn just giggled again. “Oh come on, would it have really been so bad to join one team?”

“Oh, and you didn’t join the debate team because, Miss Political Science Super Genius?” Sun answered, his smile starting to stretch into a grin.

“Point taken,” Dawn answered, smile getting a little wider. “But it still doesn’t make it any less funny.”

Sun grumbled, offering her the thing of punch he’d brought over. She accepted, her smile now well into the realm of smug as she looked at him. “It was hilarious and you know it,” she asserted.

Sun could come up with no comeback to that, as looking back, it really had been hilarious the lengths the coach had gone to try and get Sun on the wrestling team.

Dawn smiled smugly at Sun, giggling once more. “So what have you been up to?”

They descended into small talk for a bit, Sun telling her about his time working at the hospital, working with foals and teens recovering from serious injuries and illnesses. He was a physical therapist, working to get the little ones going full speed once again after something major.

Dawn was training to become a full Aide to the Princesses, and was already proving herself to be a valuable asset to the castle staff. She also seemed to be enjoying it, something which Sun was glad for.

They were in the middle of swapping some of their more interesting stories when there was a dinging of dozens of spoons on glasses. Sun raised an eyebrow, looking down at his distinctly plastic cup, before he looked towards the front of the room where the noise was coming from.

Moonlight stood at the front, wing held over her head, and visible between two of her primaries was a thunderstone. A thunderstone was a small gem that was designed to hold a magic charge or precast spell that would activate on some sort of trigger. The spell, in the case of the one that Moonlight held, seemed to be that attention grabbing noise.

“Thank you all for coming, and congratulations to Nighty on graduating from Tartarus on Equestria,” she said with a smile, as laugher spread through the room, particularly from those that had done the graduating. “Now, I’m sure everyone is having fun, but this is a party, where too many ponies don’t know each other. So, to remedy that, I made a special blend of punch,” she explained. There was confused muttering throughout the room, but Dawn and Sun shared a look. They had a very good idea of what was about to happen. Sun would put bits on the abuse of Starlight’s alchemy knowledge.

Sure enough, Moonlight went on. “This blend, made special for this party, is, of course, spiked with alcohol, but you all knew that. What you didn’t know, is that it’s got a bodyswapping potion that builds up a charge through the ambient magic being radiated from the lights. What you also didn’t know was the reason for the ultraviolet lights sitting around the edges of the room. Shall I demonstrate?!” she asked excitedly.

There was a long, shocked pause, before the sound of several hooves impacting foreheads echoed throughout the room. There was plenty of nervous laughter, as well as genuine laughter as well, as various other ponies thought she was joking. As sun looked around though, he caught sight of the resigned looks on Clear Nights, Starlight, Night, and Shadow. They, at least, knew  that Moonlight was completely serious.

Zekkonia, the zebra in the room, though, had a surprised look on her face. Not a look of disbelief that came from not believing Moonlight, but from not believing that somepony would actually use it. Sun could believe it. All too well…

At the front, Moonlight grinned, and brought the thunderstone back down, placing it on the table while her other wing darted out and hit a button on the wall.

There was a flash of purple and Sun knew the potion had worked…