Author's Note
Any similarities to any other works on this site or anywhere else are purely coincidental and are in no way copied.
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic belongs to Hasbro. I'm just here to play in their sandbox while my muse continues to throw story ideas at my head.
This story was pre-read by NyxKnight, Brony250, and Apple Belle Stories.
Enjoy!
Nap Time
“This looks like a good place to relax,” Lightning nodded as he, Night who was formerly known as Nightmare Moon, and Starlight Glimmer stood atop a hill overlooking the outskirts of Ponyville. Ever since he'd been inadvertently summoned by Princess Celestia prior to Nightmare Moon's return, Lightning had found himself either fighting alongside the wielder of the Elements of Harmony or playing diplomat for Equestria and the times where he could relax had become few and far in between.
“Yeah, the weather team sure did a great job making sure that the weather would be perfect for today,” Starlight agreed as she closed her eyes, allowing herself to revel in the gentle breezes only found atop the hill while her mane flowed in the wind. All three of them had been especially busy the past several days persuading both the princesses and the royal court why equal rights for all the pony races would absolutely critical for Equestria’s future.
Fortunately, the trio had managed to marshal up enough examples along with the benefits that could be provided with these new changes. The prospect of expanded research and prospects into learning about possible advancements that could help Equestria had been quite tempting for the council of nobles to resist. Lightning had driven the point home when he brought out a pair of portable radios he’d brought over from his home world and relayed a mock conversation he’d had with Starlight and Night. After explaining how the radio was invented and after Starlight had explained some of the greatest advancements in Equestrian research came from earth ponies, the court had gone for a temporary recess to discuss their final verdict.
It was pretty obvious what happened next.
The three sighed happily as they collapsed on their backs with their limbs stretched every which way and stared up at the sky, allowing silence to penetrate the peaceful scene. What else needed to be said? Their hard work and weeks of planning had finally borne fruit.
“You know,” Lightning began as he stared up at the cloud, hands behind his head. “It’s days like this where I want nothing more than to just lie down here and let my worries drift away in sleep.”
“Well there’s nothing stop you from doing just that, Light,” Night pointed out with a wry smile. “It’s not like we have anything else planned for the rest of the day or the rest of the week for that matter. And you haven’t exactly slept in two days.”
“We weren’t exactly allowed to when that one noble tried to filibuster his way out of reviewing our reforms,” Lightning protested. “It was either that or fall asleep and having to start all over again. Thank the stars for the energy elixir that Luna gave us.”
“Nobody’s blaming you Light,” Starlight stated gently. “We all definitely deserve to relax given how hectic the past few days have been. Hay, I think I might just follow your lead and do the same!” To prove her point, Starlight had eagerly nuzzled into Lightning’s side. Night stifled an amused laugh as she willed her starry blue mane to wrap around them as she nuzzled into Lightning’s other side causing Lightning to smile. He haphazardly pulled off his jacket, sleeves, and gloves and set them to the side before nuzzling himself closer to his two friends.
“This is nice,” he mumbled as he fell asleep. Starlight and Night exchanged small smiles before they followed his lead, snuggling into his shoulders as close as physical space allowed.
Pinkie Pie was enjoying a casual stroll through the outskirts of Ponyville. Actually, that’s a lie, she was currently taking part in a, as far as she was concerned, town wide game of hide and seek and was totally winning! She'd already found well over three quarters of the towns' ponies.
“Now if I were Amethyst Star, where would I hide?” she wondered aloud while stifling a small giggle as she went about her search for the wayward mare. As she trotted closer to the hill, she spotted somepony lying down across the hill. Smiling smugly, Pinkie slowly trotted her way up the hill. However, her excited grin turned into a gentler smile. It certainly wasn’t Amethyst Star but instead she had found Lightning, Night, and Starlight. She made to raise a hoof to wake them up and invite them to play in her game of hide and seek but then she paused.
“They all look so happy just sleeping here together,” Pinkie mused as she quietly trotted around them curiously. She had noticed how Starlight was wrapping her hooves as tightly as she could around Lightning’s arm. Not satisfied with her prize, she had proceeded to wrap her tail around it as well as though to assure her claim. Pinkie had to hold back a gasp of delight at the sight of the small smile on Night’s face. The former self proclaimed Queen of the Night lay curled around her fellow companions, perfectly content to use Lightning’s shoulder as her pillow as her starry mane covered them like a warm blanket. Finally, Pinkie turned her attention to Lightning himself. He seemed very happy from the small smile on his face as he unconsciously pulled Night and Starlight closer to his body.
Just looking at how comfortable they all appeared to be made Pinkie feel incredibly fuzzy and an all around even happier mare. She decided that it would probably be wise to leave them alone. Just from the looks on their faces, she could tell that while they were happy, they were also exhausted and it would only be fair to let them rest.
Besides, she still had a Ponyville-wide game of hide and seek game left to play and she was certain the others wouldn't appreciate having to hide for the rest of their lives while they waited for her to find them.
Still... she looked back at them one last time and noticed the smiles on their faces. She couldn’t help but want to take part in whatever it was they were smiling about. Surely the others would understand if she decided to lay down for a short break from her search, right?
After assuring herself that nobody would hold it against her, Pinkie had proceeded to curl up next to Lightning’s leg and snuggled in, content to let sleep pull her to the wonderful world of dreams. Pinkie had unknowingly snuggled closer to Lightning’s stomach and unconsciously pulled on Night’s mane to get warm faster.
Rarity was beaming as she trotted toward the spa for another round of relaxation. She felt she had deserved as much after finishing and sending her biggest order to date! And to her client in Canterlot no less! It had taken her the better part of two weeks to make sure everything was perfect before she shipped it. The fashionista was closing in on her destination when she spotted a familiar figure atop a nearby hill.
Pausing to go say hello as would any good pony, Rarity made a brief detour to trot up the hill where she saw the most adorable and peculiar sight she’d borne witness since Sweetie Belle was born. Pinkie, Starlight, and Night were all snuggled up to Lightning who had somehow managed to snuggle all three in tandem.
They look so comfortable Rarity couldn’t but notice as she spotted the content smiles on their faces. I wonder what they could be dreaming about...
Rarity for her part was taken aback by this side of Lightning. Sure, he was kind and was ready help those who needed it but he didn’t strike Rarity as a snuggler. He had struck her as someone her preferred less intimate forms of contact like hoof bumps. Granted, he didn’t mind having Fluttershy or Night in his lap as he gave a light scratch on their ears but this was a fully on snuggle at hoof!
Rarity couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to be snuggled like Pinkie or Starlight. However, as that thought came to mind, another conflicted the first thought while questioning what the media would think if they caught wind of it. They’d have a field day with it if the Gabby Gums incident had been any indication.
Before her inner consciousness could argue anymore, Rarity suddenly felt herself getting sleepy and the nice weather wasn’t helping her cause.
It’s such a lovely day outside. It’d be a shame to waste it indoors no matter how good the spa sounds right now. I suppose I’ll have to reschedule that spa date for another time, I suppose. With that, Rarity carefully maneuvered herself to rest between Pinkie and Lightning as she rested her head on his chest while wrapping her tail around his leg.
He feels so warm Rarity thought, snuggling closer while smiling happily as Lightning unconsciously pulled her closer to him. Lightning’s warmth gave Rarity the safety she’d come to depend on from him as she found herself slowly drifting off to sleep.
Fluttershy had just stepped out of the Friendship Castle and was more than ready to make her way back to her cottage to unwind with her animal friends. The young pegasus mare had set off with a quick trot when she passed a familiar hillside. Fluttershy found herself stopping for a moment as she recalled the numerous times she’d met Lightning there while enjoying a quiet picnic with her animal and pony friends on numerous occasions.
She had blinked when she noticed a strange shape atop that hill. Curious, Fluttershy unfurled her wings as she rode the wind up to the top of the hill. What she saw when she got there surprised her. Said surprise entailed finding several of her friends all snuggled up together and taking a nap. She had immediately noticed how peaceful Lightning and Night looked as they snoozed the day away.
She couldn’t help the small frown and the accompanying pang of jealousy she felt as she watched Starlight and Rarity hug Lightning more tightly, mumbling indistinctly under their breath as they wrapped their tails around him almost possessively.
Fluttershy’s eyes narrowed. In a past life, she would have probably have let such a thing slide and decided to make her way back home. She didn’t want to cause anypony problems. It always turned into a giant mess where she got involved if the Iron Will incident had taught her anything. However, she wasn’t that mare anymore. At least, she wasn’t quite so shy anymore if her time with Lightning was anything to go by.
She wouldn’t let such a challenge go unanswered especially given how little time they had spent together recently. Not that she could blame Lightning for those things. They all had to stop Tirek and the Cutie Map had summoned him to go to Our Town where he met Starlight and managed to persuade her to help him making Equestria a better place alongside Princess Twilight and her friends. In all honestly, Fluttershy genuinely liked the unicorn and normally got along quite well the mare, being a peace advocate herself.
That said, that all flew out the window when the mare had decided to attach herself to Lightning the way she did. Fluttershy knew that she had to take action to keep Lightning safe. She could imagine Lightning listening to her thoughts right now and trying and failing to stifle his laughter while dismissing her fears. Unfortunately, her fears couldn’t be dissuaded quite so easily as she had come to want Lightning around as much as feasibly possible. She had enjoyed the time they did get to spend together but wished she could spend more time than the scant few hours she got whenever he visited.
Decision made, Fluttershy pushed her way forth and snuggled between Starlight and Lightning, making a point to wrap her tail possessively around Lightning. She wasn’t about to let somepony else take him away from her without a fight.
She had placed her head on Lightning’s chest as let his steady heartbeat carry her off to sleep while snuggling him tightly.
Princess Luna stifled a giggle as she glided toward Ponyville. She hadn’t felt the need to take a chariot or the train as the day was so nice and her wings were just begging for a stretch. This raised the question of why the Princess of the Night was visiting a small town during the day? The answer was quite simple: Lightning.
She had planned to make a surprise visit to Lightning’s castle, namely the refurbished castle that was once the Castle of the Two Sisters, this day as she had wanted to spend more time with him. Besides, she owed him a great deal for all the help he gave her while she struggled to adjust to modern times and hated the idea of leaving her debts unpaid. While Lightning assured her that he was happy that he and Luna were good friends, the dark alicorn still felt that she still ought to do something for Lightning and decided that a surprise visit would be probably a be a good first step in lieu of a better plan. In hindsight, she probably could have stood to do such a thing sooner but he’d always so happened to be in Canterlot to check in with Princess Celestia before heading out for diplomatic summits or something similar.
As she banked in to land near the Friendship castle in Ponyville, she spotted the familiar sight of the hill where she and Lightning had first met. Those were such sweet memories of how she and her darker self had made their first friend since they had returned from their banishment. Speaking of Nightmare Moon, the mare had since tossed aside that mantle, favoring to simply called ‘Night’. Luna assumed that it was a play on words to match Light’s name. She knew there were probably several other deeper reasons behind it but the Princess of the Night could not bring herself to care.
Speaking of Lightning, she had spotted the young man fast asleep on the grass with several mares lying around him as they snuggled either him or each other.
But mostly him if Luna was going to be honest.
The night alicorn had to fight her laughter as she watched Pinkie Pie snuggle up to Night’s barrel and the mare responded by wrapping a wing tightly around the bubbly pink pony. Yet as she turned her attention to all the mares who’d wrapped themselves around Lightning, she couldn’t help feel a sickening feeling in her stomach as she watched them. Her first thought was to wake them up and cease this nonsense but one look at Lightning’s smiling face killed the idea before it could take root.
She had noticed that everybody else was also enjoying the reprieve. If Luna didn’t know any better, she’d have thought that they were actually having fun together in the realm of dreams which was still her domain regardless of the time.
Surely no one will mind if I decide to take a reprieve with them Luna reasoned as she rested herself atop Lightning’s stomach next to Pinkie while wrapping a wing around the pink mare who’d been responsible for her most recently and most enjoyable birthday party yet. Luna frowned as her barrel made contact with the grass and grimaced with how itchy it felt against her coat.
Her horn glowed as a large black blanket materialized beneath the group before snuggling in for nice warm nap.
Wait for me Light! Luna thought eagerly is she plunged into the realm of dreams.
Discord and Spike had been searching for Fluttershy when they spotted her sleeping next to Lightning. The former had been searching for her to ask when their next tea time would be while the latter had been searching for Lightning to ask when they could meet again. Discord hadn’t bothered with any sort of reasoning to join them, being the spirit of chaos, and wrapped himself around the present group of mares before falling asleep atop one of his clouds of cotton candy which happened to be infinitely more comfortable than the blanket present.
Spike was all for a good nap especially on such a nice day like today especially given how much time he'd spent with Discord, playing a few harmless pranks on some of the ponies in town. With that, he curled up next to Rarity before allowing himself to drift off to sleep.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders had just finished another session of experimenting with their special talents. Scootaloo had found herself tinkering with her scooter and performing several new tricks with said vehicle much to the amazement of her peers. Apple Bloom had been helping Big Macintosh with barn repairs. Said repairs were sped up with her almost unnatural talent with wood working much to Big Mac's equal parts surprise and delight. Sweetie Belle had found herself singing to a small group of ponies. She had only meant to be practicing a small song she'd come up with that she thought had the potential to be the new Cutie Mark Crusaders theme song and was understandably surprise when she heard the applause.
The three had then met up with plans to do something fun but the three were at a loss at what to do as they opted for a nice trot through Ponyville. As they passed through the Friendship Castle, they had noticed their mentors fast asleep on top of a hill and had decided they had needed very little incentive to join them. They were already exhausted and were in no mood to try to make the trek back to their respective houses. They had all snuggled up each other and stuck close to Night’s tail to keep from getting cold.
Night’s warmth was enough to make their eyes droopy and fall asleep.
Princess Celestia was a happy mare. She had just finished an enjoyable discussion about nothing in particular with her beloved student and now fellow princess, Twilight Sparkle. Curiously, the Princess of the Day had idly noted that Spike had been absent from the proceedings though the she gave it little thought. She just chalked it up to young dragons exploring their boundaries and enjoying life.
However, a curious sight caught her attention as she made to approach her personal guard. A sight that happened to feature her little sister, her darker half, a half of the elements of harmony, Spike, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Discord, and lastly, Lightning. She had noticed how they had all collected into a mesh network of bodies with Lightning as the central focus.
That said, what really caught Celestia’s attention was the fact that her little sister was snuggled up to Lightning as well. As far as she could tell, her little sister was not an especially touchy-feely mare so to see her behaving like this was a welcome change.
Being the nosy older sister that she was, Celestia had no qualms about landing before snuggling into her little sister. Pausing before smiling gently, she snuggled Night closer to her as well. Even if she had manifested from the darkness of her little sister’s heart, Celestia had come to see her as a younger sister as well and that was to say nothing of all the good things she'd done for Equestria since her redemption. She had vowed to make amends with Night in the near future.
With one wing wrapped around Luna and the other wrapped around Night Celestia allowed herself to rest on the plush blanket before allow the warmth pulling her into slumber.
Rainbow Dash had been lazily drifting on her cloud when she spotted a large hodge-podge of ponies along with the lone draconequus all of whom she knew personally sleeping either on or around Equestria’s resident human. Intrigued, she lowered her cloud closer to the ground she was able to make out three of Equestria’s five alicorns, half of the elements of harmony, Spike, Discord, and Lightning all fast asleep.
Figuring that her nap could only be more awesome if she slept alongside them. With that, Rainbow oriented her cloud next to Pinkie closest to Lightning’s legs as she opted to snooze the rest of the day away. Besides, it's not like she had any Wonderbolts training going on for the next few days. She also figured that Pinkie would probably unintentionally rub it in her face if she didn't end up doing it herself so she decided to save herself that spiel and simply go for it.
Twilight and Applejack were currently looking for their little brother and little sister respectively. Both were naturally concerned when they hadn’t shown up for a meeting with Princess Celestia and for lunch respectively so they had sought to go search for them.
Fortunately, a generally reliable rule of thumb between them: if they couldn’t find them, they were most likely going to be with Lightning who had been the go to when they couldn’t their younger siblings. This time was no different when they scaled the familiar hill. However this time, neither expected to see what they saw: the huge pile of creatures fast asleep atop a blanket or a cloud.
They spotted Apple Bloom and Spike curled up next to Lightning’s thigh. Both stifled their giggles when they spotted both of Equestria’s celestial princesses curled up together. They couldn’t bring themselves to break up the scene so instead they had decided to join in with Twilight lying next to Spike and Princess Celestia while Applejack curled herself around Apple Bloom with her tail covering the little filly like a blanket.
It’s not like they had anything they needed to take care of anyway.
Lightning woke up several hours later feeling very refreshed. He made to get up, only to find his arms and legs pinned to the ground.
Blinking the drowsiness out his eyes, Lightning came upon the most curious sight of the many ponies along with the lone dragon and draconequus either on or around him. He noticed Starlight, Rarity, and Fluttershy had wrapped their forehooves and tails around him. He noticed Celestia and Luna snuggled up very close by along with Twilight. Lightning was also pleased to note how Celestia has seemed to snuggle up to Night as well as Luna. If Night knew it, she hid her surprise well.
Looking around, Lightning was more than a little taken aback by Rainbow Dash and Discord’s presence before realizing that Fluttershy was here and was an important pony to both of them so he shrugged it off. He would have gone back to sleep when his belly roared in hunger. He grimaced in pain as he realized just how hungry he was. How could he be this hungry given that all he’d been doing was sleeping the day away was beyond him.
Sighing, he’d managed to make quick work of free his legs but his arms were very tricky and had failed to get them free without waking up everyone else.
“Did you have to do that, I was having the most wonderful dream…” Starlight complained to no one in particular while pouting at an amused Lightning. Or at least that’s what she would have done had she not noticed the at least ten other ponies... wait, was that a draconequus over there? Her complaint had the added effect of waking up everyone else who was grumbling about how they had just been getting to a good part in their respective dreams.
It was an awkward silence just waiting to happen to be honest.
“So did you guys enjoy your naps?” Lightning asked, a small smile on his lips as he looked between all those present. He smile turned more teasing as he noticed the tails wrapped around him, “I guess I passed as the greatest pillow in the world.”
Starlight, Rarity, and Fluttershy blushed while Luna, Night, and Celestia snorted back their laughter.
“You’re not mad?” Rarity asked curiously.
“No,” Lightning replied, shrugging as he sat up. “Just surprised... and more than a little amused to be honest.” He had noticed the sun setting and had made to move up and had to give Applejack, Pinkie, the crusaders, and Spike a meaningful look before they let him up.
“Well since you all decided to spend the day napping away with us, let’s all have dinner at my castle. Who’s with me?” Lightning asked.
A resounding cheer answered him, causing him, Night, and Starlight to laugh as they led the way back to the castle. Looking back, Lightning could safely say that today had been a quite a good day. He couldn’t wait for the next time this happened.
