King quickly tossed off the covers and rushed to the door to answer it. Pinkie stood behind it, glaring at him angrily.

"...Pinkie? Y'alright?" He waited a moment, a little weirded out by the fact that she wasn't responding yet. She held this furious glare for about three more seconds before bursting out into a snorting giggle.

"Hah! snort You- snirk The look on your face!" Then, just as quickly as the giggles flowed, they stopped and her face got deadly serious. "Now, King, you knew your party was tonight."

"Yeah, I'm sorry for not turning up yet, I was seriously tired after today. I'm fine now, though." He smiled at her, partially just happy she doesn't seem genuinely vindictive. "So, Sugarcube Corner?"

"Nope," she smiles brightly, practically dancing in place. "It's right downstairs! I thought, if you were maybe not gonna be at the party, I would bring the party right to you!"

"Oh. That's, uhhhh..." he found himself dumbfounded. Brushing past Pinkie, he rushed downstairs, and, sure enough, there were tons of ponies partying it up downstairs, even the owner of the inn was reveling in both the music and the publicity her little place was finally getting. "Noice."

"Right? I think you're really gonna enjoy yourself here. I betcha that you're a real party animal!" She gives a light shove into the crowd and he finds himself wandering through. "Wooo!!!"

"Crazy ponies shoving me into crowds..." he grumbled grumpily as he muddled through and found his way to the snack table where, to his profound surprise, he found Zecora again. "Oh, hey. What's up, Zecora."

She turned and looked to him and, surprisingly smiled at him, though it was an odd one, not that noticed. "Oh, King, what do you think? I knew you'd be here, so I made you a drink. I think you'll like it, I really do. I'm known quite well for it, it's quite true." She smiled again, though this one reserved, hiding something, but, again, not that he'd ever notice. She handed him a small drink, the size of a shot and blue in color, bubbling and frothing in strange ways. "A perfect drink, but a small aside, it may make even you run and hide. It's likely far too strong for you, after all, it's my Joker's Brew. It will bring no harm, of course, but if you still choose it, I'll have no remorse."

"I'm no chump, this drink has nothing on me, I'm confident in that much." He quickly accepted the drink, tossing it back and, despite the sour taste, absolutely nothing happened immediately. "Is that all?"

"Find me by the end of the night, just in case you aren't feeling right." she says as she snickers into her hoof. She turns and casually trots off. He walked into the throng of ponies after snacking on a few of the available treats, actually enjoying what he ate, though he didn't actually feel hungry. He wanders outside, into the night for a few.

"I wonder why I'm not in constant pain, anyways. 001 was. It would probably kinda suck though, so, hey, I'm glad not to, too," he mused, shortly before tingles flickered across his emulated skin for just a moment, though it didn't last for long before several long, spotted tendrils burst forth from all along his body, almost like strange hairs. Tendrils he couldn't control. They seemed to move erratically, shifting in various directions at their own whims. He tried to force them down, to get them under control, but they stubbornly refused, attempting to grab various things around him seemingly with no purpose except to cause him difficulties. It took him a minute, but he realized, or at least had a hunch about, what had happened to him. "Zecora!"

Off around the side of the building, there was a small laugh and he saw a black and white striped tail just past the corner. "Zecora?" he quickly followed, hoping she might help him without being seen too terribly much. "Hey, this isn't funny!"

"Now, my tentacled friend, I must disagree, though I do wonder who it is behind that tree..." He heard a voice next to him and was shocked to see Zecora standing there, looking quite amused.

"Well, I don't happen to think so, though I don't have any idea who I've been following now." He frowned deeply at this revelation, before turning again to Zecora. "Why the fuck did you spike my damn drink with whatever the hell does this?"

She frowned at the expletives, but quickly regained her smirk as she spoke. "I did not make you that drink, though you're answer's closer than you think..."

At that moment, Pinkie, wearing a Zecora costume, tapped King on his shoulder from behind before slinking in front of him as he turned to look. When he turned back he jumped in surprise her standing there before she quickly revealed that it was a disguise. Somehow, however, he wasn't surprised that she was behind all of this. Zecora decided this was as good a time as any to leave the explaining to her, and headed back to the party.

"Tada! Now, look behind you one more time!"

"No, I'm not just gonna-" was all he was able to say before being pushed into the pony-sized tub of hot water and poison joke curative that he somehow didn't notice behind him. She started laughing and was practically rolling on the ground as she did so when King peeked his head grumpily out from beneath the water. "Ha ha, very funny, now can you help me with these fucking tentacles?"

"Silly King, you didn't think I was just pushing you into the water for nothin', didja?" She giggle-snorted again, before straightening up a bit. "Nope, I decided I was gonna prank ya, so you just got Poison Joke'd! That was the cure though. You've probably been stewing long enough. Hop on out, you'll see what I mean!"

"Urgh..." He shuddered, thrown off by the unwanted additions to his carefully crafted body falling away. He stepped out of the bath, certainly happier though, now that he'd gotten rid of the extra bits. He smiled a small smile when he turned to her for a moment as he had already begun the planning for his retaliation. "I'm gonna get you back, Pinks. You won't know when, or where, it'll be when you least expect it!"

"I wouldn't expect any less, pal-o-mine!" She beamed brightly, clearly ecstatic about the new prank war ready to unfold. "Now, come on! We've still got the rest of a party to enjoy!"

They headed back to the party together and he enjoyed the next half hour of it before finally shuffling back up to his room, truly exhausted, though not finding sleep easily. The party below, surprisingly, wasn't the problem. His mind kept going back to Twilight and his book. He had to get it back. He needed that book, and he knew it. He forced his eyes shut, and tried to make himself fall sleep. After about forty minutes, he finally slipped off into a dream. A strange, cloudy, starry dream.

He realized immediately that he was upright again. In the form of the Scarlet King, at the very least, it seemed he could dream in relative comfort. The world around him on the other hand, felt strange. Like it wasn't even his dream.

"This is a weird dream, I think. I mean, least it's not a nightmare, so that's neat. I was worried I'd be getting some pretty nasty ones with a body like this..." he immediately froze, however, when he saw a dark shadow in the corner of his little dream world.

"Methinks, perhaps, you may have spoken too soon, beast! A nasty dream you'll have, surely! Nay, a nightmare!"

Author's Note

Sorry for taking so long to post. It's been very much a long few days. I'm very, very tired. I am sleep now. Probably gonna rewrite this chapter later when I'm awake and not terrible, so don't get too attached.

Edit: Made several changes to it, but I actually sort of liked the direction I was going with some of it while I was only half there, so some is unchanged. Hopefully folks like it and don't think Luna is racist. I meant for him to be The Scarlet King in his dream, but I was too busy dying to do that.