“This was so much easier when we were younger,” sighed Sweetie Belle, holding her arms over her head as Applebloom wrapped another layer of tan gauze across her chest.

“Well duh,” said Applebloom, “you didn’t need six rolls of gauze to become a mummy when we were 12.”

“Can’t believe it took four tries and two rolls just to cover my chest,” replied Sweetie.

“Heh, ur yoothoo dunthet?” asked Scootaloo coming out of the bathroom, wearing a flowing black-purple cape, and form-fitting dark outfit.

“Huh?” asked the two girls.

“Thorry,” said Scootaloo, spitting out the fake vampire teeth. “Are you two done yet?”

“Ah think so,” said Applebloom, completing another wrap, and then tying the remaining gauze behind Sweetie’s back. “How does that feel, Sweetie Belle?”

“A little, stiff,” said Sweetie, taking a few tentative steps, and feeling the gauze tighten in several areas of her anatomy.

“But you’re a mummy,” said Scootaloo. “You’re supposed to be stiff.”

“Want me to unwrap ya and start over?” asked Applebloom.

“Do you know how much time that’ll take?” groaned Scootaloo. “Sweet Celestia Applebloom, the Nightmare Night parties start in twenty-five minutes, and you haven’t even got your zombie makeup on!”

“Girls, I’ll…be fine,” said Sweetie, leaning against a nearby wall. “Go on Applebloom, you go and finish up.”

“Well, alright Sweetie Belle,” said Applebloom. “If you insist.”

35 minutes later, a zombie, a mummy, and a vampire left their dorm room, and began making their way across the campus in the chilly afternoon air.

The waning sun began to cast long shadows across the pathways, which were filled with all manner of costumed students.

“Wonder if we’ll see anypony dressed up as Twilight tonight,” said Sweetie Belle.

“Oh, speaking of Twilight, ah heard she may be teachin’ a class here next semester,” said Applebloom.

“Really?” asked Scootaloo. “Where’d you hear that?”

“From some fella in my agriculture class named Coral Leaf.”

“Oh, a ‘fella?’” snickered Sweetie Belle. “So when do we get to meet him?”

“Stop changin’ the subject,” said Applebloom, giving her wrapped-up friend a playful shove. “Anyhoo, it’s not confirmed, but you never kno-“

Suddenly, a loud shriek caused the three to jump as they saw a few frantic ponies cross their path, being chased by a stallion in a timberwolf costume.

“Well that settles it,” said Scootaloo. “Come on girls, let’s stop talking class, and have some fun.”

While colored Nightmare Night decorations permeated the campus buildings and the light posts along the sidewalks, most of the get-togethers for the students were taking place in a number of houses just east of the university, where some students had chosen to share housing instead of staying on-campus.

As the girls turned the corner onto Mulberry Street, they encountered a few young colts and ponies out with their parents.

“Remember when we were that little?” asked Applebloom. “Seems like such a long time ago.”

“Yeah,” said Sweetie Belle, looking down and getting an eye-full of gauze-wrapped mammary glands. “Back when I could still see my hooves.”

“Well, where should we start?” asked Scootaloo, seeing a number of costumed students on the front lawns of several different houses.

“How about that one?” said Sweetie Belle, pointing to a two-story yellow house, with music blaring from the porch, and at least two-dozen students crowded on the front lawn playing Nightmare Night games.

“Guess we gotta start somewhere,” said Scootaloo, raising her hand in the air. “Come on girls, don”t leave me hanging.”

And with the girls giving a round of high-fives, the trio sashayed up the front walk to the porch.

“Well, aren’t you three nice and scary,” said a stallion in the doorway, dressed as a pirate. “Come on in and help yourself. Got drinks and pizza in the kitchen. Feel free to mix up whatever you like from the spirits.”

The three then squeezed through the mass of students inside the front hallway, which became tough for Sweetie Belle, whose bandaged bosom seemed to brush against everything she passed.

“Oops, sorry, excuse me, sorry, still getting used to them,” she could be heard to say.

After a few moments, the three found themselves in the kitchen amidst stacked pizza boxes and a number of liquor bottles.

Sweetie Belle ended up mixing together a fruity concoction, but gagged a little when she realized she had put a little too much vodka in her drink.

“We’re gonna check out the living room,” said Applebloom, motioning to her and Scootaloo. “See if there’s anypony here that we know.”

“Okay, be there in a sec,” said Sweetie, grabbing a plate and taking a few slices of mushroom pizza. Turning back to the doorway, she found herself face-to-face with a rather muscular, green stallion. He was wearing an egyptian headdress and pharoah’s robes, and was carrying a full cup of liquor in his right hand.

“Well, aren’t you a big one,” he said, gesturing to Sweetie’s chest before taking a drink. “Daddy buy those for ya?”

“N-no,” blushed Sweetie. “I need to get to my friends. Excuse me.”

“Hey come on now,” said the stallion, stumbling to block her path out of the kitchen. “Nightmare Night’s still young, let’s talk. Where do you live? What’s your name?”

This time, he reached towards Sweetie’s chest with his left hand, leading to her swatting at it!

“Hey!” he yelled, suddenly grabbing her wrist. “What’d you do that for, crowbait!?”

Sweetie Belle began to struggle in his grasp, when she suddenly noticed a clanking suit of armor come up behind the drunken pharoah, and put a hand on his shoulder.

“I think you’ve had enough, Brawny Brunt,” came a voice from within the suit.

“Hey, lay off, trash can,” said Brawny, letting go of Sweetie’s wrist to brush the metal gauntlet off his shoudler. “me and the filly here were just getting acquainted.”

“I think what you need to do is get some air…outside,” replied the suit of armor, looking like it wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

“Really?” asked Brawny. “You gonna make me?”

And with a drunken shove, the green stallion pushed hard against the suit of armor, causing it’s wearer to collapse against a nearby wall, the clatter of metal causing the nearby partygoers to stop and look.

“Hey,” came the voice of the pirate host, who quickly entered the kitchen. “You knocking our guests around in here?”

“Hey he started it,” said Brawny, gesturing to the suit of armor on the floor.

“Get out of here,” gestured the pirate. “I ask you to leave again, me and my housemates are gonna escort you out ourselves.”

“Alright, fine,” sneered Brawny. “Yer loss.”

As Sweetie watched, the green stallion chugged down the liquor in his cup before tossing it on the floor, then stumbling down the hall and out the front door.

Meanwhile, the pirate was helping up the suited stallion. Once he was back on his metal-encased hooves, he clanked across the kitchen to Sweetie Belle.

“You alright?” he asked.

“Uh-huh,” she said. “Thanks for helping me.”

“It was the least I could do. I still feel bad about…well, the last time we met.”

“The last time?” asked Sweetie, taking a bite of pizza. “Do I know you?”

“Kinda,” said the Stallion, opening up the front of his helmet’s visor, revealing part of a blue stallion’s face.

“I’m, not seeing it,” she said, squinting her eyes.

“How about this?” And with that, he pulled off the helmet, revealing himself to have a black and white mane of hair, with a unicorn horn sticking out above his tufted bangs.

“Umm…sorry? I, still don’t know who you are.”

“I…was the stallion that ran into you and your friends a few months ago,” he replied, rubbing the back of his head.

“Oh, that was you!” said Sweetie Belle, the memory of the first day on campus coming back to her.

“Yeah, look I’m really sorry about that.”

“It’s okay,” said Sweetie, taking a drink from her cup. “You did help us back up and all. So, you’re with the Cadets?”

“Yeah, following in my Dad’s hoofprints,” said the stallion, extending his hand. “Name’s Chrome Shield.”

“Sweetie Belle,” she replied, taking his hand. “Guess with a name like yours, it’s no wonder you’re dressed like that. Where’d you find that costume in Canterlot? Looks pretty expensive.”

“Oh no, I could ‘t afford something like this. A friend loaned it to me from the Canterlot Armory. It’s as old as my Grandfather, actually.”

“No way,” chuckled Sweetie. “It’s real?”

“Take it,” said Chrome, holding out the helmet. “Use both hands.”

Sweetie set down her drink and reached for the helmet, before letting out a gasp as the weight of it caused her to almost lose her grip, making her elbows smoosh against her bosom.

“Okay, I believe you,” she groaned, as Chrome took the helmet back. “Must be hard to wear.”

“If I hadn’t been training with the Cadets, I’d probably be in a lot of pain right now,” he replied.

“Sweetie Belle!”

The curly-haired filly turned just in time to see Scootaloo and Applebloom squeeze their way past some ponies, and into the kitchen.

“Way to leave us hanging,” said Scootaloo.

“Sorry girls,” said Sweetie. “things…happened.”

“Oh?” Said Applebloom, turning her attention to the suited stallion. “What kinda, ‘things?’”

“I’ll tell you later. Anyhoo, this is Chrome Shield. He, bumped into us last month.”

“Really?” asked Scootaloo. “When was that?”

“Remember that one stallion who plowed into us, first day back?”

“Ooohh!!”

After a short round of introductions, Applebloom revealed why they had sought out their friend.

“We ran into Sunny Sprint in the living room,” said Scootaloo. “She says a few of the art-school ponies got ahold of some old Nightmare Night movies, and they’re gonna show them over at the student union.”

“Movies?” asked Sweetie. “This from the pony who didn’t want us to miss all the house parties?”

“It just feels a little…crowded in here,” blushed Scootaloo, glancing slightly at her friend’s chest. “Besides, there’s gonna be plenty of stuff to eat and drink there too.”

“Well, sounds fun girls, but I think I’ll pass. I kinda wanna see what some of the other parties are like.”

“Are you sure that’s such a good idea?” asked Applebloom.

“If you want, I can keep an eye on her,” said Chrome, causing the three ponies to turn and look at him.

“…an eye on me?” said Sweetie Belle. “How old do you think I am?”

“I meant as an escort. Look, some stallions at these parties can get-well, you know. As a Cadet, I’m more-than-willing to make sure you’re okay. I mean, it’s the least I can do after bumping into you and your friends…right?”

Sweetie Belle thought for a few moments, before turning to her friends.

“What do you think, girls? Should I take his offer?”

“Well if ya do,” said Scootaloo, turning to Chrome, “you gotta Pinkie Promise us that Sweetie Belle will make it back home safely.”

“…Pinkie Promise?” asked Chrome. “What’s that?”

“Like this,” said Sweetie Belle, reciting and acting out the motions. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

“Um, o-kay?” said Chrome, mimicking what he had just seen.

Soon afterward, Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sunny Sprint headed back to campus, while Chrome Shield and Sweetie Belle headed down the nearby (but noisy) street.

Over the next few hours, Chrome and Sweetie made their way through a good number of houses. No matter where they went, there was an abundance of drinks, food, and plenty of rowdy college students.

Even after the crowded environs of the first house, Sweetie Belle seemed to have no qualms about heaving her bandaged bosom amongst all number ponies and stallions (usually with a little verbal aside). Naturally, there were some that attempted to reach for a handful of filly flesh, and Chrome was quite instrumental in moving the prodigious pony along, though her general thought was he was giving her a hard shove.

“Hey, not so pushy,” she pouted back at him a few times.

Of course, this didn’t stop Sweetie from enjoying herself. By the third house, she had a full drink in one hand, and found herself squished against the side of a wooden tub, bobbing for spiked, cider-soaked apples.

A few houses later, she was drunkenly singing along to Nightmare Night carols on a back porch, while Chrome was catching his breath in a corner of the kitchen. He had been trying to keep himself level-headed, but some of the pre-mixed drinks he had sampled, were much stronger than he had expected. Plus, the added weight of the suit of armor he was wearing, was starting to make him heat up more than he had anticipated.

As he filled a cup with water from the sink, a roar erupted from the doorway leading out to the patio! Looking through a nearby window, Chrome could see Sweetie Belle fumbling with the tied wrappings on her back. As he watched, it came undone, and she started to unravel the gauze over her chest!

In a clanking moment, he had crossed the room and come out onto the back porch, grabbing the unwrapped gauze out of her hand.

“I think, we should go,” he said, trying to wrap her back up.

“Hey, I’m just having some fun,” slurred Sweetie Belle. “B’sides, ah kin make sum easy bits if I prove they’re real!”

“Nope-nope-nope,” replied Chrome, as he dragged her across the porch, and back into the house. “We’re…gonna get you, back to your friends.”

“Awwww, come ooonn,” whined Sweetie Belle, as her dissent was echoed by a number of stallions in the backyard, upset that they had been denied a show.

A few moments later, the two were stumbling onto campus, with Chrome’s eyes beginning to droop. Sweetie had eventually stumbled into step with him, but the exertions of getting her out of the last house and back to the university, were causing him to see flashes of light before his eyes.

Spying a nearby bench, he pulled Sweetie Belle onto it before heavily clanking down next to her. A moment later, his helmet was off, and Chrome was gasping for air as he wiped the sweat from his brow.

As he looked towards a familiar building, he blinked his heavy eyelids, and looked over at Sweetie Belle, whose head was leaning over the back of the bench, her enormous chest overflowing onto her lap.

As he felt a stirring deep within his armor, Chrome looked towards a familiar building, before his eyes started to close…

Author's Note

Well, took a little more time than I expected, but I did manage to keep it short and sweet. The goal was to keep the word count around 2,500, and looks like I succeeded.

Chrome Shield’s introduction I wanted to be like a puzzle being put together. We get a little information about him over time, and hopefully get to understand more about the Cadets.

Coming up with Brawny Brunt’s name was a task that went on for awhile (at one point the place-holder for him was “Brawny Bones,” in reference to the character of Brom Bones from “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”), and I wanted something to make one think this stallion was not going to be a nice drunk.

Also snuck in a familiar name, though don’t expect much to come from it, as I wanted to do a little cameo as a chuckle.

Well, now onto the next chapter, which I’ve been slowly getting in order.