It was ten minutes away from the best and worst moment of Rainbow Dash's life, but she didn't know it yet. She was too busy snuggling inside a bright blue Wonderbolts sleeping bag, digging her face muzzle-deep into a buttery bag of Sugarcube Corner popcorn. She and the rest of her close friends listened eagerly as Applejack drawled from across a sea of blankets and pillows and other assorted fluffy bricabrac of slumber partyness.
"And then after all of his self-absorbed horse hockey, the gul-darn fool had the nerve to nuzzle me! Right there in the marketplace!" Applejack's hard green eyes swept across the estrogenical crowd in the center of Rarity's bedroom. "Like I was his special somepony or somethin'!"
Fluttershy gasped, hiding her face behind a pillow. "Oh... my..."
"Applejack, darling!" Rarity's voice hovered halfway between a laugh and a groan. She reclined on the edge of her bed above her guests with her purple mane in curls and her alabaster hooves dangling. "Surely you jest!"
"I sure as sugar wish I was!" Applejack reached over, borrowed some of Rainbow Dash's popcorn, and swallowed a few kernels in an effort to drown out her rigid frown. After gulping, she managed a meager grin before the group. "Reckon my ears were burnin' somethin' fierce, cuz he was tryin' to whisper some sweet nothings to me and I couldn't catch a single dang word."
"Please tell me you bucked him!" Pinkie Pie squeaked from behind a pile of sarsaprilla bottles.
"Pinkie Pie!" Rarity gasped.
Pinkie looked over, adjusting a sleeping cap atop her fluffy head. "I mean into the fruit stands or something!"
"Oh. Eheh... but of course. Ahem. Do carry on, Applejack."
"T'ain't much more to say about the subject," Applejack said with a shrug.
"'Cuz you bucked him hard, right?" Pinkie Pie's bright eyes lit up with the starlight from the windows beyond. "Amiright?"
"Hmmm..." Applejack's attempt to hide her smile failed the very moment she tilted her eyes towards the ceiling. "I didn't have time to."
"Awww..."
"I was too busy slammin' my bucket full of apples over the varmint's skull!"
"Woo! Yeah!" Pinkie Pie pumped her hoof. "You totally bucked him! I knew you did!"
"There ya go, AJ!" Rainbow Dash said with a butter-stained grin. Her wings flexed as she winked and said, "Way to punish the big galute for thinking he could touch you like some cheap stable filly!"
"So that's why Nurse Redheart's clinic smelled like apples when I visited her today," Fluttershy said meekly. She adjusted the pink sleeves of her pajamas and murmured, "Oh Applejack, I know he was very impolite. But I hope you didn't hurt him too badly."
"Nothin' he couldn't handle." Applejack turned her nose up and exhaled indifferently. "Besides, after all his boastin', he'd be makin' things worse if he started cryin' like a little foal."
"I just don't get it," Twilight Sparkle said, wearing starry pajamas. She sat atop a pile of blankets on the far end of the room. A noticeably threadbare Smarty Pants rested in the crook of her forelimbs. "This stallion—a perfect stranger—trots up to you in the middle of your peddling apples for the family farm. He then proceeds to tell you this long and gratuitous tale about having single-hoofedly saved a fishing village from rampaging sea serpents. And then what does he do next?"
"He rubs his mangy, dirty muzzle all over Applejack's beautiful, sun-kissed coat," Rarity interjected. Her body visibly fidgeted, and she tightened the red folds of her silken robe. "I do not blame you at all for your rather brutal reaction, Applejack. I daresay the philistine more than deserved it."
"I mean, I hate to use the old cliche, but he was obviously 'asking for it,'" Twilight spoke, still thinking aloud. "What else could he have expected from his actions?"
"That's just the thing, Twi," Applejack said, looking over with a tired smile. "Lots of bone-headed stallions trot across the world, thinkin' they can woo a mare by makin' themselves look all strong, suave, and tough-like."
"As if they can totally clean a sea serpent's clocks!" Pinkie Pie added in a bubbly voice before slirping more of her sarsaparilla.
"I think I would be scared if a stallion nuzzled me in public," Fluttershy said, toying with the folds of her sleeping bag with two pensive hooves. "Especially one that was able to slay two large, monstrous sea serpents."
"That's just it, sugarcube," Applejack said. "The feller was speakin' a lotta hooey."
"Huh?"
"His story was an utter fabrication, darling," Rarity said, reaching down to pat Fluttershy's shoulder. "It was to serve as the platform of machismo upon which he would attempt wooing Applejack's affections."
"That... makes very little sense," Fluttershy said with a furrowed brow.
"It still doesn't stop pig-headed buffoons from thinkin' they can intimidate a mare if they breathe enough lies into their ears." Applejack's frown returned as she said, "I don't take kindly to no scare tactics. That feller thought he could make me quake in fear. Well, I gave him something to quake about, alright!"
"Pfft! Sea serpents! How last year!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed before emptying a glass and belching.
"Ugh. Pinkie..." Rarity glared at her with lazy eyes. "Must you?"
"What? I'm just saying that stallions don't know how to tell a really frightening story!"
"Yeah!" Rainbow Dash's voice cracked. She stifled a giggled and pointed over her popcorn bag. "They just throw in a few stupid details and think their deep voice and bad smell can do the rest!"
"Stallions don't smell bad!" Twilight suddenly exclaimed.
"Pfft!" Rainbow Dash rolled her ruby eyes. "How would you know?"
"Dr. Whooves smells just fine! I tell him so whenever he stops by the library to check out the latest issue of Advanced Equestrian Chronometrics!"
"Oh really now, darling?" Rarity gave a flutter of her eyelashes and leaned her chin on a pair of pale hooves. "Do tell us more."
"Wooooo-oooo-oooo!" Pinkie Pie cooed like a dying siren. Applejack and Fluttershy giggled.
"Mmmmm..." Twilight's cheeks flushed red as she scooted back and hugged Smarty Pants tighter. "Quit it, girls! That didn't come out like I wanted it to!"
"Not yet, I reckon," Applejack said with a hard wink. The other mares laughed again, much to Twilight's flustered chagrin.
"Still, though," Rainbow Dash said, changing the subject on a razor's edge. She inhaled two more kernels of popcorn. "Mmmmff-mmmf... Pinkie Pie's right. Stallions have no sense of imagination when it comes to telling a scary story. Maybe it's cuz not all the blood goes to their heads, but they lack pizazz when trying to freak somepony out."
Rarity gave her a cockeyed glance. "And just what would you know about 'pizazz,' Rainbow Dash?"
"Hey! Shuddup!" Rainbow Dash smiled and spoke above the ensuing giggles. "If you wanna tell a scary story, a ghost story, a tax collecting story—whatever—then you gotta do it right!"
"Reckon you know how to do just that, huh?" Applejack remarked with a suspicious squint.
To that, Rainbow hopped out of her sleeping bag and hovered before the group. "And how!" She snatched a flashlight off one of Rarity's endtables and pointed at Pinkie Pie. "Pinkie! If you could do the honors?"
"Huh?" Pinkie blinked, until she saw Rainbow Dash's hoof pointing fixedly towards a lightswitch on the wall. "Oh! Heehee! Of course!" She bounced up and flicked the thing with the very tip of her pink nose.
Rarity's bedroom was plunged into deep darkness. The sound of at least four gasping mares lit the air, and then something else lit up in their place. With glistening ruby eyes, a moon-pale grin, and a blue face enshrouded by the ghostly white veil of a bedsheet, Rainbow Dash spoke into the flimsy glow of a singular flashlight.
"This is the story of the Bed Eaters," Rainbow Dash spoke in a low, creepy voice that wavered across the room like a sullen cat trilling. "And the ponies who found out too late that the night they went to sleep would be their last..."
"Uhm... Rainbow Dash?" Fluttershy was instantly whimpering, withdrawing into the shadows. "Do you really have to do this—?"
Rainbow Dash proceeded grimly and undaunted. "One night, at a sleepover just like this one—but with maybe a little less loose threads of unfinished dresses lying around—"
"Oh please," Rarity grumbled, rolling her eyes.
"Shhh!" Pinkie Pie hissed and tilted up to gawk at Rainbow Dash.
"There was a frail little pony named Treasure Amberwind. Now, Treasure was your run of the mill pony, and something of a goody-goody two-shoes." Rainbow Dash turned and grinned wickedly down at a shivering Fluttershy. "She was kind and respectful to everypony she knew." She pivoted and loomed above a blinking Twilight. "She got good grades in school and learned her special talent with no problem." Rainbow flashed Applejack a distant wink. "She had friends and was more than happy to defend them in any situation."
The other five ponies started to tremble as the orating pegasus flew phantom circles close to the ceiling. The only visible thing was her glowing face lit up by the pale end of the flashlight.
"Well, Miss Amberwind was invited to her best friend's house for a weekend slumber party in the country. Not wanting to let down her best buds, she totally went and brought her pillow and blankets with her. They sat around and talked, braided each other's manes, played pin-the-tail-on-the-pony, talked about stallions. Y'know, the standard fair. Then it got really late, and everypony was really tired. However, the mares were short one sleeping bag. Treasure was expecting to sleep on a single lousy blanket."
Rainbow Dash came to a stop in midair, speaking the next few parts in a whispery tone.
"So the friend who had invited Treasure was kind enough to lend her a backup sleeping bag that happened to be in an old closet at the far end of the country house. It was an ancient thing, and a little bit moth-eaten. It smelled kind of funny too. It didn't stink or nothing, but it made Treasure think of old forests and woodsheds and stuff. Still, she wasn't a pony to reject a good gift. When she laid down in it, though, she thought she heard owls and other creatures shrieking suddenly outside the windows of her friend's house. She looked up from the sleeping bag, but all of her friends had fallen asleep already. They were out like lights. So, without saying another word, she layed her head on the pillow and shut her eyes."
Fluttershy hadn't realized it, but she had scooted slowly up to Pinkie Pie's side. She clung to the party pony, trembling. Pinkie Pie didn't protest. Fighting shivers of her own, the fluffy-maned mare slid a quivering arm around her dainty companion, all the while locking her eyes on Rainbow Dash's wicked leer as the pegasus continued the tale.
"Well, sleep eventually came, but it wouldn't last for long. Treasure Amberwind woke up in the middle of the night, freezing her coat hairs off. She could have sworn that the house had a fireplace going, but she couldn't tell. She looked around the room, but couldn't see a single one of her friends. It was so dark and cold, that she only had one solution. She grabbed her pillow, slid further down into the sleeping bag she had borrowed, and curled up. Y'know the deal. We all do it, even under the covers of our beds at home, when we're really sleepy and cold. There's no reason to give a second thought to it. So why would Treasure?"
With a clap of her hooves, Rainbow Dash landed in the middle of the group. All five mares gasped as she leaned in and angled the flashlight to cast the shadows against her face even more sharply.
"Well, Treasure awoke again. Only this time, she was burning up. I mean, it was like the slumber party had turned into a furnace! She thought that a fire had broken out in the house or something! So, like any pony would do, she wriggled and wrangled her way to the end of the sleeping bag to get a good look at the room and see what was going on. But there was a problem. The sleeping bag... did not end..."
Five sets of feminine eyes blinked brightly.
Rainbow Dash hissed forth, "So she crept and she crawled and she slithered. Still, the sleeping bag kept on going. Treasure was beginning to really freak out. This was just a sleeping bag! And yet, as she kept crawling, she could have sworn it had somehow grown ten, twenty, thirty feet longer! She tried calling to her friends, but all she heard was her own panting breath. She tried looking around with her eyes wide, but all she saw was fabric and fuzzy material stretching on and on and on..."
A this point, Fluttershy was starting to whimper indiscernible things of pure fright deep within her throat. She clenched her eyes shut and buried her face in Pinkie Pie's side as her drooping ears helplessly weathered Rainbow's story.
Twilight saw Fluttershy's distress. Gulping, she looked over and said, "Okay, Rainbow. That's a pretty creepy story. You made your point—"
"Finally, she started to smell a horrible scent," Rainbow Dash continued, leaning forward to grin devilishly into Fluttershy's, Pinkie's, and Applejack's shivering faces. "Like burning flesh and bone! The inside of the sleeping bag lit up, like there was a fire just beyond the last few folds. Before she knew it, everything was getting all wet and sticky..."
"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight hoarsely whispered, gesturing towards Fluttershy. "Seriously! That's enough! You're gonna give Fluttershy a heart atta—"
"It turns out that it wasn't just any ordinary sleeping bag! Treasure Amberwind"—Rainbow's ruby eyes lit up, forcing half of the slumber party to flinch—"was being digested! And as she came out, she saw a giant glowing stomach of Tartarus flame and embers! Several fleshy openings were leading into the same horrible place, and they were all spitting young screaming ponies into the smoking pit! Treasure had no clue how she knew, but the horrible truth came to her: these were ponies from all across the world who had found horrible monsters disguised as sleeping bags and had slept in them not knowing that they would be swallowed down the throats of a extra dimensional demon and then..."
Just like that, the flashlight went off. For several breathless seconds, the room hung in darkness. Until—
The lightswitch was flicked on by a prismatic tail, and Rainbow Dash hovered directly over the group, sandwiching her face between two fluffy white pillows so that only her teeth showed gruesomely between them. "...fed to the hungry pillow phantoms!" Her molars glinted in the starlight. "Raaaa-aaaa-aaaaugh!"
"Eeeeeep!" Fluttershy's entire body stiffened as she rolled upside down with her legs sticking up.
Rarity and Applejack let out mutual shrieks.
Twilight gasped sharply.
And Pinkie Pie: "Snkkkt—Haa haa haa haa!" She fell back, hugging herself as her sleeping cap fell loosely over a flushed-red face. Smiling, she spoke through her trembles, "Ohhhhh Dashie! That's a good one! Really goofy, but good!"
"Rather twisted, if I m-must say!" Rarity remarked.
"I haven't heard anythang so grotesque in my life!" Applejack added, a hoof over her heart.
Silence struck the room again. The mares looked at each other, then finally broke into a raging fit of giggles that matched Pinkie Pie's outburst. As soon as the tension had filled the air, it deflated with twice as much grace under the cadence of the ponies mutual laughter. Proudly, Rainbow Dash hovered over the room while juggling the two pillows that she had pressed to her face.
"I tried telling that once in flight camp," she said, then stifled a squeaking chuckle. "To this day, the factory workers of lower Cloudsdale wonder why there was a monsoon of yellow rain overnight. Hahahaha..."
"Mmmmmm..." Was all a stale, stiff Fluttershy could muster.
"Rainbow!" Twilight exclaimed. With an exasperated groan, she crawled across the sleeping bags and nuzzled Fluttershy until the yellow pegasus gradually loosened up. "It certainly was a creative story and all, but didn't you hear me earlier? Couldn't you have stopped the story before it got so nasty? You scared poor Fluttershy out of her mind!"
"Pfft!" Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and gripped the pillows. "Not my fault she forgot to leave her jitters at home! Besides... she heard it before! She was at the same stupid flight camp!"
"Is that right, sugarcube?" Applejack said, looking Fluttershy's way.
"Uhm..." Fluttershy's trembles were slowly settling as Twilight lovingly held her. "I... uh... always knew my fear of heights began there for a reason."
"You see, Rainbow?" Twilight frowned. "This was meant to be an enjoyable weekend! But you went too far!"
"Ugh. Give me a break!" Rainbow Dash hovered down to the ground. "What's the big deal? Most of you guys were laughing and brushing it off just seconds ago! Stop being such sissies!"
That said, she dropped both pillows. One of them burst, and three stray feathers fluttered out. Before reaching the floor, they brushed lightly against the furthestmost edge of Rainbow's left rear hoof, making contact that was positively microscopic.
However, such had the opposite of a minimal effect on the blue pegasus. "Yaaaaa!" Rainbow's entire body flinched as if from an electrical shock. A burst of foalish giggles rocketed out of her throat. "Eh hee hee hee... Eh... Whew..." Shrugging the uncontrollable outburst off her shoulders with a shake of her colorful mane, Rainbow Dash trotted like a Celestial guard towards the far end of the room. "That tale tired me out. Ahem. I think I might hit the hay early."
Twilight blinked at Rainbow Dash. She looked at the pillow feathers on the floor, then back at Rainbow Dash. She smiled. When she looked up at the other mares in the room, she realized she wasn't the only one smirking. In an unspoken act of perfect choreography, Pinkie Pie and Applejack slinked into the shadows while Twilight got up from Fluttershy's side and trotted across the room.
"Say... uhh... Rainbow Dash?"
Rainbow Dash turned around, her face blank and unsuspecting. "Hmm? What is it, Twilight?"
"I'm an expert on many things, but not sleep. Still"—Twilight stood directly in front of her—"if I had to guess, I'd say you weren't really tired."
"Oh really?"
"But I know one way how to get you exhausted enough for a truly good sleep."
"What's that?"
Twilight grinned evilly. "A spontaneous case of the tickles!"
"Spontaneous case of the what-now?" Rainbow Dash blinked. Suddenly, Pinkie Pie and Applejack were gripping her upper body from behind. Her ruby eyes widened. "Awwww poop."
Twilight summoned a burst of lavender energy, encasing Rainbow's rear legs and lifting them up so that her entire body was reclined a few feet above the ground in the earth ponies' grasp. "Now, Rarity!" Twilight exclaimed.
"Hmmm..." Rarity slithered off the bed, undid a silken length of her robe's belt, and held the velvety tip of it up against the middle of one of Rainbow's lower hooves. "I do not believe this will equate to a horrifically told story, but I'm sure that I will find it amusing nonetheless."
"Guys, what's going on?! Rarity, what are—?" As soon as the velvet material made contact with Rainbow Dash's hoof, her ruby eyes exploded, followed by an absolute shriek. "Gaaaaaiiieee! Y-you gotta be frickin' kidding me! Haahaahaahaa—" She instinctually shot her head back and writhed into the grip of Pinkie and Applejack. "Nnngh—Come on! Quit it! Hahaha—You... y-you know I d-don't like—hahaha—ponies touching my hooves!"
"Try it, Dashie! You'll like it!" Pinkie Pie giggled.
"T'ain't good enough, Rarity!" Applejack wickedly sneered. "Use that fancy mane of yours!"
"Applejack! How could you suggest such a thing?!" Rarity scoffed, albeit with a coy grin. "My hair is not an object of brutish roughhousing! It is nothing but the finest, silkiest, and most resplendent fiber in all of Equestria!" Stifling an eloquent chuckle, she leaned in and applied the the very tip of her tail to Rainbow's levitating hooves. "Now my tail is a different story! Rainbow Dash, dear, would you care to elaborate?"
"Gaaaah—Haa-haa-ha! Nnngh—St-stop! I mean it!" Rainbow Dash's sides were splitting. Every tiny stroke of Rarity's hairs sent electrical jolts up her body, making her blue coat hairs stand on end. Explosive giggles flew out of her mouth in perfect timing with hot tears from her squinting eyes. "I'm gonna die!" her voice cracked through a blushing smile. "I'm sorry about the whole scary story thing! Heeheehee—Now lemme go!"
"Fluttershy?" Twilight spoke above the strain of restraining Rainbow's legs. "What do you think? Do you forgive Rainbow Dash?"
"Mmmm..." Fluttershy trotted up, her head hanging in a humble slump. "Oh, absolutely. No hard feelings." She looked at the group, then smiled gently as she extended her left wing and tilted it towards Rainbow's floating hooves. "Only gentle, fluttery, soft feelings..."
"Omigosh! Omigosh Omigosh! Not feathers!" Rainbow Dash chirped, squirming all over. "Not feathers not feathers not feathers—Aaaackies!" She convulsed and giggled insanely as Fluttershy's wings brushed up against her lower limbs.
"That's the spirit, Fluttershy!" Applejack guffawed. "Show her who's boss!"
"I'll show her too!" Rarity trotted up and brushed her tail hair against one of Rainbow's forward hooves. "Try to frighten us out of a good night's sleep? Meditate on this!"
"Heehee! Tickle-pile on Dashie!" Pinkie added, leaning her head down so that Rainbow's final hoof got a healthy helping of the pink pony's fuzzy mane.
"Gaaaah! Haahaahaa!" Rainbow Dash writhed and trembled in everypony's grip, sandwiched between Fluttershy's feathers, Rarity's tail hairs, and Pinkie Pie's fuzzy head. "Okay! You win! You win you win you win!" They chuckled and closed in around her, encasing Rainbow Dash in a sweaty cloud of warm breaths and fragrant giggles. Slowly, like a velvet curtain, a flushed crimson color gathered in Rainbow's upper body. She still spat out spastic laughs and chortles, but her face was becoming increasingly sweaty and labored. "Alright, guys! Hahahaha—Nnnghh! I... I mean it... Cut it out!"
"Who's the tough pony now?"
"Huh?"
"Heeheehee—You can't escape!"
"Haahaa—Nnngh... Seriously, guys!" Rainbow Dash's breaths were becoming increasingly labored. She clenched her eyes shut, gulped, and stammered. "Lesson learned! I-I can't... I gotta..."
"Hahaha! Huh? What was that, Rainbow?"
"I... I..." Rainbow Dash tried to speak, but it amounted to a pitiful squeak from deep within her heaving chest. Just then, she tensed, her entire body jolting. Her eyelids tightened and her face twisted into a breathless wince. She was silent for five petrifying seconds, and then her entire lungs' worth of oxygen came out in one hyperventilating lurch.
All of the ponies stopped laughing at once. Fluttershy and Rarity stepped back, their faces awash in concern. Pinkie Pie and Applejack exchanged confused glances. At last, Twilight let go of her magic field and squinted curiously Rainbow's way.
"Rainbow?" Twilight stammered, blinking. "Did... Did you just...?"
Whimpering, the pegasus flapped her wings, barreled through Applejack and Pinkie Pie, and flew herself into Rarity's bathroom. The door slammed shut behind her, locking half a second later.
The other mares were flung into silence. They sat there on the sea of sleeping bags and pillows, giving each other blank glances. Finally, Fluttershy gave a knowing blink, and her face turned beet red. Rarity bit her lip guiltily. Applejack fidgeted where she stood. And Pinkie Pie...
"Yeesh! What's her problem?"
"Shhh!" Twilight insisted. She trotted over and knocked lightly on the bathroom door. "Rainbow? Rainbow Dash?"
All was silent on the other end.
Twilight knocked again as the other girls gathered around closely. "Rainbow, please. It's... It's okay. You were right. We... uh... we got carried away! We were just trying to play an innocent game! We didn't mean to tease you that badly!"
"Yeah!" Applejack joined in. "Y'all know how you like a good practical joke once in a while! Heh heh..."
"Go-HIC-away!" a voice emanated, muffled and wavering from the other end.
Applejack sweated nervously. She exchanged glances with the others.
"We are truly, truly sorry, darling!" Rarity said. "You're our dear friend and we would never do anything to harm you!"
"Is she sick or something?" Pinkie blinked, then leaned in to shout through the lock's keyhole. "Quick, Dashie! Try lowering your head and breathing between your legs!"
"Hey-HIC-Applejack!" Rainbow's voice grunted from beyond the door. "Smack Pinkie-HIC-for me!"
Applejack lightly slapped her hoof across Pinkie's mane. As the party pony winced, the farm filly spoke over her shoulder, "Is there somethin' the matter, sugarcube? You sound kind of funny-like."
"I'm-HIC-fine! Just leave me-HIC-alone!"
"She... sh-she rarely gets upset like this so easily!" Fluttershy stammered with a sad expression.
"Rainbow..." Twilight knocked on the door. "Just come out! There's nothing to be ashamed of! Please, we're your friends! Just come out and talk to us!"
"Oh my goodness!" Fluttershy suddenly gasped, her eyes wide and moistening. "Do... Do you think she's crying? Oh, we are such bad friends! We made Rainbow Dash cry!"
"I am—HIC—not crying!" After a pause, there was a prolonged groan. Eventualy, the door unlatched, opened, and revealed a long-faced Rainbow Dash. She stood in the doorway, looking more petite than normal, fidgeting with her hooves as she leaned limply against the frame. "If you must know, I—HIC—have the—HIC—hiccups."
"The hiccups?" Applejack raised an eyebrow.
"It sounded like you were crying!" Fluttershy leaned in, her mouth agape. "Are you sure you're not crying?"
"Look, I'm fine! I have to—HIC! I mean I'm just—HIC! Nnnngh!" Rainbow Dash growled and banged her head several times against the doorframe before resting it with a long sigh—only to be interrupted by another spasm running ther her upper body. "Unnngh... So, so, so stupid..."
"Rainbow Dash, I don't understand." Twilight squinted. "Why do you have the hiccups all of the sudden? I don't think I've ever seen you having them."
"Because I only have them when I—HIC!" Rainbow winced. "I mean, it always happens right after I—HIC!" Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and sighed. "HIC! Well... y'know..."
The mares stared, then glanced at each other. Twilight was the first to look at Rainbow Dash with a quizzocal expression.
"Really?"
"That's rather... peculiar," Rarity said, then nervously added, "In a charming way, that is. Eh heh heh..."
"Oh! I get hiccups afterwards too!" Pinkie Pie added. "Only they're on the other side of me."
"Pinkie..."
"Mmm... Sorry," Pinkie dug at her hooves.
"What I don't get is that we were just—y'know—horsin' around!" Applejack said, gesturing towards Rainbow Dash. "A little bit of ticklin' never hurt nopony!"
"Applejack, darling," Rarity remarked, "You have a most inaccurate definition of 'hurt.'"
"Look, I was just tryin' to—"
"It's fine! HIC!" Rainbow Dash jolted all over, grimaced, and tried to keep her composure. "There's no easy—HIC—way to explain it. I don't like ponies touching my hooves—HIC—for a reason."
"Well, uh... I guess we can all see that now," Twilight said with a brief tickle. "But... really? From tickling?"
"It's not—HIC—just that..." Rainbow Dash fidgeted, her eyes avoiding the group. "I guess it's that—HIC! Well, it was so sudden and—HIC—you were all really bunched up around me and—HIC—I was powerless to stop it all and... and..."
"You were the center of attention..." Fluttershy remarked.
Rainbow Dash blinked at that. As if a huge weight fell off her wings, she exhaled and chuckled nervously. "Oh! Yeah! Heheheheh—HIC! Yeah! That's—HIC—totally it! You guys know how—HIC—much I love being—HIC—in the spotlight! And... And..."
Her friends listened quietly, patiently.
She hissed out the side of her mouth before trailing the ceiling with her eyes. "And... And I suppose there's no hiding it. I've always... uhhh... had a problem. HIC! I guess."
"Like what kind of a problem?" Twilight asked.
"It's very easy for me to—HIC!" Rainbow Dash seethed. "What I mean to say, as long as I could remember, it doesn't take much to make me—HIC!" She finally groaned into a pair of hooves. "Rrrrrrghhhh!"
Rarity blinked. "And you call that a problem, darling?" The others glared at her. "What?" She smiled nervously. "Surely I'm not the only lady here thinking that..."
"Mmmmm-uggggggh..." Rainbow Dash trotted past the group and slumped down in the center of the room, hiding her face in her forelimbs. "So stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!"
"Now why are you beatin' yerself up over nothin', sugarcube?" Applejack was the first to trot over to her side.
"Over nothing? HIC!" Rainbow Dash glanced up at her, frowning. "I never wanted anypony to—HIC—know about this!"
"Why, whatever for, darling?"
"Because it's really, really weird! And, like, you guys—HIC—will think I'm some sort of freak!" Rainbow Dash hugged herself and avoided their gaze. "Or—HIC—even worse! A common—HIC—street horse!"
"Oh please..." Twilight smiled as she stood above Rainbow Dash. "How could we ever think anything like that about you?!"
"And it gives her the hiccups?" Pinkie Pie began, only to have Rarity's hoof in her mouth. "Mmmmf!"
"You are our dear friend, Rainbow Dash!" Rarity said, stretching away from Pinkie with a gentle smile. "We appreciate everything about you: your courage, your loyalty, the brutish yet tenacious way you wrangle up weather clouds..."
"Even the embarrassing parts of you are just fine," Fluttershy said. She trotted up with a gentle smile and nuzzled Rainbow Dash softly. "And if it makes you feel any better, we won't tell a soul."
Rainbow Dash looked up at them, the redness in her coat starting to drain away. "You... You guys really mean it?"
"Absolutely!" Twilight nodded with a smile. "Your secret is safe with us, Rainbow Dash."
"We'll never touch them hooves of yours again!" Applejack added. "Honest!"
Rainbow Dash gulped and said, "You swear?"
"Ptooie!" Pinkie spat out Rarity's hoof and bravely chirped, "Cross our hearts, hope to fly—!"
"Yes, yes..." Rarity grimaced at her wet hoof and hid it behind her flank with an awkward smile. "Along with the ritualistic application of cupcakes into our eyes, of course!"
"Jee..." Rainbow Dash breathed easier, her wings fluttering. "You guys are so swell and understanding. I'm really sorry about going overboard with that scary story earlier too."
"Hey..." Twilight reached forward and rested a hoof on Rainbow's shoulder. "Consider it in the past. Deeply buried."
"Yeah! And plant a tree over it!" Pinkie added. "A lemon tree! So that it sucks up all the blushing and silliness! Schhllluuuup!"
"Uhhh... Yeah. Sure, why not?" Rainbow Dash said with a shrug.
Just then, Fluttershy gasped with a smile. "Rainbow Dash! Your hiccups!"
"What about them?"
"They're gone!"
Rainbow Dash sat back on her haunches, blinking. "Huh..." A bright grin slowly blossomed across her face. "Hey! You're right! How about that?!"
"C'mere, you!" Applejack knelt down and scooped Rainbow Dash in a hug. "Don't ever feel like ya need to hide in some lonesome room from yer friends!"
"Heeee!" Pinkie Pie hugged Rainbow from the other side. "Everypony's happy again!"
Rarity and Fluttershy joined the embrace while Twilight leaned in and nuzzled Rainbow dearly. "You see? It was a great slumber party after all!"
"Heheh... Yeah.." Rainbow Dash nodded, beginning to sweat again as all of them hugged her in a tight circle. "Uhhh... Uhm, guys?"
"We're so happy to have you as a friend, Rainbow."
"You're just as cute as you're brave."
"Uh... G-guys?" Rainbow stammered. "Could you maybe b-back off just a bit—?"
"You can be such a little darling when you wish to be."
"Reckon the skies would be a little less blue without you around."
"We love you so much, Dashie!" Pinkie Pie happily hugged her and nuzzled her and breathed into her ear, "Just like sweet sugar—"
"Hnkkt!" Rainbow Dash hissed, her limbs curling up in the center of the heated circle of hugs. She bit her lip to the point of bleeding.
The ponies around her froze. Twilight took a step back, her eyebrow raised. "Uhhhh... Rainbow?"
A blushing Rainbow Dash growled through clenched teeth. "Oh Celestia—HIC—darn it!"
