Friday, January 8, 2016

2015
2016
JANUARY






FEBRUARY
MARCH
APRIL
MAY
JUNE
JULY
AUGUST

Today's Horoscope (Virgo): Today you'll be reminded that emotional intimacy is more important than physical intimacy.

Early Morning

I'm getting my bath stuff together when Twilight walks in. "Hey," she says. "I talked to Cadance, and we're good to go on that double date thing. How's tomorrow night sound?"

"Sounds great to me," I say.

"Good, I'll let her know."

After School

Tennis practice is intense today. Tomorrow, we've got regionals...

After practice, I'm surprised to find Twilight waiting on the bench. She smiles and waves. "Hi."

"Hi," I say.

Pinkie jogs up to us, still drying her hair. "I thought the three of us could go somewhere and do something," Pinkie says.

"What, like a group date?" I ask.

Pinkie blushes. "Y-yeah," she says quietly. "I—"

"I'd love to go out and have some fun with my best friend and my boyfriend," Twilight says cheerfully.

"Yeah, spending time with you girls is always fun."

Pinkie smiles happily. "There's a Neighponese-style karaoke box that just opened up in town," she says.

Twilight tilts her head curiously. "Isn't...karaoke...Neighponese to begin with? How's that any different from—"

"You'll see," Pinkie says. I've read enough manga to know exactly what she's talking about...

The karaoke box is pretty much what I expected to find when we arrive: you pre-pay to rent a karaoke room in thirty minute intervals; I pay for an hour and a half, then we head for our assigned room. The room has a long sofa bench that circles one end of the room, with a table in the center, while the other end has a large screen, speakers, and wireless microphones, as well as a touch display for selecting songs. The table has a touch menu for ordering drinks and snacks, which a waitress delivers.

"I wanna sing first!" Pinkie says. "Order me whatever, okay?"

Twilight and I order from the menu while Pinkie goes over the song selections. "Oooh, they've got Neighponese songs too! Eh...I'll go with something easier first, though." Pinkie chooses a pop song that got old a few years ago, but it's catchy and Pinkie sings it well. When she's done, she flounces over to the table, handing Twilight the microphone. "You go next, Twi-Twi!"

"Oh...well...okay..." Twilight stands up and heads to the selector. "I don't really sing, though..." She looks over the song list. "Oh...I don't know what to pick..."

"Just put it on shuffle then!" Pinkie says. "Random is fun! Whee!"

"Well, okay..." Twilight touches the screen and waits. After a moment, her song starts. She starts off hesitantly, but as the song goes, she starts getting into it, and finishes strong. The food and drinks arrive while Twilight is singing, and as soon as she sits down, she dives into her nachos.

"That was really good, Twi-Twi! Your turn, Flashie-pants!"

"Flashie-pants?" Shaking my head, I head up to the stage and put the selector on shuffle. The song that comes up is one of the Neighponese songs; I muddle through as best I can. When the song's finished, Twilight and Pinkie cheer and laugh wildly.

"Hey, let's all do one together!" Pinkie says. "I know just the song!" She bounces up to the selector. "Come on, get up here! I'll tell you when it's your turn, okay?"

We join Pinkie just as the song she wants to do starts. Twilight does the first spoken-word part, I sing the bridges, and Pinkie does the rap.

After that, we decide to do a couple of duets. Pinkie and Twilight do one in Neighponese, which Twilight flubs terribly, but it's so much fun watching her look dorky up there I can't help but smile. Twilight wants to sit down, but I convince her to do one with me, and this one goes much better. Pinkie is smiling at us when we finish.

"That was beautiful," she says quietly.

We end up paying for an extra half hour once our time is up; by the time we finally decide to head back to the dorm, we've gorged ourselves on junk food and worn our voices out singing and laughing.

"I had a great time with you guys," Pinkie says, slinging an arm around each of our shoulders. "I love spending time with all my friends, but...I'm happiest when I'm with the two of you."

"Pinkie..." Twilight says.

"We should totally do this again soon!" Pinkie declares brightly.

"Yeah, we should," I agree.

Evening

After dinner, Vice-Principal Luna asks to speak to me in private.

"Flash...what do you think about the fire at Haflinger Hall this past weekend?"

"I think we're lucky nobody got hurt," I say. "Whoever decided to pull the fire alarm did us all a favor."

"Hmm." Luna frowns. "What I mean is..." She pauses. "That fire's been ruled an accident, not an act of arson, but..." She shakes her head. "I can't help but think that..."

"That someone was trying to kill us?" I ask.

"Yes," Luna says. "Every resident of this dorm was at that party, were they not?"

"Of course we were. Rarity's our friend."

"And it doesn't strike you as odd that the party hall where every resident of this dorm was gathered just happened to burn down less than an hour after you all evacuated it?"

"It's suspicious," I admit. "But if the investigators ruled out arson, well..." I shrug.

"Hmm." Luna shakes her head. "I can't understand what would motivate anyone to terrorize you all this way. Bullying has been around forever, and..." She grimaces. "I understand anger, frustration, and resentment, and the lengths that they can drive a person to, but..."

"So you're convinced that fire was arson? That it was intended to kill us?"

"Yes," Luna says firmly. "I can't bring myself to think otherwise. It just doesn't add up." She gives me a stern gaze. "If there's anything you're not telling me..."

"You know as much as I do," I say. Perhaps a bit too quickly; Luna's eyes narrow slightly.

"Well...if you ever need to talk about someone threatening you, or any of the others...you know where to find me." She heads back to her room.

An important tennis match is coming up tomorrow, and I have to leave early...

I set my alarm and get ready for bed.