Persona EG LTE | Mythril Moth Creations

Today's Horoscope (Virgo): The pink one will be your best friend today.

After School

Tennis practice...

It's only two weeks until the girls' season starts. Pinkie was in the singles practice group today.

After practice, I walk home with Pinkie. She's holding her shoulder and wincing. "Owie, owie, owie," she says.

I glance at her with concern. "What's wrong?"

"You didn't see it?"

I shake my head. "I was in a doubles practice."

"I got on the wrong end of one of Coco's power serves," Pinkie says.

I wince. "Ouch."

"Give me a heat rub when we get home?" Pinkie asks, a cute little whimper in her voice.

"Sure."

Back at the dorm, I get the muscle cream while Pinkie strips off her shirt. She must be sore, she doesn't take her bra off or try to take advantage of the situation.

Pinkie sighs as I massage muscle cream into her shoulder and arm. Twilight walks in; she frowns. "Do you need me to come back later?"

"Pinkie hurt her arm at tennis today," I say.

"Oh...how bad is it?" Twilight asks.

"I'll be okay," Pinkie says. "Trying to return one of Coco's serves really hurts when she's overdoing it." She moans. "Oooh, that feels good..."

Twilight tilts her head. "Isn't that stuff just menthol and camphor? I mean, there's no actual medication in there..."

I scoop out some cream and rub it into Twilight's neck. She gasps. "Gah!" After a minute, she rolls her neck. "Whoa..."

Pinkie grins. "I know, right?"

Twilight keeps rolling her neck, eyes closed, a smile on her face. "Wow. That feels...wow."

I put the cap back on the cream. "So, you girls ready for tonight?"

"Oh, right! The thing at the pizza place," Twilight says.

"If it's any good, I may want to have Sonata's birthday party there," Pinkie says. "It's in two weeks, right?"

"Yeah," Twilight says.

"We need to pull out all the stops for Sonata's birthday," I say. "After what she's been through..."

"Don't worry, I'll give her the best birthday ever!" Pinkie says. "I'm talking rainbows, I'm talking puppies, I'm talking butterflies..."

"That sounds a little...weird," Twilight says.

"Sounds a little wild," I agree.

Pinkie grins cheekily. "We're gonna have a good time!" She puts her shirt back on. "But right now, I need to go get ready for tonight."

"Me too," Twilight says. They leave.

I spend an hour practicing my guitar, then get ready for the big group outing.

Evening

Deep Dish's Family Pizza Parlor is a family-owned restaurant that's apparently been around for a while, but it only recently got popular after the owners remodeled and expanded and some yuppie named Trenderfoot wrote a favorable review on Burp. According to Rarity, it drew a lot of high-society types, who slammed it for not being "upscale", "modern", or "trendy", but the buzz the whole mess generated got more...well...normal people interested, and the place started drawing the kind of crowd the owners always wanted to draw: families and teenagers.

The place is packed.

We called in advance to reserve one of the larger party tables closer to the stage, so when we arrive, a server, who introduces herself as Olive, leads us to a long, broad oval table up front, then leaves a stack of menus and a basket of garlic parmesan breadsticks on the table. She takes our drink orders, then leaves.

Up on the stage, Trixie and the Illusions are tuning up and doing a sound check. Trixie waves at us. "Glad you could make it out!" she says.

"Wouldn't miss it," I reply.

"But we mostly came for the food," Rainbow says cheekily. I tear off a third of a breadstick and throw it at Rainbow.

Trixie rolls her eyes. "Well, you won't be disappointed with that either," she says. "Although we won't be doing as much stage magic this time..." She gestures at the relatively small stage. "Not very much room, and we agreed most of our tricks aren't...ideal for a pizzeria."

"Our songs are getting better, though," Lavender Lace says.

"Yeah, they're not all about Trixie anymore," Fuschia Blush says with a smirk.

When Olive returns with the drinks, we order. Since there are so many of us (including Celestia, Cadance, and Shining Armor), we order several extra-large pizzas with different toppings and crusts for the table, as well as appetizers for everyone. The adults and Rarity also order salads.

"I'll be out with your salads and apps as soon as I can," Olive says.

"I can't wait to try that deep dish pizza," Twilight says.

"Me too," I agree. "It's been a while since I had deep dish."

"Well, it is the specialty here," Celestia says.

The rest of the evening passes in a comfortable haze of good food, decent music, and pleasant conversation. Fluttershy is still withdrawing from the group, and there's still this look in her eyes that bothers me, but even she seems to be having a good time.

When we return to the dorm, I'm stuffed full of breadsticks, calzones, five-meat deep dish pizza, thin crust garden supreme pizza, bacon cheeseburger pretzel crust pizza, and gelato. I feel like I could explode at any minute.

Totally worth it, though...

"We're going to Zodiac tomorrow," Twilight says as we walk down the hall on the third floor. "Better rest up."

"Yeah..." I let out a tremendous belch. "Ugh. If I don't have to spend all day on the toilet..."

"Gross," Twilight says, crossing her eyes and sticking her tongue out at me.

Once I'm in my room, I strip to my boxers, drink half a bottle of Pink-Abysmol, and pass out.