Last time on "Let's Get Down To Business" Quest:
>In the Canterlot Palace with Pinkie, talking with a guard when suddenly there’s an earthquake.
>Fight in a pile with the guard, trying to get back to your feet. Only Pinkie was really able to get around during all the shaking.
>The guard ran for help, tripped and fell on his head, knocking himself out.
>Went with Pinkie to find more guards, became distracted by the scene out side the windows.
>A huge bird the size of a small mountain was attacking the city shield, but was being fended off by a someone shooting massive cracks of lightning.
>Once the bird was driven off, two flying ponies landed nearby, turning out to be Luna and Rainbow Dash.
>Talked with Dash, who said she came as soon as she could, but was clearly upset about not being told what's been going on and almost getting eaten by a giant bird in the process.
>The three of you retired to a guest room when the sun set a split second later, being told that food would be brought to your rooms.
You are Rusty Shackleford, a human with no memory who has no memory of his past.
Currently, you are in a guest room in the Canterlot palace, talking with Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. The three of you are swapping stories about what's happened to each of you since you were all together. As the three of you hang out, you become increasingly aware of how little you've eaten and how tired you are becoming.
You can't really take it anymore. You haven’t eaten in the better part of an exhausting day and as much as you're enjoying catching up with your friends, you are simply starving.
"Where you going Rusty?" Pinkie asks as you go to the door.
"I'm starving and I'm not waiting around for food to be brought to us," You swing open the door and nearly step on a diminutive stallion wearing a little red hat and vest, his hoof raised, just about to knock on the door.
"Oh! Hello." He says, taken about by the surprise. He looks past you into the room, spotting Pinkie and Dash. "Are you all in here? Dinner is served."
Gently pushing you out of the way, the little pony and a few others wheel in a few table carts of food inside the room. One has a platter of some kind of sandwiches, a large bowl of salad, plates and some bottled beverage in an ice bin.
"I hope everything is to satisfaction," The little stallion says.
"This looks great!" Dash says, already piling on some sandwiches onto a plate.
"Very good then." The stallion stands by the door expectantly. After a moment her clears his through rather loudly.
"Yes, it's very good." You say. "Thank you."
He smiles and nods up at you. The two of you kinds just stand there in an awkward moment, broken only by Dash and Pinkie's eating. After a few minutes he frowns and leaves, closing the door behind him, leaving the three of you alone to eat.
"What was all that about?" You ask the others.
"Whot us woot?" Pinkie says, her mouth full to the brim with sandwiches. The platter has be nearly destroyed by the two ponies, but it seems that they were nice enough to leave you two. That or they haven't gotten to them yet.
You quickly snatch up the last of the sandwiches just as you see Pinkie eying them. Luckily, Dash has already moved on to the salad and pouring a drink.
"What kind of sandwich is this?" You ask, gently opening them up. You're not sure you can push down another flower sandwich, even as hungry as you are.
"It's got like everything on it!" Pinkie says, joining Dash. Sure enough, you see lettuce, tomato, cheeses, some mushroom slices and peppers. No major protein, though, but you're not too disappointed of that by this point.
You bite into it and have to fight not shoving the whole thing down your gullet like the others did.
You fail.
"Mmmm!" You say loudly once you finish the last of it. "That sure was a tasty burger."
Dash and Pinkie look up at you, still eating away at their food and drink. Dash rolls her eyes.
"What?" You say. "It's a joke."
"Yeah, I must have forgotten to laugh or something." Dash says deadpan.
"Oohh, tough crowd." You go and pour a glass of the chilled bottle. The label is just a picture of a green apple. "What is this?"
"Sparkling apple juice!" Pinkie says. "My favorite!"
You take a few refreshing gulps of the juice. Crisp and delicious, the carbonation tickling your sinuses a little. Very tasty. And while you're at it, you finish off the salad. Soon enough, all the food is gone and the three of you are sitting there with satisfied stomachs.
"I don't know about you two," Pinkie says, yawing and stretching. "But I'm pooped. Is there anything else you guys want to do?"
"No, I think we should all get some sleep. We had a big day."
"Yeah, almost getting eaten kinda does that to you." Dash lazily flaps over to the door. "Later."
"Wait, hold on a sec," You say. "Maybe we could all... you know, stay here tonight. Together. You know, like a sleepover."
Pinkies face lights up in a huge smile, pushing her hooves to her cheeks. Dash is giving you a raised eyebrow, one hoof still on the door knob.
"That sounds kinda... weird." Dash says slowly.
"Well, I just thought it might be fun. You know, hang it out and stuff." You say, forcing an awkward smile. But, secretly, you really don't want to be alone. Nearly every time you go to sleep, something bad happens. If two of your friend where there with you, you'd feel a lot better.
"I think it's a great idea!" Pinkie says, hopping up and down.
"Come on Dash." You put on a big toothy smile.
"It all seems kinda lame. Besides, I'm beat."
"Pleeeaaase!" Pinkie says, you holding her up to Dash's hovering height. She starts poking the pegasi in the nose. "Come on. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. D-"
"ALRIGHT!" Dash shouts, slapping Pinkie's mitts away from her. She flutters over to the bed in a huff, lays down and shoves a pillow over her head. "Just shut up already!"
You exchange looks with Pinkie. Maybe the two of you pushed a button or two. Whatever the case, you carry Pinkie over and settle in between the two ponies. Its a bit snug, but there’s enough room for the three of you lay out. A long silence drags on as you all lay there on the bed, Pinkie wiggling into a comfortable position and Dash holding the pillow tight over her head.
"So..." Dash say muffled from under the pillow. "What's the deal with Celestia? Why's Luna doing everything? She didn't really explain much to me out there."
"Well uhhh," You stall, trying to think what to say. You look over to Pinkie for help, but she gives you a very serious shake of the head. "She... kinda swore us to secrecy. But I'm sure she'll tell you in the morning."
Dash turns over to face you and pulls off the pillow.
"Really?"
"Yeah, really."
"Whatever." She brushes it off, turns over again and shoves the pillow back on top of her.
"Good night Dash, good night Pinkie."
"Night Rusty!"
Dash doesn’t say anything from under the pillow. You're not sure if she's mad or is already asleep but decide to leave her. Besides, you're exhausted yourself and lay back to go to sleep. Just as you're about to drift off, you're snapped back to reality by Pinkie's absurdly loud snoring right in your ear. Damn, you forgot about that.
Nonetheless, your fatigue wins out over Pinkie's night time annoyance and you drift off.
.....
.....
You wake up some time later, trembling and sweating. You sit up in the bed, the other two ponies both still dead to the world. You feel inexplicably terrified, unable to remember what even happened in your head this time. Just laughing.
That horrible, mocking laughter.
You try to gauge how long you've been sleeping, but its still dark and there’s no clock anywhere. From where you're sitting, you can see the crescent moon shining through the window like a lopsided smile, but it tells you nothing. By your best guess, you haven’t been sleeping long. As your panic begins to die down, you realize you are still very tired.
You lay back down in bed, not completely ready for round two. As you try to calm your breathing and get back to your sorely needed resting, Pinkie turns over in her sleep. Her hooves reach out wildly and warp loosely around the side of your head. It's awkward, makes it harder for you to breath and now you can FEEL her snoring vibrating though you.
But you feel a little better and drift off once again.
When you wake up again, it's light out. Pinkie's gone, but you can feel Dash still lying beside you.
Another hard night. You rub your head, trying to get your bearing. You're pretty sure you're awake and not any more crazy then normal, but you sure don't feel great.
You gently turn over and look at Dash. She's still asleep, having moved the pillow under her head at some point. Its cute watching the little pony sleep, her wings giving the occasional idle flick. You feel calmed after a while and carefully get up from the bed, trying not to wake Dash.
As you do, you find you are completely soaked in sweet. And not just because of your night terror. The room is blazing hot, far hotter then it was the other day. You look out the window. The sun is shining high in the sky through the city shield, but nothing obvious seems to be the cause for the temperature.
Well, looks like it's more trouble again.
You go over to Dash still sleeping on the bed.
"Dash." You whisper, nudging her side. She mumbles, turns away and flicks you with a wing. You keep at it. "Dash, wake up."
"Whaaaaat?" She groans, looking up at you with bleary eyes.
"I think we have a problem."
Rainbow Dash looks up at you, around the room, back to you again and lays her head back to sleep.
Looks like Dash is a lump, so you go into the adjacent bathroom and was up a little. The mirror is bit steamed from the ambient heat. It must really be hot out. Luckily, the running water is cool. You wash you face.
As you do, the door to the room bangs open.
"Rusty! Dash!" You hear Pinkie shout happily, followed by something heavy landing on the bead. "They're here. Twilight and Applejack and Fluttershy are here!"
"Pinkie get off me!"
You rush out the bathroom to find Pinkie hopping on the bed and Dash on the floor, scowling.
"Pinkie, that's great, but why's it so hot?"
"I have no idea!" Pinkie says, doing a back flip.
"Great..." Dash says, picking herself up.
You get Pinkie to calm down and together with Dash the bunch of you leave. The hallway is just as hot as the room was, if not hotter. You pass by a few guards and Dash asks about the heat.
"I don't know." He says, clearly sweltering under his armor. "The weather has been acting crazy. It was snowing a few days ago."
"Yeah, it was like that in Ponyville too." Dash says. You ask where Twilight and the others are and they direct you to the entrance hall.
The three of you find a tired Applejack and Twilight by the great doors to the palace, hot air gently blowing in from outside. The hair of their manes are wet and clinging to them, and they're both panting in the heat, but it looks like someone has brought them some waters in glasses. There’s also a wagon inside for some reason.
"You're here!" Pinkie shouts, leaping down the last of the stairs and bowling into her friends. The two of them weakly pat the Pink pony on the back in return.
"Where's Fluttershy?" You ask when you walk over with Dash.
"In the wagon." Applejack says, gulping down some more water.
"She's still a little... out of it." Twilight adds, walking up to you. "It's nice to see you're OK Rusty. Sorry about before."
"It's OK Twilight. I think I'm starting to figure out what's going on a little."
You peek in over the wagon and see the little yellow pegasi laying prone at the bottom to one side.
"Is she still upset about the helmet head thing?" You ask.
"Probably," Applejack says. "But she's said all of two words since then. We had to load her on the cart just to get her here."
"Huh," You wonder why Fluttershy is still acting like this. "Have you two spoken with anyone yet? Like Luna?"
"No, we just got here." Twilight says. "But I'm anxious to talk with her and Celestia. There’s a lot we need to discuss."