Sentinel awoke with the distinct feeling that something was hugging him tightly. Normally, this would be the cause of some alarm, but within moments of gaining some small semblance of wakefulness he came to the realisation that it was Spike who was clinging to his back and hugging him tightly. The dragon was still asleep. Sentinel, feeling groggy, extricated himself from Spike’s embrace, slipped out of the bed, walked into his own desk with a thump, cursed, saying something so awful that if his mother Lyra heard it she would immediately use the scrubbing bubbles spell on his mouth, snarled at the wooden desk in annoyance, and then began to stumble out of his room to head down the hall to the bathroom.

Morning and the lunar pegasus were mortal enemies, but Sentinel tolerated the existence of morning because of his family, most of whom were solar ponies. He had no doubt that if left to his own devices, his father would adapt to a fully nocturnal lifestyle. Outside, the dawn would break soon, less than an hour perhaps.

At the bathroom door, he heard the shower running. Repressing a snarl, Sentinel turned and headed for another bathroom. Loch Skimmer must be in pain or something, because he could hear her moaning in the shower. He thought about knocking on the door and inquiring if she was okay, she did spend a lot of time flying and lifting heavy stuff using her wings. His poor sister probably woke up sore and stiff.

The other bathroom was unoccupied and Sentinel stumbled in, shutting the door behind him. He took care of his business in a fastidious clean almost cat like manner, thought briefly about how much things like toilets annoyed his poor mother Thistle, and then once finished, he slipped into the shower.

The hot water felt wonderful. He turned around, hiked up his tail, and allowed the high pressure of the shower to clean everything back there. Using his echolocation, his sang a little, warbling out a tune, while it was not a song most solar ponies would appreciate, it was a song, but he didn’t know what he was singing. He really couldn’t speak the echo language like Moonbow could.

The hot water spraying on his dangly bits and the thought of Moonbow proved to be quite a combination. He felt a stirring of desire go through his body, and then he had the less than innocent thought of how soft squeezable Diamond Tiara would feel trapped between him and Moonbow. Not as food, but as something else. Sentinel let out a squeak and felt an odd sensation down near his gut. There was a palatable sense of arousal beginning to creep through him.

And then, very much against his will, he suddenly understood just what it was that Loch Skimmer was doing in the shower and why she moaned. He came to the brain destroying conclusion that if he could let the water run on his backside and it felt good, by logical extension, so could Loch Skimmer, and she had other things back there the hot water could hit that probably felt great. Sentinel let out a small shrill prepubescent scream, horrified by his own budding sexuality.

His arousal died just as abruptly as it had begun and he felt his testicles retract into his body from revulsion. He shuddered, felt more than a little nauseous, and then he laid down in the tub, allowing the steaming hot water to wash over him. It was going to take a lot of scrubbing to feel clean again.

The dawn broke and a house full of sleeping ponies did their best to ignore the crowing rooster and the crowing of Philomena, who greeted the morning sun with a blood curdling scream that sounded like a schoolyard of foals being chopped up by a minotaur with an axe. Celestia considered it one of Philomena’s best qualities and frequently turned her pet phoenix loose in her school dormitories.

One pony was already awake and stood a short distance away, watching two ponies sleeping, both pegasi, one blue, the other orange, and both were ponies that this pony had strong feelings of affection for.

Twilight Sparkle stared at Flash Sentry and Rainbow Dash, both of whom were sleeping in the grass and covered in the morning dew. Flash was sprawled out on his belly, his head down in the grass, and Rainbow Dash was half draped over his back, with her head resting on his withers, one front leg wrapped around his neck.

She had been quite angry when she had found them, but then the slow realisation crept into her mind that these were her friends. And her friends would never do something that heartless. At some point in the night, they had become friends with one another.

A short distance away was an enormous puke puddle, already partially soaked into the ground, the semi-solid remains of somepony’s dinner last night. The sour smell clung to Twilight Sparkle’s nostrils and she was far too hungover to even think about using magic to make it go away.

Sighing, Twilight didn’t know what to do with the pair. One of her best friends was clearly jealous about there being another friend in the picture. Rainbow was always a little jealous when other ponies got to close to Twilight, and Twilight valued the fact that Rainbow Dash was so protective of her.

She thought of the day that Berry Punch had kicked Bucky’s mother and Rainbow’s confession that if somepony touched one feather on Twilight’s wings that Rainbow would probably kill them. Several times Rainbow had actually moved in Twilight’s defense, and then there was last night, which was simply chalked up to drinking, or so Twilight deduced.

The more she looked at her friends, the more her heart warmed at seeing them together. Rainbow Dash was drooling in her sleep, as most pegasi tended to do, if Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were any indication. Flash’s shoulders were damp with drool and dew, and Twilight couldn’t tell if Flash was drooling into the grass.

They were kind of adorable together and Twilight liked knowing that they had made up at some point. It would make the trip easier. She found something about the pony pile appealing, and for a brief moment, she felt a spike of attraction for both ponies. She felt her cheeks blaze. She pushed the idea of attraction for Rainbow Dash out of her mind. Dash was interested in ponies like Soarin… not other mares. Rainbow Dash was far too interested in racing, stunt flying, and other more masculine activities to ever be interested in girly stuff and other mares.

Sighing, Twilight listened to the blood curdling screams of Philomena while cursing the fact that phoenixes felt the need to crow and greet the sun.

With a roaring crackle, Princess Celestia materialised just outside the farmhouse. She folded her wings, lifted her regal head, perked her ears forward to listen for any ponies that might be up to greet her dawn, and began to head towards the house.

When Celestia saw the empty bottle of gin on the porch, she understood that it had been one of those sorts of parties. This had not been a party with tea and punch… well, maybe punch, but it was probably spiked with with high proof liquor. Twilight and her friends tended to have somewhat more reserved parties.

She heard a low moan coming from around the corner of the house and moved off to investigate. Coming around the corner, she saw Twilight Sparkle rubbing her head and two pegasi sprawled in the grass.

“Gooooood morning Princess Twilight Sparkle!” Celestia cried out in her most chipper cheerful voice that she could muster.

The hungover alicorn of magic fell over as though she had been poleaxed, clutching her head and rolling over onto her side. She let out a groan and the other two pegasi grunted in the grass a short distance away.

“Helloooo Twilight, how are you this fine morn?” Celestia inquired politely, as politely as one hundred and twenty three decibels allowed. Celestia, a being with thousands of years of experience, knew full well that pain began at one hundred and twenty five decibels and she smiled broadly, mindful of her generous observance of the threshold, hoping to teach Twilight a lesson about staying away from strong drink.

“Nooo,” Twilight whimpered, clutching her head.

“Twiiiiiiilight, I could not hear you… are you well?” Celestia chirped at a full one hundred and twenty one decibels. Mercy was one of Celestia’s best qualities, or so ponies said. The history books were full of treatises about her mercy and generousity. Celestia generously stayed away from the one hundred and twenty five decibel limit.

“Ugh!” Twilight grunted, rolling over onto her back and wishing she was dead.

“I hate morning ponies,” Rainbow Dash grumbled, not yet fully aware of what was going on. The sky blue pegasus slipped off from Flash Sentry’s back and then rolled over in the dew sprinkled grass, yawning and rubbing her eyes. She was completely oblivious to the fact that the Princess of Morning Ponies was a short distance away.

“Such a glorious morning!” Celestia announced in a hangover shattering one hundred and twenty decibels. “Tiiiiiime to riiiiise and greeeet the sun!”

“Mercy!” Twilight begged, writhing around on her back, and the cool dew soaking into her feathered wings made her shiver.

“Oh no… there will be none of that,” Celestia replied, this time hitting one hundred and twenty four decibels. She moved forward slowly, and, feeling particularly impish, lowered her head over Twilight, pursed her lips, and then blew a Royal Raspberry upon the prone purple princess pony on the ground before her.

“NO!” Twilight shrieked and then exploded with laughter. She rolled away from Celestia, clutching her sides and trying to escape the horrible terrible morning tyrant. Her laughter caused pain to spike through her head. “No more! Somepony help me!”

This was a rare treasured moment for Celestia. She was free to truly be herself, there was nopony around to judge her, hold her to a standard, or condemn her for being a pony made out of flesh and blood like every other pony. She advanced on Twilight and Celestia reveled in her own inner pegasus nature. She pressed her snoot into Twilight’s tummy, applied pressure, and then let go with another Royal Raspberry.

These were usually reserved for Luna, and Luna alone.

“No more! Please… no… more!” Twilight heaved, pounding on the ground with her front hooves, struggling to laugh and breathe in her current condition. She wheezed as she sucked in some much needed air.

Looking around, Celestia saw another target. Rainbow Dash was still rubbing her eyes and was completely oblivious to the danger. Certainly another pegasus would appreciate this gesture of affection. Moving with an alarming amount of speed for her size, Celestia pounced, landed with as much grace as a mare her age should possess, pressed her muzzle down onto Rainbow Dash’ naval, and blew out a trumpeting Royal Raspberry, extra slobbery.

“OH WHAT THE HAY!” Rainbow Dash cried and then began to chortle, rolling around the ground. Her eyes opened and she saw Celestia, and the skinny little pegasus guffawed even harder. On top of being hung over, Rainbow Dash realised she was hallucinating as well this morning. Even though her head thudded painfully, she could not stop laughing.

“Rise and shine my precious little ponies,” Celestia commanded.

“What’s going on? Am I dreaming?” Rainbow Dash questioned as she tried to swallow her giggles long enough to ask a question.

“Does this feel like a dream?” Celestia inquired just before pressing her snoot down into Rainbow Dash’s silky stomach and blowing yet another extra slobbery, extra loud, extra tickly Royal Raspberry upon the prone pegasus.

“OH GOSH THIS IS REAL!” Rainbow Dash cried out in panic as she tried to wiggle away from Celestia, flopping around in the grass like a landed fish, her wings out and flapping.

Realising that she might never have this chance again, Celestia made the most of it. She turned, advanced on Twilight Sparkle, who was still trying to recover, puckered up, and then she jammed her snoot into Twilight’s neck, delivering yet another Royal Raspberry.

“No!” Twilight begged, rolling away onto her belly and crawling away, her wings flapping. She was wet, covered in dew and blades of grass, and her usual serious mien was completely gone, and now the young mare was acting like a foal again. “You’re worse than Cadance! Stop stop stop!”

“This is a side of you that I did not know existed.”

Turning to look at the voice, Celestia saw Buckminster, and Sentinel was sitting at his side, wide eyed and in stupefied shock. A wide terrible smile spread over the white alicorn’s muzzle and she turned her body around to face then both.

“You wouldn’t dare…” Bucky said in a low voice.

“You rearranged my office, vandalised the royal statuary, and you corrupted my precious Twilight Sparkle into committing those heinous acts with you. I would dare,” Celestia replied, advancing slowly and threateningly, her wings flared outwards, her head low and ready to raspberry.

“I will not go quietly into the day!” Bucky cried and then took off at a three legged trot, moving as quickly as he could. “Run Sentinel, this foe is beyond the both of us!”

Sentinel, heeding his father’s advice, bolted, running as fast as his stubby legs would allow from the crazed raspberry blowing alicorn loose in the yard.

“Have you learned nothing Buckminster? You never run from a pegasus!”

Author's Notes:

I had to stop several times while writing this to try and breathe again. My lungs hurt. I don't feel well. And I am seeing little stars in my vision.

I had some trouble editing the last half, as I could not read it with a straight face and look for mistakes. So there might be typos.