“Alright! Truth or dare?”

To say that Flash was having an… interesting night was the understatement of the year.

After almost being stomped to death by his lovey marefriend, he had been dragged into Twilight’s room by two of her friends, Rarity and Applejack, and forced to sit down. The second his rump touched the wooden seat he had been assaulted, and not physically assaulted either, though he probably would have preferred that to what he actually got. Not given even a second to look after his wounds, he was bombarded by words; assaulted by questions by Twilight’s five overly eager friends. One after the other after the other after the other the Private was forced to answer to the best of his ability.

Where did you go to school? What are your hobbies? How did you meet Twilight? Did the two of you kiss yet? Have you been thinking about her while the two of you were apart? Do you always turn that shade of red when you’re embarrassed? Why aren’t you two kissing right now? What do you think your future babies will look like? The questions went on and on and on until they just seemed to blur together into this one big embarrassing mess.

Never before had he undergone such a thorough and intense interrogation in his whole life. No parental figure had ever questioned him this intensely and not even the old war horse that was his staff sergeant back at boot camp had put him this ill at ease. Eventually though the questions had stopped and he was able to take stock in his surroundings.

Apparently the girls had been playing a few “sleepover games” (Flash had no idea why the hay they called it a sleepover since they were kind of going to be living in the castle for a couple of weeks) before he had gone and interrupted them. But now that he was here and the introductions and examination of his character had been done, not only could the girls get back to their games, but Flash could join as well. And no he did not have any choice in the matter and he most certainly couldn’t go let them get back to their fun by going back to the barracks.

At the moment the seven of them were sitting in the middle of the room in a circle playing easily one of the most unforgiving and dangerous games known to equine kind: Truth or Dare. And as “luck” would have it it was Flash’s turn. Most would have found it odd that he had gone at least twice as many times as anypony else here but he what was going on. Deep down in his heart of hearts he knew why this was happening.

He must have been a villain in his past life that had done a whole lot of bad things and now he was finally getting his comeuppance. He must have been some sort of tyrant or murderer of the highest caliber and now it was his fate to be tormented by mares. There was no other reason that this whole situation was so embarrassing and awkward and tense that he wanted to run away and throw up at the same time.

I knew I should have waited till tomorrow to see Twilight…

Though there was a smile on his face Flash couldn’t help but find himself sweating as every one of the girls looked at him expectantly.

“Truth,” he said after thinking it over for a few seconds, carefully weighing his options.

The pink earth pony who had introduced herself as Pinkie Pie smiled at him. Though she had been doing a lot of smiling ever since he had met her an hour ago, this smile seemed different. To Flash it seemed… predatory. Pinkie leaned forward toward him as the other girls’ smiles seemed to turn just as sinister, and Flash had to resist the sudden urge to scoot away.

“If Twilight would ask you right now to do it would you smooch her?”

He could hear the teasing tone in Pinkie’s voice, he could see the other girl’s smiles as they
giggled to themselves, he knew that they were just doing this to get a rise out of him and Twilight. For this entire game the girls had been lightly joking and prodding both him and his marefriend like this, not in a malicious way but in a ‘we’re-your-friends-and-we’re-embarrassing-you-because-we-love-you’ way, just ready to watch him and Twilight blush, shimmer, and look at the ground.

Flash had had his fill of it after the second or third time they had done this, and he was sure that if he just ignored it they’d stop and the night would get a bit better for him. He’d get to spend a bit of time with Twilight, he’d get to know her friends and he’d come away with this a better stallion and coltfriend than he had been before entering the room.

With a nervous ruffle of his wings he looked around the room, hoping for a bit of emotional support. He knew it wasn’t going to get it from Twilight’s friends so he looked over at his marefriend, praying that she’d be the rock that would help him through this. To his dismay he got to watch as Twilight’s eyes widened, her cheeks turned red, and she looked down at the floor.

Barely managing to contain a giggle, Pinkie leaned forward just a little bit more. “Weeeeeeel, Flashy~? Would you smooch Twilight or not?”

Flash nervously pawed at the ground as the girls giggled at his expense. Don’t look down! Don’t look down! he thought as he struggled to keep a straight face. Sweet Celestia don’t you start blushing again!”

He looked at everypony and everything in the room, trying to find something that would calm him down and let him open his mouth without having something stupid come out of it. Looking back and forth and back and forth, Flash stiffened as a cough fought its way over the giggles and made its way into his ears.

Turning his head Flash saw the only other stallion in the room. This stallion was the reason why he was sitting on the other side of the circle from Twilight and he was one of the main reasons why Flash was so nervous being in this room playing truth or dare. In fact the second that Flash laid eyes on him the butterflies that were flapping around in his stomach died, and the cold and crisp feeling of terror replaced them.

Shining Armor’s eyes narrowed as he looked at the Pegasus. “We don’t have all night, Private,” he said with the barest hint of a growl in his voice. “Are you going to answer the question or are you just going to sit there flapping your wings?”

Flash couldn’t help but shiver as he met his ex-captain’s gaze. He could feel himself walking toward something very unstable and very dangerous, and if he said the wrong things or moved in a way that the dangerous thing didn’t like he knew that he was in a world of misery and pain and hurt and pain and pain.

“Well aw… no, nope,” he said, shaking his head just a little too hard. “Me and Twilight need to get a little more serious for that kind of stuff…”

With another nervous ruffle of his feathers Flash looked back over at Shining, ready to take off at a moment’s notice if his answer wasn’t to his liking. To his relief Shining didn’t make a move to get up, the unicorn just staring at him with brotherly disapproval.

Rainbow rolled her eyes with a snort before she got up. “Yeah, kissing’s a real milestone in a relationship. What a heck of a thing to worry about…”

As the Pegasus walked over and started to rummage around under her bed Rarity threw her a dirty look. “Everypony takes relationships at a different pace, Rainbow darling,” she said, fussing with her mane. “Most of us want to wait a bit before showering a stallion with kisses… Among other things…”

Rainbow bristled at the fashionista’s tone, looking over her shoulder with narrowed eyes. “Hey! I’m no hussy!”

Rarity looked over at Twilight and winked before looking coolly back at her. “I never said that you were my dear! You’re just a bit… aggressive with stallions from what I’ve seen. Aggressive and more than a bit popular?...”

Applejack snorted, Pinkie giggled, and even Fluttershy had to hide a smile behind a hoof as Rainbow twitched at the jab.

“And there’s nothing wrong with that, Rainbow!” Rarity assured. “As I said everypony handles their relationships differently!”

“Just because I like to have a—aw forget it…” Shaking her head, and trying to hide the blush on her face, Rainbow poked her head under the bed. To the surprise of everypony in the room she pulled out a bottle of what could have been mistaken as wine.

“Rainbow… Where did you get that?” Twilight asked, concern growing on her face as she looked at the label on the bottle.

Rainbow’s chest puffed out and she grinned. “I was walking around the castle when I found this weird secret room that was filled with wine and whiskey and stuff,” she said with pride, trotting back over to the group and plopping right down.

While Flash looked surprised Shining looked irritated, raising an eyebrow as Rainbow tried to pull the cork out of the bottle with her teeth. “You walked around the castle and found the secret wine cellar that half of the castle doesn’t know about and you took a bottle of wine?” he asked, disbelief predominate in his tone.

Hugging the bottle with all four hooves, Rainbow tugged on the cork with all of her might. The cork exploded from the mouth of the bottle with a loud pop, and Rarity had to use her magic to keep the Pegasus steady as she let out a victorious cry.

Spitting out the cork, Rainbow looked around with a grin. “Yep. I accidently bumped into one of the walls a couple of times and BAM! This door appeared and opened up.”

She smiled, looking around at the horrified faces of her friends. “Since there was so much of it I snagged a couple of bottles of whatever. I figured that we could have something to drink while we had this weird sleepover thing.”

Shining just started at the daredevil for several long and tense seconds, his mouth set in a thin line. “I… I don’t believe you…”

Humming to herself, Rainbow grabbed the bottle and raised it to her lips. She might have lifted it all of the way up and started chugging it too if Twilight hadn’t snatched it out of her hooves with her magic.

“Rainbow! You’re going to get us in a lot of trouble!” she said, levitating over the cork and sticking it back into the bottle.

Rainbow frowned. “Trouble? Why? It’s just a dumb bottle of wine. There was loads of it in that room.”

“This is Caste de Lonasfer,” Twilight snapped, shoving the bottle in her face. “This bottle goes for five hundred bits at its cheapest!”

Rarity looked at the bottle before looking at Twilight. “…And how do you know that, dear?”

Pushing the cork down as far as she could get it, Twilight levitated it over to the counter. “A few weeks ago I decided to read up on some different kinds of wine so that I’d know what to order when me and flash go on a—”

Shining loudly cleared his throat, stopping Twilight in her tracks. The book worm’s eyes went over to Flash as her hooves shot up to her mouth.

“I-I mean, what I-I meant to s-say was—“

With a giggle Pinkie jumped up onto her hooves and started hopping around the room so quickly that she was a pink blur. Though it only lasted a few seconds the wine had disappeared from the table, Twilight was sitting next to Flash, each mare and stallion had a wine glass sitting in front of them and there were more bottles sitting in the middle of them all.

“Don’t be such a no-funny honey, Twilight!”

Flash blinked as the smiling party pony just kind of… appeared in front of him before winking out of existence. He opened his mouth to say something but it turned into a yelp as a hoof wrapped itself around his neck and pulled him and Twilight together.

“I’m sure Princes Cadence wouldn’t mind if we drank a few of these!”

A wine glass was forced into both his and Twilights hooves and Pinkie Pie, who had gotten her hooves on a waitress's outfit… somehow, grabbed one of the bottles, pulling out the cork, and started pouring each of them a glass.

Rainbow nodded with a grin, giving her thanks as the pink mare poured her a glass. “Yeah! I’m sure if she wasn’t on that date with that weird diamond dog guy she’d be here drinking with us! And besides, who the hay’s going to tell on us? Your coltfriend? Your brother?”

While Twilight and the other girls had taken Pinkie’s… Pinkieness as well as they usually did, Flash and Shining looked more than a bit shaken.

Bringing her glass to her lips Rainbow took a sip of her wine. “Now why don’t you try to sit back and enjoy yourself egghead?”

Though she didn’t look too happy about it, Applejack accepted a glass of wine. “Ya shoulda said somethin’ ta the Princess ‘fer ya went an’ took ‘er wine, Dash.”

Rarity quietly thanked Pinkie as some wine was poured into her glass. “Though I can’t help but agree with Applejack, I don’t really see the harm in having a few drinks,” she said, swirling her wine in her glass. “A proper ladies sleepover isn’t complete without some wine and good conversation after all.”

Fluttershy let out a quiet epp as Pinkie bounded over and filled up her glass to the brim. “I-I’m sure the Princess wouldn’t m-miss a few bottles,” she mumbled, hiding behind her mane.

Twilight looked at each and every one of her friends before sighing, picking up her glass of wine and taking a small sip. “I’ll… I’ll make sure to tell Cadence that we took a few bottles of wine tonight,” she muttered, pressing herself against Flash as she licked the wine off of her lips. “I’m sure she won’t mind…”

Still looking a little unsure Twilight looked over to Shining. “Is that alright with you big brother?”

Shining opened his mouth. Every single one of the girls leaned toward him with smiles on their faces. He then closed his mouth. “I… I…”

He knew that he was trapped the second that his baby sister put the decision all on him, but he did his best to think of a way to tell them that they, and more importantly he and Flash, probably shouldn’t be drinking this stuff. It was really expensive, he and the Private had work at six in the morning, they hadn’t asked if they could drink any of this so it was technically stolen. Reason after reason after reason came to him as Pinkie Pie, a smile on her face, poured him a glass of this very expensive wine.

“I… We… Oh horse apples…”

Making a face, Shining snatched his glass from the floor and took a small sip. To his irritation he found that the wine was delicious; a perfect blend between blackberries and strawberries with just a hint of orange.

The girls cheered and even Twilight smiled as Flash cautiously picked up his glass. The two looked at each other with smiles as Flash unfurled a wing and draped it over her back. Blushing, Twilight raised her glass and lightly tapped it against—

POP!

The bookworm jumped in surprise as her coltfriend disappeared from her side. Looking around in panic she watched as he reappeared an instant later right next to Shining, his wing still half open. The private looked just as confused as she did, staring back at her with wide eyes.

Tapping his glass against Flash’s, Shining took another gulp of his drink. “Now that we got all of that out of the way I do believe that we were all still trying to play a game of Truth or Dare.”

Flash, no longer smiling, tried to scoot away from him but another burst of magic pulled the two stallions close together. Really close.

“Now whose turn is it?”

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_

I̦̥̠̠ͭ̈́͌̅ͮ͜ͅ ̫͗ͥ̍ͥS̲̦͙̯͉͇̫ͥ̑̋͒̾̀Ḛ̻E̳̯̠͚͇͑̐̐̑ͯ͂ ̞̯̀Y̱̠̘̬̫̣̦̒Ö̢̜͓̟̰͊̓́̋ͬ́U̹̭̼̪̻̼ͤͭ̍͜

Ares woke with a start, his eyes snapping open as his hands came up to shield his face. He tried to move his body, tried to roll away, but found that something was pinning him to his bed. Heart racing, he looked up to see his sleeping marefriend’s face.

He blinked rapidly, his heart pounding in his chest, before letting out a relieved sigh. “…A dream,” he muttered, letting his head fall back onto his pillow. “I-It was a dream…”

Still shaking, he looked around the dark, shadow-filled room. The room was pitch black and silent as the grave, and from what he could tell no…thing was in the room with them. No shadow monsters, no eyes glowing in the darkness, no blistering cold; it was just him and his marefriend. Sighing again, he wrapped an arm around Cadence and looked up at the ceiling.

What the fucking hell was that? he thought as Cadence let out a quiet snore, one of her back legs kicking ever so slightly. What was with all of those shadows and… and… Why the fuck can’t I remember anything other than shadows?

Making a face Ares picked his head up from his pillow. Reaching down he began to lightly poke and prod his mare. Though she looked fine, he wanted to make sure that no one had gotten into the room and done anything to either of them. Not that he really expected anything to be wrong with her but he still felt on edge. Like there were a pair of eyes that he couldn’t see looking at him.

I never thought that fucking chocolate would give me nightmares, he thought to himself as he ran a hand over Cadence’s wings.

The Princess twitched, muttering something that might have been his name as she began to squirm slightly. Her hooves, which had been resting on either side of him, wrapped themselves under his armpits as her muzzle nuzzled at his chin. She murmured again, her ear twitching before the sounds of her quiet breathing filled the room.

Ares stopped his frantic search for… something on his marefriend and he just looked at her. Though his hands were shaking and he felt more nervous than he had been in a long, long time, the sight of her calmed him down just a little.

Taking a few deep breaths he groaned, holding her closely. “You’re going to wake your girlfriend you dumbass,” he said to himself. “It was just a dream. It was just a dream.”

Bringing a hand to his face he rubbed an eye. Focusing on Cadence’s breathing he waited until his heart wasn’t threatening to burst out of his chest to look back around the room. Not a shadow moved, and the only sounds that could be heard were his mare’s breathing.

There was nothing there. There was nothing there. Nothing.

“I’m jumpy as all hell because of a dream that I can’t fucking remember…”

Ares thought hard, trying to remember anything else from his dream. When his eyes had snapped open he had remembered everything in detail, but the second that he had started moving he had just… forgotten. He didn’t know what had made him afraid, only that he needed to be.

I’ve heard about having a brain fart but this is ridiculous! I should be able to remember what—

He tried to shift his lower body around to get a little more comfortable when he noticed that he was still buried balls deep into Cadence. His cock twitched, helpfully bringing up the fact that he was also very, very hard.

Oh… OH…Right...

Cadence let out a sleepy moan, wiggling her butt a little as she kissed his neck. “The nightstand’s made out of rock candy…” she murmured.

Confusion and fear momentarily forgotten, Ares couldn’t help but blush as he wiggled his hips back and forth just a hair to see if he was still actually inside of his mare and not just imaging it. He was able to move about half an inch before he could feel Cadence’s marehood give his cock a light squeeze, making him hiss in surprise.

“Why the hell is it every time I’m scared or freaking out I get a boner?” he grumbled, patting Cadence’s muzzle as his cock twitched again. “You really know when to poke your head through the fucking door dick…”

In the back of his mind Ares couldn’t help but consider just gently thrusting into Cadence until he came. He was already kind of freaked out and embarrassed that he had gotten so worked up over a dream that he couldn’t remember. Why not relief some stress when pleasure was right there? Cadence was asleep, so he was sure that she wouldn’t mind if he went and unloaded into her. If he was careful Cadence won’t even wake—

Wait, what the fuck is wrong with me? he thought, letting his lower half go slack when , to his horror, he found himself already bucking gently into his marefriend’s warm and tight marehood. I’d never go and fuck Candy without permission, especially if she was a-fucking-sleep for it. That’s messed up. Really messed up.

The second that he came to the resolution he could feel himself going soft. Sighing in relief he reached down and gently picked Cadence’s rump up, which allowed his semi-erect member to slide out of her.

Cadence squirmed a bit as he pulled out of her, her wings flapping under their blanket just a bit before he nuzzled back into his neck. “Chocolate windows aren’t see-through…”

Ares smiled as he closed his eyes. “You can hold your fucking horses until the sun comes back up before trying to get any more action dick, you horny bastard,” he muttered. “We’ll have plenty of fun tomorrow I’m sure.”

Kissing his mare’s neck he was about ready to drift back into dreamland when, oddly enough, Ares heard a knock at the door. And this wasn’t a professional, measured knock that one would hear when a guard knocked on your door, and it wasn’t the fast, frantic knocking of someone that had dire or important news. This knocking was slow and heavy, as if the knocker was putting all of their concentration into the act.

Eyes snapping open, he looked at the door. “Who the fuck is trying to bother us this early in the morning?” Looking over at the clock on the wall he frowned. “Scratch that. Who’s trying to bother us this late at night? It’s three in the fucking morning!”

Hoping that it was just a fluke and someone had just accidently tripped into their door Ares stayed where he was, his arms wrapped tightly around Cadence. About a minute ticked by, leading him to believe that it had been an accident. With a sigh he closed his eyes and snuggled into his bed. Ares was just about to drift back off to sleep when the pounding started once again.

Growling, he threw off his covers. “Something bad better have happened or I swear to god I’m going to lose my mind.” He flinched when he heard hooves pounding on his door a little bit harder. “And aren’t these fucking doors supposed to be soundproof or something? Fucking shitty horse doors…”

Naked and still reeking of sex, he gently pushed Cadence off of him and onto her side before he rolled off of his warm, comfortable bed with a grunt. Cadence squirmed, sleepily reaching out and trying to find him as she muttered nonsense under her breath, a small frown on her face at losing her human-sized pillow. Turning around, Ares threw the covers back over his sleeping marefriend, leaning forward and kissing her right under the horn.

“I’ll be back in a second, Hon,” he murmured. “I just have some little horses to chew out.”

After managing to find his underwear in the dark room, Ares stomped over to the door, muttering and cursing under his breath. With narrowed eyes he grabbed the doorknob, twisted it and threw open the door. He took a deep breath, ready to start his verbal barrage of demands and name calling, but whatever rage that he felt over being bothered at this hour fizzled out when he saw the two stallions in front of him.

Flash Sentry and Shining Armor had hit the bottle a little hard; Ares didn’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure that out. Both of the stallions were rocking back and forth, barely able to keep their hooves. Their mane and coats were messy, disheveled, and slick with sweat. Shining’s face was flushed red and his eyes were unfocused, while Flash’s face was ghost white and he looked like he had just came from puking his guts out. And if that wasn’t enough Shining had a bottle of some unidentifiable half-empty bottle of liquor in his hoof, putting the finishing touch on both his and Flash’s state of sobriety.

Gaping, Ares opened his mouth and closed it. “Jesus fuck what the hell happened to you two? Did you get into a fight with a brewery?”

“Arrres!” Shining slurred with a dopey smile. “Howz it goiiing?”

Ares watched as Shining took a half-step forward, only to lose his balance and fall onto his side. I… I wasn’t ready for this he thought, mildly disappointed that he wasn’t going to be yelling at anyone. Well, at least not anyone who’d remember it in the morning.

“I’m… I’m doing alright guys,” he said, leaning on the door frame and crossing his arms. “How are you two guys doing? Had a little something to drink did ya?”

Shining and Flash started giggling as if he had just told them the funniest joke in the world. “Yeees we may have had a bitsh to drink,” Flash admitted as Shining got back to his hooves.

Both stallions rocked back and forth as they broke into another fit of giggles. Shaking his head Ares stepped out of his room and steadied the stallions with his hands. Flash and Shining, still giggling, took this as an invitation to push him into a sitting position.

Ares opened his mouth to protest when Flash sat heavily in his lap. “Weee had a bitsh too much to drrrunk,” the Pegasus said, resting his head on Ares’s shoulder.

“Me and Flash heeere went to Twilight’s room to haaave a lil’ bit of fun,” Shining said, leaning against Ares’s side. “I waaas just there too seeee my lil’ sis but then Raisin Splash pulled ouuut these bottles.”

“Flash get out of my fucking lap right now. You’re a pony not a sad puppy goddamnit. And don’t fucking nuzzle my fucking neck like that!!”

“Wesh thought that all the bottles weeere wine but we were wrrrrong. Only the fiiirst one was!” Flash said, ignoring his friend’s cries of protest.

The Private closed his eyes, wrapping his hooves around Ares’s middle in a drunken hug. Just as he was doing that, Shining, wanting some attention as well, placed his head on Ares’s other shoulder. A pair of pleased hums could be heard in the empty hallway as the stallions got comfortable. If you listened carefully enough you could also hear the silent screaming of an irritated man.

…Why didn’t I just ignore the knocking? If I would have ignored it none of this would be happening. Ares tried to push Flash off him but the private didn’t budge. Right now I’d be in my bed with my marefriend. I’d probably be asleep right now too. But no, I gotta deal with two drunk, touchy-feely little horses…

“You smeeell nice, Aresss.”

“Yeah, you do smeeell nice…”

Ares stiffened as he felt Flash’s long, thick tongue glide across his neck. “…Nope. Nope, nope, nope. I know where this fucking shit goes.”

He quickly found himself rising to his feet with Flash in his arms. If the Pegasus was surprised by the sudden flurry of movement he didn’t show it. He just giggled, kicking his back legs slowly as his wings flapped.

“Look Shiiiny! Ish flyin’ without winnngs!”

Shining looked up at his drunken companion. His eyes narrowed, almost as if he was trying to focus on Flash. “Yoush floating, Flash!” he cried, pointing a hoof at his friend. “Like magiiic!”

He managed to lift his hoof and point it for about two seconds before he lost his balance and hit the floor again with an “omph”. This just caused Flash to giggle harder, which in turn made the fallen unicorn laugh harder.

The half empty bottle of mystery liquor flew out of his hoof, alcohol spilling as it rolled across the floor. Swearing, Ares bent down and snatched it up. Making sure to keep Flash under one of his arms he brought the bottle up to his face. The frown that had been growing on his face deepened as he read the label.

“Rochester’s hundred-proof flash whiskey?”

Putting the bottle under his nose Ares took a whiff. He got a nose full before he had to move away, breaking out into a coughing fit.

“Is this rubbing alcohol?!”

He looked down at Shining, who was valiantly trying, and failing, to get back to his hooves. He then looked down at Flash, who was making whooshing noises as he stuck his hooves out in front of his face like some sort of horse Superman. Looking back at the bottle he sighed.

“…You stupid motherfuckers went and drank rubbing alcohol…”

“It waaasn’t my fault, Aresss!” Shining slurred with a drunk, horsey snort. “I diiidn’t want to drink! I reeeally didn’t! But Twily annnd her friendsh kept filling myyy glass!”

Setting his brow, Shining grunted as he rolled onto his stomach. His face scrunching up in concentration as he placed his hooves under his body. Slowly he started to rise, his knees wobbly and his body swaying dangerously from left to right. Once or twice Ares expected the unicorn to flop right back onto the ground but Shining was persistent. He managed to get past knee height and raise his head up into the air. He might have even managed to stand all the way up if Flash hadn’t tried to throw his two cents in.

“Yoush can dooo it, Shining!”

And just like that Shining’s concentration was broken. With a surprised whinny, his front half went limp. Ares couldn’t help but flinch as his face hit the crystal floor with a meaty thump, his rump still raised high in the air.

Flash gasped dramatically. “Shinnning!” He tried to squirm out of Ares’s grasp but the human held firm. “Areees, Let meee go!”

Pinching the bridge of his nose Ares shook his head. “I’m not going to do that, Flash.”

Flash squirmed even harder, his back legs kicking and his wings slapping against Ares’s arm. “But Shinnning’s dying! Weee gottsa save him!”

“Shining’s fine you drunk dummy. I can see him breathing.”

“…My faccce hurtsss…”

“See? He just said something.”

Flash sniffled, tears starting to form out of the corners of his eyes. “Didcha heeear that, Ares? S-Shining’s face hurts…”

It was late. Ares might have gotten two or three hours of sleep. He was tired and more than a little cold. He was not mentally prepared to deal with two super drunk little horses. And he most certainly wasn’t ready to deal with two emotional, super drunk little horses that were getting a little too touchy feely for his taste. So it was little surprise when he finally snapped.

“Fuck it.”

Tossing the bottle in his hand he walked over toward Shining. Ignoring the sound of glass shattering he looked down at the ex-captain.

Shining was mumbling something under his breath as he waved his rump back and forth suggestively. At any other time such an act would have gotten him teased until the white stallion was beet red. But there was no time for teasing and laughing right now. Ares didn’t even have that much of a desire to find out how or why Flash and Shining got so fucked up at that moment. He had a date with his bed snuggling his girlfriend and these two were in the way of that.

With a grunt, Ares squatted down and wrapped his arm around Shining’s barrel. Carefully picking the stallion up he began to carry both of his friends down the hall.

“Were arrre we goin’, Ares?” Flash asked, reaching up to rub his cheek with a hoof.

Shining started to giggle, his pain already forgotten. “Looksh! I’m flyin’ toooo!”

“I’m going to take you down to the barracks,” Ares answered, shivering slightly. “Someone can take care of your drunk asses down there.”

With each step he took the hall started to get colder and darker. Though he had two rather warm bodies pressed up against him, goosebumps started to form on his arms and legs. Ares also had the sense that something was… watching him. Something that he’d rather not have watching him.

He looked over his shoulder to find nothing there. What the hell am I freaking out for again? he thought as Shining and Flash babbled about something or other.

Though he didn’t notice, his breath started to quicken as his heart started beating just a little bit faster. As he turned the corner, lightly jogging at this point, he was starting to shake. The illuminated hallway, even the moon that was shining through the castle windows, seemed dimmer; almost dark in fact.

“…Areees? Are you alright theeere, buddy?”

Ares’s vision turned fuzzy, and he fell to his knee with a grunt. A shadowy figure could be seen out of the corner of his eye, unnaturally pale and hugely tall. Panting, he whipped his head around, trying to get a good look of whatever the hell was stalking him but it was no use. The second that he turned his head it was gone, only to return at the edge of his vision a second later.

What the fuck is going on?! What is that? WHAT IS THAT?!

Letting go of his drunken friends, Ares stood back up. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end as he took a few nervous steps backward. Something was telling him that he needed to run, that he needed to get away. He needed to run and get away or it would catch him. It would catch him and do horrible things—

“AREEES!”

Ares grunted as something slammed into his chest, knocking him off of his feet. Cursing, he threw up his hands in an attempt to cover his face. He closed his eyes, ready to feel claws grabbing ahold of him or tearing at his flesh. What he got instead was Shining forcing his muzzle through his hands.

“Areees!” the unicorn cried, very nearly kissing him. “What’s wrrrong?!”

Ares’s eyes snapped open and he looked up at Shining. Breathing hard, he pushed the stallion off of him he sat up and quickly looked around. The shadow was gone, the hallway wasn’t dark, and it wasn’t freezing. The feeling of being watched was gone as was the gut-wrenching fear. From what he could gather everything was back to normal.

Ares, more than a little unsettled, pushed Shining away from him as the unicorn tried to hop into his lap. “I’m alright, I’m alright. Back up a little bit for Christ’s sake; you reek of booze.”

Shining ignored his friend’s demand, wrapping his hooves around Ares and sticking his muzzle back into his face, nearly knocking him over. “Yoush looked soooo scared though, Arrres!” he slurred, nuzzling his cheek and closing his eyes.

Flash trotted over as quickly as his wobbly legs allowed and wrapped his fore legs around Ares from the other side.

“Did youuu see somethin’, Ares?” he asked, pressing his chest firmly against Ares’s back as he nuzzled his ear. “Some scccary monster? Don’t worrrry, we’ll stop the monsters from gettin’ ya…”

Ares squirmed, trying to pry the drunken little horses off of him. “I already told you too that I’m fine. I just had a weird dream and the lack of sleep’s fucking with me.”

He tried to swat at Shining as the stallion rubbed their cheeks together but he couldn’t move his arms. Both Shining and Flash had him pinned, and it didn’t look like they were going to let him go anytime soon.

“Let go of me goddamnit. I gotta get your drunk asses—“

Ares stiffened when Flash let out a quiet snore. His eyes darted down to Shining, and despair filled him when he saw his chest slowly rising and falling.

“…You fuckers didn’t just pass out did you?” He tried to struggle but the stallions grip on him was absolute. “Don’t you fucking tell me you passed out in the middle of the hall in the fucking cuddle pile.”

With a sleepy murmur, Shining nuzzled the nape of Ares’s neck, kissing the bottom of his chin before going still once again. Ares took the embarrassingly intimate contact as well as you would expect.

“Nope! Not fucking today! I’m not getting fucked by two drunk little boy horses! I haven’t seen a real life horse dick since I’ve landed in this fucked up little world and I’m not about to break that track record!”

Wiggling as hard as he could Ares thrashed around. Though it looked like Flash and Shining had acquired some sort of super grip in their drunken state that didn’t mean he couldn’t wake them back up. If he woke them back up then he could get out of this situation with some of his pride intact. He could get these two chucklefuck’s back to their beds and back to his room where his marefriend was waiting.

That was the little horse that he wanted to hug and kiss and rub himself against. He did not get up this morning wanting two drunk and sweaty stallions trying to tongue kiss him in the middle of the hallway. Ares might have been a pretty adventurous guy but even he had to draw a line in the sand somewhere.

“Get the fuck off of me! GET OFF YOU FUCKERS! GET OFF M—”

Biting his lip, Ares went silent. The hallway’s lights seemed to flicker for just a moment and if he didn’t know any better he would have said that it had gotten just a bit colder.

“…Get off of… me. Get… off... of.”

A shadow passed across the human’s eyes as he managed to partially free his arms. Shaking slightly, he wrapped his arms around Shining and held him close.

“Get… the… fuck…”

If one would have gotten a good look at him his green eyes would have looked black in this light.

“Get…Fuck…”

Now shaking hard, Ares’s eyes darted around the hall. There would be no sleep for him tonight. The only thing that he had until the sun rose were Flash, Shining, the dancing shadows, and the cold. The icy, soul-breaking cold.