Thursday, January 28, 2016 / Early Morning
Today's Horoscope (Virgo): Cannot contact server — try again later

Outside the window, lightning is flashing frequently. The clock radio is blinking; judging by the display, the power's only been back on for two and a half hours.

A great rolling boom of thunder rattles everything. I extract myself from Twilight's embrace and get up. I look around for the remote, but hesitate to grab it. My hands aren't exactly clean...

The TV sets in the dorm do have voice control, but I hate using it. Sighing, I speak up: "TV on. Channel 211."

The TV comes on; after a moment, it changes over to the cable weather. There's an angry red ticker scrolling a warning about severe thunderstorms in the area. The clock in the corner of the screen says it's a quarter of seven.

I glance back at the bed. In the glow of the TV, I can see two lumps under the covers. A flash of lightning illuminates a mass of pink hair.

"Good grief..." I gather my bath stuff and head for the bathroom to shower.

Once I'm clean, I return to my room. The lights are on; Twilight is alone. She's sitting up in bed, covers pulled over her chest, and her face is red as a tomato. "Umm...school's closed today," she says. While I was out, she must've changed the channel to the local news; the morning anchor is rattling off lists of school, road, and government office closings.

"Wow, it's that bad?"

"Yeah..." Twilight shrugs. "It's not like CHS can really have school with the power going off all day anyway."

"This is true."

"And then there's the three inches of rain we got overnight," Twilight says. "It isn't even safe to drive right now, and it's still coming down."

"Oh well." I grab my phone and sit down in my desk chair. Canterbook is giving error messages left and right. "Hey, Twilight?"

"Yes?"

"Last night...did we really, y'know...with Pinkie?"

"Umm...y-yeah..." I turn to see Twilight, who's still blushing furiously. "We, umm...cuddled her. Naked. Naked cuddling. With Pinkie."

"Wow."

"I should...probably go take a shower," Twilight says meekly, standing up and walking out of the room naked. I shake my head, chuckle, and watch the news for a little bit.

At a quarter of eight, Twilight peeks her head back in. She's dressed for a day of staying in. "I smell breakfast," she said. "We'd better get downstairs."

Thursday, January 28, 2016 / Morning

I follow Twilight downstairs. It turns out Rarity made breakfast for the dorm this morning. It's really more of an elaborate brunch than breakfast.

When Twilight and I walk into the dining room, everybody but Pinkie is staring at us. Varying looks of amusement, irritation, and disgust meet the two of us as we sit down.

"Y'know...that ain't th' kinda education Granny done sent Apple Bloom t' th' city t' git," Applejack says frostily.

Sonata writes something on her notepad—apparently, her tablet isn't charged this morning—and holds it up.

Twilight, you're louder than Adagio, and our neighbors called the cops on her once!

Twilight ducks her head. "I'm sorry!" she says.

A spike of lightning strobes against the walls of the dining room, and the lights go out. Nearly twenty seconds later, they come back on.

Rainbow groans. "Is it gonna keep doin' that all day?" she asks. "Bad enough the lights kept goin' on and off all night..."

I can't even charge my tablet. Don't wanna risk it.

We take our time eating breakfast, then we all pitch in cleaning up. There really doesn't seem to be much to do today...

The lights go out for nearly a full minute. Shortly after they come back on, Cadance walks in from her apartment. "So, you kids enjoying the day off from school?"

Another blinding flash of lightning illuminates the dorm, followed by another roll of thunder.

"This blows!" Rainbow cries. "We can't play video games or even watch TV with the power going out all the time, can't go outside..."

"I've got lots of board games we can play," Pinkie says. "Twister, Mouse in the House, Operation, Cards Against Humanity..."

"Whut's that last one?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Never you mind," Applejack says. "It's fer big folks, an' it's mighty obscene." She frowns at Pinkie. "Whut're y'all doin' with a game like that, anyhoo?"

Pinkie shrugs. "It was in the lost and found at Sugar Cube Corner. After like a week, the Cakes said I could have it."

"There's way too many of us to play any one board game," Rainbow points out.

"Why don't you bring them all down?" Sweetie suggests. "We can pick whatever we want to play and we can all split up and play in groups."

"Hey yeah! That's a good idea!" Apple Bloom says.

"Okay!" Pinkie rushes upstairs. She comes back down a few minutes later carrying a massive stack of board games, which she piles on the dining room table.

"I haven't played any board games in forever," Cadance says. "I think I'll join you kids."

"Do you think Shining Armor would like to join us?" Twilight asks.

Cadance laughs. "Nah, he's busy working on his model kits."

Rainbow snickers. "Coach builds models like some egghead?"

"He sure does," Cadance says with a giggle. "He loves building models of those Neighponese robots..." She shakes her head.

Thursday, January 28, 2016 / Daytime

For the rest of the day we keep ourselves busy with board games, switching games between our groups and shuffling group members around as we get bored. Applejack and Rainbow Dash make the mistake of playing Twister with Pinkie, Fluttershy plays Mouse in the House with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, Sonata and Rarity play Operation, and Twilight, Cadance, and I play Scrabble.

Yeah, we still don't know better.

After about an hour with each game, give or take, we all swap around. There are bowls of snacks set out for everyone, so we can graze throughout the day instead of trying to make lunch. The thunder continues to rumble, and rain lashes against the windows in huge, fat drops.

"I can't believe we're having weather like this in January," Cadance says, shaking her head.

Twilight shrugs. "It's weird, but it happens."

"Well, school's out tomorrow too," Cadance says. "This weather isn't letting up until Saturday."

"Ugh," Twilight groans.

Once everyone is tired of board games, we all head to our own rooms; I can hear Twilight and Cadance giggling across the hall from me. I roll my eyes and change the sheets on the bed, then lie down to sleep.

I hope we don't all go stir crazy before the weather lets up...

Author's Notes:

An alternate version of this chapter with unrated bonus content can be found on my website.