I smiled back at him, thinking about the plans I had for this boy, if he agreed of course.

After the three of them were finished wrestling, Swivel had the guards line up so that we could pick our individual guards. Soon there were eleven guards lined up in front of us; all with faces of determination for some reason.

We let the youngest pick first, so I personally recommended one to each of them. Out of the eleven guards I recognised three. Those being: Sergeant Blossomforth, Lieutenant Thundy, and Crusty Spear. I recommended Spike Thundy and Snipe Blossom, which they were both chill with. I then asked the group if I could get the next pick. Now, I wasn't originally gonna get one, but from my interactions with Crusty, I could tell he was a kind soul and a good laugh. They agreed so I chose him. He was more than happy to oblige, taking a stance adjacent to me (back right) with his hands behind his back and his chin up proudly.

Cadence being Cadence exclaimed that Shining was all the protection she needed, so neither of them accepted the offer. The rest of them agreed though, excluding Rainbow, who insisted they'd slow her down in combat. I faced palmed at that, considering she just mocked a trained soldier that was handpicked by Celestia herslef.

We were then showed to our rooms. The rooms were: Me, Snipe and Spike / Shining and Cadence / Rainbow and Applejack / and everyone else got their own. RD and Applejack were happy to share, and of course Cadence was all for the arrangements.

Once me and my roommates were taken to our room, we stepped inside to find only two beds. And so, I had me a suggestion.

Pulling a creepy face, I went up behind the boys and placed a hand on either of there shoulders. "So, wanna play game?" They simply turned around with confused faces, not getting the reference. Which was expected I suppose. "Loser sleeps on the floor." This, however, changed their expressions from confusion to ones of challenge.

"Your on!"
"Your on!"

Soon, we were all sat on the floor by the ends of the beds in a circle. "The rules are simple." I started, before holding up a glass of water I had previously filled up in the bathroom. "Keep the water in your mouth for one minute."

The two cocked their brows at me, before Spike Spoke. "That's it?"

I devious smile appeared upon my face as I could picture the game in my head. "There's one more rule." I raised a finger. "The other participants may do whatever they please, as long as it does not directly affect the player. We have one minute each, whoever lasts the longest wins."

"Hah, this'll be easy!" Spike said, taking the cup from my hand. He then pulled out a metallic pocket watch from his pocket and began setting a timer. Handing it to me, "Press the button on the side when I begin."

"Got it!" Then, he took a mouthful of water, and began looking at the two of us in a challenging manner. Snipe went to make a move, but I put a hand on his shoulder and motioned for him to let me. He nodded and slid back on the floor, allowing me to sit directly in front of Spike. He looked confused by my actions, which was exactly what I wanted.

I sat crossed legged I front of the boy, with my hands on my knees. I slouched forward, leaning closer towards his face, before pulling a deadly serious expression. I made my eyes look dead as a fish with my eye lids drooping, and pulled a frown I'd never used on someone before. Then in the lowest, and most hate filled, voice I could muster I uttered the word, "Cheese."

That was all it took for the boy to empty his mouth all over my face. Snipe quickly stopped the watch.

Struggling to stop his laughing fit, he repeated many apologies over and over. Getting up, I smiled and made my way to the bathroom where I bent the water off of me and into the sink. I had played this game hundreds of times with my old squad mates, though I was very young back then. Too young.....

Banishing the thought from my mind, I returned to the main room to find that Spikes role had been transferred to Snipe. The little griffon was rolling around on the floor in amusement, whilst Spike was busy grumbling to himself at how it was a cheep trick.

"I recall you saying something along the lines of, 'This'll be easy!'?"

He practically seethed out his response. "Sly son of a gun....."

Failing to stop the smile on my face, I let out a laugh that just seemed to just tick off Spike even more. But he soon joined me and Snipe in our amusement. I sat back down and we all went back to our original spots on the floor. I grabbed the watch and it displayed it as twenty two seconds. "Twenty two to beat! Who's next?"

Snipe grabbed the glass off the floor in response, as Spike reset the timer. And soon he was off.

Spike instantly tried to copy me, sitting in front of Snipe and reciting the word cheese, but no dice. The griffon could see it coming from a mile away.

This meant we only had forty or so on the clock, so I decided to use another old trick from way back when.

"Hey Snipe," I called, causing him to look my way. "I spat in that." I said, pointing at the cup.

He looked over at it in surprise, and then proceed to spit out the water over the floor. "What!?" I stopped the watch

"Kidding."

Me and Spike began to laugh as Snipe grit his teeth in annoyance. "You underhanded weasel." His remark, however, only proved to fan the flames of mine and my dragon friends joy.

After I calmed down, I picked up the watch from the floor and read his time. "Alright! Thirty six to beat!" Setting a time on the watch, I tossed it to Spike, who simply caught it and turned to Snipe. They gave a nod to each other before Snipe began to speak.

"May me and Spike step outside for a moment to plan our attack?"

"You may." I answered, with a large smirk. The two left the room, and retuned a couple minutes later. "Ready?"

"Ready."
"Ready."

I sipped the water into my mouth as Spike pressed the timer. Then, my two opponents began crawling their way towards me with devious looks on their faces. However, the two bashed heads on their way over.

"Hey watch it!" Spike proclaimed, rubbing the side of his head.

"You watch it! This isn't what we planned you pea brain!" Snipe retorted, also rubbing the side of his head.

Spike gave his comrade a deadly stare as he responded. "What did you just say......"

The two stood up off the round and faced each other with matching glares. "I called you a pea brain! Can your stupid head not even comprehend that phrase, you stupid dragon!" Snipe took a step forward, with there heads almost touching now.

"You little...." Spike grabbed Snipes shirt from the front before throwing him against the wall.

I was instantly between the two with my hands on there chests as I boomed out, "Cut it out!!!" This had gone way too far.

Before I could reprimand the two any further however, I heard the light sound of sniggering from either side of me. I turned to each of them to find the quietly laughing to themselves. Before I could question them, they sprung their arms into the air and exclaimed, "We win!!"

Realising my mistake, I span around to find a wet patch on the ground where I once sat. I then turned to the clock Spike had in his hand. It read 'Twenty one'.

I lowered my hands from the boys chests in defeat, and murmured under my breath, "You little shits........"

The two fist bumped, before simply walking over to the beds and jumping on them. Me, I was still stood still in a mix of annoyance and bewilderment.

The door suddenly swung open, revealing the main six, Shining, Cadence, and mine and the little shits respective guards. Twilight instantly stepped into the room in worry, "What happened!? Is everyone okay!?"

Applejack stepped next to her and began scanning across the room for anything unusual. "We heard a loud voice, what the hey happened in here!?"

"Twilight," I began.

"Yes?" She said, worriedly.

Pointing straight to spike without turning around, "You have raised nothing short of a devil." I spoke looking her directly in the eyes.

"What?" She asked, less worried now, as Snipe and Spike were clenching their stomachs in laughter.

I didn't answer her, but instead turned to the two on the beds and raised my hand in a fist. "I will have my revenge!!"

I wrapped the two in the blankets they were laid on with telekinesis, and began spinning them in every direction. The two in question began playfully screaming, exclaiming their apologies and pleading for me to stop. "I will stop once I satisfied!"

I heard RD's voice from behind me, "He's a weird one alright.", before I heard the sound of them leaving.

After about a minute of torturing the poor souls, I put them back down, before snatching a pillow off of one of the beds and throwing it into the corner. "Fine, you win." I mean, I was planning to let them sleep in the beds no matter what the outcome, but still, it kinda stung to lose like that.

Once the little shits had stopped seeing seven of everything, they stood up on each of their beds before shouting, "Huzzah!!!" at the top of their lungs. I smiled at their antics, before we heard a knock at the door.

I opened it to reveal a woman in classic chef wear. "Lunch will be ready in five." I looked up to the clock on the wall to see it was indeed five to one.

"Right. Thanks for the heads up." She simply took a bow, and left. I closed the door behind her, before turning to my roommates. "Oi! Brat one and brat two, let's grab some grub!"

"Okay!"
"Okay!"

Two peas in a pod. We then made our way to the deck, but not before I cleaned up the spillage from before (though it physically hurt to do so).

Once we left, we met up with our guards -who I ordered to chillax somewhere- and were led to the dining area.

It was at the back of the ship, on a rather large platform raised above the wheel, with benches and tables scattered around the place. Rarity and Fluttershy were already sat at a table, so the three of us went and sat with them. Soon, the rest arrived, and took there seats around different tables. We made small talk for a while until our lunch arrived. We were all given the same, a basic salad with a side of croutons and a glass of water.

We all ate and spoke, just making idle conversation about whatever came up. Reminded me of the old times, the good times.

Once we were all finished, everyone went their separate ways again. This left only me and Twi, as Spike went off with Rarity and Snipe with Dash.

"So it's just us." Twilight squeaked, feeling slightly awkward.

"Indeed." We were sat across from each other in silence for a while, before I broke it. "Sure wish I had a guitar right now....."

However, instead of Twilight responding, a familiar blob of pink energy landed on the table between Twilight and I, guitar in hand. "Here you go!" She extended her hands out to me, and I took the guitar from her slowly, before she jumped off the table and into nothingness apparently; I looked up to find no one to speak of.

"Whelp, that just happened."

Twilight slightly chuckled to herself. "You get used to it."

"Regardless, at least I have this now," I said, raising the guitar.

She looked at me curiously as she spoke. "I wasn't aware you could play guitar."

"I can play many things," I began, tuning the guitar with one foot on my other knee. "Piano, drums, bass, violin, cello, harmonica, you name it."

"Wow, quite impressive." She said, leaning over the table with a look of amazement.

"I had quite a bit of spare time when I was younger, and so I never stopped trying to learn new instruments once I was satisfied with my level of skill with the last." It was true, I could play just about any instrument you could think of, I was just that much of a nerd.

Once the guitar was tuned, I looked back up to the librarian and asked, "Wanna hear a song?"

She went slightly red at my question, before dumbly nodding. The more time I spent with her, the more I began to see how god damn cute this librarian was!

"Very well! This one is called, 'Lemon boy'."

Lemon boy

I played the song the whole way through, without making any mistakes. It was weird singing in someone else's voice, but I already had the skills needed to sing the song. Though, I was a whole octave down due to Bans voice being deeper than mine. Twilight sat listening to the song with her eyes closed the entire time. She was swaying back and forth to the rhythm, and just smiled to her self. Twas a wonderful site.

Once I was done, Twilight began clapping with amazement evident on her face. "How was it?"

"It was beautiful!" She shouted, jumping from her seat and leaning over the table towards me.

"Why thank you." I couldn't help the smug look I had.

"Who wrote it?"

Hmmm. How do I answer that. "No one you'd know."

"Really? What's their name?" She tilted her head in curiosity.

Looking off to just the left of her, I spoke in a nonchalant manor. "Wow, would you look a that."

"What?" She asked, before following my gaze behind her. That was my cue. I got up form my seat before I jumped off of the fence and down to the main deck. I then sprinted into my room. I soon heard a sound that most would shake upon hearing. The sound of an angry Twilight. "Phoenix!"

Next Chapter: 14 (R) A little practice Estimated time remaining: 57 Minutes