critique wanted Shale Blush's First Sleepover!

[DebonedAngel 197]

Shale Blush's First Sleepover!

 

Rated T for light (very light) language, and some alcohol use

 

 

This is a story about Shale Blush's first sleepover, and the troubles a mid-late 20s mad scientist may have when attempting to host a slumber party for the first time.

 

 

CHARACTERS:

 

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Shale Blush, our Main character.

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Shale is a scientist pony who's special talent is building and repairing portals, especially the mirror portals like the one leading to the Equestria Girls universe. She's paid in grants from the government to find worlds that are useful, or have advancements that our Equestria doesn't have, and she uses a large portion of her grant money to hire adventurers to go explore the new worlds for her so she doesn't have to risk getting hurt.

 

Maple Sweet:

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Maple Sweet is the owner of a small BnB in the northern woods. She is chipper, happy to help, and a charming pony to be around. She is also a licensed masseuse, and will offer full spa treatments to her customers in her BnB if she likes them. She is currently in an on again off again relationship with Shale, and while she loves her very much, she does wish that Shale would be a little less self focused and more aware of the feelings of others, but she understands Shale pretty well, and has grace when she's being "herself"

Bonus: Shale x Maple Halloween shipart!

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Tape Deck:

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Tape deck is an analogue music recording studio owner. She knows magic recording exists, but it's just not the same and she will NOT have it in her studio, tapes only. She lets Shale keep the trailers she lives out of in her backyard, and she lets her use her bathroom and kitchen as needed, but she gets frustrated when Shale brings chaos to the household. That aside though, she and Shale are best friends, assuming Maple doesn't count because she's a marefriend not a friend friend, and they get along very well when they are together.

 

Millie:

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Millie is an earth pony who's talent is milling. As in, milling about and blending into crowds. She was hired on as a mascot/hireling to a group of adventurers that Shale hired, and eventually considered herself an adventurer too, despite no one else really agreeing. She is very chatty, and doesn't pay much attention to her surroundings, getting lost in her own world. Her marefriend, Ripsaw:

 

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was living in an alternate timeline when they met, but immigrated to our Equestria to be with Millie. They aren't much alike, but they balance each other out.

Bonus art: Millie in a Nightmare Night Costume:

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DOUBLE bonus art: MillSaw shipart:

 

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Shale Blush's First Sleepover!

 

"This is the dumbest idea you've had yet, Maple. We're like, almost 30." I grumbled as I pushed the cart through the grocery store.

 

"Ohhh, but Shale, just think of how excited Tape Deck will be! She wanted to throw a Nightmare Night party so bad, and this will be just perfect for cheering her up!" My marefriend Maple Sweet sang as she tossed a bag of unpopped popcorn onto the pile of candy in the cart.

 

"I think TD was thinking like, drinks, music, rubbing elbows with her friends from the music industry, that sort of thing. Not 'baby's first sleepover'..."

 

As Maple turns the corner, I put one of the three boxes of cookies she'd grabbed back on the shelf, and replaced it with fig bars. If I was going to this party, I wanted food I liked too.

 

"Welllllllll..." Maple hummed "She was pretty much a shut in until you moved in behind her house and brought all those adventureponies over all the time, it might BE her first sleepover! I remember my first real slumber party... We stayed up until Celestia rose the sun, talking about music and colts and all kinds of fun stuff... We ate so much pizza and junk food that one of my friends even threw up! It was wonderful..."

She pulled me into the crafts isle and started stacking paper bats and ghosts on top of the food. "What about you, babygirl? What was your first sleepover like?"

 

I rolled my eyes exasperatedly, I loved the mare, but she just didn't understand me sometimes. 

 

"I never thought it was necessary to invite over a bunch of squealing fillies to make noise and eat food that's bad for you and stay up so late that the whole next day is wasted because you're exhausted..."

 

Maple Sweet stopped in her tracks, causing the buggy to crash into her backside. She didn't notice. I realized, as she slowly turned her head to face me, that I had said something wrong. 

 

"Um, listen, I'm not trying to say that sleepovers are bad, just that-"

 

In an instant our muzzles were touching, her wings flared, holding her aloft over the cart as she looked down into my soul.

 

"Shale Blush. Are you telling me you have NEVER had a sleepover?..."

 

"W-well, I mean, if you count the nights at your place, then-"

 

"That isn't a sleepover, SHALE. I run a bed and breakfast, that's DIFFERENT."

 

"Oh, well... Wait, do you share a bed will all your customers then?"

 

"It's still DIFFERENT!" She crowed, almost triumphantly, as she pushed away from me. "It's my babygirl's first sleepover! We're doing this RIGHT!"

 

She darted away from me and out the doors of the store, leaving me with the cart. 

I looked down into it. 

Other than the candy, chips, cookies, and popcorn, there were cheap paper decorations and a couple plastic skulls. I frowned, and consider putting back the junk, aside from the fig bars and a bag of plain tortilla chips, but I knew Maple would do her pouty face, and get mopey, and if I didn't do something grand to make it up to her, we'd be on another break, and I didn't want to deal with that right now.

Instead, I would just have to add things that I knew me and TD liked, to balance it out. 

Drinks were the first thing, I put two cartons of OJ in the cart and made a note to stop by Berry Punch's later for vodka. I loved OJ, TD liked alcohol, and screwdrivers were where we met in the middle. 

Other than that... We'll need salsa too, the spicier the better. Maple couldn't handle much spice, but TD could, and I needed the burn to hurt, the good way... I found a jar of "MangoJack's Ghost Pepper Salsa" and smiled a bit, "ghost", huh? Perfect. In the cart it went. 

Next, I knew TD liked ice cream, so I got the stuff to make sundaes; vanilla ice cream, nuts, caramel, and cherries. I thought for a moment, and added maple syrup to the cart as well. Maple would probably complain that it wasn't as good as HER maple syrup from her home tree, but her BnB was miles away, and she'd want it anyway.

 

I looked over the shopping cart and nodded. It wasn't the party I wanted to throw, but it was the one I needed to throw. 

Or... something like that, anyway. 

 

~~~

 

I paid, picked up the vodka, and headed back to TD's house slash recording studio. I half expected to find Maple there, but surprisingly, she was nowhere to be found. I sighed, and started moving furniture and setting out snacks. Tape Deck's house was very small, and very dimly lit, and full of old analogue recording equipment, and... not the ideal place for a party... It was the best option we had though. I quietly hung up the paper cutouts, and strategically placed the plastic skulls on the stacks of tapes, and looked around.

 

It looked... like Tape Deck's house, but messier than usual, and with food sitting out. I groaned and looked at the clock. It was about 4:30 in the afternoon, TD would be waking up any minute, and Maple was still missing. I peeked up the stairs, and listened, but I didn't hear anything. I crept up the stairs, and used my hind legs to push a bookcase in front of her door. Perfect, she must still be sleeping...

I heard muffled groans, and a quiet, groggy voice called out from the room

"Shale?... What are you doing upstairs, you know it's off-"

The door jiggled, thumping against the backside of the bookcase.

"Wait. Shale. Shale, did you animate my pantry again?! Are you having guests over without asking? Because those "raider ponies" from last month were VERY RUDE. And I think Ripsaw took my toothbrush, and- look, will you let me out? I have to pee, and I promise I won't yell at you in front of your friends this time, and- Shale? Are you there? SHALE!"

Her voice faded to a muffled yell as I trotted back down the stairs, very proud of myself. Crisis averted. 

 

The living and dining room still looked boring though, I needed to fix that... 

 

I walked into the backyard and into one of my trailers, the science one, not the sleeping one, and looked around at the random items laying on the floor and workbench... One had to to be useful for giving a bit more ambiance... 

There was the infinite accelerator, but that was much too dangerous... 

The gemstone powered lightning staff? Hm, maybe still too dangerous... 

The mirror portal in the back I currently had set up was tuned to a world where everyone except me was fully evil... For some reason, I was pretty much the same. I could bring in the evil versions of Maple and TD and scare them like that?... Nnnnno, that could get messy, and I might get them mixed up and have to kill one and end up killing Maple again... It had taken quite the grand gesture to get her to be my marefriend again after that, so definitely off limits...

I looked around again, frustrated, and my eyes fell on the mini-portal I was building. It wasn't 100% stable, but it DID work most of the time, and it was a lot easier to tune than a full sized mirror, if I tuned it to a world that had a lot of fog, I could use it as a fog machine? Hm, well, it was better than anything else I had so far... I grabbed the frame in my teeth, and drug it back to the house. 

 

"Ooooh, what's THAT for?" I heard Maple say as I backed in. 

 

I set the mini-portal in the corner and wiped my mouth.

 

"It's for fog, once I set it right. Where did YOU run off to?"

 

"Oh, I had to get a few surprises ready, you'll seeee! So is TD awake yet?"

 

"Huh, ok.. And yeah, I blocked her in with a bookcase..." I mumbled around the controls of the mini-portal as I tried to find a world that looked foggy enough.

 

"Oh... I think that's... Not a nice thing to do?" Maple said, confused.

 

"No, see-" I switched the portal to a dark forest next to a pond and smiled "-it's a nice thing, because we're throwing her a party."

 

"I don't think it works like- oh, gosh! Look out!" 

 

I glanced down and saw a frog had jumped out of the portal next to me. I picked it up and tossed it back in.

 

"It's fiiiine, but... now that we have the party set up, I guess I'll go let her out."

 

"Yeah, please do... I want her here when- well, just go get her?"

 

I nodded and trotted up the stairs to her door. She was still going on and on about being stuck, I guess she didn't know I wasn't there?

 

"-and Shale, listen, I forgive you for melting my serving dish with radioactive waste, I know it was an accident, I really need to get out, please, I'm not mad, I just-"

 

Ignoring her, I pushed the bookshelf to its original position and headed downstairs. The door exploded open behind me, and I heard the rush of hooves and a "THANKCELESTIA" before another door slammed, and the house was quiet again. 

 

As I got to the end of the stairs, Maple was looking at me oddly.

 

"Um, that was loud... was TD ok?"

 

"Yeah, I think so, just being dramatic or something. She's fine." 

 

"O-ok, well, the first surprise will be here in about 15 minutes, and is your machine supposed to be smoking?"

 

I looked over and nodded. "Yeah, that's fog. Good old fog. It'll make it a lot spookier in here, or whatever."

 

It was looking much more foggy already, the forest was leaking in just the right amount, and Tape Deck's dimly lit room was suddenly looking much spookier. I was proud of myself, I had saved the day, by myself, as usual. I heard a gasp and glanced over at the stairs. Tape Deck was standing there, bleary eyed, mane like she'd just fallen down a hill, and mouth hanging open, staring at the living room.

 

"W-what? Is that smoke? Why are there paper cutouts everywhere? Shale, if you-"

 

Maple jumped in front of TD and waved her hooves in the air joyfully.

"Surpriiiiise! We did a party for you anyway! It's a sleeeeepoveeer! Yaaay!"

 

"It's fog, by the way. Not smoke. This time, I mean." I supplied, helpfully.

 

TD rubbed her eyes and shook her head "I wanted to have a party so I could make connections in the industry, and... I..."

She looked up at Maple Sweet's beaming face and slumped a bit. "...Thank you, Maple. You're a good friend, I love it."

 

Maple laughed, and pointed at the snacks "we got lots of fun treats!"

 

"And booze, of course." I offered, once again saying the important part Maple forgot.

 

"Well..." TD looked at the OJ and vodka, and nodded. "What the hell, I'm off tonight anyway, let's party, girls."

 

A knocking at the front door perked up my ears, and I glanced over to the front hallway. "Is that the pizza? I'll go get it." I trotted down the hall as Maple started fixing drinks, and opened the front door.

 

It was not pizza. It was a familiar face. Millie. Millie. I pursed my lips and sighed through my nose. Millie was a tagger on from a particularly inept group of adventurers I had hired to explore one of the mirror portals. She was stupid, naive, annoying, and a scaredy cat. 

"Hello, Millie." I said, injecting as much I-Don't-Want-You-Here into my voice as I could.

 

"Hi Shale! Maple said it's your first sleepover, and she wanted all your friends to be here, so here I am!" She chirruped in her high, raspy voice

 

"...My friends, huh?.."

 

"Of course! You can't have a sleepover without friends!"

 

"...Yeah. Ok. Where's your marefriend? Not here today?"

 

Millie wilted a bit, her face looking slightly pained "W-well, she got in trouble for... um, well, somepony tried to charge her too much at the market, and she... well, she doesn't always remember that things are different in this world, and... She's back in jail, for a while... She'll be out soon though! She can come to the next one!"

 

"Or not... Anyway, I guess you have to come in, now. There's vodka in-"

 

"Oh, no, I don't drink!" She cut in. I grit my teeth. Of course she doesn't drink. Whatever. More for me. 

I waved her in, and go to close the door, when a white hoof reached out and stopped me. I looked up to see... My reflection. But blue-er. I stepped back, and see the reflection was in the glasses of the "famous" DJ, Vinyl "DJ-P0n3" Scratch. With a sinking feeling, I realized that Maple must have gone and found the only person in the music industry she knew. Perfect. TD would just love this.

 

I followed Vinyl back into the living room where TD is already halfway through a screwdriver, and Millie and Maple are hugging and I catch TD's eye, nodding at the new arrival. She slumped even more than usual, and announced in an exaggerated voice

 

"Oh, wooow, famous DJ Vinyl Scratch at my party? What a wonderful surpriiiiise..." 

 

I wince, that was just over the edge of "Fake happy to be polite" and into "Fake happy to make fun" territory. Maple didn't seen to notice, but Vinyl tossed her mane and dropped her 6-pack of Apple Family Cider on the snack table with just a bit more force than necessary, so it seems she got the picture. I turned to her and whispered

"Don't take her seriously, she's just mad you don't use analogue recording on your albums."

Vinyl lowered her glasses and looked at me incredulously. 

"Yeah, I know, it's dumb, just be nice, it's her first sleepover. Or mine? It's unclear. Sorry, we'll have pizza soon. Speaking of... MAPLE!"

Maple jumped and glanced around "Celestia, what Shale?"

 

"When's the pizza getting here?"

 

"Oh, you didn't get that? I thought you'd finish the list... You made sure to get your alcohol though..."

 

I groan, and shake my head. I had assumed she'd do it, but it really was on me. I trotted to the door, and called out "I'll just go pick some up, is Pizza Sassy's ok?" 

 

"That's fiiiiine!" TD called back

 

"I want olives!" Maple shouted

 

"Wait up, friend!" Millie sang

 

I walked faster.

 

~~~

 

"...And THEN she made out with the corpse thing, right after her friend got PREGNANT from licking a monster he found, gosh, I swear, those ponies were the dumbest- oh, hey, we're here!"

 

I walked into the pizza restaurant, Millie still talking behind me and stared the pizza stallion in the face.

 

"What do you have ready to walk out the door right now, and does it have olives?"

 

He blinked and looked back at the pizza rack. "Uhh, we got... cheese, a pepper and mushroom, and a pineapple, why?"

 

I grimaced and shook my head. "Can you add olives to the pepper and mushroom? We'll take that and the cheese, to go."

 

"They won't be stuck to the pizza, and I'll have to re-heat it so they're not cold, I can just make you a new-"

 

"Nnnnnope, that sounds fine, you do just that, thanks, guy."

 

Behind me, Millie was still talking absently "...But I don't think that counts as a date, like, not a date date. We were like, together? but not, like, together together, you know? I think Our real first date is when she took me scavenging, and we found a huuuuge bag of old needles, and some were still good! I don't know what they were, but gosh, Alpha Bitch was very happy with us when we got back, and-"

 

I tuned her out and started doing math in my head. 6 ciders were 6 drinks, the vodka had about 15, that's 21, and there's me, Maple, TD, Vinyl, and Millie doesn't count... Maple only drinks about a third as much as me, and I wanted to have at least 6, so that's 6, plus 2, is 8, which leaves 13 split three ways, so... that's 4 each for the rest, and we were only at about 6pm, and if we were partying until the sunrise...

 

We needed more booze. I turned to Millie.

 

"...and that's how I got the nickname "MilkSmack"! Rippy said it's ferocious, but it feels silly, and it's embarrassing if you know how I got it, so-"

 

"Millie, shut up. I'm going to see about getting to Berry Punch's before she closes up, head to the house once the pizza is done."

 

"O-oh, ok? I'll just- wait, I need bits to pay for- Shale!" 

 

The door to Pizza Sassy's swung shut behind me as I trotted to across town, I was thinking something fun, something to make spending the night with Millie more... manageable. Something that could really take the party up a level...

 

~~~

 

I slammed the bottle of Big Mac's High Proof Cinnamon Apple 'Shine on the table next to the pizzas and grinned. TD was already swaying, Maple was looking stricken, like she just realized she'd made a terrible mistake, Vinyl was eating chips and salsa and sweating, trying to look like her mouth wasn't on fire, and Millie was trying on Vinyl's glasses and bumping into furniture.

 

"Ladies!" I shouted "The party has truly begun!"

 

TD pushed past Vinyl and slumped onto me with a sob 

"Shaaaaale... yuo're mah onely friennnn... she SCRATCHES recrords... she's a monsterrrrrr..."

 

I shoved TD off of me onto the floor and looked at her pouting face "Tape Deck, that is an expression. Now eat some pizza, drink some water, and pace yourself, we still have like, 12 hours in this thing to get through."

 

She nodded and  pulled a slice of pizza out of the closest box onto her face, olives rolling off onto the floor. She'd better not pass out... I needed help with Millie and Vinyl, and Maple was looking more and more worried by the minute. 

"Hhhhst!" she hissed, jerking her head to the kitchen. I tilted my head. Was she choking? Did I need to- Oh, nope, she grabbed my goggles in her teeth and dragged me to the icebox.

"Shale, the party is a disaster! I think TD hates Vinyl for some reason, and Millie keeps telling frankly disturbing stories in the happiest tone- I see why you two are friends by the way-, and I think Vinyl is thinking about leaving! What do we do? Does TD keep spa stuff in her house? Or stuff to braid manes? I just don't want this to be a failure..."

 

I think for a moment.

 

"No. To the spa stuff and to the braiding manes. Both are stupid. We will watch a movie instead. I know for a fact that TD has an old projector, and I think she's got a few scary movies, we'll do that. Party saved, yes, I know I'm a genius, that's why I get paid the big bucks."

 

"Shale, you live in a trailer and only get paid in research grants... But I agree! Where is the projector?"

 

"It'll be in her recording studio somewhere, move the couch to face a blank wall and hang up a banket, I'm going to go save the day, baby."

 

~~~

 

We all sat up in a row, the glow of the projector flickering behind us. Millie hid beneath a blanket, Vinyl bobbed her head to unheard music, Maple, kept looking around to make sure everyone was ok, and TD was looking a nice level of buzzed and full on pizza. All was right with the world, and it was all thanks to me, Shale Blush. 

 

The aliens screeched and twisted on screen, and soft squelching noises filled the air as the hero pony fired her ray gun into the cluster of pods, spraying green chunks of half plant, half pony goop everywhere. As the final alien curled up into a ball and stopped moving, the hero looked at the screen and whipped her mane out of her face. 

 

"They might be gone for now..." She said, huskily "But they'll be back, they could already be here... Among Us..."

 

A shrill note played as the credits rolled and Millie squealed in fear. TD laughed, a bit loudly.

 

"See, this movie is weird, because once you see it, you start noticing the aliens eeeeverywhere in real life, when they're not there, it's like, a mind virus or sommin'."

 

I smiled and sipped my 'shine, it was feeling pretty good, I'd had movie nights before, but it was a nice feeling knowing I didn't have to go anywhere, I could just stay here and keep going. I stood up and flipped off the projector, the high pitched credits music and squelching were bothering me, and we needed to find the next movie anyway. As I dug through the stack, Millie called out, her voice small for the first time that night.

 

"S-Shale?... Is there a way to turn off the sound effects? They're freaking me out..."

 

I glance at the empty reel, and notice that the music had stopped when the movie was pulled out, but the squelching hadn't. I looked over at the couch, and saw a huge, slimy tentacle in the air over Millie from behind the couch, and I froze. A prank? One of the other ladies trying to scare me? They hadn't seemed to notice as the tentacle lowered itself down, closer and closer to Millie. I cleared my throat and spoke up.

 

"Uh, Mill? There's a... thing, above you, you should move."

 

She peeked out of the blanket and saw the writhing mass over her and screamed. The wet, sticky, tentacle snapped into action, wrapping around her neck and yanking her over the back of the sofa. Maple dashed over and grabbed Millie's tail in her teeth as she was being drug to a corner. I lunged to the corner to try and see what we were dealing with as Vinyl and TD latched onto Millie's body too, and were all drug along the floor screaming. I kicked a pile of tapes aside to see the tentacle disappearing into- 

 

Oh.

 

Well.

 

I slowly walked over to the mini-portal and switched it off, the tentacle severing at the portal entrance, spasming violently for a moment before laying still. We all stared at it as Millie yanked it off her neck and gasped for air.

 

"It's ok everypony, I, Shale Blush, once again saved the day, yes, thank you, I know I'm fantastic, thank you, thank you."

 

The other ponies stared at the mini-portal, and then at me. TD blinked a couple times then grinned.

 

"Yeah! Party saved! Let's all do a round to celebrate not being dead!"

 

Millie coughed and rubbed her neck a bit, wincing. Maple knelt next to her and put a hoof on her withers

"Are you ok, Millie? It looked like it got you pretty good..."

 

"Yeah..." She rasped, smiling weakly "It just kinda hurts to talk, I think I'm with Vinyl tonight, just listen for a bit if that's ok..."

 

A wide beaming smile slowly spread across my face as I took a sip of my drink and took a bite of a fig bar.

 

This party turned out pretty great after all.

 

 

The End~

 

Edited November 13 by DebonedAngel
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