//------------------------------// // CH21: Story Changer // Story: Sunset Helpers // by Spirit Shift //------------------------------// “Oh! ohh!! I know,” cheered Pinkie, thrusting her pink smoothie into the air. “Let’s have her host a pizza party!” As Rarity wiped off the smoothie staining the table under Pinkie, Sunset anxiously looked around at the other patrons of Sugarcube Corner. “Pinkie could you please not yell that so loudly?” she hissed, still checking to see if they were being stared at. Pinkie, however, deftly ignored her in favour of elaborating her, rather interesting, plan. “Wait, but it should be a surprise too. Like, we invite the school, and when they show up and start eating the pizza,” she pointed directly at Sunset, “you show up and reveal that you put the whole thing together.” “And then some wise guy assumes that they’ve been poisoned and the party descends into chaos,” retorted Sunset, her expression as flat as her tone. Moving Pinkie’s hand away, Sunset reclined into her booth and gave them a tired smile. “I appreciate the enthusiasm, Pinkie but getting people to like me isn’t why I called you two here,” she said, shaking her head. Rarity tilted her head. “Really? I was under the impression that was still our goal.” Leaning slightly over the table, Rarity gave Sunset a concerned look. “Is something the matter, darling?” Her tired smile turning into an exhausted frown, Sunset sat her head in her hands and sighed. “Honestly, yes I still want people to like me but…” Sunset, as though struck by a thought, threw her head up and looked around frantically. Afterwards she leaned in close to Pinkie and Rarity. “It’s Screwball,” she half whispered to them. “Ever since she transferred in with Discord, I keep seeing her and she keeps pranking me. I swear it’s up to three pranks a day now!” she said with a scowl. Pinkie, having sat down to slurp on her drink, stopped to chuckle a bit. “Oh yeah, I heard about that! You know some of those pranks aren't her right?” Sunset flinched back in shock. “What?” Pinkie only continued to giggle as she recalled something. “Yeah, like Sunrose distracting Granny Smith so she could sneak a firecracker in your mashed potatoes.” Hearing that, Rarity put a finger to her chin in thought. “Now that I think about it, one of the more rowdy members of my class were prattling on about a prank involving a rubber band and some bacon.” The two winced back into their seats as Sunset slammed her palms onto the table. “Are you kidding me?” she nearly screamed. Throwing herself back into her chair, she covered her face with her hands. “It’s worse than I thought,” she moaned. “She’s inspiring people to prank me as a way of getting back at me without getting in trouble.” Moving across Pinkie, Rarity switched to the seat next to Sunset. Gently taking her into an embrace, she spoke softly. “Oh Sunset, darling. It’s not that bad. At least this makes the problem clear. Right Pinkie?” she asked. Pinkie, blank faced, could only shrug in response. Rarity rolled her eyes. “It means we simply need to ascertain why Screwball is pranking you,” she stated plainly. Sunset let out a deep sigh, extracted herself from Rarity, and slumped further into the seat. “Isn’t it obvious?” she said, crossing her arms. “Even if they don’t show it, people still resent me. I wouldn’t be surprised if Screwball just doesn't like me, or knows that nobody will complain if it’s me she’s pranking.” Narrowing her eyes at Sunset, Rarity spoke. “Well regardless if you do or don’t, which you don’t, I think it would still be prudent if we could at least find out why and maybe,” she reached down and forced Sunset to sit upright, “we can take a step forward by convincing her to stop,” she finished with a smile. “Oh I get it, if she stops maybe the others will stop too!” cheered Pinkie, having crawled under the booth to appear on Sunset’s other side. Surrounded by friends, Sunset couldn’t help but feel the grey clouds that fogged her heart lift a bit. “Alright then,” she chuckled, looking between the two. “What do we do?” Rarity smiled, happy to see her friends spirits lift. She cleared her throat. “Well the first thing we need to do is track Screwball down. She has a habit of coming to you first so we need to be the ones to find her first.” Sunset shrugged. “Well no... that’s the problem. I have no idea where she is when she isn’t pranking me. I mean… we could go back to school and ask Discord… maybe.” She shook her head. “And even then I don’t know if he’s the one making Screwball do this or if he’ll help me.” Rarity closed her eyes and nodded. “That’s true, but it’s still a good course of action. I—” “Or!” Pinkie interrupted. “Or, we could just make Screwball come to you personally.” Pinkie poked Sunset’s nose and smiled a grin that, to Sunset, seemed to be just a bit too wide. ~~~ Sunset anxiously glanced around as various people walked around her. Every so often someone would meet her eyes, forcing her to swiftly glance in a different direction. In her mind she could swear that there was a clear radius around her that nobody entered. However, some rational part of her mind told her that anyone would think that a girl randomly standing in the middle of mall traffic was worth giving a weird glance towards. Eventually, Sunset sighed and, contrary to Pinkie’s orders, Sunset decided to leave the crowd to sit on a nearby bench and relax. Taking out her phone, she dialed up Pinkie’s number. Halfway across the mall and hidden between two plants, Pinkie calmly chewed on some gum while she stared at Sunset through a pair of light blue binoculars. Before Pinkie’s phone could even ring once, the girl had already answered it and brought it to her ear. After chewing for a second and blowing exactly one bubble, Pinkie answered. “This is Pie One, over,” she said… seriously. Pinkie watched Sunset look around and behind her before responding. “So, Pinkie, I understand I have to be out in the open to be pranked but did I have to stand in one place for twenty minutes?” Pinkie nodded. “Of course, you had to be able attract attention without calling it to yourself. Get it?” Pinkie smirked, knowing that Sunset would understand and think she was a genius. Sunset frowned, her brain unable to wrap itself around that logic. “Alright, so what now?” Pinkie blew and popped another bubble before answering. “Alrighty! So now, you gotta act all normal like. Go buy groceries and stuff. You gotta act unsuspecting so that you look like an easy target.” Sunset blinked once, then twice, then glanced over to the local market up on the second floor above her. “But Coco usually does the shopping. I honestly don’t even know what she regularly buys.” Over the phone, Sunset heard another pop, then the sound of paper rustling. “That’s okie dokie, because I did research! Normally, every afternoon Coco usually only goes off to buy supplies for her sewing kits. You know, thread, buttons, the usual stuff. But as for groceries, usually Coco goes to buy food every Saturday, but you two developed a weird pattern of running out of milk every Tuesday. Sunset frowned, seemingly offended. “No we almost never run out of milk because when we’re close it’s usually around-- Just then, Sunset’s phone buzzed in her ear. The sudden vibration startled her and forced her to jerk it away. As she rubbed her ear, she read the text. It was from Coco, reading, “Pinkie just texted me. Are you at the mall right now? Could you possibly please pick up some milk for us? I used the rest of it with my second bowl of cereal this morning. I’m so, so sorry! I’ll pay you back the money, I promise ^_^;” Sunset could only stare at the text with a blank look on her face. “Coco has two bowls of cereal every morning?” she muttered to herself. Glancing upward, a thought occurred to her. “That explains why we have such a large stock of cereal.” “Told ya!” Pinkie’s voice sounded from the phone. Rolling her eyes in annoyance, Sunset placed the phone back at her ear. “Alright you win. So I’m getting milk then.” Sunset nearly fell over then and there as her phone buzzed, once again, right in her ear. “Oh! Also, we’re out of that coffee you like. Could you please pick some of that up too. I’ll still pay for it if you want! :3” Sunset’s mouth hung open in surprise. “We… really need to have a talk when we get home about how much the both of us like to drink things.” Tentatively, she put the phone back to her ear and stood up from the seat. “Alright then… coffee and milk. Got it.” “Just a normal food run. You got this!” Pinkie encouraged, giving Sunset a thumbs up from a place Sunset could never have seen. “I’m giving you a thumbs up by the way.” Sunset could only smile and end the call. Knowing that she was being spied on, rose her right thumb into the air. ~~~ Inside the store, Sunset looked upwards at the overhanging signs to see where the milk would be. While the task itself proved to be boring, a few mindless errands, she found, did wonders for taking her mind off things. It was only a matter of minutes before Sunset checked out and left the way she came. Taking out her phone, Sunset speed dialed Pinkie’s number once more. Hearing the telltale ringer stop and the pop of bubblegum from the other end, Sunset got ready to talk, but before she could, a different voice from either of the girls piped up. “You know, you’re really bad at being bait.” Sunset’s mouth clamped shut. She recognized the voice, even if she’d only heard it a few times. Taking the phone away from her ear, she looked down and verified that she had indeed dial Pinkie’s number. Scowling, she put it back to her ear. “Screwball? Is that you? Why do you have Pinkie Pie’s phone?” Letting out a huff of pride from her end, Screwball answered. “Well you wanted to meet me right. You know you could have asked me,” she sighed. “But you had to do it this way and get your friend involved.” Sunset’s expression darkened from that statement. “Where is Pinkie?” she said, her voice low and angry, but still calm. “Ohhh,” Screwball said, her tone developing into a teasing sing songy one. “I dunno, I’d say she’s the victim of a pretty dangerous prank right now. If you want her back safe you should probably come over here to TOYSЯUS.” Sunset immediately hung up the phone and started running towards the stairs. As she ran, completely unaware of the fact she was shoving past people in the process, she could only imagine what kind of horrible prank Screwball might have pulled. A part of her wondered if this was some kind of trap to get her completely banned from the mall. “Does Screwball hate me that much…” Sunset wondered. “So much that she doesn’t care if it also gets my friends involved?” Sunset clenched her eyes shut. “I’m so sorry, Pinkie!” After sprinting and almost tripping down the stairs, Sunset made her way over to where she remembered the store being. However, what she saw there forced her to bring herself skidding to a halt. Both her jaw and her bags fell to the floor as she could do nothing but gape at the scene before her. Screaming in delight, was one of her best friends, bouncing up and down on a large display trampoline in front of the store. “Oh, Sunset!” screamed Pinkie. “Check this out! Screwball convinced the store to put that trampoline I wanted outside! It’s! So! Awesome!” she cheered, each word being emphasized by the increasing height of each jump. “See… look at that!” Sunset jumped from the sudden voice behind her. Turning around, Sunset stared directly at Screwball who stood there holding her arms out towards the trampoline and continued on as if nothing happened. “Look at how dangerous that trampoline is,” she said with mock concern. Shaking her head Screwball took a few steps towards Sunset, leaned in and looked down at the floor. “You get what I mean right floor? She didn’t even let them put up a safety net before she went and bounced in there.” Sunset stared at her, then back at Pinkie. Slowly, she turned back towards Screwball. “Umm, yeah… that’s kinda dangerous, if it was anyone but Pinkie,” she half joked. Screwball smirked and stood up straight. The two proceeded to stare at each other, silent except for the sounds of mall chatter and Pinkie’s cheering. While Sunset couldn’t keep direct eye contact with the girl, Screwball’s purple orbs remained locked onto Sunset’s. Eventually, she came to a surprising epiphany. She had no idea how she was going to go about starting this conversation. “Hey, could you stop pranking me?” she thought about saying. She shook her head and decided it was too direct, “Are you really Discord’s daughter?” She frowned at that one, who was she? Bon Bon? “How are you liking CHS? Having fun?” Sunset sighed, realizing that talking with strangers was somehow harder than it used to be. In her reverie, Sunset failed to realize that Screwball had, at some point, brought out a hand puppet of a purple pony, a pony who bore a striking resemblance to Screwball herself. By the time she had snapped herself out of her mental conundrum, she realized that two sets of swirling eyes were staring at her. Covering her mouth with her free hand, Screwball leaned in and whispered to Screwball. Which one was doing the talking was a mystery to Sunset as she couldn’t even make out Screwball’s chin movements. “This girl’s making some really weird expressions. You think she’s even worse off then we heard?” said one of the Screwballs. Taken aback by that statement, Sunset’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean? What have you heard?” she asked warily. Moving her hand away, Screwball simply smiled and moved the puppet pony closer to Sunset. “Well if you must know,” the puppet said, flipping it mane. “We’ve heard a lot of things, from a lot of ponies.” “Ponies?” repeated Sunset. Screwball rolled the puppet’s head in a circle to simulate rolling it’s eyes. “Well I guess you would say ‘people’ on your end,” Screwball said, putting up air quotes with her hooves. Sunset glanced from the pony to the actual Screwball, who had taken to examining her nails, giving not a single sign that she was the one talking or performing ventriloquism. Pony Screwball moved back into Sunset’s field of vision. “But anyway, we’ve definitely heard stuff. We’ve heard stuff from how you’re still a demon pretending to be good while gathering power, to how that weird rainbow thing people talk about completely brainwashed you. Heck we’ve even heard things about how you’re from some weird other universe where you’re some kind of pony-human hybrid who controls fire and the sun.” The pony rubbed her chin. “That one is my favorite actually. Screwball came up with it,” she said, pointing to the actual Screwball who puffed her chest out with pride. Sunset’s took a step back and tilted her head in confusion. At first it seemed like she was going to get some answers to the things she’d been wondering about for a while now, namely what people were saying about her. But now she’d only gotten even more questions. “So…” she began, eyes moving to and fro, “what do you think I am?” she asked, ending the sentence with a nervous but hopeful grin. Screwball’s own grin fell and she stared at Sunset with a neutral expression. Taking a few steps back, where they couldn’t be heard, the Screwballs engaged in a quick meeting. After about a minute of discussion the two came back over to Sunset. Balling her fist and putting it over the pony’s mouth, ScrewballPone cleared her throat. “We have decided,” she started thematically, throwing her hooves into the air, “that Screwball think’s that you’re interesting.” Hearing that, Sunset smiled for a second, then frowned. “Wait, then why do you keep pranking me? You know that’s only making my situation worse right?” Both Screwballs nodded. “Well,” started the puppet, “telling you our reasoning for that would be a bit too exposition-y for right now. Screwball thinks that things would be much more fun if you figured it out.” “But… but why?” Sunset asked. Taking a step closer, she kneeled down to Screwball’s eye level. “I’m trying to be a better person and make friends.” she said, blushing. “I’d like to try to be your friend if you’d let me.” Both Screwballs blanched, each making a disgusted face at the sentiment. “Ew, no, we,” the doll proclaimed, pointing to itself and the original, “have friends, and both of them are far cooler and cuter than you are. So no thank you.” Sunset could only frown at her. “Alright… but then why me? Is it because Discord told you to?” This time the original Screwball responded. “Pfft, like he has to tell me how to have fun,” she muttered, facing away from Sunset. “Well, I was gonna tell you to figure it out but… there you go I guess,” said the puppet honestly seeming to be unsure with itself. Mouth open in shock, Sunset once again looked from the puppet to Screwball again. She stood up, put her hand on her hip, and pointed to the two of them. “Alright what’s going on here. You were talking earlier so why do you need a puppet now?” With a flat gaze, Screwball looked towards the puppet then at Sunset. Without a moment's hesitation, Screwball took off the puppet and tossed it away where it exploded like a firecracker. As Sunset watched pieces of the fabric fall around her, Screwball spoke with a shrug. “Well I was under strict orders from Daddy not to talk or bother you directly.” Relaxing back with her hands behind her head, she continued. “But shame on me for trying to follow the rules for once.” Sunset, her expression still one of confusion, could only stare at the girl. Screwball, seeing nothing coming, decided to continue, this time with a tone that was far less dramatic and playful than the puppet. “Either way the puppet’s right,” she started. Like a shark circling its victim, Screwball began to slowly walking around Sunset. “You’re way too interesting to leave alone Sunset Shimmer.” Sunset followed the girl with her eyes. “Wh… what do you mean?” “Well haven't you ever seen a helpless animal and just wanted to mess with it. That’s kinda how it is for you and me, isn’t it? Without your friends, you’re just like a helpless little animal trying to pretend like it has spirit,” she said softly. Sunset turned to face Screwball who had made a half circle around her. Clenching her fist, Sunset stared at Screwball with an uncertain yet defiant look. “You may have been right about me a few months ago but I’m trying hard now. I’m not going to back down to your taunts.” Sunset flinched as Screwball smile grew huge and the girl quickly closed the small distance between them. Now close enough that their chests were touching Screwball looked up and locked eyes with Sunset. “So If I backed you into a corner, framed you for something horrible, and reignited the hate that the school has for you, could you honestly tell me that you’d be able to stand up and defend yourself?” Screwball asked, her tone as cheerful as if she were talking about a party. “Like really really? Cuz I’d love to hurry and get this over with!” Screwball glanced down and frowned at Sunset’s shaking fist. Glancing back up revealed more body language to read. Sunset’s slouched figure and wavering gaze. Her stiff shoulders and tight lipped frown, Screwball read all of it. Chuckling, Screwball took a few steps back and turned around. “Yup, you look exactly like a scared animal who’s faking confidence. You know that only makes me want to mess with you more.” Turning around, Screwball crossed her arms and looked Sunset dead in the eye. “You really are just too pitiful to leave alone, Sunset Shimmer. Someone has to be around to kick you until you get it together.” “But I don’t understand,” Sunset muttered, her head drooping forward. “You seem like you want me to be strong… and you seem like a good person.” Bringing her head up, Sunset looked at Screwball with wide eyes. “So why make things harder for me to be that way.” Screwball stared at her with an unblinking gaze. For a long time the two stared at each other. Slowly, Screwball began to smile. The smile grew and grew, and it continued to bigger until she finally burst out laughing. Despite the people who stopped to stare at her, she laughed. She laughed so loud that even Pinkie stopped bouncing with the kids who had joined her to stare. Eventually, Screwball’s laughter died down as she hunched over and grabbed her gut. “Oh, I’m sorry. I really am. I was trying to think of something to say to that. You look so genuine so I wanted…” she trailed off, still rolling through the last of her laughter. After another few seconds of laughter, Screwball finished and stood up straight. With a wide grin, she pointed at Sunset. “I was going to make you figure it out yourself, but I gotta give you some credit. So here’s a hint. Messing with you is literally why I’m here.” Sunset arched an eyebrow at the declaration. “Oh screw it!” Screwball threw her hands up into the air. “I’m part of your hero’s journey, Sunset! I’m here to make things weird so that you can overcome them. Get it? I’m being paid for this and I’m going to have as much fun as possible!” Pausing her speech for a second, Screwball let her hands flop to her sides and dipped her head. With a voice softer than anything she’s used so far, she continued. “So I hope you’re ready, cuz things are gonna get real crazy from now on.” “Like right now!” Suddenly Screwball rose up a hand and, for just a moment, Sunset could see a small black ball being held aloft. However, before she could so much as blink, Screwball slammed it into the ground. Shocking everyone in the vicinity, the ball exploded in an impressively large cloud of smoke. The explosive noise itself startled nearby people enough to think a small bomb had gone off, but the smoke only caused them to panic even worse. As the smoke spread smoke detectors and fire alarms everywhere went off, first filling the area with sound, then water as they tried to put out the non-existent fire. Being near the epicentre, Sunset stood in place, her arms covering her upper body as she coughed violently. Even as her ears continued to ring, she opened her eyes enough to glance around. Even though smoke covered everything around her, she had a sneaking suspicion that Screwball was long gone. “Did she have to be so flashy?” she coughed. “Sunset!” Through the ringing and screaming of the crowd, she could faintly hear what sounded like Pinkie calling her name. “Pinkie!” she called back, swinging her hand around to clear the smoke. Seeing a figure through the smoke she slowly moved towards it. “Pinkie is that—” And then, to her surprise, the figure grabbed her arm. With a grip far too tight  and a hand far too large to be Pinkie, Sunset understandably jerked backwards. Unfortunately the figure was strong enough to not only keep her from moving back, but actually pull her closer. Close enough to be seen through the smoke, Sunset’s eyes shrank at the sight of a fully uniformed police officer with sunglasses on his head. Yanking her towards his face, she could see the deep scowl on the large mans face. “Did you set this off?!” Sunset flinched for a second before quickly shaking her head back and forth. “No! No I didn’t. I swear.” The officer seemed to calm down a bit. However, as he opened his mouth he just so happened to glance down at two interesting bulges protruding from her jacket. Unceremoniously reaching into her jacket pocket, the officer nearly popped a blood vessel scowling at what he had found. “Then what is this?!” he yelled at her. Held up to Sunset’s face was a black ball. On the front, facing Sunset, was a label with a red pen writing that read, “Homemade Smoke Grenade #2” Sunset could only stare at it in disbelief and horror. Before she could recover she felt something hit her wrist. Looking down, her heart sank when she realized that she was now in handcuffs. She’s had a lot of nightmares that she reasoned could actually happen, but the argument could be made that this one was the worst possible one.