Chapter 12: Open Your Eyes
Pinkie didn’t get a chance to assess the damage until the next day. Surprisingly, though, the situation wasn’t nearly as bad as she had feared, though that was an admittedly low bar to cross. It was certainly true that Sunset’s guilt-by-association tactic had been effective; several students made scowling references to gangster movies when Pinkie brought up the Formal in conversation, implying that Pinkie was willing to have Penumbra use nasty air-quote “persuasion” when the more respectable normal kind didn’t work. Still, at least these responses weren’t as bad as the students who loudly proclaimed that Penumbra didn’t scare them, regardless of whether that subject had any connection to the actual conversation. By the same token, Applejack and Rainbow Dash had grown thoroughly sick of being reminded of the importance of standing up for themselves by lunchtime... which, shockingly, resulted in them eating lunch together, since neither one could think of anyone else who could empathize with their extremely specific problem.
However, even though Penumbra’s mistake had solidified the opinions of many of the students who had been leaning towards Sunset in the first place, those who had already decided to support Pinkie proved equally resistant to change. Largely thanks to Sunset’s reputation for skullduggery (alleged or otherwise), there were still quite a few students who didn’t take their student council president’s innocence at face value. Of course, this was in turn undercut by Penumbra, who had basically admitted that her actions were uncalled for, but Pinkie didn’t really mind that. She wasn’t nearly desperate enough to stoop to her opponent’s level by claiming that Penumbra had been manipulated—especially when Sunset’s own notoriety was doing the job for her.
Still, there was no denying that Pinkie’s campaign had been damaged, and with only three days remaining before the Fall Formal, there was no telling if it would be repaired in time to keep the Element of Magic out of Sunset’s hands. At the moment, though, Pinkie was more concerned about repairing her relationship with Penumbra, which, though not exactly in tatters, had certainly been frayed by the previous night’s fight. As she sat through Miss Cheerilee’s lesson, she couldn’t keep her mind from drifting back to it, partly because she was already quite familiar with logarithmic functions, but mostly because she needed to think of some way to put this issue behind her so she could put all her focus on Sunset Shimmer, where it belonged.
On the plus side, both she and Discord had apologized for their behavior when they awoke that morning, each acknowledging that they had been needlessly harsh in their criticism. Unfortunately, both of them had made their confessions to Penumbra, who had wanted them to apologize to each other. This, of course, was out of the question, because it would have meant completely dropping her criticism, and Pinkie needed to ensure the Penumbra didn’t lose sight of what Discord had done in the past, especially so soon after displaying open aggression towards Sunset Shimmer.
Pinkie glanced over at Penumbra, who appeared to be taking diligent notes. Pinkie, however, knew better. In the aftermath of the scuffle with Sunset, one thing was painfully obvious: Penumbra could no longer be directly involved with Pinkie’s efforts to acquire the tiara—or, to be more accurate, she could no longer be involved with her efforts to win the tiara. Thus, to keep her friend occupied, Pinkie had put Penumbra in charge of developing “Plan B,” which at the moment really didn’t amount to much more than using brute force to take the Element of Magic away from Sunset if she won, despite what had been implied in conversations with Penumbra.
While Discord was probably correct in assuming that the three of them were powerful enough to pull off such a “plan” on the spur of the moment, Pinkie wanted to avoid collateral damage to the humans, which would require some thought. From what she could tell by glancing at Penumbra’s notes, there were two kinds of plans being considered. The first group of plans appeared to call for a strategic retreat until an opportunity to steal the Element opened up, while the second focused on various ways to clear bystanders out of the gym so they wouldn’t be hurt in the ensuing scuffle. Based on her cursory glances, Pinkie supposed both approaches could work, though she’d definitely want to hear exactly what Penumbra had worked out once her ideas were more refined.
That said, there were some rather annoying drawbacks to Penumbra’s withdrawal, and it wasn’t long after the lunch bell rang that the most obvious one reared its head.
“Pinkie Pie!”
Now that Penumbra was no longer running interference for her, Pinkie Pie had expected that Sunset Shimmer would eventually try to corner her into some sort of confrontation; indeed, that might have been another one of the goals behind yesterday’s brouhaha. Pinkie let out brief sigh before she put on the most genuine smile she could manage and turned around. “Hello, Sunset,” she said in her usual pleasant tone.
For her part, Sunset Shimmer was equally cordial—on the surface, anyway. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you,” she said with a smile of her own, though hers had a somewhat forced look to it, as if it was masking a sneer of contempt. It actually made Pinkie think of the predatory grins that the FlimFlam brothers wore while in the midst of a sales pitch.
“Okie-dokie,” Pinkie replied, leaving off the “lokie” because she couldn’t exactly fake that level of enthusiasm. “Do you wanna talk here, or would you like to go somewhere else?” Pinkie hoped Sunset would choose the latter, because she didn’t particularly want to spend her lunch break avoiding whatever inconvenient scenario Sunset might want to trap her with.
Fortunately, Sunset had other plans. “I know an empty classroom we can use,” she said. “Follow me.”
Pinkie Pie did so, doing her best to ignore the bemused looks of the students who had noticed the two of them walking off together. As Sunset shut the door behind them, Pinkie brought up the most glaring flaw in the plan: “You do realize that someone’s going to be listening at the door, right? Or is that what you were hoping for?”
“I’ve got some people to ward them off,” Sunset said dismissively.
“You mean those two freshmen who follow me and Penumbra around? They’re supposed to intimidate anyone who’s getting nosy?”
Sunset let out a laugh. “You don’t seriously think I’ve managed to get where I am with just those two, do you? And to answer your next objection, my, er... ‘friends’ won’t hear us unless we raise our voices, so as long as we’re nice and civil, neither of us has anything to worry about.”
Pinkie raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
Sunset let out a sigh. “The two of us are actually magical talking ponies. Happy now? If they can actually hear me, they’ll think I’m just as nuts as you.”
“Yeah, that’s good enough for me,” Pinkie said with a nod. “So, what did you wanna talk about? If you’re looking for a public apology, Penny’s willing to play ball.”
“I thought she hated that name.”
Pinkie managed to keep from grimacing at her mistake. In an effort to maintain a nonchalant tone, she’d let herself get a bit too casual. She did her best to brush off her little oopsie-daisy. “Oh, she does, but once she knows someone respects her, she lets them get away with it, so it’s really more like an inside joke than an insult.” (This particular deflection had the added advantage of actually being true, which meant that Pinkie wouldn’t need to remember it for later reference.)
Apparently, Sunset accepted this reasoning, because she resumed the conversation. “Look, you seem like a reasonably intelligent pony, so I was hoping we could talk things over.”
“Ooh, are you giving up?”
“No,” Sunset replied in a flat, mildly irritated tone. “But I think you might be interested in what I have to say.”
Pinkie doubted that this was the case, mostly because she was pretty sure that Sunset wouldn’t slip up and give her any usable information so early in their talk, but she figured it couldn’t hurt to find out. “Okay,” she said with a quick shrug of her shoulders. Let’s hear it.”
“As I was saying,” Sunset continued, “I was hoping you’d be willing to hear my side of the story.”
“You mean the thing between you and Celestia?” Pinkie asked. “I’m pretty sure I’ve heard everything I need to know. You got carried away getting ready to fight The Nightmare, somepony got hurt, you refused to apologize, and things between you and Celestia got really, really nasty until you decided to run away.”
This summary appeared to strike a nerve. “She was talking about bringing criminal charges against me,” Sunset hissed. “Me, her personal student! And I was only doing what she wanted me to do.”
“Maybe, but it sure sounds like she didn’t want you to do it the way you were doing it.”
Sunset sighed. “Okay, you don’t understand. I was tasked with taking on Nightmare Moon—the real one, mind you, not whatever it is that Penumbra claims to be. When you’re dealing with somepony that dangerous, you need to be willing to take drastic measures.”
It was at this moment that Pinkie realized why Celestia had never given Twilight a direct order to confront Nightmare Moon at the Summer Sun Festival. Can’t say I blame her—I wouldn’t want to risk making the same mistake twice, either. “I think I understand,” she said tentatively. “I mean, I also think you’re probably mostly wrong, but I’m pretty sure I get what you’re trying to say.”
Sunset didn’t seem swayed by this. “Contrary to what you may have heard,” she said, pointing her finger at Pinkie for emphasis, “doing the right thing isn’t simply a matter of making sure your actions fit your ideals. When you’re tasked with doing the most good for the most ponies, sometimes you have to take options that look ugly in the short term.”
Pinkie tried her best not to look bored, but Sunset’s obvious attempt to justify her actions was a bit clichéd. “What’s your point?”
“Look, you seem like a smart girl,” Sunset said as she gently put a hand on Pinkie’s shoulder.
It took all of Pinkie’s willpower to keep from rolling her eyes, because in her experience, nopony ever used that particular phrase with her unless they thought exactly the opposite. Let me guess, you think I should switch over to your side.
“Celestia may have a reputation as a wise ruler, but the truth is that her judgment has been questionable for quite a while. I mean, look at Penumbra and Discord. I don’t know how much you know about them, but it’s pretty obvious that they’re unsavory characters. Does it really make sense for someone like you to take orders from ponies like them? Of course not!”
Called it, Pinkie thought to herself, though she remained silent and let Sunset continue her pitch, as she hadn’t technically proposed a betrayal yet.
“Ultimately, my goal is to help Celestia see her folly before it’s too late, and I think you’re just the kind of pony who can help her see the light. With your help, I can usher Equestria into a new Golden Age, and as my lieutenant, ponies everywhere will hold you in high esteem. We are on the cusp of an amazing opportunity here, and it starts with me getting the Element of Magic. So, what do you say? Are you in?”
Wow, Pinkie thought to herself. She sounds just like Twilight did when Penny was still The Nightmare. Do all of Celestia’s students go bad the same way? But such pondering would have to wait until later. Sunset was clearly awaiting some sort of response, and Pinkie’s silence was growing more awkward by the second. “I think you might have made some teeny, tiny mistakes when you were getting your sales pitch ready.”
“I assure you, I know how Celestia thinks—”
“Maybe, but you obviously don’t know how I think,” Pinkie said. “You see, Penumbra and Discord are unsavory characters—you definitely got that part right—and what’s more, both of them are notorious for convincing ponies to do the kinds of things that they wouldn’t ordinarily do. However, I’m pretty goshdarned strong-willed myself, which is why they’re the ones who are taking orders from me.”
At this revelation, Sunset looked absolutely flabbergasted. “What... why would... you’re the one in charge?”
“Yeah, I know that must be a shocker. It’s not often that the leader is the cheerful, happy-go-lucky one, too, but I guess I’m a bit of a multitasker.” Pinkie smiled broadly as she finished her sentence, and to her surprise, it was the first one in the entire conversation that felt totally natural. Actually, when she thought about it a bit further, it was the first really easy smile since the previous day. This realization made Pinkie even happier, and her smile grew a bit more radiant, which Sunset clearly found annoying.
“But... if you’re the one in charge, why would Penumbra put so much effort into protecting you from me?”
Pinkie giggled. “Silly Sunset, she wasn’t trying to protect me. I’ve always been pretty sure I could handle you if I needed to. I just had, like, a billion more important things to worry about, so she was running interference to keep you from wasting my time.”
Sunset tried to form an answer, but for several seconds, she only managed a soft croaking noise from her throat. Eventually, though, she was able to get over her astonishment. “Okay, fine. I admit that I was taken off guard by your insipid sunshine-and-rainbows routine, but the time for that is over. Let’s be serious for a minute.”
“Sorry, but if that just means that you want me to be all grumpy and scowly while we talk about big, important things, I don’t do that. You had a chance to do plenty of frowning and glowering while Penny was foalsitting you, but that’s over now.” Pinkie started pacing around the room as Sunset continued to glare at her.
“You want me to be serious?” Pinkie asked. “Okay, I’ll be serious. For starters, I think you’ve made some seriously bad assumptions, and you know what they say about assuming things.”
“No,” Sunset said through gritted teeth. “What?”
Pinkie abruptly stopped walking. “Actually, I’m not too sure myself. Most folks I know just drop off there and assume that I really do know what they say about assumptions. It’s actually kind of irritating... um, where was I?”
“Are you sure you’re the one in charge?” Sunset asked with a sneer.
“Absolootenanny,” Pinkie said with a nod. “Anyway, we were talking about your mistakes.”
“No, you just claimed that I’d made some.”
“Only because you have,” Pinkie replied. “And what’s more, I’m pretty sure I can figure out a lot about you based on the mistakes you’ve made.”
“Such as?”
“Well, for starters, you didn’t do nearly enough research about what was going on back in Equestria. I mean, I know you must have snuck over once or twice, or you wouldn’t even know who Twilight is in the first place, but the fact that you obviously have no clue who I am means you couldn’t have snuck back for very long, and you didn’t do it very many times.”
“And what makes you so sure that I don’t know about you?”
“Two things. First, if you knew anything about me, you’d almost certainly have assumed that I was giving orders, not taking them. I don’t mean to sound like I’m bragging, but I have a pretty solid record when it comes to national heroing.”
“Is that so?” Sunset said as she crossed her arms over her chest.
Pinkie nodded confidently. “It’s so ‘so’ that you’d never call it so-so. So there.”
“Uh-huh,” Sunset replied, her voice dripping with skepticism. “And the other thing?”
“Well, if you had any idea who I was, you wouldn’t have even bothered trying to get me to switch sides—not by offering me a place as your second-in-command, anyway. The fact is, being your second banana would be a demotion, because I’m part of the top tier of bananas, and there’s no way I’m gonna split.”
“You say you’re going to be serious, and instead you give me a bad pun?”
“A seriously bad pun,” Pinkie countered. “Besides, it’s true.”
Sunset wrinkled her nose in an odd expression that looked like a cross between confusion and disgust. Admittedly, Pinkie had experienced that combination herself, but this conversation didn’t seem nearly as revolting as the compost pile Discord had tried to set up outside of Penumbra’s home two weeks ago. “Top tier? What exclusive level of society would take on a giggling...” Sunset’s voice suddenly trailed off as her eyes widened. “You’re the Element of Laughter.”
Pinkie briefly considered being coy in her response, but she decided against it. Rather, she figured that if she admitted that Sunset was right about this, she would assume that it was the only thing that Pinkie had been hiding, meaning that she could still surprise her with the guess-what-I’m-a-princess bit later on. “Well, technically I’m just the Element-Bearer, but I’m pretty sure you have the idea.” She continued speaking as Sunset absorbed this new revelation. “Anyway, I really need to get to lunch. Good luck on the Formal!”
Sunset snorted. “As if you actually want my luck to hold.”
“Oh, but I do—really,” Pinkie said with utter sincerity. “You see, if you’re really lucky, you’re going to lose this contest, which means you won’t get the Element of Magic, which means you’ll never have to find out what I’m really capable of.” Pinkie reached up and patted the slightly taller girl on the head before skipping towards the door. “Toodles!”
———————
The confrontation with Sunset had left Pinkie feeling quite triumphant, and she was more than happy to share these feelings at the meeting with her election team after school, though she did need to be more than a little vague about the actual details to get around the whole “magical talking pony” part. Still, she did manage to include her line about Sunset being “lucky” if she lost, which was good, since she was really proud of that one. Of course, not everyone was present to share in the revelry. Penumbra was too busy serving her sentence in detention, so obviously she couldn’t make it, but there was another, somewhat more troubling absence: Twilight Sparkle.
This didn’t exactly come as a surprise to Pinkie; after all, Twilight had said that she might be too busy to attend, but Pinkie still wasn’t certain whether she was genuinely occupied with her courseload, or whether she no longer wanted to associate with them, and actually asking her outright would probably just make the situation even more awkward.
Unfortunately, fixing whatever damage had been done to her relationship with Twilight was a fairly low priority. With the Fall Formal mere days away, there were still several glaring issues that needed to be taken care of.
“What do you mean, you don’t have a dress?!” Rarity exclaimed in abject horror.
“Well, I haven’t exactly had time to get one,” Pinkie said, “but I figure I might be able to find a place where I can rent a decent one.”
“Rent? Rent?!”
“Whoa there, Rarity,” Applejack said in her most calming tone of voice. “You better simmer down before you blow a gasket.”
This did have the desired effect of returning Rarity to a more rational state, though not for the reason Applejack may have been hoping for. “I hardly think you are one to lecture someone on the virtues of keeping one’s temper,” Rarity said skeptically. “Besides, I find that the occasional indulgence in melodrama livens up a discussion. In any case, a premade dress will never do; if Pinkie is to make the sort of impression needed to put her over the top, a bespoke gown is a necessity.”
“I get why going all out on the dress can help,” Rainbow Dash said as she balanced herself on the back legs of her chair, “but isn’t it a bit late to find a dressmaker?”
“Not if I clear some space on my schedule, it isn’t,” Rarity insisted.
“You make dresses?” Fluttershy asked. “I thought you wanted to be an interior designer.”
“As a career, certainly, but a girl is allowed to have hobbies, isn’t she?”
“But aren’t you still busy with the decorations for the Formal?” Pinkie asked.
“Oh, the actual creative part was finished weeks ago. Everything that’s left is simply a matter of logistics. Besides, after Sunset’s little stunt with dear Penumbra, I shall make the time to see her denied that tiara.”
———————
“Rarity actually said that?” Penumbra asked with mild incredulity.
“Well, yeah.” Pinkie had met up with Penumbra after her detention had ended, and naturally, the first thing she had done was regale her friend with every single detail of the day, from her verbal joust with Sunset to the points of the election meeting, but for some reason, Penny had singled out Rarity’s dressmaking offer for extra attention. “Why wouldn’t she?”
“I don’t know,” Penumbra said. “I didn’t think she’d get to ‘dear Penumbra’ territory that quickly, I guess. You’re sure she wasn’t just feeling motivated to help you out?”
“No doubt that’s part of it,” Pinkie said, “but you’re closer to her than I am, and I still don’t know why you think that would be surprising.”
“I don’t normally make friends quickly. It took more than a thousand years for Luna to accept me as one.”
“I did it in less than an hour,” Pinkie countered.
“Less than an hour of real-time, sure, but far longer in dream-time. Besides, you were actively pursuing my friendship.”
“And you were actively pursuing a relationship with Rarity, so it’s no wonder she would care about you. I mean, of all our friends, I think our Rarity is the one who’s most like you.”
“Indeed... maybe I should have tried to corrupt her instead of Twilight....”
Pinkie’s smile dissolved almost immediately. “Don’t even joke about that sort of thing, Penumbra.”
Penumbra rolled her eyes. “Are you seriously that paranoid about my friendship with Discord? I’m not about to slide back into villainy any time soon; I wouldn’t want to lose your friendship, or anypony else’s for that matter.”
“Good. I just needed to make sure.”
“Though it wouldn’t hurt for you to remember that Discord has forsworn villainy for the same reasons.”
Pinkie winced and let out a groan; she should have known Penumbra would bring up this particular topic after the previous night’s argument. “Look, I’d like to forgive Discord—really, I would. This would all be way, way less complicated if I could just put everything behind me and be done with it. But you didn’t see what he did to us—how he completely scrambled our personalities into fruitcake. And not the really good kind that Mr. and Mrs. Cake sell in their bakery. I mean the normal kind that no pony wants and is only ever used as a doorstop.”
However, instead of being stunned into silence by this thought-provoking reminder, Penumbra had a response at the ready: “Pinkie, by the time Discord had broken free, I had already infiltrated Twilight Sparkle’s mind. I haven’t merely learned about his misdeeds second-hoof; I saw them myself first-hoof. And what’s more, I don’t really see how his sins are any worse than my own.”
Somehow, Pinkie hadn’t thought of that. She stopped in her tracks as she tried to come up with a rebuttal that could shoot down Penumbra’s points, but the best she could come up with was that Penny hadn’t done anything directly to her, and she could tell that wouldn’t cut the mustard. Heck, it wouldn’t even cut the cheese. She looked over at Penumbra, who was staring at her intently with her unobscured eye. Trying in vain to come up with some sort of comeback, Pinkie eventually managed to force out a rather weak response. “Well... I guess that’s true, but... but he just makes it so hard.” The moment the words had left her lips, Pinkie knew that they were too desperate to be an effective counterargument.
Penumbra laid a hand on Pinkie’s shoulder. “It took me a while to lose some of my bad habits, too, remember? But I came around because you didn’t give up on me. That said, I’m willing to bet that it would have been much harder if your friends weren’t willing to give me a second chance as well.”
Pinkie sighed in defeat. “You’re right. I know you’re right. I just wish he understood how difficult he was.”
Penumbra gave Pinkie a smirk. “There’s no need to get so discouraged. I happen to think that there’s a very good chance he’ll come around someday.”
———————
Discord let out an exasperated puff of air as he clicked on another video of a cat attacking its reflection in a mirror. For some reason, his beloved internet seemed to have lost its ability to provide him with boundless amusement, and he had no idea why. Scratch that—he knew exactly why, but he was determined to stay huddled in the sweet embrace of denial for as long as possible. Eventually, he gave up his attempts to keep himself occupied and shut his laptop so he could start pacing about the hotel room and muttering to himself.
“Stupid friendship.” As near as Discord could figure, it was friendship that was getting in the way of his continued amusement. In the past, he could have shrugged off the previous night’s argument with ease, but now that he and Penumbra were friends, he suddenly found that he actually cared about her opinion, which made it a lot harder to be a selfish jerk. This, to his mind, was a bad thing, because being a selfish jerk was a lot of fun.
Naturally, his first inclination when confronted by his difference of opinion with Penny was to get her to change that opinion. This shouldn’t have been difficult, because Penny freely admitted that he wasn’t at fault for yesterday’s bitch-slap. “She thinks Pinkie’s wrong, and I think Pinkie’s wrong, so why is she still mad at me?”
The room remained silent for several seconds before Discord groaned and slumped down into a chair. “I don’t believe this.... I’m so off my game that I can’t even come up with a snappy comeback to my own rhetorical question. At least, not without feeling even more guilty—which shouldn’t be happening in the first place, because as has been established, I didn’t do anything!”
Nothing, that is, except for needlessly antagonizing Pinkie Pie for his own amusement, but that wasn’t getting in the way of regaining the Element of Magic, was it? Of course, Penumbra had made it clear that that wasn’t the point. But why else would she be disappointed, unless... “Dear Celestia, I think she actually wants Pinkie and me to be friends. The kind of friends who actually enjoy each other’s company. But why? It’s not like we have much in common, except for being nigh-unstoppable creatures whose power with the ability to completely defy all forms of rationality. Oh, and we both like Penny. And Celestia and Luna. And playing pranks. And I suppose I do enjoy a good party, and...”
Discord trailed off as the realization struck him: Penumbra wanted him to stop being a jerk to Pinkie Pie because she really did think they could be good friends... and now that he thought of it, she might actually have had a point. “If she enjoys being friends with Pinkie, why wouldn’t I enjoy it? Pinkie’s nearly as interesting as Penumbra, after all.”
In fact, the more he thought about it, the better that the idea of genuine friendship with Pinkie sounded... he was just about to whip out his phone and call Pinkie up to make amends when another thought struck him: “She’s not going to believe me. Not after all the crap I’ve been giving her. She’ll just assume this is another twisted prank of mine—which is a shame, because it would be a great setup to a twisted prank.” Discord let out a sigh. If this “actual friendship” thing was going to get off the ground at all, he’d have to prove that he was genuinely willing to change his ways—but how was he supposed to do that?
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Ooh, things are actually looking up again on all fronts.
For the moment....
Sunset winnng would be intresting, because it means Pinkie would have to pull out one of her lesser used costumes.
Cthulu.
Apropos of absolutely nothing.
That's kind of convenient.
By which, I mean I'm pretty sure that if Discord was stuck here with one of Penny's friends that he was less compatible with, she would still want him to not be a jerk to them.
Jeez Pinkie.
How can you be so savage and so genuinely friendly at the same time.
Hmm. On the one hand, seeing Pinkie confront Sunset was satisfying, but giving Sunset more information and alerting her to what may come are some of the worst things Pinkie could do. This may come back to bite her in more ways than one...
Also, Pinkie and Discord will probably need to work together at the climax. Twilight may be involved. I shouldn't speculate further; it'll be more interesting to see how it will unfold.
7080431
Heh, good point. Given how much discord enjoys logic, I'd enjoy seeing someone hit him upside the head with that one.
Another great chapter. Well done.
Oh, I'm loving this. XD
Poor, poor Sunset Shimmer. Again.
First Nightmare Moon, now Pinkie Pie. Priceless.
I assume Pinkie Pie Pinkie-promised to get the Element back, didn't she? Oooh boy, Sunset has literally no idea what she's up against.
I don't care what that one commenter said about "lack of conflict and/or challenge for the heroes", some months back or so. I wanna see more of "self-confident villain runs flat into metaphorical wall", it's priceless!
You'd think that after both her teammates accidentally let slip valuable information when talking to Sunset, Pinkie Pie would have the good sense to not freely tell her that she is the Element Bearer of Laughter. Seriously, how hard is "don't feed the villain any more free information" to understand?
man now im curious as to what was going through sunsets head when she heard this revaluation.
OooOooh!!! It's getting good. Well, it was good in the first chapters, but now? It's getting REALLY good.
The scene with Pinkie and Sunset was brilliant. Leave it to Pinkie to be that devestating while genuenly being kind.
7081633 Was it really necessary to take a jab at me like that? I like the story fine and there should be nothing wrong with me having a different opinion than you. My feelings on Sunset are only concern that if she never acts as strong opposition the end won't have enough tension. Honestly though Sunset is being backed into a corner more every chapter and honestly I can't imagine that will end up as well as our heroes think.
7083628 Oops.
I could have probably phrased that differently. Didn't intend that as an insult, sorry if it came across a bit harsh.
7084007 Ah, that's okay. To be fair I probably got more defensive than I needed to.
People seemed to really jump down my throat for my earlier comments so I expected the worst.
This is a fantastic way of making Pinkie legitimately intimidating without slipping in her tone once.
Needs beginning " marks.
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Sunset is adorable when she's utterly clueless. I look forward to her reaction when she discovers Penumbra and Discord are who they said they were. Then see her sweat when she thinks of how powerful Pinks must be to be their leader.
7083628 I kind of gave to agree here. They are doing their best to make Sunset desperate. I don't think that is a good ideas. Ever.
Pinkie, Fiscord and especially Penumbra are kind of arrogant and overconfident. It's extremely fun to read how they repeatedly beat Sunset on every level and deliver a this is why you suck speech every second chapter, but I think that attitude will come to bite them back in the end.
needs beginning " marks.
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With what happens next chapter. I hope the one after that lets Sunset the Demon Queen (if she goes all awesome she-demon like in the movie) see that The Nightmare and Discord are who they say they are. And see those three ponies (including Pinks) really let loose. That'll be fun. Especially if we get SciTwi there and see her activate the Rainbow Friendship cannon to rainbow laser Sunset in the face.
Needs beginning " marks before ' Let's '.
________________-
Seriously love this series.
Beginning " marks in front of underlined text.
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Mess with Pinkie and you're screwed.
This is why it urks me these too aren't shipped too often in stories, they are too similar for that not to be a great idea.
8661664
*irks. Maybe reformed Dissy