Chapter 2: Overpainting
“Pinkie Pie. You’re Pinkie Pie.”
“Yep!”
“I mean… you… where… where is my Pinkie?”
“I’m right here, silly!”
“No… augh…. Okay. Are you human or are you a pony?”
Pinkie looked down at her hands and wiggled her fingers. “Yes?” she said with some uncertainty.
Sunset whimpered and grabbed at handfuls of her own hair. “Pinkie, please be serious. I’m having an existential crisis here!”
Pinkie raised a brow. “Why?”
“What do you mean ‘why'? You’re a pony! From Equestria!”
“What’s the problem with that?”
Sunset lifted a finger, mouth open and ready to tell Pinkie why it was very important that a pony from Equestria was running around Canterlot High as a human.
A moment passed, then another, with Sunset still in the same pose as she waited for that Very Important Reason to make itself obvious.
Pinkie giggled at Sunset’s stiff posture. “Careful, you might catch a birdie like that.”
Sunset snapped her mouth shut and crossed her arms. “Okay. Maybe it won’t blow up the multiverse or anything. But still… I want Pinkie. My Pinkie.”
“Like I said. I’m right here!” Pinkie’s perpetually sunny expression wavered. “At least… I hope I still am?”
The tone gave Sunset pause; she’d seen a hundred different ways Pinkie could be excited and happy. This was the first thing that sounded to Sunset like genuine worry. Even Pinkie’s hair looked like it was drooping slightly.
“Umm… how long have you been here?” Sunset asked carefully.
“Since the Friendship Games?”
“Since the Friendship Games?!” Sunset exclaimed and fell back to sputtering. “H-How?”
Pinkie twiddled her forefingers together. “Well... first we’d switch every other day. Then it was every other week. Then sometimes every other month until… umm… now it’s whenever, but not for a while...”
Sunset rubbed at her temples. “The Friendship Games were nearly two years ago.”
Pinkie winced, and her hair looked straighter than ever. “Y-Yeah…”
A laugh came out of Sunset. It was short, ‘hahs’ of breath that had a maniacal quality behind it. Her eye started twitching.
“Erm… Sunset…? Are you mad? Like Angry-Mad or Crazy-Mad?” Pinkie asked.
“Three hundred and forty-seven.”
“Huh?”
“Three hundred and forty-seven. It’s how many days we’ve been going out together. I remember it because you mark every week with a party and every day you do your best make it unique and special.”
Pinkie blinked rapidly. “Soooooo, you aren’t Mad-Crazy or Mad-Angry?” she asked, with hope returning to her voice and color to her hair.
Sunset pulled Pinkie close for a hug and ruffled the flattened out hair. “Mad about you, maybe.”
“Hee!” Pinkie exclaimed and hugged Sunset back. All at once her hair puffed out to its original state and engulfed Sunset’s hand to the wrist.
Sunset wandered her fingers through the pink depths until she found a neck to stroke. “Still, why did it take you so long to tell me? I kind of feel silly that I’ve spent so much time telling you stuff you already knew about Equestria.”
Pinkie kept up her hug and leaned her head on Sunset’s shoulder. “I didn’t think it mattered… besides, you had so much fun Sunsplaining that I didn’t want to ruin it for you.”
“Sunsplaining!” Sunset cried, indignant until she thought back on it. Admittedly, she had enjoyed the fact that Pinkie could seemingly remember every little detail of Equestria life and get her pony-in-human-world jokes without the punchline being explained. As Sunset searched her memory, she couldn’t remember a moment when Pinkie had actually lied. Usually, she just let Sunset talk.
“You can still explain stuff, if you wanna,” Pinkie offered with a smile.
Sunset drew her hand back from Pinkie’s hair and something tumbled out with it. After she saw that it was a tootsie-roll, Sunset dropped it back into Pinkie’s curls, where it vanished under the poofy waves. “That’s okay. I can get used to the radical idea that I fell in love with a pony from another world. It explains a lot, actually.”
Pinkie giggled again.
“I do have a few questions, though.” Sunset disentangled herself from Pinkie and walked over to the picnic basket. She sat and fetched one of the cider bottles from it.
“Uh-oh. Questions,” Pinkie said warily as she joined Sunset near the basket.
“I’m not going to yell at you, I just want to figure a few things out. Me running away from Equestria through the mirror was full of drama and unhappiness. I want to know why you're here on Earth in the first place and not Equestria.”
Pinkie smiled. “Cheese Sandwich.”
Sunset blinked at this non-sequitur and looked towards the picnic basket. “Umm. I think you only packed a pie and cider.”
“No, silly! Cheese Sandwich is a pony.”
“Uh… tasty name?”
“Yeah! He’s a pony who travels up and down Equestria making parties wherever somepony needs one.”
Sunset laughed. “So he’s a traveling version of you?”
Pinkie nodded and puffed her chest out proudly. “It was one of my parties that got him going in the first place. After he left, I thought of how great it would be to travel far and wide spreading parties and smiles just like him. Though I couldn’t leave Ponyville and he was already doing the traveling party thing.”
“Couldn’t you have just gone in like… the opposite direction? Equestria’s a big place.”
Pinkie shook her head vigorously. “No way! I didn’t want any chance of me stepping on his hooves, not again.” She waggled a hand. “I didn’t need to anyway, because Twilight moved the mirror over and opened it up full time. There was a whole world full of people who I could bring the magic of parties to, and I wouldn’t even have to leave Ponyville! Double funsies!”
“And thus you had so many new worlds to conquer, eh? Though I see a wrinkle in your plan. This place already had a Pinkie Pie.”
Pinkie stuck her tongue out then sighed. “Yeah, and she’s been doing a pretty good job. She had all sorts of gadgets, but I knew about magic. So it was fun to trade places and figure out how we could come up with ways of making parties doubly deluxe in that way.”
“You know, me and Princess Twilight have gone back and forth with this idea of trying to tell everyman or everypony about the portal, and we always end up saying how it’s too dangerous. Even just a little magic over here corrupts everything, and I shudder at the idea of a gun in Equestria. I don’t think we ever considered the idea of having a… party exchange program.”
Pinkie lifted her own cider bottle and pried off the bottlecap with her hair. “It’s okay. You can’t think of everything.”
Sunset took a drink from her bottle and savored the taste with a swish before swallowing. “Well, I get why you came over, but why did you stay?”
“‘Cuz there is one thing here that isn’t in Equestria.”
Sunset startled and looked over. Pinkie was still smiling, but it wasn’t one of her beaming smiles. It was more reserved. Shy almost.
“Pinkie, you’ve been keeping yourself over here for me?” Sunset said, feeling a strange mix of both guilt and flattery. “I’m nopony special to be keeping you away from everypony you love and care about. I’m not worth giving up so mu—”
“What kind of party pony would I be if I let the only pony living in the whole wide human world go without one for her birthday? Or Hearth’s Warming? Or Hearts and Hooves?” Pinkie shook her head violently, expression uncharacteristically fierce. “You were so lonely for company, and all you had was a book to write in! You're special! Y-You appreciate my parties. You never get tired of talking to me and… and even when you explain stuff it’s because you want to talk to me even more. You always remember a date, and yo-you’ve never ever broke a Pinkie promise—”
Pinkie’s speech had started to break up and choke with emotion. All in an effort to empathize how special Sunset was to her.
Sunset felt the rise of involuntary tears in her own eyes. Humans hardly cried as much as ponies, but she didn’t care about that now. She pulled Pinkie into a hug and squeezed her tight.
For a while, they held each other, until their tension faded, and they grew comfortable in each other's arms.
“Thank you,” Sunset murmured.
Pinkie idly nuzzled Sunset's neck, relaxing in the affection. "Mmm?”
“For loving a stupid filly like me who doesn’t have the sense to live in a world that’s easy for you.”
“You’re not stu— mmff…” Pinkie’s protest was cut by Sunset’s kiss. She giggled after they broke. “Umm… do you want some pie?”
“Pie or pie?” Sunset asked with a grin. “I think I could go for either.”
Pinkie’s eyes twinkled brightly. “Yeah, but only one of them is getting colder instead of warmer.”
“It’s a competition on which is sweeter though.”
When Sunset unwrapped the pie tin, she found it still warm and slightly steaming. It reminded Sunset of her earlier thought.
“Pinkie, you baked this fresh, didn’t you?”
“Mmhmm!”
“But you’d have to take a bus across town if you were baking this at home. It’s from Equestria?”
Pinkie grinned. “It’s not so bad. The pedestal is right there, and Twilight’s castle is like five minutes away from Sugarcube Corner.”
Sunset sighed. “So… you’ve been bringing me food from there?”
“I thought you’d like a taste of home once in awhile,” Pinkie admitted.
Sunset carefully placed the pie down and turned towards Pinkie.
“That’s… okay right?” Pinkie said, confused at Sunset’s change in demeanor.
“It’s probably the most anyone’s ever thought about me,” Sunset replied as she brushed her own hair back to expose her neck. “I think it proves that I am going to have to put in more of an effort if I’m going to keep up. You’ve gone and made this non-stop party train an important part of your life. The very least I can do is ride it with you.” She reached over and petted along Pinkie’s cheek.
Harmony magic glowed in Sunset’s palm, and Pinkie leaned against Sunset’s hand, smiling. Even as the sun was in its final descent, the world around them became bright and colorful. Happy music filled the air from the Walking Star’s radio as he ambled his giant self by the rooftop’s edge. The other Sugarland residents clapped and cheered, and when Sunset peeked skyward, the Empress gave her a thumbs up with a candy hand.
When Sunset kissed Pinkie, she was sweetest thing in Sugarland.
Sunset frantically glanced between the bowls of flour as sweat matted down the bangs around her lit horn. Nothing in the School for Gifted Unicorns could have prepared her for this particular brand of chaos: having to keep her eyes and magical concentration on three eggbeaters whirling away while she used hooves to push a rolling pin and mouth to stir a spoon.
“Sunset! The oven!” Pinkie cried.
Startled, Sunset looked up to see smoke billowing out of the stove. Galloping out from behind the table, she ended up stumbling at the corner and skidded on all four hooves. On reflex she teleported to help close the distance but her momentum had her flying towards the fiery oven.
Three balloons and a wall of pink filled her vision then, and Sunset came to a sudden stop when her muzzle crashed into Pinkie's cushy flank.
The party earth pony didn’t budge from the impact, and simply put her hoof out to help Sunset up. “You alright?”
“Yeah, just out of practice...” Sunset didn’t ask how Pinkie moved faster than her teleport. She’d stopped asking those kinds of questions.
“Practice makes perfect. Twenty-one more to go!” Pinkie smooched Sunset on the nose before promptly resuming work on her five concurrent cakes on her side of the table.
Sunset noted that Pinkie had already managed to turn the stove off and save whatever was burning in it, too. It made her feel exceptionally slow when she returned to her simultaneous mixing. A glance at the itinerary showed it filled with duplicates of names for both Ponyville and C.H.S.
“This ride isn’t ever going to end, is it?” Sunset remarked.
Pinkie perked up and flashed a smile. “You wanna get off?”
There was a tickle of that old competitive spirit, the same one that had once made Sunset Celestia’s best student. She picked up the fallen chef’s hat and put it on with a determined smile. “No.”
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Magnificent.
That was cute and sweet. Just like a Pinkie story should be. I like the twist. Well done for not spoiling that by referring to the other outtake that's useful context - vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/2/2b/Pinkie_Pie_and_Pinkie_Pie_high-five_EG3b.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/640?cb=20160504163616
That was sweet. So, is there anypony in Equestria the other Pinkie is willing to stay there for?
And sweetness and fluffy, I love this. It’s so....
Pinkie.
PInkie Pie is my favorite ship for Sunset Shimmer so this story works for me even with the slight twist.
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Dropping bigger and bigger breadcrumbs for nearly a year has Pinkie practically flinging wonderbread slices at this point
I still wonder if anyone has noticed the character tags yet
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Hee! Great to see some familiar names, Now that I finished with mine I can start peeking at your entries now too. Even if we are technically competing this is turned out to be a lot of fun. We are all rowing this shipping ship together
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I want to say Somnambula Because walk like an Egyptian is a fun song~
I have one single complaint: Why is there not MOAR?! T_____T
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If I may say, you best bit of misdirection has to be your cover image, over your tags. As that's the first thing you see, it tricks you into thinking that that's what you mean over whatever you tag.
Very enjoyable story, I must say.
9141033
I like it!
In any case, lovely stuff in this chapter as well... though now I wonder what human Pinkie gets up to in Equestria. Still, great to see Pinkie drag Sunset into a lifestyle that embraces both worlds. Again, thank you and good luck.
That was a surprising twist, but the whole thing was really sweet.
You did a good job capturing Pinkie's randomness and I enjoyed their interactions. You did a great job.
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Hahaha. That's genius. A massive spoiler hidden completely in plain sight in a way that practically nobody would notice. Absolutely superb.i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/820/704/9f5.gif
Loved your story, hoping to see it placed, for a worthy SunsetPie ;)
That was an unexpected plot twist, but how you pictured them was very special, which made me enjoy it even more 💛❤💕
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You are all so sweet and wonderful to say such nice things!
Glad I could get a giggle and make some warm fuzzies
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*Cracks her whip* We need a sequel or a prequel! Work fanfic author, WORK!! XD
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That could work. Though actually I tend to think that having wings in Pedestria is a separate distinction from being an alicorn. It’s just that both Twilights happen to qualify. That’s also why Sunset has wings when powered up but hasn’t ascended in Equestria and such.
My god. This should place.
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Glad you enjoyed!
Aww. You're a sweetie to say
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It was so good. Reading some of the Journeys stories I'm glad I didn't enter cos I'd get my ass kicked
This was rather beautiful
I loved that part about Sunset and Celestia. Just a really touching moment, and a really clever way to explain Sunset attracting Celestia's attention. The part where Celestia customized her sunsets was really interesting--I've seen the idea of Luna arranging stars and whatnot before, but never seen it applied to Celestia.
And Pinkie's rationalization for staying with Sunset was similarly beautiful in a very Pinkie-ish way
This isn't my favorite kind of story--for all the good ideas it presents, the easiness and problem-free nature of the conversation, while very very sweet, feels like it doesn't do as much as it could with some of the ideas and mostly just presents them. But as a snapshot of two people being in love and reflecting on each other, this was wonderful.
Thanks for writing this!
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Thank you for the wonderful comment!
Heh, yeah. In my mind Pinkie isn't the sort to hold someone's hand or talk lovey dovey. She's plenty sweet and with a sugary personally but the darlings and 'oh my beloved' is more a Rarity thing. Though, Pinkie is the kind to do something for someone even thanklessly if it meant that person could be happy.
And yeah, it's fair to say that the conflict gets resolved quickly. The perils of working under a time crunch and contest conditions. Still I am happy you still enjoyed even when it was something outside what you would normally read. All I usually hope for is to get one smile from a reader
This was a very fun and sweet story. Perfectly portrayed Pinkie Pie here XD (and yes the alliteration is deliberate)
I especially liked that ending. Aww...
Cute and upbeat with plenty of sweet. Nice work!
That was freaking epicly cute and a ship I never saw coming. The honesty behind Pinkie’s emotions and worry over Sunset was almost tearjerking!
Fantastic job. Utterly fantastic!
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Thanks for all the kind words! It really means a lot to see someone enjoy my sillyfic. It might not have placed in the contest but it brings a big smile to hear people get a giggle and some twanged heart-strings out of it
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No problem! Thanks for sharing this story
Awe! This was so adorable!
and funny, lol :)
Still making my way through your library. I didn't know what to expect with this one, but the twist definitely got me good, and I like your characterisation of Pinkie, and of this relationship in general. Pinkie and Sunset was always a fairly strange ship to me, but it really goes to show that an author who puts the effort in can make anything work. Another good one. Thanks again.