A hardly-cloudy-at-all afternoon, not that Sunset Shimmer would notice as her bedroom’s only window remained obstructed by a light-blocking curtain. Earlier that day, she had pulled the curtain back to gaze down at the urban streetscape a few storeys below for a few moments. As her vista provided little to no view of flora (edible or not), she closed the curtain again, shaking her head at her own silliness. She had a lamp or three that were more than capable of providing light – a warm light, not as harsh as the morning or midday sun.
She sat on her bed, tuning her guitar, which she had named Mayfair, before mindlessly strumming out a few chords, when a knock on her front door startled her to the point she almost threw her beloved instrument to the floor.
It was a rapid knock, perhaps slightly too loud, seeming to tap out some sort of rhythm to a song.
Only one person I know knocks like that, Sunset thought as she hurriedly left her bedroom, tripping on a pile of unwashed clothes before reaching the living area.
As Sunset moved as rapidly as possible to reach the front door, she called out to the visitor, “Just a sec—”
The door flew open before Sunset could finish her sentence, revealing a young pink-skinned girl with big baby-blue eyes and long, curly, deep-pink hair (including a front-curl that seemed to defy all physics), whose entire motif could be summed up as “cheerful” – purple-trimmed white T-shirt emblazoned with a pink heart, covered by a blue overshirt open in the front; poofy lavender skirt with a balloon patch, cinched at the waist with a purple ribbon tied in a bow.
As soon as the girl saw Sunset, she immediately beelined for her, nearly leaping and wrapping her in a massive bear-hug that would have knocked a lesser mortal off their feet. Sunset, for her part, endured the display with an unseen frown and eye-roll, momentarily shocked but not at all surprised. After about a minute, she carefully began extricating herself from her visitor.
“Hello, Pinkie,” Sunset said, nearly devoid of emotion. “Thanks for coming but, uh, could you let go of me?”
Like a suction cup suddenly becoming freed from its glass, Pinkie popped off and reconstituted herself about two feet back. Her smiling expression not wavering in the slightest.
“I’m so so so glad to see you, Sunset!” Pinkie said, a few ticks on the volume knob louder than one would consider acceptable.
“Uh-huh,” Sunset replied as she waited for the feeling in her extremities to return.
Completely undaunted, Pinkie continued. “How are you feeling? Are you still sick? Not sick? Better? Worse?”
“I, uh…?”
“It’s been so long since you’ve been to school, a lot of us were wondering if you were ever coming back! Well, at least I was wondering that. Maybe everyone else was too, or maybe they weren’t. Well, Rarity sure was! After about a week she was just beside herself worried! So I said to both Raritys ‘We should go and check on her!’ But then I realized I didn’t know where you lived… and there was only one Rarity. She went to work and pulled up her store’s files to find your address because you bought a jacket there – did you give it a name? I would! – and she went to check on you… but of course you already know that since you were here!” Pinkie babbled.
“Pinkie…” said Sunset, not yet sure how to stop Pinkie’s diatribe.
“So anyway, she skipped school the next day! I don’t know if you knew that. But it made us worried she might’ve caught whatever it was you had. I almost reconsidered throwing you a Get Well party! BUT, she was back the next day and told us that you just needed time to get better. Everyone else said that was fine, but I didn’t!”
“Pinkie,” Sunset attempted to interrupt, but failed.
“I’ve dealt with sick people before! After all, that’s what I did when I volunteered at the kids’ ward in the hospital! The kids loved it, and the bosses liked me because they said I’m cheaper than hiring a clown, but the staff said I was too much and told me never to come back without… what was that pill? But that’s another story! I’m here for you!”
“Pinkie!” interjected Sunset, louder this time, but still not loud enough.
“So you can imagine how over-the-moon I was when Rarity told us at lunch the other day that we could finally come see you. Now of course I wanted us all to head over first thing after school, because really who wouldn’t be cheered up by seeing all her best friends? But our free times just didn’t match up, and that made me so sad! But Rarity said that you might not be able to ‘handle’ all of us at one time? Not really sure what she meant by that but… She might have had a point.” Pinkie said.
“Huh?!” Sunset was shocked by Pinkie’s unexpected halt in speech.
“Well, yeah!” Pinkie answered. “This apartment is super tiny! What is it, like three hundred square feet?”
“Give or take,” said Sunset, though she had long since forgotten its exact dimensions.
“Exactly! So it really might not be able to hold all six of us!” Pinkie motioned around the living room, somehow managing to twirl with her arms out without smacking against the wall.
“That’s… you’re right my apartment’s small, but that’s not why I waited to see you individually.”
Pinkie blinked in confusion. “So why? Oh! I know! You’ve been writing the great Canmerican novel and it’s got a massive conspiracy with men in black and you got so deep into it that you started to think they’re around every corner about to take you out for exposing their secrets!”
“Uh, no,” Sunset said. “The only writing I do is for the Underground Weekly Daily, and I haven’t even done that in a month.”
Pinkie scratched her chin, narrowing her eyes in concentration. “Then… Ooh! It’s because your existence has been co-opted by some hack writer who isn’t comfortable writing group scenes or your friends, and thought it would be easier to reintroduce you to us one at a time!”
Sunset’s face contorted into utter confusion. “That’s not… What?!”
Pinkie laughed. “Hey, it’s a better guess than the really silly one!”
“And what’s that?” Sunset asked, afraid to find out.
“That all the guilt you feel from years of being a super-meanie-face both here and in the horse-world, plus the constant abuse from everyone at CHS who don’t think your reformation is real, caused you to have a nervous breakdown and nearly kill yourself, and you’re ashamed of it and still think that the only reason the five of us even talk to you is because Twilight told us to, and no one could ever really like you for who you are because of what you were!”
Sunset stared at Pinkie, completely dumbfounded that the hyperactive pink girl just laid out the reality of Sunset’s last month without realizing it.
“Isn’t that just silly?” Pinkie asked, rhetorically, as to her it clearly was.
“N-no, I don’t think it’s…”
“Of course it is, Sunny! D’ya mind if I call you Sunny? It’s shorter than Sunset Shimmer, and a lot happier! Anyway, why wouldn’t people like you? You’re, like, the coolest person I know! …Actually, that would be Rainbow Dash. Sorry. But you’re the second coolest!” Pinkie insisted, gesticulating wildly.
“Why would you say that?” Sunset wondered aloud. Now she was genuinely invested in figuring out where Pinkie’s thought process, such as it was, was going.
“Well, duh!” Pinkie began. “You have to be super-duper strong to take on your past and prove you’re better by rebuilding yourself from the ground up and becoming someone anybody could be proud of! Also, you have the most amazing taste in tables!” she motioned to the wooden cylinder next to her.
Sunset looked at the cylinder, confused. “It’s just a disused cable spool I stole from behind a dumpster, cleaned up, and brought up here.”
“It’s so you!” Pinkie insisted. “Just like that awesome jacket. What’s its name?”
“…Rachel,” Sunset said, blushing slightly. “The other is Sasha. The one that got wrecked when I… uh…”
“Became a world-destroying zombie-controlling raging she-demon?” Pinkie finished helpfully.
“Yes. That,” confirmed Sunset, less than enthused. “Its name was Heather. How… did you know I name my jackets?”
“Easy!” Pinkie said. “It just seems like something you’d do! Like I said, I’d do it too if I didn’t have so many different outfits for entertaining! Different parties take different approaches, you know! So, when and where do you want your Welcome Back Party to be?”
“I… what?”
“Well, I mean, obviously you’re going to come back to school and meet up with all your friends again! After that, we’ll all go to the Sugarplum Corner Bakery and have a big party in your honour, to celebrate your return to the land of the living! I work there part-time so I can get us a nice discount!” Pinkie said.
Sunset pondered this for a minute. “I really don’t want a pa—” Then realized it was pointless to resist the Pink head-on. “Look, can we wait to discuss this until after I’m back at school?”
Pinkie stared at Sunset, suddenly serious, causing Sunset to back up two steps, worried that Pinkie would not take no for an answer. That girl did take parties very seriously, after all. Much to the relief of Sunset and probably everyone else in the building, Pinkie’s expression just as suddenly snapped back to her standard massive grin.
“Okay! Actually, that’s better anyway, since we can talk and make sure everyone can be there!”
“Uh, yeah,” Sunset said, noncommittal. “So… I guess you’d better get started on preparations or whatever.”
Pinkie nodded. “Yep! I’ve got a lot to get done now! This is gonna be the best Welcome Back To The World Party ever! Bye!!”
With all the subtlety of a pickup truck modified to have its exhaust pumped out via a massive pipe through the bed rather than through a muffler like a sane person’s ride, Pinkie took her leave. After the door slammed, Sunset locked the deadbolt and the security chain, collapsing on the couch with an unwinding sigh. After a minute, she perked up as she recalled the conversation.
“What the hay did I just agree to?”