//------------------------------// // Slumber Party at Pinkie's // Story: Rainbow Rocks: Another Story // by ArcanaMaverick7 //------------------------------// After meeting Pinkie's family, who everyone agreed were nothing like her, they allowed to let Pinkie have a sleepover with all of her friends. Everyone eventually changed into sleepwear they brought or were provided and hung out in Pinkie's bedroom. It was pretty cramped with almost twenty people, but everyone made room and did their own things with each other. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were playing video games with Silver, Rua, and Slate while Pinkie typed away on her laptop. "Status update: 'Okie-dokie-lokie'," Pinkie said as she wrote down on some social media site and started to upload a few videos from her phone. Vixen, Lapis, Rebecca, and Layla were reading some books and magazines Pinkie's family had let them borrow. A few of them were classic literature, science magazines, or books on geology and earth science. Pinkie explained that her older sister, Maud was in college for those courses and was doing remarkably well. The girls reading found the mentions of how certain crystals and gems could be used in this world to be fascinating as they kept reading. Meanwhile, Rarity was setting up her phone's camera to take pictures of herself, Fluttershy, Sunset Shimmer, Celadon, and Cereza. However, Spike managed to sneak his way into the background of the latest photo and when Rarity checked the result, she wasn't happy to see that the dragon-turned-puppy had photobombed them. As Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rua, Silver, and Slate played their game, Rainbow Dash was starting to lose. As her expression kept showing worry, she kept trying to beat the others until she realized that she was outmatched. Before that somebody could secure the victory, Rainbow Dash quickly slammed her hand on the game console and disconnected the game. "Hey! I was about to beat you," Applejack complained as the other three groaned at how Rainbow was being a sore loser. "I doubt it," Rainbow Dash said as she spun her controller on her finger. "So, Twilight, how's the counter-spell coming," Rainbow Dash asked as she looked at the princess on Pinkie's bed. Writing in a notebook Fluttershy gave her, Twilight spent the night writing down how they could beat the Dazzlings. "Huh? Oh, uh, good. Great," Twilight said as she flipped through the pages of the notebook. Azalea was sitting next to the princess as she looked at her Scroll's photo gallery, but could hear the hesitation and nervousness in Twilight's voice. "Thanks for letting me use your notebook, Fluttershy. I really like the song you wrote for the Rainbooms," Twilight thanked her friend before Azalea silently asked to see the book for herself. Azalea looked at the songs Fluttershy came up with and started to read the lyrics. "Got the music in our hearts. We're here to blow this thing apart. And together, we will never be afraid of the dark," Azalea recited for everyone to hear. "This is beautiful, Fluttershy," Azalea complimented as the rest of Fragment Hunter started to look at the song for themselves. "Thanks, you two. That means a lot," Fluttershy said. "Hopefully one day, we'll get a chance to play it," she sighed as she hugged Pinkie's stuffed alligator plush. Azalea looked at Rainbow Dash as she started to play keep away with Applejack's controller. "Twilight, I think I speak for all of us when I say I don't know what we would have done if you hadn't come back to help us," Rarity voiced as she sat down next to Twilight. Sunset Shimmer and the other Rainbooms agreed before Rarity noticed something. "Where are Sunset Blaze and Vinyl?" "Blaze said she needed help with her hair after she and Vinyl stopped at a few places before coming here," Sunset Shimmer explained to the others. Before anyone could ask why Blaze needed to get help with her hair, the doorbell rang and Pinkie stood up in excitement. "Pizza's here," she exclaimed and caught everyone's attention. Before they could all head out of Pinkie's room, Azalea charged through everyone like they were made out of cardboard. "OUT OF MY WAY! I'M STARVING," she shouted as she knocked everyone down and was the first to leave the room. "Wait for us, Freckles," the members of Fragment Hunter exclaimed as they bolted after her. "Save some for us," Rainbow Dash exclaimed as the Rainbooms and Sunset Shimmer all followed them in the same way. Twilight was left alone in Pinkie's bedroom and started to contemplate about everything that was happening. Looking back in the notes she wrote, she was unable to come up with a proper counter-spell. Any attempt to make a song from scratch was scribbled out or incomplete. The only thing Twilight had was a doodle of herself spitting lightning at a figure of Adagio Dazzle. Sighing sadly, Twilight was soon brought out of her thoughts as Pinkie popped in with a slice of pizza in her mouth. "Don't you want any pizza," she asked Twilight before heading back to the others. Before Twilight went to join her friends, she opened up Pinkie's dresser drawer. Ignoring the leftover junk food that was apparently in there, Twilight placed Fluttershy's notebook away and closed the drawer before she exited the bedroom herself. "And when Azalea pinned the first head down, me and Layla blasted it with Dust to incinerate the Grimm," Slate said as he regaled the Rainbooms with the story of their initiation at Beacon Academy. "After that, Rebecca blinded the second head with her shuriken and it tried to coil around Team SAFR. But, Blaze was able to use her flames to get it away while they jumped to safety on Vinyl's platforms." "After that, Sunset used her rifle to goad the King Taijitu into opening its mouth while Vinyl and I used our Semblances to attack," Celadon continued. "By sheer coincidence, my gems and Vinyl's energy blasts reacted to each other and they exploded. The explosion was beautiful and it took out the second snake head, leaving the Grimm dead and its body dissolving away." "Man, I wish I could visit your world," Rainbow Dash said as she finished another slice of pizza. "But, I wouldn't want to get overrun by Grimm like that." "Especially if you think you can take on something like a King Taijitu or an Ursa Major without any training by yourself," Rua remarked. "Although, there was this one guy who managed to decapitate an Ursa Major on his own after it beat the snot out of him." "Hey. Jaune's been doing well with his swordsmanship since then," Silver reminded his teammate. "Okay, okay," Rua said as she grabbed another slice of pizza for herself. As the Rainbooms saw that Rua was digging into her fifth slice, they also noted that the other Hunters were eating a lot of food themselves. "Can I ask something? Why is it that you twelve seem to be eating enough food to feed an army," Twilight inquired. "And trust me, I know how much food an army can eat. My brother's in the Equestrian military." Fragment Hunter stared at Twilight for a few seconds before Cereza answered. "We can match armies in combat by ourselves. We burn through a lot of energy on productive days. Takes a lot of food to satisfy us." "Like the ramen at 'A Simple Wok'," Vixen stated before licking her lips. "Mmm, ramen bowls the size of Azalea's chest..." "Did you have to say that as a comparison," Azalea asked with an irritated tone as she started to pour some soda to wash down all of the pizza she ate. "I would've said your dad's chest, but he isn't here," Vixen giggled. "That's the extra-large bowls at 'A Simple Wok' at most," Silver remarked. "Do you even remember how he looks? HE'S GIGANTIC!!!!" "I think we're going to need some visual aids," Rarity mentioned as the Rainbooms had no reference for what Azalea's father looked like. Azalea pulled out her Scroll and showed the girls the picture of her father standing next to a woman who looked very similar to Azalea. "My dad's 7 feet tall, just so you know," she mentioned as the girls saw a man with bull horns that added six inches to his already imposing height and muscular build. "Would it be offensive if I said that I wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley," Sunset Shimmer asked as she stared at the photo. "As long as you don't mean because he's a Faunus," Azalea replied. "Is that your sister in the picture with him," Rarity asked. "She's gorgeous! Just like a queen or a goddess!" "That's my mom," Azalea said. "And don't worry. Everyone has that reaction to her," a voice said as they walked into the kitchen. Everyone turned to see Sunset Blaze returned with her hair back to having highlights instead of being ombre, which made her look exactly like Sunset Shimmer. "My teacher from Garrison Academy is pretty much the same. She looks like she's royalty at first glance," Blaze said as she pulled out her own Scroll to show a picture of who she was talking about. "Principal Celestia," the Rainbooms exclaimed as they mistook the photo for their principal. "Hold on, she has pink hair only," Rainbow Dash noted. "Looks like Fluttershy's a lot," Applejack remarked as she looked at her friend and the photo. "She's absolutely divine! Just look at her ensemble," Rarity complimented. Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle looked at the photo and took notice of the necklace she wore. "The necklace she has reminds me Princess Celestia back home," Twilight mused. "Yeah. It kind of does," Sunset Shimmer agreed wistfully. "Okay, enough with the photos," Slate said as he yawned. "I say we get some sleep. A few of us will crash in the living room to give you girls some space for yourself." "I can agreed to that," Silver said as he left for the aforementioned room. Eventually, everyone decided to get some sleep before they prepared for the the Battle of the Bands tomorrow. While most of Fragment Hunter slept in Pinkie's living room, a few girls and the Rainbooms stayed in the pink girl's bedroom. Twilight woke up in the middle of the night while everyone else seemed to be fast asleep. Clumsily maneuvering her way around her friends as they slumbered, she retrieved Fluttershy's notebook and headed back to the kitchen to continue writing the counter-spell. Because she wasn't used to using her hands like Sunset Shimmer was, Twilight held her pen in her mouth and started to write up some lyrics for the song. However, she felt like they were bad and she spat the pen out of her mouth. "No. That's not going to work," Twilight said to herself. Rubbing her eyes, the young princess didn't see that there was somebody at the kitchen doorway. "Hey, Twilight," Sunset Shimmer greeted as she stood in the doorway. "You're up late," she mentioned as Azalea and Sunset Blaze walked in with her. "Guess we all can't sleep much tonight." Twilight was startled by the sudden appearance of the three girls and covered up the notebook with all her failed scribbles and doodles. "Just looking over the counter-spell. We only have one shot at this. So, we have to make it count. It has to be perfect," Twilight said as she picked up book. "We really are lucky to have you," Shimmer said as she opened the fridge to get a snack. "That's what everyone keeps telling me," Twilight sadly replied. "Who could possibly need this much whipped cream," Shimmer and Blaze both asked as they saw that Pinkie's fridge was filled with cans of whipped cream. "I dunno. But, I'm still hungry," Azalea said as she grabbed a can and shook it. Spraying a handful of whipped cream onto her palm, she started to eat away at the dairy product while Blaze only smiled and shook her head at Azalea's eating habits. Sunset Shimmer grabbed the can of whipped cream from Azalea and placed a dollop on her finger as she spoke to Twilight again. "Must be nice to have everyone always looking to you for answers to their problems," Shimmer mused before her tone became sadder. "Instead of waiting for you to cause a problem." "Just because everyone expects something from you doesn't mean it's guaranteed to happen," Twilight stated as she looked at her failed scribbles in the notebook. "Well, that doesn't stop them from expecting it," Shimmer sadly mentioned. "Which only makes things harder because the last thing you want to do is," Twilight continued. "Let everybody down," Twilight and Sunset Shimmer said at the same time. The two girls looked at each other and gave sympathetic grins as they realized that they were more alike than they originally thought. As Sunset closed the fridge door, she was startled by the sudden appearance of Pinkie's sister, Maud. "Boulder was hungry," Maud flatly said as she reached for a box of crackers and started to empty the contents over her pet rock, walking out of the kitchen while doing so. Despite her monotone inflections and stoic behavior, Azalea and Blaze couldn't help but picture Pinkie doing the same thing if she had a pet rock herself. The thought of it made the Huntresses-in-training giggle. "I still can't get over the fact that she's related to Pinkie Pie," Sunset Shimmer said to Twilight and the others. "You and me both," Twilight agreed as she met the version of Maud back in Equestria and noticed the similarities between the two versions. All four girls were amused by what happened, but the fun was over as Sunset Shimmer yawned. "I better get some sleep. Good luck with the counter-spell," Shimmer said to Twilight. "Not that you'll need it. This must be nothing compared with the stuff you're expected to deal with as a princess in Equestria," she remarked. Twilight looked back at the notebook and was unsure of herself and what Shimmer believed about her. "Sunset Shimmer," Twilight called out to the girl. Shimmer stopped at the doorway and waited for what Twilight was going to say. However, Twilight couldn't seem to find the words. Sunset Blaze thought it was strange, so used her Semblance to hear Twilight's thoughts and emotions. "I... forgive... you... for what... happened between... us back at... the Fall Formal and... I want you to be... my... friend," Twilight tried to mentally say, but it was coming out haltingly. "Never mind," Twilight dismissed. "It's nothing important," she said before Shimmer left the kitchen with an awkward smile. "If that wasn't important, I don't know what is," Blaze thought to herself and her Semblance let Azalea know what Twilight was thinking as well. As Sunset Blaze followed her doppelganger, Azalea silently stayed behind and saw Twilight pound her fists on the counter she stood at. "No, I have to be able to do this. I have to," Twilight said with a determined look, forgetting that Azalea was in the room with her. "You can't do everything on your own," Azalea stated and scared Twilight. "Even veteran Huntsman, who are strong and skilled enough to wipe out monsters the size of buildings, need help. There's a reason that beginning Hunters are placed in teams of four. To work with each other, build themselves as a group, forge friendships, and learn from each other when they don't have the answers for a problem on missions. I would've never been where I am now without help from the rest of Fragment Hunter." Twilight listened to what Azalea told her and was taken aback. "Azalea..." "Even the strongest and smartest need help from somebody else," Azalea said to try and cheer Twilight up before they went back to bed. After the two Sunsets left the kitchen, Blaze stopped Shimmer to talk with her again. "Listen, Shimmer. If you feel like people expect certain things from you, try and change what they would expect. Especially, since we have what we talked about earlier to do," Blaze explained. "Do you really think it'll work," Shimmer asked uncertainly. "It all depends on if you can remember what you need to know," Blaze answered. Shimmer nodded and started heading back to Pinkie's bedroom, but Blaze grabbed her shoulder for one last thing to say. "Twilight does want to be your friend. She just doesn't know how to say it. Everything will work out when it does." Sunset Shimmer smiled at Blaze's words and went to go get some sleep. Seeing Azalea and Twilight return from the kitchen, Blaze turned to them and Azalea said only one thing. "We have a big day tomorrow."