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// "How tha HAY am Ah going ta explain THIS to tha insurance company?!" 
// Story: Sunscarred 
// by Masterweaver 
//------------------------------//

"You could just tell them that a teenage girl in an outfit with crystal-embedded pauldrons ripped the hood off your truck to use as a shield in her duel against another version of the same girl that has big wings made of fire."

Applejack leveled a flat look on Pinkie. "Do ya think they'd really believe that?"

Pinkie simply pointed at the countless people who had whipped out their smartphones and started recording the battle in the sky.

"...Ah'll just check it off as hooligan damage," Applejack conceded. "Probably a lot easier that way." She glanced up at the duel and sighed. "Yeah, we're not goin' ta be able to get them calmed down any time soon. Ah'll call Rarity, maybe between her shield things and mah rope wranglin' skills we'll be able ta get them tied down."

"Okay, you do that. In the meantime, do you mind if I nip into this ice cream parlor?"

"Pinkie, now ain't tha time to be indulgin' your sweet tooth!"

"Well, duh, you know that and I know that but the Sunset Shimmer in there seems not to have gotten the memo."

Applejack blinked, looking through the window of the shop. Sure enough, a version of Sunset dress up in her Camp Everfree formal wear was holding a sundae dish to her face and nomming down on frozen sweets.

"Huh. Alright then." She nodded. "Let's go in and get her, Ah suppose..." She tapped a few keys on her phone. "Rares, when ya get this, come meet us in tha Marble Slab off the corner o' Stirrup street and Saddle Way, we've found a few of... Sunset, Ah guess?"

Pinkie skipped through the door, giggling as she sat down next to Sunset. "You seem to be having fun."

"OH MY GOD. PINKIE. PINKIE DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS IS."

"Literally or metaphorically? Cause both have like, ten different answers."

"THIS." Sunset licked the final stickiness off the sundae dish. "THIS IS... this is the total, the amazing, this is the amazing total. OF SWEET GOODNESS."

Pinkie nodded. "Well, not the total total. You, uh, got a little something on your cheek there."

Sunset blinked, looking at her reflection in the dish and trying to wiggle her tongue out to catch it.

Applejack rolled her eyes. "Hey, uh, look. If ya'll're done here, maybe we should getcha back to tha lab."

"But Twilight is still in the boring data analysis phaaaaaaase!" Sunset whined. "I don't wanna listen to statistics!"

"Actually, Ah got a text from her a short bit back. Starlight's back and she's brought yer..." Applejack glanced at the phone. "Ah think brother?"

"OH MY GOD." Sunset swiped the sundae dish aside as she lunged over the table. "SUNBURST IS HERE?!"

"Uh... yeah, that's what Ah just--"

"Ohmygod this is amazing! Wait no this is horrible, I'm split into so many parts--no, wait he's here to fix that, right? I mean duh, of course he is!" The girl dropped Applejack and started pacing. "But what if he needs me to go back to Equestria to fix this? I could miss the new Daring Do movie!"

"Oh my gosh that's kind of important!" Pinkie agreed. "But that's a month away, and I'm pretty sure he'll have this fixed by then."

"Oh right, right right! Yeah, time, it's a thing!" Sunset giggled. "I guess I could use the time to read some more of this world's history or find some more sweets to eat or something."

"Could you maybe consider going to the lab and lettin' yer brother do his fancy magic with ya?" Applejack offered.

"I wouldn't be able to stay put!" Sunset explained. "I think I'm the feelings, right? Like do you know how good this ice cream was? It was soooooooooo good!" She sniffled. "And now it's gone, forever!"

"Hey, hey hey!" Pinkie put an arm around her. "Do you know what I do when I realize I've run out of ice cream?"

"What?"

"I..." Pinkie grinned. "BUY MORE ICE CREAM!"

"Oh my gosh. You're right! There's an economic solution!" Sunset fumbled around her dress. "Wallet, wallet, where's my wallet--"

Applejack facepalmed. "Sunset, ya know that's gonna get you a stomachache, right?"

"What?!" Sunset whirled to her, tears in her eyes. "Really?!"

"I never get stomachaches," Pinkie pointed out."

"You're Pinkie Pie," Applejack reminded her.

"...Fair point. Still." Pinkie took Sunset's quaking shoulders. "Look at that face, AJ. Look at that sad sad face."

The farm girl looked at the quivering lips, sniffling nose, and water-drenched eyes.

"...Seen worse in the mirror," she replied, unimpressed.

"Whhhyyyyyyyyyy?" Sunset wrapped her arms around Pinkie, burying her head in her shoulders. "WHY IS AJ SO MEAN TO MEEEEEEEEE?!"

"There there," Pinkie cooed, patting her back. "She's just trying to be a level-headed responsible adult without realizing that the situation needs a delicate touch."

Applejack threw up her hands. "Pinkie, we gotta get all of them back to tha lab. Letting one of them pig out on ice cream is not 'gettin' them back to tha lab!'"

"It is if she's pigging out in the lab."

"The lab doesn't have ice cream."

"Not yet." Pinkie twirled out her cell phone, flicking it open. "Maud! Sister my sister, my beloved big sister,  Maudalina Daisy Pie, I have a big huge super big ginormous humongous little favor to ask of you!"

"What is it?"

"You know my super-secret-special-stupendous-sugar-sweet-succulent supply of ultimate ice cream that I keep hidden in the back of the freezer that's in the room behind the locked door that's behind the heating unit in the cellar?"

"...I do now."

"Well there's a tub of mint chocolate ice cream beside it. Could you get that and bring it up to the laboratory at the school? It's a magical emergency type thing. Oh, and whatever you do, don't touch the SSSSSSS ice cream with your bare skin. Wear rubber gloves. It's technically legal, don't worry, it's just... kiiiiiiind of experimental right now."

"Okay. Be there in ten minutes."

"Thanks a bundle, Maud!" Pinkie flipped her cell phone shut. "So you'll get ice cream if you come with us to the lab, okay Sunset?"

"Oh my gosh that sounds incredible!"

"And we can watch a movie!"

"Can it be the one with the dogs?!"

"Absodutley!"

Applejack blinked as the two walked past her and out of the ice cream parlor. "Uh... okay then. That works, Ah guess..."

Rarity rushed in, grabbing her shoulders. "Applejack, I saw Sunset and Sunset. You have a plan?"

"Uh--right, those two." Applejack shook her head. "Sorry, got distracted by Pinkie's nonsense. Ah've got mah rope, you've got yer shields, so Ah was thinkin' maybe..."