An hour and a half later, Juniper had showered, changed into a green casual dress, and tidied up what few things needed tidying up in her bedroom and around the house.
And just in time. True to her word, Twilight had continued sending periodic texts, with the latest one saying that she was minutes away. As Juniper made her final swipes with a feather duster, the doorbell rang. She walked to it, her heart flip-flopping between apprehension and excitement. She hesitated at the front door, put her hand to her chest, and took a deep breath.
Then she opened it.
Twilight was on the other side, wearing a purple raincoat and a smile. Juniper's smile was quick to follow. "Twilight! Come on in."
Twilight did so, taking off her shoes once she was inside. She hung up her coat up on the nearby rack, and threw her arms around Juniper. "Everything okay?" she asked.
"Way better than okay, now that you've made it here," Juniper said, hugging back. "I'm so glad you came."
"Hey, I said I would, didn't I?" Twilight replied.
"Well, yeah, sure, but—" Thunder cut her off. "Ugh. I still can't believe you actually decided to tackle the cats and dogs head on."
Twilight shook her head. "Totally not a factor. For any of us."
Juniper looked over Twilight's shoulder. "'Us'?"
Sunset Shimmer appeared in the doorway, holding pizza and snack boxes in one hand, and an umbrella in the other. She looked clearly distracted by the latter. Juniper followed her gaze upwards, and saw that the umbrella Sunset was holding was physically repelling any water that fell towards it. The water floated back up and around said umbrella, keeping Sunset and the boxes—and for the most part, the umbrella itself—dry.
"Seriously," Sunset said, still staring. "How."
Twilight sighed over-dramatically. "Oh my gosh, Sunset, I told you. It's just aerial temperature manipulation."
"And I told you," Sunset said, "I come from a world where rainclouds are magically activated by touch! Supposedly this thing I'm holding isn't magic, so I need a little bit more to go on here before my mind explodes." She looked at Twilight with a slanted grin. "Or this does."
Twilight grinned back, and rolled her eyes. "Yeesh, one little accident with a robot dog and suddenly I'm a mad scientist with no regard for anyone's safety. Fine, I'll prepare a custom lecture tomorrow if it'll make you feel better. For now, though," Twilight said, grabbing the boxes from Sunset. "Is there a place where I can put these?" she asked Juniper.
"Kitchen's straight ahead," Juniper replied. "Wow, dinner, too? You really went all out."
"Well, of course," Twilight said, smiling. "I guess I should have asked if you were hungry, but I know I never say no to free grub."
"Same here. Universal law," Juniper said, smiling back.
Sunset walked in, hanging up her orange raincoat, and giving Juniper her own hug. "Hi, Juniper. You doing okay?"
Juniper hugged back. "Well, I'm better now than I was even just twenty minutes ago, but that's not saying much."
"I hear you," Sunset said. "This is the first time Twilight's ever called a friendship emergency. I'm actually pretty proud at how fast she's getting the hang of this."
Twilight returned from the kitchen. "Well, you know, I learned from the best," she said, causing Sunset to blush. "And sometimes from Sunset," she added.
Sunset fed Twilight a mirthful sneer. "Okay, you need to run now."
Twilight hid behind Juniper, clutching her shoulders. "Help, Junie! Save me from the mean, mean interdimensional sushi salesgirl!"
"Oh, no, you are not putting this on me!" Juniper said, laughing. She stepped aside to watch to a laughing Twilight and Sunset chasing each other back and forth through the hallway, kitchen and living room.
After their fifth lap, another voice sounded from outside. "Um, hello? Should I still be waiting out here? I haven't heard the signal yet, and I think this umbrella's starting to run out of... whatever's powering it."
Juniper froze as she recognized that voice, clear as day.
"Miniature solar cells powering lithi—" Twilight responded on reflex before gasping. "Oh no, I'm so sorry! Yes, please come in, by all means!"
"Was that voice I just heard who I think it was?" Juniper whispered.
"Maybe." Sunset said. "When Twilight told me exactly what was wrong and why, I suggested we go all the way with regards to bringing support." She motioned to the door. "And here that support is, express from Equestria."
One last girl stepped into the doorway, dressed exactly as Juniper remembered. Purple and lavender top and beanie. Ripped jeans. A smile that could melt polar ice caps. Juniper had been sure she would never see any of those things again.
Before Juniper stood the first person to ever truly understand her, and use that understanding to snatch her from the edge of insanity—to say nothing of a criminal record.
The only good memory from that terrible day she'd transformed rolled its footage in Juniper's mind. Freed from the grip of that awful, awful magic, she was ready to spend the rest of her life detached from the universe, as a social pariah of her own creation. But instead, the girls she'd all but attacked forgave her on the spot, citing all of their own past mistakes in the process.
And then, Starlight Glimmer had approached her. Hugged her. Said there were no hard feelings, especially from her. They'd talked a lot over the next few days. About moving on, and moving between worlds. Juniper still remembered hiding tears when she and the others had seen Starlight back to Equestria.
And now those tears were coming back. Before she knew it, she was at the door, squealing and hugging Starlight as if doing so could anchor her in Juniper's dimension forever. "I can't believe it. You're here!"
"Well, of course," Starlight said, hugging back. "After I heard what was going on? I wasn't about to leave my otherworldly best friend to soak in sadness by herself. You ready for some fun? Because I sure am."
Juniper stepped back, brushing off her dress. "Y-yeah. Fun," she said, her heart still floating on clouds. "Let's do that. All of that."
"I still can't believe Princess Twilight let you out," Sunset said.
"You're right to think that," Starlight said. "She actually had a ton of questions when we got your request." She tilted her head. "And... then the Friendship Map's representation of my cutie mark started hovering around the mirror. Sometimes it would try to go through it, but it kept bouncing off the glass. All of which I thought was a little weird."
She shrugged. "Anyway, when Princess Twilight regained consciousness, she figured that that meant it was urgent, so here I am. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm starting to think we may need to talk to her about placing too much faith in mystical artifacts." Starlight reached outside, pulling in a plastic-sealed mound of fabric. "Ugh. Sometimes I really wish I had my horn on this side of things."
Juniper eyed the plastic container. "Are those sleeping bags?"
Twilight beamed. "Yep."
Juniper blinked. "Why?"
"Um..." Twilight scratched her head. "Sleepover? I figured it was obvious."
Juniper stared in stunned silence.
"What?" Twilight said. "You told me on the way to Canterlot High the other day that your parents were away this weekend on an anniversary trip."
"Anniversary?" Starlight said. "Awwww, that's so sweet."
"I know, right? That's what I said!" Twilight smiled at Juniper. "So yeah. What were you planning to do this whole time? Alone, even?"
"I was originally just going to enjoy the peace and quiet, but something tells me this is the better timeline." Juniper shrugged. "That all said, I just realized that I might not actually ever have had anything resembling a sleepover in my life," she said, her voice lowering in volume with each word.
Twilight gasped. "Wait, seriously?"
"Seriously," Juniper said, clutching her arm and looking away, then turning back. "I-I've seen them in movies, though! Does that count? Please tell me that counts."
She looked back over to the others, only to see Starlight and Sunset shrug. "I've never had one either," Starlight said.
"Only a few myself," Sunset added. "And only within the last year. For obvious reasons."
"Same here, but different reasons," Twilight said with her own shrug.
"Which, sadly, still makes you and Sunset the experienced ones here," Starlight said.
Twilight sighed. "Yeah, it occurred to me on the way here that all of us have kind of led unique social lives until recently?" She twirled her index fingers around each other. "As in, you know, not really any way that could be described as 'active'."
"Which is why we were all completely up for this, Juniper," Starlight said, turning and walking towards her. "Because we've all been where you are right now."
"And when we were," Sunset added, "we were lucky if we had even one person to talk to. Because we were really good at driving others away from us."
"Or closing ourselves off from them." Twilight took Juniper's hands, and looked into her eyes with a sober expression. "So, no leaving anyone out in the cold. Because we all know how that feels."
Starlight hugged Juniper from behind. "Of course, it helps that we all like you, too."
"Hopefully the feeling's mutual," Sunset said. "Otherwise things could get a little awkward."
Officially out of tears, Juniper settled for sniffling, smiling from ear to ear, and relaxing in the warmth of her friends. "It was mutual before ten minutes ago. Now? I'll get back to you when I find the words."
All four laughed, and in the midst of her mirth, Juniper closed her eyes...
...only to be out in the storm.
Thunder boomed, and lightning flashed, illuminating, for a split second, a vision of the three girls who had just happily entered her house, now giving her angry stares.
Juniper opened her eyes with a gasp. None of the others had noticed her trancing off. She managed to force her smile back to its original state to match the expressions of the others.
All smiles tonight, Juniper chanted to herself. Nothing but smiles. Keep the smiles. Keep them on everyone.
She shivered.
Whatever happens, I have to make sure tonight is absolutely, 100 percent perfect.