//------------------------------// // A New Challenger Appears! // Story: Sunset Shimmer vs Schadenfreude // by Daemon McRae //------------------------------// Gratefully, Sunset didn’t have any actual classes with Schadenfreude. He knew a few people who did, including a couple of her friends, and she’d heard… stories about him. Most of which were more likely exaggerated than not, at she doubted anyone could actually get that many teddy bears into the library without Ms. Cheerilee noticing. There were a few that held water, though, like the simple pranks or minor annoyances he seemed to cause at irregular intervals. That might be what annoyed her most about him; he didn’t seem to have any regular schedule to it. He’d gone entire weeks without so much as raising a hair, and then everyone showed up to school on Monday missing a peg on their chairs. Although he did seem to respect the school rules, for the most part. One of the reason’s she’d chosen to hide out in the library after school on a Friday to work on some of the requisition forms and applications for rental space they’d piled on her. She couldn’t exactly blame them, as this part was mostly her job, and the others were pulling their own weight in different ways. Last she’d heard Pixel Pizzazz was talking to Vinyl and Tavi about how to get her car-slash-dj booth into the gym without breaking any laws. Or walls. Actually, that might be a perfect job for Schaden. She made a note in her pad to ask him about that when she saw him, which knowing his propensity for appearing at random times might be any second now. She wasn’t sure exactly what he was working on, but he’d done a decent job with the suggestion box, albeit not without blowing up all their Tweeter accounts. Lyra and Bon-Bon were on standby until she could give them a solid answer on where they were holding the dance. Hence, the application for rental space she was filling out. The Pier had been a very popular choice, once it had been narrowed down to three. They’d put another poll on the Suggestion Box Tweeter and it had won by a landslide, as most students hadn’t even considered the idea of having the dance off-campus until it was waved in front of them. Which just meant that many more people she’d be pissing off if she couldn’t swing it. She’d even gone so far as to grab multiple copies of the form, just in case she’d screwed one of them up. Although the one she was working on looked pretty good. She just needed to collect a few signatures. She was just packing up her things when her bag buzzed at her: Twilight had written to her in their journal. Excited at the distraction, Sunset quickly pulled the journal out and read over the message: Dear Sunset, I can’t believe it’s been an entire year since we first met. Even though it wasn’t on the under the best of circumstances, I wouldn’t change any of it for the world. In fact, I have arranged to take some time away from Equestria to celebrate our one-year anniversary of becoming friends! Not just with you, but with all of the girls on your side of the mirror. I know the actual date of your ‘Fall Formal’ isn’t for a few weeks, but I thought it only courteous to let you know well in advance! I thought it also might be prevalent to say something now, in case my arrival might prove an inconvenience to you. Love, Twilight. Sunset’s heart soared at the idea of spending time with her first real friend. Of course they’d all want to celebrate with her! She eagerly wrote back: Twilight, of course you can come over! The girls would love to see you and I can’t imagine a better way to celebrate than having us all here for the dance! There was a brief pause, and the book buzzed again. Great! I’ll be right over! “...what.” ------------------------- Sunset paced back and forth by the statue in front of the school, eagerly awaiting Twilight’s arrival. She wasn’t entirely sure why Twilight had opted to show up so early, but she would ask when they met. After a couple of minutes of frenetic pacing, the portal shimmered, emmited a bright light, and a very disoriented Twilight Sparkle hoped through. “Whoa,” Sunset said, catching her friend before she hit the ground. “Still not used to it, huh?” “Sunset,” the princess said, “I don’t think I’ll ever be used to it.” They shared a laugh, and she straightened herself out. “I’m sorry for showing up so early, but the only time I could get away was either all three weeks or not at all! Believe me when I tell you trying to schedule anything around bureaucracy is a punishment we should be saving for the next villain we try to reform.” Sunset rolled her shoulders as she worked out the kinks from catching her friend’s fall. “No problem. Honestly, it’s not like we don’t have a place for you to crash. You’ve seen my house, right?” Twilight gave her a deadpan stare. “Yes. And I’d still like you to explain how that happened.” “OR,” Sunset said loudly, “You could come with me to meet the girls! I know they’d all be super excited to see you! I’m the Co-Chairman of the Fall Formal Planning Committee, so I haven’t had much time lately to hang out with them. Well, except Pinkie.” Twilight chuckled. “Of course. I’d imagine she’ll take any opportunity to organize a party.” “More like trying to do it without her is like pulling teeth,” Shimmer groaned. “At least our committee seems to be on my side. I don’t know if you’ve noticed the last couple times you were here, but there’s still a few people that aren’t exactly buddy-buddy with me. I don’t expect to be friends with everyone, Twilight, but after the incident with Wallflower Blush I just don’t want anyone else to have a reason to hate me like that, you know?” “I do. So tell me, who else is on this committee?” Twilight asked, taking her friend by the arm and leading her down the path to the school’s entrance. “Well, me and Pinkie, obviously. Then there’s a girl named Pixel Pizzazz, Lyra and Bon-Bon-” “Oh, I know them! They’re friends from Ponyville!” Twilight said excitedly. “Of course they are. And then there’s-” “Hey Sunset, hey Twilight!” said a dangerously familiar effeminate voice from behind her. “What’re you two up to?” Sunset felt a huge groan well up within her, stifled only by the sudden tension she felt in Twilight’s arm and shoulder. She looked over to her fellow unicorn, whose eyes had become pinpricks. “...no...” Twilight said quietly. Sunset turned around cautiously. “Hey Schadenfreu-WHOA NELLY!” she shouted, as Twilight turned tail and ran for the portal. Sunset kept a grip on her hand, slowly dragging her back. “Bye Sunset hope you have a nice dance see you in a year when you’re graduated and far away from here ohlookatthetimeit’stimetobesomewhereelseGOODBYE!” Twilight rambled. “No, don’t go! Don’t leave me here with him! Pleeeease!” begged Sunset. “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Schaden rolled his eyes. “Jesus, but you two are drama queens.” ------------------------ Schaden hadn’t stayed around long, simply stopping to say he’d put together a budget based on donations and school allowance, and to give Sunset some paperwork. “Obviously you two have some deep-seated personal issues to work out,” he said, leaving them in front of the school. They couldn’t help but notice the rather nice black sedan that picked him up, and sighed in relief when he drove away. “So yes, he’s on the committee with me,” Sunset explained as they made their way to the parking lot. She had her nose buried in her phone as she texted the girls the good news. Of course, she’d really only needed to text Pinkie, but they had a group chat just to cut out the middle man. Everyone seemed greatly excited about the idea, and an impromptu party was being thrown at Sunset’s house. Of course, it helped that Pinkie had asked this time. Her birthday had involved a lot of screaming. Only some of it bad. Twilight shuddered. “Oh Celestia help us all. Schadenfreude in a position of power.” Sunset rolled her eyes. “Oh please. It’s a planning committee for a school dance. I mean, yes, he’s the Sergeant-at-Arms-” “YOU TRUST HIM WITH WEAPONRY?!” “Wha-NO! It just means he keeps the minutes at Student Council meetings and keeps everyone from getting out of hand. Which is actually a perfect job for him: you get too rowdy, he gets to be as annoying as he wants. The best way to keep him in check is to behave yourself,” Sunset explained. They reached the car, and climbed in quickly. “That… sounds exactly like what he does as Blueblood’s butler,” Twilight mused as she buckled herself in. “Blueblood? Isn’t that Princess Celestia’s nephew?” Sunset asked as she raised an eyebrow. She turned the key in the ignition, and the car sputtered to life. “In case you’re still wondering about how I got that house, it’s by settling for cheap crap like this.” Twilight looked around her. “I’ll never get used to cars, either. It’s so… ingenious. And if Fluttershy is correct, toxic.” “Yes, but that’s why we don’t stand behind the car. I mean, you don’t put your mouth over chimneys, do you?” Sparkle thought about that. “Fair point. So, what’s this for?” she asked, pointing to a small latch in front of her. “Oh, that’s a glove box. Go ahead and open it, it’s just storage,” Shimmer explained, slowly backing into the open lot. There was a click, a thunk, and then everything went to hell with a FWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Someone had booby trapped the glove box with noise makers and pop-out streamers. Oh, and the glitter. It was everywhere. “GODDAMMIT SCHADEN!” “Oh god, it’s in my… everything. Gross!” Twilight whined. ----------------------------------- After cleaning out the car as best they could, the drive home was relatively uneventful. Twilight ‘oohed’ and ‘aahed’ at all the sights they drove by, as she had the last time. It never failed to amuse Sunset how wide-eyed and exuberant she could still be about this ‘new world’. “So, do any of these stores specialize in getting rid of… sparkle powder?” Sunset snorted a laugh. “Glitter, Twilight. It’s called glitter.” Twilight looked at her shiny hands. “I don’t remember glitter being this fine… or shiny… or weird.” “Yeah, humans have a tendency to beat an idea to death. There’s… many, many kinds. Schaden is partial to ultrafine glitterbombs.” The princess raised an eyebrow. “Glitter… bombs? That was a bomb?!” “Only in the loosest sense. They’re spring-loaded canisters over-packed with glitter. And besides,” Sunset chided, with a sideways glance at her passenger, “Didn’t you mention something about one of your friends having a Party Cannon?” “SO! How far to your house?” Twilight answered not at all and a little too quickly. Sunset chuckled. “We’re here,” she said, pulling into her driveway. Her friends were all gathered on the porch, and rushed the car as they started to get out. “Twilight!” Rainbow called, rushing around the side and pulling her friend to her feet. Pinkie Pie was right behind them, joining in a group hug. Even their own Twilight had shown up for the party. Of course, she seemed to be the first to notice their almost rave-like appearance. “Um… why are you sparkly?” “Ooh, are you vampires?” Pinkie cheered, now covered in glitter. An equally shiny Rainbow groaned, “Vampires don’t sparkle!” Amidst the commotion of her friend’s concern and arguing over the validity of sparkly blood-suckers, Sunset just sighed and shrugged off a streamer and a handful of glitter. “Schaden,” she said simply. The group flinched. “Oooooh.”