//------------------------------//
// And Now, the Moment You've All Been Waiting For... 
// Story: Sunset Shimmer vs Schadenfreude 
// by Daemon McRae 
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This was it. Finally, the Fall Formal had arrived. Sunset Shimmer was a bundle of nerves for a bundle of reasons. Not the least of which being that she had quietly and privately staked her entire social life on the outcome of tonight’s party. Or, at least, she had done so in her mind. In reality it was likely that if anything went wrong at the dance it wasn’t going to be because Sunset let someone pick the wrong color flowers to decorate the tables with. There was still only one Rarity in this world, after all.

Of course, there were two Twilights. One who had been a great big help in setting up for the Fall Formal, and another who had taken a short-notice vacation to another dimension that amounted to little more than playing video games and trying not to be in the same place as the human Twilight in public. Which, given ‘human’ Twilight’s newfound social life, boyfriend, and part-time job, was rather difficult.

Fortunately for ‘pony’ Twilight, everyone at the school now knew about their being two of her, and had no qualms with both of them attending the Fall Formal. For ‘human’ Twi, it was a big social event and a great chance to spend time with her friends, and dance with her boyfriend, who she’d brought as her date. For ‘pony’ Twi, it was a special anniversary of a very important event; making fiends with Sunset Shimmer and introducing the Magic of Friendship to a whole new group of friends.

Which would have been just fine and dandy if ‘human’ Twilight’s boyfriend didn’t keep confusing the two. Not to mention ‘pony’ Twilight’s date, Flash Sentry, also seemed to be having issues. ‘Human’ Twilight really should have worn glasses instead of contacts tonight.

Sunset herself hadn’t brought a date, instead deciding to go in a group with her friends. In fact, the only other girl in the Rainbooms with a date was Rainbow Dash, who had (much to Rarity’s annoyance), shown up on Soarin’s arm. It wasn’t to say Rarity had any affection for the boy. Much to the contrary, she barely registered him as a passing acquaintance. No, her ire lie in the fact that Rainbow Dash of all people got a date to the Formal when she did not.

“I swear, Sunset, she’s doing this just to annoy me,” Rarity whined, as the girls sans Rainbow and the Twilights all gathered around a table to chat for a moment.

“No, I don’t think so. She’s probably just looking to get laid. If she wanted to annoy you she’d have taken someone completely off-type just to prove a point, then get bored five minutes in and be sitting here with us,” Sunset argued. “No, that is someone going something just to annoy you,” she growled, jabbing a thumb in the direction of one of the buffet tables. The girls turned as one to see Schadenfreude carefully stacking cups next to the punch bowl, then pressing down on the top just a little too hard so they all stuck together. “Hold on, let me go get him before he gets to the silverware.”

Sunset excused herself from the table, and marched over to Schaden, who was just about to do something untoward to a platter of baked salmon. “Schaden, what the hell are you doing?”

Freude looked up and smiled, leaving the fish alone for now. “Oh, hi Sunset! I got bored, so I was just going to switch the names on all the food platters.”

Shimmer felt an eye twitch. “Are you kidding?! What if someone has a food allergy?!”

Schaden rolled his eyes. “Oh please, not with each other! I had special tags made!” he said cheerfully.

“Of. Fucking. Course you did. Alright, let me see them,” she demanded, holding out a hand.

Schaden reached into his pocket and pulled out a stack of professional-looking placeholder cards done in the same font as the ones that were already laid out. Instead of ‘Baked Salmon’ and ‘Garlic-Roasted Cod’, however, they had names like ‘Oven-Toasty Glub Glub’ and ‘Anti-Vampire Fishsticks’. She felt a grin force its way onto her face, and finally gave up laughing as she reached the tag meant for the friend chicken, which read ‘Deep Fried Flap-Flap’.

“Ok, ok! Fine!” Sunset conceded when she’d finished laughing. “Just… make sure people know what’s in them it it was liked, cooked with peanuts or something, ok? Last thing I need is some kid with an allergy going into anaphylactic shock because I gave you a pass.”

“It’s like you didn’t even read the dessert tags,” Schaden said, looking slightly put out. For half a second. “Relax, Shimsham, I didn’t make tags for everything. Only the ones I could come up with half-decent jokes for. It’ll be fine.”

“The last time you said that I ended up scrubbing the treads of a tire that makes small cars cry on the inside. Now, I can’t help but notice you are distinctly… unsupervised. Where is Derpy?” Sunset asked, looking around for the blonde girl.

“Oh, she’s in the bathroom. Only chance I had to get all these tags out,” Schaden said reasonably. “Now shoo, you have a dance to enjoy and I have at least ten more of these things to swap out before she gets back.”

Sunset roller her eyes, had one last thought about letting Schaden get away with his latest prank, and decided that he wasn’t actually a supervillain and the worst that could happen was someone getting their undies in a twist because they weren’t keen on eating ‘Thinly Sliced Sea Kittens’, aka the catfish.

She rejoined the table just as Dash and Soarin took a seat. “So what was that about?” Applejack demanded, nodding her head towards the buffet line.

“Probably something I’ll regret later,” Sunset groaned, still smiling. “How are you girls doing?”

“We’re ok,” Fluttershy said quietly, although the group looked a little less than ok.

“Come on, what’s wrong?” Sunset said encouragingly.

Pinkie Pie groaned. “They’re all mopey cause last year we all went as a group and we did the singles thing but now like three of us have dates and they don’t think it’s as much fun when you’re single and your friends aren’t and I think it’s totally silly it’s a party and you should be dancing anyway and what the actual oatmeal cream pie is Bulk Biceps doing with Sonata Dusk?!”

The girls all took a second to catch up to the end of the sentence, and followed Pinkie’s gaze to the front doors, where Bulk was leading Sonata by the arm into the room, as a rousing chorus of ‘Bros, Bros, Bros!’ filled the air. Even Soarin and Schaden were chanting, much to Bulk’s embarrassment.

“Wow,” Sunset said. “Can’t believe they pulled that off.”

“You and me both, Shimmer,” said a familiarly snide voice behind her.

Sunset looked over her shoulder and sighed. “Hello, Adagio.”