Sunset walked through the door to her apartment, releasing a tired sigh. Today had been a long day at school and she was really looking forward to some nice, quiet time for the weekend. No hanging out with friends, no extra work, just her, her pj's, the TV, and a whole lotta junk food.
After taking off her boots, she made her way to the coat hanger and hung up her winter jacket. It was early into spring, and still the days got cold enough that she was forced to wear said article of clothing rather than her preferred leather jacket. She still didn’t know that leather was made from animals. Seeing their friend, who they knew was once an equine herself, wear the hide of similar creatures made the girls feel uneasy. It wasn’t just the fact that it was a leather jacket, no- it was made from horse leather, as Fluttershy so graciously pointed out. Rarity made her a faux leather jacket before, to see if perhaps Sunset would be willing to wear it instead. However, much to the appall of her friends, the fiery-haired girl said it “just didn’t feel the same”.
Sunset blinked as she realized something: “Did I take off my backpack before I removed my coat?” Looking around, she saw that her backpack was nowhere to be seen. “...Maybe I forgot it at school, dang it..”
Reopening her door, she reached into her pocket to grab her keys only to pull out… her backpack? What was it doing in- no, wait, how’d it even FIT in there!? Shaking her head, she gave another sigh as she remembered who had her backpack last.
“Pinkie. Of course.”
The bag now clutched firmly in her hand, she once again entered the apartment, threw her boots off, and let the offending object unceremoniously drop to the floor in the entrance way. She could pick it up later; right now all she wanted to do was get a nice, refreshing glass of milk.
Shimmer shimmied past the counter in her small kitchen and to the fridge, where all the glorious cartons of milk awaited her. Ever since she was a filly, Sunset had found herself with an almost unhealthy obsession with Fat Free milk. And carrots, but that’s unimportant. Nopony quite knew why, but Princess Celestia didn’t mind much. Who was she to judge when she had a “secret” stash of bananas and cakes with her at all times?
When at Pinkie’s sleepover during The Battle of the Bands, Sunset had opened the eccentric girl’s fridge hoping to find a midnight snack, but she was met only with whipped cream. See, that was completely different than her fridge. She really did mean it when she asked, “who could possibly need this much whipped cream?”, because why would you have a fridge full of whipped cream when you could have a fridge full of milk and carrots! She figured Pinkie really was crazy, in a way different from the girl’s usual randomness.
Grabbing a random carton (they were all the same type of milk, so she really didn’t care if more than one was opened), she undid the cap and obtained a drinking utensil from the cupboard. Placing her glass on the table, she allowed the milk to pour into the cup, filling it almost to the brim before leaving it on the countertop. Guiding the glass to her mouth, she prepared to chug it all. However, her plans were cut short as soon as she tasted the milk, and she spat it back into the glass.
“Ew! What the hay?” Thinking the milk could be expired, she checked the date on the carton. No, that wasn’t it, the milk was good for another few weeks. So what the-
Oh.
Oh, no.
She rubbed her eyes to make sure she was actually seeing what was before her. There, on the label, it read…
3.25% milk.
With a horrified scream, she threw her cup into the sink, snatched up the milk, and dashed to the rubbish bin, tossing it in.
“3.25% milk?! EW! What the heck, that’s disgusting! I never bought that!” Trying not to gag, Sunset quickly washed her mouth out with soup. Lots, and lots of soup. No, not soap, soup. Tears streamed down her face as she collapsed to her knees, “I’m so sorry, my beloved fat free milk, I’ve failed you...”
“Geez, it’s just a little milk. I knew she loved it, but this… this is a little much.”
Sunset snapped out of her tear-laden stupor and whirled around. “what the- oh my Celestia you’ve got to me kidding me. I knew you two were too quiet today! Was this your doing?”
Standing behind her, was none other than Daydream Shimmer, with Demon Shimmer to her side.
“It was her fault!” They both pointed fingers at the other- well, claws in Demon’s case.
“What! My fault? It was YOUR fault!” Daydream flabbergasted in response to the accusation.
“Was not!”
“Was too!”
Sunset facepalmed, “girls...”
“Not!”
“Too!”
“No-”
“Girls, girls, you’re both pretty. Can both of you shut up now!?” The main baconette yelled at that last part, causing the others to quit their bickering, aside from one last mumbled, “not my fault”, from the demon.
With one last silencing glare, Sunset ran a hand over her face with an annoyed groan, “Okay, here’s what’s gonna happen. You two are going to explain- without throwing blame at each other!” she quickly threw in as the two beings started to open their mouths again, “-what happened, and then you will not bug me for the rest of the day, got it?”
Two quiet, “yes, ma’am.”s were the replies she received as Demon rolled her eyes and Daydream crossed her arms.
“Good. You may begin.”
“Well,” the angelic being began, “this morning while you were preparing for school, this one came up to me and suggested a new game she came up with. I didn’t have much to do at the time, so I accepted her offer to try it out. What she didn’t tell me about this “game”, is that once you left the room it would separate us from you, thus giving us physical forms.” Daydream turned to the aforementioned creature, “though I’m still unsure as to how you figured that out.”
The demon giggled, “aww, Dreamy, you’re sounding like you’re not enjoying the freedom!” A serious expression then fell over her face, “and don’t call me a ‘creature’, that’s rude.”
Ignoring her second remark- Demon Shimmer said confusing things like that all the time -the more human of the two muttered, “I’d enjoy it a lot more if you weren’t free with me...” which earned her a tongue in her direction.
Pinkie suddenly popped up and elbowed Demon, “aren’t you upset that Daydream was called the ‘more human’ of you guys?”
“Not really,” Demon shrugged, “it’s true after all, and I take it as a compliment. Who’d want to be a human?” With that, Pinkie disappeared once more.
Shimmer let out an annoyed groan once again, “girls,” she warned.
“Whoops, sorry Sunset. Anywa-” Day was cut off.
“My turn!” A #f1556a hex-code coloured claw covered the mouth of the other girl before she could continue. The winged beast blinked, then narrowed her eyes, “Okay, first that was a very specific description, but now I’m upset because I was called a winged beast, which I am not!”
A queer look was thrown in Demon’s direction, before the gaze turned to Daydream. “I know I should probably know better than you but..” she gave a wide gesture towards the demonic sunset, “is she always like this?”
“Pretty much.”
“Right...”
“So! After Day yelled at me for like, forever over ‘selfishly forcing us out of Sunset’s mind’, she calmed down and we went about doing things. Then a while later, Dreamy here comes back up to me and is like, ‘do you know what day it is today?’ and I just say, ‘no? Why’,” there was snickering, “and she says, ‘it’s April Fool's Day, we have the perfect opportunity to prank Sunset’.”
“You?” Sunset pointed in surprise at the now nervously smiling angel, “YOU were the one who suggested to prank me?”
Daydream squirmed, “uhm, well-”
“No, quiet, I don’t want to hear it. I can’t believe you let- let her influence you so much!”
“Hey!”
“Ugh, just finish the story.”
Sunset sat back down.
“I was all, ‘oh, that’s devious! I mean, I see.’ and then we made the plan to switch out the milk. That’s all, really.”
All was silent for a few moments. The two magic beings shared a nervous look. Finally, the original baconette spoke up, sounding almost heartbroken, eyes covered by her hair.
“I never thought it would happen… my ownselves…”
Day prepared to step forward and comfort her when the girl lifted her head, a murderous glint in her eye and all previous traces of sadness out the window.
“Have turned into COMPLETE JERKS!”
Fear overtook those before her as they flinched back. They knew that tone all too well.
“W-we’re sorry, Sunset! Please sp-spare us!”
The pony-turned-human shook her head.
“No. An act as terrible as this cannot go unpunished. You two will have to play… The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword!”
A gasp of horror came from Day as she sobbed, “b-but the motion controls! Th-they *hic* are t-terrible!”
“Not only that,” a malicious grin spread across Shimmer’s face, “but you have to fight The Imprisoned.”
“NOOOOOOOOOOOO-!” This and more desperate cries for mercy came from Daydream Shimmer. But it was all in vain, Sunset would not be dissuaded from her course of action.
“YES!”
This, however, caused Sunset pause, “what?”
“I LOVE Skyward Sword! It’s one of my favourites! And the motion controls aren’t even that bad, people exaggerate or are too easily upset when they un-sync. Like, cut it some slack!” Exclaimed Demon excitedly. If this was her punishment, she couldn’t wait to start playing!
“Oh, is that so? Well in that case, you will not be playing Skyward Sword.”
“I won’t?” Demon deflated a little, nervousness overtaking her, “but I like all the Legend of Zelda games..” she mumbled.
“Then I hope you won’t mind playing Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. WITHOUT any online guides.”
Demon Shimmer’s blood ran cold, her eyes pinpricks, “you… you’re a monster.”
Sunset simply handed the two the respective games, and they defeatedly began trudging to the Wii and NES consoles.
“Oh, and girls?” Sunset called out, the angel and the demon turning around to face her. With a sweet smile that contrasted her smug voice, she said, “April Fool’s.”
“WHAT THE BUC-”