//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: The Invitation // Story: Truth or Dare: The Most Anxious Slumber Party Ever // by TheStallionofDarkCavalry //------------------------------// You were in a very exciting mood today. And that reason is that it's Friday. For anyone your age, Friday is easily the best day of the week. Why? Because there are no school nights on Fridays. So that meant parties with friends, all-nighters, and tons of snacks and video games to play all night long. Of course, the last point is what you're most excited about since you had recently bought a game that your friend Sunset Shimmer told you about called Tirek's Revenge and you've heard a lot of great things about it from her. And to you, if Sunset tells you something is good, it's worth trying out. And she's definitely gonna be happy about this since she is one of the biggest video game lovers you know. As the bell rang after your final class for the day ended, you excitedly rushed to your locker to get your stuff and get home as quickly as possible. As you open your locker, you are suddenly greeted by an intense blast of impact coming out of it that knocked you down to the floor. You get back up to see what it was, and it was certainly nothing you were expecting. The blast from your locker was a huge shot of confetti and pink smoke coming out of it, and you were jokingly hoping that a clown didn't climb into your locker and let out a big one from too many bean burritos. No, it looked like there was a small present inside that created the blast and there was a note inside it. You read the note to see what it says. ANON!!! YOU ARE INVITED TO THE MOST EXCITING SLEEPOVER IN THE HISTORY OF SLEEPOVERS EVER!!! Even before getting to the bottom of the note, you immediately knew who wrote it based on the heavy use of interjections and the surprise you got in your locker: Pinkie Pie. You continued reading on. THERE WILL BE SO MANY EXCITING FUN GAMES WITH EXCITING TASTY FOOD AND EXCITING EXCITING THAT IT WOULD BE EXCITING FOR ALL OF MY EXCITING GREAT FRIENDS TO ATTEND THIS EXCITING PARTY!!! PLEASE COME!!! You stopped reading again and hoped that Pinkie didn't need to be defibrillated from being too excited when she wrote this invitation, and you then chuckled to yourself at your little joke. And you finally got to the bottom. SIGNED, PINKIE PIE!!! As you got done reading the note, you suddenly noticed someone looking over your shoulder. And it was the party-planning energized girl herself, giving you her trademark stretched-out smile that would scare children into a coma. It certainly almost scared you into a coma as Pinkie Pie excitedly asked you about the invitation while bouncing off the walls. Literally. "So, Anon. What do you say?" Pinkie asked excitedly after literally bouncing off the walls. "Are you coming to the sleepover?" You were a little caught off guard from noticing Pinkie behind you with that creepy smile, but you managed to quickly regain your composure to respond. "I don't know, Pinkie." You responded. "I've already made some plans to spend my evening, and I was really looking forward to them." Pinkie in response gives you a sad puppy dog-looking face. If there's anything in the world that saddens her, it's when people decline her party invitations. "Oh, come on! Please!" Pinkie begged. "I promise the party will be lots of fun! There will be everything at that party that super-duper party planners like me have to offer! There will especially be lots of yummy delicious food there!" She then pulls a list out of thin air, with no explanation as to how she did that, and she shows a very long list of food that will be at the party and it was written on a long scroll instead of a single piece of paper. The list contained typical food at most sleepovers such as apples, pizza, soda, ice cream, popcorn, and cake. But then you see more food on the list that looks more like they belong at buffet restaurants such as tacos, burgers, hot dogs, sushi, donuts, watermelon, the list goes on and it's a very long list. "Uh, Pinkie?" You asked. "Is this food for a party for all of our friends and us, or a party for a large group of women that are eating for two?" Pinkie then drops to the floor laughing hysterically with tears rolling down her eyes with some of them getting all over the scroll as she lays on her back kicking her feet up in the air. You rolled your eyes at her reaction over a joke that wasn't that funny. "Oh, Anon! You are so funny!" She laughs as she pulls you into a hug. "It's so good to see you showing this side of yourself to me and my friends, especially after the first time you met all of us." "Yeah, I was not much of a happy person before I met all of you." You said while having a depressed look on your face while Pinkie hugs you. "And for a person like you whose hobby is making people smile, it must have been very sad for you to see me that way." "Yeah, it was." Pinkie said gloomily while wiping a single tear rolling down her eye along with her hair drooping down representing her sadness. You then think back to those moments during your first week when Pinkie tried her hardest to get you to laugh through jokes, funny faces, and showing you her pranks on her friends, but to no avail. It must have been very miserable for Pinkie to continuously fail at something that pretty much defines who she is. Anyone would be very sad if they were in that situation. "Pinkie, I'm sorry that it was difficult for you to make me smile." You said with concern for your friend. "I've just been through one too many bad days in my life that it was difficult for me to move past them and I just could never stop worrying about everything that would happen to me." She then stops hugging you and gives you her usual happy smile and ruffles your hair. "It's okay, Anon. I'm just really happy that me and my friends managed to make you come around and feel better." She said while bending backward and getting on her hands to stand on them for some reason. "I'm super duper glad we managed to make your frown turn upside down!" And then suddenly much to the incredibly puzzled look on your face, Pinkie used her arms to spring herself up to the ceiling and then started standing on the ceiling. "Oh, and I of course sent invitations to the other girls. If you decide to come, just show up at my house with your sleeping gear. See ya later, Anon!" She giggled. Pinkie then walks away humming to herself still upside down on the ceiling as the students in the hallway look up to see Pinkie with weirded-out looks on their faces. "How did she do that?!" You asked aloud. "That's just the unexplainable goofy magic that is Pinkie Pie." Said a recognizable voice behind you. You turned around to see that the recognizable voice belonged to Sunset Shimmer, who was standing behind you as she was too watching Pinkie walk away on the ceiling and she was giggling at all of the reactions of the other students that were looking at Pinkie. "Hey, Sunset!" You said very happily as you two do a fist bump. "Hey, Anon!" She says back at you with a wide smile that then turns into an annoyed look. "Man, class with Mr. Cranky Doodle was not fun today." "You're telling me." You responded while rolling your eyes. "Whatever it was that gave him a bad day, it must have been pretty bad. He was so on edge he even snapped when Trixie dropped her pencil on the floor when she was flicking it like a magic wand." "Ms. Lulamoon! You're in a classroom in front of a teacher, not a theater in front of an audience! Now pay attention or your next vanishing act will be from here to the detention room!" You said while doing an impression of Mr. Cranky Doodle while imitating his cranky face. Your pretty spot-on impression managed to make Sunset laugh, very hard, which lasted for about ten seconds. You're pretty good at voice impressions and you sometimes do them to make your friends laugh, especially Sunset since making her laugh instantly puts you in a good mood. "You sound just like him! That was great, I needed that!" She laughs as she high-fives you for her making her day. "I'm always happy to cheer up my best friend in the whole world from a stressful school day." You say while having a wide smile of pride. Sunset smiles and blushes a bit from your flattering comment and then notices the invitation in your hand. "Hey, Pinkie Pie gave you one too?" She asks while pointing to the invitation in your hand. "Huh?" You asked back. Sunset pulls a piece of paper out of one of the pockets on her black leather vest and shows you that she also got an invitation to Pinkie's slumber party. "Oh, yeah! She did!" You said as you held up your invitation to Sunset. "You know, I don't understand what was the point with these invitations outside of the confetti and pink smoke explosion in the lockers. If she's just inviting all of us and nobody else out of the group, then why make invitations?" "That's Pinkie for ya. She tries to put a lot of emphasis on the word "surprise." It's what makes her the best party planner around." Sunset chuckles as she brushes some confetti out of her hair. "Yeah. And she seemed a little sad when I told her that I'm probably not going." You said. "What? Why not?" Sunset questioned in a sort of sad tone. "Because I already have plans for tonight that I am very excited about." You replied. Suddenly, you realized that you had forgotten to tell Sunset some big news she'll be excited to hear, and now's your chance to tell her. "That reminds me. I got some exciting news!" You said very excitedly. "Cool! What is it?" Sunset happily asked in curiosity about your excitement. "You know that awesome game you've been telling me about?" You asked with a wide smile. "Yeah! That game is amazing!" She says with her fists clenched in excitement. "I can't wait till you get..." Suddenly, Sunset's eyes widen and the size of her pupils decreased once she read the smiling look on your face. "You finally bought the game?" She asks in a quiet squeaky tone. "Yep." You responded happily. "I now own a copy of Tirek's Revenge." Upon hearing this, Sunset gives you a huge toothy smile with her huge pupil-expanded eyes giving off a sparkle as she then pulls you into a hug. "YES!! YOU FINALLY HAVE IT!!! YOU FINALLY HAVE THE GAME!!" She screams in a very happy and excited tone. "I'VE BEEN WAITING TOO LONG FOR YOU TO FINALLY PLAY IT!! IT IS SO SUPER DUPER EXCITINGLY AWESOME!!" "Be careful, Sunset. Your Pinkie side is showing." You say with a smirk as she's hugging you. "I DON'T CARE!" She screams as you see tears of joy running down her eyes. "I THOUGHT THIS DAY WOULD NEVER COME!!! I'M SO DARN HAPPY THAT IT HAS!!!" After she spends about a minute screaming like a crazy fangirl who saw her favorite boy band drive by in a van, she finally starts calming down and finally takes a breath. As she was finished screaming, you both suddenly became the center of attention to everyone who was near you two in the hallway, as it seems Sunset's loud fangirling had created quite a commotion that had caused a lot of people to look at you two with confused and creeped out looks on their faces. "Whoops. Maybe I was a little too loud." She nervously giggles while blushing. "Ya think?" You say with a deadpan tone. Suddenly, you noticed a group of boys smiling and grinning at you, giving you thumbs-up while pointing at Sunset. You are confused by what they were trying to tell you, but then you realized what it was and suddenly you just entered a fiery pit of embarrassment. Sunset still hasn't let go of you when she was hugging you from her excitement, and those boys think her hugging you indicates you and she are together in a romantic relationship. A huge blush suddenly appears across your face from the embarrassing misconception, and Sunset notices. "What's wrong?" She asks. "Why are you blushing?" 'W-well..." You stuttered. "Y-you're still hugging me, and..." You point to the boys for Sunset, and then she immediately gets the message and then starts blushing about as much as you are. "Oh! Uh... Sorry!" She stutters as she lets go of you and steps back in embarrassment. "It's all good." You tell her while still trying to calm yourself down from the humiliation. You both decided that it would be best to walk away from the commotion you caused since nobody would stop staring at you two. You both head into another hallway to continue the conversation. After you both headed into a new hallway that was far away from the crowd that witnessed Sunset hug you so overexcited that it could rival Pinkie's overexcitement, you and she get back to the topic at hand. "So, anyway. Since I want to get started on that game immediately, I don't think I'll make it to the slumber party." You say finally relieved to be away from that crowd. "I understand." Sunset says with a respectful tone and body language. "But still, as much as I want you to play that game, I really would like you to come to the party." "Why's that?" You asked. "Because while I still obviously enjoy the company of my friends, whenever you have the chance to hang out with us, you add a lot of enjoyment to the group just like they all do." Sunset confesses while looking down at the floor and then back at you repeatedly as she explains her reasons to you. "Just like them, you've become one of the greatest friends I've ever had and you really have created a space for yourself in our friendship circle that it just doesn't seem that right to me whenever you aren't around when they're all together with me. And I have to be honest, I just don't like seeing you or thinking about you being alone either." "Alone? What's wrong with being alone?" You asked with a concerned look on your face. "Oh, nothing!" Sunset responds quickly. "Every now and then, it's nice to have some time to yourself. But with me and the others knowing what your life was like before you met us, I'm just worried about you and I think alone time is one of the things you need less of right now. You've had anxiety problems that have made it difficult for you to be happy, and you've also had loneliness problems since you once mentioned that we're the first friends that you've ever had in your life." "That's true. I did say that." You said with a sad look on your face. Sunset then looks at you with a worried look on her face in response to you confirming this. "And with how long these problems have stuck with you," Sunset proceeds with her explanation. "I think maybe you should spend more time with us and less time being by yourself since these problems are easier to manage with social support. Anxiety is not something you can simply get rid of permanently. Like stress, It's something that's a part of you and always will be, Anon. And you're still doing a lot better to manage it than you did before." You thought about what she's saying to you, and she does make a really good point. You have spent too much time with no friends and the fact that you've finally made some should be something you should be embracing a lot more now that your anxiety is more manageable. "I promise that we'll get to that game later this weekend." Sunset as she finishes up. "So please, come hang out with all of us so you can continue to get better and have a fun time. For yourself, and for me and the others." You thought about it some more, and it does seem like Sunset wants you to be at that party. You may not be a big fan of changing plans that you were looking forward to, but if this is to improve your happiness more and make Sunset happy by being there for her and her friends, then it's worth it to postpone your plans for another day. "Okay, Sunset. I'll come to the party." You say with a reassured look. Sunset then looks at you with a relieved smile. "Thank you, Anon." She says as she pulls you into a hug. You hug her back as you both squeeze each other real tight, but not too tight that would make either of you suffocate. Just tight enough to make the hug warm and tender enough to show how much you two care about each other and want to relieve each other of even the slightest form of pain you two experience from a bad day. "Mmmmm." Sunset cooed as she's hugging you while keeping her embrace intact, which tells you that she was enjoying the hug. You both continued the comfortable hug for about two minutes, unaware that you were being watched by someone. Suddenly, you and Sunset hear a small giggle from behind you. Wondering who was making that noise, you turned around and Sunset looks over your shoulder to see who was making that noise. And much to your displeasure, the person who was giggling was the last person you wanted it to be: Rainbow Dash. "Oh no." You thought to yourself with a nervous look on your face. "This is not gonna be fun."