Blue InkXSunset Shimmer 2016
Written by: ThomasZoey3000
First Christmas Reunited
If you were to ask Sunset Shimmer what is her favorite time of year, she will often say it's Christmas time. Ever since her friends had invited her to join in on their holidays, she seemed to have gained a real Christmas spirit. As she walked around the city, she looked at the decorations like a child would in a toy store. To her, she truly felt like a child whenever Christmas came around.
One evening, after she had finished decorating her studio apartment, Sunset got on her phone to call her friends. As she looked through her contacts, she found one name that made her smile. It was the name of her original crush from High school; Blue Ink.
She had known him since her defeat at the Fall Formal. He actually came up to her and started talking with her. Over time, they had developed a friendship and as their friendship group grew, she would introduce Blue Ink to everyone else. For a long time, all was good, but then came one day. Thinking he was truly the one for her, she went up to him and confessed to him that she loved him, but he turned her down and said they would never make a good couple.
For years afterwords, her friendship with Blue Ink slowly started to fade. It got worse when he married another student from the school, and had three kids. Sunset's friends all told her that when ready, she should go out and look for someone else, but she didn't want anyone else. She felt love with someone else would only hurt her, and so, she stayed single for all those years.
One day, after a concert, she found a message on Blue Ink's MyStable account reading; I'm Divorced and my wife took my kids with her.
"Serves him right for turning you down," Rainbow Dash said rudely.
Sunset ignored that remark and went to see him. He was in terrible shape. He hadn't gotten cleaned up, and his house was a mess. He was a true wreck and wanted to be alone. She didn't leave him though, and would visit him day after day. He resisted her at first, but soon warmed up to her and with her help, got the house cleaned up. He even got the desire to shower once again, much to everyone's delight.
While her friends were not completely on board with her decision to help him, Sunset still felt good with what she did. Her smile grew as she pushed the button with his name on it, and waited for him to answer. A moment later, he appeared on her screen, and from what she had to guess, he was sitting on his living room couch.
"Hey Blue, how are things?" she asked.
"Oh you know, the usual. Get up, do chores, groan miserably over losing my kids to that witch I married, pardon me for saying that, and you know, the rest."
The one thing Sunset had learned since they got reunited was that he hated his ex-wife, but he loved those kids dearly.
"I'm sorry for being a grouch, I just got off the phone with my lawyer, and my ex is refusing to let me see the kids. Some stupid nonsense about me being a danger to them. If only they were to look into her and her lifestyle." He paused as he continued, "between you and me, I have a bad feeling she's mistreating them."
"And what makes you think she is?"
"Call it a gut feeling. But hey, I don't want to ruin your Christmas spirit. I see you've been decorating."
Sunset smiled and turned her phone around to show off all the decorations she had put up. She heard Blue Ink whistle in amazement, "very nice, you really have an eye for decorating don't you?"
"I only do because of Rarity and Pinkie Pie, they taught me a lot over the last few years. But what about you? Have you got your place decorated?"
Blue Ink shook his head, "I'm not going to bother with decorating this year."
"What?! Why?!" Sunset exclaimed.
Blue Ink looked away from his screen and wiped a small tear from his right eye. After a few deep breaths, he finally turned back to Sunset, "without those little bundles of joy here, what's the point really?"
"You said that the first time I saw you."
"True, and while I can admit now that I can live my life without them around - well, decorating for the holidays would only hurt me more. So I can't do it this year. But hey," he said, trying to get out of the depressed state of this conversation, "that shouldn't stop you from enjoying the holidays. Spend time with your friends and enjoy all those goodies, oh and one more thing."
"What's that?"
"Don't come help me. I don't need it."
After the phone call, Sunset lay in her bed thinking about Blue Ink's lack of Christmas spirit. She couldn't very well stand the idea of him not celebrating as she felt that would hurt him more. She looked at her messages and saw she had no plans with the girls tomorrow. And so, she decided she was going to put that time to good use.
The sun was just appearing over the horizon when Blue Ink got up the next morning. He groaned as he looked around and saw there was no one there to talk to.
"Oh well, maybe I can spend my day working with my model trains," he thought to himself.
Nodding to his idea, he started to walk over to the stairwell leading to his train layout, when he heard the doorbell. He groaned, thinking it was early morning carolers. He walked over, getting ready to tell them to leave him alone. As he opened the door though, he was surprised to see Sunset standing there.
"Sunset? What are you doing here?" he asked.
Lifting up her right hand, she flicked his nose gently and gave a wink, "well my dear silly friend, I'm here to help you decorate for the holidays."
"What?!" he exclaimed. "But Sunset I don't-"
"I know you don't want to decorate because you think it'll only bring up memories of your past Christmas's with your children, and make you feel miserable." She paused as she walked into his house, "but I know once this place is decorated, you'll change your mind and get into the holiday."
"I'm sorry Sunset, but that's not happening. I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to leave."
Sunset stopped and looked pained. But she quickly regained her composure and spoke again.
"Do you know about my Christmas after the Anon-A-Miss incident?"
Blue Ink raised an eyebrow, "why are you asking me that. We weren't talking at that time."
Sunset nodded, "that's right, that was some time after I confessed to you, and you rejected me. I was hurt so badly by that, and added with memories of the previous Christmas, I wanted nothing to do with the holiday. I would go home from school, lock myself in my studio apartment and not leave until next morning."
Blue Ink's firm look softened, "so what changed with you?"
"Well you can thank my friends for that. You see, sometime back, I gave them my extra set of keys in case I ever lost mine, and one night, they used those set of keys to get into my apartment. They worked so quietly I had no idea they were there."
"In the morning," she continued, "when I woke up, I was shocked to see all the decorations all around my apartment. I was even more surprised that the girls had pulled an all nighter to do this, as was proven when I found them sleeping on my floor."
"Did you yell at them for what they did?"
"Of course not. I thought it was one of the sweetest things they ever did, and I made sure they were comfortable till they woke up. After that, we celebrated the holiday together."
Silence fell between the two friends.
"I know my situation isn't the same as yours, but I still want to help you because - I love seeing you smile."
A blush came to Blue Ink's face. He was still upset that Sunset came over and said they were going to decorate, in spite of his views at this time. On the other hand, she doesn't do this for everyone, just those she cares about. After a minute of silence, Blue Ink finally broke the silence.
"I can't say I'll get my Christmas spirit back," he said. "But I guess it wouldn't hurt to have a few decorations up."
Sunset's smile returned to her face, "then what are we waiting for? Let's get started."
She gave Blue Ink a little bump on the side, and lead him back to his living room.
It took a large portion of the day to get the decorations out and set them up. They even went out and got a new tree as the original one had broken the year before. Blue Ink was hesitant on everything, but as the day wore on, his stony face changed to a small smile. By evening, they were fifty percent done.
This went on for several days until all the decorations were up, and as each piece went up, Blue Ink would continue to smile a bit, and for Sunset, that was a good sign he was coming around.
"And that's that!" smiled Sunset as she put up the last reeve. She stood back and looked at everything. It truly felt like a Christmas wonderland. "Well, I hope you'll enjoy being in this environment. It was hard work, but you'll find it's worth it."
She turned and was just about to leave when Blue Ink called out to her.
"Hey Sunset, are you doing anything on Christmas day?"
"Not really. Why?"
"Well, I was just wondering - would you - oh never mind, I can't."
"Blue, just speak your mind."
He took in a deep breath and spoke, "would you like to spend Christmas day with me? I rather have someone here with me."
Sunset smiled, "of course I can. Heck, I can come over on Christmas eve and we can have a sleepover - if you want to that is."
"I don't see a reason why not," he shrugged. "Just don't ask me to watch Christmas movies or talk about past Christmas's with you."
"Hey, it's your choice and I'll respect it."
And so it was arranged. On Christmas Eve, Sunset left her studio apartment and went over to Pinkie Pie's Christmas party. She stayed for a few hours, then left to go to Blue Ink's house.
When she arrived, the house was fully lit up with all the lights and from the window, she could see the Christmas tree all lit up. She walked up to the door and knocked. At first, there was no response. She was about to get out her phone and call him to let him know she was there, but that was when he opened the door. He once again had the small smile on his face, though he had some lines under his eyes. From what Sunset could guess, he had crying. Probably from remembering the good times he had before with his kids.
"Welcome Sunset, it's a real pleasure to have you here."
Sunset smiled, glad to hear some joy in his voice. They spent the night watching movies, catching up on lost time, but not mentioning past Christmas parties or get-togethers, and enjoying some holiday treats.
All too soon, it was time to go to bed. Sunset however didn't go to sleep yet. She stayed awake and waited for Blue Ink to go to sleep before getting up and leaving.
When he got up in the morning, Blue Ink walked into the living room. He found Sunset sleeping on his couch, but there was something different about the setting. Instead of seeing her bare feet, he could see she was wearing her boots, and under the tree was a big present. He walked over to it and saw that it was a gift for him, and it was from Sunset. He looked back to her, "did she leave in the middle of the night to bring this gift here?" he thought to himself.
She suddenly let out a big yawn and her eyes slowly opened up.
"Oh, so you noticed it eh?" she smirked.
"You're a real sneak aren't you?" Blue Ink smirked back. "Though I might not have noticed if not for your boots."
Sunset looked down and saw she was still in her boots. She smacked her forehead, "I knew there was something I forgot to do last night."
Once she got them off and Blue Ink made some hot chocolate for the two, they sat on the floor near the tree and that's when Sunset pulled out the present to give to Blue Ink.
Without a word, he opened up the present and gasped. It was a new train set, but not just any train set. It was one of the hardest to find train sets to find nowadays as it was discontinued years before. He always wanted one, but missed his chance to get it.
"How did you-"
"I originally got that for you sometime after our first Christmas as friends, and I was going to give it to you the next year, but then you rejected me and we drifted apart." Blue Ink looked down in shame, but Sunset smiled and lifted his chin to make him face her, "but I still wanted you to have it, and last night, as we were talking, I remembered it. I waited till you went to sleep before heading back to my place to get it. It was seriously cold out there, but it's worth it to see the smile on your face."
"But - I don't have a gift to give you."
Sunset placed a gentle hand on his left shoulder, "hey, just being with my dear friend again is the best gift I could ever ask for."
She blushed after saying that, but she wasn't alone as Blue Ink blushed too.
"Thank you Sunset, you really are my best friend."
Sunset's smirk returned, "tell me something I don't already know."
Blue Ink rolled his eyes, and together, they set up the train set on the living room floor. They had a great time that day, and Sunset even agreed to spend another night at Blue Ink's, which pleased him greatly.
And as the day went on, he began thinking of how grateful he was to have a friend like Sunset. Deep down though, he wondered if she still wanted to be more than friends. Only time would answer that question.