A "shindig."
That's the specific term Pinkie Pie used to describe it to me. When I off-handedly mentioned that I had never been to a party, Pinkie was abjectly horrified. I explained to her quickly that I couldn't really handle parties due to a number of external factors, such as my social anxiety and the constant awareness I had of my body, but she was having none of it. She quickly suggested a "shindig," something with the atmosphere of a party, but limited to just us seven. I was wary at first, but after the rest of the girls gave positive reactions to the idea, I felt I had no choice but to agree.
That's how I ended up in front of Pinkie's nice, two-story, upper-middle-class house, wearing a pale-cyan-and-pink sweater and my only nice pair of jeans. Despite Rarity's objections, Pinkie insisted that there would be no dress code at her shindig, but I still wanted to look at least a little nice. As I stood in front of Pinkie's door, I checked my watch. 6.30 PM. I was half an hour early.
Before I could contemplate silently hiding in a bush for 30 minutes, the door to Pinkie's house swung open, revealing my pinkest friend wearing a white tank top and a triple-layered pink skirt. "Twilight, you're early!" Pinkie exclaimed as she pulled me into one of her patented squeeze-hugs. With much difficulty, I was able to reach my arms around her to hug her back, my need to reciprocate my friend's hug overtaking my need to breathe. Gratefully, she eventually let go of me, letting me reclaim my breath.
"Yeah, I think the nerves made me walk faster than I was expecting," I explained, my fingers beginning to twiddle nervously. The twiddling didn't last for long, however, as she grabbed my hand and forcefully pulled me inside.
The bottom floor of Pinkie's house, a combination living/dining/kitchen room, was set up like a typical high school party (or at least, what I assumed was a typical high school party, based on films I've seen). Slightly dimmed lights, snacks covering the table, a healthy supply of plastic red cups, and some pop song I'd never heard filled the white noise of Pinkie's house. Pinkie took a chip out of a bowl on the table and threw it into her mouth. "I wanted to make it like a real party, just so you could get used to it!" she explained to me with a big smile on her face. I couldn't think of a good response, so I simply smiled back and nodded with appreciation. Pinkie then moved towards the TV and motioned to a large, white obelisk next to it. "I had to get out the PS5, too. Street Fighter 6 just came out, Applejack and Dashie are all over it and they're begging us to play with them," Pinkie explained as she pulled out four controllers from the cabinet under the TV. Pinkie turned back to me. "Alright, you sit your cute butt down and I'll get you a drink!"
My what?
Before I could finish processing Pinkie's... compliment(?), she had already sat me down on the couch and had entered the kitchen part of the bottom floor, opening the fridge. "We got Coke, Pepsi, Solo, Fanta, Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew, Sprite, 7-Up, Sunkist, aaaaaand Ginger Ale," Pinkie rapidly listed the soda selection at me before turning to face me. "What do you want?"
"You have... a lot of soda," I said, still reeling from what Pinkie said to me mere moments ago. She simply smiled at me.
"You can never be too prepared!" Pinkie replied to my comment. I can definitely agree with that.
"I'll just take Solo," I finally answered. It felt like I had just finished my answer when Pinkie placed a red plastic cup filled with the yellowish drink in my hand. Pinkie wandered back to the kitchen, presumably to get her own drink. Before I had enough time to ponder Pinkie's hind-related comment, she was sitting next to me on the couch, a cup of what I presumed was Coke in her hand. She took me by surprise by leaning into me, her head resting on my shoulder, letting out a relaxed sigh, and taking a sip of her drink as my heart rate spiked.
I knew skinship was common among friends. I had already been a part of many group hugs following my... incident a month back, and of course, Pinkie especially was very touchy-feely with the rest of the girls. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were also fairly physically intimate with each other, but that tends to be the case when you're dating. This kind of closeness, however, felt different. There was a softness, a subtly, something I couldn't put my finger on. The warmth of Pinkie's face traveled through my sweater and into my shoulder. It was... nice. I smiled to myself, a light blush on my face.
"So how's your day been, Twiggy?" she asked me without a hint of irony. 'Twiggy.' It's a nickname that Rainbow Dash came up for me after our first shared PE class, and unfortunately, it stuck. Thankfully, its' use was limited to Rainbow and Pinkie, and the variation of it ('The Twigster') is something I found a weird endearment in. I guessed demeaning nicknames are a part of this 'friendship' thing I was still getting used to. Considering my overwhelming lack of experience with it, I found it hard to believe that my otherworldly counterpart was the princess of the thing. I sighed.
"Fine, I guess," I replied lazily, which Pinkie was having none of. She cupped my chin and forced me to look at her, moving me around and examining my face.
"Hmm, you don't seem fine." After a moment, she let me go. I should've figured that my nerves wouldn't get past Pinkie.
"If I'm being honest, I've been really nervous all day." My explanation slowly turned into a ramble as I leaned away from Pinkie, her smile never faltering. "I mean, this is my first party. Sure, it's not a real party, but it's still a party, and I'm still new to this whole friendship and I don't want to mess up you girls having a fun night and I know you said that there was no dress code but I still wanted to look nice and it took me like 45 minutes to decide to wear a sweater and jeans and I just--"
And then Pinkie Pie kissed me.
It wasn't a long kiss. A simple meeting of the lips, skin-on-skin contact. Nothing more, nothing less. Even then, it was like my entire world rebooted in an instant, the definition of existence changed within seconds. Pinkie's face left mine, leaving me paralyzed and alone with my thoughts. Unfortunately for me, the only thought my broken brain could muster was how Pinkie's lips overwhelmingly tasted like cotton candy, despite the presence of what I now knew was Pepsi. I could still feel them on mine, metaphorically speaking. The softness, the sweetness, like pure joy quickly flowing from one person to another.
A giggling Pinkie brought me out of my stupor to look at her, leading me to realize that I had spent a good minute staring off into space. "Welcome back, Twilight," she said through her giggles. After what felt like an hour of blushing and stammering, I finally managed a response or more, a question:
"Why?"
Pinkie lightheartedly rolled her eyes and smiled at me, like the answer was the most obvious thing in the world. "Well, you do this thing sometimes where you start rambling and get all frizzled, and I've always found it really, really cute, and when you started to do it this time, my brain said to me 'Hey Pinkie, you should kiss her!' and I was like 'Ooh, good idea!' and so I did!"
Ah. Of course. That made complete sense. Except...
"B-but I'm... me!" I exclaimed in confusion. Pinkie chuckled at that.
"Heh, yeah," she said with a warm smile that nearly stopped my heart. Pinkie then finished her drink, tossed it onto the floor, and let herself fall forward, her head landing firmly on my lap. This was a lot more physical contact than I was used to.
I really liked it.
Pinkie looked up at me with her trademark grin and poked me in the nose, letting out a loud "Boop!" before laughing like it was the funniest thing to ever happen. That's what broke my silence. I laughed too, and we laughed together like it was the end of the world. At a point, we locked eyes, the laughing coming to a halt.
"Hey, Twilight? Can I tell you a secret?" Pinkie asked me.
"Um, sure, I guess," I responded nervously. Then it was Pinkie's turn to blush, something her pink skin made less obvious but still noticeable. She looked out into the middle distance.
"I've... kinda wanted to kiss you for a while," she confessed. "And if I'm being honest..." She looked back at me with a small smile as she forewarned me of what the rest of the night would entail.
"I don't think I'm the only one."