“Ray!” Sunset cheered as she walked through the front door of the pet store, the brass bells ring echoing through the building. Curled up in a little yellow ball was the girl’s pet Lizard, Ray, fast asleep. She hadn’t seen the little guy since the day the incident happened. Sunset knew that being with Fluttershy he was in good capable hands, she had been the one to take care of him before Sunset had adopted her scaley pal. But she still missed the little guy.
She immediately ran up, propping herself up on her tippy toes, and reached up to pet Ray’s head. The lizard shot his head up in surprise that someone would try to interrupt his mid-day nap. But once his sleepy eyes planted on his pint-sized, yet still plenty big compared to himself, he perked right up, immediately hopping up and bouncing in place in the red cat bed he had been napping in, before jumping onto Sunset's shoulder. The little lizard immediately ran around on the girl's shoulder and neck. His claws pierced through Sunset’s pink shirt , and a lime green skirt like what Fluttershy would wear was her outfit for the day, poking her sensitive skin and tickling her a bit and getting a childish giggle from her.
“Ah! Ah! Ah!” Sunset winced as Ray suddenly started to scale up her hair, tugging at it until she was at the top of her head, and spun around and lay there, finding a new napping spot. “Yeah, I missed you too, buddy.” She said to the lizard, hearing a light giggle from behind her making her blush a bit.
“I knew he would be excited to see you,” Fluttershy said, gently brushing the top of the lizard with her finger. “He usually looks around for you around bedtime.” She informed the little girl.
“Yeah, it’s usually when I let him out of his cage and play with him.” She informed the teen. “You’re making sure he’s eating his food and not just treats, right? It might be because I’m a lot smaller now, but he’s feeling kind of chunky.” She informed her friend.
“Yep, I’ve been following your instructions very closely.” Her friend assured her. “He gets his food, then a cricket, and then I make sure to play with him for a bit. I think Angel has been getting jealous from all the attention Ray getting.” She giggled as a small bunny with pure white fur popped out of the girl's long pink hair and glared down at Sunset.
“Um… yeah,” Sunset said, taking a step back as she held a hand over Ray to block her sleeping scaly friend from the rabbit's line of sight. She hadn’t heard of rabbits attacking lizards before, but she didn’t want her lizard to be the first case to be recorded. So she gave a small wave with her free hand to Angel, who took his paw and pointed at the lizard before pointing to his eyes and back to Ray before slowly melting back into Fluttershy’s hair. “Anyways, uh… what do you wanna do?” Sunset asked, dropping her hands now that Angel's glare was off of her friend.
“Well, I wish I could have planned something super fun for us to do,” The teen sighed, walking past Sunset going to the other side of the counter, and opening up a large black binder that had been beside Ray’s bed. “But I got a food delivery today, a couple of people are scheduled to come in and take a look at some pets, and then I have to groom a couple of pets for pick up today.” The yellow-skinned girl explained.
“Sounds like you need a helper,” Sunset said to her friend, thinking back on it whenever she was at the pet shelter Fluttershy was usually by herself. There was a time when she was passing out flyers for people to help at the shelter.
“I know, and I had one last week. She sighed, crashing down on a pink office chair, “But they quit on me after their third day.” She sighed, reaching into her hair pulling Angel back out, and hugging the bunny. “I think they don’t expect this job to be kind of hard.” She admitted.
“Really, it’s hard?” Sunset asked as she looked around the building. There were a few pens in the room they were in that had some cats and kittens dozing or eating food. Then dogs and puppies running around and playing. If anything this job seemed like one of the more easy jobs you could have.
“Yeah.” Fluttershy said, “It's not just playing with puppies and kitties all day. We gotta make sure that they’re all fed and watered, their pens are clean, taking care of them when they get sick. Then there's taking in new animals that people find or they can no longer take care of.” She pointed out. “It can be pretty intense.”
“Wow,” Sunset said, she hadn’t really thought about any of that stuff before. But the shelter was practically spotless as the white floors showed off her reflection. But now that she thought about it that definitely wasn’t by accident. And all of the animals that were perfectly groomed had to have had someone do that. “So you usually do all of it by yourself?” Sunset asked.
“Usually,” She said as she got up, “Sometimes I can get my brother to come and he’ll clean a pen or two. Or the Cutie Mark Crusaders will pop in and see if I need help.”
“Well, that's something, though I’m not sure how much help Zephyr would be.” She said, “But I bet the CMCs can get this place cleaned up in no time, as long as they don’t get distracted with the animals.”
This earned a giggle from the older girl, probably because both statements were true to some degree. Sunset could see Fluttershy’s brother being too helpful since he was known to talk a good game, well talk some sort of game anyways, but always came up short. Then Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle could do all sorts of amazing things when they put their minds to it. But Sunset could see each of the girls getting distracted by the cute fuzzy animals in the building. It wouldn’t have been out of character for Scootaloo to open all the pens to let the animals run free. Which Fluttershy did from time to time, but Sunset doubted Scootaloo’s free time would be as controlled as the teen’s.
“Anything I can do to help?” Sunset asked her friend, her hands on the counter as she stood on her tippy toes. “It's only fair I try to do something around here since you’ve been watching Ray. Even though you’ve let him get chubby on me.” She said with a smirk, flinching a bit as the lizard’s tail flicked the top of her head, getting another giggle from Fluttershy.
“Well if you really want to help,” The teen said, picking up a pen and clicking it as she slowly spun in the office chair and tried to think of something Sunset could do. If her friend was her normal age she could have trusted the redhead to walk the dogs… but tasking Sunset with that right now seemed like an accident waiting to happen. She could practically see the girl being dragged behind a few of the large dogs, her little body unable to do anything but cry out for help. She could walk some of the smaller dogs, but if they managed to get away from the girl she would have a hard time catching them. “Oh, why don’t you take care of the other lizards here?” She said, figuring that would be easy enough for the girl. Ray was currently the largest lizard in the shelter and Sunset was handling him with no issues.
“Yeah, I can do that! As long as you get me everything that I need.” Sunset agreed, nodding her head. Thankfully her friend was quick to get everything for her, feed, extra water bottles to replace any dirty ones, some plastic gloves, and a step stool to help her reach up.
“Ok, you take care of this while I take care of a few other things,” Fluttershy said, “If you need me please don’t hesitate to call for me.” She told her friend before going through a door leading to the backroom.
Sunset simply nodded as she moved the step stool to start cleaning the different lizard cages. Thankfully there wasn’t a lot of lizard in the shelter so it wouldn’t take her too long to take care of the pens. The first one had a little lime green gecko in it who was more focused on swimming in a little pool of water than on checking out what Sunset was doing. So the girl was able to fill the little plastic bowl up with the dried worms that consisted of the lizard food, switched out the little guy's water bottle, and left him alone to swim in peace. Immediately moving on to the next pen a chameleon was resting on a branch, shaded the color brown to hide itself from Sunset. Meaning the girl could restock the food bowl without any issues, though that was about as far as she got. When she finished filling the bowl she got ready to switch the bottle out. But the chameleon, seeing their dinner, immediately shoots its long tongue out and gets a few worms from its bowl. The acting caught Sunset off guard, making her jump back.
“Ah, whoa whoa whoa whoa!” Sunset cried out, her arms spinning around in circles as she stood on the end of the step stool and tried to grab her balance, the bottle in her hand immediately slipping out and flying across the room. Thankfully she was able to get her balance and not go crashing to the ground, but she did take a few seconds to catch her breath as she looked down towards the ground. The ground looked pretty far up from being on the stool, so she was glad to not have taken a tumble and had to explain an embarrassing situation to Fluttershy. “Ah!” She yelped as the water bottle reappeared in front of her face, but this time she made sure to not jump away. But standing at the bottom of the steps the PJs stood offering the bottle up. “Oh, thanks.” She said, taking the water bottle and replacing the chameleon's water bottle before getting off the steps and as she pushed the stool forward she felt a light tap on her shoulder. “Yes?” She sighed, turning around to face the piece of clothing.
The PJs had a dozen question marks decorating it as it pointed a hand up to Sunset's head, making the girl frown. Was there a worm in her hair? She didn’t throw any food so that didn’t make sense. But then she remembered the chunky lizard taking a nap on her head, and she reached up and picked Ray off her head.
“Oh, this is, Ray.” Sunset was introduced, and the yellow and black spotted lizard blinked his eyes open as he woke up and looked around the room. If he was alarmed by the set of living PJs standing there he didn’t show it. “He’s my friend and pet.” She said before pulling him away from the PJs, “You’re not gonna make him younger next are you?” She asked them, the PJs waving its hands back and forth to state no, and Sunset looked at the footie skeptically and carefully moved her scaly friend closer. The PJs carefully took its arm and touched the lizard, Ray’s tongue shooting out and licking the arm, making the red and yellow PJs jump and shutter, its colors changing every second and soon going through every color of the rainbow. Sunset was sure if the PJs could talk it would be squealing its lunges out. “Not a fan of lizard tongues?” She asked, sitting Ray on her shoulder and giggling as the lizard’s tongue hit her cheek. The PJs stomped its foot, though the soft cotton didn’t make any noise, as it turned completely red as if it were blushing. “Ok well, I wouldn’t stand too close to me then. I’m taking care of the rest of these pens and there are lizards in each of them.” She said, grabbing another bottle and some more dried worms, and went to take care of the next lizard, who looked a lot like Ray except they were red with green dots. They quickly walked over to the Sunset, curious about what the child was doing in his pen. But when the girl took her finger and gently petted the bottom of the reptile’s neck he decided the girl was ok and even leaned into the pets.
But as she started to climb off the stool she heard the click click click of the office chair being moved, and at first Sunset thought that Fluttershy had returned. But soon she felt the chair gently nudge her, making her lean forward a bit. But thankfully she didn’t go crashing forward, maybe she needed a pair of steel shoes so she could jump around or fall over.
“Hey!” She huffed, turned around, and glared at the PJs, making them jump back. “Can I help you? I’m trying to do something here.” She said, making the PJs hold both arms behind its back, one foot bouncing off the ground. After a couple of seconds, it reached up and pushed the seat part of the chair, making it spin a bit. A picture of the chair with a whirlwind around it appeared on the PJs as well. “Do you want me to spin you?” She asked the PJ set, it immediately holding both hands up in the air to say yes before scrambling onto the chair, kicking its feet excitedly. Sunset wanted to just ignore the piece of clothing, she only had two more pens to clean up. But the PJs seemed so excited, kicking their feet excitedly as they waited for her. “Fine, but I’m not doing it for long.” She informed the PJs as she reached up grabbed the seat and pulled it, slowly making the chair spin, the old chair making a low creeeeeeeek sound as it spun, and when it made one spin the PJs had its arms crossed as a few sad emoji’s appeared on it. “What are you not satisfied?” She asked in a huff seeing the sad emojis on the PJs. And it slowly raised one hand making her scoff. “Fine then!” She said, grabbing the chair, and smirking as she got ready, “Hold on!” She said before pulling the chair again with all her might. Then she used her little hand and slapped the arms of the chair to keep the chair spinning, sending her crashing onto her bottom from the effort. And soon the PJs were nothing but a blur of red as it spun in a circle. But soon the red changed to a light green color, making Sunset frown. The PJs could not be getting sick, it was an inanimate object, and they didn’t have the ability to eat or throw up food. But Sunset pushed herself back up, grabbed one of the arms, making the chair stop immediately but it also sent the PJs flying and slamming against a pen on the other side of the room, a couple of puppies who had been chasing one another immediately changed their target and rushed over to sniff and lick the strange object that crashed against their pen.
“Um… Are you ok?” Sunset asked, walking over before setting the clothing up. Its color is still green as an emoji of a face with dizzy eyes on it. But it lifted up both of its hands in the air, “Good.” She said, lifting them up to their feet, a little brown and black puppy giving a high pitch howl upset that their new toy was yanked away. The PJs needed a few seconds to regain their balance. “Ok, anyways I gotta get back to get work.” She said, she only had two more pens to finish taking care of and she would like to get it done before Fluttershy came back. Maybe her friend would trust her with something a bit more intense than refilling food bowls.
But as she tried to walk away the clothing grabbed her hand and pointed at the chair as a picture of a girl sitting on a chair, a whirlwind surrounding her. Making Sunset frown as she tried to figure out what the PJs wanted. The stick figure girl usually represented her and she's sitting on the chair that the PJs used to say it wanted her to spin them.’
“You want me to take a turn?” She asked, the PJs raising both of their hands in the air. “I don’t know about that… I really should get back to work.” She said, but apparently, the PJs weren’t going to take that for an answer as it grabbed Sunset’s arm and tried to pull her to the chair. Though a piece of clothing against a child, Sunset wasn’t exactly being dragged to the chair. But she sighed as she watched the clothing try and force her to the chair and figured it would be easier to just go ahead and humor the piece of clothing than struggle with it as she tried to finish stocking the pens. So she huffed but went over and climbed into the chair, needing a minute to do so since the seat was at chin level to her. So she jumped up, her little legs kicking as she tried to get some footing. But soon the footie aided her and pushed her up. “Ok… there…” The girl said taking a moment to take a breath, sitting Ray on the arm and watching him jump off the chair, as the PJs grabbed the chair and tried to spin it, immediately crashing to the ground as it attempted to push it. “Oh come on, you made me really spin you.” She said, smirking as she crossed her arms and one leg over the other leg, making the PJs turn a dark red as it grabbed the chair and tried to spin it again and push it forward, but its feet just slipped across the smooth shelter floor. Sunset was going to say that it was pointless and get off the chair when suddenly the PJs must have gotten its footie as the chair suddenly started to spin, instantly making the world around her blur into a blur of white, grey, red, yellow, and green.
“AH!” Sunset immediately squealed out, holding onto the armrest of the chair as she spun around. Her hair and green skirt with the air and she spun in a circle. She wasn’t sure how long she was on the chair, it could have been a few seconds or a few minutes, but the girl quickly lost all sense of direction and time. She almost didn’t notice the chair slowing down since the world was still spinning to her as she slowly tried to climb off the chair. The soft arms of the PJs immediately wrapped around her, trying to suppose her, but Sunset made sure to lean against the chair so they both wouldn’t just end up on the ground. “Wow, I didn’t know Pajamas could be so strong.” She said, turning to face the PJs, impressed by the feat of strength from the PJs. But the PJs held one hand up to say no and then pointed behind Sunset, making her shoot her head behind her and look up, where she saw Fluttershy looking down at her, a soft smile on the teen’s face as she leaned against the chair.
“Have fun?” Fluttershy asked with a giggle as Sunset blushed.
“Oh, Fluttershy I was getting ready to finish up the pens, I just got distracted.” She explained to her friends.
“Ok, that's fine that you took a break,” Fluttershy said, spinning the eat of the chair to face her as she collapsed into it and turned to face Sunset again. “I just got done grooming a couple of pets that are being picked up today and I’m ready for a quick break.” She said with a giggle. And now that she mentioned it the scent of wet dog was slowly filling up the room. “So these are the PJs that…” She said, her voice trailing off, and Sunset was able to figure out what the teen was trying to ask.
“Yes.” Sunset sighed, “These are the PJs that turned me into a little kid. PJs, this is Fluttershy.” Sunset introduced, though when Fluttershy waved at the piece of clothing it immediately dived for Sunset and hid behind the girl. “As you can see, we need to work on personal space.” She sighed as she patted the shoulders of the PJs.
“Aw, they’re so cute.” Fluttershy said with a giggle, “It's hard to believe that something so little could cause such a big problem." She said, giving another wave to the PJs as they peaked around Sunset.
“Yeah tell me about it, they’re so clingy.” Sunset sighed as she tried to move to the side, dragging the clothing as it hugged her.
“I mean they’re PJs they’re supposed to not fall off you.” Fluttershy pointed as she let out a giggle.
“Yeah, but I wish they were cling in just that way.” Sunset muttered, “The other day they ambushed me at the park and forced themselves on me. They make their zipper disappear for the night whenever I put them on… it’s just annoying.”
“Well, have you ever asked them why they’re so clingy?” She asked next, “There must be a reason for it, right?”
“What reason would they have? It’s a pair of pajamas.” Sunset sighed before pausing as she thought back to when they were in Twilight’s lab where he saw memories of the PJs and how they seemingly were scared of the dark. “Fine, you might have a point.” Sunset sighed as she gently grabbed the arms of the PJ and pulled them apart before turning to them. “Is there a reason why you are so… attached?” She asked the PJs before reaching down and grabbing the cuff where her hand would slip through and felt her body tense up as her vision went white
Suddenly she was in a room that looked like a nursery, with light blue walls with rainbows on them, baby toys like rattles and blocks were thrown all around along with a dozen different pairs of clothing. Her body felt so sore as she started to move, getting on all fours as if she was back in the pony world as if it had been the first time that she had moved in forever. In one corner of the room, she saw a white stallion with a dark blue mane and tail, looking exhausted as bags hung under his eyes. A tiny white alicorn filly with purple and blue hair sat in a crib, slamming its hooves against the crib mattress as tears streamed down its ace and yellow beams of magic blasted from the tiny alicorn’s horn. The baby looked uncomfortable, maybe she could help them feel better. Or at least that's what she thought as she walked to the stallion, tapping him on the leg.
But instead of being given the chance to help the pony’s eyes grew wide as he grabbed her and tossed her out of the room, leaving her to lay on a red carpet in shock. What did she do wrong? All she was trying to was help out, she didn’t mean to do anything wrong. But before she could process what was happening she was picked up and rushed outside before suddenly being tossed in a trash can, all alone in the pitch dark. Her body immediately started to shiver as she scrambled for an exit. Her hands felt a cool plastic that moved as she pressed against it. She pushed against it a bit harder, getting a little light of the outside world pouring into her dark prison. Quickly she jumped out to find someone to help her, knowing there was just some sort of misunderstanding. Why would she be thrown out like so after all the nights she had made sure the tiny Alicorn was cozy and safe? So she quickly stumbled around, trying to find somepony to help. But sadly her reception wasn’t as warm as she hopped, everyone screaming and running away from her as she got close as if she were some sort of monster. She quickly ran away, trying not to scare anyone and she didn’t want to be tossed away.
Making it outside of the city she immediately was attacked with a blizzard. The sharp cold wind flowed through her as snow clung to her. Sadly even if she wanted to go back to where she was, she had no idea how to get back there. But she didn’t want to go back and scare anypony, she would just press forward. She would find a town eventually, or she would at least get out of the blizzard. Or thats at least what she thought as another large gust of wind hit her, sending her tumbling into a snow drift, making her fly away. There was no way to know how long she flew or the distance that she had traveled. But as the wind died down she landed in another pile of snow, a field of clean white snow was all she could see. Except for a faint yellow light that was glowing under her. What was it? It couldn’t be any worse then what she was dealing with at the moment. So she started too dig, soon finding a pool of golden light. She reached one arm down but the light immediately sucked her up.
Suddenly she found herself in the warm sunlight, falling from a random building and landed on the ground, taking a chane to relax. Feeling the warm ground beneath her was so much better than the bitter cold she had dealt with. But she didn’t get to rest for long before she was lifted up by… herself, looking down in confusion as she started to walk. Soon ending up in the coffee shop where she felt herself in a bit of distress as she talked to the lady who gave her a scone. She wasn’t able to help the alicorn filly, but maybe she could help her.
“Gah!” Sunset gasped, letting go of the PJs as she landed on her bottom, the PJs doing the same. She took a couple deep breaths, she hadn’t ever spent that long inside someones memories before. Though it only was a couple seconds in the real world, she felt like she had taken a tour of Equestria. “You were trying to… help me?” She asked to PJs who rose both hands up, making Sunset frown as she thought. The PJs had given her a hug after her nightmare the previous night. “Ok… I’m not sure this was the best way to go about it. But thanks I guess.” She sighed as she got up. “But that doesn’t exactly answer my question on why you’re so…” She started to ask but froze as she thought about what happened at the castle and in the town. “You don’t want to be alone?” She asked the PJs who put their arms back up. “Oh…” She said with a sigh as she lifted the PJs up from the ground as she felt a mix of emotions. She felt sorry for the PJs for being chased out for just trying to help out and the fact she had been yelling at them for doing the same for her. She was mad that the PJs just invited themselves to try and help her like this. But she was curious why they hadn’t just left her like the they had the crystal empire.
“See I knew there was a reason why they stayed so close to you.” Fluttershy said, “And the poor thing is afraid of being alone.” She said, reaching into her hair and pulling Angel back out and hugging him.
“Yeah.” She said, “Is that why you stay with me? Cuz you don’t know anyone else?” She asked, the PJs raising one hand in the air. “What why then?” She asked next. And soon the PJs design changed to that of a girl laying on a bed a frown on their face. “Is that me having my nightmare?” Sunset asked, getting two hands in the air before it hugged her.
“Aw!” Fluttershy cooed seeing that, “Isn’t that sweet Angel?” She asked her bunny, who didn’t look amused with the display.
“I guess I could have been looking at this wrong.” She sighed, “Look it really wasn’t cool that you turned me into a little kid. But thanks for wanting to be there for me.” She sighed and returned the hug. “I guess… we can hang out a bit.” She told the PJs as she let go of them. The clothing immediately clapping their none existence, getting a smirk from Sunset. “But first we got to finish restocking the lizard pens. And since I’m this size because of you and you want to hang out you’re gonna help.” She said playfully poking the PJs, making them shutter and jump back before giving the girl a salute and going to get the water bottle and dried worms for the lizard pens.