Over in Sugarcube Corner, the Pie family was busy making preparations for a party [[REASON REQUIRED]] that would be held that night, with the store's owner Pinkie Pie delegating her assorted descendants, including our other lead character Jennie. She was about as pink as her grandmother, if not a little paler, but certainly took after her in her love of fun. As they worked to get various kinds of snacks ready, Apple Bloom came in.
"Howdy y'all", she greeted. "Ah'm jus droppin' by to say the apple fritters an' such are well on schedule, so y'all don't have ta worry none about all that."
"Oh! That's super good news, Apple Bloom!", Pinkie Pie replied, energetic as always. "It's no good having to worry about materials when you're preparing for a party yourself because that means stress and stress makes it easier to make mistakes with the party preparations and -- oh!"
She was suddenly silenced by a candy cane stuck in her mouth.
"Practice what you preach, Granny", Jennie quipped as she finished laying out some candy. "You know what the doctor told you about blabbering at your age."
"Speakin' a stress", Apple Bloom noticed, "you dun look so sprah yerself. Why's that?"
"Oh, you know. I've been working my flank off all over town this week."
"You better be cae'ful, Jennie. Mah sister Applejack got herself all overworked once and boy howdy that wasn't nice."
Pinkie made a subtle but noticable retching noise at the memory.
"Whaaat? I know when to stop!" Jennie defended, having heard that story before. "I'm actually doing -this- to unwind, y'know? Things just get so... boring sometimes."
Pinkie put away the pretzels she was bagging and and smirked. "I think little Jennie just needs somepony to spend time with."
"Ssshyeah right", Jennie deflected and found another task -- making punch.
A little later that day, Jennie lay in her room and browsed one of her books about rocks, when her grandmother's words came back to mind. She could've been on to something there. Jennie decided to go talk to her grandmother, and just as she stepped out of bed, Pinkie Pie was right in front of her.
"Sweet Celestia of Equestria, don't DO that, Granny!"
"I thought you might wanna talk, so I came here."
"We might as well", Jennie accepted. "So, when you said 'somepony to spend time with', were you talking about...?"
"Hmmmhm. You're certainly old enough."
"Prob'ly. But to be honest, I don't know how to do this."
"Would you like to know?"
Jennie felt sort of put off by her grandmother's wide grin.
"...I'm not sure you'd be the best... let's say, 'source of information' here. No offense."
"None taken, silly."
"A'ight then... incidentally, Granny, do you get that feeling sometimes that you're being watched?"
"Oooh, I think about, ah... once a week or so. But that's not the issue here -- ask away!"