As the days passed, it seemed as though Sunset and I were growing farther apart. I saw her nearly every day at lunch and in our math class, but it seemed as though she was purposely ignoring me or saying as little as she could when I tried to speak with her. I felt utterly defeated, to the point that I no longer attempted to say hello, or even turn my eyes in her direction for that matter.
Friend or more, she seemed to be the only person I had any form of connection with at CHS. Of course, her friends were my friends, but I still felt new. It was almost as if I didn’t belong, just like Sunset. I had no one to converse or spend time with… well, there was always Pinkie Pie. She considered herself my friend, so why shouldn’t I do the same for her? I had a feeling that even though she barely knew me, she would still do almost anything for me.
My mood plummeted even further that day, lunch was like a cliff. I needed someone to spill my thoughts and emotions to, and all I had was Pinkie. So emotionally unstable though, I feared that I would burst into tears in front of the others, the whole cafeteria for that matter. I was literally too afraid to talk.
Not wanting to chance such a situation into happening, and not in the mood to be around the others anyways, I took my seat at an unoccupied table in the emptiest corner of the cafeteria that I could find.
I used a fork to fiddle with the small plate of food which I had grabbed. I was hungry but in no mood to eat. In a way, I felt sick. My head ached, my body was weak, and both my heart and mind hurt. I felt helpless, even though I knew there were those that would aid me. I didn’t want Pinkie to see me in such a state. I felt like a fool. I knew I shouldn’t have been so hurt over one girl, but I was a complete wreck.
I cursed beneath my breath as I looked up to see a rather concerned Pinkie heading in my direction. I had the urge to get up and leave, but knew I couldn’t. At the time, I didn’t want to admit it to myself, but I was truly glad to see how much she cared for me. “Whatcha doing all the way over here? Is everything okay?” her voice rang into my ears as she took a seat beside me, and edged her chair up so close to my own that they were touching. “There’s something wrong, huh? You look super sad. I don’t like it when you’re sad… well, when anyone’s sad.”
I sighed heavily as she wrapped her arm around my shoulders and rested her body against me; I could already feel the sting of tears as they welled up in my eyes. “Pinkie… I just… never mind, I don’t want to talk about it right now. I can’t.” I grimaced painfully as I tried my hardest to hold back the tears, and shook my head in defeat as I felt their warmth trickling down the edges of my nose.
“Are you sure?” she asked softly, pulling me into an even deeper embrace. “You and me can talk about anything, you know? I promise to help and not tell anybody else.”
“I know, Pinkie,” I mumbled as I wrapped my arm around her as well. “Maybe later… for now, you’re already helping.”
“Good,” she whispered, patting her hand softly at my back. “Now, I’m pretty sure that being all lonely and stuff isn’t going to help you cheer up. You just need to get out and have a little fun. Wanna go to the arcade with me tonight? It’ll just be the two of us.”
I knew she was right. Having fun and being with a friend like her would certainly move my mind away from the situation I was in, at least for a short while. Perhaps I would even gather enough of my sanity to actually tell her what I wanted to say. “Yeah… okay. Can we go right after school?”
I looked over at her as she pulled her head away, giving me the widest of grins. “You really, really just said yes? I almost thought you didn’t want to do stuff with me. Right after school? Yes, yes, yes!”
The slightest hint of an emotion I had not felt for many days nestled itself inside me. My frown was slowly flickering to life as it turned up into the softest of smiles. I knew Pinkie was going to be happy when I finally agreed to spend time with her, but I never expected her to be as happy she was. I had seen her grin hundreds of times since we’d met, but never so wide. “You’re, uh, really that excited?”
“Of course I am, silly! I’ve been wanting to do this ever since I met you!”
I smiled sheepishly. “Well, yeah… I guess I have been putting it off.”
“Meanie!” she teased, sticking her tongue out at me. “Oh, I’m sooo excited you don’t even know!”
***
I had not yet been to the local arcade; it was a nice change of scenery. It was rather small, established in a timeworn brick building downtown, and looked nothing close to the other buildings which all looked almost brand-new in the prestigious state they were kept in. Inside, the atmosphere was close to any other arcade that I had ever been to. The overhead light was low, letting the bright, technicolor glow of the screens, and the flashing lights of the machines provide the majority of illumination. Music, voices, and sound effects echoed through the room. The red, brick walls were rather plain besides a few neon and LED signs hanging on them, their cords traveling to unseen power strips behind the many machines.
After devouring a dinner of rather greasy pizza slices which we had purchased at the snack counter, we proceeded to gather a pile of tokens and sample what the arcade had to offer. I was growing happier by the minute. The simple act of doing something that I enjoyed with an amazing friend was more than enough to begin pulling me out of my depression. We played nearly each and every game no matter how strange or silly it looked, finding some of them quite enjoyable, and others incredibly challenging. Instead of growing angered or defeated when we failed, we would laugh at our dumb mistakes. I was growing more attached to that silly girl by the minute, but thoughts of Sunset always re-entered my mind. There was something much more special about her, something I could not explain.
After starting up a game of air hockey, the conversation that I had been both pleading to happen, and for it not to, began. “You ready to talk about… ya know?” Pinkie asked as we shot the puck back and forth across the table. There were only a few other people in the arcade. I knew none of them, and they were all quite a ways away from us. It was the perfect time to talk, and she knew it.
I let out a sigh and froze up slightly, feeling my heart beginning to pound. I barely even noticed the puck fly past my stopper and into the goal. Pinkie struggled not to giggle, causing me to shake myself from paralysis to retrieve it. “Yeah, I guess,” I said as I placed the puck back on the table and shot it her way.
“So, what’s up? What’s got ya down these last few days?” she asked as she ricocheted the puck back and forth across the table
“….Sunset Shimmer,” I admitted with a gulp, blocking and then hitting the puck back.
“Knew it!” Pinkie exclaimed, flinging her hands up into the air and letting the puck right into her goal. “Whoopsie… but I am pretty good at seeing this sort of stuff, huh?”
“I guess?” I said with a shrug as she reached down for the puck.
“Anyways, go on. I’m all ears,” she said with a giggle, using her fingers to tilt her ears towards me.
I chuckled and rolled my eyes. I then gulped, my cheeks lighting up as the seriousness of the situation returned. “Well, I… I like her as more than a friend, and-”
“What?” Pinkie gasped, her mouth dropping open and her eyes growing wide. “Oh my gosh! You know she’s totally into you too, right?”
My heart pounded at the thought. “You really think? I mean, how do you know? Did she say?”
She shook her head, letting her curls bounce about. “Nopey nope nope, I can just tell. Have you ever paid attention to the way she looks at you, how she acts sorta different around you, the way she talks to you… well, used to talk to you?”
My heart was wrenching and my frown returning. “Yeah, that’s the problem. Why isn’t she talking to me? Any ideas?”
Pinkie frowned and shook her head. “No clue, I thought it was because she was afraid to tell you her feelings or that you might have turned her down or something.”
“Yeah, I sort of feel like it was the other way around to be honest,” I said with a shrug, walking away from the table top and to a bench in the corner after noticing we had given up on keeping our interest in the game.
Pinkie followed close behind and took a seat beside me, scratching her chin in thought. “Hmm, that’s strange. Maybe she’s worried or being cautious or something. After all that happened, I don’t think anyone has gotten as close to her as you have.”
I could feel my body growing tense. If anything dealt with Sunset, it always somehow ended up wrapping back around to mysterious past events that I had no knowledge of. “What do you mean? Ugh, I’ve heard stuff like this so many times since I got here, and still have no idea of what happened. I’ve always thought there was something a bit off about Sunset too, like she’s hiding something from me.”
Pinkie gasped once more, this time slapping a hand over her mouth. “You mean she hasn’t told you?” she sputtered out as she pulled her hand away. I shook my head and huffed in annoyance. “Sunset Shimmer used to be a major meanie. We all hated her. Oh, oh, oh, and she turned into this evil monster, demon thing…” her eyes grew wide, and both of her hands cupped over her mouth.
“Uh… what?” I mumbled, completely confused as I shook my head, attempting to run the scenario through my head.
“Oh gosh!” Pinkie gasped as she pulled away her hands. “I really, really shouldn’t have said that. I just got excited… but I guess we never did make a Pinkie promise about that… but still, if she hasn’t told you yet, I don’t think she wanted me to either. I won’t say anymore, but that is totally the reason for all of this!”
“It… is?”
“Yes, silly! You’ve only gotten to know the new her, and she’s afraid to tell you about the old her. Get it? She knows she has to tell you, but she thinks that if she does, you’ll judge her by the past instead of who she is now. She’s just trying to avoid the subject ever coming up.”
“I’m still really confused, what do you mean that she used to be mean and evil and stuff?”
She pouted and shook her head in response. “Can’t say, I’ve already said way too much. She has to be the one to tell you. You just have to get her to start talking.”
“But how do I do that? She hasn’t talked to me in days.”
“It’s simple,” Pinkie said, and utterly failed at attempting to make a serious face. “You just act serious and say,” her tone of voice grew deeper and more stern, “we need to talk.”
I couldn’t help but laugh, the tone and expression not fitting her bubbly personality at all. “Okay, I guess I’ll give it a try.”
“It’ll totally be worth it, trust me. Oh, also, the sooner you do it, the better. Tomorrow is perfect.”
“Tomorrow, why?”
“Duh, because you have tonight to plan it out and think about it for a bit, but you don’t have too much time so that you overthink it and get all nervous and hesitant and end up never ever doing it.”
Although I would have explained it a bit differently myself, I knew she was right. I always tended to overthink everything that I did. The sooner I figured out my situation with Sunset and got my question answered, the better.