The absolute last thing that Screwball had expected to see when she walked into Sugarcube Corner was complete darkness. The store was usually so bright and cheery that the atmosphere just felt all wrong when there was no one there and the lights were all off. It was just unnatural, and it made Screwy shiver a little.
“…Did Sunset just try to get me here so someone can kill me with no one knowing?” Screwball said seemingly to herself. She honestly wouldn’t be surprised if that was actually the case and the whole thing turned out to just be a ruse.
“…Seriously Screwy? Your imagination is just….really everywhere isn’t it?” Sunset’s voice said from the darkness. Screwy turned around quickly to the direction of the voice, only for one of the lights to come on directly over the table Sunset happened to be sitting, holding a milkshake in her hand and drinking from it.
Understandably, seeing her former-friend/possible murderer in this sort of atmosphere made Screwball a little uncomfortable. “Well, what do you expect? You couldn’t have made this meeting a little less…I dunno…creepy?”
“Pinkie insisted I have the lights off for this…” Sunset insisted. She was completely aware that this didn’t seem like the ideal setting for making up with a friend, but all would be revealed in the end, in which hopefully, the payoff would be excellent.
“…Dare I ask why?” Screwball asked.
“Look, are you just gonna stand there asking questions all night, or are we gonna sit down and talk?”
Screwball put up her hands to show that she wanted Sunset to just relax. “Okay okay, jeez. Don’t have a cow about it.” Screwball said, sitting down and looking at Sunset, again with that slightly uncomfortable face. This just felt so incredibly awkward that she didn’t even really know what to say to her. What COULD she even say after this big mess that she caused?
“So…I got your letter.” Screwball said cautiously.
“Kinda expected that since your over here in the first place…but anyway, what’d you think?” Sunset asked.
Screwball sighed a little bit. If she was honest with herself, she should’ve been overjoyed that Sunset wasn’t mad at her anymore. She really should’ve been happier than ever that her best and only friend in the world still liked her after all the bad things she’d done. Even with all those thoughts in mind though, Screwball still had a lingering question with her.
“Well…I just…wanna ask…why? Why the heck would you forgive me when I’m such a bad person that only wants to laugh at the suffering of others? Who would want a friend like that?” Screwball asked with a bit of a depressed look on her face.
“…Screwball, you’re not a bad kid. You just have a very serious problem. You’re lonely, and don’t know how to handle it. You seemed to just want attention in any way that you can get it; good or bad.” Sunset said, taking another sip of her milkshake, her face not changing in the slightest. “Besides, we already agreed that I’m worse than you. I mind-controlled an army of kids and turned into a she-demon…you might be devious Screwball, but let’s face it. You can’t top that.”
“…Dang, I’ve been dethroned before my reign even started.” Screwball pouted grumpily, crossing her arms.
Sunset rolled her eyes, smiling a little. She knew Screwball enough by now to know that she was just messing around at this point. “Hehe, that isn’t all you got out of that is it?”
Screwball shook her head. “No, no I get it. We both screwed up, and we both said we’re sorry, a whole bunch of heartwarming crap, blah blah blah….I still have one major problem though….You happen to be my ONLY friend. I’m pretty sure that not everybody else is going to be willing to forgive me so easily…” Screwball said with a little bit of a forlorn tone to her now.
“Hey, that’s what I’m here for kid. People relations isn’t my strong suit either, but I’ll do my best to try and help you…and besides, I think a few actually are willing to do the same.” Sunset said, turning her head and nodding to someone in the darkness. A few more of the lights came on, and in the back of the store stood Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, all of them looking straight at her.
“…Umm…THEY’RE not here to kill me are they?”
Sunset facepalmed. “This has nothing to do with murder in any way, shape, or form Screwball…”
“…Oh...” Screwball said, now looking at all the girls confusedly with a slightly tilted head. “Sooo…what are all of you here for? I thought you all hated me.”
“Screwy, darling…I’ll be the first to admit that most of us didn’t really appreciate what you call “Humour”-
Pinkie immediately bounced up and down and raised her hand, interrupting Rarity in the middle of her sentence. “Oh oh! I did! Your chocolate milk balloon barrage was GOLD!” Pinkie said with a big smile.
Rarity gave Pinkie a deadpanned look. Her outburst wasn’t really surprising, but still did get in the way of her getting her point across. “…Like I said, MOST of us didn’t….however, if Sunset can be shown the magic of friendship, then you can as well. And we’ll be willing to help both of you with this. After all, it takes a village to raise a good child.” Rarity said in a dignified manner, but with a little smile.
“Rarity’s right Screwball. Everyone has a little good inside of them, no matter how bad they may have been before…” Fluttershy said, also smiling a bit.
“Taint’ nothin’ to worry about Screwball. Ya ain’t ALL that bad really. If yer’ given the right guidance, I’m sure everythin’ will turn around for ya.” Applejack added.
All of them then looked over at Rainbow, who had said pretty much nothing at this point, but still had her arms crossed and appeared to be the most cynical of the bunch, as her history with Screwball seemed to be one of the worst ones.
Rainbow looked back at all of her friends, who she felt were expecting her to do something. “…What?”
“Rainbow, don’t you have something to say to Screwball?” Fluttershy asked quietly.
As a matter of fact, there was a lot of things that Rainbow wanted to say to Screwball, but a lot of them would probably make the entire situation end in tears on Screwball’s part, a lot of very disapproving looks from her friends, and possibly death at the hands of Discord. So instead, she simply sighed and went with this.
“Alright look, I know we’ve kinda not been on the best of terms…but I guess I’m willing to work it out if you are.” Rainbow replied.
Screwball had no idea what to even say to all of that. She had done more to these five girls than probably anyone else in the school, and yet here they were saying they wanted to be her friends. How on Earth was this even happening? Her only guess would be that either they were pulling some very elaborate prank on her for payback…
But they sounded VERY genuine when they were talking to her.
All Screwball felt like she could do at this point was to get up and walk over to the five girls, a little bit teary eyed, and looking at the ground with her hair covering a lot of her face. “….I-I’m sorry…for everything…Applejack, I’m sorry I TP’ed your Orchard…Fluttershy, I’m sorry I was such a jerk to you at the animal shelter…Rarity, I’m sorry that I rigged a stink bomb to explode when you opened your locker…Rainbow, I’m sorry I put a dead fish in yours….and Pinkie….” Screwball actually thought to herself for a minute for this one. “…Did I even make you mad at all with my pranking?”
“Nnnnope! Your sense of humor is actually pretty good when it’s not hurting anybody!” Pinkie cheered, smiling at her.
“Oh...thank you.” Screwball said, sighing a little in relief before looking back at Sunset, who was standing up at this point. “…I feel especially bad for betraying your trust in me Sunset….I’m really sorry.” Screwball said. She quickly walked over to Sunset and gave her a big hug, still getting a bit teary eyed at the whole development.
Sunset smiled a little down at her and patted Screwball’s beanie-covered head as she hugged back. “And I’m sorry I didn’t give you a chance kiddo…” Sunset said. She looked over at her five friends and gestured all of them over. The girls took the hint and then all got together with the hug as well, with Rainbow seeming to be the most reluctant one of the bunch, but still giving the group hug with Screwball involved a shot.
A few seconds of hugging later, Pinkie perked up a little. “Oooh, you know what this calls for?” She said with an ever-growing grin.
“Let me guess. It involves a party.” Screwball said, rolling her twisted, purple eyes.
Pinkie Pie gasped. “Oh my gosh, how do you know me so well?!” Just then, all of the lights in Sugarcube Corner finally turned on, revealing Sugarcube Corner had been decorated far ahead of time with balloons, streamers, and many other different sorts of colorful decorations, which included a huge banner that read “Happy Reformation Party!”
Looking up at the banner, Screwball appeared to be a little baffled by it. “….Uuuuh…how did she know that I was gonna-Oh wait…it’s Pinkie…what was I thinking?” Screwball said, chuckling to herself a little.
“Alright everybody, PARTY TIME!~”
Later on that night, Screwball came into the doors of her home, appearing to be a little dazed and having a lot of pink frosting all over her face. Discord happened to be sitting in his favorite chair, reading a newspaper that had an enormous hole right smack in the middle of it, and looked up from it at his daughter.
“Well, you’re certainly home late.” He said, giving her a slightly worried look at her dazed state.
“Pffft, relax dad. I was just hanging out with Sunset and a few of my new friends at Sugarcube Corner.” Screwball said, licking all of the icing off of her face in one fell swoop.
“…You’re not drunk are you?” Discord asked.
“Hehe, noooo. Just suffering from a sugar-high crash and a little bit of pig syndrome. Nothing major. Just gotta go to bed.” Screwball said, giggling a little and yawning a bit sleepily.
This behavior was not very uncommon of Screwball, but her being his daughter, Discord could definitely notice a change in her that she did not possess this morning. “…Hm…Did you do anything else today Screwball?”
Screwball put a finger to her chin and thought about this. “Hmmm….well, after I left Sugarcube Corner, I helped Applejack’s grandma get her groceries home, got Scootaloo’s scooter out of the mud when it got stuck…Although she did give me a pretty weird look after that. She was all “Are you actually Screwball?” Screwball said, giggling a little.
That had been the absolute last thing that Discord had expected to hear from her, and he was left with widened eyes and nothing but absolute silence.
“Wwwwelp, I’m goin’ to bed. Night daddy!~” Screwball said happily as she walked into her room, appearing a bit to dazed to do her usual skipping.
Discord was now alone in the living room, trying to comprehend what just happened.
“….Sunset Shimmer, what have you done to my daughter?”