As the ivory smoke billowed off into the distance, and the sounds of the train trailed off with it, Rarity and the others finally ceased their goodbyes.
Sunset let out a small sigh and turned to the others, just in time for Pinkie to glomp her. “Pinkie! What are you—”
“It’s alright, Sunny,” said Pinkie, still hugging the poor girl. “She’ll be back, you don’t have to be sad.”
Sunset considered pushing her off, but instead found herself smiling and returning the embrace. “I know that. I’m not sad.” Released, she looked around at the other four. “I have you guys.”
Rarity sat a hand on her chest and let out a relieved breath. “Well that’s good. We were a bit worried. Ever since you moved in with her, we’ve all noticed that you two have become nigh inseparable outside of school.”
Rainbow playfully elbowed her. “Yeah, seriously. What? You don’t like us anymore?”
Rarity leveled a glare at Rainbow. “Now hold on, that was not what I—”
“I do! I really do,” Sunset interjected, her voice a bit higher than she’d have prefered. Looking around nervously, her voice fell soft as she continued. “Have I really not been spending a lot time with you all outside of school?”
Applejack smirked and sat a hand on her shoulder. “Sug… we had to get Coco to drag you to the snowball fight.”
Sunset blushed and turned away. “S-sorry… I don’t have any excuse,” she admitted.
Fluttershy nearly shoved everyone out of the way to get to Sunset Shimmer’s side. “It’s not your fault,” she cooed, grasping her hand tightly. “We know how stressed you’ve been figuring out what to do for Christmas, not to mention you probably don’t like all this cold weather; I know I don’t.”
Rarity also fell to her side, gently rubbing her arms. “Speaking of cold weather.” She shivered slightly and turned to Rainbow. “It’s starting to chill out here. Let’s hurry up to Rainbow Dash’s house.”
Rainbow flinched and nervously rubbed the back of her head. “A-actually, we can’t go to my place this year…”
“Why not, Dashie?” asked Pinkie, popping up next to her.
She shrugged. “No room. We got a surprise visit from my grandparents and they’re using the guest room.”
Fluttershy beamed. “Aunt Aurora and Uncle Cirrus are here!” she said, unexpectedly loudly. When everyone turned to look at her, she blushed and resumed her normal shy away tactics. “I-I mean… I hope I get to see them soon.”
“They’ll be here till New Year’s,” said Rainbow, waving it off. “The point is we can’t go to my—”
Applejack leaned down to glare at her. “The point is why didn’t ya tell us while we were planning this here send-off earlier?!”
Not backing down, Rainbow met Applejack’s stare with her own. “Well it never came up. Did it? Who said you guys could come over anyway?”
Pinkie poked her head up in between the two, cutting off their rather electrifying staredown. “Well duhh! We always go over to your place to spend christmas afternoon. Then we play games have fun and tease and hint about what we got for each other.”
Fluttershy fidgeted nervously. “Well,” she began softly, “maybe it was a bit wrong of us to just assume we’d go over there again this year.”
Applejack scoffed and rolled her eyes. “The reason we do is that Dash throws a tantrum if we don’t go to her place every year.”
“Hey!” Dash yelled, stomping her foot. “I’m not a baby. I just keep saying my place is the best. We have a lot of space, two TVs, several game consoles and like every board game Pinkie ever bought me.”
Sunset watched wide eyed as the argument played out in front of her. Being still relatively new to the who group dynamic, she still wasn't really sure what to do in this situation; which she was sure happened often. However, she did know that she was cold.
Slowly she raised a hand to interject. “Can’t we just… go someplace else?” she asked, her voice growing weaker as the group turned to look at her.
Rarity took a step forward. Sunset realized that during the conversation slash argument between Dash and Applejack, Rarity had put on another scarf. “Well, yes, of course. But we cannot go to my house or my boutique. My house because my sister and her friends are having their party, with my parents as chaperones, and my boutique… well… no.”
Applejack simply gave Rarity a flat look before rolling her eyes. “We could go back to mah place but it’s a bit of a hike from here. We could go to Pinkie’s place… again.” Applejack trailed off as she stared at Pinkie frantically shaking her head back and forth. “Why not,” she asked, brow raised.
Pinkie winked coyly. “Spoilers!” she giggled.
“I’m guessing all of our gifts are in her room sitting out in plain sight,” Fluttershy translated.
Rarity sat a finger on her forehead and shook her head sadly. “Well that only leaves Sugarcube Corner, and I’m hesitant on asking Mr. and Mrs. Cake to let us stay there after what we all did. We may have to just scrap this meetup for now and plan somewhere to meet up tomorrow to exchange presents.”
Sunset smiled. “We could go back to my… I mean, Coco’s place.” She looked down and her smile became slightly more somber as she remembered her short experience alone in it yesterday. “It’s nice and large… and to be honest. It’ll probably feel a bit empty without someone there.”
She felt a nudge to her sides as both Fluttershy and Pinkie moved closer to her.
Pinkie threw her hand into the air and cheered, “Whoooo! Christmas Eve party at CocoSun’s!”
Sunset gave her a blank look. “Coco… Sun?” she asked, her brow raising slightly.
Pinkie nodded. “Well it’s a bit of a mouthful to say ‘Sunset and Coco’s house’, so I gave it a fun nickname.
It took Sunset a few moments, but after thinking about it, she merely responded with a shrug.
Satisfied with that course of action the group gathered their things and turned to leave. However, as the group departed the station, Sunset leveled a brief glance back towards the distance to Manehatten.
“Hey, uh... Sunset?”
Sunset’s head snapped back towards the others, who had walked ahead. “Coming,” she called, catching up with them. Looking around she realized that they were all still staring at her. “What’s up?”
“You gotta lead the way,” AJ chuckled. “We’ve never been to your place before.”
It took a second for that particular fact to register in her mind before Sunset could manage a reaction. “Wh-really? None of you?”
She turned to Rarity who simply shook her head. “Not I, darling. We’ve always met at my boutique.”
“You’ve been to my place a few times,” Applejack added.
Sunset finally turned to Rainbow Dash. “I know you’ve been over. We played video games after school.”
Rainbow shrugged. “Yeah but the last time was like… a month ago. I don’t remember the way.”
Sunset looked around once again and blushed. “Oh my gosh, I am so sorry. I didn’t realize I was supposed to—”
Sunset grunted as Pinkie Pie threw an arm over her shoulder. “Don’t worry about it Sunny. This just means we’ll get to have an extra fun time since we get to explore your house!” She let out a huge gasp. “This means we also get to throw you a huge housewarming party!”
Sunset chuckled. “I guess so. But still, I promise to invite you guys over more often after this.”
~~~
Applejack whistled, tipping up her hat to look around at the fairly sizable blue and white home in front of her. “Not bad. Better than I was expecting.” she said, standing with the other girls on the sidewalk.
Rainbow’s jaw was currently rolling down the street. “It’s even bigger than my house. In fact, It’s almost as big as your barn! she exclaimed, pointing at the house. “How did I not notice that?”
“You were too busy gushing about meeting Daring Do to look up at the building until we were already inside,” explained Sunset, smirking at her.
Rainbow stared at her blankly for a second before smiling nostalgically. “Oh right. Good times.”
Rarity examined the house the same way she would examine any gem in the rough. Her eyes trailed up and down the exterior appraising each feature of the home. “It could do with a little external maintenance, but otherwise it is a fairly nice looking home.”
Fluttershy, however was looking around at the other houses curiously. “I think I know this neighborhood. It’s the one that connects us to the rest of the city, I think.”
Rarity tore her eyes away from the home to look around herself. “Hmm yes, you’re right, that would explain why it’s larger and more expensive looking than our homes.” She shrugged. “Oh well it makes sense, Coco’s family is fairly high-class.”
Sunset nodded. “See yeah, that’s what I figured, but every time I ask Coco about it she gets embarrassed and won’t tell me. What do they do for a living?”
Rarity smirked and moved closer to Sunset. “Oh it’s very simple her father is a—”
Suddenly, Sunset’s front door burst open and a pink-haired girl’s frowning face popped out. “Ohhh! Will you guys stop talking and come inside already!” yelled Pinkie. Giving them one last look, she went back inside closing the door behind her.
It was at that point they noticed that Pinkie Pie hadn’t stopped to gawk at the building with the rest of them. Giving each other knowing glances, the group collectively prepared themselves and made their way to the front door. Hesitant, Sunset turned the knob and pushed inward.
“Surprise!” yelled Pinkie, blowing confetti at the group from the doorway. Unfortunately, the girls were somewhat less than surprised considering they were ordered to walk into it.
Rather, Sunset gave her a perplexed look instead. “How did you even get inside?” she asked, writing a mental note to research security systems.
Pinkie Pie winked coyly. “That’s a party planner secret.” Not waiting for a reaction, Pinkie spun around in a circle, gleefully showing off her new additions to the house. “Look around.”
“Woah,” gasped Sunset looking up at the ceiling. When she and Coco left, the house hadn’t been decorated. The two actually never even gave it a thought. However, now, in the few minutes that Pinkie had been in the house she had managed to not only string green and white garlands around the stair rails but she had also hung a bunch of strands of blinking multi colored lights from the ceiling, making the entire living room and hallway look like one large Christmas-y chandelier.
Rainbow Dash looked on the other side of the door and noticed the large green wreath that had been hung on it.
The groups astonishment was broken when Rarity let out a small surprised gasp. Every girl turned to her, only to notice her pointing towards the kitchen in horror. “Pinkie Pie, is that what I think that is?”
Sunset looked towards where Rarity was pointing. Hanging upside down from the entrance to the kitchen was a small green plant with white berries decorated with a small red bow. “Is that...” asked Sunset, blushing slightly.
Pinkie popped up in between Rarity and Fluttershy, hugging them both. “Eyup! That’s mistletoe alright.”
Rarity fervently whispered into Pinkie’s ear. “Pinkie Pie, you know that thing is forbidden,” she hissed. Pinkie grinned and Fluttershy immediately paled.
Sunset arched a brow curiously. “Why is it forbidden?”
Rarity flinched and glanced behind her. Following her gaze, Sunset noticed that Applejack was stifling her chuckling while Rainbow Dash was fuming.
“Um… Rainbow?” Sunset watched as Rainbow Dash ignored her and stomped over to the mistletoe, jumped, and tore it from the wall, crushing it in her hands. Applejack’s stifled laughter only increased in intensity as she then she stomped over to the nearest trashcan and angrily threw it in, slamming the lid afterwards.
Rarity, Fluttershy and Sunset all flinched collectively as Rainbow walked back over to them. Wordlessly, she threw an arm around Pinkie and grinned. “Wow, Pinks you did a real good job setting all this up. Where’d you get all the decorations?” she asked.
Applejack, still by the door, finally burst out laughing. Sunset turned from her to Rainbow, who was still ignoring her. Taking a calculated risk, Sunset leaned over and whispered to Rarity. “What was that about?”
Rainbow’s head snapped towards her. “What was what about?” she asked, her smile still plain on her face.
Rainbow’s calm facade was broken by a hand rising up from behind her and rustling her hair. Applejack, still laughing struggled to answer Sunset’s question. Rainbow, meanwhile was back to fuming. “Dash had a pretty… interesting experience with mistletoe at mah house a few years back. Back then she had a—”
“Shut up!” Dash screamed and tackled the cowgirl to the ground. Struggling, the girls wrestled their way into the living room. While Sunset was staring down at them in confusion and horror. Fluttershy had rushed into the room after them and was moving anything that looked breakable out of the way. Pinkie was giggling and ran into the room after them, busy recording it on her phone.
Rarity, meanwhile sighed and closed the front door. Coming back to Sunset, she noticed the girl was fearfully looking into the living room. “Would you like some tea, darling?” she asked pleasantly. Rarity gestured to her bag. “I brought some with me. Oh, do you mind if I use your kitchen?”
Sunset turned her horrified look, now tinged with surprise, towards her. “Shouldn’t we stop them?!” blurted Sunset.
Rolling over to the foot of the couch. Dash pushed AJ onto her stomach and hurriedly tried to pin her arm behind her back. That didn’t last long as Applejack simply laughed and bucked her off, reversing the pin and moving Dash into a headlock.
Rarity scoffed and waved them off. “Don’t worry about it.They do this every Christmas. In fact, they do this every time that story gets brought up.”
“B-but still!” Sunset, still dumbfounded turned to look at Fluttershy. “Fluttershy you can’t be alright with this.”
Fluttershy hovered about the couch and looked over at her. “I’m not.” She shrugged and looked back down at the two girls. After a second she had formed a gentle smile on her face. “Well, it makes me feel better to think of them as a kitten and a puppy. They’re just playing around with each other. They never really hurt each other. They’ll tire themselves out soon enough.”
Breaking out of the hold, Rainbow pushed Applejack back around the stand near the table. Seeing the vase on top of it shaking, Fluttershy rushed over and caught it. “Really, all I can do is make sure they don’t break anything.”
Jumping on top of Applejack’s stomach Rainbow pinned her arms to the ground. “Hah!” she cheered, putting all of her weight down on her. “Give up, Applejack!” she grunted.
Struggling, Applejack quickly realized that she actually couldn’t lift her arms. Even so, she grinned. “Hey, Sunset!”
Sunset, still standing by the entrance nervously rubbed her arm. “Y-yeah?”
“So you know that mistletoe right. You wanna know why Rainbow here hates ‘em?”
“What?!” yelled Dash, reeling back slightly.
Unfortunately, her brief distraction gave AJ just enough leeway to pulled her hands back to her. Almost instantly, AJ threw them around Rainbow and brought her to the ground in a fierce bear hug. Locking her arms behind Dash’s back, AJ cemented her victory. “Like ah said, you wanna know?”
Sunset glanced towards the kitchen where Rarity had gone to, wondering briefly whether she would like to be in there instead. “Not really,” she muttered, only slightly uncomfortable.
Pinkie, having switched from her phone to a full fledged camera, glanced over at her. “Don’t worry, Sunset, this is how every Christmas starts!”
“It’s actually how we used to decide what game to play first,” added Fluttershy, shaking her head in disapproval.
Pinkie, however, nodded. “If Rainbow wins we play a video game, if Applejack wins we play a boardgame.”
Rainbow Dash struggled valiantly, but her efforts were in vain as AJ only tightened her hug. “So this was like, ah think, four or five years back, right.”
“No! No! No! No! No! No! Shut up!" cried Rainbow.
Applejack chuckled. “And Dash here had a teeny tiny crush on Big Mac, right?”
“Rainbow Dash had a crush on your brother?!” shouted Sunset. Suddenly, she found herself very interested in this story.
At this point, Rainbow was beet red and was just screaming to drown the other girl out. Sunset flinched, thankful that this house was large enough that the neighbors weren't directly up against the walls. Fluttershy herself was covering her own ears.
Applejack only proceeded to yell over her. “So Rainbow Dash heard from Granny Smith about how you gotta kiss if’in you find yerself under the mistletoe with another person.”
“Applejack you’re gonna lose so many cool points if you tell this story!” threatened Rainbow.
AJ continued nonetheless. “So then she spent the whole day tryin’ to get Big Mac under that there leeeahhhghhhh egh!” Quivering in disgust, Applejack quickly threw Rainbow Dash off and frantically tried to wipe the saliva off of the side of her face. “You licked me?!”
“Ohhhhhh,” gasped Pinkie, zooming in on Rainbow wiping her mouth.
Rainbow, still blushing, pointed at her threateningly. “You’re lucky I didn’t bite you.”
Even though she was grossed out, Applejack still couldn’t help but laugh. “You know, this really isn’t helping your case ya’know?”
“Yeah, Dashie,” teased Pinkie, throwing her two cents in. “You got some unfinished business?”
At this point Sunset had lost all sense of hesitation and was leaning forward. “What happened?!”
“Oh for goodness sake.” Everyone turned to see Rarity poking her head out of the kitchen. “Rainbow Dash ended up kissing Applejack under the mistletoe right in front of Big Mac,” she announced before disappearing back inside.
Rainbow exploded and tackled Applejack. The wrestling began anew as the two jocks rumbled across the floor. At some point, Pinkie had moved the couch and table away, giving the two plenty of room to roll around without knocking into things.
Slowly, Sunset moved over to Fluttershy, who was still calmly watching over the two. Like a gentle mother, she stood a ways away, ready to step in if things went too far. “So… this happens… often?” asked Sunset.
Fluttershy shrugged. “Not all the time. But you learn to get used to it. Pinkie actually has a video scrapbook on her laptop. Would you like to watch it?”
Before Sunset could respond, Pinkie called her attention. “Sunset!” Sunset turned just in time to see Pinkie lob her bag at her. Fumbling, Sunset caught the pack and gave a sigh of relief. “It’s in the main pocket,” she told her, still recording the scuffle.
Looking from the girl to the bag, to the fight still going on, Sunset shrugged and unzipped one of the pockets. The second she did, a burst of air flew out, followed by a blast of confetti and streamers.
“Wrong pocket!” Pinkie called back over her shoulder.
“There’s not going to be an explosion of whipped cream in the next one, right?” asked Sunset.
Pinkie began adjusting the focus on her camera as she continued to record Applejack and Rainbow’s wrestle. “Depends… just make sure to open the pockets VERRRY slowly!” she said, absentmindedly moving to the other side of the scuffle.
Sunset looked from Pinkie, to the bag, then back to her. After a second or two of deliberation she gently sat the bag down. “You know what, I think I’ll wait.”
Turning back to the spectacle before her, Rainbow and Applejack were still rolling on the ground, Sunset noticed that the two weren't even fighting anymore. Rainbow had her usual competitive smile on and AJ never lost hers. One sniff of the air signaled that Rarity had moved on from tea and was now using her kitchen to fix something else. It smelled a little like cinnamon.
Sunset couldn’t help but grin. “Some house warming this is,” she muttered.
“And it’s only gonna get better!” cheered Pinkie as Applejack brought Rainbow into a full nelson.