For some reason, Discord wasn’t particularly surprised to learn that Pinkie disapproved of his unauthorized contact with Sunset Shimmer.
“You can’t just walk up to her and start yammering for no good reason!” Pinkie said as she stormed around their hotel room. “We need to be extra-super-duper-careful about how we deal with her, or else we may end up giving away something without getting anything in return.”
This, however, didn’t faze Discord, mostly because he figured that the best way to irritate Pinkie Pie at the moment would be to take her criticism in stride. Besides, there was a glaring flaw in her reasoning. “You didn’t seem to have much of a problem when Penumbra did it.”
“I trust Penumbra,” Pinkie retorted, “and besides that, she wasn’t nearly as flippant about it afterwards as you’re being.”
“Would you two mind not dragging me into this?” Penumbra asked from behind her biology textbook.
“Sorry,” the pair replied in unison—which was likely a coincidence, since both of them immediately glared at each other as if they’d been subjected to deliberate mockery.
“In any case,” Discord said as he continued to stare at his laptop (more to avoid dignifying Pinkie’s scolding with eye contact than due to actual interest in the contents of the screen), “I did get something in return. Sunset accidentally dropped hints that she knew Twilight Sparkle, and I was able to confirm this by reading through Twilight’s blog archives. Thus, we are now better prepared this evening than we were this morning, and it’s all thanks to my initiative. I presume that I have an apology coming my way.”
Pinkie, though, was in no mood to be so generous. “You didn’t actually need to talk to Sunset to learn that she knew Twilight, though. If you had read more of Twilight’s blog, you could have easily learned that they knew each other on your own.”
“But, alas, I didn’t, which means if I hadn’t spoken with Ms. Shimmer, you likely would have found out from Twilight... perhaps upon asking her to help defeat the closest thing she has to a teenage friend. I’m sure that wouldn’t have been awkward.”
“It still is going to be awkward,” Pinkie insisted.
“True, but now you can prepare for it.”
“But how do you know you didn’t slip up yourself? Just because you took the time to gloat when she made a mistake doesn’t mean she will. We can’t underestimate her—Celestia doesn’t take fools on as her personal students.”
Discord groaned. “You know what I think? I think you’re getting yourself worked up over nothing, simply because you want an excuse to be angry with me. Do you really think I’m that much of a threat to your friendship with Penumbra?”
“She has nothing to do with this!”
“Actually, I’m fairly certain that she has everything to do with this, because I really doubt that you give a feather about Sunset Shimmer. Need I remind you that we can easily defeat her if we’re willing to use all of our abilities? The only reason we’re being so careful is out of consideration for the locals. As long as we have brute force as Plan B, I say there’s plenty of room for error in how we go about executing Plan A.”
From her corner of the room, Penumbra rolled her eyes, let out a loud sigh, and stood up to keep this argument from becoming even more counterproductive. “Look, what’s done is done, and there’s no point in bickering, right? Besides, we have more important things to do.”
“Such as?” Pinkie asked.
“Such as letting Twilight know that our friends have more or less resolved their issues, which means we can introduce them to her at our next meeting. She did say she was willing to meet, them, didn’t she?”
“Oh... that’s right,” Pinkie said as she grabbed her smartphone. “I’ll get right on that.”
———————
Considering how long Pinkie’s half-hour “practice session” had felt, the rest of the weekend zipped by far too quickly for Rainbow Dash’s liking. Perhaps it was because she spent most of her time doing her homework (for once) in an effort to keep her mind off of her forthcoming reconciliation with Applejack, or maybe the blame lay on the power naps she took between her homework sessions (again, in an effort to avoid thinking about Applejack). All she knew for certain was that Sunday evening had showed up way ahead of schedule.
Trying to explain her feelings to her dads had mixed results, as they seemed to be too overjoyed that at the maturity she was showing to fully appreciate the fact that publically making up with Applejack was going to be worse than listening to an hour of microphone feedback, and no amount of praise from her family was going to make it any less uncomfortable. The only small consolation (and it was indeed infinitesimal) was that her longtime nemesis was almost certainly feeling every bit as miserable as she was, because it turned out that one of her dads was an acquaintance of Applejack’s grandmother, and he’d immediately called up Granny Smith to inform her of the good news, which in turn meant that even if Applejack had tried to avoid letting her family know about this, she was doubtless being showered with awkward, unwanted praise as well.
For a while, Rainbow seriously considered putting off going to bed for a few hours to minimize the chance that the forthcoming conversation would end up in her dreams. However, since she rarely remembered her dreams—good or bad—Rainbow Dash ultimately decided to go to bed early so she could just get tomorrow over with. Miraculously, this had worked exactly as she hoped, and she woke up to her blaring alarm clock and set out for the school grounds as soon as she could.
She had hoped that she would arrive early enough to put her stuff in her locker before her “chance” meeting with Applejack, but as she looked through the glass doors of Canterlot High’s entrance, Rainbow spotted the farmgirl leaning against a wall with a somewhat nervous look on her face—apparently, she’d had much the same idea. Rainbow was tempted to simply walk in and get on with this rather nasty business, but Pinkie had stressed the importance of making sure there were plenty of witnesses, which meant that she had to wait outside for the lobby to fill up a bit. Fifteen minutes later, she decided that there were enough folks milling about, and she entered.
As soon as the door swung shut behind her, she and Applejack made eye contact, and within seconds the by-now-customary silence had fallen over the modestly-sized crowd of onlookers, who seemed ready to take in yet another social trainwreck. The silence continued for a few moments before Rainbow remembered that she’d lost the coin toss on Saturday, which meant that she was obliged to start the conversation.
“Uh, hey there, Applejack,” she said with an awkward wave of her hand as she shifted her backpack’s weight closer to her neck.
“Howdy, Rainbow,” Applejack replied as she pushed back the brim of her cowboy hat to scratch an itch near her hairline.
“I’ve, uh, been doing a little soul-searching lately, and I’ve kind of been thinking that maybe we got off on the wrong foot last year.”
Applejack sighed. “Yeah, I know what you mean. Things sort of got a little out of hand. I’m sorry for saying all that stuff.”
“Yeah, me too.” Rainbow tried not to look too relieved; the nasty pride-swallowing part of the conversation was over. All that was left was to name-drop the girl responsible. “So, I’ll see you at Pinkie Pie’s next campaign meeting, then?”
“Sure thing,” Applejack said as she managed to curl her lip into something that vaguely resembled a smile.
It was here, though that a slight flaw in the plan emerged. Pinkie had seemed confident that by this point, the onlookers would have broken out in gossipy whispers, giving the two of them the chance to part ways with a minimum of fuss, but instead, the silence in the room lingered, as though the spectators couldn’t quite believe that Rainbow Dash and Applejack had actually managed to have a civil conversation. It was only when a peal of celebratory laughter rang out from the open door of the principal’s office that things began to return to normal. Principal Celestia strode over to the pair as students returned to their usual morning routines.
“I’m so proud to see that the two of you have managed to work out your differences,” Celestia said, placing an approving hand on the shoulder of each girl.
“Er, yeah,” Rainbow replied. “Well, Pinkie Pie sort of help the two of us put things in perspective.”
“Is that so? Well, be sure to let her know that I’m impressed. Peacemaking isn’t exactly an easy skill to pick up, after all.”
“Uh, yeah... we’ll do that,” said Applejack. “I, uh, better be gettin’ on. Class and all that.”
“Yeah... ditto,” Rainbow Dash said. Soon, had left to get to her locker, but not before spying Sunset Shimmer out of the corner of her eye, staring at them in utter disbelief.
———————
As was usual, Pinkie Pie joined Fluttershy for lunch. Today, however, they had some company.
“Either Sunset Shimmer was expecting something like this, or she’s really good at coming up with plans on the fly, because she’s already got a counterargument circulating through the rumor mill,” Penumbra said between bites of salad.
“What’s the gist?” Pinkie asked.
“Well, according to Rarity, there’s several different theories floating around, but pretty much all of them imply that Rainbow and Applejack are faking it, either as a favor to you, or because you’ve paid them off.”
“Oh, that sounds pretty bad, actually,” Fluttershy said. “And it is kind of believable... I mean, it’s hard to think they’d just settle their differences on their own.”
“Actually, I don’t think that first rumor should count as just a theory,” Pinkie said, gesturing with her lettuce-laden fork, “mostly because it’s absotively-posilutely one-hundred-and-three percent true. I mean, they really are just doing it as a favor to me, aren’t they?”
Penumbra didn’t reply immediately, largely because she wasn’t in the habit of talking with her mouth full. After swallowing, though, she said, “It doesn’t make much difference, though; the rumors aren’t really taking that much away from what happened this morning. If they’re just being nice as a favor to you, that must mean you’re the kind of person who’s worth that sort of trouble. And if you’re paying them off, that means you’re clever enough to realize that a scheme like that could actually work. Either way, it’s not that bad.” Penumbra paused and briefly looked over her shoulder before she went on. “Plus, given that Sunset’s eavesdroppers just overheard everything I just told you, there’s a good chance she won’t push those rumors too hard for the rest of the day—not unless she comes up with a way to spin them into total negatives, that is.”
Fluttershy looked over to where Penumbra had glanced just in time to see two of Sunset’s lackeys—she couldn’t recall their names at the moment, but she was all but certain that this was the pink-and-gray duo that Pinkie had mentioned in a previous lunchtime conversation—quickly rise from their table and head for the door in an unsuccessful attempt to avoid bringing attention to themselves. “Is it really alright to let them keep following you around like that?” she asked. “It, well, seems a little bit creepy.”
“Hmm... it is a little bit creepy, and it probably shouldn’t be alright,” Pinkie said, “but I don’t think it’s worth the effort to call them out on it. I mean, what good would come from making a scene?”
Fluttershy couldn’t exactly argue with this line of reasoning; after all, the concept of “making a scene” went against every fiber of her being. “Um... in any case, since Rainbow and Applejack have made such a splash, maybe we won’t need to use Plan B.”
Penumbra shook her head. “Sorry, Fluttershy, but we can’t exactly take polls to see how well either candidate is actually doing, so we need to improve Pinkie’s standing any way we can.”
Fluttershy sighed. “I suppose you have a point. I’m not exactly looking forward to walking up to strangers and starting an awkward conversation, though.”
“C’mon, I’m sure you go to class with some of the other introverts,” Pinkie said. “You can ask them about an assignment, and once you’re in a groove, you can easily shift to other things.”
“I suppose...” Fluttershy said uncertainly.
However, Fluttershy turned out to be fairly lucky, because almost immediately after Pinkie and Penumbra left, the loners, misfits and introverts began to approach her themselves. Apparently, they’d noticed that a rising star of Canterlot High’s social circle had made one of their own her regular lunchtime companion, and Rainbow Dash and Applejack’s public reconciliation had piqued their curiosity enough to get them to approach her. This was a huge relief, because doling out information was far easier than standard electioneering.
Best of all, since most of them wanted to know more or less the same thing, Fluttershy was able to hone her pitch with relative ease: Pinkie Pie was a really nice person who was genuinely interested in making friends from all sorts of social circles, which was why she’d decided to strike up a relationship with Fluttershy. Yes, she was very talkative, but she never really overwhelmed a conversation, and topics of discussion tended to be split evenly between their interests—and she really did want to know about Fluttershy’s interests. As far as Rainbow Dash and Applejack went, Fluttershy decided to take the line that they were being nice as a favor for Pinkie, with the proviso that Pinkie had set up their reconciliation in the hopes that it might eventually result in a permanent cease-fire, if not actual friendship.
By the end of the day, word that Fluttershy was more or less Pinkie’s liaison to the introverts had filtered around the edges of Canterlot’s social structure, and perhaps most surprisingly, Fluttershy found she enjoyed her unofficial position. Conversations, it seemed, weren’t actually that bad, as long as she didn’t have to start them herself.
———————
Pinkie was cautiously optimistic about her chances as her team gathered that evening for their second meeting in a booth at Donut Joe’s. Of course, Pinkie being Pinkie, only an expert could have distinguished her “cautious optimism” from outright jubilation. “All righty, we’re off to a super-duper start, but we can’t rest on our laurels. Sunset Shimmer isn’t just going to sit back and let me win that tiara, after all. We need to think about what to do next.”
“Uh, beggin’ your pardon,” Applejack said, “but shouldn’t we wait until your sister arrives? I mean, she’s the one who’s gonna be tanglin’ with Sunset, ain’t she?”
“Oh... you’re right,” Pinkie agreed. “We really should wait for her, but not because of Sunset.”
“Whatever do you mean, darling?” Rarity asked with a somewhat quizzical expression on her face.
“Well, I know this is kind of out of the blue, but I’ve invited someone else to sit in on this meeting, and Penumbra’s meeting her so she doesn’t have to just walk up to us by herself.”
“Hey, the more the merrier,” Rainbow Dash said. “I mean, if I can work with Applejack to help you win, I can work with anyone.”
“Um, Rainbow, is it really a good idea to use backhanded insults like that?” Fluttershy asked as her eyes flicked between her friend and her friend’s erstwhile foe.
“Huh?” Rainbow Dash asked. “What’s so insulting about that? Hey, Applejack, were you insulted?”
“Not really, seein’ as I feel pretty much the same way. And quite frankly, I prefer her bein’ honest instead of pretendin’ that she actually likes me.”
“See, Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash said. “It’s not disrespectful, it’s the truth.”
“Nonetheless, you two should probably be on your best behavior,” Rarity said. “Who knows how a bad impression could affect what this newcomer tells to the rest of the student body?”
“Um, about that,” Pinkie said. “I don’t think that’s really as big a problem as you think, unless students at Canterlot Tech get to vote at the fall formal, too.”
“You invited a college student?” Rainbow Dash asked, sitting up straight.
“Yeah, but she’s not a typical college student; she’s actually our age. She graduated from high school early.”
“Hmm...” Applejack said, tapping her chin as she thought through this new information. “You wouldn’t happen to be talkin’ about Twilight Sparkle, would ya?”
“You know her?”
“Not really; our parents know each other, though, so I’ve heard bits and pieces, and she sounds like a real overachiever. Why would she be interested in meetin’ up with us?”
“I don’t think it’s the Fall Formal she’s interested in, so much as the chance to hang out with kids her age,” Pinkie said.
Applejack shrugged. “I s’pose that makes sense.”
Before the conversation could move any further, the door to the coffee shop opened, and Penumbra entered, followed closely by a purple-skinned girl with long, indigo hair. “Everyone,” she said, “I’d like you to meet Twilight Sparkle. Twilight, this is Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and you already know Pinkie.”
“Um, hi,” Twilight said with a shy wave.
“Howdy,” Applejack said, extending a hand as the rest of the group chimed in with their own greetings. Once this was finished, Twilight squeezed into the circular booth between Pinkie and Penumbra, who continued her introduction. “Twilight is a sophomore at Canterlot Tech, where she’s studying chaos theory. She likes science fiction, she’s an avid blogger, and... she lives next door to Sunset Shimmer.”
A round of gasps went up around the table, including a fairly convincing one from Pinkie, who had decided to pretend that she was just learning this for the first time. Rarity was the one who broke the silence. “I see... well, then, I hope this conversation isn’t... oh, what’s the word I’m looking for?”
“More awkward than two people who are trying to figure out who should get the last piece of pizza without either of them actually saying that they want the last piece of pizza, which only makes things even more awkward when a third person comes along and just takes the last piece of pizza because they didn’t realize that either of the other two wanted it?” Pinkie suggested.
“That’s more of a phrase than a word, but I suppose it works,” Rarity replied.
Twilight sighed. “Yeah, Penumbra mentioned something about Pinkie Pie having some contest with her. It sounded like some sort of election, but not for student council or something like that...”
It was at this point that the rest of the group explained the basic concept of the Fall Formal Princess to Twilight, who nodded comprehendingly when they finished.
“I think I understand. I mean, I vaguely remember hearing about it during the two years I was attending Canterlot High, but my advanced courseload had me so busy that I basically ignored stuff like that. I suppose it is kind of a big deal to hear you describe it. It’s sort of like an official popularity contest, except the winner is supposed to make everyone feel better about the school, or something like that?”
“Something like that,” Rarity said. “The Princess is supposed to exemplify the values of our school, but the fact that it’s awarded by election means that popularity is inevitably a factor as well.”
“Right,” Twilight said with a nod.
“So, uh, is there anything you can tell us about Sunset that might help us?” Rainbow Dash said.
“Uh, well, I don’t know...”
“Are... are the two of you friends?” Fluttershy asked.
“We’re more like acquaintances, really. I mean, Sunset always acts friendly enough when we have conversations, but...”
“But... what?” Applejack asked.
“Lately, I’ve just been getting this really weird vibe from her. It’s kind of hard to explain.”
“That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to, though,” Pinkie said encouragingly.
“Well, when we do talk, I get this odd feeling that she’s going out of her way to treat me like I’m her equal, or even socially superior to her, except I’m not entirely sure she actually believes that.”
“I’m not sure I understand,” Fluttershy said.
“I’m not sure I understand either, to be honest,” Twilight admitted. “I mean, I don’t have any evidence one way or the other about what she really thinks of me, so I’m just going on gut feelings, and let’s face it, those aren’t all that reliable. But that being said, there must be some reason she keeps giving me, well, really odd advice.”
“Such as?” Penumbra asked as she cocked one of her eyebrows.
“Well, she’s spent a lot of effort trying to convince me that hanging out with high school kids would be a waste of time... but the more time I actually spend with high school kids, the less sense it makes. I mean, I’m not boring you guys, am I?”
“Heck, no,” Rainbow Dash said. “Especially since you’re talking about Sunset Shimmer acting totally weird. I mean, if you went on and on about whatever it is you’re studying at college, I might get drowsy, but there’s a lot more to life than schoolwork, you know?”
Applejack rolled her eyes before adding, “Point is, you’re right to think that her advice is ‘odd.’ If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was tryin’ ta keep you from gettin’ involved in anything at Canterlot High.”
“But... why on earth would she do that?” Twilight asked.
“I have no idea,” Applejack replied, “which is why I threw in that little proviso about ‘not knowin’ better.’”
“So... um, would you like to help us plan our next move?” Pinkie asked. “We could certainly use an outsider’s perspective... especially from an outsider who knows Sunset personally.”
Twilight hesitated for a moment, but soon she had an answer: “Okay.”
———————
Sunset Shimmer’s home was utterly dark and completely silent, save for the starlight that snuck into the window of the living room and the sound of air moving through her nostrils. Sunset had known that Pinkie’s move would have something to do with Rainbow Dash and Applejack. After all, their original reconciliation had taken place in public as well, and Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had dutifully reported the entire exchange to her on Saturday.
Her plan had been to cast doubt on whether that truce would last, or indeed on whether it had even really happened, since only the initial argument had taken place at a high volume. The possibility that Rainbow Dash and Applejack would be willing to reiterate their rapprochement had never occurred to her, though in retrospect, perhaps it should have. After all, Penumbra had implied that Pinkie Pie was a pony of some standing back in Equestria. Given that nopony there could have known that Sunset had lost the tiara after returning, it was quite possible that Pinkie had been chosen for her diplomatic skills—though if that was the case, then Pinkie was also quite good at hiding those skills, because your average diplomat wouldn’t dare spend so much time acting like a giggling naïf.
One thing was certain, though: as long as Pinkie could claim the mantle of a peacemaker, she would be a serious threat to Sunset’s designs. Thus, Sunset’s best bet would be to think of a way to undermine that image—the only question was how. A direct confrontation didn’t seem like a good approach; if Pinkie really was a skilled diplomat, then she’d figure out whatever Sunset was trying almost immediately, and besides that, her “sister” appeared to be tasked with running interference.
Wait... Sunset thought to herself as she recalled everything she’d learned about Penumbra over the past few days. An idea started to congeal in her mind, and as it took form, it seemed more and more plausible. Granted, there was no guarantee of success, but if she actually managed to pull it off... well, if she pulled it off, it would be enough to put Pinkie on the defensive, and with less than a week until the Fall Formal, that could very well be enough to stop her from gaining momentum, which was really all that Sunset needed.
In the darkness, Sunset Shimmer finally allowed herself a smile. She had a plan.