Sunset Shimmer was visiting Twilight Sparkle, and it was the first either had seen each other in a long while. They were in a meadow just east of Ponyville, where the tall yellow oat grass swayed and danced to the sweet song of a nearby meadowlark. The poor thing sounded a little lonely, though Sunset couldn't reason why.
A soft blanket had been laid out on the grass, a picnic basket open and emptied of Spike's skilled cooking. There were chocolate chip cookies, daffodil sandwiches, and even some blueberry tea. It was all very lovely, and the pair chatted amicably as they sipped at teacups.
Sunset expected to have any number of stimulating conversations with the Princess of Friendship--
"Sunset, have you ever played a game of tag?"
But this was not one of them.
A teacup halted on its way to Sunset's lips and she batted her eyes at the alicorn. The meadowlark chirped in the absence of her answer. "Uh, no?" she said eventually. "I don't think I have." She took a sip of tea, if only because her admission left her feeling self-conscious. If there was one thing she had learned from tea parties in the human world, it was that action served as the best way to conceal uncertainty.
This might have worked, had Twilight Sparkle not leaned over to peer studiously into Sunset's eyes.
Sunset leaned back, her face tense with apprehension. "T-Twilight, what is it?" she asked nervously.
"Sun, I think you've spent too much time as a human," Twilight declared with a frown.
The other mare let out a startled laugh. "What?"
"What I mean is, you're losing your pony spirit."
"Yeaaah, that doesn't make me feel better."
"Sunset, I've noticed you seem rather..." Twilight's mouth slanted as she wheeled a hoof through the air. "Stiff in your pony body?"
Sunset's tail swished in agitation as her muzzle scrunched in moue like she'd just discovered gum on the bottom of one of her shoes. Stiff? This was rich coming from Twilight Sparkle! "Stiff how?" she asked. The unseen meadowlark seemed to sing her question, a note of strain entering into its dulcet voice.
Twilight shrugged, her wings fidgeting on her back before resettling. "It's in how you carry yourself. I noticed it the last time you visited, but this time it feels more pronounced." She smiled teasingly. "Don't think I didn't notice you trying to pick up a quill with your hoof this morning!"
Her companion's sunny coat ruffled as it gained a sweaty sheen. "I-I was distracted!"
"What about that time when you sat on the park bench with your hind legs dangling over the edge?"
Sunset huffed hard through her nose. "Other ponies do that too! I'm not the only one Twilight Sparkle!"
Twilight hummed, her eyes turned up innocently in thought. "There is also the matter of how you come back through the portal every time... It always takes you a full minute before you realize walking upright isn't suited to a pony!"
Sunset Shimmer's face illuminated with hot red embarrassment. Her mouth hinged open to shoot off some retort, only to snap shut again. The meadowlark half-chirped. She slouched and blew a gust of air through her loose lips. "Inter-dimensional travel is confusing," she admitted with reluctance.
Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Sunset, there's no reason to be ashamed!"
"I'm not ashamed!" Sunset snapped. Then she felt bad for snapping and muttered with a flinch, "Sorry," before she levitated a sandwich off the serving platter. "I just don't see your point," she went on with an agitated flick of her ears. "So I've picked up a few quirks here and there... That doesn't mean I'm too human!" She took an aggressive bite of her sandwich before setting it on her personal dish.
"True," Twilight mused with a thoughtful frown. "Or maybe your nature has something to do with it as well."
Sunset Shimmer stamped her hooves a little, her eyes squeezing shut. "Twilight, I'm not really up for being picked apart today!" she whined. "I thought we were going to talk about the finer points of friendship magic!" She raised a notepad and quill in her magical aura, thrusting it at her company with desperate insistence. "See!? I even brought things to take notes!"
"Well that's just it, Sun," Twilight returned, gently using her magic to ease the items back to their places on the blanket. Her voice was tinged with just the barest hints of admonishment. Avoiding learning opportunities was like trying to hold your breath to get one's way, in her eyes. "You'd have an easier time of it if you'd just reconnect with your inner foal!"
This earned Twilight a dry look from her companion. Choo choo, sweet! the meadowlark sang out, its voice ringing.
"My inner foal?" Sunset repeated flatly.
The princess nodded, completely unfazed. "Yes. That was part of the reason I brought up the increase in your human behavior. I think being in your alternate form for so long is starting to affect your thought patterns." Then came a wistful sigh. "It would make a great study if only we had the time and means to observe the effects safely!"
Sunset's mouth screwed up and she just managed to keep from turning her eyes up to the sky. It figured the only thing saving her from becoming Twi's latest science experiment was scheduling conflicts. She really was the true equal of her interdimensional twin.
The princess paused to take a prim sip of tea before continuing: "One thing I've observed in the human world is that their lack of magic leaves them without a way to readily access their better natures like us ponies do."
Sunset's ears drooped as her spine curved. "And you think I've become too much like them? What about the friends we made there? I... I thought I was doing better!"
Twilight whinnied and nuzzled her friend, a soft smile on her lips. "You are doing better. Amazing, in fact! Our human friends are very dear to my heart, as I'm sure they are to yours, and I certainly don't think ponies are superior to them in any way. Humans simply have a unique obstacle to overcome, and that can have different consequences than we're used to encountering." She smiled sheepishly. "Ponies, as far as I observed, are more prone to self-delusion. And we aren't immune to succumbing to our own magic, either!"
Sunset could feel her eyes mist up. 'Self-delusion' and 'succumbing to magic'... Been there. Done that.. As if she needed a reminder that she had suffered such crucial flaws.
Exhausted from its efforts at calling for its brethren, the meadowlark gave a single low chirp and fell silent.
Maybe I still do have those flaws? Why else is Twilight bringing this up? Sunset wondered as a dull gleam overtook her cyan eyes.
Twilight's gaze widened at Sunset's wilting form and she rushed to say with fluffed wings half-spread in panic: "Sunset, I'm not trying to say you've got the worst of both worlds! I only mean that, currently, you might be denying parts of yourself in a subconscious attempt to adapt to your new home!"
"You also mentioned my personality might be the problem too," Sunset replied with a sigh. "What is it about me that you think makes me susceptible to acting more human?"
"Honestly? The same issue I had." Twilight tried and failed to conceal a giggle behind a hoof. Grinning, she asked, "Remember the story I told you of how I met my friends in Ponyville?"
A little smile blossomed on Sunset's features, a warm break in her chilly gloom. "Princess Celestia tasked you with making friends. I remember." Then she snorted into a short laugh and said next, "You hid in your room while Ponyville partied in your library all night!"
Twilight accepted this recollection of a less-than-stellar moment with all the grace Rarity had begged of her new royal station. The unicorn would have clopped hooves in glee if she'd seen it. "Then you'll recall how no-nonsense I said I was," she said, happy for the uplift in her audience, but not to be distracted from her point. "The only things that mattered to me were my studies. It didn't just keep me from making friends, it kept me from relaxing and having fun!"
Sunset groaned and squeezed her eyes shut. "Celestia help me, I think I'm finally starting to see where you're going with this..."
Twilight nudged her friend with a foreleg. In what her companion thought was a grating lilt, the princess said, "So I thought, 'What's a good way to illustrate to Sunset the power of friendship magic, while getting her to reconnect with her pony side?'"
Sunset straightened, a fixed smile appearing on her muzzle and a glazed look in her eyes. "'Oh I know! I'll play tag with her!'" she said with mock cheer.
"Exactly," Twilight said with pep, unperturbed by her friend's sarcasm.
Sunset's brow furrowed as she resumed her slouch. "Can't we do something less...foalish?"
The meadowlark sang again, questioningly. Choo choo? Sweet sweet?
"Well, we wouldn't really be connecting you with your inner foal if you weren't doing something foalish, now would we?" Twilight countered with a small tilt of her head.
The simplicity of this logic made Sunset want to slam her face into the nearest tree.
It was so infuriatingly difficult to counter. Just what did one say in response? "NO," seemed the first and most obvious answer... But Sunset had wanted this. Well, not this per se, but the personal in-pony instruction. A refresher on the basic essence that was friendship magic. She realized, with a sense of doom, that to refuse this guidance from Twilight (the bucking Princess of Friendship) was as self-defeating as it was rude.
That didn't make her any more eager. As rumors went, Twilight's other pupil, Starlight Glimmer, tried to find shortcuts in her teacher's lessons all the time.
"But don't we need more ponies to play with?" Sunset asked with some strain evident in her voice. Before she returned home, she'd need a visit to the Ponyville Day Spa to work out the horrible knot in her withers...
Twilight smirked. "Oh is that all you're worried about?" She lifted and turned her head. With a royal volume Luna would approve of, she hollered (making Sunset's ears pin back in alarm), "Who wants to play taaaaag?"
Five seconds of ringing silence followed. Sunset peered around, utterly bewildered that Twilight honestly thought somepony would come running to join them all the way out there for--
She squeaked and covered her head when two colorful blurs zipped past her--one pink, the other a rainbow streak--stirring her mane and rattling the dishware of their quaint picnic.
"Me! Me, me, me, me, meeeee!" Pinkie Pie squealed at Twilight Sparkle's side, her voluminous hair bouncing merrily with each energetic hop.
At Pinkie's other side, Rainbow Dash folded her wings against her back, grinning cockily and striking a daring pose. "Tag? Now you know it's practically a Ponville law that I play! Count me in! I'm the best at it!"
Both newcomers turned, blinking as if just seeing Sunset Shimmer for the first time.
"Oh! Heya Sunset," Rainbow snickered behind a hoof.
Pinkie Pie just threw her head back and laughed, little snorts and squeals punctuating her humor as she fell amidst the grass and rolled.
Sunset squinted one eye at them. "Um. Hi?"
Twilight gave her a smug look. "See? We're never lacking in tag opponents here at Ponyville." She giggled. "By the way. You should probably fix your mane!"
Sunset felt her blush return with a vengeance and hastily ran her hooves over her hair. "All right," she said with acerbic frustration. "So how do you play..." she closed her eyes in suffering. "Tag?"
Pinkie hopped with an eager squeal, one hoofed raised in the air like she were in school. "Oooh! Ooh! Me! I wanna say it!"
"Go ahead, Pinkie," Twilight said with affectionate patience.
Pinkie took a giant breath and began. "One pony is picked to be 'it'. Then--"
"What is 'it'?" Sunset interjected hurriedly. Maybe if I can reveal how silly this is, I can argue my way out of it!? Nevermind that she really didn't know what 'it' was.
Pinkie Pie blinked, her flow effectively thwarted. "Um..." she shrugged. "A pony who's 'it' is just...it!"
"What Pinkie means to say," Twilight said, her voice tense with hidden amusement, "Is that the pony designated as 'it' is the one who chases the others, hoping to tag them."
"Then what?" Sunset asked, her head tilting to one side.
"The pony who is tagged then becomes 'it' and they start chasing the others around."
Sunset Shimmer squinted her eyes. "But... How do you win?" Twilight, Rainbow, and Pinkie exchanged looks. Then they started to laugh. Sunset blushed all over again, harder than before. She imagined she must have looked like a hot dog with ketchup and mustard on one end. "Come on, it's a serious question!" she protested with a small whine.
Rainbow and Pinkie only laughed harder at her mortification, with the pegasus stomping a hoof on the ground, and the earth pony holding onto Rainbow in a limp effort to keep upright. Twilight was the only one who managed to compose herself enough to respond, and even then, it was while she wiped tears from her eyes.
"Sunset...there is no winner in tag! You just sort of keep playing until you stop!" She smirked. "There is, however, no tag-backs. Meaning--if you just tagged someone, then you're safe from being tagged until the new 'it' pony tags somepony else."
"Oh," Sunset muttered. Well that was maddeningly simple. Was there really no other point to stall with? Then one struck her on the head like a basketball from P.E. "Are there no boundaries?" she blurted, wild-eyed. "What's stopping me from teleporting to another city!?"
Somewhere further off than before, the meadowlark chirped again in its urgent song.
One of Twilight's ears drooped in bemusement. "Er... Well, sportsmanship? For one thing." She raised an eyebrow and added in a flat tone, "For another, you wouldn't really be playing tag then! Sunset, honestly, it's just a game! Not detention!"
"Detention would be preferable," Sunset muttered to the picnic blanket.
"She kinda raises a good point, though," Rainbow said thoughtfully.
Sunset looked up to see the pegasus rubbing her chin with one hoof. "We've all played with each other so we all sorta know the rules already! It's not fair to assume Sunset knows them all too!"
Twilight puckered her lips, considering this appeal on Sunset's behalf. Eventually, she bobbed her head and let out a meh! She pointed a hoof at her horn. "Okay. So the first rule is no magic! Second is that only hoof tags count. So if you tackle somepony but you don't deliberately tag them with a forehoof, then you're still it!"
Pinkie pulled one of Rainbow Dash's wings out and exclaimed, "Third is no flying!" She smiled apologetically as Rainbow snapped her wing out of Pinkie's hooves with a mild glare.
Twilight made a sweeping gesture with her foreleg. "Last rule is to stay in the field!" Then after a thoughtful squint at Sunset's anxious face, she added, "And since we're playing with a beginner, the picnic blanket is base... meaning if any pony touches it, then you are safe! This gives you a chance to catch your breath. But you're only safe as long as you're in contact with the blanket, you can only stay there for five seconds, and only one pony can be there at a time!"
Rainbow groaned. "Aw, man! Are we playing with a base? I hate base."
Twilight levied a disapproving stare at her brash friend. "Oh really? If I recall correctly, half the reason we stopped using a base in our games was because you kept using it as a herding tactic!"
"Herding tactic?" Sunset repeated. There are tactics to this game?
Pinkie sighed like she were bored, her way of expressing mild disapproval of something. "Yeeeah. Rainbow used to feint us into thinking we could run to base, but she'd cut us off enough times that we'd end up huddled together and she'd have her pick of who she wanted to tag." Then she pouted. "It wasn't fun!"
Rainbow Dash grinned unapologetically. "Whaaat? That was only because I was getting so fed up with everypony hiding there when I was about to get 'em! It's called adapting tactics guys. And anyway, I got the idea off of Applejack!"
Sunset blinked. "Applejack did it too?"
Twilight smiled wearily. "She was the other reason we had to stop incorporating base." The princess pointed a warning hoof at Rainbow. "No herding!"
Rainbow rolled her eyes and shrugged a silent, Whatever.
Sunset's ears swiveled as she thought she heard that meadowlark once again... but he sounded distant. Had he finally flown off in search of his friends?
"So who is going to be 'it' first?" she asked, feeling her attempt at stalling collapse on itself. When it came down to it, Twilight Sparkle had probably chosen this exercise precisely because it was next to impossible to pick apart. Her stomach lurched unhappily.
What if I'm horrible at this game? What if I don't have fun? What will they think of me? Will they stop looking at me as a pony?
"I'll be it!" Rainbow said eagerly. Her wings spread wide and she grinned cockily at the others. "For just a few seconds, that is..."
"Okay!" Twilight said, her wings also spreading. "Rainbow, please count to ten while the rest of us gain some distance. Sunset? I recommend you stay close to me."
Sunset nickered half-heartedly, resigned to her fate as Pinkie Pie bounced merrily past her through the tall grass.
Other than what would no doubt be a beleaguered rant on tag's potential applications as a model on the stark socioeconomic state of Equestria, Sunset Shimmer reasoned that...she had no arrows left in her quiver. She really had no good reason not to play. Twilight really thought this would help. Not just to distract her from some stress carried over from the other world (Sunset did have a paper due in History class, which... now that she thought about it... maybe her now discarded rant could still be used?) she honestly felt this would unleash some youthful energy that Sunset was apparently losing.
Wasn't her human friends in the other world always encouraging her to get out of her shell and just have fun? To leave the past in the past and to smile in the present? Was she really stopping herself from engaging in a frivolous activity because she was afraid of how she would look, or because she was afraid that her innocence was simply no longer inside her? And that she was lesser for it?
Sunset Shimmer took a deep breath.
Maybe the point... is just doing it?
To Twilight Sparkle's recommendation, Sunset asked with the gravity of a general acquiescing to terms of surrender, "What do I need to stay close for?"
Rainbow had already covered her eyes with her wings and was counting. "Three! Four--!"
Twilight smiled at her like a foal who had just said something sweet and naive. She took her friend under her wing and led her away in a brisk trot. "Because whatever happens, we're in this together." Then she winked. "Until either you or I get tagged that is."
Sunset smiled and hurried to keep up, feeling her spirit lift a little under her friend's warm wing. "So the point of this again is--?"
She felt Twilight's wing lightly bop her on the back of the head.
"The point!" Twilight said archly. "Is to stop bucking thinking, and have fun!"
"Eight! Nine!" Rainbow counted relentlessly.
Sunset batted her eyes as she fell a step behind, her intellect crawling hastily over this idea like ants did a picnic. Her head snapped round suddenly as this particular image took hold. "Wait!" she cried out. "We should put the food awa-aaaay!" Her voice morphed into a shriek of surprise as she beheld the rushing form of Rainbow Dash hot on their hooves.
Twilight squealed. "Run! Run Sunset, run!"
Sunset didn't need telling twice. She broke into a full gallop, her heartbeat drumming to a matched pace as she and Twilight crested a small hill, the tall yellow oat grass teasing their sides. To the side, Pinkie Pie could be seen bobbing in and out of view as she bounced along. Behind her, a rapid force shook the grass violently, almost like something was parting it--
Sunset jumped when Rainbow leaped into a view like a shark out of the water, her hoof tapping Pinkie Pie's flank smartly mid-bounce. "Tag, you're it!" the pegasus cried with triumph upon landing.
Pinkie Pie took a second to process this, one curly lock askew in her mane, before suddenly throwing her hooves up into the air and screaming, "Whoo hoo!"
Maybe it was the adrenaline that coursed through Sunset, making her feel giddy. Or maybe it was just the unexpected and ludicrous joy Pinkie exhibited at having been crowned 'it'. Or maybe it was the way the grass teased her sides as they continued to run free and wild.
Regardless of the reason, Sunset Shimmer couldn't hear the meadowlark's song anymore. She was fairly certain the little creature had taken matters into his own wings and flew off for a less lonely afternoon. But even if he was still nearby singing, she wouldn't have been able to hear him.
The air was thick with laughter, not least of which was her own.