CH15: The Gift That Keeps Giving
“Coco!” cried Pinkie as she ran across the station platform. Before Coco Pommel could even take a step off the train, she found herself wrapped up in Pinkie’s pink coat-covered arms.
The timid girl couldn’t help but blush a rosey red as the girl rubbed her cheek on hers and smile widely as she readily returned the embrace.
She let out a shy giggle. “H-Hello, I missed you guys as well.” Peaking out from the hug, she noticed Sunset standing a few feet behind Pinkie, fidgeting awkwardly.
Sunset, who had also been running forward to meet her, had been quickly overtaken by Pinkie. As soon as Pinkie glomped Coco, Sunset realized that she wasn't sure exactly how to greet her friend. So, unsure of how to proceed, she tried to play it cool. Unfortunately, she found that she simply couldn’t not express her happiness at having Coco back, even if she was only gone for about two weeks.
Her complete inability to not smile was also supplemented by a small tint in her cheeks. She tried to look over at Coco and greet her but froze as they looked into each other's eyes. They were locked into one another for a hot second until, in tandem, they both looked away, their individual crimson blushes doubling.
“S-so did you get the video I sent you?” Sunset finally asked.
Coco’s head snapped up to face her, mouth opened to answer. However, she paused mid word when she felt somebody poking her shoulder. Both she and Pinkie, who was still hugging her, turned around to see a male train attendant giving them all a patient smile from within the train.
“Excuse me, ladies,” he said, adjusting his cap, “I hate to break up what appears to be a rather nice and emotionally charged reunion but, well… we do need to close the doors to move.”
Pinkie and Coco both looked down to see that they were both standing right in the middle of the doorway, while Sunset was a few steps away staring upwards, having noticed the flashing red light above Pinkie’s head. The three stood there for a second before Sunset recovered and pulled the two outwards and towards her.
“Oh wait,” called Coco turning and reaching towards the train car. “My bags are still in there.”
The train attendant nodded and moved back into the car. “Don’t worry, miss, I will retrieve them.” And, like he promised, a few seconds later he returned with two bags: a light blue backpack and a cream-colored rolling bag.
After he handed them to her, he reached over and pressed a button near the flashing light. The flashing stopped and the door finally came to a close.
Sunset turned back to Coco and smiled sheepishly. “Welcome back!”
Pinkie then popped up between the two with a large grin on her face. “So, how was your reunion? Did you have a fun Christmas and a merry New Year?” Just then Pinkie let out a loud gasp and began excitedly bouncing in place. “What did you get?! What did you get?!” she urged.
Coco giggled and pulled her blue backpack up to her chest. Unzipping it, she pulled out a lighter blue-colored laptop with her usual chapeau mark placed on the center of the lid.
“I got a new high tech laptop,” she said excitedly. “It comes with variety of graphic design programs to make dress designing easier.”
Pinkie then bent down to stare at it, oohing and ahhing all the while.
Coco shyly glanced up at Sunset. “I was also able to see the video you made for me. I t-thought it was great. I’m really happy that you all had such a great time. The tree was beautiful too. I really wish I could’ve seen it.”
Sunset took a step closer to her. “Do you want to see it?” she asked, a teasing grin on her face.
Coco gasped and her eyes lit up. “Is it still up?” she asked. However, her excitement soon turned into concern. “Wait... is that safe for the tree?” she asked. "To still have the tree up, I mean."
Pinkie, having finished ogling the laptop, rose back to her full height and nodded. “Uuuhuh. Applejack said that we have about two more days before we absolutely have to replant it. But that’s not all!” Pinkie twirled with a flourish. “We left all the decorations up just so you could see them in person,” she declared, tossing confetti into the air.
If Coco’s eyes could’ve grown any wider she’d be an anime character. “Really! B-but… but… why?”
Sunset took another step, moving in closer past Pinkie. “Because, I thought that you might have liked to see it. I really don’t think that it’s fair that you didn’t get to join us,” Sunset nervously glanced away, “especially when we used your decorations. So we left everything up so you could see them, and afterwards we can take them down together.”
Pinkie shrugged and shook her head sadly. “Rainbow Dash thought that was a dumb idea though.”
Sunset rolled her eyes and grinned. “Personally, I told her that taking the decorations down is just as big a part of the holidays as putting them up. But I digress. Let’s go see it.”
“Wait,” called Coco, looking around the station. “Where is everyone anyway?”
Pinkie gestured around the area. “Everyone got called home. They’re all putting their holiday stuff away I think. Around new years everyone helps to put all the decorations away and fix whatever the snow messed up while it melts. Sort of like Winter Wrap Up back in Equestria.”
Pinkie then read Coco’s confused look and continued, waving her finger like and instructor. “My family actually doesn't use a tree. But I did offer to help the Cakes take down theirs.” Pinkie jumped forward and wrapped Coco up in another tight hug. “I just wanted to come see you soooo much!”
Coco, despite her strength, was still a small girl and even she struggled to breathe under the force of Pinkie’s death hug.
Sunset, seeing this, immediately leapt to her defense. “Coco, hug back as hard as you can!”
“Th-thank you. I missed you too,” she said reaching around. Locking her arms around Pinkie’s torso, she squeezed back and attempted to return the embrace.
There was an audible squeaking noise followed by another, louder and less humorous cracking sound. Pinkie immediately released the girl with Coco doing the same. Taking a step back, Pinkie gave her a thumbs up.
Though her smile had become a bit strained and her eyes beginning to water, Pinkie squeaked out, “N-nice hug, bit too… huggy though.”
Stretching, Pinkie winced and let out a groan as her joints audibly popped back into place. She turned and wobbled towards the door, still grinning with a tearful, pained expression on her face. “I think I’ll just head to the cakes’,” she said, her voice now raspy and quiet.
Sunset and Coco could only stare as Pinkie slowly walked towards the exit. Coco, her jaw open and eyes worried, timidly reached out with a hand. “A-are you sure you’re alright, Pinkie?”
Pinkie, now standing at the exit, turned to face them and nodded. “I-I-I’m fine. I left a few surprises at your place. I hope you enjoy them, and make sure to tell me about it tomorrow... And be honest!” she called.
Sunset just stared off after her before looking down at Coco. “Sweet Celestia, you hugged the energy right out of her…” she muttered in awe.
Coco began to panic, her eyes tearing up as she began fidgeting with the collar of her coat. “I-I didn’t mean too. I just hugged back like you said and…” she trailed off. Her gaze fell to the ground until she felt Sunset place a hand on top of her head.
She looked up to see her friend smiling down at her. “She’ll be fine, she’s Pinkie. Let’s just go home and find whatever surprises she hid for us. And hopefully none of them will explode or involve more whip cream,” she said, half joking and half cringing.
Coco’s worried look faded and she wiped the moisture from her eyes. “Alright,” she nodded.
~~~
“Oh wow…” Coco gasped, mouth remaining agape as she looked up at the tree in front of her.
Like Sunset had promised, the group had only mildly cleaned up, only going as far as to return the furniture back into place and sweeping the floors. The cards were still scattered on top of the table from their exciting game, a few board games were opened up around the table, the decorations were still hanging on the walls and down the staircases and, of course, the tree remained decorated in all its improvised glory.
Coco could practically feel all of the fun that the group had enjoyed and it felt beautiful. “It looks so amazing,” she gushed. “How did Pinkie get her balloons to last two full weeks?”
“I would say it’s Pinkie so who knows… but surprisingly there's an explanation this time. She uses special balloons that apparently hold air longer.” Sunset shrugged and shook her head. “Now how that works is the real mystery. Anyway, would you like to put something on it?” asked Sunset.
Coco looked up at her, eyes sparkling. She was speechless. Smiling widely, Sunset held up two small ornaments. Both were clearly generic pony ornaments, but one had been painted a cream color and another a bright yellow.
“Rarity found them in one of the boxes and painted them with fingernail polish when were were all playing.” Sunset paused, glancing away for a moment before looking back at her, blurting out, “I… I’ll pay you back for them of course, but I really like them. Rarity wanted you and… Coco what’s wrong?” Sunset trailed off when she noticed Coco’s eyes watering rapidly.
Realizing that she was now on the verge of tears, Coco hurriedly began wiping her eyes before turning her head away. “S-sorry. I’m just so happy that you all thought of me so much even when I wasn’t here. I know it’s weird but I only just became your friend and… I…” Coco trailed off sniffing softly.
Sunset, unsure of what to do, simply went with the first thing that came to mind. She gave Coco a hug.
Coco flinched as she felt two arms wrap around her, embracing her gently. While the hug was stiff compared to Pinkie’s, it was also warmer. Coco found herself leaning into to it and, after a hesitant second, returned it.
Sunset had her gaze glued to the ceiling, her face flashing a hot red color. While hugged often, she realized that she was rarely ever on the giving end of one. Honestly, she wasn't really sure how to proceed.
Still though, if friendship had taught her one thing so far is that decisions like these were made more with the heart than with the mind.
So, she started. “We’re… both new to friendship. Honestly, at least you’ve had experience with Rarity. But still; we’re in this together and I won’t let you fall behind on our lessons just because you weren’t here. You’re my friend and… well… you know... More mushy words and all that.”
Coco just had to chuckle even as Sunset’s rosy blush worsened. “Thank you. Thank you to all of you. Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity. I’m so glad to have made friends with all of you."
Sunset could only smile as she finally relaxed into the embrace.
Soon after, the two separated and Coco took in hand the pony ornament version of herself.
Taking a timid step, she reached out and brushed her free hand against the tree’s bristles. “And the tree is so lush and green even though it’s been up for so long.”
Sunset nodded happily. “Yep, Applejack made sure that we took good care of it.” Suddenly, a thought occurred and Sunset looked down at Coco with a small gasp. “I just realized that you’ve never visited Applejack’s farm before, have you?”
Coco shook her head. “No, I’ve never even been to any farm before,” she confessed.
Sunset could only smirk. “You really are a city girl,” she snarked. Reaching over, Sunset choose a nice spot to place her ornament, taking care not to place it too high up.
The city girl puffed out her cheeks and frowned. “Not my fault,” Coco sulked, sitting hers on a branch next to Sunset’s.
Her frown faded, turning back into her usual bright smile as the two toys lightly spun around, their faces occasionally bumping into each other as they sat suspended by their cords.
Turning away, she spied something interesting and slightly out of place. She tilted her head curiously. “Sunset what’s that over there?”
Sunset followed her gaze until hers fell on a small golden sphere handing down from the door-frame leading to the dining room.
“I… don’t know. As far as I remember, I don’t think this was here yesterday... and I'm sure that nobody went into the dining room during the party. If I recall, we all ate pizza in here and in the kitchen.” Sunset raised one brow and walked over to it, Coco following right behind her.
After a few steps the two stood directly beneath the object. Although now Sunset had noticed a thin silver cord running from the center of the ball down to about Coco’s chin. The two looked at one another, both sharing cautious expressions.
“D-do you think this is one of Pinkie’s surprises?” asked Coco. “You know, the ones she talked about before leaving earlier?”
Sunset shrugged and craned her head back up to examine it. “Safe assumption would be yes. If I had to guess I’d say it’s a party ball, probably filled with streamers or confetti. Either that or it’s a prank and probably has water or cream or something else inside. I just wonder when she managed to get this up without me noticing,” she said, her voice lowering to a mutter.
Coco’s eyes shifted from up at Sunset to down at the cord. “What do we do?”
Sunset’s curious look soon degraded into a flat stare. Taking hold of the cord she shrugged once more. “Well Pinkie did tell us to tell her about it. Plus we need to clean up anyway so whatever falls out can’t make too much of a mess.” Sunset brought her gaze down to meet Coco’s. You ready?”
Coco gulped. With a furrowed brow, she prepared herself and nodded resolutely.
With a gentle tug of the cord, Sunset activated the bomb. With a festive popping noise, the ball opened up at the middle and released a blast of confetti down upon them. Coco herself flinched and let out a tiny girlish yelp as something slightly heavier than confetti bopped her on her nose.
Just as Sunset began to smirk from the thought of being right, she noticed something else. Among the festive squares of paper was a small plant with yellowish-green leaves and small white berries.
As the mistletoe swung freely above their heads, Sunset froze, mouth opening and closing several times in various attempts for words. Memories of Rainbow Dash's fury and the reasons for it filled her mind.
Coco, meanwhile, had gone silent for a different reason. While Sunset had her eyes glued upwards, Coco had bent down to pick up the small, folded piece of paper that had just hit her.
Upon reading it she let out a shrill gasp and her face immediately flushed a bright red. “S-S-S-Sunset?” she stammered, turning the paper around.
Sunset, after few seconds, craned her head down and saw the note that Coco was showing her.
“Gotcha! Now you two have to kiss. Christmas rules!”
Sunset could barely respond, her face lightly tinted. “But… it’s not Christmas anymore?”
Coco merely turned the note around. On the back it said:
“Yes I know it’s not Christmas officially, but it is for you two. You two are still decorating the tree right?” Underneath the writing there was a small picture of Pinkie Pie winking with a heart next to it.
Sunset could only stare at the note in silence while Coco had her gaze glued to her own shoes. “Wh-what do we do?”
Sunset was still speechless and Coco began to fidget, crinkling the paper nervously. “I-I mean… I’ve n-never ever kissed anyone before a-and I… don’t really know how and…”
Hearing Coco, Sunset finally snapped out of her hypnosis and focused in on Coco herself. The girl was now not only crinkling the paper but she was now clutching her own skirt adorably.
“N-neither have I,” Sunset admitted. “O-okay, that was a lie. I’ve kissed Flash before. B-but it was just for show!” she blurted loudly. “I needed to make him think I was really into him… so there wasn’t... like... tongue or anything.”
Coco flinched back and she finally looked up at her friend. “T-tongue?!”
Sunset waved her hands in defense. “No tongue! Just a quick peck on the lips.”
Coco lowered her head once more, every so often she would glance upwards. “S-so what would you do under a mistletoe? I-I mean I’ve seen my parents kiss, but they’re married.”
Sunset similarly avoided looking at Coco, preferring to keep looking upward with her hand on her hip. “When Rainbow and Applejack kissed it was just a peck on the lips, I think?”
A sharp gasp forced Sunset to look downwards, however she immediately flinched back when she realized that Coco had taken a step forward and moved her face closer to hers.
“Rainbow Dash and Applejack kissed?” she gushed her own situation forgotten for a moment as she indulged the juicy gossip. “When? How? Here?”
Sunset, now locked into Coco’s eyes, couldn’t look away. “I-it was under a mistletoe when they were kids.” Having Coco’s face so close made Sunset’s face heat up worse, it didn’t help that Sunset began to legitimately think that Coco had beautiful eyes. Beautiful and familiar.
Coco, now also locked in Sunset’s gaze only gave a small “oh” in acceptance. It wasn't long before she remembered her position under the mistletoe and hastily moved to take a few steps back. “M-maybe we should just ignore--”
As she was stepping back, a hand reached out and grabbed her shoulder. Slowly, Coco looked to it and then up to its owner.
Before she realized what was happening, Sunset had used her other hand to move Coco’s bangs away. Then time stopped as Sunset pressed her lips to Coco’s forehead.
Soft, that was the only word in Coco’s mind. Soft hands. Soft lips. The rest of her body had frozen solid, completely unable to react physically and nowhere near emotionally ready to deal with what just happened. Having never even had a crush before, Coco had absolutely no idea what to do. All that she knew was that her heart was racing ferociously… and that she oddly didn't want it to slow down.
What felt like hours had lasted only a second before Sunset moved back. Immediately, she turned around and took a step away. “T-th-there!” she blurted. “N-now we can at least tell Pinkie that we did something. “I-I’m pretty sure if we ignored it we w-would have hurt her feelings.”
There was a moment of silence as Sunset waited for Coco’s response. When it did not come, Sunset blurted out. “Friends and family kiss all the time; it’s fine s-so don’t be embarrassed or a-anything. I-I’m going to get the boxes from downstairs so we can start putting some stuff away. You… you can start taking stuff off of the tree.” And with that Sunset walked, practically ran, over to the door under the stairs.
Meanwhile, Coco stood there, frozen. Only after Sunset had vanished into the basement did Coco stiffly bring her hand up to touch the spot where Sunset had kissed her. The only other people to have kissed her on her face were her father and grandparents, and then, only as affectionate pecks. So was Sunset’s, really, but she couldn’t help but feel as if it was different somehow, like she treasured it more.
“I-is this what kisses from friends are supposed to feel like?” she muttered, her heart still racing. She then glanced over to the staircase where Sunset was and smiled softly, her cheeks now glowing a soft pink.
“Happy New Years, Sunset.”
lol I feel like I wrote a fan fiction of my fanfiction. Does that automatically make this canon? I dunno, you guys decide what this means since there's no romance tag. But I digress.
Boom Baby! I’m Back, and I have a secret. I totally planned this. Yup… totally did this because it coincides with Valentine's Day, definitely not a coincidence. Yeah, I mean I totally could’ve released this chapter right after the previous one where it would have made much more sense, but screw that, you guys got to experience what Sunset did. Waiting weeks without a new chapter directly mirrors how Sunset felt HA-HA!!
But lol nah consider this my intro into the new lunar year. I’d like to have a new chapter out at least once a week or at most once every other week this time. I have a lot of plans and I’d like to introduce a few new characters too. Frankly, I’m excited.
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Oh, cool. Uotapo's Sunset Helper series has a story!
Although, I have to ask. Did you ask for his/her permission to use the images?
This is in no way meant to offend you. I'm just asking.
6675699
I'm interested. Any chance I can get an invite?
Well, that finally happened.
This was so sweet.
I simple love the way of how Coco and Sunset interact whit each other.
D'aaaw that was cute
I can not wait to read more
Very beautiful
6934310 Sure what's your Skype name PM it
6934363 lol you say that as if I was building up to it or something.
6934251 Hmm well yes and no. When I started mutual interests it was a collab with Harmony Charmer that she dropped out of. I had no idea Uotapo made the pictures. I was well into the story by the time someone pointed it out to me. In fact you could probably find that comment on the story. But when i started this one I made it apparent on my DeviantArt page that I was doing it, and I also tagged Uotapo in some fanart for this story I made while linking it to this story. So it isn't a matter of me asking directly, but more that I let Uotapo know that I was doing it.
Of course It's cannon now, they'll have to sort out their feelings and have a big dramatic reveal to each other.
Baconmane at the end of this chapter in a nutshell
derpicdn.net/img/2013/6/27/358521/full.jpg
Now Sunset has hit True Friendship mode. Or Friendship with Benefits? Idunno.
Aww... this fic is adorable slice of life at its finest.
I am shipping this so hard right now!! <3 <3 <3
The Mistletoe kiss, a classic. You might want to create another side-story like Mutual (Dis)Interests to explore the romance angle more.
6943543 ?? What romance angle??
6943633 Sunset and Coco locking lips, of course, who else? Well I suppose Apple Jack and Rainbow Dash have a lot of UST...
Shipping powers activate!
Bwahaha! Reminds me of one time in Guatemala, where a kiss CAN be a greeting, this cute girl came up to me and made it perfectly clear she was looking for a peck on the cheek. Me being the easily flustered dork that I am, I played dumb until she gave up with a huff.
Adorable chapter.
You know you could always give us what we all want and make this part romance... just saying. I have been binging this to catch up to the latest update and I feel that you have been smoothly transitioning Sunset and Coco from acquaintances, to friends, to possibly more (whether intentionally or not) and I would love to see that develop into something more
.
SunsetxCoco... Me likey