A Party
When are you coming to the party?
Sunset’s phone buzzed as a message from Twilight came.
Got off the plane, she sent back. Gonna find a bus stop on the 51 route.
Take 362, there are fewer stops.
Sunset sent back a thumbs-up before opening an internet tab on her phone. She searched for the bus routes around downtown Canterlot City until she found the 362, which just had a bus leave the airport stop at one o’clock. She checked the time on her phone: One o’five.
Well, there was nothing to be done. New Trottingham University, where she studied, was two hours away by plane. Waiting a half-hour for the next bus didn’t seem like much by comparison. Sunset pulled up the handle on her suitcase and strolled leisurely to the other end of the airport.
As she walked, a couple signs passed her that read “Canterlot Airways supports students at Crystal Prep!”
Of course, ever the expanding bureaucracy, Crystal Prep was. Their new headmaster, Cadence, was a nicer woman according to Twilight, but no less a bright mind and great leader. The way Twilight spoke about her, Sunset was pretty sure Cadence knew how to get big corporations to make charitable donations in the name of education and good publicity.
She slowed her pace for a moment. The name Cadence, didn’t it sound familiar to her? Sunset shrugged and walked up to the bus stop. She had an old life a long time ago, it was probably just a name she heard in passing. Probably no one important.
She sat down and played around with some games on her phone while she waited. “Pouch Monsters Run!” was one of her favourites. It tracked her progress whenever went on runs for her cardio conditioning, rewarding her with the chance throw nets and catch mythical creatures that, according to the app, “only her electronic device can detect.” There were five tied-up unicorns in her game inventory that she was going to trade for “Cheat Day Chocolate Bars,” the in-game currency.
“Wait a minute,” Sunset paused. Something felt really wrong with the fact she was playing this game, all things considered. But she was eight chocolate bars away from buying a new hat accessory for her character.
After what seemed like just a few minutes the bus came and Sunset dragged her suitcase along. It wasn’t much, enough clean clothes for the two-week break. In her backpack, she had a few books she needed to return to Twilight and a receipt for a room reservation at a bed and breakfast location, outside the downtown area of course. Prices in the city were borderline robbery.
Like entering a forest and seeing the shrubbery grow into towering redwoods, little appliance shops and grocery stores sprouted taller and taller, becoming banks, offices, and designer fashion buildings.
Sunset’s phone buzzed again, a message from Pinkie Pie, encased at the start and finish by pleading emoticons.
Twilight’s house has no extra frosting for the gingerbread houses! She says excess sugar “can progress fatty liver disease to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis which increases the risk of progressive fibrosis and cirrhosis.” Can you please with extra icing on top stop by a bakery shop and get more frosting? It’s not like I’m going to eat it all. Really I’m not.
Sunset shook her head with a smirk on her face. I would, but there’s no way she wouldn’t notice, and she gets mad when we don’t listen to science. You’ll just have to make do.
A string of crying images filled Sunset’s phone, the last one being a selfie of Pinkie. But since the pleading stopped, Sunset knew everything would be fine. Pinkie would find another way.
Sunset felt a chill down her spine. Oh no. Without an easy solution, there was no telling what extraordinary measures Pinkie would take. Sometimes, the lesser of two evils was needed. Sunset quickly pulled out her phone again.
On second thought, there’s a grocery store right before the bus hits the crowded side of the city. I’ll see if I can get some frosting there.
Sunset waited with growing dread until a smiling emoticon came back as a reply. Pent-up stress left Sunset’s chest with a deep gasp of air. Knowing what Pinkie could do, and acknowledging how much more there was that she didn’t know, it felt as if a disaster had been avoided.
The bus rounded the corner to where Sunset was staying. She wanted to head over to the winter party at Twilight’s, but she needed to put her suitcase away first. She was staying at an old brick townhouse that had been renovated and painted over with fresh white paint.
“Willow House’s House of Willows,” read the sign, alluding to a small park the house had been built next to, which boasts a few large willow trees with swings on their lower branches.
Sunset checked in and went up to the third floor. She had paid for an affordable room: smaller space, one window with a bad view, and her bathroom was located on the other side of the house. But, she wasn’t picky, and it gave her a lot more wiggle room in her budget than a hotel inside the city.
As soon as she found a spot to set down her suitcase, Sunset hurried back out to the bus stop again and caught a ride to Twilight’s party.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pinkie Pie waited for Sunset at the steps of Twilight’s home. Her parents were out, going on a free cruise her mother had won from an online survey, so they were free to decorate with boughs of holly and energy-consuming light-up reindeer on the roof.
Sunset stared up at the reindeer as she walked over from the bus stop. “Hey, Pinkie,” she said, impressed. “Looks like that levitation comes in handy.”
“This is no time for aesthetic impressions!” Pinkie hollered. “Twilight’s on the phone with her dad right now, it’s the only time she won’t notice the ‘you-know-what.’”
“Alright,” Sunset smiled as she unzipped her jacket, revealing a WaySave shopping bag of sugar-free frosting. “But I had to make some compromises, just in case Twilight notices.”
Pinkie Pie squinted at the frosting label, then eyed Sunset warily. “It’ll do, Sun-Shim. It’ll do just fine.”
“Um, okay.” Sunset followed Pinkie Pie inside.
“Howdy Sunset!” was the first thing she heard when she saw the party. Applejack and Applebloom were in the kitchen, making dough for pie crusts and cookies with Pinkie.
Fluttershy and a couple of birds placed scented pinecone-shaped candles around Twilight’s house where they could look natural and give the urban indoors and wild outdoor feeling. They decorated the fruit basket, coffee table, and one outside the restroom.
Rarity, her hands full of bedazzled ribbons, nearly jumped on Sunset with a welcoming hug. “So good to see you, darling, it’s been too long.”
“Attention to detail as always,” Sunset chuckled, noticing the red and green ribbons around Twilight’s living room.
“Ah, yes.” Rarity handed her pile of ribbons to Sunset. “There’s still so much more to put up before everyone else arrives, could you be a dear and put those up by the fireplace?”
“Happy to.” Sunset warmed up by the fire as she stuck the ribbons onto the tape Rarity had already used to mark their places. Looking around, almost everyone had arrived.
“Rainbow Dash isn’t here yet?” Sunset figured she’d be the first to show up to anything.
“Oh, she was here early, I asked if she could pick up Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo,” Rarity told her. “They’re trying out dance lessons together.”
“I would’ve gone today too,” added Applebloom, pouting from the kitchen, “but I twisted my ankle practising one of the moves.”
Sunset winced at the thought. “Ouch.” She had a similar injury, overextending a lunge during a fencing match. Not fun.
“Oh, it doesn’t hurt much, just a mild sprain, but taking it easy means it’ll get better sooner.”
“That’s smart. Plus, it’s nice of you to help us out with our party.” Sunset stuck up the last ribbon, then took a seat on a chair by the fireplace. “Still, seems like a lot of work for just us.”
Rarity turned around and paused on adjusting her ribbons. “Didn’t Twilight mention she invited some of her old classmates?”
“Really?” She checked her phone and scrolled up to the past messages. “I didn’t see anything. Oh, I had my phone on silent. Didn’t see the messages before.”
“Reckon it’s better now than later,” Applejack chuckled.
“I guess since Twilight decided to have this party,” Sunset said, “I shouldn’t be surprised she invited a few more friends. Glad she warmed up to Crystal Prep after all these years.”
“Speaking of students from Crystal Prep,” Fluttershy said after lighting the last candle, “is Marionette still coming later?”
“I think she took off this morning.” Sunset looked out the window to the sky. It was only five o’clock but the sun had already begun to set, leaving just the fading violet bands on the horizon. “Her flight should land at around seven or eight.”
“Wow, long flight from England, huh?” Applejack whistled.
“Well, you know how it is,” Pinkie injected herself as she brought gingerbread from the kitchen to the coffee table. “The ocean’s always getting in the way, doing its oceany things.”
As the girls talked, Twilight came down from her bedroom, getting off the phone with her parents. “What oceany things?” she asked.
“Hey Twilight,” Sunset waved to her.
Twilight smiled. “Oh, I didn’t realize you were here already. Sorry, my parents just called to make sure I was handling the party well.”
Applejack opened the oven and put in the first pies. “Everything’s looking great, sugar cube.”
“Thanks.” She came down to the middle of the living room where she levitated more of Rarity’s ribbons. “The girls from CP said they wanted to wait at the airport for Sugar Coat so they could all come together.”
The ribbons floated around the house and lined the rails on the stairs and hung on the frames of the doors. Rarity watched thirty minutes of work completed in thirty seconds.
“Goodness,” she gasped, “I should have you join me at my internship. I could get so many outfits made.”
Sunset went and grabbed a piece of cracked gingerbread from the coffee table. “Well, this is going to be easier with magic. Got anything to pass the time?”
“I bought that new game Rainbow Dash kept talking about,” Twilight suggested. “Uh, Super Smash Gals, I think.”
“Is that right?” Applejack chuckled, “ Hoo doggy, I think it’s time someone showed Dash how a real champ plays.”
Sunset put her hands on her hips. “Not a chance, AJ. I beat Tirek’s Revenge on Nightmare Hardcore. This’ll be a piece of cake.” She took another bite of Pinkie’s baking. “Or, well, a piece of gingerbread, I guess.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As late as it was, six artfully animated cartoon characters careened around the screen, competitively smashing each other in an attempt to hoist the other off of the fighting arena. On one side of the room, three former students of Crystal Prep, Sugarcoat, Indigo, and Sour Sweet. On the other, students formerly from Canterlot High School, Sunset, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash.
“No, please AJ, we’re friends!” Sunset tightened her grip on her controller as her character was kicked across the television screen.
Sugar Coat rolled her eyes. “This isn’t team mode. Friends just become opportunities to score points.”
As she said that, however, Indigo Zap booted Sugar Coat’s character off the screen, bursting it into a cascade of blue and pinkie and violet colours. Dash laughed at the irony and pressed forward to knock Indigo off too.
“Not so fast.” Sour Sweet pressed a sequence of buttons her controller and her character grabbed Dash’s, throwing the cartoon character onto the ground for a burst of points. “Aw, did that hurt?”
A few seconds later Rainbow executed the same move back at her. “There, now you know for yourself.”
Sunset watched and calmed down from the blood-boiling heat of competition. Twilight, Fluttershy, and the rest of Twilight’s old classmates sat aside from the action at the dining table and assembled a structurally sound multi-story gingerbread complex. She thought about taking a break from the game and join them, but she paused to check her phone.
No messages from Marionette yet, and she was ten minutes late. Was she close, so that’s why she didn’t bother to send a message? Sunset tried to clear her thoughts and just appreciate the rest of her friends. Still, she found herself pausing when she looked at the clock on her phone. Eleven minutes late. Then a message popped up.
Got out of the airport, but the 362 doesn’t run this late. I’ll have to wait forty minutes for the 51 to come around.
Forty minutes? Sunset buried her face in her hands. The streets weren’t that crowded at night, why couldn’t the buses go faster? A thought raced into Sunset’s mind.
She went over to Twilight. “Hey, your parents lent you their car, right?”
“Uh-huh.” She was focused on her gingerbread house, though. “Sunset, could you lick these? They need to be sticky to keep the walls together.”
A handful of puffy marshmallows fell into Sunset’s hands. “That’s gross but okay.” She softened each one until they could squeeze between two crackers to make the structure stable. “By the way, Marionette’s waiting for a bus at the airport. Is it cool if I borrow your car to pick her up instead?”
“Is she taking the 362?”
“Closed. Has to wait for the 51.”
“Yikes,” Twilight’s glasses slipped from surprise, “that’s like one every hour.”
“Forty minutes right now, but yeah,” Sunset replied.
Pinkie held the roof of the gingerbread mansion in place while some guy from Twilight’s old engineering club attached gummy bears as roofing tiles.
“Uh, I’m a bit busy,” Twilight told Sunset, “my keys are by my bed. You can go ahead and grab them, and bring my phone charger down too, it’s about to die.”
Sunset spun on her heels. “Keys and charger, got it.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Despite the late hours, the airport was still teeming with life. Like robots, security personnel patrolled inside and out of the building while passengers carried their luggage around like ants on a routine trail. The little carts used to carry large bags, they were dispensed by actual machines to people who paid. The people who dragged them back to the cart station were just as mechanical.
Even at this late hour, the streets, the airport, the city's ceaseless wheel, they all continued on. Marionette stood by the curb, waiting patiently but excitedly for Sunset to pull up. A wide grin on her face cut a bleeding rift into the machine that was the airport as if daring the monotonous beast to weight her down any longer.
“Nǐ hàomǎ?,” Sunset called out in Marionette’s other language through the window as she slowed the car down just up to where Marionette stood. The unique mix of raven black hair and piercing ocean-blue eyes made it impossible to miss her.
“It’s pronounced ‘nǐ hǎo ma?.’” She put her suitcase in the trunk of the car and tossed her backpack on the back seat.
Sunset tilted her head down a little and mumbled to herself. “Isn’t that what I said?” She didn’t let Marionette hear her, tonight was not a night she wanted to be lectured on Mandarin.
“You know,” Marionette said as she sat up in front, “I could’ve waited another ten minutes for the bus. Didn’t have to come.”
“Yeah, but that route’s slow,” Sunset replied, turning out of the airport and hitting the gas to get onto the main road. “Would’ve taken another hour for the bus to reach Twilight’s house.”
Marionette gave a friendly bump on Sunset’s shoulder with her head. “So, how’s NTU? I heard you won the regional competition with the other colleges around there.”
“Yeah, their gyms are really nice. Everything’s new, the gym equipment, the facilities, and Coach Nachreissen has a lot of connections. He invites former students who are currently training for the Olympics to fence with us.”
“That’s nice of them,” Marionette said, “we have a few national champions who do that at my school, but they always make it sound like they’re really busy. They get really snapping sometimes when we train.”
Sunset made a right turn and then filtered left into a short, packed street. Late night shifts in many places were about to start, so there were cars coming in from outside the downtown area cramming the city with traffic.
“Guess we’ll have to wait too,” Marionette looked at the river of red headlights.
“Good time to catch up,” Sunset said. “Twilight invited a lot more people than I expected, it was wild when I left?
“You’re joking. I’ve never seen her do anything wild, let alone throw a crazy party.”
“They’re playing the new Super Smash Gals,” Sunset clarified.
Marionette shot a deep-eyed stare at her. “The hell, who bought that so soon?”
“Twilight.”
Her eyes widened. “Well then, that’s something I never expected.”
“People can change a lot when they go to college.”
Marionette reached out and suddenly squeezed Sunset’s arm and shoulder. “You’ve definitely changed. A little leaner and firmer.”
Some movement in traffic finally brought them to an intersection, and Sunset turned left on the green light, driving around the centre of the city toward Twilight’s neighbourhood.
“Also, wǒ huì shuō yīdiǎn zhōngwén,” Sunset added to Marionette’s assessment of her body. “Just a little though, haven’t learned much. It’s so different from what I’m used to.”
“Right, where you come from, most people speak one,” Marionette remembered. Outside of Sunset’s six main friends, Marionette was the only person who knew about Equestria. Well, knew a little about it. Sunset didn’t give all the details, like how humans become ponies in the other world. Trying to leave the past in the past.
“Doesn’t matter,” Sunset brushed off the comment. “I’m here now and I need to learn.”
Marionette nodded. “Right, of course.”
Traffic started to clear up as they moved out of the business streets toward the residential neighbourhoods. Tall concrete business buildings and brick pizza stores gave way to wooden walls, painted bricks, and roof tiles.
“Where are you staying?” Marionette asked curiously. “I can’t imagine that you kept your old apartment all this time.”
“Haha, no. I’m at a bed and breakfast. If we were on the bus route we would’ve passed it, actually.”
“Huh, pretty close to downtown, then.”
Sunset scanned left, right, then left again before turning towards a school zone. “How about you? Excited to see your parents again.”
Marionette laughed a little nervously. “Honestly, no. My parents trust me to handle my own classwork, but they’re getting worried that I’m too focused. My dad keeps talking about what romance is like in college and it’s making me feel weird.”
“Oh, I’m so glad I don’t have to go through that,” Sunset laughed.
“My mom’s worse,” she continued in disbelief as if she couldn’t believe it herself. “Did you know, last month she straight-up just asked me why I wasn’t looking for a boyfriend.”
“If that was me, I would’ve hung up,” Sunset said blatantly. Princess Celestia had a way of sticking in Sunset’s mind as a motherly figure, and the thought of Celestia getting involved in her romantic life was too uncomfortable.
“No hesitation, I would’ve just instantly hit end-call.”
“Ugh, I wish I did.”
“What did you do instead?”
“I lied my ass off, that’s what. Told her that there was a guy on the men’s fencing team that was kind of cute.”
“That’s a lie? Feels like it’s vague enough to be true.”
Marionette shrugged. “I don’t really like any of the guys on the fencing team. Half of them come from upper-class families, the other half are way too competitive, and that’s saying something coming from me.”
“Come on, you just haven’t met the right guy,” Sunset tried to make her feel better. “Don’t let your parents rush it.”
“Yeah,” Marionette looked at Sunset, “just gotta find the right one.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Nǐ hǎo!”
The other Crystal Prep girls greeted and pulled Marionette in a massive group hug as she and Sunset came through the door. The gingerbread mansion that was almost complete when Sunset left was now unimaginably huge, a gingerbread palace.
“Zhè shì shéi zuò de?” Marionette asked her friends.
“Dàduō shì nà liǎng gè, Twilight and Pinkie,” Sugar Coat replied. “But technically it was a team effort. We got tired of winning at Smash Gals.”
“Only because you kept doing the same attack,” Rainbow quickly countered. “We were winning until you found that combo.”
“No way, we do what it takes to win,” Indigo Zap snapped back. A short skirmish over who was in the right broke out.
Sunset nudged Marionette in the arm. “What the hay, dude. Why’s Sugar Coat’s pronunciation so good?”
“Mandarin was an elective at CP,” she answered.
Twilight eventually got in between the two rival schools and stopped the argument. “Come on, we all worked on the gingerbread, I think now that Marionette’s here, we can have our barbeque. The kababs should be almost done.”
“You already made the kababs?” Sunset asked as they all gathered toward Twilight’s backyard.
“Well, we gotta have something to go with pie,” Applebloom said. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo both nodded.
“Sorry we started cooking without you, sugar cube,” Applejack said. “But, at least they’re ready.”
The savoury and sweet smell of pineapples, peppers, mushrooms, and meats filled the small backyard. Hickory wood smoke wafted around and filled the air. Sunset realized how hungry she actually was when she saw the pies laid out on the table by the barbeque.
Tall bottles of soft drinks, plus a few cans of hard cider and whiskey from Applejack, were packed into a cooler. Marionette whistled, impressed, and patted Twilight on the back.
“Damn, never would’ve guessed you were holding out on us,” she said. “But you do know how to throw a party.”
What followed could only be described as wholesome, though slightly drunk, fun as friends and rivals from highschool swapped stories of their new challenges from college. Perhaps some things changed. Sunset was surprised to find out Fluttershy joined a public speaking club. But, they were all still the same friends she had when they left for school.
Applejack was still protective of her family, Rainbow Dash was still wild, and thus it was only natural that Applejack started wrestling Rainbow after Applebloom mysteriously got a hold of a couple cans of whiskey.
“Why’d you even bring it if you knew they’d be here?”
“I reckoned y’all would have some common sense!”
“Yup,” Sunset sighed. “We’re still CHS.”
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Sounds like an alternate version of Pokémon eh
Yep, she hopefully will, she's pinkie alright.
Yeah noted, not great to upset pinkie.
Poor applebloom.
Glad to know they'll have more guests coming to join them.
Reference to super smash bros, nice.
Sounds like sunset must really be enjoying college.
Yep, you learn a lot more about yourself during your college years.
I'm guessing she moved out of it after starting college and someone else lives there now.
I'm glad my dad hasn't asked me if I've been looking for a girlfriend during my time at college and anything he'd bring it up I'd tell him I'd rather not rush til I find someone I like and they like me back.
That's great, feel proud of them.