My Little Mages: Subrosa Admission

by Foxhelm

The Cycle Begins

The sun had begun its descent to the western horizon. Princess Twilight’s skyboat descended onto a small plot of grass as its recently installed landing gear came out and parked before its engines shut off. The plot of land the skyboat landed in was part of a series of a couple of grosses of prepared campgrounds about a twenty-minute walk from walled-off area about five to six acres in area with numerous stages and platforms set up for bands and other performances. The door to the skyboat opened and Sunset Shimmer lept out and threw her arms in the air. “WE MADE IT!” she shouted at the top of her lungs. “The Whirling Constellation Music Festival!” she added as she was followed by her friends and half-sisters out of the sky boat, Pinkie had a comedically high collection of random collectibles.

Applejack walked over to a part of the lot next to where the skyboat landed and began to dig a fire pit. “An entire week of the best music around, including Sapphire Shore, RaRa, Songbird Serenade, Octavia Melody and the rest of both her swing quartet and the orchestra she’s part of, Vinyl Scratch, to list a few.” the paladin said as she paced the dimensions, while everyone started to set up the rest of their campsite.

Rarity giggled as she got the paladin a shovel, “Let’s not forget your own troubadour, Dirk Thistleweed,” Applejack gave a blissful sigh at the thought before she started to dig after taking a glance of her left hand and the wedding band of the setted gem shaped to look like her aura mark of three stylized apples mixed among two circles one red and one orange with the red one being the larger of the two.

Everyone had a small laugh as they took out a table and chairs and prepared the outside of the shyboat for the week ahead. Fluttershy then spoke as she placed the chairs she took out of the skyboat, “Or the band Skull Cruncher.” Everyone turned to her in confusion. “I know you can’t really make out the lyrics over the death metal, but if you actually look around the area around them after they play all the life around is empowered.” Everyone blinked a few times but elected to not press the matter.

Electing to kill the awkward silence, “Or MC Dex FX.” Sci-Twi and Princess Twilight said together, both seeming to be excited over the techno-DJ as they squealed.

“Didn’t Flash promise to introduce you both to him?” Rarity asked.

Twilight and Sci-Twi looked to each other and with massive grins on their faces like a couple of schoolgirls that were complemented by the most attractive upperclassmen in the school. "B.H.E.?” Twilight asked.

“B.H.E.!” Sci-Twi answered before they cheered, unable to contain their excitement.

Everyone shook their heads, the two seemed to have forgotten that Flash’s band, Flash Drive, would also take this event to kick off their reunion tour. But that number wouldn’t be until the last day. However, no one was going to press the matter.

“And let’s not forget it takes place only once every fifty years,” Princess Twilight added, in an attempt to continue building on the excitement given the frequency of the festival. “Can you imagine it?” she asked as she and Sci-Twi got the fire wood that they brought with them as Applejack finished the fire pit. “Our parents were either not born yet or little kids the last time this took place.” she added, with a massive grin on her face. There was silence for a solid second before she noticed how no one was commenting. She was perplexed at first before she turned her attention to Sci-Twi and recalled that she is infact a clone of herself, with DNA and RNA from everyone of this group… and more. “Um…” she trailed off as she tried to save some face. Sci-Twi just rolled her eyes. Twilight gave a weak and guilt-filled laugh, “Sorry,” she added sheepishly.

After having a little laugh at Twilight’s expense, “Well this festival is about one thing only for Pinkie and me.” Sunset started before she was joined by Pinkie Pie, “POSTCRUSH!!!” the two shouted and swelled in clear euphoria of seeing the band in question perform.

Indigo groaned, “No, really, we couldn’t tell, it’s not like you two did talk about my ‘look at me kawaii desu’ cousin Supernova and her ‘I am soo~ cool~’ friend Kiwi since we got on Twilight’s boat… oh wait that’s the only thing talked ABOUT!!!” the arcane monk yelled at the two, as if she was one hairpin away from tearing the two apart.

“And everyone says I have anger issues,” Sour joked only for Indigo’s glare to shift to her. “Never mind.”

Applejack gave a chuckle, “Sorry Indie, yah gotta forgive those two, but K-Lo and Su-Z .” the paladin said as she walked up to Indigo and patted her on the shoulder. “When K-Lo and Su-Z declared that PostCrush would be on 'indefinite hiatus', well you’d get better odds of a rooster laying an egg.” The farmer attempted to comfort. Indigo was unamused about all this, but seemed to have reluctantly relented. Applejack then returned to the fire pit she was making, “Now let’s finish getting this site together, we an early mornin’.” the paladin declared before she cleared her throat as if she was holding off from cracking a whip. This was not lost on the rest as they finished getting the camp together.

---

The next morning, just in the earliest hours of day, when only the morning star was above the horizon, before it could herald the sun. Almost everyone of the party was sound asleep before, “RISE AND SHINE!!!” shouted Sour as all the girls jerked and jumped out of their beds. “Applejack says breakfast is almost ready.” she added sweetly. All groaned as they recovered from the shock before as they changed into what they were going to wear that day, each at her own pace.

Outside they found a fairly basic breakfast spread out with Sour at the table ready to eat. The barbarian was not dressed in her usual brown bear based suit, instead she wore a white furred tunic with black fur leggings, with the bear’s bones making her belt, with the skull hung around her neck, with the top of her tunic made out of the head of the black and white bear. While most were unphased by the barbarian’s getup, “Um, you do know those only eat plants right?” the druid question.

“I’m a berserker, I wear shirts made from bears.” Sour retorted. Fluttershy could only sigh. The reaction the rest had were mixed. Some of the ladies chuckled, others rolled their eyes, while Rainbow seemed to offer some silent comfort for her best and longest friend.

“Whoo! Whril-Con Mus-Fes Day One!” shouted Lemon as she was the last to exit. She had in her hands a paddle with the logo of the Rainbolt, which itself was a rainbow with the Aura Marks of the Rainbooms coming from the stylised S of the Shadowbolts with their Aura Marks within the S itself, with Sunset’s Aura Mark placed in what could described as the merging point. “Come and get it!” she shouted as she swung her paddle whacking Sunset in the rear. It was then that Lemon fully realized her surroundings. She took off her head set, “Haha… Whoops…” she said weakly as Sunset only glared at her sister. “Sorry, sis.” she said weakly. “Got a little too excited.” she confessed.

Before Sunset could respond, she was offered an ice cold cloth by Sugarcoat, “It’s not worth getting angry at her over this.” Sunset accepted the cloth and applied it to her rear to sooth the pain. “She’s gonna smack every one of us at some point this week with that stupid paddle.”

While the pain of the whack was dulled with the cold cloth, “Have you ever considered actually sugarcoating what you say?” Sunset asked.

Sugarcoat slightly shut her eyes, “Just because we basically live in a world mostly noted for being one of rainbows and sunshines, we can expect some cloudy days.” she stated bluntly, “Also if Life is anything, it's full of irony.” Sugarcoat then went to get her breakfast with the rest.

Sunset let out a nasal exhale and then a deep breath, “No point in letting a little thing like intense pain ruin this day.” Sunset decided as she joined the rest for the breakfast Applejack prepared.

“Before anyone eats, Rarity, Rainbow,” the paladin directing her attention solely on the two, “One of you have to get Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo up.” Rainbow groaned as she got up and went to wake up the three. Applejack then looked to Lemon, “Whirl-Con Mus-Fes?” she asked the question on everyone’s mind yet none seemed to be asking.

“Well ‘Whirling Constellation Music Festival’ is such a long title, so I shorten it to just the first syllables of each word.” Lemon explained.

“Say, if your little sisters are here, why isn’t that Starlight friend of yours here?” Indigo asked Twilight.

Princess Twilight paused as she tried to recall the plans of everyone they knew, “Trixie and the Illusions are also playing here. So Starlight is here with her. And since one of the ‘Illusions’ is Fuschia Blush, Wallflower may be here with her sister.”`

“Say is anyone else we’re missing.” Pinkie asked.

“Vignette is undoubtedly going to be here, Darling,” Rarity answered as she placed some of the food on her own plate, “Like she’d miss the chance to have the fans of all the performers to also intersect with her own fans.” She informed the others, as Rainbow returned with the CMC following her.

Pinkie mused, “Okay, but there are others we’ve met, like Juniper?”

“Um, Juniper’s been commissioned by myself, Princess Twilight, and if I recall correctly Prince Rutherford, Dragonlord Ember, Queen Novo, King Thorax and the other heads of state to record the event for posterity, Dearie,” Sunny answered as she started to eat.

As Rainbow was about to eat her own meal, “Besides, it’s not like we won’t bump into them and everyone else we know. This is the place to be.” She then took a few bites of her food before she stopped and looked to Rarity, “Say Rare, is that quartet of yours also performing?” she asked with her food still in her mouth.

Rarity gave a slight sigh, “Dashie-Darling, please finish eating before speaking.” she bemoaned before taking a calming breath. After which she gave her answer, “But yes, we MagiTones are performing, but not until tomorrow.” She took a sip of her morning tea, “While Toe-Tapper, Torch Song and I are here, our bass won’t be done purifying Sweet Apple Temple until noon and he won’t be here late afternoon.”

Everyone but Rarity and the CMC turned to Applejack as if to accuse the farmer of shaking her responsibilities, “Paladin, Ah couldn’t help Big Mac during a Jubilee Purification if I wanted to, it’s a cleric only thing.”

“Hoho! I have another question.” Pinkie cheered, getting everyone to focus on her, “What do you call a PostCrush fan with three eyes?” she asked. “Pinkie Pie!” she cheered in less than a second.

There was a solid three seconds of silence, not even the chirping of a cricket. “Um, I don't get it.” Fluttershy stated.

Everyone but Pinkie and Applejack groaned, “God bless your heart, Sugarcube, Pinkie made a pun.” Applejack explained to the druid before she spotted her own shadow. After a second of mental calculation, “Alright everyone, we got ten minutes to eat so we can beat the lines.” Everyone then started to eat their meals a little faster.

Once they finished their meals and cleaned up afterwards, they all headed to the festival grounds proper. As they head out, Sunset stepped into a small puddle of very moist mud. In the process she lost her balance and just barely fell into the ground by bumping into Sci-Twi. Each giving exclaiming a “Whoa!” until Sunset regained her balance. Once Sunset was back on her two feet, “Are you okay?”

Sunset herself over and saw that there was mud on her shoe. Beyond that, she had no issues. She shrugged her shoulder, “Just a little mud.” She dismissed any concerns about herself.

However, just as soon as Sunset concluded that she was fine, Pinkie seemed to pop right next to her and took her right hand. “Sunset, Sunset! Look!” Pinkie shouted as she pulled Sunset to the lines to enter the grounds in what felt like two seconds despite being between twenty five and thirty meters away. All Sunset could do was shout ‘Whoa!’ as she was pulled behind the party planner. Once they got to the entrance. Pinkie was so wrapped up in the moment of being at the festival. “So many lines to stand in! This day's already amazing! Let's go!” Pinkie turned to the person immediately in front of the two, who happened to be Cherry Crash. “Hey, Cherry, you come to this line often?” she asked in what sounded flirtatious, however gave off the air of being a joke.

Cherry laughed, “Nah, this is my first time.” she replied before she cupped her left hand and placed it next to her mouth as if she wanted only Pinkie to hear as if she was going to sell something, off-market as it were. “But I do know a few sweet lines we can hit up once we place the rental.” The rocker and jester then just broke into laughter over it all.

Sunset smiled as she saw that Pinkie was having a great time. Given that Pinkie was supposed to be on her honeymoon and Cheese’s cheesy-sense had him in Abyssinia for Capper’s citizenship reaffirment celebration, the Whril-Con Mus-Fes (Sunset couldn’t not believe that she just thought of calling the festival that) was a much needed outlet. However she then noticed how Sci-Twi and Rainbow, who were in the line to their right, had moved ahead of her and Pinkie. “Hmm. That line's moving fast.” She could not but help express the observation and then looked to see all the other lines were moving faster than her’s. “Huh. They are, too.” She then stood up on her toes in an attempt to call whoever was doing the security check for this line, “Can't this thing move any faster?!” she shouted.

At the front of the line and thoroughly examining the bag of one of the attendants was none other than Fluttershy’s younger brother, Zephyr Breeze. However his hair was cut short, his five o’clock shadow shaved clean. “Sorry, ma’am, but security is an art.” He said as he carefully put the contents back into the bag. “It cannot be rushed.” he added as he placed a band on the attendant’s wrist and using a scanner on the band cleared the attendant. Sunset could only sigh in frustration at this.

Pinkie patted Sunset on the shoulder, “Aw, cheer up. Lines fly when you're having fun!” she cheered. “Besides, this has to be the first time Zephyr put in any real effort into a job.” she added under her breath. Sunset tried to smile, which became easier as her line went faster following the attendant with the bag. Once Pinkie was cleared, “See you in there, Sunset!” she shouted to Sunset. Sunset took a breath as she was cleared by Zephyr and gave a ‘Whew’ of relief once she was through and joined up with her group.

Everyone was comparing notes for their itineraries for the first day. Applejack seemingly made a master itinerary of all the Rainbolts and the CMC, as the paladin had finished jotting down Pinkie and Sunset’s main plan. “And that’s Pinkie and Sunset.” the paladin finished. “Now remember if anyone ain’t back campsite two and half hours after sunset, the time of day, we start looking. Are we good?”

“Yes, Mom.” they all groaned, save Apple Bloom, Pinkie, Twilight and Sci-Twi.

Applejack rolled her eyes at most of her friends moaning over the presence of a plan, “Well, y’all have fun.” She then turned to Apple Bloom, “Yah ready Sis?” she asked the young artificer.

Apple Bloom gave a thumbs-up, “Let’s do it!” she declared. The two farmers then laughed before everyone started to head out.

Sunset took out her map of the grounds, “Main objective –” she paused as she grabbed Pinkie into a huddle. “Get front row for PostCrush. Mission procedure –” she paused as she pointed to the map and drew a path with her right index finger, “we cut around the neon garden to the main stage and rush the front during the set-up when we get there and we can camp there until showtime.” Sunset gave the plan.

Little did she know that Pinkie’s eyes had wondered from the map to one of the stands not far from the entrance, “Secondary objective – “ she paused as she pointed the stand out to Sunset, the main thing was that it was an answer-something-correctly-and-win-a-prize stand. “win a tandem bicycle!” Pinkie cheered before she zipped to the stand, catching Sunset up in the wake. Once there she pointed to the ‘question’, a jar of jelly beans. Pinkie smirked, “All I have to do is guess how many candies are in the jar.” she stated like she pretty much knew the answer. “And my sugar senses say…” she trailed off as she stuck her tongue out and waved her hands in front of the jar. After a few seconds she pulled her tongue back into her mouth and gave her answer, “Three hundred and five!” she declared with confidence. The person manning the stand pressed the nearby buzzer to indicate a wrong answer. Pinkie gave a slightly depressed but accepting “Awww.” of defeat.

Sunset pinched the bridge of her nose as she tried to remain calm, “What about seeing PostCrush together?” she asked, calling attention to Pinkie’s apparent short-sightedness and broadening on self-parodying childish behavior.

Pinkie turned to the prize, a tandem bike. “Uh, this bike has two seats, Sunset!” she said in a clear attempt to get Sunset to guess the number of jellybeans too. After a solid three seconds of silence from Sunset, beyond a frown of frustration, Pinkie gave a light but unhappy sigh, “Fine. I'll focus.” She said as she looked around to see their path ahead. “Oh, look!” she declared as she pointed to a collection of hedges adorned all over all with giant neon (and other noble gases) lights. “The neon garden!” Pinkie shouted as she bolted to the hedges. Sunset tried to remain calm and remember that Pinkie was basically coping with the fact that her honeymoon was cut short and she couldn’t be here with her husband. She really did, but today wasn’t going to plan. The pyromancer groaned before she headed after Pinkie only to see Pinkie running around like she was replaying an animated hallway chase sequence, giggling, wheezing and laughing all the while.

Sunset stopped in what seemed to be the center of the hallway as she tried to visualize the interior of the neon garden within her mind based on how Pinkie was running around. After two seconds she face-palmed herself with her right hand, “It’s a maze.” she groaned as she slid down her hand as she started to lift her face back up. She took a deep breath as she attempted to find Pinkie (without resorting to burning the maze down). After using some very light pyromancy to find the way out, Sunset spent about an hour trying to calculate the best path for her to traverse in the hedge maze for her to not only exit but more importantly intersect Pinkie. Once she had plotted her path, she started farther into the maze. After thirty minutes, as she was about to exit, she turned to her right and grabbed Pinkie’s left arm, just as the latter was about to pass by. “Come on!” she tried vigorously to refrain from shouting. She then pulled Pinkie out of the maze,“We got to bet the crowd if we want to get to the front!” Sunset vented as she began to lead Pinkie out of the maze. Pinkie gave a depressed but somewhat understanding ‘awww’.

After the two got a few paces from the exit, they stumbled upon a collection of large elises with one man in the middle. “Who wants to be part of an art show?” he called out to everyone around. Pinkie gasped before she pulled her arm free, started to jump up and down, wave her arms and shouted, “Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! I do! I do!” This was followed by the man throwing a water balloon at Pinkie causing it to break and splatter paint on her and Sunset. Sunset could only frown as she was unable to escape from this event. After, in Sunset’s eyes, a ridiculously long time as being part of the ‘live’ art feature, which was more or less a water-balloon fight with paint. Sunset had more or less dragged Pinkie into the public lavatory that was constructed for the festival ground. To be sincere it was very much like a glorified version of the public restroom from that could be found in the upper scaled establishments in Chanterlot and the other move urban cities. After what felt like forever, Sunset finally got the last of the paint off her clothes and dry them. Fortunately the paint was water soluble and didn’t set-into the clothes. After looking herself over in the mirror, Sunset gave an exhausted and frustrated sigh just before she heard a splat from one of the stalls followed by Pinkie giggling. Pinkie then opened the stall she was in, slightly. “Guess what!” she cheered before she opened the stall door all the way, showing a slightly cartoonish rendering of Rarity with a large black mustache often used in depicting pirates. “I spilled paint, and it looks exactly like Rarity with a pirate mustache!” Pinkie added with a clear laugh in her heart. There was a solid minute after showing the work with Sunset giving a bemused expression that would give Applejack’s a run for its money. “What? It's washable.” Pinkie pointed out.

Sunset groaned before she reached into Pinkie’s hair and pulled out a blue ribbon. She then wrapped and tied the ribbon around her left wrist and Pinkie’s right wrist. “There.” she declared and started out of the lavatory and back to the festival grounds. “Now, no more getting separated and no more distractions.” By this time, the sun had already set and the crowd for the PhotoCrush performance had already formed. Sunset started to panic as she tried to plot a way to get the two as close to the stage as possible.

“You got it, Su—” Pinkie stated only to be cut off as Sunset pulled her towards the stage of their intended performance, which was several meters away. “Whoa!”

As the crowd was getting thicker and thicker and the stage lights began to focus on the center of the stage. All of which herald the arrival of Photocrush onto the stage. “They are about to go on!” Sunset nearly panicked, “We'll have to push to the front row!” she added as it dawned on her that the two were not likely to actually see the duo. “Come on!”

Pinkie however stopped the two as she smelt something. “The Whirling Constellation Music Festival Exclusive Star-crusted, Cinnamon-dipped Churros.” she whispered as if she was falling under a siren’s song as she turned to the mobile stand that sold the churros in question. She looked at her watch. “We got enough time.” she said before she dashed to the stand.

“Pinkie, this is the worst possible time for churros…” Sunset started only to be pulled by Pinkie to the cart. However before Sunset could herself stop, the two ended up crashing into the cart causing the content to spill upon the cart attendant and the nearby security guard, Zephyr Breeze.

Pinkie laughed weakly, “Hey Zeph.” She then gulped, “Our bad.” she stated earning a glare from Sunset. “Say, you know Rainbow likes a man in uniform…” she said as she batted her eyes.

Before the two knew it, Zephyr had opened one of the doors security used to throw out festival attendants that have violated their agreement to be at the festival. He took a pair of scissors and cut the two’s wrist bands and closed the door in their faces. Sunset was left speechless as she dropped to her knees. Just then the final lights on the stage were ready and came the voice of an announcer, “Ladies and Gentlemen, let’s hear it for two best friends who got back together for one incredible night! PostCruuuuush!” he declared as the crowd cheered. Sunset dipped her head and almost wept. Pinkie was left speechless as she could only reach out, but could not make contact with Sunset.

---

About half an hour later, with the sky full of stars, Sunset and Pinkie returned to their camping site. There everyone else the two came with were at the Skyboat, around the firepit Applejack made upon their arrival. Several were roasting marshmallows, but they were all chattering. Rainbow was the first to spot the two, “There they are!” the Wonderbolt called attention to the two. “Two peas in the pod!” she added as the two sat down. “How was it? Rad-tacular? Amaze-magic?” she asked as she didn’t seem to notice that Pinkie was full of guilt and Sunset was irate. Everyone else could just feel the disappointment from the two which revealed that they missed the performance.

Applejack was the first to speak, “What happened?” the paladin asked.

Sunset glared at Pinkie for a second before she groaned before she turned back to everyone else, “Someone wanted to win a bike, then got us lost in a maze, covered in paint, got sidelined by churros, and finally, got us kicked out!” she was close to shouting.

Sunset’s ire was felt by everyone, and no one really knew how to diffuse the situation. Finally, Pinkie spoke, “I'm really sorry.” Pinkie apologized for what was likely the four hundred and eighty ninth time the plea was made. Sunset only got up and started to walk away. “I wish we could do the day all over again.” she called out to Sunset as if to call her back. “I'd do it different.” she added with Sunset still close enough to hear.

Sunset turned back for a second to look almost squarely at Pinkie, “Me, too. I'd do it alone.” she stated before she just left her friend there. After walking to one of the forested hills nearby she sat down and rested her head on her knees and whimpered. Within a decameter from her a beam of light shot up into the sky before a wave of purple light washed over.

---

The next morning, just in the earliest hours of day, when only the morning star was above the horizon, before it could herald the sun. Almost everyone of the party was sound asleep before, “RISE AND SHINE!!!” shouted Sour as all the girls jerked and jumped out of their beds. “Applejack says breakfast is almost ready.” she added sweetly. All groaned as they recovered from the shock before as they changed into what they were going to wear that day.

Outside they found a fairly basic breakfast spread out with Sour at the table ready to eat. The barbarian was not dressed in her usual brown bear based suit, instead she wore a white furred tunic with black fur leggings, with the bear’s bones making her belt, with the skull hung around her neck, with the top of her tunic made out of the head of the black and white bear. While most were unphased by the barbarian’s getup, “Um, you do know those only eat plants right?” the druid question.

“I’m a berserker, I wear shirts made from bears. And this is the one for this.” Sour retorted. Fluttershy could only sigh.

Sunset remained still in confusion, “Whoo! Whril-Con Mus-Fes Day One!” shouted Lemon as she was the last to exit. She had in her hands a paddle with the logo of the Rainbolt, which itself was a rainbow with the Aura Marks of the Rainbooms coming from the stylised S of the Shadowbolts with their Aura Marks within the S itself, with Sunset’s Aura Mark placed in what could described as the merging point.

“Day One?” Sunset asked as she couldn’t understand what Lemon meant. This perplexity didn’t last long as her rear was smacked by Lemon’s paddle. “OW!” she shouted as she turned to glare at Lemon.

“Haha… Whoops…” she said weakly as Sunset only glared at her sister. “Sorry, sis.” she said weakly. “Got a little too excited.” she confessed.

Before Sunset could respond, she was offered an ice cold cloth by Sugarcoat, “It’s not worth getting angry at her over this.” Sunset accepted the cloth and applied it to her rear to sooth the pain. “She’s gonna smack every one of us at some point this week with that stupid paddle.”

Sunset didn’t understand why, but Sugarcoat said that before. She was still trying to make sense of it all when Applejack said, “Before anyone eats, Rarity, Rainbow,” the paladin directed her attention solely on the two, “One of you have to get Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo up.” Rainbow groaned as she got up and went to wake up the three. Applejack then looked to Lemon, “Whirl-Con Mus-Fes?” she asked the question on everyone’s mind yet none seemed to be asking. Sunset watched and listened as pretty much the conversation that accrued yesterday repeated itself vervadium. This continued to leave her in a state of perplexity even when SciTwi nearly tripped and when Pinkie zipped taking her with her to the lines and pointed out all the lines before she picked the one that was cleared by Zephyr Breeze.

This was mostly left unnoticed by everyone save for SciTwi as she, and Rainbow had stepped into the same line that Sunset and Pinkie were in behind the two. “Hun, are you okay?” SciTwi asked as she noted Sunset’s eyes were staring in the space in front of her, as if she was reading a book in an attempt to find an answer.

“I'm... not sure.” Sunset seemed to trail off in the middle of her response.

Pinkie turned to the person immediately in front of the two, who happened to be Cherry Crash. “Hey, Cherry, you come to this line often?” she asked in what sounded flirtatious, however gave off the air of being a joke.

Cherry laughed, “Nah, this is my first time.” she replied before she cupped her left hand and placed it next to her mouth as if she wanted only Pinkie to hear as if she was going to sell something, off-market as it were. “But I do know a few sweet lines we can hit up once we place the rental.” The rocker and jester then just broke into laughter over it all.

“What's going on?” Sunset asked as yesterday continued to be repeated today.

“You said it, Sunset.” Rainbow groaned as she noted that the line they were in was going so slowly. “What's with the long line, man?” she shouted towards the security guard, who happened to be Zephyr Breeze. “What! Zephyr!” Rainbow almost screamed as she ducked behind the person behind her.

If Zephyr noticed Rainbow’s reaction to the revelation, he showed no signs as he said with what Rainbow and her friends would deem an out of character degree of professionalism, “Security is an art.”

“It can't be rushed.” Sunset said at the same time as Zephyr as if she was presented with the answer to her question, however it was in the form of a riddle to solve.

After everyone had cleared security, they were comparing notes for their itineraries for the first day. Applejack seemingly made a master itinerary of all the Rainbolts and the CMC, as the paladin had finished jotting down Pinkie and Sunset’s main plan. “And that’s Pinkie and Sunset.” the paladin finished. “Now remember if anyone ain’t back campsite two and half hours after sunset, the time of day, we start looking. Are we good?”

“Yes, Mom.” they all groaned, save Apple Bloom, Pinkie, Twilight and Sci-Twi.

Applejack rolled her eyes at most of her friends moaning over the presence of a plan, “Well, y’all have fun.” She then turned to Apple Bloom, “Yah ready Sis?” she asked the young artificer.

Apple Bloom gave a thumbs-up, “Let’s do it!” she declared. The two farmers then laughed before everyone started to head out.

As everyone started to head their own way, Pinkie turned to see Sunset seeming out of it as she looked into some short of void. “What do you want to do first, Sunset?” Pinkie asked as she tried to get Sunset out of her funk. “There's so much we can do!” she said as she gestured to the grounds of the festival. “Like…” she trailed off before she spotted the stand with the tandem bike as the prize, “win a tandem bicycle?!” she asked before she headed over and looked at the jar, “All I have to do is guess how many candies are in the jar.”

As Sunset witnessed Pinkie get the answer wrong again, “Anyone else having serious deja vu?” she asked the only remaining member of her group, SciTwi, hoping that she wasn’t alone in this as she n.

“Nope. Just deja V-you.” SciTwi responded in an attempt at a joke. This was followed by a nervous laugh as she realized that Sunset was not laughing at the joke, “Get it? 'Cause it's just you? With the deja v…” she trailed off as it was clear that Sunset didn’t laugh in fact it was hard to tell if she even heard the joke. This surprised SciTwi as normally Sunset would have given a slight chuckle and say something around the lines of ‘Bae, you know I love you, and God bless your heart, but there are times when I can only say ‘Thank God, you’re cute’.’ But Sunset’s mind was elsewhere.

Sunset rubbed the back of her head, “I don't know how to explain it, but…” she trailed off as she seemed to her that the riddle she was given was starting to make sense. “I did all of this yesterday.”

SciTwi partially squinted her right eye in confusion, “How? Yesterday we just finished loading and began boarding Princess Twilight’s skyboat for the flight here.” she pointed out as the two walked until Sunset stopped and SciTwi bumped into her with a grunt. “Are you okay?” SciTwi asked as she regained herself. SciTwi then looked around and noticed the absence of a particular member of their party. “Where’s Pinkie?” she asked.

Sunset closed her eyes for a second and took a breath. “If I’m right, I know where she's headed.” she said as she headed into the Neon Garden, taking SciTwi with her. Once inside, Sunset took a breath as she prepared her spell to find the path out and find the pattern of Pinkie’s own path in the maze.

It took a few minutes for her spell to find the way out. Now Sunset needed to form-“What are we waiting for?” came Pinkie’s voice from behind her. Sunset and SciTwi turned to Pinkie standing innocently.

Sunset took Pinkie’s hand, “Pinkie, I need you to focus.” She said as she led the other two of the trio out of the Neon Garden, “If you keep up like this,” Sunset scolded her main partner in crime, “we’ll miss the concert!” She added before she realized that she had arrived at the…

“Who wants to be part of an art show?” came the voice of a man.

Sunset’s eyes shot wide open before Pinkie shouted “Ooh, ooh, ooh! I do! I do!” Before Sunset could respond one of the water balloons hit and broke, splattering paint on the three. Sunset could only growl as Pinkie laughed as the three had been both voluntarily (Pinkie) and not (Sunset and SciTwi).

After what felt like a ludicrously long time in this water balloon fight, Sunset had managed to Pinkie into the pubic lavatory, along with SciTwi. As SciTwi and Sunset were cleaning the ( thankfully water soluble) paint, “If this already happened, couldn’t you have warned us about the point?” SciTwi asked, not believing that Sunset could in fact have foreseen this. She groaned, as more of the paint came off, silently thankful that the paint didn’t seem to be setting it.

Sunset took a break from cleaning the paint off herself and clothes and shut her eyes as she turned in the direction of SciTwi and looked to the ceiling, “Pinkie just splattered paint, and it looks exactly like Rarity with a pirate mustache.” Sunset declared before she lowered her gaze back to SciTwi, “How's that?” she asked before dropping her arms.

SciTwi smirked as she chuckled, “Well, that would prove it for sure!” she declared, her tone saturated with sarcasm. Just then the door of the stall Pinkie used open to show the image Sunset predicted as Pinkie giggled. SciTwi turned back to Sunset, her mouth agape, after two seconds “Seriously?!” she asked, voicing her confusion.

“What?” an equally confused Pinkie asked. “It's washable.” she added as she pointed to the painting and cleaned it off.

A few minutes later, after they finished cleaning themselves off, the trio sat down at one of the paknic tables, “So, what do you think, Babe?” Sunset asked with it clear that SciTwi believed her.

SciTwi hummed to herself as she held her chin in thought with her left hand. After a minute of contemplation, “It’s possible that yesterday, a snag in the fabric of spacetime could cause a temporal point – i.e., today – to fold in on itself and thereby repeat.” she said with a slight smile on her face, like a child having done what even they know was an extraordinarily great job at something productive and wanting just a pat on the head, “I’ve been reading Dr. Time Turner Who’s doctoral thesis and a few of his research papers, the subject of time travel is actually quite fascinating, really.”

“So, Sunset is in a time loop?” Pinkie asked in a clear attempt to make SciTwi’s technobabble (magic-babble?) much more intelligible. SciTwi nodded, although it was clear that she felt somewhat offended that her well thought out explanation was reduced to such a plebian understanding.

“But why only me?” Sunset asked, holding the sides of her head trying to make sense of why all of this happened. All the while she cast her vision to the ground, “The only time I was alone was then I was on the hill and I wished—” she stopped abruptly and lifted her head and gaze to look at SciTwi and Pinkie, “This might sound crazy…”

Pinkie snorted before she rolled her eyes and waved her left hand dismissively, “I held Discord’s power, along with the power of Celestia and Luna and used it to defeat Tirek, Chrysalis and Cozy Glow. Go ahead and try me.” Pinkie challenge.

Sunset raised her left hand with the index finger to ask, but lowered it as she recalled the mantra ‘It’s Pinkie Pie, don’t question it’. She took a breath, “Well, I think something is giving me another chance to see PostCrush.” Sunset concluded.

Pinkie held out her left hand with the palm down and rocked back and forth and up and down as if it was a series of waves, while she squinted both of her eyes slightly as she was ranking how crazy the claim Sunset made was “That’s at best a three on the discord scale of crazy… maybe a three point three if you stretch it, but I’ve done crazier.” Pinkie retorted, “Besides time loops were sooo~~~ twenty fifteen, even back in twenty nineteen.” Pinkie said as she turned to face you, the reader, as Sunset and SciTwi looked at each other, neither understanding their peculiar friend. Her eyes then shot wide open, “Wait.” she stopped as she turned back to Sunset, “Why didn't you see PostCrush?” she asked, getting to the heart of the matter.

Sunset opened her mouth by then closed it and dipped her head, she wasn’t sure what to say. She didn’t want to lie to Pinkie, but she didn’t want to blame Pinkie either. She looked to the ground and took a breath and tried to find the best words to use. Once she found them. “Mistakes were ma…” She trailed off before she looked back up to see Pinkie was not there. “Where’s Pinkie?” she asked. SciTwi pointed over her right shoulder to Pinkie jogging to the stand that was selling the churros she wanted last time. Sunset groaned as she got to her feet, “Okay, this is the worst possible time for churros!” Sunset shouted before she dashed to get in front of Pinkie.

“WAIT!” SciTwi shouted after she did some quick physics. “You’ll only…” she trailed off as Sunset zipped to be in between Pinkie and the stand. “Cause a collision…” SciTwi trailed off before she looked away and shut her eyes.

Sunset didn’t hear any of that as she shouted, “Pinkie, stop!” Only then that she realized that as Pinkie was running, Sunset had placed herself too close for Pinkie to stop safely and as the later shouted whoa, she collided with Sunset and the intera of the two caused them to collided with the stand knocking it over and spilling some of the content on the security guard that was standing near by, Zephyr Breeze.

As the two recovered from the impact they saw Zephyr take a deep breath as if to calm himself. Pinkie gave an apologetic chuckle, “Hey, Zeph, our bad.”

Sunset’s eyes shot wide open in horror as she recalled what happened last time. “No, her bad.” she countered. “You saw whose bad it was, right?” she asked.

“Ma’am, you did jump in front of her before she was able to come to a stop.” Zephyr pointed out and before the two knew it, he had shut the door that security used to throw out the festival attendants that have violated their agreement to be at the festival, in their faces and the two’s easy access wristbands were on the ground, cut.

Then came the voice of an announcer just as the light indicated that PhotoCrush was about to go on stage. “Ladies and Gentlemen, let’s hear it for…”

The announcer continued to speak, however Sunset couldn’t hear him over Pinkie, “Maybe you'll get another another chance?” she asked, giving a somewhat forlorn Sunset some hope.

The announcer then finished greeting the band, “...PostCruuuuush!” before the crowd cheered.

---

In the earliest hours of day, when only the morning star was above the horizon, before it could herald the sun. Almost everyone of the party was sound asleep before, “RISE AND SHINE!!!” shouted Sour as all the girls jerked and jumped out of their beds. “Applejack says breakfast is almost ready.” she added sweetly. All groaned as they recovered from the shock before as they changed into what they were going to wear that day.

Outside they found a fairly basic breakfast spread out with Sour at the table ready to eat. The barbarian was not dressed in her usual brown bear based suit, instead she wore a white furred tunic with black fur leggings, with the bear’s bones making her belt, with the skull hung around her neck, with the top of her tunic made out of the head of the black and white bear. While most were unphased by the barbarian’s getup, “Um, you do know those only eat plants right?” the druid question.

“I’m a berserker, I wear shirts made from bears. And this is the one for this.” Sour retorted. Fluttershy could only sigh.

“Whoo! Whril-Con Mus-Fes Day One!” shouted Lemon as she was the last to exit. She had in her hands a paddle with the logo of the Rainbolt, which itself was a rainbow with the Aura Marks of the Rainbooms coming from the stylised S of the Shadowbolts with their Aura Marks within the S itself, with Sunset’s Aura Mark placed in what could described as the merging point. “Come and get it!” she shouted as she swung her paddle whacking Sunset in the rear.

Sunset smiled, “Thank you!” she declared before the pain of blow set in, “Ow.” she whispered with her voice strained to hold back from shouting in pain. “Thank you.” she continued

Lemon was not sure how to respond, “Um you’re welcome…” she said weakly before she walked away utterly freaked out by Sunset’s reaction and took her seat.

“Um... is everything okay?” Sugarcoat asked as she handed an ice cold cloth, “That is far from the normal reaction of being stuck in the rear by a paddle.”

“HEY!” cheered Pinkie getting everyone to focus on her instead of Sunset, “What do you call a PostCrush fan with three eyes?” she asked.

Sunset however started heading in the direction of the main entrance of the festival’s ground, “Sorry, can’t stay for the joke, I got head out. I’ll check you all later. Okay bye!” she said and started to speed walk.

This left everyone even more confused, “Say, weren’t you supposed to catch PostCruch together, dearie?” Sunny asked Pinkie as she turned to focus on the party planner.
Pinkie waved it aside, “She just wants to beat the crowd to get it, we’ll see it together.” Pinkie said as she started to eat her breakfast. No one could tell if Pinkie actually believed that and was trying to defend Sunset or was she in denial... “WE’RE NOT IN EGYPT, FOXHELM!!!” She then rapidly consumed her meal and then dashed to get in line. She soon sported Sunset in the grounds for the festival, “Sunset! Hey! Wait up! Hey!” she called out to get her attention as she traveled through the line and was cleared and continued to call as Sunset walked away seeming to ignore Pinkie. As Pinkie got closer she saw the stand with the tandem bike prize. She gave a slight gasp, “Win a tandem bike?” she asked, however Sunset quicken her pace. “Sunset!” Pinkie called as the pyromancer ducked into the Neon Gardens. “Suuuunseeeet!” Pinkie called out as she looked for Sunset in the maze. She called out thrice more until she just stopped. “She…” Pinkie trailed off, desperately holding out hope that her faith in Sunset was not mis-placed. “...ditched me…” She could not but whimper as she dropped to her knees as if to weep.

On the other side hedge, Sunset looked down to the ground and sighed in guilt and shame, “Universe, I promise to make this up to Pinkie, just let me make the most of this do-over do-over.” She declared as she ran to the stage when PhotoCrush would perform, however it was still hours before the show, but she could ‘camp’ out as the other performances that would use that stage.

As the last of the sun’s light was vanishing over the western horizon, as the rest of people the fans of PhotoCrush gathered until the announcer spoke, “Ladies and Gentlemen, let’s hear it for two best friends who got back together for one incredible night!”

The crown cheered as Kiwi and Supernova emerged on stage. Sunset laughed with joy. “We did it! PostCrush roll call!” She declared as she tried to strike a pose and almost lost her balance in the process. “Whoa!” she declared as she regained herself and realized why the pose failed, Pinkie was not there.

Kiwi took her guitar as Supernova manned the drums and the two started to play. Kiwi gave a ‘Yeah’ and the two started to sing their new song. “Be the true, true, true original
Dare to be what you are meant to be
Working hard, that's our thing
All this way, we're perfect, perfectly true
True, true original
True, true original
True, true original.” As the two performed the crowd danced with the beat and cheered on, all caught up in the excitement of the music. Supernova crashed the cymbal’s of her drum set before the two started singing again. “We're perfect, perfectly true.”

In the process Kiwi’s grip on her guitar bit loosened and it flew from her hand and Sunset caught it.

“What a perfect day!” Sunset declared before she screamed in joy.

---

About an hour later, with the sky full of stars, Sunset’s blissful smiled radiated as she returned to the camp site with everyone else chattering among themselves. Rainbow was the first to spot her, “There she is.” the elementalist pointed out. “The lone wolf.” She then proceeded to howl.

Sugarcoat couldn’t but groan, “First thing, and this is what everyone gets wrong, wolves are social animals, we recognize their societies as packs. They survive best as part of a pack and lone wolves oft die comparatively young and are far from a healthy state when they do. Second thing, given that Sunset is a woman, and if you insist on using that lupine comparison, the phrase is ‘The lone wolven’ because ‘wolven’ is the femanine form of the word ‘wolf’.” Sugarcoat then let out an exhausted sigh. This was followed by a more blissful sigh from Sunset as she sat down.

No one spoke for about three seconds as they silently judged Sunset before Applejack cleared her throat, “Pinkie’s been actin’ mighty strange even by her standards this evening.” the paladin started. “Any idea what might've happened to her?” she asked, giving Sunset the chance to confess her transgression.

Sunset was still high on the euphoria of the show, had she stayed in the festival grounds proper a few more minutes, her word choice would have been more sincere. Yet in her… intoxicated state, “We must have lost track of each other.” she answered without thought.

“Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,” came the laughter of Pinkie. It was then that Sunset realized that Pinkie was not with the rest. Sunset turned to see Pinkie leaning against the skyboat. “Me lose track of Sunset?” she asked. her voice seemed to crack like a poorly handled porcelain plate. “Hah!” she laughed before she pulled out seemingly nowhere a strawman made to resemble Sunset. “But she's been right here the whole time!” she declared with what could be registered as a resolve far more durable then the doors of Tartarus. “Right, actual Sunset Shimmer?” she said to the puppet. She then flawlessly imitated Sunset with her own answer without moving her own mouth, “Right, Pinkie Pie! By the way, your roasting technique is flawless!” Pinkie then laughed normally in joy, “Thank you!” she said as she hugged the puppet.

Everyone turned back to Sunset, all frowning at the pyromancer. Rarity was the first to speak, her tone was super-saturated with sarcasm, “How was the show?” she asked the question as Sunset was scrutinized.

“It was... perfect.” Sunset replied, still very much in bliss from the PostCrush show.

Everyone rolled their eyes as Rarity scoffed at the answer, “I was being judgmental, darling.” she spelt out to Sunset. “What is the point of throwing shade if no one's there to catch it?” she asked rhetorically.

“Sorry. Too blissed out from the show to care right now.” Sunset said, seeming to dismiss the very valid judgement being levied on her. “Talk tomorrow?” she asked as she got up and headed to bed. This left Pinkie almost in tears.