FRIDAY, JULY 21, 2:36 AM
I live at 434 Pinfeather Avenue, right in the heart of Canterlot City’s Lower East Side. It’s the kind of neighborhood that a lot of concerned moms online would call “sketchy.” In other words, there’s a lot of concrete, and the sandwich guy at the corner bodega lets his cat sleep on the counter. Her name is Coconut, and she loves grilled chicken.
I’ve spent my entire human life living in the LES, and although it took a few years, I’ve come to love it. My one complaint: It’s loud.
That’s not always a bad thing! When the couple living next door to me blasts pop music while I’m making dinner, I dance my ass off. But when it’s 2 AM and there’s a dude outside blasting his car stereo while I’m trying to relax, things get annoying. Even with headphones on, I can feel my bed frame rattling at every bass beat. As if drawing freehand wasn’t hard enough.
I grip my pencil, almost tight enough to snap it, and stab into my sketchbook. This picture of Ray is gonna come out perfect, whether the dude outside cares or not. The galaxy’s greatest gecko deserves more than wobbly linework.
I’m stuck so deep in focus mode — noise-canceling headphones with pounding low-fi beats, hunched horribly over my sketchbook, snapping gum bubbles ‘til my jaw hurts — that I almost miss my phone ringing. It’s only when it vibrates itself over to my toes that I glance over and see a shot of Rainbow scoring a goal.
It’s no surprise that she’s up this late — if there’s anyone I trust to have a worse sleep schedule than me, it’s her — but why is she calling? And does it make me a bad friend if my first thought is, “Oh goddess, she’s been arrested and needs me to bust her out of prison?”
I pause my music, sit up straight enough that my spine pops, and accept the call.
A torrent of different voices explode out of my phone’s speaker. And even more startlingly, the voices aren’t coming from a phone call — it’s a video call.
Rainbow is grinning at the top, and she’s running so fast that everything but her face is a blur. Below her are Rarity and Applejack, half-naked in bed (their own beds, to be clear) and yelling at Dash for waking them up. Pinkie is somehow both holding her phone and still asleep. Fluttershy and Twilight just stare bleary-eyed into the camera.
“What’s going on here?” I ask when Rarity and AJ stop to breathe.
“Ooh, ooh, Sunset!” Rainbow says. She sounds like she’s talking at super-speed too. “You’re here! Finally!”
“Ugh, can you keep it down?” Applejack asks, covering her ears. “You’re barking louder than Winona!”
“Can’t quiet down! I’m too hype!” Rainbow jumps onto her bed and starts trampolining. “Guess what band just got booked for Summer Sunfest in August?”
“The big concert series over in Hoofington?” I ask. It only takes a second of thought for my heart to leap. “Wait. Is PostCrush coming back early?”
Pinkie’s eyes snap open. “PostCrush? Who said PostCrush?”
“It’s not PostCrush!” Rainbow says, rolling her eyes.
“Oh.” Pinkie closes her eyes and starts snoring again.
“If it’s not them, then—” Rarity gasps. “Rainbow, are we playing Sunfest?”
Rainbow pumps her fist. “Bingo! My dad is friends with the talent booker’s orthodontist’s cousin, and he said he wants us on the New Artists stage, night one!”
“Holy crap!” I say. “That’s so cool!”
“Gosh, that’s a big concert, isn’t it?” Fluttershy asks. “Are you sure we’re ready?”
Rainbow scoffs. “Of course we are! And even if we’re not, we’re gonna rehearse five times as hard so we can get ready!”
Twilight just gives a weak thumbs up.
“Yeah, it’s real cool,” Applejack says. She still isn’t smiling. “But this couldn’t wait ‘til morning?”
“I’ll take that as a ‘thank you,’” Rainbow says, smirking. “How do you people go to sleep so early? Are me and Sunset the only cool ones here?” She holds up her fist and moves it toward the camera. “C’mon, SunShim. Virtual fistbump.”
I giggle and return the gesture. “Insomniacs forever.”
Applejack snorts, says, “Goodnight, y’all,” and hangs up. Down in the corner, Twilight smiles.
“Yeah, you better run,” Rainbow says.
“I think I’ll join her,” Rarity says, yawning — but then her eyes widen. “Join her in going to sleep, I mean. Not anything else.”
Everyone’s quiet until she hangs up.
Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Pinkie hang up soon too. That leaves Twilight and I to stare at each other, eyelids drooping.
I wave. “Hi.”
“It’s very late,” Twilight says. Her voice is a dry croak.
“I think it’s early, technically.”
“I’m going to float you into a volcano.” She adjusts her body, and I notice a tuft of brown fur near her armpit.
“Is that Leonardo?”
She furrows her brow, then glances down at the brown fur. “Oh. No. This is Owlowiscious.” She pulls her phone back to show off the big stuffed owl nestled under her arm.
I puff out my lips and ask in a cutesy voice, “Did Timmy get that for you?”
Twi brings the camera so close to her face that I can see her eye crusties. “Go to sleep, Sunset. You’re killing brain cells staying up this late.”
“Not yet.” I toss my sketchbook to the side and fall back onto my pillow. “You need to tell me a bedtime story first.”
“Volcano.”
“Pretty please?”
She takes a long, long breath, like she’s about to dive underwater. “Once upon a time, there was a pony named Sunset—”
“Was she a sexy pony?”
“Yes,” Twilight says, glaring. “Very sexy. She had a really long horn, or whatever the standard of beauty is for unicorns.”
“D’aww.” I squish my face in my hands. “You’re so sweet.”
“There was a pony named Sunset Shimmer. And it was late at night, and she got very tired. So she went to sleep. And she let her best friend go to sleep too! And they all lived happily ever after. The end.”
“And what did they dream about?”
“Galloping around together, eating apples and carrots.”
“Hm.” I tap my chin. “That wasn’t a very good story.”
“Volcano.”
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VoLcAnO
You did that on purpose... AND I LOVE IT
This is why so many mad scientists opt for volcano lairs. It's just so convenient when you need to dispose of annoying, short-sighted fools.
Or so I've heard.
Why do I get the feeling that AJ is going to throttle Dash when she sees her next.
Also, Rare, your Freudian slip is showing.
Omg the rarijack in this chapter so nourishing......
I'll never understand why people do these things. People are trying to sleep!!!
Alright, you two, just kiss already.
Big messy sloppy make-out. Break the tension. Get it all out of your systems. You'll feel better.
No, it means that you're such a good friend, you know what the most likely scenario is.
Either this chapter shows some impressive dedication to the conceit of posting each chapter at the exact time it occurs or you're just a night owl. I hope it's the latter, for your sake.
11645626
Very luckily I’m in Costa Rica right now, so I only had to stay up until midnight to post at 2AM EST
Ha! I sometimes miss apartment living... then I remember the neighbors and I get over it.
If I have not mentioned it before THANK YOU for remembering Sunset is a magical pony from another world in a human body. It drove me nuts more than once where it seemed the show writers forgot this (or were told to ignore it. Who knows how many changes were made)
Well, someone has certainly gotten confident in her levitation powers.