> Sunset Helpers
>  by Spirit Shift
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologua 4: Golden 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: I regret nothing!





“I will never be you!” Sunset glared into the deep black and teal eyes of her past self with all of the anger she could spare. “I’ll never be you...”  she hissed.

There was a split second of silence before a sudden explosion rocked the castle and Sunset found herself flying through the air towards the throne.

“Sunset!” Rainbow cried, watching as Sunset’s demon self shoved her through the air with a wave of fire. Turning her head back, she glared at the demon at the end of Canterlot Castle’s throne room. As soon as Sunset denied their relationship it started freaking out. The demon clutched its head in pain, screaming. Billows of fire began erupting from the ground around it and the shear waves of heat forced Rainbow to try to shield herself with her arms. Suddenly, all of the flames changed direction and engulfed it completely. They swirled around it, merging with it to form a large phoenix. “Fine then? Is this the real you?” the phoenix roared.

“That’s it!” growled Rainbow. Her body started to emanate a bright blue glow. Holding her open palm out a small blue card floated down into it. Lifting both hands, Rainbow slammed her fists together in front of her. The card shattered between then and released a wave of blue energy. “Persona!” 

The energies spiraled and converged behind her, forming a large avian woman with even larger rainbow colored wings and sky blue hair. Her chest and legs were covered in cyan blue fur while her eyes were covered with a white blindfold. The woman took a wide stance as her nails elongated into razor sharp claws. 

Rainbow pointed her persona directly at the phoenix. “Spectrum! Bring that bird down!" Obeying her master, Spectrum immediately flew towards the mass of living flames.

Over by Sunset’s fallen form, Coco gently lifted her head. “Sunset, are you alright?!”

Sunset cracked open her eyes and flinched in pain. Finally the pain subsided enough for her to look up in Coco’s eyes. “I can’t… I can’t move. Go, leave me here. I’m not worth fighting for.”

“That’s not true!” argued Coco, her voice desperate and concerned. “You’re more than worth it! You’re our friend! Don't you understand?”

Sunset simply turned her head away. Coco frowned and sat her down while she herself stood up to face the direction of the fight. Her body began glowing with a soft blue light. “Fine then, watch!” she said, determined. Holding out her own palm, Coco allowed a small blue card to fall into it. She held it to her chest and the card shattered. “Persona!”

Sunset turned her head back around to look at Coco. Immediately, the glow evolved into a blinding radiance as her own persona appeared behind her; A large overly muscular woman with a red and pink luchador unitard and mask. Ichijoukaren stood behind her master with folded arms while Coco stood resolutely. 

“I’ll show you how much you mean to us! Rainbow!”

Rainbow glanced back and smiled. “About time,” she muttered. Thrusting her arm forward she yelled to her persona, “Spectrum, use the Sonic Rain-nado!”

Spectrum blasted away a fireball with a gust of wind before glancing back to her master. Her wings lit up with a multicolored glow as she acknowledged the order. Spreading her wings to their full length, she flapped them with as much force as possible and sent herself speeding towards Sunset’s shadow. 

Shadow Sunset saw this coming and screeched. “Leave me alone!” The phoenix opened its mouth and expelled a torrent of red hot flames towards the speeding bullet. The flames did nothing to impede the incoming force as Spectrum merely dodged the attack and began spinning around the phoenix at increasingly dramatic speeds. 

The phoenix screeched once more. “Get away!” as it tried to send out another wave of flames. Unfortunately, the flames petered out as she found itself trapped in a rainbow colored tornado. The flames composing her body also began to die out as the tornado continued to suck the oxygen from the area around it.

Rainbow called back to Coco. “Coco! Do it now!”

Coco nodded and pointed towards the tornado. “Ichijou!”

Shadow Sunset fell to the ground, its flaming body now merely that of a lingering translucent glow. “I won’t succumb... to this trap you call friendship!” Screeching with all its might, the phoenix resolved itself and spread its wings, releasing a large explosion. Its body lit up with flames anew and the sheer force of the explosion blew away both Spectrum and Rainbow.

However, just as the explosion died down, a strong pair of arms wrapped themselves around Shadow Sunset. Angered, the phoenix immediately attempted to burn its way out of the persona’s grip. Sunset watched as Coco hunched over in pain, nursing her burning arms. “Coco, stop this!” she cried, tears forming in her eyes. “You don’t have to hurt yourself for me!”

Coco gave her a strained smile. Their eyes met once again, but this time, Sunset felt as though she could finally see them clearly. The bright eyes of her best friend who was fighting so hard for her. “I’d do anything for my friends.” Sunset’s eyes widened and Coco turned back to the battle. “Ichijou! Seismic Toss!”

The eyes of Ichijoukaren’s mask lit up in a green glow as it acknowledged the command. With a staggeringly powerful jump, Ichijou flew higher and higher into the air as the very ceiling of the throne room continued to rise along with her. Finally, she looped backwards, allowing her feet to touch the ceiling into the air and face the ground. Lingering in the air for a second she jumped once again, completely destroying that section of the wall and propelling herself downward at incredible speeds.

All the while the phoenix continued to caw and screech and burn, desperately trying to escape the wrestler’s grip. But it was no use, the persona’s arms were locked, chaining her like a set of unbreakable bonds as they fell. With one final screech the falling stars crashed into into the ground, completely shattering the floor and shoving everyone back in a massive shockwave.

The flames surrounding the room slowly died out. And as the smoke from the crash followed suit, Sunset limped over to the crater. It was as wide as the throne room itself and twice as deep. There was no sign of the persona, but Sunset’s shadow sat, back in its human form, in the middle. It glitched, phasing in and out, likely due to its injuries. 

It slowly lifted its head and glared at Sunset’s. “Look at you… hiding behind those girls, coming out at the last minute to claim victory like some chessmaster,” she growled, struggling to climb out of the crater. “Of course you wouldn’t remember what it’s like to be alone and helpless.” 

Sunset looked down into the crater, her face was full of sadness. “You’re right,” she admitted, much to her shadow’s surprise. 

Sunset watched as her other self lifted herself up on the lip of the hole. Their gaze locked once more. “What did you say?”

“I said, “you’re right... About everything. I admit it. I used to hate friendship. I used to think it was weak, unnecessary. I thought that Celestia was just wasting my time and trying to stunt my growth.” Sunset let out a light sigh. “But after being taken over by those feelings, I realized how much my quest for power hurt everyone else. 

Then the elements hit me, and took all of it away. I felt empty after that. I saw the error of my ways but I couldn’t figure out what to do next. I was alone, confused, and afraid.” She looked over to Rainbow and Coco who were picking each other up. “But then I found the others, and they taught me what it means to be a friend.”

“That still doesn't--”

“I know,” Sunset turned back to her. “I know. You’re the same as I was; alone and afraid, hesitant to let anyone close to you for fear that they might leave. You’re the me who wanted the power to force people to stay. You wanted to protect me from getting hurt. You tried to convince me to go back to the safety of solitude. But you don’t have to, we don’t have to. I see that now. I rejected you because I felt like if I didn’t, I really would go back to being just like you... and that scared me."

Sunset held out her hand. The shadow looked at it for a second, then back to Sunset’s now bright smiling face. “But I was wrong!” she continued. “You are a part of me. A part that led me to where I am now, and I’ll never forget when I was you.”

Shadow Sunset looked up her her original with tear stained eyes. Its eyes faded from black to white matching Sunset’s completely. Hesitantly, it reached out and gripped her outstretched palm. The second they touched a bright white light formed between them, slowly encompassing the entire room and blinding everyone. The last thing that Sunset heard were two sincere words, echoing in her own voice.

“Thank you…”

~~~

Sunset’s eyes flickered open, revealing her bright blue ceiling. She continued to stare at it, unblinking for several long seconds and completely ignoring the pool of drool on her pillow. Her thoughts were firmly rooted on the dream she just had. Though with her sleep addled mind, she quickly began to forget it. 

Finally, Sunset turned over in her bed and grumbled, “I play too many video games…”
	
	
> CH1: A Typical Morning
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Rolling around in her bed, Sunset found herself unable fall back asleep after her initial awakening. She tried everything. She tried closing her eyes for 20 minutes and that didn’t work. She tried flipping her pillow over, that didn’t work. She eventually considered counting sheep before realizing that she had run out of options. 

Finally, she simply rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. If the drool on the back of her pillow was any indication, last night’s sleep was amazing. During her staring contest with the wall she reflected on her dreams for the last few weeks. Ever since she accepted the others, and agreed to be Coco’s roommate, her nights have been getting steadily better. Not a single nightmare in recent nights.

Sunset groggily glanced out the window in an attempt to gauge what time it was. The sun wasn’t very high yet, so it was still early. Probably still around seven or eight o’ clock. Since today was Saturday, Sunset felt no pressing need to get up. However, since staying in the bed would accomplish nothing, she decided to toss her covers off.

“Cold!” Only to immediately re-wrap herself into a tight cocoon of purple covers. Once again she cursed her human body’s lack of warmth giving fur. She tried sticking her leg out to touch the floor, but even that seemed impossible in that moment. 

“Maybe I’ll just stay here for a little bit longer,” she grumbled.

~~~

After a pressing need to use the bathroom forced her out of bed, Sunset quickly jumped into a hot shower. However, the shower proved to be in cahoots with her bed as Sunset quickly found herself unable to leave the comfort of the hot water for the cold outside. It wouldn’t be until the hot water began to run out that she forced herself to towel off. 

Instinctively seeking the next best source of warmth, Sunset threw on her regular clothes plus a warm robe. She then stumbled into the kitchen and, to her immense joy, found a warm cup of coffee waiting for her. 

“Thank Celestia,” she muttered. She dragged her cold zombie-like self over to the table and gripped the cup in her hands. The black brew warmed them like a tiny sun, bringing back the color she began to lose in them. Slowly, she brought it to her lips, and as the drink fell down her throat she could feel her body returning to its normal temperature as the cold feeling vanished. She could feel her body spring back to life.

Slurping the last few drops, Sunset held the now empty cup up into the air as if it were a newborn king. “So… wonderful,” she whispered. “Need… more!”

There was a light giggle from behind her. “There’s more in the machine.”

Sunset nearly dropped the cup in surprise. Spinning around, she saw Coco standing in the doorway with a nervous grin. “Coco?! What are you doing here?” she asked, startled.

Coco frowned. “Sunset,” she sighed, hurt. “We’ve been living together for a month. How come you keep forgetting that?”

Sunset sheepishly rubbed her eyes and sat at the table. “Sorry, sorry. It takes me a few minutes to get my brain started in the morning. Not to mention you’re so quiet I can’t even hear you come down the stairs.” She tried to take a sip from her empty cup.

Coco giggled and took the cup from her. “Really?” she asked, pouring a new cup of coffee. “I love the morning. Everything’s so bright.”

“I don’t see how with all of these clouds in the sky,” she lamented. “I could barely see the sun.”

Coco handed the cup over. Sunset grabbed it, and glancing up she noticed that Coco didn’t have one herself. “You’re not gonna have any?”

The girl in question sat down in the opposite chair and shook her head. “No, I don’t drink coffee. Too much caffeine, and I don’t like the taste.” She blushed when she noticed Sunset staring at her through the steam. “What?”

“You’re so weird. You know that?” Sunset muttered, sipping her drink.

“W-what? Why?”

Sunset, probably for the first time today, carefully examined Coco’s morning attire. “In fact, how are you even doing that?!” Sunset groaned, much to Coco’s confusion. Coco’s eyes darted around nervously before shrugging. Annoyed, Sunset sat her head on the cold table. “Look at you,” she sighed.

Coco glanced down, unsure what Sunset was referring to. There was nothing different about her that she could tell. She wore what she always wore when getting up; a simple white t-shirt, light blue shorts, and green slippers. Which was probably a sharp contrast to Sunset’s thick robe and sweater. 

“I’m not following. What am I doing wrong?”

Sunset gestured to her entire body. “How can you sit there wearing next to nothing in this freezing cold?!”

“It’s not that cold,” she argued softy. “I mean, it hasn't even started snowing yet.”

Sunset grimaced and drank more of her drink. “Don’t worry… it will,” she replied, her voice full of dread. “Personally, I hate the snow… and the cold.”

Coco smiled cheerfully. “I guess your pony self’s coat helped with the cold.”

Sunset’s gaze hardened into an annoyed look. “Immensely…”

“Well, I love the cold,” she announced proudly. “It snows a lot in Manehatten and it gets much colder earlier in the year. Plus, I was born right in the middle of winter anyway.” 

Sunset’s gaze softened and she chuckled halfheartedly. “I guess that makes sense. I was born right in the middle of summer. Right at sunset no less.”

“Is that why they named you that?”

Sunset nodded. “Apparently, the last rays of sunlight shimmered off of my damp coat, or something. Two seconds of thought later I got my name.”

Laughing jovially, Coco leaned closer and joked, “That’s an oddly specific and on the spot name isn’t it?”

Sunset grinned, she seemed more awake now after drinking her second cup of coffee. “Meh, most Equestrian names are like that.” She glanced up thoughtfully. “In fact, this world isn’t much different. I’m even willing to bet that there’s a guy named Snowflake here somewhere,” she snickered. 

Upon hearing the name, Coco’s face contorted in thought. “Actually… I’m pretty sure there’s someone in my class—”

“Speaking of which, your name is probably an exception.”

Sunset’s remark snapped Coco out of her thoughts, causing her head to jerk back up in surprise. “I— what?”

Stomach grumbling, Sunset decided that she was finally awake enough to grab some breakfast. She proceeded to get up and rummage through the freezer. “I mean, your name is pretty unique,” she continued. Her voiced echoed out of the depths of the machine. “Coco Pommel? Sounds like the name of a famous person.”

Finally, Sunset exited the freezer with a box of frozen waffles. Even though she was awake she was still too lazy to make her own from the box. 

While Sunset deposited her frozen foods into the toaster and waited for the life giving fuel to stop being frozen blocks of ice, Coco pondered her remark with a blush on her face. “I... I don’t know. My parents just named me that. I never really questioned it.”

Sunset let out a large yawn as she waited. “Well maybe your parents named you after something important to them. You should ask them the next time you see them." The toaster finally popped and Sunset returned to the table with a plate of warm naked waffles where she immediately dug into her food. Instead of using regular utensiles, Sunset simply opted to lean forward and bite into it. 

She stopped midway and glanced up in slight embarrassment. “I’m sorry, do you want some too?” 

Coco watched with keen interest. “No… no. I’m alright,” she muttered. 

Sunset shrugged and continued her no-hands eating technique. Coco found that was always interesting, and even slightly amusing, to watch her friend graze like that. 

She smiled fondly as she remembered the first time that Sunset ate like that in front of her. She was so embarrassed; it was a guilty pleasure that reminded her of home. Of course Coco told her that she was alright with it, as she didn’t have the heart to take away her friend's eating preference. Luckily, since then Sunset had always been too engrossed in her eating to notice Coco watching.

Finally, an urgent thought resurfaced, knocking her out of her reverie. “Oh, I almost forgot! I got a call from my parents yesterday.”

Sunset continued to enjoy the bliss of the waffle hanging out of her mouth. “Oh yeah? What’d they want?”

“They want me to come home!” she beamed.

*Ughk* *Ack* *Cough* Sunset nearly choked on her waffle, prompting Coco to rush over and pat her back. Finally, Sunset managed to swallow the bits left in her mouth and turn to face her. “Wh—cough—What? You’re leaving?” she asked, fearing the worst.

Coco quickly grabbed a glass and poured some water from the sink. “No! No. I’m sorry,” she said, handing her the water. “I didn’t mean it like that. My parents want me to spend Christmas with the rest of my family. I’m coming back, I promise!”

Sunset glugged down the water without reservation, ending with a deep breath. “Oh… Don’t scare me like that.”

Coco blushed slightly but chuckled anyway. “Sorry. It’s just, my entire family all made a promise to meet back home during the holidays. My brothers and sisters are coming too.”

Sunset picked up a waffle with her hand and nommed on it. “Really? So when are you leaving?”

Coco glanced up in thought. “Well it’s still the beginning of the month, so probably sometime during the first week of winter break.” Sunset frowned sadly, but Coco quickly jumped onto a new line of thought. “B-but enough about me, what are you planning to do for Christmas break?”

Having had enough coffee, Sunset got up to get a fresh cup of water. “I don’t know. I’ve never really put much thought into celebrating. I usually just stay inside most of winter… and try to stay warm.”

Coco tilted her head in confusion. “Well what do ponies do during the winter. You told me once that most of our holidays have an equivalent over there.”

Sunset came back with a cup of water and two more waffles. “Well that’s true. Equestria has its own holidays. Usually around this time of year we celebrate Hearth’s Warming.”

“What’s Hearth’s Warming?” asked Coco, always eager to learn more about Equestria.

“Well I was about to tell you,” she chuckled. “Hearth’s Warming is a time of year where everypony chooses to let go of any grudges or disagreements that they have. And we look back on how we came to be.”

“How did you come to be?!” Coco asked, interrupting once more.

“Well I’ll tell you the short version. I already told you about how there are three kinds of ponies. Basically, we all used to be separate and unwilling to cooperate with one another.” Sunset grinned as she watched Coco become more and more enthused in her story. Sunset quickly learned that Coco was one of those girls who loved unicorns when she was a child. Learning that they were real, and that her new friend used to be one, was like a dream come true. 

“This kind of disharmony gave birth to a freezing cold that ruined the land and forced each tribe to find a new spot. However, they soon started fighting over the new land too. Yadda yadda yadda. Fires of friendship. New harmony. Founding of Equestria. Then end.” Sunset had to suppress her laughter at the girl’s devastated face. It was even harder when Coco’s face scrunched up in a cute picture of girlish annoyance.

Before Coco could complain, Sunset continued. “The main point is that our holiday revolves around ponies coming together and forgetting our differences. Most of us usually go attend a play on Hearth’s Warming Eve.”

“So do you all exchange presents?” Coco asked, still frowning slightly. She resolved herself to get the full story later.

Sunset ate up the final bite of her waffle. “Some ponies do. But it’s not really a big thing there.” She gulped then glanced over in concern. “Is it a big thing here?”

Coco nodded. “It’s a really big thing. I mean, I’ve only done it with family since I was too shy and too busy to make friends in the city. But now we have friends to buy things for. I guess it’s to show them how much they mean to us.”

Sunset sat her elbow on the table and rested her head in her hands. “Well yeah, I guess so. But how do I know what to get them?” Sunset frowned shamefully. “I mean… now that I think about it, I don’t really know that much about them.”

Coco reached over and sat her hand on Sunset’s to comfort her. “Well that’s alright. Let’s see if we can find something at the mall today!”

“The mall?” Sunset grimaced and look at her cautiously. “That huge crowded building at the edge of town? I don’t like that place. It just seems so out of place in a small town like this one.”

Coco peered at her in wide-eyed puppy-dog gaze. “Pleeaaase? I saw it when I was walking around and I haven't had a chance to go in yet.”

Sunset turned her head in a fleeting attempt to avoid the eyes of doom. “Why not? You've been here long enough,” she argued. 

Coco increased her level by glancing down sadly. “I wanted to but I was afraid that I’d get lost without someone to show me around. Please Sunset? We can find presents for the others.”

Sunset tried to look away, she did. But the cuteness was an impossible force to fight against. Despite all her willpower, Sunset was helpless. Finally, she slumped over in defeat. “Fine…”

“Yay!” Coco cheered softly.
	
> CH2: Attack of the Mash
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sunset let out a warm breath into her light pink scarf as she looked up at the large grey building in front of her. Rolling her eyes only served to bring her gaze over to Coco who was staring at the building in awe. Unlike Sunset’s puffy winter coat, jeans, and scarf, Coco’s attire was composed of a significantly less thick trench coat and winter leggings.

“Coco, you’ve lived in Manehatten, surely you’ve seen a mall before.”

Coco looked up at her and immediately her face flushed in embarrassment. “O-of course. It’s just… that I…” Her blush intensified, turning her normally fair skin a full rosy pink color. “I got in trouble at a mall one time and ever since my parents were hesitant to take me with them,” she mumbled.

Sunset simply stared at her. She wasn’t so much surprised as she was skeptical. “You got in trouble? How?”

Coco fidgeted, clearly hesitant about telling her story. “Well one time when I was a little girl, I got lost. And when a nice policeman tried to bring me to the place where lost kids go I got scared and threw him down an escalator.”

Sunset’s jaw hit the ground in shock. She expected something small and innocent like accidentally taking a toy or something that every foal does. 

Coco saw her look and quickly amended her last statement. “It was an accident of course! He was completely fine afterwards… Well, he was in the hospital for a few months but… L-let’s just go inside now please.”

Sunset still gave her a nervous look. “Sure just… stay close to me. Alright?” Coco nodded and they both entered through the automatic doors. To Sunset’s immense pleasure, they were blasted with a warm gust of air. If there was any one thing that she enjoyed about the mall, it was that it was a nice haven from the weather outside. It was warm in the winter and cool in the summer. 

While Sunset appreciated the environmental neutrality of the building, Coco was busy surveying the many stores in the immediate vicinity. She saw the game store, the Hemline Fashion Department, one of Hot Topic’s Hot Topics, and the various food stalls settled into the corners of the hallways. 

“Ohh, they have a Donut Joe’s here,” observed Sunset, examining the map by the door. “That’s new.”

“Sunset this place is amazing!” gushed Coco. She continued to look around in awe until Sunset grabbed her arm and led her further into the store.

“Jeez, Coco it’s just a mall,” she grumbled. “Not like they have a decent bookstore or anything.”

Coco took her arm back and caught up to her side. Together they walked down the hall aimlessly. “I’m sorry, it’s just I haven't been inside a mall in so long.”

She raised a brow of confusion in response. “Your parents never tried to bring you back to one?”

Coco frowned slightly. “They did once. A few months after the incident. Though they were pretty set on not letting me look around that time. I was pretty much attached to their hips for the whole time.”

‘They probably just didn’t want you to suplex anyone else,’ thought Sunset. Smirking at her own joke, she took a look around herself. “Alright so we’re here now. Who do we buy stuff for first? Personally, I think Rainbow Dash would be the easiest.”

Coco looked up at her curiously. “Why do you think that?”

Sunset stopped in the middle of the hallway and turned to face Coco. “Well she basically likes three things from what I’ve seen so far; Daring Do, video games, and being a fast athlete. We’ve already fulfilled her DD fetish by dressing her up. So we’re stuck with video games and sports equipment. The game store is right over there so I say we check that out first.”

Seeing the logic in her statement, Coco nodded and the both of them began to make their way over to the store across the wide hall. Sunset quickly grew annoyed with all their socially required "pardon mes" and excuse mes" as they crossed opposite the natural flow of foot traffic. She hated crowds to begin with, but being here on a weekend so close to the holidays only made the density of the crowds that much worse. 

Although at least Coco seemed to enjoy herself. “Why don’t we come here more often?” Coco wondered. “All six of us, I mean. It could be fun just walking around the mall together.”

Sunset glanced back at her, still slightly annoyed from weaving through people. “Well, a few reasons; the first is that there’s seven of us unless you’re not counting yourself.” Sunset let out a small chuckle at Coco’s mistake. “Secondly, I don’t know. Those guys just like hanging at Sugarcube corner for some reason. Probably because Pinkie Pie works there… Oh jeez.” 

Sunset paused abruptly. Seeing that, Coco stopped next to her and examined her expression. She had on a deep grimace, one completely different from her ongoing expression of not wanting to be here. She was staring ahead, intently directing her gaze at the store in front of them. Coco looked up and read the overhead sign out loud. “GameMash: Gaming to the Max.” She looked back to her friend. “Is something wrong with this store?”

Sunset shook her head gravely. “Not the store, the cashier…” Sunset pointed through the window towards the true source of her ire.

Coco’s eyes weren't as good as Sunset’s so she had to slightly strain her eyes to see what she was pointing at. Leaning on the counter was a bored looking teenager with dark brown hair and a black shirt decorated with a brown guitar behind a white musical note. He was currently playing on his phone. “Who is he?”

“Gibson,” Sunset hissed his name with all the venom she could. “Let’s go somewhere else. I’m sure there’s another game store here somewhere.”

Sunset turned to leave only for Coco to grip her sleeve. As usual her grip, as unintentional as she made it seem, was like iron. “Why? What’s wrong with him?”

Knowing that she wasn’t likely to get away without answering, Sunset turned back around. “Nothing he’s just… really annoying.” She took Coco’s expression as a silent question to further elaborate. “It’s hard to explain… Fine, let’s go in and you’ll see.” 

Sunset walked up and grabbed the door handle. Before opening it however, she turned to Coco one more time. “Don’t make eye contact.” Without waiting for a response, Sunset opened the door and walked inside. 

The interior of the small shop was pretty much everything one would expect a video game store to look like. There were shelves upon shelves of video games, most of which were separated into sections based on system and release dates. Large standee’s of famous or popular characters were placed in various corners. And posters of upcoming releases were covering any remaining wall space.

As soon as the two girls entered his range, Gibson’s head snapped up into a wide smile. Seeing that one of them was Sunset Shimmer only served to widen the smile. “Well hello there, your royal hotness. Haven’t seen you in a while.”

Sunset suppressed a shiver at his tone. “Stow it, Gibson we’re just here to buy a present.”

Gibson leaned forward and sat his other elbow on the desk. “Sunset, you don’t have to buy me anything. Being your boyfriend is present enough.”

Coco’s head snapped up to face Sunset’s in surprise. “Sunset, I didn’t know you had a boyfriend. Why didn’t you tell me?”

Sunset groaned loudly and turned to Coco. “He is not my boyfriend!” Sunset growled. She then leveled a finger towards Gibson. “You are not my boyfriend! Stop saying that.”

Gibson pouted, “B-but Sunset… why would you say that?”

Coco frowned at her friend. “Sunset, even if things didn’t work out between you two, it’s really disrespectful to say things like that.”

Sunset slowly turned her head with a pure slack jawed expression of are you kidding me?” Before she could add any words to it, however, Gibson hopped over the counter and made his way over to her.

Coco quickly noticed that he was about a year or two younger than she herself was. He gave her a heartfelt. “Thank you,” before looking her up and down. Upon finishing his inspection, his smile turned slightly more perverse. He held out his hand. “Well, hel~lo there, mi’lady. My name’s Gibson Mash. What’s yours?”

Coco reached out to accept the handshake, but before she could Sunset held her arm back. “Gibson if you kiss her hand, I will break yours,” she growled.

“W-what? K-kiss? Break?”

Gibson rolled his eyes. “I wasn't going to do that.” He winked at Sunset. “That greeting’s only for you, my love.” He reached for her hand only for her to turn away and gag. Conveniently, he turned back to Coco just in time to miss it.

“Oh, sorry. My name’s Coco Pommel,” she greeted, this time keeping her hand to herself. “How do you know Sunset?”

A wide grin grew on Gibson’s face, but before he could answer, Sunset stepped between them with a furious blush on her face. “No! No! We are not visiting that story. It was a mistake and we’re not talking about it.” 

She turned around to face the boy behind her. “Gibson, shut up and do your job. What are the top ten newest games that have come out recently? Sports games included.”

Gibson turned back to his counter, but not without one more wink. “Sure thing, baby. But I can’t tell ya off the top of my head. My brother could, but he’s out with his little girlfriend and her club.” He leaned over and reached under the desk and pulled out a multi paged list. He shifted through it for a few seconds before handing it over. “Here, this is a list of the recently released and soon to be released games. Just tell me which ones you wanna check out.”

While Sunset checked out the list, Gibson cracked another perverted grin. “So I heard about what happened over at Canterlot High. I gotta say, demoness… pretty hot.”

Unnoticed by Gibson, Sunset’s grip nearly tore holes in the paper. “Man,” he groaned. Unaware of how close he had come to death, he leaned backwards on the table. “Crystal Academy’s cool and all but it’s so boring compared to Canterlot High. I feel like I’m missing out. Like all the cool stuff happens there.”

Coco gave Sunset a confused look. “Crystal Academy?”

Sunset continued to try and ignore the current situation, still focusing on the game titles. Thankfully, Gibson answered for her. “It’s a small private school on the edge of town. My mom wanted my brother and I to go there since she thought it was safer than public school.”

Coco let out a small chuckle. “It’s a good thing that my mom didn’t know about it. Or else I would probably be going there.”

Gibson released a light dreamy sigh. “Your laugh is beautiful.” He instantly flinched back from the sheer amount of death rays coming from Sunset’s glare. “I mean… I’m not surprised. It is pretty new. If you’re not from here you probably wouldn’t know about it. Where are you from anyway?”

“I used to live here when I was a small child but I moved to Manehatten. I only recently moved back.”

Gibson let out a impressed whistle. “From the big city, huh? I heard you city girls are all about—”

Sunset slammed down the list on the counter, interrupting the conversation. “I circled the games I want.”

Gibson frantically grabbed the paper. “No! You weren't supposed to write on it! This is the store copy.”

Sunset shrugged. “Like I care. Just go get the games,” she ordered.

Pouting, Gibson turned around and rifled through the cabinets behind him to find the games that she had circled. While his back was turned, Coco turned Sunset around so both of their backs faced his. “Sunset, that was mean,” she whispered. “You should apologize.” 

Sunset frowned back at her. “Why should I? He’s creepy.”

“Right here,” said Gibson. “I can still hear you.”

Coco continued. “He seems like a nice guy. Why don’t you like him?”

“Awww!”

Sunset grimaced. “He keeps hitting on me. And I get the sick feeling that he’s taken a liking to you…”

“I will admit that she’s pretty hot too. But then compared to you, Sunset…”

“Well that’s not really a bad thing,” Coco argued. “You said that you wanted to be treated normally.”

“And I’m being completely ignored then.”

Sunset gave her a disgusted look. “You call that normal?”

There was a small thump and Gibson rose his voice to get their attention. “I got the games.”

Sunset turned back around and examined the small mountain of video games. “What took you so long?”

Gibson simply gave her a look. “I got distracted.”

“I’m so sorry.” Coco bowed her head in an attempt to apologize for her friend. Sunset, on the other hand, had no such qualms as she picked through the games she requested. Most of the games she had picked out were either sport related or games that she thought sounded like Dash’s brand of cool. 

She read the covers out loud so that Coco could hear them. “Let’s see. We have Madden, FIFA, WWE, NBA, Kingdom Hearts 3, Half Life 3, 240-592...huh?…” Sunset stared at the white case before glancing up to see Gibson twerking his eyebrows. In response, she sat the other games down and crushed the case with his number before dropping it on the ground. While Gibson gaped at the action, Sunset continued to read off the games. “Star Wars Battlefront 3? Why did I pick that? And two Sonic games.”

She turned to Coco. “So which do you think she’d like?”

Coco flinched, not expecting to be put on the spot. “I don’t know,” she admitted, chuckling nervously. “I thought you might know. I don’t play many video games.”

Sunset sighed and turned back to the cashier. “Hey, Dorkson.”

“Gibson.”

“Shut up. You’ve seen Rainbow Dash around town right?”

Gibson reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small black book. He flipped a few pages before settling on one in particular. “Sexy tomboy athlete with chromatic hair. Loves Linkin Park and pop rock?”

Sunset glared down to the small book. “What is that?”

Gibson nonchalantly slid the book away behind him. “What’s what?”

‘Why did I even ask?’ she thought. “Whatever. In your opinion, as a worker here and not as a perv, which game do you think she’d like? In fact, what does she usually buy?”

While Sunset and Gibson traded info, Coco took some time to wander around and check out the various games sitting along the wall. She was never all that into video games but she supposed that if her friends liked them then she could give it a shot. She even considered buying one for herself just to try out on her downtime. 

‘There are so many titles here,’ she thought. 

‘Maybe I should ask them to choose for me.’ She glanced back to the two by the counter. One was leaning over the counter while the other one had taken several steps back, clearly uncomfortable. ‘On second thought, they look busy.’

“Who’s that?”

“It must be Sunset Shimmer’s new lacky. Probably Snips and Snails’ replacement.”

“But she’s so pretty.”

“No matter. It’s just another minion.”

Coco quickly turned around and faced the door of the shop. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, she turned back around to face the games. ‘That’s weird. I could’ve sworn that I heard someone say Sunset’s name…’

“Do ya’ guys think she saw us?”

“Where’s a cardboard box when you need one?”

“Cardboard boxes aren’t the answer to everything, stupid.”

Coco turned back to the door. This time she was certain that she heard something. Taking quiet steps, she snuck over to the doorway and discretely poked her head out. Crouching under the window were four kids. A girl with red hair and a large pink bow, a girl with purple hair, a boy with brown hair under a multicolored propeller beanie, and a girl with two-toned lavender hair. They were all wearing different colored sweaters, though the girls all had matching symbols on theirs. They seemed to be in the middle of a deep conversation. 

The boy punched a fist into his open palm. "Now is the time to plan. But soon we will advance!" he announced, keeping his voice low.

The purple haired girl simply looked at him. "What?"

“Button, what’re you talkin’ about?” asked the red haired girl.

“Alright then... Sweetie Belle!" Sweetie flinched as Button suddenly thrust his finger towards her to get her attention. He then leaned down close to the floor and began running his finger along the ground, moving around pieces on a war room map that only he could see. "First you’ll stay along the back row to hit the boss with the classic debuffs. You know, stuff to make it easier for us to attack her. As soon as you’re done with that then you can get to work buffing us three…" He stopped and looked between himself and the other two girls. "Actually, reverse that. Buff us first then hit Sunset with the debuffs. We'll need it ‘ASAP’.”

He turned to Scootaloo and Apple Bloom and pointed to them in addition to himself. “We’ll rush her and form a perimeter. This way we can stop her from   escaping and we can swap aggro between us. Scootaloo you go and fight her first. Since you're a monk you can dodge her attacks better. When you get low on HP swap over to Apple Bloom who can hit the hardest. I think her warrior skill ‘Shield Bash’ will work the best. I’ll take the last round as the ninja to give you two a period to recoup and reload your skills. Then we’ll restart the cycle."

He then turned back to Sweetie and smiled confidently. "Sweetie Belle, play close attention to our health, specifically the one of us with the aggro. You don’t have raise or revitalize so if one of us dies then the cycle breaks and we’ll lose this battle. I don’t want to have to go back to leveling in the lower minefields again.” He sat his hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eye. "I'm counting on you."

He looked up to the entire group. “Is everyone clear on the plan?”

Two clueless faces greeted him. “Ah have no idea what you just said," Apple Bloom admitted.

Scootaloo deadpanned. “I actually forgot why we were here in the first place…”

Sweetie, however, looked ready to rush in there. With her eyes sparkling in anticipation, she cheered, "I'm ready!"

“Umm, girls?”

All three of their heads jerked upwards to see Coco standing over them with a nervous look. “Umm… I don’t really know what all that meant but it sounds like you’re going to attack Sunset. I, uh, I just wanted to ask why?”

The boy hopped up and thrust her finger toward her. “It’s the minion! It heard our plans! ATTACK!”

All four of the kids simultaneously pulled out yellow toy guns from their pockets and aimed them at Coco. She was instantly bombarded by dozens of small black darts, most of which suction cupped to her skin.

“Aghh! Stop!” she cried desperately trying to cover herself with her arms. One particular dart caught her in the eye, leaving her seeing stars.

Hearing Coco scream prompted Sunset to rush out of the store to see what was happening. Seeing her bombarded by darts threw her for a loop for a second before she regained her composure and threw herself in front of her. 

“What are you guys doing?” she demanded. “Coco are you alright?”

Coco rubbed her eye and gave a few test blinks. “I-I’m alright.”

A few people walking down the hall turned their heads to the spectacle, but like typical ignorant background characters they simply assumed that the kids were playing a game and turned away.

Button held up his arm and ceased the attack. Taking a step forward, he narrowed his eyes dramatically. “Sunset Shimmer: The Demoness of Canterlot High. We meet again,” he monologued his voice low and serious.

Sunset however, simply gave him a confused look in response. “I’ve never met you in my life.”

“Nevertheless! You’ve terrorized the people of this world for too long! You may have subjugated your generation but we are the new resistance!”

“What?”

“We will not stand by as you regain your power and kidnap the princess. The Sith will fall, Sunset Shimmer!”

“What?!”

“Now you have two choices… stay and fight to the death. Or call off Meteor and return to the lifestream.”

“What.” 

Scootaloo was just as confused. She glanced over to Apple Bloom and whispered, “Why do we hang out with him again?”

Apple Bloom shrugged. “He keeps things interestin’ I guess. Plus, jus’ between you an’ me, I think Sweetie here has a crush on him.” She gestured over to Sweetie who, unlike the others, was completely engrossed in the speech.

“You decline to choose eh?” Button continued. “Then I was right,” he said solemnly. Letting out a small sigh he continued. “What are you? Just a miserable little pile of secrets? Well no more!” At once the girls turned and reached into the bags that they had hidden behind them. Each one bore the symbol of the local toy store.

Once Sunset recognized what they were retrieving she gripped Coco’s hand and yelled. “Run!” Yanking Coco along with her, both girls quickly made their way down the hall, shoving various people aside along the way. 

The girls aimed three identical large, battery powered dart guns after their prey. Button lifted a small foam sword and declared. “ALLONS-Y!”

The girls stared at him and he sighed. “It means let’s go get them.”

The girls’ mouths all shaped into O’s in understanding. “Ohhh.” 
	
> CH3: Grand Theft Mash: The Heist
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Still running from the children’s fierce dart guns, Sunset quickly shoved a pair of adults apart as she hopped onto an escalator. Coco hurriedly offered an apology to the scowling couple as she was pulled after her. Continuing her plow-thru, Sunset raced to the top of the machine and up to the second floor. Once there she instantly dove behind the wall with Coco in tow. Like a cautious turtle, she carefully slid her head up and glanced at the floor below them. The Crusaders, plus one, had just made it around the corner and were now searching the crowded area for any sign of the girls. 

Not as dexterous as her pony ears, Sunset had to turn her head and strain her human ears to hear the kids over the constant noise of the crowd below.

With toy guns in hand, the group stopped in their tracks and looked around. Scootaloo sat the toy on her shoulder and groaned. “Agghh, we lost them. What now, General?” she droned sarcastically.

Button frowned at her. “It’s not my fault Gibson tried to stop us. Nevertheless, we have to find the demonette… demoness… whatever I said last time!”

Apple Bloom walked up to him and gave him a curious look. “Why? We’ll probably see her at school Monday. Also, now that ah look around, ah don’t think Sunset has cast her spell on this place yet.”

Button turned and glared at her. “We have to find her! I can’t let her escape, because...” he narrowed his eyes dramatically and muttered, “now it’s personal!” His voice was low and serious.

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo shared confused looks as they silently debated which one of them was going to trigger his next line. Eventually, they turned to face Sweetie Belle who, until this point, had been eying up the dress shop across from them. Button still had his eyes narrowed, patiently waiting for them to ask the question he knew they had. 

With a sigh, Apple Bloom nudged Sweetie Belle to get her attention. She then nodded towards Button. Sweetie Belle seemed to get the message and stepped forward to ask the question. “Umm…”

“Sunset has stolen something from me, from my family,” he began. He looked upwards as tears formed in the corners of his eyes. “Something so sacred that I hesitate to even find the words. She has violated our honor...” he whimpered.

Surprising themselves, Button's display of emotion was enough to recapture Scootaloo and Apple Bloom’s interest, and their expressions snapped from boredom to concern.

“Oh no!” exclaimed Sweetie, who was already concerned.

Woah,” gasped Apple Bloom.

Scootaloo’s expression didn’t last very long as she quickly leveled a look of disbelief at the crazy kid. “Oh yeah? What’d she steal?”

Like a furious kitten, Button growled and clenched his fist. “It is an unforgivable offense, a catastrophic crime worse than the selling of the Oculus to MyStable. Worse than the ending of Mass Effect 3 even!”

“What is it?” asked Apple Bloom.

“I... I can’t. It’s too horrible to speak of. Just like the fabled—”

“Get on with it!” yelled Scootaloo. A few onlookers turned towards the direction of the outburst.

“She has stolen several video games from our store!” Button finally exclaimed.

Surprised at this sudden accusation, Coco, who was listening along with Sunset, glanced down at the four cases still clutched in Sunset’s other hand and gasped. “Sunset, you took the games?!”

Sunset turned and, putting a finger to her lips, shushed her.

Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle had gasped in shock, horrified at this revelation. Apple Bloom, however, sat a hand on her face and shook her head sadly. “Seriously, is that it?” she asked. “You have like a hundred of those things in your backpack.”

Button shoved a finger in her face. By this point his eye was twitching rapidly. “Well how would you feel if Sunset took several of your apples?!”

Apple Bloom opened her mouth to respond, but shut it when she found that he had a point. Scootaloo, however, had not found the same empathy. “So what? Now we have to look for her all across the mall?”

Button nodded and Scootaloo groaned. “Fine,” she muttered. She went silent for a few seconds before grinning. “Fine! Let’s split up then. Me an’ Bloom will go upstairs while you and Sweetie search downstairs.”

Button nodded and chuckled darkly as he rubbed the top of his gun with a crazed look in his eye. “Yes… yes… I will find her!” He turned to Sweetie and lifted his gun. “Are you ready, Sweetie?”

“Yeah!” she cheered. 

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom watched as their friends dashed off into distance past the escalator and, soon enough, out of sight. Once she was sure they were out of earshot, Scoots turned to Apple Bloom and said, “Yeah, they’re made for each other. Let’s get out of here.”

Apple Bloom looked at her unsurely. “Are you sure we should just leave them here?”

Scootaloo shrugged. “They know their way home, and Button’s gotta crash from his sugar high sooner or later.”

“We really shouldn’t have dared him to eat that much chocolate earlier,” lamented Apple Bloom.

With that, Sunset watched the two girls walk away. With a sigh of relief she stood up and helped Coco up afterwards. “Alright,” she began, “we should be good now as long as those two stay on the first… What?” She turned to look directly at her friend, only to find that she was still frowning at her.

Coco glanced down and Sunset followed her gaze to the video games that she was still holding onto. Turning her head back to her she shrugged in confusion. “What?”

“Sunset, you stole those! We need to return them, quickly.”

“I did not steal them,” Sunset defended. “Well… I didn’t mean to, okay? I was just holding onto them when I heard you scream, and I guess I forgot to drop these.” 

“Then we should—”

Sunset stopped her there. “I will,” she assured. “Later, when we leave. I might end up buying these anyway. Right now let’s just find presents for the other girls.”

Coco thought on it for a second before shaking her head. “We should go back and buy them first. It would be bad if security caught you without a receipt.”

Sunset groaned audibly. “But I don’t want to talk to Gibson again.” Before Coco could say anything, Sunset noticed something behind her friend. “Oh, hey look, a jewelry store!”

Coco then made the mistake of turning to look, giving Sunset an opening to dash past her and into the store. “Sunset!” whined Coco, still frowning in disapproval.

Sunset poked her head out of the door and waved her over. “Come on! We can probably find something for Rarity in here.” 

With a small sigh, Coco made her way over to the store. On her way there she took a second to stop and look at the sign that read: “Diamond’s Jewels.” Outside of the store were a few pale white standees showcasing a couple of the necklaces and rings sold inside.

Walking inside, the girls came to see a wide shop filled with large glass cases containing countless pieces of jewelry. The floor consisted of polished wood and the walls were a pristine white. As expected, the place was crowded with people looking for gifts. Sunset paid them no mind. She had learned, with some help from her friends, that the entire town wasn’t after her and the times that she swore people were looking and talking about her were really all in her head. If she wasn’t in school, and she didn’t bother anyone or bring attention to herself, no one would mind her presence.

“What are you doing here?”

Well… mostly anyway. 

Sunset peered down into a case that held a beautiful set of matching rings, trying hard to ignore the annoying question that she knew was directed at her. Coco, meanwhile, had gravitated further in, apparently spotting something Rarity might enjoy.

“Hey! I’m talking to you!” said the voice, clearly annoyed.

“Like, maybe that demon transformation made her deaf or something,” said a second, more obnoxious voice. Afterwards both voices engaged in a bout of laughter. 

Sunset sighed and turned around to see two younger girls. One with styled pale violet hair with white streaks running through. She wore an expensive looking, and rather shiny, golden yellow jacket and matching boots. On her head was a pristine diamond tiara that Sunset had long ago confirmed to be fake.

The second girl had braided grey hair with a single light grey streak running through it. She had on large blue glasses as well as a bright purple jacket and, for some reason that Sunset still had not managed to figure out, wore a small silver spoon around her neck. Sunset remembered them as a couple of middle schoolers that had tried to challenge her rule at Canterlot High when they first showed up. Despite herself, Sunset smiled at the memory of when she knocked them down a peg.

She immediately shook herself out of her reverie and reminded herself that she wasn’t like that anymore. “What?” she asked. Though it was obvious what they wanted.

“Oh look, Silver Spoon, it can hear us,” said the wannabe princess.

“Then maybe it can answer your question, Di,” said the wannabe follower.

“Yeah, like I was saying. What are you doing here in my store?”

Now this was news to Sunset. She raised her brow skeptically. “Your store?”

The spoon minion scoffed. “Well duh, Diamond Tiara’s dad owns this whole mall.”

Sunset simply stared at her plainly. “That doesn't mean that you own the stores inside. I can be here if I want.” 

Diamond Tiara grinned. “Didn’t you read the sign? This is the store my daddy bought for me. Which means I don’t have to sell you anything. So leave.”

Sunset, realizing that they were just trying to get a rise out of her, returned the grin. “I’m pretty sure you’re not old enough to work here yet. You don’t have any actual power here.”

“Actually...” Sunset turned to see that one of the actual workers had made their way over to them. He wore a clean white dress shirt and a black tie that matched his smooth slicked black hair and glasses. He also had on a nervous look as he glanced between Sunset and Diamond from behind the case Sunset was looking at. “She’s right. Technically, she is the owner and we still have to listen to her. Plus, since her dad owns the mall, legally she could call security and make you leave.”

Sunset’s jaw hit the ground. “Are you serious?!”

“Yes. He. Is,” Diamond bragged, flipping her hair. Sunset turned to her and swore that if her grin were any larger it’d pop off her face. “So be grateful that I’m only making you leave this store.”

“Yeah,” copied the copy. “Isn’t Diamond Tiara so generous?”

Diamond Tiara let out a dramatic sigh. “I know; it’s so exhausting being this nice.” She cut the act and frowned. “But still, leave,” she ordered.

Like an angered lion, Sunset growled at the girls. “Listen you! I—” Out of the corner of her eye she could see people starting to look their way. Diamond and Silver Spoon were still smirking and Sunset realized that they wanted her to cause a scene; probably so they’d have an actual excuse to make her leave the entire mall. Not that she would mind.

Leveling one last look at the girls, Sunset quietly stomped out of the store. Coco noticed her leaving and made after her. “Sunset what’s wrong?” she asked. “Why are you leaving?”

Sunset simply scowled. “Don’t worry about it. Let’s just go.”

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon watched the two girls leave before finally bursting out in laughter; much to the confusion of the other patrons. Behind them, the worker at the counter cleared his throat loud enough to grab their attention. 

Calming down, Diamond reached into her pocket and pulled out a few cash bills before handing it to the man. “Nice job, Shill. That’ll teach her.”

The man eagerly counted the money she handed him. “Sure thing, boss.”

~~~

“That was so mean…” Coco muttered. Having finally gotten Sunset calm enough to tell her what happened, Coco despaired at the way her friend was treated.

Sunset sighed. “Yeah, that’s how things usually are. No one’s outright attacked me… well except the brats at the game store, but everyone’s pretty much been doing everything they can to get back at me. Small stuff like locking me out of class at the last minute, or even stupid things like ‘accidentally’ hitting me with a ball in gym… repeatedly.” 

Coco gasped and stopped walking to turn to her. “Sunset that’s terrible! Why haven't you said anything?”

Sunset stopped and gave her a small smile. “It’s nothing I don’t deserve. Plus, talking to you about it just now made me feel alot better. It’s alright.”

“But Sunset…”

Sunset turned and continued down the mall corridor. “Come on. Let’s try Fluttershy next. I saw on the map that there’s a small pet shop at the end of this hall.”

Coco wavered slightly as concern spread across her features, and she resolved to find a way to help her friend somehow.

~~~

“Ah… Ahhh choo,” Coco quickly raised a tissue to her nose to catch her sneeze. Meanwhile on the other side of the table, sat Sunset who was giggling uncontrollably. “Jeez, I didn’t know you were allergic to animals.”

Coco sniffed and blew her beet red nose into another tissue. “Neither did I,” she muttered miserably. “I’ve never had a pet before. I don’t even know which of them I was allergic to.”

Sunset chewed through part of her sandwich. After being forced to distance themselves from the pet shop, Sunset decided that it was lunch time and subsequently grabbed something from the nearby Wubway. They were now sitting inside the store at a table near the front window, with the stolen unpaid games sitting off to the side. “Well it was probably that fluffy dog… or the cat… or one of the several other animals you just had to pick up.”

“But they were all so cute!” whined Coco.

“They really didn’t like you though did they?” grinned Sunset, now picking up her drink. 

Coco dejectedly touched the bandage covering one of the many scratches on her face. “I probably shouldn’t have just picked them up out of nowhere like that.” She quietly nibbled on her own sandwich.

Both girls sat in relative silence for a few more minutes before Sunset sighed and leaned back in her seat. “So what now? I completely forgot that Fluttershy works at the animal shelter. So that was a waste of time.”

“We could get her an animal accessory. I bet she would love something for her pet bunny.”

Sunset glanced at her curiously. “Which one? I’m pretty sure she brings each and every animal home with her. Celestia knows she brings them to school often enough.”

Coco shook her head. “No, she has a special bunny friend named Angel Bunny.” She picked up her drink and took a sip.

“Sounds cute,” hummed Sunset. Bored, she started leaning back in her chair, far enough for the chair itself to be tilting back and balancing on its back legs. “Seriously though. I have no idea what to get her or Pinkie. I don’t even know where to start with Applejack. I don’t know what she likes besides apples. Maybe we should just ask them what they want...”

“I don’t think we can do that, Sunset,” said Coco.

“Why not?” asked Sunset.

“W-well… because,” stammered Coco, trying to get her words in order, “Christmas presents are supposed to be a surprise. If we ask them it won't be.”

“Yeah,” muttered Sunset, still rocking backwards in her seat. “Pinkie does love surprises. Ugh, this is so frustrating. How are we supposed to find out what to get them?” Sunset finally returned to her normal seating position and slumped over the table. “I don’t even know enough about most of them to make a good guess… Some friend I am.”

Coco reached over and gently touched Sunset’s shoulder. “Don’t say that. You’re a great friend. This just means that you need to get to know them better. I do too, actually. In fact, that’s what we’ll do starting Monday; we can just talk to them and ask them about themselves.”

“Oh really...” she muttered skeptically. “They’re gonna know something’s up. I’ll have to get them to talk without letting on that I’m getting them something.”

Coco smiled reassuringly. “Then that’s what we’ll do. Plus, I guess it really doesn't matter if they find out that we’re getting them something, as long as the present itself is a surprise.”

Her good mood, as usual, seemed to be contagious because Sunset herself found herself smiling. “Thanks Coco. I—”

“Button, wait!”

With the instincts of a startled cat, Sunset ducked under the table. A second later, she reached up and dragged a confused Coco under with her just in time for two kids to walk past the sandwich shop.

Button limbered along sluggishly, clearly tired and exhausted. Sweetie stammered after him, clearly concerned. “Button, maybe we should just get you home. You don’t look so good.”

Button stopped and slumped up against the glass of the sandwich shop. It was apparent that the sugar rush was over and had taken its toll in passing. “Yeah… my stomach hurts,” he muttered. “And I can’t believe that security guard took our guns.”

“In his defense, you did threaten that you could quickscope him from a hundred meters away.”

“I could!” he defended. He sighed and dipped his head. “But I really do need to get those games back. They’re expensive and Mom would kill me. Oh, and Gibson too.”

Sweetie leaned against the glass next to him. “You can leave it to us. The girls and I will make her return them for you,” she said softly, giving him a kind smile.

“Thanks Sweetie,” mumbled Button. “I think I’m gonna head home and get some sleep. That’s the last time I take a dare from Scoots. My stomach feels like it’s been →↓← ⓀⓅ comboed by Ryu and Ken.” 

Sweetie Belle giggled at his nonsensical remark. While the other girls would simply gape in confusion, she was the only one who hung around him long enough to make sense of his obscure reference, even if she didn’t always understand its source. Both she and Button stood up and started down the corridor. “I should get back to Rarity’s too. I get to stay at her place this week so I need to clean her stuff out of my room.”

With them gone, Sunset poked her head back up. “Well that’s that then. Looks like we can go…” She turned to see Coco frowning at her again. “What?” 

Coco stood up, grabbed the games and turned to leave the shop. “We’re returning these… now.”
	
	
> CH4: Cheater Cheater
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sunset rolled her eyes as Coco, the Crusaders, and herself strode down the halls of Canterlot High. “Yes, I’m sure,” she sighed. “I didn’t need those stupid games anyway.”

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo matched her step for step, glaring at her the entire time. Luckily for them, their class was in the same direction… If one made an entire circle around the school that is.

Scootaloo scoffed. “And how do we know you’re telling the truth?”

Sunset groaned. “Fine! Coco, tell them, please.”

Coco chuckled nervously and stopped to address the girls. “Don’t worry girls, I made her return them before we left. Your friend has nothing to worry about.”

Sweetie Belle, who had been lagging behind, finally caught up to the group. “It’s true!” she assured. “I was there, she even stopped and apologized.” Scootaloo turned back to Sunset and opened her mouth, but before she could say anything further she felt Sweetie tugging on her arm. “Now come on. Ms. Cheerilee said she wouldn’t let us be partners in class if we were late again.”

“Oh no, she’s right!” gasped Apple Bloom. Not wanting to be separated, Apple Bloom instantly turned and ran back down the hallway, grabbing Sweetie on the way and almost barreling over a teacher in the process.

“No runnin’ in the halls!” yelled Mr. Doodle. Frustrated, he continued to mumble harsh criticisms all the way into his room.

Scootaloo gave Sunset one last look before running off after them. Sunset sighed. “Thanks,” she smiled. Coco nodded appreciatively and they continued their way down the hall.

Coco looked around. “You know, I think I'm really starting to like this place.”

Sunset gave her an odd look and chuckled. “We just dealt with three stalkers who shot you with darts yesterday. Why would you like this place?”

Coco gave Sunset a bright smile. “That’s exactly why. I thought about it last night and I realized that they were just having fun in the end. I don’t think they meant any real harm. Plus, this school is so lively, not like Manehattan where it’s so crowded you can’t help but bump into people, but lively enough that when you see someone you know wherever you go.”

Sunset scoffed. “Listen, I’m not like Pinkie. I don’t know everyone in this town and I’m glad they don’t know me.” She thought about what she just said. "Well I hope they don't all know me."

“I mean, just look around. Look how active and happy everyone is,” Coco urged.

Following her suggestion, Sunset glanced around. In the end, Coco was right. Ever since she gained friends everything felt different somehow. The school did seem brighter to her, and all of the students she’d swear were staring and talking about her behind her back before were now barely paying any attention to her. Of course some students still gave her the stink eye and it was plainly obvious they hadn’t forgotten her prior “exploits.” But it wasn’t as bad as she had made it out to be. 

Even the teachers weren't that hard on her after discovering how sorry she had been. Helping to to fix the school and a few months of detention and teacher aid were apparently what they had felt was necessary. Honestly, all things considered she--

“Sunset, watch out!”

“Oof!” Sunset, in her distraction, accidentally bumped into another girl. “Oh sorry,” she said, quickly backing away.

“Hey, watch where you… Oh, it’s you.” Rose turned around and eyed the girl who had bumped into her and interrupted her conversation.

Sunset frowned and simply opted to just walk around the group. Coco nervously followed, silently hoping to avoid confrontation. She didn’t know how well her scolding had gone off with them but if they were angry she didn’t want to be in their presence long enough for them to get back at her.

Luckily, Rose and the others just scoffed and ignored them. Once she was out of their way, Sunset let out a silent sigh. No more daydreaming, it was time to get down to business. “So, Coco, are any of the girls in your class? I think Rainbow Dash is in my first period. I’ll figure out some way to find out what to get her.”

Coco, who was still glancing worriedly back at the flower trio, jumped at the sudden conversation. “Sorry, what?”

“Remember, Christmas presents?” she reminded.

“Right, right! I think I’ll meet Rarity at some point before lunch.” She stopped and pointed near the end of the hall. “In fact, there she is right now.” Sunset followed her direction to see Rarity taking the last few school books from her locker and putting them in her bag. “We just passed your class right? You head on over and I’ll talk to Rarity, alright?” 

Sunset nodded and Coco made her way down the hall. 

“Hey, Sunset!” Sunset flinched at the sound of her name being yelled. She turned around slowly, and sure enough there was Rainbow Dash speeding down the hall. 

Cranky Doodle poked his head out of his room. “No yelling in the halls!” he screamed. Rainbow Dash paid him no mind as she sped past him. “And no running! Darn kids…”

“Sup,” she greeted, stopping right in front of her friend.

“Do you really have to shout my name like that?” groaned Sunset, sheepishly hiding her face. “I still don’t really want to bring any more attention to myself than I need.”

Rainbow simply waved her off. “Nah it’s cool. Nobody’s gonna mess with you while I’m around to stop ‘em.” She looked past Sunset to see Coco talking to Rarity down the hall. “There’s Rarity. Wanna go say hey?” she asked.

“Already did,” she lied.“ They said they’d meet us later. Let’s get to class. I get the feeling that our teacher is in a bad mood right about now.”

Rainbow turned around and glanced over to the room of the man she just passed and groaned. For a scientist, her teacher, Mr. Cranky Doodle, was very pessimistic about what he did. He was such a downer that not even Pinkie was able to cheer the old man up, though not for lack of trying. Not to mention he wasn’t stingy with his detentions either. 

“Yeah,” sighed Rainbow, reluctantly trudging her body over to the class.

Sunset followed closely after, wondering how to ask what her friend wanted without actually asking it. As Rainbow opened the door for them and they headed to their desks, Sunset decided to wing it. She was good at that… right?

Before now she would always hide in the back of the classroom to avoid attention; surrounded by only empty seats. But after Rainbow started visiting her in the library she often found the girl sitting next to her in class. I just wanna see what it’s like back here, was her original excuse. 

Since then the two of them sat in the back of the class, joking, whispering and just generally not paying attention. Sunset was already well versed in the various sciences anyway; including, chemistry, mathematics, cooking, botany, psychology, and even alchemy. Of course, her first year here was spent reviewing things to make sure the knowledge lined up. So far, the only differences that she found were in geography, social studies, biology, physics, and some parts of the language. So she only really paid attention when those topics were brought up.

Rainbow Dash, meanwhile, just didn’t care. She did just well enough to keep her in her athletics courses and that was fine in her book. 

However, this time seemed a bit different. Sunset turned to her friend and saw that for once she looked tense, almost nervous. “Are you alright?” she asked.

The class began to fill up with students eager to keep from being tardy. Rainbow sat her bag on the table and sighed. “Yeah, I’m cool. I just really don’t feel like hearing Crank’s voice today.”

“You still sleepy?” asked Sunset, chuckling.

Rainbow yawned, almost as if that in itself was an answer. “I just can’t really afford to fall asleep today,” she added afterwards.

Sunset gave her a look. “You seemed pretty awake when you were screaming my name down the hallway.”

It was then that the bell rang, signalling the five minute warning to get to class. Just as he did every day, Mr. Doodle lifted his watch and waited out the minutes. Once the late bell rang, he would mark it by slamming the door closed and locking it; making Sunset glad she was already inside. 

Rainbow slapped her cheeks a few times to wake herself up. “Forget that; I ran all the way to school this morning and I’m still tired.”

“What were you doing last night?” asked Sunset, staring at her with a surprised look.

Rainbow thought back to that fateful Sunday night and grimaced. “I was training… with the team… Yeah that’s it.” Sunset gave her a skeptical look and Rainbow craned her head to look away from her.

“During the winter? When none of the teams you’re on are active?” Rainbow continued to ignore her questioning looks. “So why do you have to stay awake? You don’t normally care about falling asleep in class.”

“You know that Doodle will kick me out if I fall asleep,” she argued, turning back around.

Sunset had to agree with that one. If there was one thing, Mr. Doodle didn’t tolerate, it was kids sleeping in his class. “Still, normally you’d just sleep somewhere else in the school. Either that or just skip this class entirely.”

“Hey, don’t you have something to talk about that isn’t about me sleeping?” she hastily replied. “What did you do over the weekend?

Sunset crossed her arms and huffed, “Don’t change the subject.” She pointed at her and gave her a suspicious look. “You’re hiding something.”

Rainbow looked around nervously. “No, I just don’t want to get in trouble today.”

“Why not?”

“No reason.”

Sunset gave her a sly smirk. “So, did you do the homework?”

There was a single second where the question seemed to register in Rainbow’s head, then another second where her face evolved into one of pure shock and horror. The next thing Sunset knew, the girl was cowering on the ground next to her desk. “Sunset, please let me copy your homework this one time!” she begged. “My dad saw my progress report and Doodle left a horrible message at the bottom. He didn’t say anything but I feel like if I get in trouble with Doodle one more time I’ll lose all my Christmas presents this year!”

Sunset nervously glanced around to see if anyone had turned to look at them. Luckily, everyone else was still having their own conversations or still piling in before the bell rang. “Umm… sure, but I need a favor.”

“I don’t have any money,” Rainbow replied instantly.

“It’s not that, I--” 

It was then that the late bell rang, followed by the sound of a door slamming, followed by banging on said door, followed by the muffled groaning and yelling of locked out students. 

“Hurry!” she hissed. “I’ll do anything,” 

Sunset quickly fished out last week’s assignment and handed it over. “You gotta help me out with something after school.” Rainbow nodded, snatched it up and got to copying. 

“Alright then, everybody quiet down!” announced Mr. Doodle. “First thing, you all have the homework assignment, I presume?”

Sunset turned to Rainbow who had slid the paper back and was giving her a thumbs up.

Sunset allowed herself a victorious grin. She was just going to ask Rainbow to tell her more about herself but this was going to be much easier. Honestly, everything went better than expected.

Cranky passed by collecting the papers but stopped once he picked up Rainbow’s. “Detention,” he said, setting it back down.

“What?” yelled Dash. “Why?”

Sunset looked down at her sheet and frowned. She calmly reached over and picked up the other paper and held it up to show Rainbow, who was still furious. “You handed him my paper…” she whispered. “Probably thought you were trying to cheat.” She shrugged. “Which you were, to be honest.”

Rainbow’s anger evaporated, seeing her mistake, Rainbow slammed her head on the desk in frustration.

Hearing the resulting thud, Mr. Doodle circled back around and yelled. “No sleeping in my class!”

~~~

After class, Rainbow slammed her back against the locker and slid down to the ground, groaning all the while. “He’s gonna take my presents away,” the girl whimpered.

“Please,” scoffed Sunset, rolling her eyes. “I’ve met your father. He’s like the nicest person in the world. Plus, I doubt he’d only now get angry at you for a bad progress report. I’m sure it’s not the first one you’ve gotten.”

“Argh! Why do they give these stupid things out right before the holidays?” she cried, drawing a few looks. Not that it was strange to see someone lamenting over their terrible grades messing up potential gifts. A few students even gave her a sympathetic nod. 

Rainbow glanced up at Sunset. “Geez, I’m glad you don’t have anyone to show your grades to…”

Sunset folded her arms and gave her a look, complete with a raised eyebrow. 

Rainbow, to her credit, at least had the decency to look ashamed. “Oh… sorry.” She reached out a hand, which Sunset took, and stood up. “Whatever, I’ll deal. What was it that you needed help with anyway?”

Sunset’s eyes widened in surprise. “You’ll still help me? Even after you got in trouble?”

“Well duh,” she chuckled. “I mean, why not. At least you tried to help me. So what do you need?”

“Oh… well…” she trailed off, looking for the right words. “I, uh, need help finding a present for someone, and I thought you could help.”

Rainbow nodded. “Ahh, that old problem. I already know what I’m getting for Fluttershy this year. I gotcha. Well, since we both have detention now I don’t have to wait for you. I guess I can help you after school. Let’s meet at the mall and I’ll show you the best way to buy presents.”

Sunset groaned at the mention of returning to that annoying place, but nodded anyway. “Fine. See you at lunch?”

Rainbow, however, shook her head. “Nah, I gotta meet the music teacher about a thing. But I’ll meet you after school alright?”

“What kind of thing?” asked Sunset. “You’re not in trouble with them too are you?” Then she thought about it. “Wait, are you even in a music class?”
 
“No way!” she exclaimed. “And I’m not.”

Sunset raised her brow in question. “Then… what are you meeting him for?” 

Rainbow gave Sunset a mischievous smile and said, “It’s a secret right now but it’s gonna be awesome, trust me.” Without another word she scooped up her bag and ran off down the hall, leaving behind a very curious Sunset Shimmer.

~~~

Time passed, and Sunset attended her other classes, eager for the time that she could head to lunch to meet her other friends. When that time came Sunset took her place in line and scoured the lunch room for the telltale sight one of the girls. Despite the amount of students roaming the room, finding her southern friend was as easy as craning her head till she saw AJ’s obvious brown stetson. Then, as she expected, she found Fluttershy right next to her. Oddly enough she didn't see anyone else. Friends located, she quickly grabbed a sandwich, an apple and some juice, and ran over to meet them.

“Hey, girls,” she waved.

Fluttershy waved and AJ nodded and tipped her hat. “Howdy!”

“How are you doing today?” asked Fluttershy. Looking up from her salad, she discreetly lifted up a leafy green to one of the small animals in her backpack.

Sunset smiled sheepishly. “Alright, I guess. Rainbow and I got detention earlier.”

Applejack just shook her head. “What’d she drag you into this time?” she sighed.

Sunset took a bite of the customary apple that she’d been given with her lunch. “Well, I can’t say it was entirely her fault. I--”

Applejack leaned on the table and gave Sunset a look, complete with a raised brow. “Did’ya let her copy yer homework ‘cuz she forgot it?”

“Yes…” frowned Sunset. Looks like she couldn’t cover for Rainbow Dash this time. 

Applejack shook her head. “So where’s she now?” she asked, inspecting today’s pizza lunch. She grinned, seeing that it was stuffed crust.

Sunset took a bite of her sandwich and reveled in its vegetarian deliciousness. “She needed to head to the music room for something. Sounded excited,” she said, her voice muffled by the chewing.

Hearing this, Applejack stopped mid bite. “Now why in the world would she go there?

Fluttershy looked thoughtful for a second. “I don’t think she has that class, is she trying to join a music club?” Sunset just shrugged and swallowed her sandwich. “Oh… well has has anyone seen Pinkie or Rarity?”

AJ glanced in her direction. “Eenope.” 

“Oh, I think Rarity is with Coco,” added Sunset, swallowing her bite. “I don’t know where Pinkie is. But I’m meeting Rainbow after school at the mall for Christmas shopping.”

Applejack nearly choked on the last bit of her cheesy crust. “Good luck!” she snickered much to Sunset’s confusion. “See here. Rainbow doesn't exactly know the right way to go ‘bout gettin’ presents for people.”

“What do you mean?” she asked hesitantly.

Applejack took a sip of her boxed apple juice first then sat it back down, smirking all the while. “Here’s how it is, sugarcube. Rainbow’s the type of gal that buys what she likes as a present for someone else. Then she thinks that if you don’t want it, she can have it.”

“Applejack!” gasped Fluttershy. “Don’t say it like that. It sounds mean.” She turned back to Sunset. “Rainbow Dash just thinks that others would share her own interests. She got me a pair of skates last year and tried to teach me. It was really fun for the most part.” Fluttershy smiled at Applejack.

“You broke your leg…” she deadpanned, frowning at Fluttershy. Then she turned and frowned at Sunset. “Then she kept the skates.”

Sunset was still confused. “What did she get you, AJ?”

Applejack leaned back in her seat and idly sipped the rest of her drink. “Last year she went an’ got me a pair of sneakers, Ah forgot what kind. Jordan-somthin’ or others. Ah admit that ah never wore em’ but about a month afterwards they mysteriously disappeared from my closet and ended up on Dash’s feet.” 

A hollow slurping noise signaled the emptiness of her juice. Applejack shook it a few times before sitting it back on her tray. “Here’s some real advice on buyin’ a good gift. Get somethin’ that people will use. Get somethin’ practical. I won’t tell ya what Ah’m gettin’ this year for anyone, but last year Ah got Rarity a vintage sewin’ machine.” She gave Sunset a wide proud smirk. “Ah bet she’s still usin’ it too.”

Sunset’s mind suddenly thought back to the rusty brown sewing machine sitting under a black sheet in the far corner of Rarity’s workshop. “Yeeeeah.” She shoved the thought away and, resisted the urge to grin, she focused on everything else her friend had said. It made logical sense, to get something someone would actually use. “Fluttershy, what do you think?” 

Fluttershy flinched. “Oh um… Well I… I think that the best thing to get someone would be something nice. Not everything has to be bought with money. You could always make something yourself. It’s the spirit of giving that makes the holidays special in my opinion. Something handmade and given from the heart is what I’d prefer I think.”

Applejack thought on that for a second. Eventually, she just shrugged and stuffed the last bit of her lunch into her maw. “Ah won’t disagree with you there, Shy. ‘Tis the season of givin’ an’ all. Ah’m just sayin’ that Ah think the best thing to give somebody is somethin’ useful. But either way just go with what ya feel is right, Sunset. Ah’m sure whatever you get the person you’re givin’ to will love it.”

“I guess so,” Sunset muttered picking up her tray. “I just hope that I’ll be able to find something in time.” She walked over to a nearby trash can and dumped her leftovers.
	
> CH5: Choices, Choices Everywhere
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Alllllrighty then!” grunted Rainbow, stretching her arms out wide and enjoying the warm air that blasted her as she entered the mall. She took off her light blue jacket and tied the arms around her waist. “Where to first?” she asked, turning to Sunset.

Sunset, meanwhile, didn’t even notice the change in temperature since she was busy looking around to make sure she wasn’t being stalked like last time. She still hated the mall, but she now also hated being ambushed. She was at least thankful the the mall was slightly less crowded today. “Well how would you know what to get someone?”

Rainbow scoffed and started walking forward into the mall. Sunset followed closely behind. “That’s easy. Just get them the same thing you would want.” Behind Rainbow Sunset chuckled quietly. “That way if they don’t want it then you just keep it. No sense in letting a good gift go to waste.”

Rainbow looked around and spied the local sports store. “See? Perfect. Applejack’s almost as athletic as me so let’s get her something from there.”

Sunset shrugged and decided to follow her. “If you’re sure.”

“Of course I’m sure. Just don’t tell anyone. It needs to be a surprise, ‘kay?” Sunset nodded and they both made their way towards the store. Rainbow opened the door and they went inside. Sunset looked around with interest, having never been here before. She never considered herself the “athletic type.”

The entire area was decorated with a striped white and black color scheme that resembled a referee shirt. Sunset could imagine what Rarity would say if she walked in here. Sunset however, knew exactly what she herself would say about the amount of leather and other animal hides being used here. She grimaced at the smell.

Rainbow, however, looked around with the same kind of passing glance that one would give if they were simply looking for anything new or out of place. “Let’s see, what do you think Applejack would want?”

“The skin back on her cows,” Sunset grumbled.

“What was that?” asked Rainbow, turning around.

Sunset shook her head. “N-nothing.” Apparently, just being here put her in a bad mood. “Maybe,” she looked around and her expression fell somewhat. “I don’t really know. Does Applejack even play any sports?”

Rainbow thought on it. “She runs track with me, but I think that’s a mandatory thing for her. She’s not part of the team or anything. The most I see her play is in gym class.”

Sunset walked over to a stand and picked up a basketball bat to inspect. “Then I don’t think she’d need anything from here. She wouldn’t really use any of the stuff you’d buy for her.

Rainbow, currently trying on a few different hats, turned to look at her. “Hey, if she doesn't want it then I’ll keep it,” she shrugged.

Sunset swapped out the wooden bat for the slightly heavier metal one. She had to admit, Applejack was right about Rainbow. “But aren't you supposed to buy things that other people want for Christmas?” she asked, curious to see if she could convince her otherwise.

Rainbow sat the hat back and turned to look at Sunset. “Hey, you asked me for my advice and…” she ran over to her. “Nice!”

Sunset flinched back as Rainbow grabbed the bat from her hands. “Wh--” Sunset quickly ducked when Rainbow began swinging it. After putting a good sized distance between them, she continued. “What do you mean?”

Another swing. “This is perfect! She can use this to knock her apples down.”

Sunset’s brow furrowed with intense confusion. “I’m sorry, what?”

Rainbow turned the bat upside down and leaned on it. “Didn’t you help AJ with her farm one time?” Her eyes widened, almost as if she herself still couldnt believe it. “Haven’t you seen how she just kicks some of them to get the apples? I mean at least if she uses a bat she won’t hurt herself.”

Sunset, still looking skeptical, honestly didn’t know how to respond to that. Luckily, she didn’t have to because the sound of guitars started to play out from somewhere. It started out soft but the volume quickly increased until everyone it the store began to look around.

"I could save my lonely soul for you~
but the feeling in my heart can't follow through.
You can give your broken heart to me~
cause you know that I‘ll stay with you.
That's why they call me loyalty~"

Sunset, still searching for the source of the music, turned her head back to Rainbow and frowned. The girl was bobbing her head to the song and even began to rock out on the bat. “Is that your phone?” she deadpanned.

Rainbow’s eyes popped open and she quickly fumbled to find the pocket on the jacket that was wrapped around her waist, dropping the bat in the process. Finally she managed to find the phone and answer it. “Hello?” 

Sunset watched as her friend’s face went paler and paler in fear. She herself started to get worried when Rainbow looked at her nervously then turned away from her.

“B-but, I… Yeah, well I…. No, It was him! He wouldn’t…” Rainbow slumped over. “Yes sir.”

Sunset walked over to her and hesitantly put an arm over her friend's shoulder. “You alright? Who was that?”

Rainbow looked up at her with a large sad frown. “That was my dad,” she muttered. Then she seemed to get mad and clenched her phone. “He heard about my detention! I bet Cranky called him! That stupid...” she growled, trailing off not even needing to finish to get her point across. It took a few moments but she managed to calm herself down. “Whatever. Dad wants me to get home so he can talk to me about it.”

“Did he sound angry?” asked Sunset.

Rainbow shook his head. “I don’t think so. But then again it’s not him being angry that scares me.” She shrugged Sunset’s arm off and put the bat back in the rack. Afterwards she and Sunset exited the store. Rainbow turned back to her with a smile and a wink. “Anyway, I should get home, and fast. But don’t forget what I told you. Just buy whatever you think she’d actually use. And if she doesn't want it then you keep it. I think that bat would be nice.”

Sunset blinked in confusion. “That’s not what you--”

It was too late, Rainbow had already began running towards the exit of the mall. “Later!”

Rolling her eyes, Sunset glanced back at the sports shop behind her and wondered about the bat and whether or not it would make for a good gift. Soon her thoughts shifted to something even more incredulous. “Applejack kicks the apples off of her trees?” she mumbled to herself.

~~~

After making the decision to come back to the sports store later, Sunset headed towards the stores that she and Coco had missed the first time around on the first floor. To her surprise there were more stores here than she remembered. But then again she didn’t like coming here anyway, and even when she did most of the things she needed would usually be on the second floor.

“Something they’d use, something I’d want, but also something meaningful,” muttered Sunset, examining the various stores for something she could use. Finally, she spied a store that fit the bill. “Party City?” she muttered, reading the store sign. She’d never seen one before but from the name, and the look of the place, it would be the best place to find something for Pinkie… If she hasn’t already ransacked the place looking for her own gifts.

With an amused smile, Sunset walked into the store.

Instantly, she was bombarded with hundreds of possible things she thought Pinkie would love. Masks, party hats, toys, candy, costumes, and fun things galore. It somehow looked like an even bigger store on the inside. She hadn’t seen so many bright colors since her time in Equestria; it was almost too much to look at.

After a few moments of standing at the entrance and looking around, Sunset composed herself. “Well, I guess I’ll be here awhile.”

Though as soon as she took a step forward she heard a male voice calling to her from the side. “Can I help you, miss?”

Sunset turned to see a young man waving to her from behind the counter. He wore a light blue vest and had wildly curly darker blue hair. She thought about it for a second. “If I’m gonna buy something from this huge place, I might as well make it easy on myself.” Shrugging, she walked over to him. 

“Hello, my name’s Party Favor. I’m the assistant manager here in charge of balloon animals,” he chuckled. “You were standing there so long, I figured that this was your first time in here.” Sunset nodded. “Well that’s how most people look when they see this place for the first time, so don’t worry about it. How can I assist you?”

Sunset took a second to examine the man. He didn’t look all that much older than she was. She also couldn’t help but feel like there was something familiar about him. Something about his energetic voice and cheery-slash-excited demeanor. “Yeah, I’m here to get a present for one of my friends. I imagine she probably shops here often. So I’m gonna need to find something that she doesn't have.”

Party Favor looked at her with interest. “Really, what’s her name?”

“Pinkie Pie.”

His eyes went wide at the mention of that name. Then he reeled back from the counter with a hiss. “Yeeeeah, I can’t help you then, sorry.”

Sunset blinked. “Why not?” she almost yelled.

Party Favor nervously rubbed the back of his curly curly hair and gave her a sorry look. “You see, Pinkie is our best customer. Like, our best customer. I don’t know how she does it, but she frequently buys out entire sections of our party supplies area. We actually have to regulate her purchases!” he said, looking at her in disbelief. Sunset mirrored the expression wordlessly.

He looked around the store. “Basically, I don’t think there’s anything we sell here that she hasn’t bought at least one of… As weird as that may sound. I’m not saying you can’t try, but… Wait. Where are you going?”

By this point, Sunset had facepalmed, made a complete turn, and headed out the door, sighing, “I should have guessed.”

~~~

“Ughhhhh,” Sunset groaned loudly, not caring who stared at her. “I wish Coco was here. At least then I’d have someone to talk to. This is impossible.” Sunset trudged her way down the mall pathways, only sparing passing glances at the stores around her. So far she had passed several food stalls and a clothing store. She briefly thought about getting something for Rarity from there, but then she wondered about the redundancy of buying a dress for a dress maker.

“Maybe I could get her a new sewing machine…” she muttered to herself. “I don’t wanna show up Applejack though. If she finds out that Rarity hasn’t been using her present, I don’t know how she’d react.” Sunset craned her head and watched as a Build-a-Bear passed by. She stopped and turned around. “Maybe I could--”

“Hi, Sunny!”

Sunset jumped at the loud voice in her ear. She quickly spun 180 degrees to see Pinkie Pie standing behind her with her usual bright smile. Sunset was about to say something when she noticed that said girl was carrying no less than 10 bags on her; all of them looked like they were from different stores. A myriad of different things stuck out from them.

“Hey… Pinkie,” she greeted, still staring at the bags. “Doing some shopping?”

Pinkie nodded happily. She raised one arm and pointed to each of the bags. Sunset marveled at the the sight of her effortlessly lifting so many things. “I got presents for the Cakes, the babies, my family, Cranky Doodle, Vice Principal Luna, the balloon club, the party club, the club club, the student council, Party Favor, Cheese Sandwich, Rainbow Dash...” She lifted her other arm but Sunset stopped her there.

“I got it,” she said, holding her arm out. Sunset looked at the bags once more and gave a crestfallen look. “Glad you know how to do this.” Pinkie tilted her head in confusion. “Hey, Pinkie. I’m having some trouble buying presents, you think you can help?”

Pinkie’s face exploded into a huge smile. She immediately grabbed Sunset by the arm and dragged her down the hall. “Silly Sunny! Buying presents is easy!” she giggled.

Sunset, struggling to keep up with her, grumbled. “Says you. Where are we going?”

“To the best place to buy gifts!” she answered, bulldozing through the crowds. It didn’t take long for her to figure out where they were going. A large toy store appeared on the horizon that covered the mall’s entire back wall. 

Not paying attention, she slammed into Pinkie’s back. “We’re here!” Pinkie cheered.

Sunset rubbed her nose and looked up. She let out a low chuckle. “A TOYSЯUS store? Why am I not surprised?”

Pinkie rolled her eyes good naturedly. “Well duh, come on!”
> CH6: Long Day's End
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sunset stared on in confusion as Pinkie continued to play with the colorful plastic balls in the large ball pit near the back of the store. So far, instead of giving Sunset any useful advice, Pinkie had just gone from aisle to aisle examining some toys as possible gifts, and just plain playing around with others. Half the time, Sunset had even lost sight of the girl and wandered around on her own before locating her again.

“Pinkie,” she sighed, rubbing her temple, “what are you doing?”

Pinkie popped her head out near the back of the ball pit with a particularly large one in her hands. Pinkie then squinted at it skeptically and, with the scrutiny of a diamond inspector, proceeded to turn it this way and that. Apparently not satisfied, she shook her head and dove back in. 

“I’m testing the ballyness of these balls, duh!” she said, her voice sounding muffled. After a second, Pinkie popped back up in a completely different section of the pit. “I need to hurry, they told me I only have one more hour!!”

Sunset wasn’t impressed. “Yes, I see that, but why? What does this have to do with teaching me how to buy gifts?”

Pinkie immediately popped out of the pit directly in front of Sunset. Leaning out, Pinkie pressed her nose against Sunset’s. “It has everything to do with buying gifts!” she said, staring at her with wide eyes and small pupils.

Sunset took a step back. “And why is that? You still haven't told me anything specific.”

As if she was insistent on having their faces touch, Pinkie climbed out of the pit and pressed her nose against Sunset’s once more. “Isn’t it obvious?” she asked, smiling innocently.

Sunset frowned in annoyance and decided to not make this a pattern by moving back again. “Well we’re in a toy store so I’m guessing we’re buying toys. But why toys, and for whom?”

Pinkie moved her face away and began spinning merrily down the hall, yelling, “For everyone!”

“Everyone?” asked Sunset, looking at Pinkie like she was crazy. But then she thought about it. 

“Everyone…?” she muttered to herself. Honestly, it never occurred to Sunset to buy the same sort of gift for everyone. Getting a different toy to suit each of her friends sounded like a viable option for once. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more sense it made.

Pinkie popped back up in front of her. “See, now you’re getting it!”

Sunset’s mood finally seemed to shift towards something more positive. “I think I am,” she smiled. “Everyone uses toys and games, and even if I don’t get one they like, it still has use. It’s perfect! Thank you, Pinkie.”

Now it was Pinkie’s turn to look at her like she was crazy. “Well maybe you’re not getting it.” Pinkie somehow grabbed all her many bags with a single arm from next to the ball bin, made her way back over to her friend, and threw the other arm around Sunset’s shoulder. Sunset momentarily sagged due to the extra weight. She recovered when Pinkie began leading her down the central store pathway.

“Listen here. Auntie Pinkie’s gonna teach you everything you need to know about how to buy gifts for people.” She turned down an aisle filled with board games, card games and other group oriented games. “The best gifts to buy people are things that everyone enjoys. Especially at parties! Then when they open it, they can share their first experience with everyone, and that’s what makes it special.” 

Pinkie stopped in the middle of the aisle and waved her arm majestically. “Just imagine you at a Christmas party, opening up a brand new game in front of your fellow party goers. Everyone tells you how cool it is and how they wish they could have one. Bam! Christmas miracle and you’re all playing with it together!” 

“Pinkie! Pinkie! Too tight!” Sunset coughed out.

Snapping out of her daydream, Pinkie realized that she now had the poor girl in a headlock. Giggling, she let go. “Anyway, did you see it?”

Sunset leaned against a shelf and caught her breath while leering at Pinkie. “If you mean the blackness slowly closing in around my vision, then yes.” 

“Sorry,” Pinkie said shamefully. 

After a few seconds, Sunset recovered and stood up to her full height. “But I get what you mean. You say the best gifts are gifts that everyone can play with together, rather than tailored to each one individually.”

“Egggsactly!” she cheered. “That way nobody is jealous of each others’ presents.”

Sunset gave her an odd look. “Is… Is that a regular problem in this world?” 

Pinkie gasped with wide eyes. “Of course! When I was a little bitty twinkie Pinkie, my little sister Limey would get so jelly of my presents. We all only got one each and she always felt that mine was better than hers. So I came up with this idea that we all get one thing we could all have fun with. Marbly was mad but she came around eventually.”

Sunset thought about it, while it did seem weird to her, she couldn’t find any fault in the intention. However, it did present another problem. “How am I going to find a single present that everyone enjoys?” she asked, bring her concern to Pinkie’s attention. “I feel like that would be harder than finding them all individual things.”

Pinkie waved her concern off immediately. “That’s easy. In fact I’ll show you!” Sunset gave her the raised eyebrow of inquisitiveness. Pinkie looked around suspiciously before inching closer and whispering in Sunset’s ear. “But you have to Pinkie Promise you won’t tell anyone. Alright?”

Sunset rolled her eyes. Of course by now she knew what a Pinkie Promise was, she just thought that it was stupid. All it was is a few motions and a silly rhyme. Though she was pretty curious as to why every single one of her friends except Coco gave her a scared look when she asked what would happen if she broke it. Nevertheless, she performed the ritual. “I Pinkie Promise,” she droned.

Immediately, Pinkie took her by the arm and bolted to the other side of the large store. “This way!”

Eventually, the duo stopped in front of a large sky blue circular trampoline with a net surrounding the air above the base. Pinkie waved her hand up at it dramatically. “This is what I wanna get Rainbow Dash this year!” she announced.

Sunset just had to stare at it. “Wow,” was the only thing she could say. It was at least jumbo sized, at least 17 feet long and wide if the large card sitting in front of it meant anything.

Pinkie nodded in understanding of her amazement. “Yeah, I got the idea from the Fall For—Since the time she got wings!” She nervously looked at Sunset to see if she noticed her slip up, but luckily, she was still engrossed in the trampoline’s size. 

“I wanted to get her a bounce house,” continued Pinkie, “but Rainbow figured it out a few months back and told me that she didn’t like bounce houses. I also thought about toy planes and wings.”

Pinkie opened the net and hopped in, gleefully bouncing as high as she could. “But then I found this thing!” she cried gleefully.

Sunset circled it curiously, soon enough her face broke out into a large smile. “It’s perfect! It’s so big we could all fit in it and bounce around together!” she squealed.

With a jump that would’ve made any cheerleader jealous, Pinkie bounced clear over the safety net and stuck a landing right next to Sunset. “Yup! Sucks that I can’t afford it.” 

Sunset’s grin disappeared. “What?”

Pinkie shrugged and shook her head dejectedly. “What? I’m not made of money.“ She reached over and brought the price tag in front of Sunset’s face. “I mean look at this!” 

She read it aloud. “Jumbo Eagle Trampoline Set.” Her eyes widened at the price and she took the tag into her own hands. “750 dollars?!” she nearly yelled. She looked back up at the large toy and frowned sadly. “Yeah,” she sighed. “I guess that makes sense.” 

“I really really wanna get it for Rainbow though!” Pinkie groaned.

Sunset joined in, still staring sadly at the price tag. “It’s the perfect gift...” 

Pinkie brought Sunset into a tearful embrace. “It really is!” she cried.

They stood there in silence for a few seconds before Pinkie let go of her and turned around. “Oh well! Let’s find something else.”

Sunset frowned and tossed the card back towards the trampoline, “Meh, can’t do anything about it I guess.” She turned and followed Pinkie. “Why did I have to Pinkie promise then?” she said, catching up to her.

Pinkie rolled her eyes as she lead Sunset out of the toy store and back out into the mall proper. “Because, I’m going to save up my money and buy it for her next year,” she smiled. “So don’t tell anyone.”

Sunset shrugged. “So what now—oof!” All of a sudden, Pinkie frantically threw her hand over Sunset’s mouth and began forcefully dragging the girl away. The two backed into a nearby bookstore, much to the confusement of the cashier.

After dragging her all the way behind a bookshelf, Pinkie released her. Sunset immediately turned on her in a rage. “What in Equestria—”

Pinkie quickly shushed her and pointed outside the door. Glowering, Sunset peaked out from behind the bookshelf. Outside the entrance she noticed Coco and Rarity gleefully talking with each other while passing by. They appeared to be heading towards the toy store they just exited.

Sunset glanced back at Pinkie curiously. “So what, why are we—?” She stopped when Pinkie motioned for her to speak more quietly. Sunset groaned… quietly. “So why are we hiding from them?”

Pinkie spoke at the same volume. “I have Rarity’s present! I can’t let her see it.” She held up one of the bags she had been carrying with her. 

Sunset rolled her eyes. “Well then don’t tell her you have it.”

Pinkie shook her head and gave Sunset a serious look. “Rarity can sniff out these things. I can’t even be near her.” She looked past her and gasped when the duo suddenly turned around. She grabbed Sunset, who was still unaware of this new development, and panicked. “I gotta go. They can’t know I’m here!” Pinkie shook her frantically.

“Well, why am I special?” asked Sunset, trying to stop being shaken.

Pinkie giggled quietly. “Well duh, I haven't gotten yours yet. I gotta go, you need to distract them! Don’t tell them I’m in the mall at all.”

Sunset recovered enough to look at her with further confusion. “I need to do what?”

“Sunset! There you are, darling.”

Sunset spun around to see Rarity and Coco standing behind her. She turned back quickly, ready to say something, only to see that Pinkie was no longer there. She opened her mouth, closed it, then turned back around to the two girls who were now giving her odd looks. “Hey…” she greeted.

Rarity wore a stylish royal coat, with a matching purse. Coco, meanwhile continued to wear the sweater from last time. Coco examined the store around them. “Sunset I thought you said this place didn’t have any good book stores.”

Sunset looked around and frowned. “It doesn't. These are all silly folk tales and occult manuals. Nothing particularly interesting.” She flinched when she noticed Pinkie poke her head up from behind the girls in front of her, wink, and zoom out of the store.

Coco’s eyes lit up, “I love ghosts!” she squealed. Running past the two, Coco picked out a book and began reading.

Rarity rolled her eyes good naturedly. “Yes, well while I could understand her desire, I do wonder why you’re here, dear.” Then she gasped and leaned over to whisper in her ear, taking care to make sure Coco wasn't listening. “Were you trying to buy her something? I am so very sorry, darling!”

It took Sunset a full second to take all of the recent information in. She promptly facepalmed, realizing she was in the perfect present buying area. “No… no you're fine. Why are you here?”

Rarity suddenly began to look nervous by avoiding eye contact. “Well… to be honest, Coco pointed it out. We were hoping to get something for you here. I’m glad we didn’t.” She brightened and turned her gaze back to Sunset. “In fact, Coco did mention the trouble you two were having. If you want, I can offer you the same advice I gave her.”

Sunset thought on it, so far she had gotten advice from pretty much everyone. While some seemed to help, none of them really provided an answer that she prefered. “Why not,” she shrugged. 

Rarity reached into her purse and pulled out a small orange box. “Alright, but you need to promise me that you won’t tell Fluttershy. This is her present this year and it’s the perfect example of my gifting methods.”

One more set of Pinkie Promise motions later, Rarity nodded and opened the box. Inside, surrounded by white padding, was a small intricate glass sculpture of a butterfly. “Behold!” she said dramatically. “Le Petit Papillon.”

Sunset stared at it in clear astonishment. “It’s beautiful. There are even patterns on the wings,” she observed, looking closer at the tiny but complicated engravings and bulgings on both of the wings. More impressive was that both wings had identical patterns. “That must have taken incredible talent to do without magic,” she muttered, more to herself than to Rarity.

“The intention is that Fluttershy will always treasure this beauty. She will value it for what it is and who gave it to her. Not only that, but she will always think of me when she looks at it. It is the quintessential gift for her.”

Still gazing at it, Sunset took this information into consideration with the others. Immediately, one issue sprung up in her mind. While it did coincide with Fluttershy’s ‘from the heart’ opinion, it directly contradicted both Pinkie’s and Applejack’s advice on getting something everyone can have fun with, and something the recipient finds useful. 

Rarity closed the box and put it back into her bags. “Well anyway, It was nice seeing you here. I need to return home soon. You two can can continue to look for presents. While I thought it will be a futile effort, Coco and I were just about to look at the nearby toy store for Pinkie before I leave.”

Sunset chuckled. “Trust me, it will be.” Reaching into her pocket, Sunset pulled out her phone and looked at the time. “I think we’ll head home too. Coco, are you ready?” She turned around and realized the the girl was no longer reading a book behind them. “Coco?”

Both girls looked around for their friend. Eventually, they found her at the checkout desk with nearly two dozen books on ghosts spectres and other occult nonsense. Luckily, the two stopped her before she could spend all of her money.

After convincing Coco to only buy three tomes, the trio made their way out of the mall. Upon opening the doors, the girls were instantly alerted to two important things.

One; it was raining.

Two; it was freezing cold.

“Oh, What!” groaned Sunset, looking up at the sky. She immediately wrapped her arms around herself and once again cursed her human skin. Her thick coat seemingly had no effect in keeping her warm. “No one told me that it was going to rain today!” She longed for the days where she had pegasi to reliably control the weather. These so-called weathermen that were on T.V. clearly didn’t know anything.

“Oh dear,” muttered Rarity pulling out an umbrella from her purse. “From the feel of it we’re going to have quite the chilly winter.” She turned to Sunset with a mischievous grin. “I hope you know what that means,” she said, handing it over.

Sunset looked confused for a second, but but a sudden groan seemed to mark her understanding. Though, Coco still held on to her confused look.

“What? What does it mean?”

Sunset seemed to ignore her as she took and opened the, surprisingly large, umbrella. “Don’t worry about it. Let’s go home, we’ll share this one.”

“But what about...” Coco looked back at Rarity and trailed off when she saw the girl already pulling out a second shield. 

She smiled a cheeky smile. “Dear, you know full well that I always carry a second umbrella in case someone needs it.”

Coco returned her smile, well aware of her friend’s seemingly endless generosity. She made her way over and huddled close to Sunset, who was also grinning. “Maybe I’ll get you another one as a present,” she joked. With that stunning one-liner, Sunset walked out into the rain, thankfully missing Rarity’s retort.

Her grin disappeared afterwards as she reflected on her situation. Even with the abundance of help she received, she still felt like she was no closer to figuring it out. 

‘Something useful? None of them seem to really be missing anything they desperately need. Something fun for everyone? I’d have to narrow that down, but I think Pinkie has that area covered for all of us. Something from the heart? They’re my friends… my first friends, nothing I give them would correctly express how I feel. Something that can be remembered? I don’t fully understand what Rarity meant by that, though it is an interesting idea. Something that…what exactly was Rainbow’s way again? Something tailored to the individual, I think?’ Sunset sighed. ‘Looks like I need to give this some more time and thought.’

Sunset was snapped out of her reverie by a slight tug on her arm. She looked over at Coco who was looking up at her in concern. “Are you alright?” asked Coco.

Sunset turned back around. “Just cold. I hate Winter, it’s too complicated,” she said cryptically.

Coco smiled and wrapped her arm around Sunset’s, huddling even closer in order to warm her up. Unbeknownst to her, Sunset blushed from the sudden embrace. Pulling her along, Coco had them walking again. “Oh don’t be such a Grinch,” she giggled. “It’s just snow and presents, you’ll figure it out.” 

They then made their way home, warm in each others embrace.
	
	
	
	
> CH7: Out of the Cooler and into the Ice
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

~Two Weeks Later~

Holding onto a plate with Sunset’s lunch on it, Coco cheerfully made her way down the hall towards her friend’s room. To Sunset’s immense jealousy and frustration, the pale skinned girl still didn’t seem to mind the cold. Even though the temperature had rapidly decreased in recent days, the only difference the city girl made to her wardrobe were socks and a longer pair of shorts. Though, to her, Sunset was the odd one. Coco just couldn’t understand it. Even without her pony coat she should’ve been fine in this weather. She chuckled as she thought about the increasingly thicker clothes that Sunset had been wearing recently.

Nevertheless, since the snow started to fall on Monday, Sunset had completely abandoned her search for the perfect gifts, which she had only made little progress on anyway, in favor of staying inside her room and only leaving for warm showers, coffee, and school. The latter two she only did so she could rush right back to bed afterwards. 

The poor girl had been slightly upset that Sunset refused to spend time with her or the others. Especially since she had really wanted to play in the snow with her. Having lived in Manehatten, she had never seen the really thick snow that this town got. Most of the cold there came from the freezing cold winds.

But today was Saturday morning and it seemed to be going well so she hoped there would be a change in her friend’s attitude. Maybe she would even consider coming outside.

“No!”

Coco jumped in surprise, stopping right outside Sunset’s door.

“I don’t care!” she heard Sunset grumble, her voice muffled by the cocoon of blankets Coco knew she was still wrapped up in. “Take Coco. I’m not getting up.”

Hearing her name, the girl in question poked her head into the room. Like she expected, Sunset was currently lying on her bed, rolled up in her impenetrable fortress of warmth. From what Coco could tell, she was talking on the phone. 

“Take me where?” she asked, walking inside. “Is this about that thing you all are keeping from me? Do I finally get to know what it is?” she said excitedly.

For the past week since the snow began, the girls had been hinting at something big but everytime Coco asked about it, they all just smiled and told her not to worry about it. Trusting in her friends, she eagerly waited until they were ready to surprise her.

After all, today was her birthday.

Sunset peaked out from her shield with a narrow gaze. “Sure, go meet Applejack at Sugarcube Corner. Slipping her phone out onto the bed, Sunset covered herself back up and rolled over. “Take that with you.”

“Sunset? Sunset you pick up this gosh darned phone right this instant, ya hear!”

Coco looked down at the phone. Setting the plate down on a nearby dresser Coco reached over, cautiously picked it up, and put it to her ear. “A-Applejack is that you?”

“Coco? Finally. Alrighty then, if she wants’ta be stubborn then fine. I need you ta’ do somethin’ for me.”

The next half hour was the worst half hour of Sunset’s life. She honestly didn’t know which was the worst part, forcibly being exposed to the cold, forcibly, being dressed, wrapped back up in her own bed sheets, or Coco apologizing the whole time.

As Coco carried the Sunset Burrito down the snowy street, she glanced around with curiosity. “The town feels empty for some reason,” she observed. “How come no one’s playing in the snow today?” She looked down at the glorious white blanket underneath her. Just in the paved sidewalk the snow came halfway up to her calves.

Sunset, who had long since given up, accepted her fate by slumping over in her wrap. “They’re all probably getting ready,” she answered listlessly.

Coco smiled excitedly. “Getting ready for what?”

“Take me home and I’ll tell you,” she deadpanned.

Coco’s smile disappeared and she glanced back sadly. “I’m really really sorry, Sunset. I can’t. Applejack said this would be good for you and your relationship with the others. I don’t know what she meant but it must be important.”

Sunset groaned and blew away a strand of hair that fell out from her orange winter cap. “Yeah whatever…”

Coco smiled and rolled her eyes. Stopping, she leaned down and set Sunset’s feet back on the ground. She unwrapped her friend to reveal the yellow coat Sunset was wearing. In addition to a turtleneck sweater under that and a thick shirt under that. Complete with red gloves, and black legwarmers over her jeans and boots, she was completely dressed for cold weather in the arctic. 

Even so Sunset still shivered. “I take it back, wrap me up! Wrap me up!” she cried.

Coco giggled and took her hand. “Oh, it’s not that bad. Come on.” With the bed sheets in one arm and their previous occupant in the other, Coco continued on her way down the seemingly deserted street. Taking care not to slip on any ice along the way.

Little did they know they were being watched and targeted by several groups. If they listened closely they would probably even have made out the whispers in the dark.

~~~

Carefully opening the door to Sugarcube Corner, Coco addressed the rest of her friends. “We’re here!”

She was immediately greeted by celebratory cheers by all five of her friends, especially when they saw Sunset lagging behind her.

Pinkie herself bounded over and glomped the both of them in a wide hug. “Sunny! You made it!” she cheered. Sunset said nothing, instead she sent a glare past her directly towards Applejack.

Meanwhile, Coco sat the blanket down by the door and took a look around. Oddly enough, the entire shop was completely empty except for her friends who, she noticed, had been sitting at a table in the very middle of the store. Even the windows had the blinds down. It was almost as if the store was closed. But then again… it matched the rest of the town at least.

Fluttershy gave the two a kind smile. “I’m glad you two made it.” Coco noticed that she was wearing a rather thick yellow coat, black leggings and yellow boots.

Applejack leaned back in her chair and tipped her hat with a smug grin. She had on a long beige trench coat with jeans and her usual boots. “Well Ah’m glad ya changed yer mind there, sugarcube.” Sunset’s glare hardened.

Rarity, seeing the sparks flying between them, quickly cleared her throat to get their attention. “Well then, I’m glad you both made it,” she began, hoping to start up a new, less volatile conversation. Coco noticed that she was wearing an odd looking white and violet camo jacket and a hat with grass and twigs sticking out of it. “Please, come sit with us.

Rainbow chuckled and, like AJ, leaned back in her seat. In addition to black jeans and her usual boots she was wearing a simple hoodie with a red hat and mirrored goggles. “Yeah, we were just talking about you two.”

Coco tilted her head curiously. “You were?” Suddenly, she felt herself being pulled along and noticed that both she and Sunset were being led towards the table by Pinkie. 

Oddly enough, Pinkie wore little to no pink in her outfit. Aside from her pink tinted goggles, it was mostly all white or light blue. She wore a light blue hat, white scarf, and a white vest. Further down she was wearing a light blue skirt over white leggings and large white snow boots… Or were they moonboots? Coco wasn't quite sure.

It was then that Coco realized that Pinkie was rambling as she was leading them on. She internally berated herself for not listening. “--and then we all realized that you two were probably still having trouble so we all got into this debate on the best way to help you while we wait!” she finished, sitting down in her seat. 

Coco and Sunset sat in the two available seats between Pinkie and Rarity. Sunset leaned forward on the table and sat her head on her palm. “Guys it’s fine. I’ll figure something out.” She paused for a second and looked around the table. “But still… thank you for all of your help,” she added, a slight blush creeping onto her cheeks.

Rainbow waved her off. “Don’t mention it. I’m just glad you went and took my advice.”

Coco chuckled when Rarity let out a slightly unlady-like scoff. “Rainbow, darling, telling someone to buy something for yourself and act like it’s a meaningful gift isn’t exactly sound advice.”

Rainbow opened her mouth to respond but stopped when she heard Applejack’s and Sunset’s muffled snickering. 

Luckily, Fluttershy jumped in to save her. “Now girls, that’s not nice. Remember, it’s the thought that counts. Rainbow tries hard to buy things that she knows both she and the recipient have in common. I don’t think that’s wrong.”

The giggling session ceased and all of them thought on Fluttershy’s words. Pinkie, however, nodded excitedly. “Exactly! The best gift is something everyone can enjoy together.”

Rarity gave her a confused look. “But Pinkie, if you buy a single gift for everyone then no one feels special. The true recipient may feel as if he or she isn't really receiving anything. I know it’s the feeling of giving that really matters but a gift is meant to show the recipient how special they are to you. Therefore, every gift has to be unique and meaningful. You understand?”

Pinkie sat back in her chair with the most confused look on her face any of them had ever seen. She looked as if someone had tried to explain something to her in three combined languages. “B-but, what about the party?” she whimpered quietly.

Applejack nervously looked at Rarity than back at Pinkie. “Err… what about it?”

Then she burst. “If everyone gets different presents that we can’t all play with them together and if we all can’t play with them together then someone feels left out and if someone feels left out then the whole thing is ruined and if the whole thing is ruined then Christmas is ruined and we’ll all get jealous and stop being friends and--” Pinkie began hyperventilating heavily, unable to bear her own thoughts.

Acting quickly, Coco and Fluttershy worked to calm the girl down. Fluttershy moved closer to her and slowly patted her back, while Coco ran to get a cupcake from behind the abandoned counter. She left the required money on top.

“Pinkie,” soothed Fluttershy, “It’s alright. Just think about it, we all get different things from different people but we’re still friends right,” she smiled.

“She’s right,” Coco added, handing her the emergency pastry. “There’s nothing wrong with everyone getting something different.”

Pinkie stopped her exaggerated breathing and began to quietly nibble on her comfort food. “I know that we all get different things… I just thought that since I always kept everyone together by sharing a present nothing ever went wrong. But I guess you’re right.”

Rainbow scoffed. “Well duh, that’s the best part of Christmas.”

Sunset, who until that moment had her head face down on the table, glanced up at her curiously. “What? Presents?”

Rainbow nodded. “Yeah.”

AJ stared at her. “No it ain’t.”

Rainbow glared at her. “Yes it is.”

Rarity stepped in. “She’s right, you know.”

Rainbow turned to her. “Me?”

Rarity shook her head. “No, Applejack.”

AJ nodded affirmatively. Rarity continued. “The holidays are about the wonderful foods one could make, the celebration, the very feel of the festive air around you.” Applejack stopped nodding. Rarity began waving her hand dramatically. “The decorating of the tree and home, the allure of wearing white and red, and the wonderful time you have wrapping fabulous gifts for others!” 

Everyone around the table looked at her stupidly. “What?” she asked, dumbfounded.

Pinkie popped up behind her, apparently finished with her food. “Silly Rarity, the day is all about the fun! We all have fun opening our presents together, playing with them and just being friends together.”

Applejack thought on that for a second. “Well, Pinkie, ya ain’t wrong, but it’s more about the fact that we’re all together. The holidays are all a time to be thankful for what we got in life.”

Fluttershy fiddled with her fingers. “I like to think that Christmas is about the feeling of doing good for other people. Even if you don’t know them you could still share something with them. I always give money and presents to the homeless shelter in Manehatten.”

Coco turned to Sunset, who had started to pay more attention to the debate going on around her. “Sunset told me that, in Equestria, the holidays were a time for ponies to come together to celebrate their history and founding.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Yeah, we have that too, it’s called founders day.” She turned to Applejack. “I’m telling you guys the best thing about Christmas is getting, and giving, awesome stuff to people.”

Applejack put a hand to her head and shook both sadly. “Rainbow... ya ain't seeing the point then. It’s not just about presents. You can have a holiday where ya don’t get something.”

Rainbow Dash gave her a flat stare. Then she raised her hand and began to count on her fingers. “Christmas: Presents. Thanksgiving: Huge dinner. Halloween: Candy. Valentine’s Day: Chocolate and other mushy love stuff. Easter: Again, chocolate and other egg shaped candy. Do I even need to mention birthdays?”

“What about Groundhog Day?” asked Fluttershy.

Rainbow gave her a completely befuddled look. “...What’s that?” 

In a rare moment of frustration… Fluttershy frowned.

Rainbow continued. “Anyway, what I mean is that the holidays are all about giving and receiving.” She was repaid with either looks of confusion by three of her friends, one frown, and two disappointed head shakes. “What…? What?!” she asked.

“Rainbow…” sighed Rarity, “darling, when this is all over, we need to have a long talk about the real meaning of each holiday.”

“Well…” began Sunset, finally leaning upright in her chair, “regardless of what the real meaning of the day is, I’m glad to be sharing it with you guys this year. It’s… what in a week from now I think?”

Pinkie held up her hand and pointed to a watch that hadn’t been there before. “One week, two days, 11 hours and 55 minutes from now. Just three days after the start of Winter Break!” she cheered. “Aren’t you all excited!”

Sunset rolled her eyes. “Moving right along. How much longer do we have to wait?”

Excitement began to well up into well up inside of Coco, she had almost forgotten in the midst of the, rather interesting, conversation. “Oh that’s right, why are we here.”

Pinkie looked back at her watch, that was apparently here to stay. “We have five minutes left,” she told them.

Rainbow nodded. “I guess we can tell her now,” she grinned.

AJ rolled her eyes and turned to Coco. “Sorry ‘bout hidin’ it from ya, sugarcube. Rainbow here thought it’d be funny to just spring it on ya.”

Coco nodded. “N-no it’s alright. I’ve only gotten more excited! So what are we doing today?”

Applejack opened her mouth but at the moment there were several thumps against the front window. Fluttershy flinched in response but everyone else turned to see Soarin burst through the door with a frantic expression on his face. 

“Rainbow! The Crusaders have launched a surprise attack!” he announced

Rainbow Dash stood up and gave a wide grin. “I guess we’re starting early then.” Rainbow turned to Coco who looked even more confused than before. “Sunset, tell Coco what’s up and meet us outside. You know the plan. Fluttershy protect the base, the rest of you, come on.”

Everyone stood up and followed Rainbow out the door while Coco looked around frantically. “Who? What? Why?” While she was freaking out there were a dozen more thumps against the walls and windows surrounding them, which caused Fluttershy to shy away.

Sunset poked Coco to get her attention. “Hey… calm down,” she droned. 

Coco, not one to adapt to sudden change well, turned to her with a wide eyed look. “What’s happening.”

“Alright, basically the entire town’s engaged in a huge snowball war. It goes on all weekend and there are 4 flags. We have one over there.” Sunset pointed over to the back of the store to where a 6 inch tall red flag sat. “Whoever collects all four or at least three by the end of the weekend, wins.”

“A-alright,” answered Coco, drinking in the information. She began to calm down a bit. “What do we do? Do we protect the flag?”

Sunset shrugged, still looking bored. “If you want.” She leaned back down onto the table. “I, personally, would rather stay here than go out there and get pelted with frozen water and rocks.”

Fluttershy finally came back up from under the table and offered a shy but nervous smile. “It’s alright girls, you two can go outside, we have this place protected.” 

“Nahh.” Sunset waved her off and looked towards the kitchen. “Maybe I’ll go take a nap next to the oven.”

“We?” asked Coco. Sunset pointed back to the back of the store near the flag. Coco strained her eyes but in the faint shadows of the store she could make out the outlines of several small figures, all hiding in the corners of the store around the flag.

Sunset chuckled lightly. “Yeah, Fluttershy’s not defending this place alone. Not like anyone would even make it this far.” 

Fluttershy instantly cheered up despite several more, rather loud, thumps. “Oh, of course. My animal friends love to play. Thankfully, Mr. and Ms. Cake said they could help as long as they don’t go anywhere near the kitchen.”

At that moment there was a quiet thump behind the counter. When they turned their head, all three of them saw a white rabbit wearing a camo outfit hopping out from the kitchen door. In his paws he held aloft several small desserts.

Fluttershy gasped in surprise and immediately ran over to the little thief. “Angel Lucifer Bunny! How could you?!” she cried. “You know what Mr. Cake told us.”

While Fluttershy lectured Angel, Coco turned back to the front of the store. From what she could hear, there was a lot of yelling and thumping going on outside. She could see the silhouettes of several people running around and throwing things. Slowly, a wide smile grew on her face.

Sunset, having sat her head back down on the table, felt the other girl nudge her shoulder. She glanced up to see her greatest fear: Coco’s wide sparkling eyes. The sheer amount of excitement and giddiness she radiated nearly blinded the poor bacon-haired girl.

“Sunset, let’s go outside!” she begged. Though with those eyes, it may as well been a demand.

Summoning her will, Sunset put her head back down to avoid the gaze. “Noooooo,” she cried, voice muffled by her jacket. “I’m a pony... let me hibernate like one.”

Coco began gently shaking her. “Ponies don’t hibernate, Sunset.”

“Unicorns do!” she spat out, refusing to move.

Coco ignored her and continued pleading. “Pleeeaassse come outside. I don’t wanna go alone!”

Sunset groaned, unable to endure the girl’s pleading tone any longer. She loud out a muffled sigh and, wordlessly, she stood up to walk towards the door. Excited, Coco got up and followed her.

Sunset stopped with her hand on the door. She stood there for a second, hesitating, before turning back to Coco. “Remind me… Why do you wanna go out there? No doubt The Crusaders are aiming for us again.”

Coco nervously fiddled with her hands. “Well even though it was really cold in Manehatten, it was really mostly a chilly cold caused by harsh winds. We didn’t really get much snow. But, in this town, just on Monday morning it snowed almost a full inch. Then it stopped and started almost randomly the whole week. It was amazing.

"And…” she hesitated for a moment, a slight blush forming on her face, “To be honest, I’ve never been in a real snowball fight before. I saw some kids doing it earlier this week but I’d love to share my first experience with you all.”

Sunset simply raised an eyebrow and turned back to the door. She took a deep breath and let out a sigh of reluctance. “Well... I guess I have no choice then.”

Finally applying some force to the door, Sunset and Coco stepped into--.

Immediately, a snowball slammed into Sunset’s forehead and knocked her a few steps back.

“Sunset!” cried Coco, looking back

Sunset wiped the snow off of her face and frowned. “This is gonna be a long day.” Grabbing Coco’s arm she valiantly ran out the door and into the warzone.
	
> CH8: The Stolen Snow
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Button lowered his binoculars with a grin. “She’s left her base!”

Behind him, in the safety of an alleyway between buildings. Rumble continued to pile pre-made snowballs for the group. Next to him were Featherweight, Pipsqueak, Dinky, and a few other kids from both of the schools in the area.

Rumble turned to his best friend with a worried look. “Button, you sure you alright, bro? Sweetie told me about what happened a few weeks ago. You were acting pretty crazy.”

Pip chuckled quietly and turned to Dinky. “I heard the bloke had to go to the hospital the next day.” Dinky began laughing alongside him.

Button turned around and scoffed. “I’m fine. My mom banned me from eating any chocolate ever again. She almost banned me from even getting close to Sugarcube Corner,” he frowned. “Luckily, Dad talked her out of it.” Moving away from his vantage point, Button rejoined the other kids further into the alley.

Rumble gave him a skeptical look. “Alright then. Just remember what Applebloom’s big sis told us: It’s all a game, so don’t get too serious.” Button rolled his eyes.

Dinky finished counting the snowballs alongside Featherweight and Pipsqueak. She stood up and nodded. “The Crusaders have lured her out like you wanted, and we’ve got a nice pile of ammo here. What’s next?”

“Indeed, Captain! What’s our next plan of action,” added Pip.

Button nodded and looked back out at the war-zone near the candy shop. Before, The Crusaders seemed to be holding their own alongside Rumble and Dinky’s older siblings; the five of them appearing to be evenly matched with the six in Rainbow’s group. But when Sunset also joined the fight, with the other girl making snowballs to help out, the added firepower started to slowly overwhelm Button’s attack squad.

He turned back to his group. “We need to work fast,” he told them. “We are not strong, but we are small and we outnumber them. Our objective is to capture Sugarcube Corner’s flag!”

Deep Fry, a pudgy orange haired kid, raised his hand questioningly. “Why don’t we go after Sweet Apple Acres’ flag first? From our intel, only Big Mac and Granny Smith are protecting it.”

Dinky thought about it. “Isn’t he the one that just sits on his porch and strums his instrument all day?”

Rumble shook his head. “And that’s the problem. Big Mac’s got some serious firepower. I don’t know how he got the Mayor to let him use it, but he’s got automatic snowball shooting machines stationed around the house. Not to mention it’s an open field out there with nowhere to hide.”

Button nodded. “Granny Smith’s got an arm on her too. She’ll deck anyone who gets close to the flag.”

Pip gave him a nervous look. “You think we have a better chance against Angel than Big Mac?”

Everyone went quiet, some of them even began to rethink their options. Fry raised his hand again. “We could always go after Diamond Tiara’s flag at the mall or—”

“It’s too late now!” Button screamed. “We have to move before The Crusaders have to fall back. Rumble, First Base. You two go join The Crusaders and help out.” Button looked back around the corner towards the new girl. Smirking, he turned back to his group. “Tell Thunderlane to commence operations ‘Derp Face’ and ‘Turncoat’.”

Rumble and a blue haired boy with a baseball bat nodded. Grabbing the pre-made snowballs, they ran out from behind their hidey wall towards their friends.

Button pointed to Deep Fry and simply said, “Alright. You probably have the simplest job. You know what to do?” Fry nodded. “Sweet! You do this and I’ll get you that game you’ve been wanting.” The boy fist pumped and ran out of the alleyway, heading in the complete opposite direction down the street.

Button looked amongst the remaining kids. “Featherweight, Dinky, Pip, you guys will come with me to try and sneak into the store. It’s a snowball free area so try not to get tagged by Fluttershy while holding the flag or you’ll have to leave. If worse comes to worse only one of us needs to actually grab the flag and get out. Got it?” Everyone nodded and followed Button while he snuck out the opposite end of the alley. 

“Oh wait!” Button stopped to pick up a the large brown box he had brought from home. “We’ll need this too.”

Pip stared at it blankly. “It’s a box…”

Button gave him a shocked look. “No! This..." he held the object above his head with both arms, treating it with all the respect of a boss room key, "this is our secret weapon. The success of this mission depends entirely on this box!”

Featherweight facepalmed.

~~~

Over by the store, Rainbow cheered triumphantly from behind their snow fort. “Hah!” She tossed a snowball that got Thunderlane right in his face. 

Soarin lobbed a snowball as well and turned to Rainbow Dash. “Aren’t The Crusaders supposed to be on our team?”

Rainbow shrugged and ducked under an incoming projectile. “Doesn't matter! Just keep going, I think we’re winning!” she declared, giving Soarin a high five.

Pinkie giggled as she tossed several at once and watched as the other group covered their heads from the rain of snow. “Sunny, are you having fun yet?”

Taking a snowball handed to her by Coco, Sunset carefully took aim and, with a hefty toss, she sent it flying right into Scootaloo’s chin. “It’s alright,” she muttered, keeping her smirk to herself.

Applejack grunted as a particularly thick snowball found itself slamming into her shoulder. She looked down at Rarity who was hiding away and grumbling to herself. “Hey, what’s wrong with you?” she asked.

Rarity glowered at her. “My outfit, that’s what! I thought I had used waterproof materials in it but obviously the woman who sold them to me lied. I feel soaked!” she complained.

Applejack ducked under another snowball and gave Rarity a blank look. “Honey, it’s snow… You’re gonna get wet an’ soggy. Just deal with it like ya do every year and help us defend the store.”

Rarity crossed her arms, turning away in a huff. She heard Applejack began to say something, but a sudden yelp from the cowgirl forced her to turn around. “Applejack?”

“What the—” Rarity stood up and turned just in time to see Rainbow, Pinkie, and Soarin get knocked out by fierce-looking snowballs to the face.

“Rarity, get down!” Sunset yelled, grabbing the girl's coat and forcing her back down just in time for a fierce snowball to sail right over her.

Rarity sat up and looked over to her friends who were busy dealing with the sting of the attack. “What in the world is happening?!”

Thunderlane gave Rumble a high five as First Base continued to bat the snowballs that had been tossed into the air by Sweetie Belle. Whenever one of the girls would pop their heads over, she would toss a thickly packed snowball into the air and Base would aim his bat for them. 

He was especially interested in hitting one girl in particular.

Sunset peeked over for a brief second before she had to duck. “I don’t know, but someone’s got a serious arm on them. What the hay‽ Are they trying to hurt us?” She ducked as a few more fierce hits sailed right over her. Crouched, she shivered and frowned. “Coco, can we go back inside now?”

Rainbow groaned and rubbed her nose. “Wait... arm… Coco? COCO!”

“Eep!” Coco flinched when Rainbow suddenly crawled over to her. “Wh-what?”

Rainbow grinned and looked right into her eyes. “Throw a snowball!”

Coco looked behind her at Sunset and the others. Applejack and Pinkie were busy returning fire while Rarity was hiding. This left Sunset to quickly shake her head. “Oh, okay then,” Coco answered shyly and ignoring Sunset.

Hesitantly, Coco reached down and picked up a pre-made snowball. Peeking over the barrier, she carefully picked out her target. She didn’t want to hurt the children, but she figured that Thunderlane looked strong enough to take a blow from her. After a few more seconds of deliberation, she let the snowball fly… as a puff of dust.

Coco looked at the dust hesitantly. “What happened?” she said, dumbfounded.

Rainbow’s grin vanished. Thinking quickly, she grabbed a bunch of snow from the ground and picked it as tight as she could. By the time she was done, the ball that she formed had been at least twice the size of the ones made by the other girls.

Once done, she hefted it towards Coco. “Here, try this!”

Coco picked it up and weighed it for a second. She looked back towards Thunderlane who had just poked his head back up to toss a ball at Pinkie Pie. Coco looked from the ball to him. “I’m sorry!” she yelled, chucking the ball as hard as she could. 

Unlike the first ball, this one held together as it sailed through the air towards its target. However, her apology apparently reached him first.

Thunderlane turned towards her just before she let it loose. Panicking, he grabbed the girl next to him and made a shield out of her.

Coco watched in horror as the thick snowball struck the girl square on her face. The force of the throw tossed her backwards. All snow throwing stopped as Thunderlane called time out to check on her.

“Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! What did I do? Is she alright?!” Coco panicked.

Rainbow waved it off. “She’s fine, don’t worry about it. It’s just snow.” She turned to the others. “Come on, let’s make more snowballs.” Like she ordered, everyone took the lull of fire as a chance to make more ammo. 

Sunset looked at her friends her jaw open and her brow furrowed. “Aren’t you going to see if she’s alright?” she said, huffing in frustration. Sunset turned back and noticed Thunderlane pulling the girls head out of a snow pile.

Thunderlane popped his head over his snow fort. “Oh no! What happened to her eyes?!” he yelled dramatically.

Coco gasped and, without hesitation, hopped over the barrier. 

Sunset hopped up after her. “Coco wait!” yelled Sunset, calling after her. Although, just as she was about to run after her, a snowball slammed into Sunset’s chest, knocking her back behind the fort.

“Strike!” cheered First Base, finally hitting his target. Coco, already halfway through the field, looked back at Sunset in concern. But before she could regret her decision, she felt two strong arms wrap around her as Thunderlane grabbed her from behind.

Applejack helped Sunset get back on her feet just in time to see Thunderlane and his group run off with Coco.

“Sunset, help!” she screamed.

“Wait, they can take hostages now?” asked Pinkie, looking on curiously. “Is that in the rules?”

Sunset growled and wiped the snow off her jacket. “It is now.” Thunderlane glanced back at her with a taunting look, enraging her further. Hopping over the snow barrier once again, Sunset ran off after them. 

While everyone ran off, Rarity stayed behind and huffed. Applejack turned around and rolled her eyes. “What now?”

Rarity turned back towards the store. “Ugh... I believe Sunset had the right idea. I’m just going to stay inside with Fluttershy where it’s warm and quiet.”

Applejack shook her head. “Fine, but you better help keep that flag safe.” Rarity nodded and the cowgirl ran off after the rest of the girls and Soarin.

While Rarity opened the door to go inside, four figures came out of the shadows beside the candy shop. Silently, Button motioned for two of his more rowdy friends to run around towards the front, following Rarity. Meanwhile, he and the ever silent Featherweight ran around to the back of the store.

~~~

“Sinps, Snails! You idiots!” screamed Diamond. Stomping through the snow. You had one job! Just one!”

The two boys in question cowered before her in fear. Silver Spoon stood away, shaking her head dejectedly. The group stood out in front of the mall, where the remains of a great snowball war had taken place. The battle had only just ended, with Lyra standing above the rest, holding the flag in her grip. Several groups cheered, ecstatic that they had just taken what was supposedly the hardest flag to take.

“All you had to do,” Diamond hissed, “was hide the stupid flag out of sight. And what did you do?”

Snips hesitantly raised his hand to answer. “Well... we heard that things blend in with other things that look the same…” he answered, a nervous grin stretched along his face.

Silver Spoon turned her gaze over to the flagpole that Lyra was spinning around. After a few seconds, she responded, her voice as even as she could make it to hide her own frustration. “So you sat the small red flag… in plain sight… next to the large flag pole… on their side?”

Diamond, however, was ready to tear her own hair out. The battle lasted for all of five minutes before Lyra had stumbled onto the flag. Snips and snails stared up, eyes wide in horror and fully prepared for Diamond to turn into the next She-Demon.

Before she could yell at them more, Bon Bon strode her way over to them, her long pink and blue curly hair bouncing behind her. “Well kids, we got your flag. Looks like we win.”

Diamond Tiara turned her death glare towards her. “No! We demand a rematch. These idiots practically gave you the flag.”

Bon Bon shook her head. “Nope, sorry. Rules are rules.” She turned around. “Hey, Lyra!”

Lyra stopped cheering and hopped over to her good friend. “What’s up?”

Bon Bon gestured to the four kids. “You got the flag so you’re the new leader. You wanna have them join us and take on the school?”

Lyra shrugged. “Nah, let’s have a rematch. I gotta admit, it was a bit too easy.” Diamond’s face lit up like a Christmas tree. Lyra poked the flag to her chin. “But we do need to go help Vinyl take the school…” Lyra grinned as she watched Diamond frown once again. 

Chuckling, she tossed the flag back to Diamond. “Here, we’re team players. You have twenty minutes before snow starts flying.” Lyra turned around and called out to everyone on the field.

“Hey guys we’re doing a rematch. Get back to whatever side you were on and get ready.”

Diamond glared daggers at her and turned back to the two boys. Snips and Snails could’ve sworn that her hair had caught fire just then. “We’re going to crush them! Silver.” Silver Spoon walked over to meet her, not batting an eye at her friend’s angry look. “This time, you hide the flag!” she ordered, stomping away and leaving the flag on the ground

Silver Spoon looked down at the flag in disgust. Feeling that it was beneath her, she picked out a random kid and pointed at the flag. “Pick that up and hide it,” she said, walking away.

~~~

“Sunset, help!” screamed Coco, still being carried off by Thunderlane. The Crusaders, smaller and faster, had ran off ahead of them and were almost completely out of sight.

Sunset, chasing after them like a mad rhino, reached down and grabbed some snow from the ground. With the pull back of an expert baseball pitcher, she chucked it at Thunderlane with all of her strength.

Unfortunately, there was an experienced batter on the other team. First Base turned and jumped in front of his older friend, knocking the snow into dust.

Sunset nearly began grinding her teeth until another snowball flew out of nowhere and hit First Base in his smug face. Sunset turned around to see Soarin smirking. Sunset, unsure how to respond, simply gave him a small smile.

“Stop flirting and get him!” screamed Rainbow, dashing past the two. Just as First Base got back up to run, Rainbow crashed into him and held him down.

Thunderlane briefly stopped running and turned to see his teammate get captured. Rumble said something and Thunderlane nodded reluctantly. Giving him one last forlorn look, he ran off.

Sunset began to give chase but she was stopped by Applejack. “Don’ worry none. We’ll get ‘em. They gotta come back at some point.” She gestured over to their prisoner, now sitting crosslegged next to Rainbow Dash. “We got their heavy hitter.”

Sunset, still annoyed looked back at the kid. She did a double take before walking over to him. Leaning down, Sunset stared at the kid for a few seconds. The kid himself was glaring daggers at Sunset. “Do I know you?”

“I don’t know, did you mind control my big brother?” he snarked.

“Kid you’re gonna have to be a little more specific, I mind controlled a lot of big brothers,” she deadpanned. Then it hit her. The blue hair, the familiar face. She snapped her fingers in recognition. “You’re Flash Sentry’s little brother aren't you?!”

The boy huffed. “Yeah and my big brother’s gonna snow you good when you get to the school!”

Sunset grimaced. “So… Flash is on the school group,” she muttered. “I can’t go there, they’d slaughter me.” 

Applejack tipped her hat and looked back at the way they came. “Ah reckon’ we should go back ta Sugarcube Corner in case another group comes after our flag.”

Sunset shook her head. “No… we need to get Coco back.”

“Umm, seems like the school group is snowballing with another group right now.” Everyone looked up to see Pinkie calling down to them from the roof of a nearby building. She was looking through a pair of binoculars. 

Rainbow yelled back up at her. “Who’s in charge? Principal Celestia?”

“From what I remember… the Principal and Vice Principal are away for the holidays. I think the head of the student council is gone too.”

“Who’s the vice?” asked Soarin.

Pinkie looked down at Sunset with dread. “Octavia…”

First Base burst out laughing while Sunset groaned into her palm. “Oh no… now I really can’t go over there…” Applejack rubbed the back of her head awkwardly while Soarin and Rainbow Dash looked on in confusion.

“Are we missing something?” asked Rainbow.

Sunset looked at them shamefully. “Band members are… easy targets for bullying. I went after her… more than once.”

“Oh, Oh! It looks like Vinyl’s leading the other group!” yelled Pinkie, watching Vinyl and her friend lay siege to the school yard. “It’s a pretty awesome battle going on over there.”

Just then, a window below her opened up and a crotchety old crank poked his head out. “Pinkamena Pie! For the second time this week, GET OFF MY ROOF!”

Pinkie gave him a nervous grin. “Sorry Mr. Doodle…” Just like that she hopped down onto the plush snow. Dusting herself off, she found that Sunset had completely covered her face with her palms and what quietly groaning. “What?”

Rainbow reached over to pat Sunset on the back. “Hey… Vinyl’s cool. Maybe she’ll help us out,” she said reassuringly. 

Sunset didn’t respond. 
	
	
> CH9: The Snow Games
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Octavia opened the window to the Principal's office, bullhorn in hand, and looked over the battlefield. Somewhere on the field lay the coveted flag, but only Octavia knew where it was. With no one but her and a few others allowed inside the school, the entire perimeter was fair game. As such, chaos reigned supreme as students, children, and faculty were engaged in what was essentially a full on snow war. 

Clicking the amplifier on, she aimed it out the window, directly towards the front gates where a certain electric haired girl stood defiantly. Said girl had somehow gotten a shoulder mounted snow cannon into the game, and was using it to knock people out left and right in her search for the flag. 

“Vinyl Scratch! Stop this at once and surrender! You’re breaking the rules, and even so, you’ll never find our—EEP!” Octavia swiftly shut the window to the room just as a basketball-sized ball of snow slammed into it.

Vinyl chuckled. “COME OUT HERE AND FIGHT ME, TAVI! YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO!” she yelled up to her. The canon sitting on her shoulder was a high tech-looking piece of equipment. Streaked with the same colors as its creator’s hair, the machine had a large cylinder near the back where snow was inserted.

Octavia growled and reopened the window. “You ruffian! I will not sully myself by—” She slammed the window shut once more to block another blast.

Vinyl laughed as she turned the machine upside down to shovel more snow into it. “You can keep talking but I’m not gonna listen till you come down here!” Turning, she blasted a boy that had been running at her with a boulder of snow. “Hurry up and find that flag!” she yelled to her group.

“Hey, Vinyl…” 

Vinyl turned to see Rainbow and Pinkie walking through the gate. Her mouth became a straight line when she noticed Sunset slinking in after them. “Sup…” she said.

Rainbow hesitantly raised her half of her usual fist bump greeting. After a second, Vinyl, never one to turn one down, responded in kind.

“Yeah… see, we need your help,” began Rainbow, looking at her shamefully.

Vinyl finally took her gaze off of Sunset and smirked at Rainbow. “What, did you lose your flag already?” she said, nudging the girl.

Pinkie jumped in and gave Vinyl a hug. “No way! We left Applejack and Soarin and Fluttershy and Rarity to guard it. What could go wrong?”

Vinyl briefly returned the hug before separating herself. “So whatcha need?” She sat the canon on her shoulder. Sunset looked down the barrel of the large gun and gulped. She really hoped Vinyl didn’t have any grudges for picking on her best friend. 

“One of Octavia’s group members took one of us hostage and we need help getting her back,” answered Rainbow Dash.

Vinyl’s jaw hit the ground. “We can take hostages?!” she said, grinning like a mad woman.

Rainbow shrugged. “We have one back at the base. We made up some rule about how he’s not allowed to do anything until one of his team members comes and tags him.”

Pinkie reached into her pocket and picked out a small pamphlet. On the front it read, “Annual Snowball Tournament: Rules and Regulations” surrounded by decorative snowflakes. “Says here that ‘if something unexpected happens that the rules don’t cover, a new rule can be made on the spot if all present participants agree to it.'” She closed the slip and returned it to her pocket.

Vinyl shrugged. “Can’t argue with the Mayor I guess. So who was it?”

“The new girl, Coco Pommel,” answered Rainbow Dash. “Thunderlane took her, and his friend said he was coming back this way. So can you help?”

Vinyl hummed for a bit. “On one condition,” she smirked. Rainbow opened her mouth but Vinyl’s trigger finger was too itchy. Sunset, who was still standing there, ended up on the ground covered from head to neck in snow. Vinyl removed the canon from her shoulder and pointed it down at Sunset’s grounded form. 

Mouth a straight line, she fired the cannon three more times. By the time the cannon was out of snow, only Sunset’s arm was sticking up, and Pinkie and Rainbow were stunned speechless.

Sunset’s gloved fingers twitched slightly. Vinyl finally let herself grin and, chuckling, she reached down to grab the girl’s hand.

With a grunt and a tug, she pulled Sunset from her burial. Sunset hacked and coughed and wiped the cold ice from her face. 

Shivering miserably, she stared at Vinyl, who was still grinning. “I guess I deserved that,” she finally said, taking her arm back.

Vinyl patted her on the shoulder and burst out laughing. “Well I could use a few more shots but I’m out of ammo so you’re good.” She stopped laughing and sat the gun back upon her shoulder. 

Pinkie and Rainbow quickly jumped out of the way. 

Vinyl paid them no mind as she looked directly at Sunset with a small smile. “I heard about how you’re trying to get your act together. If you’re really sorry, then you’re good with me.” Sunset gave her a thankful smile, glad one more person had taken her off their hit list. “My condition though—”

“That wasn't it?!” yelled Sunset, still wiping off snow from her body.

“Is for you to at least try to apologize to Octavia at some point,” she shrugged. “Sure she’s pissed and she’ll probably try to get you expelled... but hey, she’s a sucker for a good apology.” Before Sunset could respond, Vinyl turned to Rainbow. “Alrighty then. About Thunderlane...

Rainbow tiled her head, confused. Vinyl’s grin turned slightly nervous. “Thunderlane’s supposed to be on my team… and I haven't seen him at all today. I totally didn’t send him to the Corner.”

~~~

“Nice job, Thunderlane, Rumble, Ditzy.” Octavia grinned at the two brothers and their cohort as they entered the Principal's office. “I don’t know how you did it but…” she paused when Coco entered the room behind them. “Who’s she? I thought you said you were going to get Fluttershy.”

Thunderlane shrugged with a stupid grin. “She works too. She was on their team.”

Octavia rolled her eyes. “And you're sure they agreed?”

Rumble scoffed. “Well they got one of us so I think they—OW.” He groaned, rubbing the new hand print on back of his head.

Octavia’s eye twitched. “They what?!” She sighed. “This wasn't in the plan. Oh well, we’ll just have to improvise. You three can go now,” she said, waving them off.

Rumble glared at her as she turned back to the window. “Whatever... bossy—OW!” Thunderlane shoved him back outside the room. Ditzy followed them but stopped when Coco tapped her shoulder.

“A-are you sure you’re alright?” asked Coco, looking into the girl’s mismatched eyes. “I didn’t hurt you at all, did I?”

Ditzy Doo nodded and bonked her head a few times. “I’m alright, my eyes are always like this and I’m super durable.” She made a silly face with her eyes that caused Coco to snicker. Ditzy snickered too as she left. “We should hang out more!” she said, closing the door.

Coco waved goodbye before slowly turning back to see Octavia. The girl was still looking out the window, her eyes now locked onto one girl in particular. She didn’t even notice Coco standing next to her.

“U-um?”

Octavia snapped out of her reverie to see Coco slowly taking steps back, nervousness and fear etched all across her face. “Are you alright dear?” asked Octavia.

Coco nodded. “I-it’s just… you had a really scary look on your face.”

Octavia reached up and touched her face. Though she didn’t dwell on it. “Nevermind that, come, have a seat. You’re my guest right now.”

Coco let out a nervous chuckle, taking a seat on one of the Principal’s guest chairs. “I thought I was a prisoner…” Coco looked around. “Is this a usual thing… I haven't been here long.”

Octavia nodded and took a seat in the Principal's office chair. “I guessed as much. This particular stratagem is of our own devising, and has not been attempted before. Do you know the other rules?”

Coco shook her head. Octavia sighed. “I suppose I could give you the basics if you haven't figured it out already.” Octavia sat four objects down on the desk: A small roll of clear tape, a pack of staples, a paperclip, and a key. She arranged them into a square.

“You see, there are four flags. Every year, two are always in the same place while the other two are dependant upon the previous tournament’s winners.” She moved the tape and the staples to two ends of the desk, directly opposite from one another. “The two that remain the same are the one here at the school, and the one at Filthy Rich’s mall. They were chosen because of the wide area snowball fights could cover.” 

Coco nodded and Octavia moved the remaining two objects to two random places on the desk. “This year, Rainbow Dash and Big McIntosh, last year’s winners, have chosen Sweet Apple Acres and Sugarcube Corner respectively. In each of these four sites, a red flag has been hidden.” She pointed at the objects. “The four leaders lead a group of people to find the flags while holding a snowball war. While the flag is the objective, the fun in the snow is the purpose. Whoever finds at least two flags wins. They get to choose where the two free flags go on the following year.”

Coco digested the info and gasped in awe. “That sounds like so much fun!” she squealed. 

Octavia smiled. “Isn’t it? Usually, Principal Celestia guards the flag... but due to circumstance, it’s up to me this year. I’ve hidden it extremely well if I do say so myself.”

Coco tilted her head curiously. “Where is it? Is it inside the school?”

Octavia shook her head. “I’m afraid I can’t give you that information. I’d be aiding the enemy.” Octavia stood back up and headed for the window. “I am about to trade you back after all.”

Coco pouted. “Please, I Pinkie Promise I won’t tell anyone else,” she pleaded.

Octavia thought on it. In the end, she smiled and turned back to her. She had wanted to brag to someone after all. Making sure that no one was listening outside the door, or from the window, she leaned down to Coco. “Do the motions but don’t say anything,” she ordered, cautious of a certain pink girl’s sudden appearance.

Coco made the, now memorized, motions of a sacred Pinkie Promise. Octavia nodded and started giggling like a schoolgirl. “I am so clever! I hid it where no one will find it!”

Coco flinched at the sudden change of attitude. Gone was the professional acting figure of authority and now here was a person ecstatically gushing about her own cleverness.

~~~

Sunset dodge-rolled behind some bushes near the corner of the school, desperately trying to evade the barrage of snow being thrown at her. Like she thought, as soon as someone noticed her there, everyone, regardless of team, turned against her. For a few seconds her entire world went completely white as everyone continued to attack her. She was sure some of them were yelling something, but the snow that seeped under her earmuffs made it kind of hard to hear. 

Thankfully, an order from Vinyl and threats from Rainbow caused some of the fire to stop. Now she was only getting a bit more than the average amount of snowballs directed at her.

Initially, she had wanted to leave, but then she remembered that Coco had wanted her to at least try to have fun. But that was before she got captured. Sunset knew that she couldn’t go home until she at least knew where Coco was.

Unfortunately, her frantic running had separated her from the others. Just as she was about to run back out into the field, she heard a few voices from around the bend.

‘So are y’all ready?”

“Yeah, we got Button’s text! Let’s go!”

“I hope he knows what he’s doing.”

Sunset peaked out of the snow covered bushes to see The Crusaders dash out from the corner near where she was hiding.

Without hesitation, Sunset ran out after them. “Hey, you three!” The three kids stopped in their tracks to see a fuming Sunset. “Where’s Coco?” she demanded.

Scootaloo smirked and shook a fist at her. “We’ll never tell!” She quickly reached down and grabbed a lump of snow. In one swift motion, Scootaloo packed it and lobbed it right at her.

Sunset hopped to the side, leaning down to grab some snow in the process. “Last chance!”

“ATTENTION, RAINBOW DASH AND COMPANY!”

Sunset paused in her threat and turned to face the direction the voice was coming from. When she turned back she saw The Crusaders bolting down the street. Growling, Sunset was about to take off after them when the voice echoed once more.

“WE HAVE YOUR TEAMMATE!”

Sunset immediately dropped her snow and turned to run back to the front of the school. She stopped by the horse statue and looked up to see none other than Octavia Melody talking through a bullhorn from a window. Apparently, to achieve maximum attention, she had cranked the volume up to the max. “SURRENDER YOUR FLAG AND JOIN MY TEAM!” 

“Not a chance, give Coco back!” Sunset shouted. 

Octavia merely gave her a disgusted look before turned to look at Rainbow. “THIS IS YOUR ONLY OPTION!”

Rainbow, who had been hiding with Vinyl behind a hastily made snow barrier, smirked and pointed up at her. “Well sucks to be you because we’ve got one of your teammates too!”

Octavia frowned. “WHO?”

Rainbow frowned and gave Vinyl a perplexed look. “What was his name again?”

Vinyl shrugged. Sunset yelled from where she was, “First Base. Flash’s brother, remember?”

Over by another snow fort, Flash Sentry’s head popped up in surprise. A snowball quickly found it.

Rainbow nodded and pointed back up at Octavia. “Yeah, we got that kid!”

Octavia’s brow furrowed. “Hold on a moment,” she muttered, away from the bullhorn. She stepped away from the window and, after a few seconds, she came back with a list. Bringing the microphone back up to her chin, she said. “WE DON’T HAVE SOMEONE NAMED ‘FIRST BASE’ ON OUR TEAM! YOUR TRADE IS INVALID.”

Rainbow’s face fell. “Wait… what?” she muttered.

“NICE TRY. MY OFFER STILL STANDS, RAINBOW DASH. YOUR FLAG FOR—”

‘You shoot me down, but I won't fall
I am tita~ni~um
You shoot me down but I won't fall
I am tita~ni~um’

To her surprise and embarrassment, Octavia’s phone began to ring. Vinyl immediately burst out laughing. “Is that you singing Titanium?!”

Octavia, her face flushed, forwent the bullhorn and simply yelled down at her. “Sh-shut up! It’s a good song and it fits my vocal range!” She swiftly reached into her coat pocket and pulled out her cell phone. 

“Hello?” she said sweetly, though laced with venom. “What? You’re bluffing!” Less sweet, more venom. “Well I don’t believe you. There’s no way you… WHAT?!” Dropping her bullhorn, Octavia vanished from the window. In a matter of seconds, she threw open the front doors and ran to the side of the building.

While she was doing that, another ringtone echoed out. A pulsing electronic dubstep beat began pumping through the yard. It was at least twice as loud as Octavia’s ringtone. 

“My BBBFF always came over to remind me
That being stuck in the same room reading books not at all healthy
But my mind was focused and my patience already depleted
So I kept on reading and reading and reading, reading!”

Vinyl gave a light headbang to the fact paced electronic lyrics until the dubstep took the beat back over. Rainbow grinned and looked down at Vinyl’s coat pocket. “Is that The Living Tombstone?” she said, almost yelling to be heard over the music.

Vinyl reached into her pocket and nodded. “Yeah, he let me do a set with him a few months ago. Better than Octy’s song that’s for sure.” Cutting the song, she brought the phone up to her ear. “Wubsup!” she greeted. Her grin vanished instantly. “What? You can’t find it? Didn’t you call me earlier and… what?”

Sunset, Rainbow, Pinkie and everyone else simply stared on in confusion. Once again, another ring tone echoed out. 

Give me a smidge of confidence
Give me a speck of something that makes sense
Give me an idea of dependency
Give me a dash of loyalty (Lo~ya~lty~)

Rainbow fished out her phone and looked down at the caller ID. “Hey Applejack, what’s up?”

“Hey… umm… sugarcube… we got us a problem here…”
	
	
> CH10: The Ice Forever Frozen
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Rainbow, Vinyl, Octavia, Sunset, and Lyra all burst through the doors to Sugarcube Corner, only to see Button Mash sitting on a chair, one leg folded over the other, on top of a table, in the middle of the store. The Crusaders, Thunderlane, Rumble, Deep Fry, Dinky, Featherweight, Pipsqueak, First Base, Ditzy, and a rather beat up looking box all sat in chairs around him. Every single one of them looked either victorious, cheery, or smug.

Button Mash himself was fanning himself with three flags. 

Scootaloo chuckled. “ ‘Bout time you all got here.”

Rainbow struggled to speak with her jaw hanging near the ground. “Bwa… H... how?” Her gaze drifted over to the corner of the store where Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and a very angry-looking Angel sat.”

Octavia stepped forward, trying her best to compose herself. “Would… would you mind explaining to us how you managed to sweep three of the four flags in one day?”

Lyra looked down at her watch. “It’s five thirty. We have to stop by six anyway.”

Vinyl turned to Lyra, her shades slipping off her face. “Yeah but we have a whole ‘nother day!” Vinyl readjusted her shades, grabbed a seat, and turned back to Button. “So, kid. How’d you do it?”

Button’s face lit up in the most smug way possible. “Well, mortal, I’ll tell you if you must know. Though, you’ll need to grace your knees and bow first.”

“Button!” everyone sitting around his table warned. Applebloom continued. “We let you sit on the table. Don’t push it.”

Button rolled his eyes. “Fine, spoilsports.” Button pointed out the window to Silver Spoon, who flinched in response. “The mall was easy, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon basically gave Fry their flag.”

“What?!” Diamond screamed, her voice muffled by the window. 

Octavia ignored them. “Explain.”

The Crusaders quickly raised their hands. “Oh! Ohh!” Sweetie urged. “I know. This one was our idea. Well... we gave him the info anyway. We knew that Diamond Tiara would be lazy and just give the flag to someone to hide. I guessed that it would be Snips and Snails and that they wouldn’t hide it right. Then when Diamond figured it out she would get upset and tell someone else to do it. Button made sure Deep Fry was the one she gave it to.”

Button shook his head. “Didn’t even make sure he was on their team.” He glanced towards the window and noted that Tiara and Spoon were gone.

“How did you get past Fluttershy’s animals?” demanded Rainbow. 

Everyone in Button’s group groaned while Buttom himself lit up like a light bulb. “Here it comes... Again,” muttered Scootaloo.

He reached down and plucked the brown box from its seat. “SECRET WEAPON!” he screamed, staring directly at Pip and Featherweight. “TOLD YOU!” Smug as a rug, he sat back down in his seat. “Get ready, this is the interesting part.”

~~~

While Rarity opened the door to go inside, four figures came out of the shadows beside the candy shop. Silently, Button motioned for two of his more rowdy friends to run around towards the front, following Rarity. Meanwhile, he and the ever silent Featherweight ran around to the back of the store.

Featherweight poked Button on his shoulder. When he turned around all he saw was his friend’s skeptical face as he pointed to the large box Button was still hefting around.

“Ugh,” Button groaned. “Will you just trust me? This box could be the deciding factor between victory and failure.” Featherweight shrugged, still apprehensive, but willing to roll with it. 

He and Button stopped by the backdoor of the store. After making sure it was unlocked, Button pulled out his phone and sent a text to the group at the front door.

A small vibration caused Pip to check his phone. It read, “Are they back yet?”

Pip looked around, seeing no signs of Rainbow’s group returning. “Nope, looks like Thunderlane did it.”

New message. “Are you two ready?”

Pip looked to Dinky, who nodded. He replied. “Now or never!”

“GO!”

With that, Pip and Dinky burst through the doors and instantly alerted the residents inside. “First Mate, retrieve the treasure!” yelled Pip, pointing forwards.

“Aye-Aye!” she answered, darting straight towards Fluttershy whom had pulled out her phone. With surprising speed she snatched it out of the girl’s hand.

Rarity watched in shock. “What are you two doing?! This is not part of the game!”

Pip popped up behind her, grabbing her purse and holding it hostage. “Yes it is. You just have to stop us before we can grab the flag and leave with it!” He waved the purse tauntingly. “In addition to this other bountiful booty.” Rarity dove down to catch him but it was no use; both he and Dinky had retreated to the other side of the store. 

Fluttershy, panicking, turned from the two of them to the flag behind them. “Angel, little critters, could you please protect the flag while we tag those two?”

Angel, his two bunny friends, and Ms. Slither, all gave a sort of salute to her. Those four animals were the only ones the Cakes allowed Fluttershy, after much convincing, to help her. So long as they didn’t go into the kitchen that is.

Meanwhile, no one noticed the inconspicuous box that had appeared next to the doorway leading into the kitchen.

Angel Bunny looked on in amusement as the two wily kids made fools of the girls. However, just when he was about to silently laugh at the silly humans, something bonked him on the head and he instantly went on the defensive. Putting both of his paws out to cover the flag, he looked around for anything.  His gaze finally located the small wrapped mint by his foot.

He picked it up with a curious look. Another something bonked him in the head and he found another piece of candy. Now annoyed, he directed the other animals to his position. Bringing them out of their corners, all of them formed a protective barrier around the flag. Angel desperately looked for the source of the disturbance. 

Angel was a smart bunny. He was looking directly at the kids, and the candy had come from a different direction. Therefore, he came to the conclusion that the kids were not alone. Angel trained his eyes on anything that could hide a person from him. His eyes darted from the counter, to a large box that could’ve sworn wasn't there before, to the kitchen. 

From his position in the back of the store by the flag, he could see nearly everything in the store, so those places were the only things that could hide from his superior bunny vision.

He hesitantly left his place by the flag, wordlessly ordering one of his bunny friends to cover him. 

Cautiously, Angel hopped over to the counter to check if someone was hiding behind it.

Button, still under his box, peaked out through a small hole he had made. Suddenly, a small vibration buzzed through his coat pocket. He was quick to answer it. 

Angel’s ears perked up just as he was about to check the counter. He had heard something, though he was not sure what. But it was something that came from the box. Narrowing his eyes, he hopped over to the box and began to inspect it. He moved around the perimeter of the piece and sniffed it. It smelled to him like oranges… and pizza.

Another noise caught his ear, this time from the opposite direction. Scowling, Angel hopped in the other direction, convinced someone was messing with him.

Button let loose a silent breath of relief. He had just received a text from First Base, telling him that he had been captured like he planned and they were nearly back. He didn’t expect Angel to hear the silent vibration and nearly panicked when he noticed Angel snooping around his box. So he hurriedly forwarded the message to Featherweight, along with the message to get ready for the next step.

“And stop messing with Angel!” From his hiding spot, Featherweight frowned when he read the message.

Over in the front half of the store, Fluttershy and Rarity had finally gotten their stuff back and had tagged Pip and Dinky.

Rarity huffed and directed the two to sit on the couch by the window. “My word! Dinky, wait until I tell your sister about your behaviour!” Dinky just giggled in response. Rarity went back to her seat next to Fluttershy.

Fluttershy herself let out a little sigh. Unlocking her phone, she got ready to text her friends. However, Applejack and Soarin just happened to enter the store at that moment. 

The cowgirl looked on with confusion. Rarity was frustrated and fixing her hair while Fluttershy looked beyond winded.

“What in’na hay happened here?” she asked. Rarity simply pointed to Dinky and Pip. Applejack just chuckled and walked over to them while nudging First Base over to join them on the couch. “Tried to get the jump on us did'ja?” None of the kids responded. She walked back over to her seat. “Well joke’s on you. Now you guys’ll hafta wait till someone not captured tags you before you can go play in the snow.”

Pip, Dinky and Base all looked at one another with devious smiles. “Alright!” they cheered like horned angels.

To every teens’ surprise, Featherweight dropped from the ceiling in front of the kids. Light as his namesake, he barely even made a sound as he touched down. The girls sat in shock as Featherweight proceeded to high five all three kids, freeing them like they had said.

The three freed players proceeded to dash to the back of the store towards the flag! Applejack and Rarity quickly jumped out of their chairs and ran after them.

Easily hopping over Angel and the other animals, Pip grabbed the flag and tossed it back towards the front, over the girls' heads. They turned to see Featherweight, who had not moved, catch it. Fluttershy stood in front of him nervously.

“Umm… could you please give that back?” she asked.

Featherweight looked at her, then at the flag, then he tossed the flag in the air when Applejack dove at him. He easily hopped over her and caught it as it fell. Though, when he landed, Rarity was waiting to tag him. Before she could, the boy tossed it over her head and towards Dinky. When Rarity turned around to get her, Pip unfroze Featherweight with another high five.

Almost immediately, the chase turned into one large game of freeze tag inside the store. Applejack, Rarity, and Soarin would close in on one of the kids, only for them to toss the flag on before their capture. In the teens’ haste to follow the flag, another child would swoop by to unfreeze their captured comrade. 

Fluttershy spent the majority of the time trying to plead with them as best she could, only to be ignored.  Eventually, she simply resorted to guarding the door while Rarity tried her best to keep an eye on the back exit in addition to chasing the kids in and out of the kitchen. The animals also jumped into the fray, distracting and stalling the kids in order to help the girls.

In the ruckus, Sugarcube Corner’s flag must have changed hands more than two dozen times, at least two hidden party canons were prematurely triggered, one or more donuts may have gone missing from the kitchen, and an inconspicuous box was trampled by at least three different sets of winter boots.

Finally, after several minutes of giving them the runaround, all four kids found themselves on the couch, flagless. Applejack and the others slumped back in their seats, exhausted. 

“Whoowee!” said Applejack, grinning widely. “That was one heck of a chase. You all ain't half bad. Reminds me of pig catchin’ in a rodeo tournament.”

Dinky turned to Pip and whispered, “Did she just call us pigs?” Pip shrugged.

Soarin glanced back to the animals who had also seemed exhausted. “Hey girls…” The others looked towards him… “Where’s the flag?” 

The store went deathly silent when each of them realized that, at some point, everyone simply gave up on running to wherever the flag was tossed, and simply focused on trying to catch the kids. 

Rarity turned to the kids with a scrutinous glare. “Do any of you have it? Fess up.”

All of the kids emptied their pockets and shook their heads. Applejack groaned and got up to look for it. None of them noticed that the box that was sitting by the kitchen entrance through the entire duration of the chase was gone.

Button scooted his way out the door. His box was a little beat up from Base and Pip jumping off of him—twice each—during the chase, but he viewed it as a necessary pain. Tossing the box off he grinned as he held the flag in his grip. He waited outside, listening to the people inside struggle to find his flag. 

After a few minutes, Deep Fry made his way over to him, huffing in exhaustion. In his hand was another flag.

~~~

Button nodded, looking down from his improvised throne. “And that’s how we did it.”

Octavia, Vinyl, Lyra and a bunch of other players had all taken seats around the table while Sunset and Rainbow had joined their friends.  During Button’s story, the entire store became packed with cold players, recuperating from their snow-time fun. Pinkie, like the good worker she was, ran around providing hot chocolates and coffee. All of the players had looked either impressed, frustrated, or a mix of the two.

Octavia herself was glowering at him. “Y-you abused the rules!” She pulled out the rule book and pointed out a specific rule. “Not to mention your teammates cheated. ‘When tagged while holding the flag, the tagged player must leave the flag where it is and return to their side’s home base before resuming active combat’.” Octavia grinned madly.

Button simply nodded. “True, true. But none of them were tagged while holding the flag.”

Rainbow turned to Applejack who shrugged. “It’s true, they kept on tossing the flag back an’ forth before we could up an’ catch ‘em. Reminded me of this game we played in elementary. That monkey keep away game.” She refilled her coffee and took a long sip from it. “Personally, Ah don’t mind. It was fun.”

Rarity scoffed. “Speak for yourself! I came inside for some peace and quiet. Now I’m tired and sweaty!” she whined.

Button and his group laughed. Thunderlane pointed to their leader. “Even so, Button was the one to take the flag outside in the end. He was never tagged.”

Octavia looked like she was about to tear the rule book in half. Luckily, she calmed down enough to set it back in her pocket. After a deep breath she continued. “Ahem… fine… One more question then. I hid my flag in a barely visible spot near the storm drain in the corner of the school. How in the world did you find it?” she demanded.

“You told us,” answered Button.

Octavia gave him a blank look. “Beg pardon?”

Button stood up and pointed towards the kitchen. “May I announce our OTHER secret weapon!”

Everyone turned to see Coco Pommel bashfully sneak her head out of the kitchen. A grinning Pinkie Pie gestured to her to add to the drama. Then once the surprise had worn off, she then set off some party poppers to add to the comedy of the whole ordeal.

“Coco!” yelled Sunset, running over to her. Before Coco knew what was happening, Sunset had wrapped her up in a big hug. “Where have you been?!” 

Sunset quickly realized what she was doing and let her go, blushing furiously. “S...sorry. I mean… yeah.”

Coco, also slightly red, gave her a small smile. “I was helping Button’s group. When Thunderlane caught me, I was about to throw him off when he whispered that it was just part of the game. He explained everything to me before we met Octavia.” Sunset gave her a weird look. “I let myself be captured since I didn’t want to ruin it,” she clarified. Coco gave her an apologetic look. “Did I worry you?”

Sunset turned away from her and muttered. “N-no. I was just playing along.” Sunset moved back to the table, scooting over to make room for Coco to sit next to her. Sunset tried her best to ignore the others’ snickering and Octavia’s death glare.

If she had looked, Sunset would have seen that Octavia’s glare was actually directed at Coco. Octavia quickly turned to Pinkie who was still behind the counter. “Miss Pie, she broke a Pinkie promise!” she yelled, pointing at Coco.

Everyone around her pointed moved a few seats away from Coco, much to her confusion. To Sunset’s credit, she held her ground beside her friend, but looked very nervous.

Coco’s confusion turned to fear when she noticed Pinkie staring at her with narrowed, unblinking eyes.

After a few seconds, Pinkie smiled and looked back to Octavia. “No she didn’t.”

“What?” gasped Octavia. “Yes she did, she told someone—”

“No, you did,” said Button, interrupting her.

Octavia was about to argue when Apple Bloom held up her cell phone, and gaped when Coco held up hers. Octavia quickly connected the dots and slumped back in her seat, realizing that she’d been outsmarted.

Vinyl burst out laughing. “We got punked by a 13-year old!” Soon enough Lyra joined her.

Next to her, Bon Bon was still fuming. She smacked Lyra on the back of her head, stopping her laughter. “This is partially your fault you know.”

Lyra gave her a hurt look. “What? Why me?”

BonBon slumped in her chair and pouted. “If you hadn't given that brat her rematch we’d have at least one flag.

Lyra patted her shoulder and gave her a comforting look. “We could always try to take Sweet Apple Acres’ flag. Actually…” she turned to face Applejack. “Aren’t there some people still throwing snowballs at the farm?”

Applejack nodded and sipped her coffee. “Yeah, but that's mostly where people and kids who aren't playing the game are.”

Pinkie hopped onto the table and grabbed Button in a tight hug. “Plus, this one’s already got three of them!” Button, suddenly engulfed in the pink one’s cushy chest, blushed, unaware of Sweetie Belle’s jealous stare.

Octavia sighed. “How did you come up with such a reckless plan and make it work? I can’t even count how many things could’ve gone wrong.”

Button, after shoving Pinkie away and refilling his lungs with air, finally showed a moment of humility. “Well, really they were all three separate plans that I took from some of my strategy games. I was actually only trying to get one or two. A lot of stuff happened that I didn’t account for.” He pointed at First Base. “For one, he joined at the last second.”

Base raised his hand. “I just wanted to hit Sunset,” he admitted. Almost everyone in the room nodded in agreement. Sunset sat her head on the table in shame.

“So you just got lucky,” deadpanned Octavia.

Vinyl finally calmed down and gave him a thumbs up. “I guess so, he’s got a pretty big brain in that game system of a head.”

Octavia stood up. “Well, no helping it then… Though you must realize,” she directed a fiercely competitive gaze at Button, a matching grin gracing her face, “that tomorrow everyone in this room will be aiming for you and your flags now.”

The Crusaders gave the other players nervous looks. Button simply stood up and raised the flags high. “Come at me bro!” he yelled. 

The entire room burst out in cheers. Sunset simply looked around curiously, her brow rose in confusion. “Why is everyone so excited over some stupid flags?” she wondered.

Coco, sitting next to her, leaned over to answer. “It not about the flags, it’s the game. People have fun with the challenge.” She got an excited look in her eye. “It’s like the people in this town somehow mixed hide and seek, tag, snowball fights, and like... every other fun game!”

Sunset looked around at all of the other excited kids. Some of them, like Rainbow, were drafting plans, others were just excited for more snow tossing tomorrow. Sunset wondered how much of this she had missed when she hid away every year. To her it had all been just yelling and annoying snow slamming against her window. She smiled. “I guess so.”

~~~

Rainbow leaned over the table excitedly. “So then Big Mac and I just jump over and grab two pieces of a snowman. I toss mine at Soarin and he throws his at Caramel. While they’re digging themselves out of the snow, we swoop in and grab the flags. Then Caramel jumps out of nowhere and—”

Sunset, still listening in on Rainbow’s epic victory tale from last year, caught something out of the corner of her eye. During the after party, she had noticed that some people were staring at her oddly, but those were just the normal stares she usually got. However, now she noticed that someone was leveling a glare at her that could evaporate glaciers. 

Octavia met her eye for a split second before turning away. She said something to Vinyl and stood up to leave. Sunset, remembering her promise to Vinyl, excused herself from her seat and followed Octavia out of the store.

“Octavia wait!” called Sunset, letting the door close behind her. Octavia stopped in her tracks, her back still turned. Sunset opened her mouth to say something, but found her mouth dry and barren. A cold breeze blew through the streetlamp lit area. Sunset’s wavering slowly ceased. She knew what she had to say, but then she began to wonder if it would even help. 

Regardless, she knew it was worth a try. “I—”

“What do you want?” Octavia began, her voice colder than any of the ice surrounding them. “Ahh, yes, I suppose it has been awhile since you last approached me like this. Sorry, I don’t have my cello on me. I suppose you’ll have to pick something else to make fun of.”

Sunset folded her arms nervously. “Octavia… look… I know that some of the things I did to you were bad but—”

“Bad?!” Octavia nearly screamed, turning to look at her. “You don’t know the meaning if you’re using something that trivial. You robbed me of everything I held dear. I didn’t do a thing to you and you… you...” Octavia trailed off. Finally, she took a calm breath to compose herself. “I don’t know what you’re pulling at, trying to make up for what you’ve done. But, no matter what you do, I still can’t stand you.”

Sunset flinched back from her fierce gaze. “I’m…” she began, her voice rising from a faint whisper. “I’m sorry for what happened that day. You were right… about everything. But I’ve changed I—”

Octavia’s brow furrowed. “No…” she said, low and dangerous. “No you haven't, I still see the same girl. You’re still the same meretricious one-dimensional drama queen you were the last time you approached me. The only difference is that instead of you taking out your issues on the students just to feel like you have some power over them, you try to apologize and play the remorseful act. Then when all is said and done you act like that will make up for what you did before then.”

“But I am sorry!” yelled Sunset, sounding as genuine as she could.

“But being sorry won’t bring back what you took from me will it?” Octavia shot back. Sunset’s head fell dejectedly and Octavia ground her teeth. “Answer me!” she screamed.

“N-no...” answered Sunset. Still looking down at the ground, Sunset could hear the soft crunching of the other girl’s boots on the snow heading away from her. However, when the crunching stopped, Sunset glanced back up.

Octavia stopped one final time to address Sunset. “Do you want to know what my new year’s resolution will be?” Sunset gave no answer, instead she waited for the girl to finish on her own. “It’s to make sure you finally deal with the full consequences of your actions.”

Sunset watched as the girl calmly left, leaving her alone in the dark streets.
	
> CH11: Abandon Ship!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As she lay on her back, wrapped in the warmth of her blanket, Sunset struggled not to move a muscle. For the past few minutes after opening her eyes, this had been her only goal lest she be reminded of the soreness in her limbs. 

It was blatantly evident that the final few hours of yesterday’s snowball war took their toll on her body, especially when there were some people who refused to let up on her. Sunset swore in her head that she would come across more than a few bruises on her body if she ever got up from under her sheets long enough to check. 

Contrary to her previous assumptions, Ditzy Doo had Coco-level throwing strength. Plus, when Pinkie got her sister, Maud, to come out… it was just game over for everyone. It came to no one’s surprise when Maud took the flag from Sweet Apple Acres by herself, going through AJ, Sunset, and even plowing through Big Macintosh himself. Literally, if eye witness reports from fleeing children were to be believed. But it was to everyone’s surprise when, at the last moment, Dinky and Pip betrayed Button to take one from him and give it to Ditzy.

It was a an... interesting day. And tiring, definitely tiring.

Even so, Sunset supposed that she did have fun in the end. If anything, letting some people get out some of their pent up aggression on her was the least she could do. It might have actually helped her standing in the students’ eyes.

“All except Octavia,” she muttered, thinking back to the event two days prior. The cellist's final words continued to thrash around in her skull. After returning inside and being reminded of the cheery atmosphere, Sunset had decided to keep their confrontation to herself. 

Sunset lifted a sore arm up from out of her cocoon and draped it over her face. “I know I need to tell them but…” she sighed, trailing off. “Maybe I can talk to Vinyl about it.”

Unwilling to let herself be buried under negative thoughts while there were still other things to stress over, Sunset decided that maybe it was time to get up. 

“What time is it,” she wondered. Moving her arm, she looked out the window. Doing so proved to be fairly a fruitless effort, as the clouds still covered the sky a bit too much to get an accurate reading on the sun’s position. Even so, there was enough daylight piercing the grey veil that Sunset could tell that it was at least late morning.

She turned towards the closed door curiously. “Actually, forget the sun, where’s Coco?” By this point, Sunset was so used to the girl coming in to check on her or say ‘good morning’ it felt weird that she hadn’t come in yet. “Coco always leaves the door cracked though. She’s probably sleeping in… Good for her.” 

Feeling that her reasoning was solid, Sunset turned over in her bed and attempted to return to sleep. It was still cold, and she was still the world's first hibernating unicorn-turned-human.

It wasn’t more than two minutes later when Sunset began to feel a strange longing in her gut. She knew right away it wasn't hunger. All Sunset knew, was that she was curious to see what Coco looked like while asleep. 

In the time they’d lived together, Sunset had noticed that Coco could somehow managed to stay up half the night working of designs, sleep only three or four hours a day, and yet still get up looking completely well rested. Never once had Sunset been able to stay awake longer than her. Not even at the slumber party they had at Pinkie’s.

Sunset imagined her splayed out on the bed, covers strewn everywhere except over her. She could envision Coco simply passed out on the comforter with half of her body hanging over the side of the bed and snoring louder than Rainbow Dash. Her hair a total mess of curls and knots, looking nowhere near as straight and prim like it usually was. 

Sunset snickered at the impossibility of such an image. “No, wait,” she gasped. “Maybe she sleeps like Rarity,” she muttered. “All tucked in while lying on her back with a blindfold on.”

Thinking of Rarity, her snickering stopped abruptly. “Wait… maybe she just sits at her desk all night working… then just falls asleep there. Rarity does that sometimes. Or maybe she just falls on her bed and passes out.”

Sunset went silent for a moment, mulling her thoughts over. “I gotta see…” she finally concluded. When she did, the strange feeling disappeared as mysteriously as it appeared.

Finally coming to a decision, Sunset slowly began to open her cloth cocoon, tingling as the cold met her skin. Her resolve weakened momentarily as she considered leaving it for a warmer day.

Then, another thought entered her mind. She remembered how Coco always tried to wake her up whenever she slept in, not to mention always leaving out extra breakfast and making fresh coffee… 

“Maybe I should get something ready for her this time,” she reasoned.

In the end, Sunset decided that if Coco was still asleep she’d surprise her with breakfast... as a thank you of course. Her new positive conscience in full swing, Sunset pulled her resolve together and, in one fell swoop, threw all of her covers off at once. She lay there for a second, deeply regretting her decision, before finally getting up, crossing the clean carpeted floor, and quickly heading towards the door.

~~~

Carefully, Sunset crept closer to Coco’s closed beige-colored bedroom door. Bracing her back against the wall, Sunset brazenly pushed closer towards the entrance. Before opening it, her still positive conscience warned her that she should at least knock. Fortunately, common sense kicked in and said that it would defeat the purpose of what she was out to do. 

The girl set one ear against the wood and listened.

Silence.

Sunset knew that she didn’t have the hearing power she used to, now with human ears, but she still valued her above average hearing ability. Plus, with her up, and the house dead silent, it was incredibly easy to listen through the wooden door.

Sunset closed her eyes and opened her ears to hear anything. Her soft breathing? Her light or possibly muffled snoring? Nothing. She even listened for the sound of the shifting covers or the faint creek of her old wooden bed… Still nothing.

Perhaps, Coco was awake and at her table. On this reasoning, Sunset listened for the sound of a pencil scratching on paper, or even for the small hmm’s or ahh’s the designer made when doing so. Sunset listened for anything that would give her a clue of whether or not she was in there.

In the end, Sunset decided to simply go ahead and open the door a crack. With a turn of the brass knob, and the slight creek of the wood. Sunset slowly peeked into the room and looked around.

Coco’s room was, in a sense, both more full, and yet, more empty, than Sunset’s room. Where Sunset had a mid-sized, mostly blue, abode with a bookshelf, table, television, and bed, Coco’s room seemed to be a larger sized one, furnished to be a more creme color than Sunset’s room. Its walls were cheerfully adorned with posters of beautiful dresses, gorgeous models, and… creepy looking ghouls. Sunset stared at those for a while before shrugging and deciding not to question it, figuring that everyone had their strange tastes. 

Despite the room’s larger size, when Coco wasn't working on a dress, all of her materials, models and tools were put away neatly, either in her closet or, oddly enough, under her bed. This made the room as a whole look more empty at first glance than it really was. 

When the girl was working or practicing, however, Sunset could remember barely having a place to stand while she and Rainbow were being fitted for their Daring Do outfits.

Another cursory glance brought Coco’s work table into view. Sunset moved on. Even with a brief glance, it was obvious that Coco wasn't working on anything special as everything was as pristine and neat as could be. Nothing was out of place in her room and even the bed was made.

Sunset raised an eyebrow in confusion. Her ears rang true as there was no sign of anything in the room. 

Curious, Sunset looked back down the hall towards her room. Seeing that she wouldn’t be getting the chance to wake Coco up for once, Sunset cut her losses.

“Coco, you here?” she called out. Waiting, Sunset was met with another deft silence. Walking downstairs, Sunset checked the living room and dining room. Nothing. Both bathroom doors were open so she obviously wasn't there either. She tried calling one more time. “Coco, we have to figure out what we’re gonna get the others. Where are you!”

Reasoning that she may have been outside or hanging with their friends, Sunset simply returned to her room to grab her phone. As she did so, Sunset decided to make some breakfast and headed for the kitchen.

As the phone began to dial, Sunset stepped into the kitchen and saw something interesting. Sitting on the table was a single piece of paper.

Picking it up, Sunset read the note silently:



“Dear, Sunset Squash (How do you like it, lol!)

Like I said, I have to go spend the break with my family back in Manehatten. I thought I would be leaving tomorrow but they called me up last night and told me to make the trip early this morning.

I would’ve told you when it had happened, but you were so exhausted, you just passed out as soon as you got home. When I came to check on you later you had just thrown all of your clothes and covers off and sat there splayed out on your bed. At some point in the night you must have got up, because you picked up your covers and wrapped yourself up again. 

You sleep really weird by the way. (I think I heard you whinny once. It was so cute!) But at least you looked like you had a lot of fun yesterday. You should’ve seen yourself, smiling and laughing even when you got hit with the snow. Oh! And the snow was also beautiful. I hope it’s still here when I get back.

By the way, I’ll be back around the third of the new year. My parents want to spend New Year’s together, but next year I’ll get to spend both holidays with you and the rest of my new friends. Isn’t that wonderful?!

Again, I’m sorry I couldn’t say this face to face, I didn’t have the heart to wake you up. Have fun, and I hope you figure out what to get the others. In the end it’s all from the heart.

Love,
Coco Pommel

P.S: Please don’t stay cooped up inside all day. Go hang out at Sugarcube Corner at least.”



Sunset stared at the note, wide eyed. By her ear, Sunset’s phone had finally stopped ringing and hit Coco’s voicemail, cheerfully telling her to leave a message before beeping. Her arm holding the phone fell to her side.

She had completely forgotten about Coco leaving. She did say that she would leave at some point before Christmas, during the first few days of the break.

Suddenly, the nostalgic silence of the large house began to feel much more suffocating. Its vacant presence finally beginning to dawn on her, Sunset looked up from the letter. The kitchen was just as clean, if not cleaner than Coco’s own room. 

“Wait a sec’,” she muttered, looking back at the letter. “I threw my clothes everywhere?” Sunset thought back to the room she crossed on the way out. There wasn't a single article anywhere on the floor. She then thought back to all of the other rooms. While the living room and dining room were never all that dirty, things did seem a bit more.. in place. Stunned, Sunset glanced at the letter once more. “D... did she clean the house before she left?”

Sunset couldn’t quite place it, but her chest began to feel tight and an old feeling started to creep in. Not letting them in, Sunset took a deep breath. In… and out. She would be back, and in the meantime, Sunset had other problems to deal with, namely… what to do now.

She could go to the mall and find a present that fit her friends’ multiple criteria… She shook her head. The mall, by herself? She’d burn it down without Coco. She could hang out with the girls at Sugarcube Corner, but the Cakes had came back and saw what had happened to the dining area during, the, now infamous, “Button’s Last Stand” event that happened yesterday. The girls were still cleaning up everything that crazy kid did. Sunset had offered to help today but… 

Well they didn’t outright deny her, but she could see it in their expressions; reluctance in their faces, distrust in their eyes, and nervousness in their voice.

Sunset walked into the living room and sat down. The living room had the basic things a living room needed. A single grey couch that she was resting on, and a single grey recliner with a moderately sized television to watch. 

Interestingly, the television itself wasn’t native to the house before Coco showed up. She brought it with her, among a few other things, when her luggage arrived. It was mostly used whenever Rainbow or the others came over to play video games or watch movies, otherwise both this screen, and the one in her room—also donated by Coco—were rarely used.

Usually, they’d spend the day talking, reading, or going out of the house. Even though it had only been a few months, Sunset found that she couldn’t recall what she used to do before having friends besides reading or studying alone. She would go back to work, but her boss had closed the place for the winter.

Sunset sighed, and leaned her elbow on the armrest.

“Oh no… she looks so sad.” 

Sunset’s head snapped up and swiveled around, swearing she heard something.

“I don’t know what to do…”

There it was again! Sunset’s head honed in on the extremely quiet whispering coming from the entrance out to the hallway. Frowning, Sunset stood up and quietly made her way over to the doorway. Peeking her head through she came upon a familiar girl crouched, back turned, a few feet into the hall.

~~~

Coco sighed and continued to whisper into her phone. “I don’t know, Rainbow Dash. I thought you said this would be funny, but she looks so lonely right now... I feel bad.” 

A brief bit a static came through as Rainbow sighed into her phone. “Come on, she can’t be that upset…. Anyway if it didn’t work then just end the joke and go in there. Say sorry if you have to.”

Coco shook her head dejectedly. “I can’t just walk in there now… what if she’s mad at—”

There was a small ding from Rainbow’s end, cutting Coco off. “Oh, speak of the she-demon. I just got a text from her.”

Coco’s spirits lifted slightly. “A text from Sunset? What’s it say?”

“Gimmie a sec.” There were a few beeps as rainbow opened the message. “It says... ‘tell Coco to turn around?’ What does that… oh… Gottagohelpcleanupgoodluck!” And with that, Rainbow promptly hung up the phone, leaving a confused Coco Pommel alone on the line.

“Wait she texted you to tell me to—” Coco shivered as a sudden chill went down her spine and a shadow slowly loomed over her. Slowly, Coco turned around to see Sunset, cellphone gripped tightly in her hand, standing over her. Her expression was flat and unreadable, but Coco still feared the worst.

Coco gulped and stammered out, “G-good morning?”

~~~

Sunset sipped her coffee, a satisfying slurp echoing through the otherwise awkward silence. Sitting on the other side of the kitchen table, Coco held her head down, looking very much like a child ready to listen to a lecture they knew they deserved.

Sunset stared at her, she had looked like that for the past few minutes. “Coco… I told you, I’m not mad.”

“I’m still sorry though,” she countered, looking up at her with honest eyes “It was a mean joke.”

Sunset sighed and peered into the black brew in front of her. “In your defense, I did deserve it. I did the same thing to you. I was worse actually, I tricked you… At least you told me last week.” She took another sip. “Speaking of which, when do you actually leave.”

Coco nervously fidgeted in her chair. “Tomorrow…” Sunset looked down for a second then opened her mouth to say something, but before anything came out, Coco cut her off. “But not until noon because of the snow. So... I should still be able to say goodbye in person to everyone.”

Sunset gave her a small smile and said, “I guess that’s good,” and continued to drink her warm coffee.

Still slightly mischievous, Cooco chucked, gaining an odd look from Sunset. Smirking up at her with a light blush on her cheeks, Coco asked. “So… you really wanted to watch me sleep?” Sunset, still slurping, nearly spit her drink all over the table.

By the time Coco helped Sunset to stop choking, Sunset had a beet red face and refused to comment on Coco’s remark. 

Coco, despite feeling bad, still couldn’t suppress a small grin. Being the considerate friend she was, she changed the topic. “So... Christmas is almost here, I think I figured out something we could get for our friends.”

Sunset, patted her chest and took a deep breath. After being messed with so much in one day, she looked at her with nothing but a flat look and a raised brow, silently asking her to continue. “I was talking to Ditzy yesterday, and she told me that if we couldn’t buy anything, we could make something by hand instead.”

Sunset rolled her. “That makes sense, but we’d have to make something for all of them. Plus, what would we make?”

Coco shrugged shyly, her initial confidence waning a bit. “I was hoping you would know something they would like. I could help you make it before I have to leave if you can come up with an idea.” She gave Sunset and bashful grin. “I’m good at designing clothes for others, I’m not so good at recreational ideas.

Sunset leaned back in her seat and thought about it. “Well, Rarity wanted something visually appealing but also meaningful. Applejack wanted something useful, Fluttershy wants something from the heart. Pinkie wants something fun and Rainbow wants something I know she’ll love. I know the kinds of gifts each one wants but I know there’s a slim chance we’ll be able to please all of those with whatever we decide to make.” 

She frowned and stared down into her almost empty cup. “Not to mention we took so long trying to figure out what to get them that now we’ve backed ourselves into having a time limit.”

Coco listened on, having faith that Sunset could work out the problem. 

Sunset continued speaking her thoughts aloud. “In the interest of saving time we would have to make six things that are all relatively simple and similar, but also customizable to fit the individual and unique to only them.”

Coco counted in her head. “Wait… six?”

Sunset looked up at her, smiling brightly. “Well, of course I have to make you something too. You are one of my friends.” Coco blushed and her resulting smile could’ve replaced the sun at that moment. 

Sunset went back to thinking. Soon enough her own face lit up in a burst of brilliance. “Wait, I got it! Something I could make that no one else could!” 

Jumping up, Sunset ran towards her room. Stopping at the stairs, Sunset turned back to Coco, who had followed her into the hall. “Come on,” she said, beaming, “we need to get to the mall!”
	
> CH12: Missing Pieces
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Agh!” Sunset hissed, glaring at the bandage on her middle finger. Obviously, sewing needed to be left to the pros, or so she had learned the previous day. For now, however, she faced another dilemma.

Namely, getting her snow boots onto her foot without pinching her injured fingers. Sitting at the edge of her bed, Sunset carefully slid her foot down into the shoe, when it finally slid on, she let out a small sigh. Surprisingly, she felt a little disappointed, and almost considered taking it back off. Even so, she knew in her heart that wasting time wouldn’t put off what was going to happen when she was fully dressed. 

After all, Sunset knew that today an important piece of her, admittedly still fragile, life was about to go away for a while. At least that’s how it felt to her. She knew that Coco would be back in half a moon, but it still felt like she was losing a friend.

Her grey thoughts were interrupted with a rather large yawn. Stretching, she fell back on her bed and silently stared at the bright azure ceiling that she had grown so very used to. Thinking back, she realized that she missed looking at it in the morning during her stay in the school library.

A small nostalgic smile formed on Sunset’s lips, and she realized that she had really grown fond of this room. She especially loved it during winter days when the actual sky was covered by the dreary gray snow clouds. 

Sunset loved the bright sky the same way she loved the actual sunset. Honestly, she loved the sky in general. Its stunning appearance, its ever expansive horizon, and the fact that, as the day progresses, it only grows in its fervent artistry. If she could, Sunset would’ve painted a few white splotches in various places to simulate clouds. 

Of course, she knew that motionless white spots could never come close to capturing the ever changing—nay—the ever evolving quality that actual clouds brought to her favorite canvas. In the end, Sunset decided that filling in the unpainted mural with mental clouds brought more realism to her room, as ironic as that was.

She frowned suddenly, a darker grey thought re-entering her otherwise cleared up mental sky. “Is this what I do when Coco’s not around?” she wondered. 

Hopping up off of her bed, she quickly made her way to her closet to grab her jacket. She briefly considered grabbing a pair of legwarmers to go over her socks, but thought better of it. Instead she grabbed a pair of orange gloves. No sense worrying or tipping off the others.

“Coco, are you all ready?” she called out, turning to walk out the door.

~~~

“Darling, we’ll miss you so much,” said Rarity, squeezing Coco as hard as she could. Behind her, the other girls calmly waited their turn to say goodbye to their new friend, though the widening grin on Pinkie’s face showed there was a fast approaching time limit till her turn. Each one of them were clad in their typical winter clothing. Aside from Sunset, each one of them wore a bag or backpack. 

In front of them all sat the train Coco would be taking. While the train wasn’t set to leave for an hour, Rarity had insisted they arrive early. In fact, the sun itself was barely pushing past the clouds, creating divided rays of sunlight that poked down on the snow below.

Rarity took a deep breath and released the shorter girl from her embrace. Looking her in the eyes, Rarity felt the intense urge to hug her once more. But knowing that time would be of the essence, she refrained. “I really hope you have an amazing time with your family.” 

Coco met Rarity’s eyes with her own teary ones. “I will, I promise. I really hope you can come over someday, my parents actually still remember you.”

“Is that so,” she gasped, bringing a hand to her chest. “Well I know where I’ll be going on vacation then this summer. With their permission of course.” 

Sunset called from behind them, her confused expression shared by the other girls. “You know her parents?”

Rarity turned around to face them and waved her hand dismissively. “Oh it was years ago, I was only a child visiting Manehatten with my parents. But nevermind that for right now.” 

Rarity turned around a took a step away from Coco. To both her and Sunset’s confusion, the other girls simultaneously reached into their bags. “Now, Coco, I know that you’re still a tad bit down about not spending Christmas with us. So…”

Coco gasped when all five girls stepped in front of her and held out presents. “Merry Christmas!” they cheered. Coco reeled back in shock at first, but then froze completely. As she looked down at all of their gifts, then back up at their faces, her eyes began to shine with glistening tears, and a smile stretched across her face.

Sunset stood back, smiling herself as Coco jumped into a group hug with her other friends. 

After wiping her face, her arm now moist with tears of joy and happiness, she opened Rarity’s gift first. It was wrapped in an elegant royal blue ribbon, hand-tied of course, over a plain white box. 

Upon gently untying the ribbon, the side of the box fell open to reveal a sparkling pale blue bracelet decorated with six snowflakes. On each of the snowflakes was one part of a set of initials: “AJ,” “FS,” “PP,” “R,” “RD,” and “SS.” 

“It’s beautiful,” she gasped, nearly speechless.

Rarity nodded. “Indeed. Each snowflake refers to one of us.” She playfully rolled her eyes. “Yes, I know friendship bracelets are old, but I thought you‘d love it regardless.”

Coco quickly shook her head. “No It’s perfect! Thank you.”

Rarity smiled and moved out of the way as Applejack took her place to present her own gift.

To Coco’s surprise, Applejack shoved her box back into her bag. Seeing her confused look, Applejack explained it with a shameful grin. “Yeah, the box is empty. Rarity wanted us all to look the same an’ all. This ‘ere’s my gift!” In one swift motion, Applejack pulled out an object and sat it on Coco’s head. 

The girl flinched and closed her eyes as her friend adjusted the hat. When she opened her eyes, AJ had taken a step back to admire her work. 

She nodded, muttering, “Ah admit, it was a long shot, but Ah guess Rares was right.”

Behind her, Rarity huffed and crossed her arms. At Sunset’s questioning gaze, she quietly explained. “Applejack asked me what kind of hat would look best on Coco. I suggested something exotic to go with her unique appearance.” 

Sunset nodded. “Ahhh.”

Rarity examined the behatted girl. “I must say… even without any further assistance, Applejack made a rather interesting choice. I wonder where she got it stitched, it’s beautifully done.” Beside her, Fluttershy blushed and shied away.

Gently, Coco took the hat off and brought it down to her face to examine. It was a pale blue rounded fur hat. Coco turned it this way and that examining it like she would any new piece of clothing. 

She found, sewn onto the side, was the image of a light purple chapeau, the same symbol that graced her own various handmade designs. 

She looked back up to Applejack and grinned sheepishly, a light blush coloring her cheeks. “I’m a little embarrassed that I don’t know… but what kind of hat is this?”

Rarity opened her mouth to answer, but with a tip of her own hat, Applejack beat her to it, “That right there, sugarcube, is a custom-stitched fake fur cossack hat.”

“H-how did you know that?” asked Rarity, raising a skeptical look.

AJ glanced back at her with a smug grin. “Trust me… Ah know my hats,” she said, taking hold of the brim of her own stetson.

Next up was Fluttershy, who handed over a slightly larger box in pink butterfly wrapping paper and tied with a yellow premade bow. “I hope you like it.”

Carefully, Coco took off the bow and cleanly unwrapped the paper. Upon revealing the object inside she let out an extremely adorable squeal of glee. Without a second thought she gripped the book close to her chest. “Ohhhhh, I love it! I love it!”

Fluttershy’s smile grew wider at her reaction. “Rarity told me you would.”

Sunset moved closer to get a better look. “What is it?!” 

Coco instantly thrust the book into Sunset’s face. “It’s a first edition Paranormal Encyclopedia!”

Sunset examined the cover of the book. It vaguely resembled the desperate looking screaming faces that decorated the cover of a certain other book that Sunset definitely didn’t peek into during her time with Princess Celestia. 

Gently moving the book out of her face, Sunset addressed Coco herself. “I’ve been meaning to ask you, but what’s up with you and ghosts?”

Fluttershy nodded, adding, “I’m curious too.” She hesitantly looked down at the cover and flinched back, moving closer towards Sunset. “I always thought ghouls were scary things.”

Coco’s grin turned melancholy and she peered back down at the book. “Well… I know it’s not hard to believe but I was bullied a bit when I was younger. I had pale skin and rarely left my house so a few kids that lived around my house started calling me a ghost.” 

She chuckled. “It didn’t help that my house was colored white too actually. Anyway, I didn’t know what a ghost was back then so I looked it up. I know that some people think ghosts and stuff are scary but I think they're pretty cool.” 

She pushed the book back up to Fluttershy’s and Sunset’s faces. Sunset just flinched back but Fluttershy eeped and back peddled towards the rest of the group.

Next up was Pinkie who made a show of presenting her gift with a twirl and a flourish, ending with one knee on the ground and the present held above her head. “Merry Christmas!”

Coco just looked down at her, unsure how to respond to the display, or worse, the present. Pinkie’s gift was a long pink box wrapped with multiple layers of criss-crossing confetti streamers with a small blue balloon tethered to the ribbon. When Coco failed to react, Pinkie bounced the box a few times, causing the balloon to bop around.

Getting the hint, she tentatively picked the box up. Unable to figure out a way of unwrapping the haphazard bundle, she simply tore it open. Inside was something she hadn’t seen in awhile. Coco giggled and held up the board game for all to see. “Horsopoly?” 

Pinkie hopped to both feet and threw her hands up. “Of course! You’re going to have fun with your family right? There’s not a better game in the world that's more perfect than Horsopoly!”

Sunset, having moved back with the other girls, shrugged. “Can’t fault her logic on that one.”

Pinkie Pie reached deep into her rather large backpack bag once again. “If you don’t like that game I have more. Let’s see… TOYSЯUS had a sale, so I’ve got Connect Horse, Horsenga Battlehorses Ponies and Ladders, Dungeons & Horses, Hungry Hungry Ponies… Oh! And Cards Against Equestria!”

Everyone looked at Pinkie in confusion. The girl in question simply whipped her head around mirroring their look back at them. “What?”

Coco gave her a hug regardless. “No, this is great by itself. I probably wouldn’t be able to take all of them with me anyway.”

Pinkie hopped back to her position and Everyone looked towards Sunset who shook her head. “We’ve already exchanged gifts at home,” she said waving it off.

Rarity looked at her, eyes batting at her suggestively. “Exchanging gifts in private? How romantic.” Sunset rolled her eyes and ignored her. Coco meanwhile blushed at the implication.

“So what did you give her?” asked Pinkie, still bouncing happily.

Sunset shook her head, a mischievous grin pasted onto her face. “Sorry but that one’s a secret.”  She and Coco shared a brief glance between them that only fueled Rarity’s growing interest.

Rainbow strut forward. “Well alright then!” she announced, confidence exuding from her in waves. Standing in front of Coco, Rainbow spun around to face the others. “You all had some pretty cool stuff, I guess”—she held up her own gift, a book-shaped box in light blue wrapping with a rainbow-colored lightning bolt sticker sealing it—“but I have the best one,” she said tilting it back and forth.

Applejack glanced down at her watch. “Train leaves in like six minutes, wrap it up there sugarcube.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and turned around, handing the gift over. It didn’t take long for Coco to unwrap the gift. Her jaw fell as she beheld the case in front of her. As it did, Rainbow’s grin only grew wider. 

Coco looked back up at Rainbow, wide eyed and hesitant. “I-is this?”

Rainbow nodded. “Eyup!”

Coco shook her head. “But isn’t this is your—”

Rainbow sat a hand on her shoulder. “It’s fine, don’t worry, I owe you.”

“What is it already!” screeched Pinkie, unknowingly voicing everyone’s thoughts.

Coco turned the case over to reveal a video game with Daring Do jumping over a crocodile while holding a sapphire relic gracing the cover. She opened it to show the disk that had Daring’s signature on it.

Sunset squinted her eyes for a second, examining the object from where she was. “Is that a signed ‘Daring Do and the Sapphire Stone’ video game? Where did you even get that?!”

Applejack scratched the back of her head, her brow crinkled slightly. “Wasn’t that the thing you saved up for, like, three whole summers to buy some few years back?”

Sunset’s eyes nearly flew out of her head as she and the other girls who also didn’t know turned back to Rainbow. None of them could believe that their friend would give up such a treasured item.

Rainbow turned to them and nervously rubbed her arm, a light blush on her face. 
“Seriously, it’s not a big deal,” she muttered. “Coco busted her back making our costumes. Not to mention that she even didn’t get a signed book out of it.” Rainbow shrugged. “I just felt like she deserves it alri—oof!”

Coco glomped her from behind, and before Rainbow could respond, all of her other friends also joined in with the group hug. 

“Dashie, you do know the meaning of Christmas!” cheered Pinkie.

AJ affectionately rubbed Rainbow’s hair. “Looks like this girl’s little ol’ heart grew three sizes today.”

Fluttershy gently squeezed her part of Rainbow. “I’m really proud of you!”

After the group finally separated, Coco once again thanked each of her friends before finally boarding the train.

The engine roared as it woke up completely. As it prepared to depart, each one of them waved, Pinkie’s wave being the most excited as she used both arms and jumped repeatedly for extra altitude. “See you next year!” she screamed.

“See you when you return,” Rarity called out, cupping a hand beside her mouth.

Rainbow cupped both hands around hers. “Hurry back so we can play that game together!”

Fluttershy nervously waved both hands looking almost jazzy as she did. As usual, her voice didn’t carry very far, but anyone who knew her knew what she might’ve said. “We’ll miss you.”

Applejack removed her hat and saluted with it. “Later!” she said simply.

Sunset chuckled silently while she also waved. Looking over at the other girls, she came to a silent revelation. Just because one gorgeous cloud in her sky is gone, it doesn't mean she couldn't enjoy the rest of beautiful images the others created. 

Coco, sitting in her seat on the train, looked out the window and waved back at them. With a loud whistle, the train began chugging off. As the group passed from her view Coco relaxed, easing deep into her chair. While the majority of her bags and gifts were safely stored into the compartment above her, there was one bag that she held next to her. Carefully, she reached into her bag and brought out Sunset’s gift. She looked at for a second before hugging it tightly. It wasn’t long before she drifted off to sleep, curled up in her seat with a small pony plush of herself snuggled in her grip.
	
> CH13: House Warming's Eve
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As the ivory smoke billowed off into the distance, and the sounds of the train trailed off with it, Rarity and the others finally ceased their goodbyes.

Sunset let out a small sigh and turned to the others, just in time for Pinkie to glomp her. “Pinkie! What are you—”

“It’s alright, Sunny,” said Pinkie, still hugging the poor girl. “She’ll be back, you don’t have to be sad.”

Sunset considered pushing her off, but instead found herself smiling and returning the embrace. “I know that. I’m not sad.” Released, she looked around at the other four. “I have you guys.”

Rarity sat a hand on her chest and let out a relieved breath. “Well that’s good. We were a bit worried. Ever since you moved in with her, we’ve all noticed that you two have become nigh inseparable outside of school.”

Rainbow playfully elbowed her. “Yeah, seriously. What? You don’t like us anymore?”

Rarity leveled a glare at Rainbow. “Now hold on, that was not what I—”

“I do! I really do,” Sunset interjected, her voice a bit higher than she’d have prefered. Looking around nervously, her voice fell soft as she continued. “Have I really not been spending a lot time with you all outside of school?”

Applejack smirked and sat a hand on her shoulder. “Sug… we had to get Coco to drag you to the snowball fight.”

Sunset blushed and turned away. “S-sorry… I don’t have any excuse,” she admitted.

Fluttershy nearly shoved everyone out of the way to get to Sunset Shimmer’s side. “It’s not your fault,” she cooed, grasping her hand tightly. “We know how stressed you’ve been figuring out what to do for Christmas, not to mention you probably don’t like all this cold weather; I know I don’t.”

Rarity also fell to her side, gently rubbing her arms. “Speaking of cold weather.” She shivered slightly and turned to Rainbow. “It’s starting to chill out here. Let’s hurry up to Rainbow Dash’s house.”

Rainbow flinched and nervously rubbed the back of her head. “A-actually, we can’t go to my place this year…”

“Why not, Dashie?” asked Pinkie, popping up next to her.

She shrugged. “No room. We got a surprise visit from my grandparents and they’re using the guest room.”

Fluttershy beamed. “Aunt Aurora and Uncle Cirrus are here!” she said, unexpectedly loudly. When everyone turned to look at her, she blushed and resumed her normal shy away tactics. “I-I mean… I hope I get to see them soon.”

 “They’ll be here till New Year’s,” said Rainbow, waving it off. “The point is we can’t go to my—”

Applejack leaned down to glare at her. “The point is why didn’t ya tell us while we were planning this here send-off earlier?!”

Not backing down, Rainbow met Applejack’s stare with her own. “Well it never came up. Did it? Who said you guys could come over anyway?”

Pinkie poked her head up in between the two, cutting off their rather electrifying staredown. “Well duhh! We always go over to your place to spend christmas afternoon. Then we play games have fun and tease and hint about what we got for each other.”

Fluttershy fidgeted nervously. “Well,” she began softly, “maybe it was a bit wrong of us to just assume we’d go over there again this year.”

Applejack scoffed and rolled her eyes. “The reason we do is that Dash throws a tantrum if we don’t go to her place every year.”

“Hey!” Dash yelled, stomping her foot. “I’m not a baby. I just keep saying my place is the best. We have a lot of space, two TVs, several game consoles and like every board game Pinkie ever bought me.”

Sunset watched wide eyed as the argument played out in front of her. Being still relatively new to the who group dynamic, she still wasn't really sure what to do in this situation; which she was sure happened often. However, she did know that she was cold. 

Slowly she raised a hand to interject. “Can’t we just… go someplace else?” she asked, her voice growing weaker as the group turned to look at her.

Rarity took a step forward. Sunset realized that during the conversation slash argument between Dash and Applejack, Rarity had put on another scarf. “Well, yes, of course. But we cannot go to my house or my boutique. My house because my sister and her friends are having their party, with my parents as chaperones, and my boutique… well… no.” 

Applejack simply gave Rarity a flat look before rolling her eyes. “We could go back to mah place but it’s a bit of a hike from here. We could go to Pinkie’s place… again.” Applejack trailed off as she stared at Pinkie frantically shaking her head back and forth. “Why not,” she asked, brow raised.

Pinkie winked coyly. “Spoilers!” she giggled.

“I’m guessing all of our gifts are in her room sitting out in plain sight,” Fluttershy translated.

Rarity sat a finger on her forehead and shook her head sadly. “Well that only leaves Sugarcube Corner, and I’m hesitant on asking Mr. and Mrs. Cake to let us stay there after what we all did. We may have to just scrap this meetup for now and plan somewhere to meet up tomorrow to exchange presents.”

Sunset smiled. “We could go back to my… I mean, Coco’s place.” She looked down and her smile became slightly more somber as she remembered her short experience alone in it yesterday. “It’s nice and large… and to be honest. It’ll probably feel a bit empty without someone there.”

She felt a nudge to her sides as both Fluttershy and Pinkie moved closer to her. 

Pinkie threw her hand into the air and cheered, “Whoooo! Christmas Eve party at CocoSun’s!”

Sunset gave her a blank look. “Coco… Sun?” she asked, her brow raising slightly.

Pinkie nodded. “Well it’s a bit of a mouthful to say ‘Sunset and Coco’s house’, so I gave it a fun nickname.

It took Sunset a few moments, but after thinking about it, she merely responded with a shrug.

Satisfied with that course of action the group gathered their things and turned to leave. However, as the group departed the station, Sunset leveled a brief glance back towards the distance to Manehatten.

“Hey, uh... Sunset?”

Sunset’s head snapped back towards the others, who had walked ahead. “Coming,” she called, catching up with them. Looking around she realized that they were all still staring at her. “What’s up?”

“You gotta lead the way,” AJ chuckled. “We’ve never been to your place before.”

It took a second for that particular fact to register in her mind before Sunset could manage a reaction. “Wh-really? None of you?” 

She turned to Rarity who simply shook her head. “Not I, darling. We’ve always met at my boutique.”

“You’ve been to my place a few times,” Applejack added.

Sunset finally turned to Rainbow Dash. “I know you’ve been over. We played video games after school.”

Rainbow shrugged. “Yeah but the last time was like… a month ago. I don’t remember the way.”

Sunset looked around once again and blushed. “Oh my gosh, I am so sorry. I didn’t realize I was supposed to—”

Sunset grunted as Pinkie Pie threw an arm over her shoulder. “Don’t worry about it Sunny. This just means we’ll get to have an extra fun time since we get to explore your house!” She let out a huge gasp. “This means we also get to throw you a huge housewarming party!”

Sunset chuckled. “I guess so. But still, I promise to invite you guys over more often after this.”

~~~

Applejack whistled, tipping up her hat to look around at the fairly sizable blue and white home in front of her. “Not bad. Better than I was expecting.” she said, standing with the other girls on the sidewalk. 

Rainbow’s jaw was currently rolling down the street. “It’s even bigger than my house. In fact, It’s almost as big as your barn! she exclaimed, pointing at the house. “How did I not notice that?”

“You were too busy gushing about meeting Daring Do to look up at the building until we were already inside,” explained Sunset, smirking at her.

Rainbow stared at her blankly for a second before smiling nostalgically. “Oh right. Good times.”

Rarity examined the house the same way she would examine any gem in the rough. Her eyes trailed up and down the exterior appraising each feature of the home. “It could do with a little external maintenance, but otherwise it is a fairly nice looking home.”

Fluttershy, however was looking around at the other houses curiously. “I think I know this neighborhood. It’s the one that connects us to the rest of the city, I think.”

Rarity tore her eyes away from the home to look around herself. “Hmm yes, you’re right, that would explain why it’s larger and more expensive looking than our homes.” She shrugged. “Oh well it makes sense, Coco’s family is fairly high-class.”

Sunset nodded. “See yeah, that’s what I figured, but every time I ask Coco about it she gets embarrassed and won’t tell me. What do they do for a living?”

Rarity smirked and moved closer to Sunset. “Oh it’s very simple her father is a—”

Suddenly, Sunset’s front door burst open and a pink-haired girl’s frowning face popped out. “Ohhh! Will you guys stop talking and come inside already!” yelled Pinkie. Giving them one last look, she went back inside closing the door behind her.

It was at that point they noticed that Pinkie Pie hadn’t stopped to gawk at the building with the rest of them. Giving each other knowing glances, the group collectively prepared themselves and made their way to the front door. Hesitant, Sunset turned the knob and pushed inward.

“Surprise!” yelled Pinkie, blowing confetti at the group from the doorway. Unfortunately, the girls were somewhat less than surprised considering they were ordered to walk into it.

Rather, Sunset gave her a perplexed look instead. “How did you even get inside?” she asked, writing a mental note to research security systems. 

Pinkie Pie winked coyly. “That’s a party planner secret.” Not waiting for a reaction, Pinkie spun around in a circle, gleefully showing off her new additions to the house. “Look around.”

“Woah,” gasped Sunset looking up at the ceiling. When she and Coco left, the house hadn’t been decorated. The two actually never even gave it a thought. However, now, in the few minutes that Pinkie had been in the house she had managed to not only string green and white garlands around the stair rails but she had also hung a bunch of strands of blinking multi colored lights from the ceiling, making the entire living room and hallway look like one large Christmas-y chandelier. 

Rainbow Dash looked on the other side of the door and noticed the large green wreath that had been hung on it.

The groups astonishment was broken when Rarity let out a small surprised gasp. Every girl turned to her, only to notice her pointing towards the kitchen in horror. “Pinkie Pie, is that what I think that is?”

Sunset looked towards where Rarity was pointing. Hanging upside down from the entrance to the kitchen was a small green plant with white berries decorated with a small red bow. “Is that...” asked Sunset, blushing slightly.

Pinkie popped up in between Rarity and Fluttershy, hugging them both. “Eyup! That’s mistletoe alright.”

Rarity fervently whispered into Pinkie’s ear. “Pinkie Pie, you know that thing is forbidden,” she hissed. Pinkie grinned and Fluttershy immediately paled.

Sunset arched a brow curiously. “Why is it forbidden?”

Rarity flinched and glanced behind her. Following her gaze, Sunset noticed that Applejack was stifling her chuckling while Rainbow Dash was fuming.

“Um… Rainbow?” Sunset watched as Rainbow Dash ignored her and stomped over to the mistletoe, jumped, and tore it from the wall, crushing it in her hands. Applejack’s stifled laughter only increased in intensity as she then she stomped over to the nearest trashcan and angrily threw it in, slamming the lid afterwards.

Rarity, Fluttershy and Sunset all flinched collectively as Rainbow walked back over to them. Wordlessly, she threw an arm around Pinkie and grinned. “Wow, Pinks you did a real good job setting all this up. Where’d you get all the decorations?” she asked.

Applejack, still by the door, finally burst out laughing. Sunset turned from her to Rainbow, who was still ignoring her. Taking a calculated risk, Sunset leaned over and whispered to Rarity. “What was that about?”

Rainbow’s head snapped towards her. “What was what about?” she asked, her smile still plain on her face.

Rainbow’s calm facade was broken by a hand rising up from behind her and rustling her hair. Applejack, still laughing struggled to answer Sunset’s question. Rainbow, meanwhile was back to fuming. “Dash had a pretty… interesting experience with mistletoe at mah house a few years back. Back then she had a—”

“Shut up!” Dash screamed and tackled the cowgirl to the ground. Struggling, the girls wrestled their way into the living room. While Sunset was staring down at them in confusion and horror. Fluttershy had rushed into the room after them and was moving anything that looked breakable out of the way. Pinkie was giggling and ran into the room after them, busy recording it on her phone.

Rarity, meanwhile sighed and closed the front door. Coming back to Sunset, she noticed the girl was fearfully looking into the living room. “Would you like some tea, darling?” she asked pleasantly. Rarity gestured to her bag. “I brought some with me. Oh, do you mind if I use your kitchen?”

Sunset turned her horrified look, now tinged with surprise, towards her. “Shouldn’t we stop them?!” blurted Sunset.

Rolling over to the foot of the couch. Dash pushed AJ onto her stomach and hurriedly tried to pin her arm behind her back. That didn’t last long as Applejack simply laughed and bucked her off, reversing the pin and moving Dash into a headlock.

Rarity scoffed and waved them off. “Don’t worry about it.They do this every Christmas. In fact, they do this every time that story gets brought up.”

“B-but still!” Sunset, still dumbfounded turned to look at Fluttershy. “Fluttershy you can’t be alright with this.”

Fluttershy hovered about the couch and looked over at her. “I’m not.” She shrugged and looked back down at the two girls. After a second she had formed a gentle smile on her face. “Well, it makes me feel better to think of them as a kitten and a puppy. They’re just playing around with each other. They never really hurt each other. They’ll tire themselves out soon enough.”

Breaking out of the hold, Rainbow pushed Applejack back around the stand near the table. Seeing the vase on top of it shaking, Fluttershy rushed over and caught it. “Really, all I can do is make sure they don’t break anything.”

Jumping on top of Applejack’s stomach Rainbow pinned her arms to the ground. “Hah!” she cheered, putting all of her weight down on her. “Give up, Applejack!” she grunted.

Struggling, Applejack quickly realized that she actually couldn’t lift her arms. Even so, she grinned. “Hey, Sunset!”

Sunset, still standing by the entrance nervously rubbed her arm. “Y-yeah?”

“So you know that mistletoe right. You wanna know why Rainbow here hates ‘em?”

“What?!” yelled Dash, reeling back slightly.

Unfortunately, her brief distraction gave AJ just enough leeway to pulled her hands back to her. Almost instantly, AJ threw them around Rainbow and brought her to the ground in a fierce bear hug. Locking her arms behind Dash’s back, AJ cemented her victory. “Like ah said, you wanna know?”

Sunset glanced towards the kitchen where Rarity had gone to, wondering briefly whether she would like to be in there instead. “Not really,” she muttered, only slightly uncomfortable.

Pinkie, having switched from her phone to a full fledged camera, glanced over at her. “Don’t worry, Sunset, this is how every Christmas starts!”

“It’s actually how we used to decide what game to play first,” added Fluttershy, shaking her head in disapproval. 

Pinkie, however, nodded. “If Rainbow wins we play a video game, if Applejack wins we play a boardgame.”

Rainbow Dash struggled valiantly, but her efforts were in vain as AJ only tightened her hug. “So this was like, ah think, four or five years back, right.”

“No! No! No! No! No! No! Shut up!" cried Rainbow.

Applejack chuckled. “And Dash here had a teeny tiny crush on Big Mac, right?”

“Rainbow Dash had a crush on your brother?!” shouted Sunset. Suddenly, she found herself very interested in this story.

At this point, Rainbow was beet red and was just screaming to drown the other girl out. Sunset flinched, thankful that this house was large enough that the neighbors weren't directly up against the walls. Fluttershy herself was covering her own ears.

Applejack only proceeded to yell over her. “So Rainbow Dash heard from Granny Smith about how you gotta kiss if’in you find yerself under the mistletoe with another person.”

“Applejack you’re gonna lose so many cool points if you tell this story!” threatened Rainbow.

AJ continued nonetheless. “So then she spent the whole day tryin’ to get Big Mac under that there leeeahhhghhhh egh!” Quivering in disgust, Applejack quickly threw Rainbow Dash off and frantically tried to wipe the saliva off of the side of her face. “You licked me?!”

“Ohhhhhh,” gasped Pinkie, zooming in on Rainbow wiping her mouth.

Rainbow, still blushing, pointed at her threateningly. “You’re lucky I didn’t bite you.”

Even though she was grossed out, Applejack still couldn’t help but laugh. “You know, this really isn’t helping your case ya’know?”

“Yeah, Dashie,” teased Pinkie, throwing her two cents in. “You got some unfinished business?”

At this point Sunset had lost all sense of hesitation and was leaning forward. “What happened?!”

“Oh for goodness sake.” Everyone turned to see Rarity poking her head out of the kitchen. “Rainbow Dash ended up kissing Applejack under the mistletoe right in front of Big Mac,” she announced before disappearing back inside.

Rainbow exploded and tackled Applejack. The wrestling began anew as the two jocks rumbled across the floor. At some point, Pinkie had moved the couch and table away, giving the two plenty of room to roll around without knocking into things.

Slowly, Sunset moved over to Fluttershy, who was still calmly watching over the two. Like a gentle mother, she stood a ways away, ready to step in if things went too far. “So… this happens… often?” asked Sunset.

Fluttershy shrugged. “Not all the time. But you learn to get used to it. Pinkie actually has a video scrapbook on her laptop. Would you like to watch it?”

Before Sunset could respond, Pinkie called her attention. “Sunset!” Sunset turned just in time to see Pinkie lob her bag at her. Fumbling, Sunset caught the pack and gave a sigh of relief. “It’s in the main pocket,” she told her, still recording the scuffle.

Looking from the girl to the bag, to the fight still going on, Sunset shrugged and unzipped one of the pockets. The second she did, a burst of air flew out, followed by a blast of confetti and streamers.

“Wrong pocket!” Pinkie called back over her shoulder.

“There’s not going to be an explosion of whipped cream in the next one, right?” asked Sunset.

Pinkie began adjusting the focus on her camera as she continued to record Applejack and Rainbow’s wrestle. “Depends… just make sure to open the pockets VERRRY slowly!” she said, absentmindedly moving to the other side of the scuffle.

Sunset looked from Pinkie, to the bag, then back to her. After a second or two of deliberation she gently sat the bag down. “You know what, I think I’ll wait.”

Turning back to the spectacle before her, Rainbow and Applejack were still rolling on the ground, Sunset noticed that the two weren't even fighting anymore. Rainbow had her usual competitive smile on and AJ never lost hers. One sniff of the air signaled that Rarity had moved on from tea and was now using her kitchen to fix something else. It smelled a little like cinnamon. 

Sunset couldn’t help but grin. “Some house warming this is,” she muttered.

“And it’s only gonna get better!” cheered Pinkie as Applejack brought Rainbow into a full nelson. 
	
> CH14: The Only Gift That Matters
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Only after Rainbow Dash was forced onto the ground and locked into a classic camel clutch hold, did she finally tap out and allow the group to clean up the mess they made. Meanwhile, Rarity had returned and was sipping tea alongside Fluttershy near the door. 

Pushing the couch back into place, Sunset heaved a sigh of relief. “Well that was certainly interesting.”

Rainbow, who had the job of re-shelving the books the two had knocked off the bookshelf, leaned back and stretched. She let out an audible groan as she felt her back pop. “I swear she only beats me because she practices on pigs all day.”

Applejack fell back on the couch and began fanning herself with her hat. “Well… it’s about the same either way.”

Rainbow turned and leveled a harsh, yet slightly confused, glare. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Please, no more fighting,” pleaded Sunset, also sitting back on the couch. “I don’t think Coco’s house could take it.” Fluttershy nodded in agreement. “So what do we do now?”

Fluttershy glanced around the room. “Well usually we play games and or tell funny stories. But… where did Pinkie Pie go?”

Swallowing her tea, Rarity pointed out of the room and up the stairs. “I believe she said that she wanted to see the rest of the house. Though I’m not quite sure—”

Suddenly a door on the side of the stairs burst open and startled everyone. Jumping out, Pinkie ran into the living room and grabbed Applejack’s hand. “Applejack, I need your help, come on!” she blurted, almost too fast for anyone else to understand. 

“Wha—” before she could respond Pinkie literally proceeded to drag her out of her seat, and out of the house. 

Rushing to the door, Sunset and Rainbow threw their head out only to see the two already halfway down the street. Sunset could hear Applejack’s yells fading into the distance.

“Umm… What?” asked Rainbow, flabbergasted. 

“I think it’s a good thing you wrestled Applejack and not Pinkie,” Sunset said to Dash before turning to Rarity. “I thought you said she was upstairs?”

The girl could only shrug in response. “That’s where I saw her go.” Rarity gestured back to where Pinkie had emerged from. “Frankly, I wasn’t even aware you had a crawl space.”

Sunset opened her mouth to respond but found that words seemed to fail her. Glancing at the stairs, only one thought surfaced. “Neither was I, actually,” she muttered.

Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy all followed Sunset as she cautiously made their way towards the door. 

The door was the same color as the stairs, blending in perfectly when closed and the only leverage being a crevice to fit a hand into.

Ironically, Fluttershy began feeling a bit excited at the sight. “This reminds me of a book that I once read.“

Rarity looked up at her, brow raised. “Which one?”

“Oh, it’s... umm nothing,” she muttered, glancing at Sunset. “Just a story about a kid with magic powers.” She quickly averted her look, face flushed, when Sunset looked back at her.

Sunset shrugged, smiling patiently. “I guess I’ll have to read it with you later. I love learning about this world's perception of magic.”

Fluttershy beamed and clapped happily. “Oh that’s wonderful. It’s a bit long but you can join my Fuzzy Friends Book Club and we can all—”

“Yeah yeah,” interrupted Rainbow reaching for the handle. “We’ll talk about that later. I wanna see what’s in there.”

Moving in front of Sunset, Rainbow pulled open the door. Almost instantly, Rarity covered her mouth, fearful of any dust or grime. 

Surprisingly, there was none. The group looked down to see a set of stairs leading further in. The light was still on and they could see the bottom step, but the discovery of it was still shocking. 

“It’s not a crawlspace,” gasped Rarity.

“It’s a basement…” Sunset finished, slackjawed. 

Rainbow just looked at her, amazed to see such a bewildered expression on her friend’s face. “How long have you lived here?” She pointed down into the pit. “How did you not know you had one?”

Sunset pointed alongside her, eyes wide in shock. “I never looked here! Plus, it’s not like I was searching the place like a thief. I just needed a place to stay… I don’t actually own the place. I just snuck in and hoped the owners wouldn’t show up for a while,” she muttered, crossing her arms and blushing shyly.

“Now calm down you two,” soothed Rarity. “Did Coco not mention having a basement at all?”

Sunset’s eyes darted around, her mind clearly racing to remember any indication or mention. “N-no, I don’t think so. I mean… maybe she might have mentioned it offhandedly; I’m not sure.”

Fluttershy placed a hand on her shoulder and smiled calmly. “It’s alright. Nobody knows every single detail of their own house. I, for example, still have no idea where the entrance to our attic is.”

“Speaking of which,” Rainbow muttered, looking up at the ceiling, “do you have an attic too?”

All at once, the girls glanced upwards, wondering the same thing. After a second, Sunset let out a light hearted chuckle and shrugged. “One room at a time, Rainbow.” She began descending the stairs. “One room at a time.”

One by one, the girls followed her down. Rainbow followed behind Sunset, and Fluttershy, though hesitant, followed closely behind her.

Ever the cautious one, Rarity followed her down with her head low. As she descended, her gaze remained directed upwards in search for possible cobwebs or other basement denizens.

“Woah,” gasped Sunset, reaching the bottom of the room. In the dimly lit area, illuminated only by a single hanging bulb, Sunset looked over the multitude of boxes, both large and small.

“Oh it’s just storage,” observed Rainbow. I guess Coco’s folks must have left this stuff here on purpose.”

“Oh my,” said Rarity, her eyes shining in excitement. “I wonder what’s in them.”

Sunset rubbed her arm nervously. “I… don’t think I feel comfortable going through Coco’s stuff. I’ve done more than enough snooping in my life already.”

Rainbow shrugged and pointed to a group of nearby boxes that had recently been rummaged through and hastily reclosed. “Well it looks like Pinkie did it for you. Let’s at least see what made her so excited.”

Sunset looked between her and the box, then grimaced. “Fine, but just the one’s she already opened. I don’t want to open anything else.” Sunset walked over the box and leaned down on her knees to inspect it. 

She glanced back at the others. “Honestly, I still feel kinda bad for crashing here for the last few years without Coco or her family knowing.”

Fluttershy moved to lean down next to her, a patient smile on her face. “It’s not your fault. You needed a place to stay, and with no identification or money… well I don’t know what you could've done.”

Sunset chuckled and opened the top of the box. “Well money wasn’t a problem but... Wait, what’s this?” Her face scrunched up in confusion as she gazed down at the odd looking green object. To her it seemed like a two layered platform with a hole in the middle and a large basin on the bottom.

With a grunt she lifted the heavy object, and turned it around. There were five screws twisted out from the sides, all of which had red handles on the ends. 

“What are you doing?” asked Rainbow.

Sunset held up the stand to them. “Trying to figure out what this is. It’s a stand of some sort, probably to hold something in place, but I don’t know what it’s for specifically.”

The three girls shared a glance before Rainbow, looking at her curiously, leaned down next to her. “It’s a treestand, you know, for standing Christmas trees in so you can decorate them.”

Sunset just looked at her, head tilted quizzically. “Why would you cut down a tree just to put it back on a stand?”

While Fluttershy nodded in agreement, Rainbow rolled her eyes. “No, look.” She took the Stand from Sunset and opened another box full of decorations and ornaments. “You put it up in your house and you decorate it with others. You know, put up pictures of family and other stuff. And afterwards you put something fun on top like a lightning bolt.”

“Darling, I believe most families use a star,” said Raritty, crossing her arms and raising a single brow.

Rainbow shrugged with a smirk. “Eh, most families aren’t as awesome as mine.”

Sunset, still slightly confused nodded and stood up. “Alright… but that doesn't answer my question. Why do you have to cut a tree down and put it in your house? Why not just decorate one outside. In fact, wouldn’t it be easier just to have one large tree in the middle of town that everyone can decorate together?”

“I thought the exact same way,” agreed Fluttershy. “But my parents told me that not everyone celebrates the holidays the same way. Some people like to decorate the tree differently and some just don’t want to decorate at all.”

Rarity, coming up behind Sunset, startled the girl by grabbing her shoulders and leaning on her. “Not to mention, when you decorate your tree with people close to you it fills you with such wonderful feelings,” she crooned.

“But the best part is you put gifts under the tree when you’re done!” cheered Rainbow Dash.

Rarity playfully rolled her eyes. “I wouldn’t say that’s the best part. But I’m fairly sure this is why Pinkie Pie left. If I were to guess I’d say that you don’t have a tree anywhere, do you, darling?”

Sunset, still supporting Rarity shook her head. “N-no, I don’t think we ever really thought about it. You know... since Coco wasn’t going to be here and all,” she said, trailing off.

“You don’t think they’ll bring in an apple tree do you?” asked Fluttershy, “I don’t think she’d want to part with one of her farm’s trees.”

“An apple tree for Christmas?” scoffed Dash. “No way. I bet Pinkie just picked AJ because they have that old pickup truck. They're probably gonna hit up that Christmas tree farm near Sweet Apple Acres.”

Suddenly, Rarity hopped off and clapped her hands, squealing gleefully. “I knew it! Quickly! Knowing Pinkie Pie, she’ll be back very soon. And knowing dear Applejack, they’ll have the perfect tree with them." Rarity pointed from the boxes to the stairs. "We need to move the boxes with the decorations upstairs before they return.”

Saluting, Rainbow Dash handed Sunset the stand back and grabbed two of the larger boxes.

“Wait, is that what we’re doing now?” asked Fluttershy, taking a small box that Rarity handed her.

“Of course, darling. This will be Sunset’s first real Christmas. And not only that, but this’ll be the first tree decoration we’ve all done together.”

Sunset placed the stand back in its box and took it in her arms. “You’ve never decorated a tree all together?”

Rarity shook her head, and, ignoring Rainbow’s glare for being empty handed, followed the girls upstairs. “Unfortunately not. Like we said, decorating the tree is something that most families do together early in the season. Most of us have already done up out trees at home.

As Fluttershy exited the basement and followed Rainbow into the living room, she glanced back at her friend. “Umm, Sunset If I could ask. How do Equestrian ponies celebrate… Hearth's Warming, was it? I mean, you told us about it, but what do you do for decoration?”

Grunting, Sunset sat the box with the others. “Well most of what we do there is the same as here. We hang lights and ribbons and bells. We wish people happy holidays and good will. We raise a flag to remember the founding of Equestria.” Her face slowly lit up with a bright smile as she remembered her own experiences. “We all play in the snow and have snowball fights. We make and hang Hearth's Warming dolls up on our mantels.”

Rainbow, who had began clearing out a corner of the room for the tree, turned to face her. “Wait, what are Hearth's Warming dolls?”

“Right, you guys us stockings here,” Sunset muttered, crossing her arms. “Well as a show of goodwill, ponies in the same house make dolls of each other to put on the wall or mantle. Of course you could make dolls of your friends as well.”

“Oh that’s adorable!” gushed Rarity, clasping her hand over her mouth. “Oh I so wish I knew what I looked like as a pony. Oh I bet I’d be beyond beautiful.”

Sunset flinched and turned back to Rainbow Dash. “S-so what kind of tree are we supposed to decorate if not an apple tree?”

Rainbow chuckled and leaned against the couch. “Welp, assuming they don’t decide to steal one of the farm’s apple trees after all, they're supposed to get a—”

Suddenly the door slammed open and Pinkie’s wide smiling face popped through the frame. “We’re back!” she sang. “And we brought foliage!”

Moving in backwards, she revealed that, along with Applejack, the two were hefting a fairly large pine tree into the house. The tree itself was wrapped up in a plastic net, holding the branches close together.

“Yeah, right from mah farm,” scowled AJ. With every grunt and deep breath it was evident that even though Pinkie had a hold of the top, Applejack, who was holding the root ball on the bottom, was putting forth more effort.

Grabbing the stand from the box, Rainbow placed it down in her cleared corner. Next to the pile of odds and ends that used to be in that corner.

As Pinkie began to lift the tree upright, Applejack pulled back, halting her. “Now hold on there. Fluttershy, can you go get us a pot of water that we can put this in.” She gestured her head towards the stand that Rainbow had placed.

Gasping, Fluttershy instantly got the message and nodded happily. 

Sunset spied the cloth covered ball in Applejack’s grip and her face broke out in a wide grin. “Oh I get it. Come on.” Grabbing her arm, Sunset led Fluttershy into the kitchen. Meanwhile, everyone else stood around, looking at Applejack with confuzzled looks.

“Umm… Why do we need water?” questioned Rainbow, voicing the obvious.

Applejack sighed and gave her a flat look. “Because, unlike you all, the Apple family actually replants the trees we use.”

Soon enough, Fluttershy and Sunset returned with the largest pot they could find and set it down. Together, they lifted the pot up and carefully poured all of the water into the basin at the bottom of the stand. Once the basin was about halfway full the group gathered together to set the tree inside.

Once the tree was secure, Pinkie pulled out a pair a scissors and gleefully cut off the plastic, letting the tree flare out in all of its glory.

Once free, the tree immediately resumed its natural pyramid shape, its healthy pines glistening in the light.

“My word,” gasped Rarity. “That’s a beautiful tree.”

Rainbow, eyes narrowed, staring the foliage down. “Nevermind that, how’d you get it here from the farm so fast?” she said, glancing at Pinkie.

Pinkie winked. “Just think of it as a holiday miracle!”

Applejack smirked and rolled her eyes. “We basically ran outside until Ah managed to stop Pinkie an’ get her to explain what was goin’ on.”

“Jackie why~” cried Pinkie. “Why you gotta ruin the mystery?

Applejack continued. “Then Ah called up Big Mac. He threw a spare tree in the truck and drove up here in about ten minutes.”

“Why do you have spare trees?” asked Sunset.

Applejack crossed her arms and lifted her head proudly. “The Apple family don’t just grow apples. We also rent out Christmas trees in the off season. Ah say rent because you can return an’ replant ‘em.”

Sunset nodded. “I love that idea.”

Rainbow's eyes narrowed in her direction and she stubbernly crossed her arms. “Huh, don’t you get, like, a lot of competition with that other Christmas tree farm near you?” she asked.

Applejack just gave her a flat look. “Dash, that’s our Christmas tree farm.”

“Let me guess, too busy doing something ‘awesome’ to notice?” asked Sunset.

Dash nodded proudly, clearly oblivious to the sarcasm dripping from Sunset’s tone. “You know it! AJ’s got a great snowboarding hill right there!”

Sunset just smiled and rolled her eyes at her. “So what do we do first?” she said, turning towards the tree.

Pinkie Pie threw open one of the boxes and pulled out several strings of lights. “We decorate it of course!”

“Agreed,” said Rarity. “Fluttershy and I will handle the fragile bulbs and ornaments. They aren't ours so we don’t want any of them breaking now do we? 

Now Rainbow narrowed her eyes at Rarity. “Why do I feel like I was insulted just now?” she muttered.

If Rarity had heard, she didn’t react. Instead, she turned and pointed at Sunset and Pinkie. “You two will handle the lights and Rainbow and Applejack will handle other decorations such as garland ropes.” She clapped her hands. “Hurry up everyone, the day's almost over.”

Scoffing, Rainbow reluctantly leaned down and opened the box with the leafy green ropes inside. “Jeez, who put her in charge?”

Applejack chuckled and bent down to help her. “Poor Sweetie and their family must’ve gone through this every year.” 

Setting a box next to them Fluttershy chimed in with her two cents. “She’s not that bad, she’s just as excited as the rest of—”

“Pinkie Pie, no!” Rarity screeched. The three girls turned to face Rarity who had gone over to instruct the other two. While Sunset untangled the lights Pinkie had already began trying to decorate the tree with the lights that weren't tangled. However, Rarity had moved in to stop her the second she started.

Currently, she was clutching the lights to her chest, eyes wide in horror. “You absolutely do not just throw the ropes over a tree! You delicately weave them through the branches, alternating the pulsing and static lights; like so.”

With the precision of an expert needle threader, Rarity began slowly and deliberately moving the lights between the pins and branches. “You start from the bottom, making every effort to place each light specifically,” she instructed. Like she described, Rarity leaned down and carefully worked her way around the base, wrapping the light above under and in between each and every individual branch until she returned to her previous position. 

“You see,” she said proudly. “If I had my blueprints I’d be able to weave a flower of light with the flowers like I did last—”

“Ohhh, this one’s so pretty,” gushed Pinkie, having stopped listening in favor of helping Fluttershy who, like everyone else, had stopped paying her attention in favor of joining Pinkie in admiring the pretty bulbs.

Rarity scowled for a second before Sunset moved over to her, the knotted cord still her hands. “Don’t worry about it, Rarity. I agree with you. But as long as nothing’s broken isn’t whatever fine?” she asked with a shrug.

Rarity’s jaw fell and she began stammering. “I… b-but the tree? Don’t you want it to look the best for your first time?”

Sunset simply smiled and shook her head. “I think… I just love having friends to share it with.  She looked over at Pinkie and Fluttershy who had both found a beautiful pink ball with light blue snowflakes, and at Applejack who was playing with the garland by making it into a pseudo lasso. 

“Honestly,” she continued, looking back to Rarity. “I’m already having fun and I would hate to ask for anything more than this.” 

Sunset held out the tangled cord. Looking between her smiling face and the cord, Rarity sighed and took it into her hands. “Oh alright then. Let’s throw style and caution to the wind and decorate willy-nilly, I suppose.”

Sharing a smile, Rarity began working with Sunset to untangle the lights while the other three opened and gathered the rest of the decorations from the other boxes. 

In addition to various ornaments and garland ropes, they also found a variety of small dolls and toys. Fluttershy discovered cute little reindeer and sleighs, while Pinkie got her hands on glitter covered mini presents. But to everyone’s delight, Rainbow Dash opened a box to find a glittering snow-white mat to place around the tree.

Soon enough, the group started to actually decorate the tree. Bulbs were hung and lights were strung. Rarity, despite Sunset’s urge to relax, continued to fuss over the placements of the decorations. Unfortunately, her efforts did nothing to prevent the girls from hanging objects on a whim, her fussing only serving to amuse them further.

To everyone’s horror, Pinkie at one point had thought it necessary to climb up high on the tree to place a particularly pretty bulb. Luckily, she was able to hop off safely and share a laugh with everyone before something terrible happened.

Unfortunately, Dash’s plan to drop ornaments onto the tree from the second floor was met with a completely opposite reaction. 

Slowly, with every object lovingly hung wherever they liked, the tree began to come to life until finally, everyone took a step back.

“Woah,” muttered Sunset, almost completely speechless.

“It looks lovely,” gushed Fluttershy, gazing at the tree with wide eyes.

Applejack lifted up her, looked at the tree up and down, and nodded proudly. “Looks down right pretty to me!”

“Well…” sighed Rarity, crossing her arms and examining it, “it was a tad unorthodox… using the lights as a lasso, topping it with a rainbow, adding origami cranes, and tying helium-filled snowflake balloons to the branches. But In the end, I think I looks exquisite.”

Her brows furrowing, Rarity tilted her head and let her gaze hone in on the balloons exclusively. “Where did Pinkie get the helium?” Rarity mumbled to herself. “Does she carry tanks of it everywhere she goes?”

“We’re not done yet!” announced Rainbow. Alerted, everyone turned to face Rainbow who had the last two cords, unconnected, in her hands. Behind her, Pinkie stood by the light switch to the room.

“Merry Christmas!” yelled Pinkie. With mirroring excitement, she shut the light off and threw the group into temporary darkness.

With a click, bright multicolored light filled the room. Everyone turned back to see that the beauty of the tree had increased tenfold. Red and blue lights danced around the tree, pulsing rhythmically and throwing Sunset’s already wonder-filled look into a complete hypnotic gaze. The lights, shining brightly on the glass bulbs allowed them to glisten and shine as they reflected the lights, the clear ones even seemingly changing color along with the lights.

“It’s beautiful,” Sunset muttered breathlessly.

Coming up next to her, Rarity sat a hand on her shoulder. “You see, not only that, but did you have fun decorating it with us?”

Feeling her eyes water, Sunset quickly wiped them before turning around to face the others. 

She nodded, though her eyes were still downcast and a sad smile was on her face. “You were right, I did have a lot of fun doing this all with you. I think the only other thing I’d wish was that Coco was here to do this with us,” she said, her voice low and melancholic.

Rainbow was quick to shrug it off. “Oh don’t worry about it, when she gets back you two can have fun with each other while you take all of this stuff off the—OW.” 

Rainbow, rubbing the sore part of her head, looked up at Applejack, who was glaring at her. 

Pinkie popped up next to Sunset and pointed at the couch where her laptop was sitting, aimed right at them. “It’s a good thing I’ve been recording the whole thing! Now she can watch it later!”

“Pinkie that’s a brilliant idea!” praised Rarity. Pinkie blushed and grinned proudly.

Mood considerably brightened, she looked around at her friends. “You know what? Hold on a sec,’ and keep recording.”

Suddenly, Sunset turned and rushed up the stairs. Everyone except Pinkie Pie shared a glance of confusion. Pinkie Pie herself, having a twitching pinkie finger seemed to know exactly what was coming next.

Everyone else soon caught on when Sunset came downstairs with five matching cream colored boxes, each with a uniquely colored ribbon tied around them.

One by one, Sunset handed each of them boxes with their matching colors and, nervously, stood back. “I couldn’t wait…” she muttered, her face flushing. She motioned them to start opening their boxes.

Cautiously, and in one case meticulously, the girls opened their boxes. In universal shows of surprise, all of them either gasped, or squee’d upon seeing what was inside.

In each of the boxes, there was a large-sized plush doll of each of the girls as Equestrian ponies. All of them were clearly hand-stitched and designed specifically for each girl. Applejack’s pony even had on her trademark hat.

Fluttershy nearly exploded from the sheer adorableness of her own ponified doll. “Oh my goodness, it’s amazing! I love it! Are these wings?! They’re so cute!” she gushed, examining each part of the doll then hugging little Fluttershy to her chest.

“Awww yeah!” yelled Dash. She quickly found that when she opened her doll’s wings, they stayed open. Immediately, she turned into a five year old and began flying herself around the room.

“OH! EM! GOODNESS!” Pinkie squealed, her voice as shrill as it could be. “There’s a pocket… in my pony’s mane!” True to her word, there was a zipper sewn right into the Pinkie pony doll’s mane that could be covered by a flap of fabric. She reached inside and nearly died when she found cotton candy bubblegum inside.

“Sunset,” breathed Rarity, staring into her own doll’s blue eyes, “how did know? And what are these marks?” she asked, looking at the dolls flanks.

Sunset, her face completely red. “It came to the two of us, Coco and I, yesterday and we spent the day putting them together. I saw your transformations back at the, uh… Fall Formal so that’s how I know what tribes you’d be. Or at least which of you would be pegasi, I had to guess between unicorn and earth pony for the rest of you. The marks on their flanks are called Cutie Marks. They represent your special talents.” She let out a soft chuckle. “Those weren’t hard either seeing as everyone in this world still wears that symbol somewhere on their clothes.”

Applejack nodded and whistled, impressed. “Golly, looks like you all found the right present afterall. Did’ja make one ‘fer yerself and Coco?”

Sunset nodded. “Yeah. I made hers and she made mine. Then, this morning, we swapped presents.” 

Sunset looked across the room, at everyone’s smiling faces. Slowly, her own face fell, and her smile grew sadder and sadder. “You know…”

Everyone slowed to a slowed to a stop, taking notice of Sunset’s remorseful look.

“In my world,” she began, “Hearth's Warming is a time to look back to how we all came to be, how we became who we are now. But… when I look back, all I see are regrets and bad choices. I was gifted and blessed with talent and opportunity, but I wasted them both.”

“Sunset,” whispered Fluttershy, getting ready to comfort her. But Sunset continued.

“But because of my hubris I decided I wanted more. Even when I came to this world and I had another chance to change, I didn’t. The people were so nice, but I didn't care. I continued to make bad choices, all of which are still affecting me.”

Sunset paused for a second, and took a deep breath. Exhaling, she gave the girls a bright smile, her eyes shining and filled with determination. “But now, Twilight’s given me a third chance, and this time, I’m going to take it. I’ve started making good decisions now, and I plan to keep making them.” 

One by one, Sunset met each of their eyes. “I know who I used to be, and what I used to be. But I also know who I am now. And right now, I’m the one that nobody in school likes very much. But that’s fine. I may not be able to make them forget who I was, but I know that can can at least try to show them who I am now. Starting this year, I’ll do everything I can to make it up to everyone in the school, one by one. 

"I… I know that it’d be selfish to ask you guys to help with my problems, especially since I caused a lot for you as well, but will you all help me?”

Before anyone else could respond, Rainbow Dash threw an arm around her. “Of course! Why wouldn’t we. I spent a lot of time getting you to stop moping around the library you know. I’m not gonna leave you hanging now.”

Smiling widely, Sunset leaned into her embrace, holding onto the arm Rainbow had put around her. “One of my very first right choices was letting you in.”

Next, Pinkie hopped over and grabbed them both in a big hug. “Well duh! We all know you’re all sunny again! And I Pinkie Promise that by the time I’m done, everyone will know it too.”

Applejack shrugged and joined in. “Shucks, ya didn’t even hafta ask us, sugarcube.”

Fluttershy was the fourth one to join the hug. “If you’re genuine in your feelings, they’ll be sure to reach the people around you. Don’t you worry about anything.”

Finally, Rarity stepped up and looked Sunset in the eyes. “Sunset, in this world, Christmas is a time to count your blessings. It’s a time so look back, but it’s also a time to move forward with what it gave you. This year is nearly over, but look at what you have now. Of course we’ll help.” 

With no more words said, Rarity joined in the hug.

Tears now falling freely down Sunset’s face she returned their embrace. After a second, she opened her teary eyes and looked straight at the laptop behind the girls. Knowing that Coco would be watching this too, she gave the camera a bright smile. 

“This year, I got six amazing presents.”

~~~

Later that night, sitting on her bed in her room, Coco opened up her own laptop. It was a brand new light blue model that her grandmother had given her earlier that day. Unfortunately, due to catching up with the rest of her family, Coco hadn’t gotten past setting up the device. 

Opening her email, she was pleasantly surprised to find that Sunset had sent her a letter containing a link to a video. With a smile, she glanced over at the edge of her bed where a stuffed plush of her sat, snuggled up next to a smaller, secretly made, pony plush of Sunset. With no shortage of excitement, she opened up the video.
	
	
> Extra CH1: Christmas Cards
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Oh, oooh!” Pinkie’s eyes sparkled as she reviewed her video. Bouncing on her spot on the couch she turned to Sunset and leaned the laptop over to her. “This is the part where AJ starts tickling Rainbow!”

Sunset let out a light chuckle and pushed the machine back to her. “Pinkie, I was there remember? Focus on the game.” Shrugging, Pinkie then turned to show the video to Rarity who was sitting on her other side.

In front of them, staring deeply into each other’s eyes, were Rainbow and Applejack. Their former floor-based feud continuing as one of a different kind. Now the two stood as captains, desperately trying to outmaneuver each other's ships. 

With careful thought and precise aiming, Rainbow armed her scarlet hued canons and pointed them blindly into Applejack’s area. Her gaze hardening and her resolve stealing, Rainbow called out her strike. “F4!” she announced.

She waited and listened, dreading the inevitable response. Her first mate, Fluttershy, sat next to her and quivered in what may have been anticipation of a destroyed enemy; or so Dash liked to believe.

Nevertheless, AJ furrowed her brows and waited for an impact. When none came she smirked at her opponent. “Miss!”

“Arghhh!” Dash groaned, falling back onto the ground and flinging her red peg back into her unused pile. “That’s like twenty misses in a row!”

Sunset stared between them, completely enthralled in the game. Her role was to be the judge, as appointed by AJ, to make sure that the game was fair. Such a prestigious role granted her the responsibility of being the only girl to know the locations of each and every ship. From her vantage point above the table she could see that AJ’s grid was comprised of mainly white pegs that were all aimed at the center of her board, with her ships strategically placed around the edges. 

Chuckling, Applejack picked up a white peg from her rapidly dwindling pile and stuck it into the grid from her side. “Not my fault you’re not as good at this game as you think you are.”

Now her turn, AJ furrowed her brow and examined her side of the grid. She had sunk three of Dash’s ships and damaged the final one in the far left region of the grid. It was only a matter of time. After examining her options, the four possible spaces around the red peg, she made her choice.

“C4!” she called out. Her own cannons charged and shot out apple colored cannonballs. With the precision of a sniper, the attack soared towards their target, undaunted by Dash’s groans of defeat

“Hit…” she mumbled, flicking the small ship off of the grid. “That’s it! I lost! Can we play something else now?! Whose turn is it to choose?”

Rarity glanced upwards, her brow furrowing in thought. “Since that was your choice I think Pinkie gets to choose next.

Hearing the magic words, Pinkie jumped up and stood on the couch. “Finally! I have just the game!”

Handing Rarity the laptop, Pinkie quickly turned and jumped onto the couch and used the resulting bounce to flip over the backrest, only to return with the reverse motions with her bookbag in tow.

Rarity frowned at the girl, and threw up the now closed laptop in defence as Pinkie began to unzip a pocket. “Pinkie Pie,” she said hesitantly, only lowering her shield when no horrors exploded out of it, “darling, please take it easy on the couch and be careful. Remember we’re still guests.” Slowly she inched away still slightly nervous about Pinkie’s bag.

Sitting down, Pinkie began looking through her bag for the mystery game. “I’ve been waiting forever to play this with you guys.”

“What is it?” asked Sunset. While Pinkie rummaged through her bag, Fluttershy Dash and AJ made quick work of putting the previous game away and cleared the table. Rarity politely shut down the computer, knowing that whatever game it was, it would involve her participation.

“Ta-da!” cheered Pinkie, holding aloft a small pink box with rainbow colored letters.

Taking the box Rainbow Dash read the words aloud. “Cards Against Canterlot High?”

Instantly, Rarity gasped and stood up angrily. “Oh no! I am not touching that vulgar game!” she declared, crossing her arms and turning away.

Sunset looked between her and the box curiously. “Why? What is it?” she asked, looking to Fluttershy and Applejack for help.

Applejack shrugged. “Never heard of it.”

Fluttershy turned away with a blush, muttering, “I-I have no idea?”

Rainbow Dash turned the box this way and that looking it over. “Wait, isn’t it supposed to be called Cards Against Equestria?”

Smirking, Pinkie Pie put a hand to her chin and chuckled. “Fufufuu~ That may be how it is normally. But—!” Snatching the box from Rainbow she held it over her head once again, a wide and determined grin on her face. “This is a Pinkie Pie specially made custom edition all about Canterlot High and everyone we know there, and us too!”

Turning around, Rarity gave her a wide-eyed disgusted look. “My word, that’s even worse. I don’t want my name on those cards!”

Applejack noticed that. Grinning, Applejack raised her brow in Rarity’s direction. “Have you played the regular game before?”

Her face instantly flushed. “Sweetie Bell may have convinced me to play with her and Button Mash at one point. Once I realized how depraved it was I promptly put an end to it and forbade Sweetie from ever playing it again! The point is—” she reached up and took the card box from Pinkie. “—that this… this farce of a game will not be played while I am around!”

“I don’t know,” said Rainbow, her smile just a bit too amused, “I’ve heard some funny things about that game. Soarin told me that he played it with some of the guys on the team and they all died laughing.” 

Rarity just frowned at her disapprovingly. “Well they’re uncouth high school boys,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Of course they’d find this game humorous. They find… breaking wind to be humorous.”

Sunset shrugged. “Well for the rest of us who are still clueless. What’s Cards Against Canterlot High?”

Rarity scoffed. “Well first of all it’s not called that normally. The regular game is called Cards Against Equestria.”

“Yeah,” added Pinkie, taking over the explanation. “It's kinda like Apples to Apples—Oh!" she paused giving Applejack a playful eye roll and continued in a mock southern drawl, "But nee'ther game gots anythin' to do wit' dem apples," and popped over beside Sunset to stage-whisper, "Applejack was pretty clear about that last time."

Pinkie then resumed with her normal sugar-rush voice, "But it’s like that game mixed with Mad Libs, but no one is angry; no one’s liberal either, or maybe they are. I don’t actually know what that means. So I guess it's not actually like either of those games. Well, it is sort of…” she trailed off, seemingly lost in thought for a moment before popping back up with renewed gusto. “Anyway! There's a bunch of questions, or Mad Libby things, and there's also a bunch of cards that might be answers, or they might be strange things that shouldn't make any sense at all when you put them together but actually do in this really super-duper funny way! And it's like a card party, except cards can't have fun since they're just cards, so we gotta have fun for them. Oh, but it's also a game, not just a party, so there's points too! There's one point for each Mad Libby question thingy and it goes to the person that had the most funniest card for that round!” Pinkie finished with a wide smile, beaming with confidence at a game well explained.

Everyone else stared at her, heads tiled and jaws askew in confusion. One by one, the girls turned to look at Rarity.

Rarity coughed awkwardly and caught the silent request.“W-well to clarify what Pinkie said, the game is as simple as it is licentious; there are white cards and black cards. One player, the Card Czar, reads a black card and the other players use the white cards to complete the phrases  on the black cards. Then the Card Czar chooses which one she thinks is the most amusing and awards the donator of that card a point.”

“Isn’t that what I said?” asked Pinkie.

“Except,” continued Rarity, “the white cards are all vulgar and tasteless phrases filled with rude jokes and profanity. I absolutely refuse to play.” Rarity harrumphed with finality, sat the cards on the table, and retook her spot on the couch. Both her arms and legs were crossed with her nose raised and facing away from the box.

There was a brief moment of silence, during which Fluttershy tentatively picked up the box and examined the plain pink casing. 

“Well, even so,” she began, “I think I trust that Pinkie Pie wouldn’t use that version of the game. Um, she did this was a special version she made.”

Pinkie quickly hopped over the table and huggled Fluttershy gratefully. “Exactly! I knew that Rarity would never play the original game, so I made my own.”

“Come on, sugarcube. Have a little faith in Pinkie Pie.” Applejack moved to lean onto the table, looking up at Rarity from behind the cut of her hat.

“I’m interested as well,” added Sunset, leaning over and into Rarity’s view. “I mean, she did go through the trouble of making her own deck after all.” Moving in, Pinkie Pie also gave her a bright-eyed look.

Cheeks flushed, Rarity suffered the combined pleading gazes of all of her friends. Her resistance, though strong, could not stand the onslaught for long.

“Grrrr, fine...” she sighed, her body limping over in defeat. Suddenly she stiffened and glared in Pinkie’s direction. “But if I find so much as a single curse word—or inappropriate body part…”

Pinkie did the tell tale motions of her signature promise in response. That seemed to be enough in Rarity’s eyes and she nodded. Pinkie retook her seat back on the couch in between her and Sunset.

Rainbow Dash fist-pumped and let out a silent cheer. Grabbing the box, she threw open the top and peered down into it. All at once her excited grin turned into a frown. “Why are the cards red and green?”

“Because it’s Christmas!” cheered Pinkie, throwing confetti of the same colors into the air.

Rainbow, finding no fault in her logic for once, just shrugged and pulled the two decks out. “So how does this work?” she said, handing them back to their creator

Pinkie held up the red cards. “These cards are the Mad Libby, slash, fill-in-the-blank, slash, question cards. We pick one person to be the Card Captor and read these and the green cards we pick and chose which one is the funniest. Then they win a Pinkie Point!”

“A Pinkie Point?” deadpanned Applejack. “Really?”

Pinkie giggled up at Applejack while her hands effortlessly shuffled the red cards unsupervised. Rainbow Dash looked on for a moment, shrugged, and began shuffling the green ones herself. “Yup, It's my game—kinda—and besides, what else would you get after combining red and green?"

"Yellow," answered Sunset. “You’d get the color yellow”

Pinkie stopped shuffling and went bug-eyed as she process the info. After a second she shrugged and resumed shuffling. "Oh yeah. But ‘yellow points’ sounds like a game about chickens. And there aren't any chickens in this game. Ah!" she gasped. "But I know how to add some!"

Fluttershy also gasped and smiled up at her. “I would like that!”

Pinkie turned and leaned in close to the girl next to her. “Sunset, do you have any feathers I can borrow?! And maybe some eggs?”

“M-maybe next time,” said Sunset cringing at the much too excited looking girl. “There’s just cards in this right? Nothing else?” she asked passing a worried glance at Pinkie’s dangerous bag.

“Right now there isn’t. But if you have some feathers—”

“No! No, this should be fine,” Sunset was quick to press on. “Are we ready?” she asked the others, leaving Pinkie to cross her arms and pout.

Rarity sighed and resigned herself to her fate. “As ready as I’ll ever be, I suppose.” Even so she gave a small smirk and raised her hand. “Though as for the role of Card Czar, or rather, ‘Captor’ as Pinkie Pie has apparently renamed it, I claim not it.”

All at once everyone stopped what they were doing and went wide-eyed. They all nervously glanced at each other before most of them also threw their hands into the air.

“Not it!” they all screamed. 

Everyone's gaze quickly locked onto Sunset whose arm was only at half mast. “Not… it?”

To her confusion, everyone burst out laughing. Afterwards, Pinkie sat the red cards in her lap. “Looks like you get to read all the cards.

“Alright. This is going to be fun!” shouted Rainbow.

“It sure is!” cheered Pinkie, taking the green cards from Rainbow Dash. With casino-level skill she dealt them, six each, to everyone else and placed the remainder of the deck on the center of the table. 

Taking her own cards in hand, she brought them up to cover the lower half of her face. With squinty eyes she glanced at each of her opponents. “Let the games begin. First to six Pinkie Points wins.”

Rarity took a second to look over her hand as well hmm-ing and chuckling as she did. “Well these do seem to be… interesting variations,” she commented.

Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash seemed to have similar reactions. Both took one look at their cards and trickled out light giggles.

Sunset couldn’t help but grin in excitement. She picked up the first card and read it aloud. “What’s Flash Sentry’s embarrassing secret? Uh… no, I promised him I wouldn’t tell anyone and I’m really trying to turn over a new leaf and…” Sunset looked around at the other girls’ faces ranging from confusion, to bemusement, to sheer curiosity and realized her mistake. “Oh, right, using the cards. Not the real… Let’s forget I said anything. Please.” 

Rainbow Dash smirked up at Sunset, then glanced over at Pinkie. “I really hope that one of these cards is his actual secret. If we get it you have to tell us, deal?”

“What, no, I—”

Rainbow Dash began snickering and instantly placed a card down without hesitation. “I so got this!”

With confident smirks Applejack and Pinkie Pie followed suit. Fluttershy reluctantly reached out a shaky hand holding a single card and laid it on the table as well. Though instead of leaning back into the couch, she bit her lip and refused to take her hand off the card.

Finally, Rarity made her choice and added her card to the circle of pseudo-insults, slash, jokes while giving a curious glance over at Fluttershy’s behavior.

Sunset gathered all of the cards, nearly having to wrench Fluttershy’s away from her, shuffled them, and began to read. “Let’s see here. What is Flash Sentry’s embarrassing secret? The first card says ‘enjoys… slowly sucking the air out of balloons’?” 

Everyone turned to face Pinkie who just grinned sheepishly. “What?”

“I think that card should’ve been saved for when your name comes up, Pinkie,” smirked Rainbow.

“Alright then, the next card says “wears a wig to hide their cue-ball head.’ Oh Celestia!” Sunset threw a hand over her eyes at the mental image of Flash without his hair. “Oh Celestia!” she called again as the images of two bald Celestias, one from each world, joined Flash.

Rarity also burst out in a bout of jolly giggling as she imagined him trying to cover it, only to have it revealed in front of the school. “Oh my, imagine if he lost the wig one day; what would he wear? A hoodie, a ballcap, a fedora? Or would he display his lack of tresses proudly?”

Applejack burst out laughing. “Man ya think he’d look like Cranky?” 

“I know right!” said Rainbow, struggling to talk. 

“We’d all need sunglasses if they stood next to each other!” yelled Pinkie, her mind ever the random scene showed her the image of Flash Sentry and Cranky Doodle Donkey’s clear heads reflecting the sun like a pair of mirrors and blinding anyone around them.

“That’s sad,” muttered Fluttershy, the only one not laughing. “I would hate to have all my hair gone.” She clutched a lock to herself protectively.

Rarity waved her hand dismissively. “Oh my word, so would I, but the image is rather striking. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone completely without hair. I’ve never even seen Mr. Donkey without his hairpiece. Except for that one time,” she added, slipping Pinkie a bemused grin.

“Yeah,” said Applejack sitting back up, “he sure keeps that thing on tight. Especially since that incident,” Applejack added also passing a glance at Pinkie.

“It was an accident!” defended Pinkie. “How was I supposed to know the water balloon would hit him? Also, that water balloon was rated ‘extra large’, it should have been able to handle the pressure!” She groaned loudly. “Nevermind. Read the next one!” she urged Sunset.

Sunset rolled her eyes. “Alright. Alright. The next one is—”

“Hold on!” Everyone turned to look at Rainbow, whose gaze bore into Sunset’s. “Is that his secret? Does he wear a wig?” she asked in all seriousness.

Sunset shook her head. “No. Now let’s move on. “‘Enjoys wearing ladies’ underwear’? Umm alright… ew.” Instead of laughter Sunset looked around to see nothing but disgusted looks. “Who played this one?”

Rarity raised her hand. Her face had a slight tint to it, though she acted as if it wasn’t there. “I did. It was the best card for the situation.”

Rainbow stuck her tongue out in disgust. “Flash in drag is a bad image.”

“Worse than Bulk Biceps?” asked Pinkie with an evil grin. Rainbow blanched as soon as her mind conjured the thought.

Not content to leave it purely to Rainbow’s imagination, Pinkie put down her cards and mimicked a few weightlifter’s poses. “YEEEEAHHHHHHH!” 

Rarity’s face flushed and she threw up a hand to block her vision. “Please put your bra back on under your clothes, darling,” suggested Rarity, not sure how Pinkie managed to remove and strap it back on over her shirt so quickly.

“Anyway…” Sunset picked up the next card, hoping to remove a host of images from her mind as quickly as possible. “Flash’s embarrassing secret is that he is secretly… two dwarves in a costume?” Rainbow Dash burst out laughing.

The girls traded looks, none of them amused. 

Pinkie Pie tilted her head and crossed her arms. “I don’t get it,” she said.

“What?” Rainbow Dash blurted out. She looked around at the other girls who either shrugged or made similar expressions of confusion. “Oh come on, you don’t get it?” More blank and confused looks. “Pinkie? Not even you? You made the card!”

“That one I just copied from the original.”

“Seriously?” she groaned. Scoffing she just leaned forward onto the table. “Nevermind. Just read the last card.”

Sunset, though she didn’t understand the joke, still let out a small chuckle at Rainbow’s defeated position. “He’s also not two dwarves in a costume by the way.

“You sure about that?” Rainbow crossed her arms and gave Sunset an evil smirk. “The only way you could know that is if you’ve seen him naked.”

Sunset returned the smirk with a flat look and turned back to the card in her hand. “And for the last card. Flash Sentry’s embarrassing secret is that he likes…” as she read the remainder of the card her eyes shrank and her face contorted into one of abject horror, “‘frantically licking pictures of... Sunset Shimmer’?!” she exclaimed, her jaw falling open on the last word. 

Rainbow Dash immediately fell over laughing while Applejack slumped over the table and began pounding it furiously. Pinkie Pie chortled nonstop while Rarity tried and failed to hide her chuckling. 

Slowly, Sunset’s head turned towards the only one not having an audible reaction. “Fluttershy?”

The poor girl had her hands over her beet-red face. “I’m so sorry,” she muttered repeatedly, “n-none of my other cards would fit.” Though Sunset couldn’t see it, the girl was also struggling not to laugh.

Still bewildered, Sunset glanced back down at the card, then around at everyone still laughing. After a second she felt something rising in her chest. Soon enough she found herself chuckling as well at the sheer absurdity of the idea. Eventually, she fell back on the couch holding her stomach and laughed along with the others.

It was clear who won this round. But Rainbow wasn’t finished. “Is that worse than the real secret?” she asked between fits of laughter.

Still rolling around in her reverie, Sunset weakly waved her off. “I-I am so not answering that!”
	
	
> 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.”
	
> CH16: Money Mystery
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Leaning back in her chair, Sunset languidly stared out of the restaurant window towards the street. As late afternoon turned into night, the street and sidewalk both became full of people and cars rushing home. 

Across the table, Coco struggled to relax as she sipped her soda while nervously glancing to the side. After cleaning up the place, and getting that mistletoe down, the two had decided to relax somewhere in town. After a bit of walking around, the two had decided to take a seat inside a  restaurant and enjoy the last few days of their Winter Break.

“So… ready to go back to school on Monday?” asked Sunset, still staring out at the street.

Coco, having had her attention on something else, flinched and her gaze returned to Sunset. “Wh-what? Oh yes, of course. I can’t wait to see my classmates again. Not to mention the second semester is starting too.”

Sunset shrugged. “Nothing really changes between semesters. We just have a few different classes on our schedule. I think Rainbow, Pinkie, and me have a class together now though. I’ll have to ask her tomorrow when we meet at Sugarcube Corner.”

“Oh lucky. My classes don’t change at all since I transferred late,” Coco pouted. Hearing a sneeze, Coco turned her head away again.

Sunset smirked. “So I never asked, but are you planning on joining a club?” Hearing no response, Sunset finally turned to look at her friend only to see that she was looking elsewhere. Coco’s brow was furrowed and her eyes seemed to have narrowed in deep thought.

Following her gaze, Sunset found herself staring across the dining area of the restaurant at a person sitting against the back wall directly across from them. That person, whose face was hidden behind a newspaper, neglected to tuck in their large, poofy, pink hair causing it to stick out from behind it and into clear view. 

Seeing her, Sunset just rolled her eyes and turned back. “Coco,” she said waving her hand in her face. 

Coco turned back to her with a surprised look. “Wait… b-but you see her right? I’m not positive but I think that Pinkie is spying on us.”

Sunset just nodded calmly. “Yeah, I know. So, are you joining a club this year?” she asked, giving her a 'everything's alright' smile.

Coco glanced between her and the disguised Pinkie, who was now glancing at them from the side of the paper. Hesitant, Coco leaned over the table and whispered, “W-what; but aren't you worried? Does she want to know about the mistletoe? Should we go over and talk to her about it?”

Sunset simply leaned back in her seat. “Nah, she’s been showing up and spying on me for a while. Every time I go out shopping I see her out of the corner of my eye. I talked to the girls about it but they just brushed it off as being slightly weirder than normal behavior for her. Once she sees I’m not spending money she’ll leave." Sunset shrugged. "If she doesn't though, I could probably yell something about a party and that would get her to leave too."

Coco turned her head to look back at where the person was and flinched when she saw that there was nobody there anymore. Leaning back up, Coco tilted her head and looked at Sunset curiously. 

“So you don’t know why she’s following you at all?” she asked.

Sunset let out a large yawn and raised her hands above her head to stretch. “Naaah," she said through her yawn. "But I do plan to talk to her about it tomorrow at Sugarcube Corner though before it becomes a problem.” 

Coco watched her stretch and giggled. “Sunset, are you sleepy?”

Finishing her stretch Sunset leaned down on the table. “Maybe a little. I got up early to make sure that I met up with Pinkie so we could go meet you together. Honestly shouldn't you be tired? You had to have gotten up earlier than me.”

“I am a little sleepy. Wanna go home?” asked Coco, standing up. “Like you said, we get to hang out with the others tomorrow and I don’t want to drag you out of bed or anything.”

~~~

“Coco, darling!” greeted Rarity as the two began spinning around in a way that made Sunset both annoyed and slightly nostalgic. 

Either way, Sunset shook her head and sighed. “Oh not this again,” she muttered. Soon enough, Pinkie had joined in on the spinning. Sunset only felt more annoyed as a few people who were walking along the opposite sidewalk stopped to stare at them.

The two girls had previously been heading to Sugarcube Corner to meet up with their friends only to be pleasantly surprised to find that the other five were waiting for them halfway.

Applejack happily tipped her hat to the girl. “Welcome back there, sugarcube.”

Coco stopped spinning with Rarity and playfully tipped the cossack hat she was wearing, the same one Applejack herself had given her.

“So,” began Fluttershy, going over and giving Coco a gentle hug, “did you have a nice holiday?”

Coco nodded happily. “It was great. I got to see my grandparents for the first time in a few years.”

Rainbow shrugged. “Meh, grandparents aren't all that great."

Fluttershy let out a small gasp. "Rainbow Dash. Don't say that!"

Rainbow just waved her off. "Come on, let’s head on over to Sugarcube Corner," she cheered.

As the group made their way out of the school and down the sidewalk to Sugarcube Corner Pinkie hopped up alongside Sunset and Coco. 

“Soo? she asked, smiling widely at the two.

Sunset, leaned back slightly and answered. “Ummm ‘so’… what?”

“Did you kiss?” she asked, straight to the point.

Immediately the group stopped and froze. Rarity and Fluttershy had covered their mouths and gasped in surprise while, both Sunset and Coco were looking around with flushed faces.

Rainbow, however raised her brow and stared at Pinkie who had a huge smile on her face. 
“And why would they have kissed?” she asked accusingly. Pinkie’s grin only grew wider and she began wiggling her brows seductively.

“O-oh… my,” gasped Fluttershy, nearly speechless. Her blush was nearly as large as the two subjects.

Applejack hummed and scratched the top of her head under her hat. “Well… Ah guess Ah’m a tad bit surprised but...” she paused for a second to find the words. Afterwards she gave the two a smile and, stepping between then, wrapped both of them in wrapped both of them in a pair of one-armed hugs. “But in a good way. Grats!”

Rarity herself broke out in a large grin. “Oh I knew this would happen eventually! You two have such wonderful chemistry about you!”

Sunset flinched back, quickly wiggled out of Applejack’s grip, and backed away, frowning. “No, no way! It wasn't romantic. Pinkie just hid a thing of mistletoe over our heads in the house. We had to do something so I gave Coco a peck on her forehead.”

While Applejack let out a low hum of understanding Rainbow ‘s expression immediately soured. Her once curious look quickly became a narrow eyed glare at Pinkie who had turned away and began whistling nonchalantly.

Rarity, upon hearing the truth, had simply turned around and pouted. “Oh poo!” she muttered, crossing her arms.

Sunset have her an incredulous look. “You’re… disappointed?”

Rarity chuckled and shrugged. “Well I was just hoping that one of us besides myself would finally take an interest in finding a companion, is all.”

Sunset continued to stare, her expression turning from a raised brow and slack jaw to flat look. “Uhuh, so I have a question,” Sunset began, “The whole, ‘you have such chemistry about you’ line… did you plan that?”

While those two were talking, Fluttershy had let out a sigh of relief. Hearing something like two of her friends suddenly falling in love with each other had been unexpectedly jarring for her. As she calmed her racing heart, she heard a soft giggling coming from next to her.

Coco, who had been released when Applejack had walked over to Rainbow intent to stop her from chewing out Pinkie, had been covering her mouth with a hand in a failed attempt to stifle her laughter. 

Soon enough the group calmed down and resumed their journey to the sweets shop. But as they neared the store, Rainbow returned to badgering Pinkie.

“So you Pinkie Promise that you didn’t hide any more mistletoe anywhere?” she persisted.

Pinkie just continued to laugh even as Applejack held open the door for the group. “Of course, Dashie. I only hid one because then they would be looking for more. A prank is not as fun if they’re expecting it.”

Coco nodded. “It’s true. Sunset spent half of the morning while we were putting things away looking for more mistletoe, batting at the ceiling with a long-handled broom.”

While some of the girls walked up to the register to order, Sunset, Pinkie, and Fluttershy took their seats in their normal spot against the nearby wall. As they did Pinkie narrowed her eyes and began staring suspiciously at Sunset. “So, Sunset… you gonna buy something?”

Sunset raised a brow and looked over at the cash register, currently being manned by Mr. Cake. “Are you asking me that out of curiosity or because you work here?”

Pinkie shrugged, still looking at her through narrowed eyes. “Eeeyees?”

Giving her an odd look, Sunset decided not to pursue that particular topic. Instead, she turned to Fluttershy. “So, what elective classes do you have this semester?”

Fluttershy frowned and lowered her head. “I… I have to take a gym class,” she said.

Sunset nodded in understanding. “Do you at least have any friends in that class with you?” she asked, giving her a pitying look. Fluttershy could only shrug. Moving a strand of hair out of her face, she looked up at Sunset. “I don’t know yet. As far as I’m aware none of you have to take gym this year.”

Fluttershy felt a hand touch her shoulder. Turning her head she saw Rarity, holding a cup of hot chocolate, looking down at her with a sad smile. “Fluttershy, darling, you don’t have to take gym if you don’t want to. You know that you can take the same health class as me and still receive the credit.

Hope blossomed on Fluttershy’s face and she nodded happily. “Really?! I hope our PE teacher lets me transfer.”

As she said that, however, Applejack came over with a small apple pie and sat next to Fluttershy, right in the seat that Rarity was about to sit in. Aghast, Rarity pouted and sat next to Pinkie.

Chuckling, Applejack turned to Fluttershy and gave her a reassuring one-armed hug. “Don’t you worry, Ah’m takin’ PE too. So if Coach Will don’t let you transfer Ah got yer back!”

Just then Rainbow, who had grabbed a drink, came over and sat next to Sunset. She took a deep gulp from her straw. “Sunset, you and I are in the same performing arts class right?”

Sunset nodded. “Pinkie too right?” she said, turning to look at Pinkie who was still staring at her.

“Are you sure you’re not hungry?” she asked. 

It was then that Coco finally came up behind Pinkie, idly munching on a blueberry muffin. Seeing that there were no other seats around the table she calmly picked up one from another table and brought it over.

“I’m actually curious too,” she muttered as she sat down. “Do you girls not want a snack or something to drink?”

Sunset leaned back in her seat and waved her hand. “No, I’m alright. Besides, I don’t have my wallet on me today anyway.”

Pinkie’s suspicious look evolved into a sly grin. “So you do have money then?” she asked.

Sunset slowly lifted one brow in confusion. “Eeeeyes? Of course I have money. Why do you ask?”

“So... is that why you’ve been following her?” asked Coco, relieved that she could finally confront this issue.

Rainbow still sipping her drink leaned an elbow on the table. “Yeah I heard about that. What’s going on?”

Pinkie shrugged and held her hands up in defense. “I’m not stalking her or anything. I was just curious about something.”

Sitting back in her seat, Applejack crossed her arms. “Alright, Ah’ll bite. What are ya so dang curious about that you gotta follow Sunset everywhere?”

The table went quiet as each of the girls gave Pinkie their full attention. Pinkie herself had still been staring at Sunset, a small grin on her face.

Slamming her palms on the table, Pinkie stood up and dramatically threw her right hand forward, her index finger outstretched. “Sunset Shimmer! Where do you get your money from?” she asked.

There was another beat of silence as Pinkie maintained her position. “Is that it?” asked Rainbow Dash. “Obviously she just gets some from her dad like… wait… no, hold on.” As realization dawned on her, Rainbow brought a hand to her chin and her brow furrowed in thought. “Where do you get your cash from?” she asked Sunset.

“I’ve… never really thought about it before,” muttered Rarity. 

“Is it that strange?” asked Sunset, shrinking back in her seat.

Fluttershy shook her head. “Well no, not normally. Everyone our age has some amount of money. Normally we get allowances, or we have a part time job or something.”

Applejack continued. “Yeah, but your case is a bit… ya might say, different.” She began counting off on her fingers. “Ya don’t have any parents here to mooch off of, and ya weren't paying for your house. But you still buy clothes and groceries and the like but as far as ah know ya don’t have a job…”

“I have a job,” interrupted Sunset, “it doesn't pay a lot but it is a job.”

“HOLD IT!” 

There was another slam and everyone turned to see Pinkie with her palms on the table. “If you claim that you actually have a job, why haven't you been going to it?” Picking up a few napkins, Pinkie held them up to her face like she was reading something. “Even in the fall when you were sulking you just went from school to home every day!”

Sunset shrugged. “Well it’s… not an official job… It’s kind of like Fluttershy’s volunteer work. I do get paid though so I call it a job. When I was having my… episode I stopped going. O-of course after I got better I went up there to apologize to ‘my employer’. But I realized that she left town early in November."

Pinkie slapped the napkins in her hands impatiently, her face totally serious. “But even so, you used the term have indicating you still believe you have one.”

Sunset began to feel more like she was being interrogated, the florescent light overhead beginning to feel hotter by the second. “W-well if you let me finish I was going to say that she’s only going to be gone for the winter. She apparently hates the cold more than I do. She called me two days ago and said that she forgave me and that I can come back in whenever I want. I was going to go at some point this week.”

“OBJECTION!”

Everyone turned to look back at Pinkie, who was still standing up. The spectacle had obviously captured the group's full attention and they all eagerly waited for Pinkie’s next comment.

“I see… your explanation makes sense for the most part. But not everything matches in your statement. You say that your job doesn't pay much, but you also say that you haven’t gone to work in what has to be at least four months. So I have one more question…” Pinkie tossed her index finger forwards once more. “How do you still have money after not being employed for four whole months!”

Everyone let out a shocked gasp at Pinkie’s declaration, which caused her to grin and place her hands on her hips in victory. “You buy groceries, and from what I’ve seen, even when Coco isn’t here you don’t have any problems buying food. Admit it! You have a secret bank account don’t you?!”

While everyone began muttering amongst themselves Sunset just nervously looked from side to side, completely unsure how deal with this random situation. Nothing else to do, she just shrunk further into her seat. 

“I-It not a secret…” she muttered her eyes falling to the table.

Just as Pinkie rose her hands to slam the table once again, a different voice yelled out. “That’s enough!” Everyone turned to look at Fluttershy who had began frowning at everyone else.

“I know we’re all curious but I don’t like the way we’re going about it,” she chided, looking directly at Pinkie. “Look, we’re making her uncomfortable.”

Pinkie, smiled sheepishly and sat back in her seat. “Heh… sorry. Anyway, you can tell us all about your secret cash stash later. Let’s all go meet your mysterious benefactor!” she cheered.

“What?” asked Sunset, looking around, she saw everyone else nodding in agreement. “What, now?!

Applejack and the others had already gotten out of their seats. “Well yeah, let’s go while it’s still early.”

Coco nodded. “I agree I would love to know where you work, your boss sounds like a nice person as well.”

As she got up, Rainbow stretched her body. “Yeah, sure. Not like we have any plans anyway.”

“I-I can think up a few plans if you need some!” Sunset protested.
	
> CH17: Past to Present
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sighing, Sunset leaned back against the rigid, but thankfully cushy, seat of the local bus as she and the others silently passed the time until they reached their destination. “So you guys really are dead set on visiting my boss huh?”

From the seat next to her, Applejack reached over and gently nudged. “Oh stop yer belly achin’; we just wanna know more about you is all. Plus, from the way you made ‘em sound ah don’t think meetin’ yer friends will put a damper on your employment.”

“Plus,” added Pinkie, poking her head up over the seat in front of Sunset, “I was pretty sure I knew everyone in this part of town, but I’ve never heard of anyone who lives where you said.”

Rainbow Dash, who was sitting directly next to her, mimicked Pinkie. “That aside, I really wanna hear more about this secret stash of cash you got,” she said, a sly grin adorning her cheeks.

Sunset fidgeted a little when everyone’s ears piqued in interest. Fluttershy and Rarity, who were sitting across the aisle from her, angled their heads towards her while Coco, who was sitting behind her, also leaned forwards to look at Sunset over her seat.

Fluttershy, seeing her discomfort, offered a helping hand across the aisle. “You don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to… especially if it’s something… you had to do,” she finished, shying down behind her seat.

Sunset gave her an odd look, Fluttershy’s insinuation clearly flying right over Sunset’s head. “W-well no. It’s just, to tell you that story, I have to get a little bit into the situation I was ‘escaping’ before I found myself in this world.” 

Rarity glanced upwards and put a hand to her chin. “If I recall what you told us, you had an arguement with your teacher and stormed through the first exit you saw.”

Sunset nodded meekly. Lowering her head she recalled the time just before becoming who she was now. “That’s the simplified version. You know how Twilight is a pony princess right?” 

Everyone nodded and Sunset lowered her head and closed her eyes. In her mind she began to recall her pony form standing next to Celestia. She envisioned herself with a wide grin and her head held high and Celestia with a contented smile. Surrounding them were books upon books. Thousands of books gently floating around them, showcasing spells and magical practices of all kinds that were at her hoof tips. 

Sunset continued in a soft tone. “I was in a similar position as her but I wasn’t quite princess material. I was close, but I was selfish and arrogant. Celestia, of course, saw that before I ever did and denied my every demand to move up in my studies.”

In Sunset’s mind, the vision blurred to an image of her and Celestia walking down a pathway that slowly grew wider and, further down the road, separated entirely. While Celestia’s face remained clouded and unreadable, Sunset’s once proud grin was now a grimace, a scowl of frustration with her eyebrows furrowed in anger. 

“I became upset and insistent. I didn’t even realize that the Princess had become increasingly distant. She spent less time teaching me personally and instead assigned me independant lessons.” Sunset gave a remorseful smile as, in her mind, Celesta’s face unclouded, revealing teary eyes and a small sad frown. “I guess in hindsight she had already realized that she had failed as a teacher.”

The memory changed once more to Sunset once again surrounded by books. However, this time the books were covered in shadow. Hundreds of books were flying around her in tornado-like winds.

“Eventually, I got fed up and started researching more powerful spells on my own. I figured that I deserved my wings and that becoming stronger would ensure that everyone knew it. Of course, the Princess caught me. We did have an arguement, and I was denounced as her student and ordered to leave the castle.”

The next few images montaged in her mind. Her argument with her mentor, her disownment, the guards escorting her out, her inner turmoil during the walk out, and finally...

Pony Sunset glanced to the side. “Deciding that I wouldn’t let it end this way, I saw the enchanted mirror that the Princess and I had talked about and I made a snap decision.” With a twist of her head, Sunset aimed her horn to the lower part of the nearest guard’s neck and let out an electric shock, knocking him out. Before the other guard could react, Sunset pushed him with her hooves, not enough to tip him over, but just enough to stagger him off balance. With him disoriented, Sunset easily knocked him out the same way. “I over powered the two guards, quickly grabbed a few things and ran into this world.”

Complete silence was what filled the otherwise empty bus. Even Coco, who had talked the most with Sunset about her life in Equestria had no idea that her circumstance had been that… serious. Either way, it was all she could do just to reach over her chair and wrap her arms around Sunset, making sure to be extra gentle. Applejack, who was also feeling the heavy atmosphere, reached over and gave Sunset a one-armed hug as well.

Rarity, who was sitting too far away to do something similar just gave a small gasp. “Oh my… Sunset. I’m so sorry.”

Sunset chuckled a little and turned to her with a melancholy smile. “Why would you be sorry? It’s my fault. Plus, I don’t dwell on it all that much. It happened and I’m a different person now, right?”

Even Rainbow, who typically wasn’t all that great with reading the atmosphere in a room, was empathetic for the girl who was obviously reliving some bad memories. Tentatively, she voiced her next question. “Um, that was a… interesting story… but why did you tell it? I just wanted to know how you got your money.”

Sunset, letting herself out of Coco’s and AJ’s hugs, shook her head. However, as she opened her mouth, she happened to glance out the window. Putting her answer on hold, she reached up and pressed a button on the ceiling. “Our stop is next. Well, aside from the fact that I felt that you all deserved to know, I also needed to give you context on how I got to that point when I came into my money.”

Reaching their stop, everyone followed Sunset out onto the sidewalk as she continued to talk. “I mean if I just told you that before I came to this world I pick-pocketed the guards I knocked out you would’ve asked me why. So I decided to give you the entire story.” 

Applejack and Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement. With everyone off the bus the group crossed the street and faced each other. 

Rarity, still having a few more questions, piped up. “I’ve always wondered, but what do magical ponies use for currency?”

It was then that all the dots connected in Coco’s mind and she let out an excited gasp and frantically threw her arm into the air. “Oh, oh! Please pick me! I figured it out!” she urged with the starry eyed excitement of a grade schooler.

Sunset couldn’t help but smirk, remembering that the two of them covered this topic on one of their conversations. Everyone, especially Pinkie, watched in amusement as Coco’s eagerness only grew. However, when Coco realized that everyone was staring at her her face quickly turned a different shade and she quieted down.

Sunset relented and held out her palm to let her answer for her. Smiling widely, Coco took a step forward and turned to the group. “Equestrians use standard Equestrian bits. Small, round coins that are a about the size of a quarter dollar and about two or three times as thick.”

“I only got three from the guards though,” Sunset chimed in.

Pinkie counted on her fingers and mumbled to herself for a bit. “But even so that’s like… three quarters of a dollar.  Oh, but if they are two or three times as thick, are they two or three times as valuable? That would make them like one and a half dollars or a whole TWO and a quarters dollars!  Wait, that’s not very much either.”

Coco shook her head. “I said they were the same size, they aren't the same thing. Equestrian bits are made of pure gold.”

There were several gasps that went around the group and a lot of wide eyes. Rarity let her jaw dangle while Applejack, Pinkie, and Fluttershy stared at her in shock. Rainbow Dash brought up her fingers and mumbled to herself in a manner similar to Pinkie. “Screw a dollar… that’s like, thousands of dollars.”

Sunset, her smirk now replaced with a sheepish look, nervously corrected her. “About five thousand seven hundred sixty-five dollars and forty-one cents to be exact. I only had three.” 

While the others were still dumbstruck, Sunset looked up at the sky and nervously crossed her arm as she continued her story. “I found out how much they were worth when I found out that no store would take my bits because they couldn’t afford the change. I didn’t know how long I would be here and how much everything would cost so I was super conservative. I think between then and now, I’ve probably only spent a fraction of it, and that’s not factoring in any money I made from some of my other… temporary side jobs. Nowadays with the job I have now… and my new living conditions. I put it in a savings account and haven't touched it at all.”

“You know,” began Rarity as she slowly sauntered over to Sunset. “I could oh so use some investment money to purchase this brand new shiny silk roll for my creations,” she said, pressing herself up against Sunset. “I’ll pay you back of course,” she quickly added, fluttering her eyebrows suggestively. 

Pinkie, immediately raised her hand. “I want a brand new trampoline!!”

Rainbow immediately followed suit. “I need a new g—”

However, before she could finish, Applejack rounded in front of the two of them with a dangerous look in her eye. Pinkie and Rainbow immediately shut their mouths as their eyes shrank from the sight of her imposing stature. Reaching over, AJ snatched Rarity away from Sunset and brought her over to join the gasping duo. Together, all three of them continued to quiver like children under scrutiny from Applejack’s glare. 

Slowly moving behind the three, Applejack stood between them and put her arms around all of their necks and, in unison, the three turned around and formed a small huddle, their backs facing Sunset, Coco, and Fluttershy who were watching with both confusion and interest. 

“Now…” she began, her voice low with a dangerous looking smirk on her face, “I know I didn’t just hear three of mah best friends immediately start begging for money and objects, just after hearing that one of mah other best friends might have a tiny bit of extra cash lying around… did I?”

Shaking in her tight grip all three answered immediately and unanimously.

“No, ma’am!”

“Not a chance!”

“No way, jose!”

Her grip loosened and she nodded. “That’s good. Cuz iffin I did hear that, ah’d be more than a little bit peeved because if ah recall, she just said it was for a rainy day. So… just for the record, I know you clearly weren't gonna do it, but let’s just say it anyway. What are we not gonna do in the foreseeable future?”

Once again, immediately and unanimously

“Not ask Sunset Shimmer for money!” they all answered.

However, Applejack just shook her head with a devilish grin. “No, come on now, let’s make this one solid. Ah know you’ve been askin’ on the side here an’ there so let’s clear this one up as well. ” She made it a point to glare directly at Rarity who shriveled under her gaze. “With gusto now! From now on and forever more we will…?”

“Not ask Sunset Shimmer or Coco Pommel for money!”

“And break,” called Applejack. With a proud grin, she turned and walked over to the other three who flinched reflexively. “Glad that’s settled. Sunset, ah’m mighty proud that you told us the honest truth of how you came across your assets. While ah don’t condone how you got it, can’t nothin’ be done. So, either way I’m glad that you’re at least using it responsibly.”

Sunset made a mental note to not tell Applejack that a good portion of the money she spent was to fix up Flash Sentry’s car to get him to go out with her… or that she blackmailed him into paying it back with interest after breaking up with her. So instead… she gave a nervous lopsided smirk and a thumbs up.

Afterwards, the group continued on to their original goal. Merrily they conversed, as they continued down the sidewalk towards the edge of town and towards the forest surrounding it. As they neared, Rarity began looking around and examining the unfamiliar area.

“Interesting, I never knew there was a forest on this side of town,” she muttered.

Smirking, Rainbow and Pinkie were also looking around. “We did; some of Pinkie’s summer parties were held in this area. You probably stayed inside with your fancy air conditioning,” Dash teased. Pinkie chuckled as Rarity glared at them.

Fluttershy nodded as well. “I did too. I used to come play here all the time when I moved here as a child. We had picnics and I played with the animals. I still come here to release animals that we can’t hold at the pet shop. There’s even a small, old cabin deeper in that I wanted to move into, just like a fairy in a story I read.”

Sunset turned back to her and smiled. “Oh, you know about it? Yeah, my employer moved into that house and fixed it up.” Her smile turned a bit more awkward and she looked away as she continued. “She’s a researcher… of sorts.”

Fluttershy tilted her head curiously. “Really? I remember that house being really run down and dirty. I was never really allowed to go in either.”

Following her further, the group passed the treeline and the subsequent row of trees until they each crossed a rather nice-looking wooden bridge leading to a large ornate cabin. Fluttershy’s eyes went wide at the sight of her childhood dream house having been turned into the exact thing she had imagined it looking like when she first saw it.

Rarity was equally surprised, though not for the same reason. She was surprised that it was relatively clean for being this far out, free of any vines, overgrown grass or even any weeds. 

Applejack nodded, a wide grin on her face. She, more than anyone, could appreciate a restored home and the effort it took.

Rainbow’s head angled upwards. It was clearly two stories tall… maybe larger if it had an attic and it was also pretty wide. Clearly they were additions to the original small, two-room cabin, but still, it made the homely mansion about average sized. “It’s almost as big as Fluttershy’s house,” she muttered, her mouth a straight line.

Coco, meanwhile was staring at Sunset, who had frozen up as soon as the house had come into view. “Are you alright?” she asked, looking up at her.

Sunset gave her a crooked grin. “I’m fine, I just remembered that I haven't seen her in a few months… and that I basically did to her the same thing I ended up doing to the Princess.” Her face fell rapidly, turning into a downcast look. “I... I abandoned someone who trusted me.”

Looking down, Coco realized that Sunset’s hands were shaking and clenched. Without hesitation she gripped one of her hands with her own. Sunset turned to see her smiling back up at her. 

“Well then you can call this one more step to being a better person,” she said cheerily.

Sunset, wide-eyed, opened her mouth to respond when she felt someone grip her other hand. Turning she saw Rainbow, who was now glancing away with a small blush. “Y-yeah. Heck, you can use this as practice if you ever want to go back and make up with that Princess of yours,” she cheered, clenching her fist in front of her.

Sunset couldn’t help but giggle “Come on, I thought we already did this whole motivational friendship thing,” she said, looking around.

She flinched when Applejack came up behind her and ruffled her hair. “And it’ll keep happinin’ if you keep feelin’ bad for yourself. So get a move on.” Afterwards she gently shoved Sunset forwards down the beaten path.

With little other choice, and her mood considerably brightened, Sunset made her way to her employer’s doorway.

Once there, she reached up her hand and prepared to knock.

Making sure her hand was clean, she prepared to knock.

Taking a second to appreciate the lovely shine of the clean wooden door, she prepared to knock.

Making sure the bottoms of her shoes were clean, she—

“Get on with it already!” yelled Pinkie.

Sunset knocked three times and took a step back. With barely held back breath she waited for any sign of someone coming close to the door.

And there they were, footsteps, gradually coming closer to the door. Slowly the door creaked open.

“I’m sorry!” Sunset blurted… to nothing.

To her surprise, though the door was open there was nothing on this other side. That was, until she angled her head down to see a familiar red-head looking up at her with a wide-eyed look.

“A-Apple Bloom?” she stammered, reeling back in surprise.
	
> CH18: Present to Future
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Apple Bloom?” echoed Applejack.

Apple Bloom angled her head to look around Sunset. Her wide eyed look only worsened when she saw Applejack staring back up at her. Looking from Sunset to her sister, Apple Bloom let out a small yelp, almost as if she were just exposed to her two worst fears. She quickly slammed the door shut and locked it.

“Apple Bloom!” Applejack repeated, stomping up the path towards the door. “Apple Bloom!” she yelled slamming on the, surprisingly sturdy, wooden door. “What in Sam Hill are you doing up here without anybody knowin’?!”

Behind the door the two could hear the sound of frantic footsteps and hushed whispers. Finally, things quieted down and someone else opened the door. 

Unfortunately for Applejack it wasn’t her sister but rather a tall, older, dark-skinned woman with a grey and white mohawk. Over her dark grey tank top she wore a dark brown lab coat made from natural fabrics as a matching skirt. In addition to that she also wore a plethora of golden rings, in her ears on her hands and even four chokers going up her neck. Interestingly enough, she was also barefoot. 

At the sight of Sunset, the woman gave the two a gentle smile. “Ah, Sunset Shimmer, this truly is a pleasure. To see you once again, it feels like a treasure,” she said, her tone even and rhythmed, To Applejack it was like listening to someone recite a poem.

Sunset however, struggled to meet her eyes. “H-hi, Zecora. I’m sorry for… you know, not showing up this entire time… and for everything else.”

Zecora reached down and lifted up Sunset’s chin to force her to meet her gaze. For a full minute Zecora studied her. “Your eyes shine far brighter, my dear, and your soul has become just as clear. Your time away is not what I mind; what I care most about is that you’ve returned refined.

Sunset could only smile at her praise. Her worries eased her, and just bearly, she could feel her muscles relax as she let out a relieved sigh.

Applejack, while struggling to retain her manners, couldn’t help but look around and try to peek into the house for her sister. “Umm, excuse me, Ms. Zecora. But Ah could’ve sworn that Ah saw my little sister in there. Ya see she doesn't exactly have permission to be up here.”

Zecora put a finger to her chin and rose a skeptical brow. “Mmhm.” Turning around, she proceeded to call into the home. “Apple Bloom, come to the door, what this one says is not what you said before.”

While she called into the house, Dash continued to leisurely wait on the path. Out of the corner of her eye a figure ran into the trees behind the house. Turning her head she watched Apple Bloom flee past her. 

“Hey, Applejack… Bloom’s fleeing the scene.” Applejack turned just in time to watch Apple Bloom cross the bridge and run back towards town. “Want me to chase her?” asked RD.

“Nah, ‘s alright.” Applejack narrowed her eyes and glared after her. “She’ll get what’s coming.” Turning back to Zecora she removed her hat and apologized. “Ah’m mighty sorry if mah sister… or her friends… caused you any sort of trouble.”

Zecora just waved her off. “No, allow me to apologize, I forgot that when dealing with children, I must be more wise. Please, come with me, I will brew you all some herbal tea.”

After waving to the others, all seven of them carefully made their way into her home. Inside, the group eagerly looked around as they passed through what was otherwise a comfy looking home. Everything had been made with varnished wood and had been very clean and shiny. Rarity, now self conscious, looked down at her and her friends’ feet to make sure they were clean.

Unlike Sunset’s home where the front door led directly to the living room, and that room connected to other rooms, Zecora’s front door connected to a large hallway and in the hallway were individual doors that connected to individual rooms. Like she normally would, Pinkie eagerly peaked into each room that she had passed. She found the kitchen that had clearly been fireproofed. The wood had been polished to the point of reflection and the table in the middle the room had been made of black wood that made Rarity, who passed by, do a double take thinking it was marble.

While there were several more rooms and a set of stairs down at the end of the hallway, the group stopped halfway down the hall; in front of a regular looking door.

“Please, seat yourselves comfortably, I will return with your tea momentarily,” said Zecora. With a kind smile, she opened the door and allowed the girls in as she continued down the hall towards a different room.

Inside, the girls looked around to see that they were probably in the sitting or living room. It was a rather bland room with not much in it beyond a comfy brown couch and several cushioned chairs surrounding a glass table on the floor. Lining the walls were multiple bookcases. In addition, there sat a large stone fireplace in front of the table.

One by one, each of the girls sat on one of the chairs. Coco and Sunset sat in a pair of cushy brown seats on the right side of the room while Rainbow Dash immediately took the recliner on the left. In the middle of the room, the other four girls sat down on the large couch.

“This place is pretty boring don’t you think,” complained Rainbow as she made herself comfortable in the seat. Sitting back in the seat she was quick to put up her feet. “Aside from this cool chair, there’s nothing in this house.” 

Rarity let out an offended gasp while Fluttershy gave a similar, smaller gasp in addition to a slight glare. “Rainbow Dash,” chastised Rarity, “this home is beautiful; It has an amazing simplistic and natural look.”

Fluttershy nodded in agreement. Closing her eyes she brought a hand to her chest and began daydreaming, her mouth growing into a contented smile. “I know I would give anything to live out here. I could bring all my animal friends with me and I could take care of them to my heart’s content.”

Sunset, already comfortable in the chair, crossed one leg over the other and leaned on one of the arm rests. “There’s more to this house than you think, Rainbow,” Sunset smirked.

Applejack shrugged. “I like it, Ah just wanna know why my sister was up here.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. Turning to look at the door, she leaned forward in her seat and asked in a hushed voice. “I wanna know why… what was her name, Zecora? Why does she speak like that?”

Sunset raised a brow in confusion for a second before it clicked in her head. “Oh, What? You mean the rhyming?” She let out a small giggle. “Sorry, I’ve gotten used to it so I didn’t notice.”

Coco nodded happily in agreement. “I think it’s an incredible talent to be able to rhyme like that so naturally. I would love to have that ability.”

Pinkie cocked her head and gave a curious look towards Rainbow. “I think it’s funny sounding. Do you have something against it, Rainbow?”

Rainbow narrowed her eyes and sat back in her seat, crossing her arms sullenly. “Not… really, I was just curious is all. She’s probably from some other country or…” Suddenly her eyes widened and her head snapped to Sunset who was already shaking her head, apparently having followed her train of thought.

“Nope, she’s not from my world. Though I suspect there’s a Zecora there too,” she answered.

“Then does she know about you?” she asked.

“Indeed,” everyone’s heads snapped towards the entrance where Zecora stood with a tray of several green ceramic cups. With her appearance, Sunset suddenly stiffened. 

“I have heard the tales of Sunset’s previous life, the world of which she hails, as well as her strife.” As she spoke she quickly moved around the room and placed the tea in each of the girls’ hands. “I am aware of what has transpired, especially surrounding the power she desired.”

Coco, sipping her tea, looked up to Zecora curiously. “Did she tell you or did you find out somehow?”

Sunset blushed slightly as Zecora turned and grinned at her. “A little bit of both actually. I didn’t really have a choice.”

Pinkie, seeing her friend blush, quickly jumped on the subject. “Ohhh, embarrassing story time? What happened?”

Sunset sighed and took a sip from her tea. “Well, like I told you, Zecora here is what’s called an herbalist. She works with special plants to make medicine. However, because of her particular talents she more like an alchemist. She makes it her business to seek out plants with strange properties. Because of this she has a lot of…” Sunset drifted off for a second, as if looking for a specific word. “...equipment, to help her look for odd energies, namely magic. So when I stepped into her lab for the first time…”

Everyone seemed to get the idea when they all shared the same amused grin. Zecora simply noded while Sunset dipped into her seat. “I was afraid that my tools were failing, luckily Sunset was quick to explain from where she was hailing. After that point though, her help was always appreciated, even though she was always a little… agitated.”

“I’m sorry!” blurted Sunset, bowing in her seat. As all heads turned to her Sunset continued fervently with her apology that she had begun earlier in front of Apple Bloom. “I realize that I treated you terribly and disrespectfully in the past even though you only tried to help and—”

She paused when Zecora placed both palms on her shoulders and gently sat her upright. “Sunset, calm yourself, please, relax and deeply breathe,” she soothed gently. “For the past, I hold no ill will, in fact I am proud to see your life go uphill.” 

Sunset’s eyes began tearing up and one by one her nerves began to relax. “S-so you mean I can still work here with you?” When Zecora nodded Sunset immediately leaned forward and pulled her into a tight hug.

After a second Sunset wiped her face and sat back down. As she did, Zecora turned back to the group and looked over them with a bright smile. “I see that while I was gone you have made friends most dear, please, if you would, regale me of the tales of the past year.”

Rarity was the first to volunteer. “Of course. But please before we start, take my seat; I don’t feel comfortable with our host standing while we lounge in all your chairs.”

However, before she could stand up Applejack was already out of her chair. “Nah, she can have mine, I don’t mind standing up.” And with that, Applejack took up a spot leaning against the nearby wall.”

Rainbow sucked her teeth. “Thinks she’s so cool,” she muttered, crossing her arms, her feet still propped up in the recliner.

On the other side of the room, Coco leaned over her seat to whisper to Sunset. “So, should we tell her… everything?”

Sunset shrugged. “I don’t see why not, she knows about most things…” Her eyes drifted over to Zecora who was graciously accepting Applejack’s seat and talking with Rarity. Slowly her eyes lowered into a flat look, as if an unamused memory suddenly resurfaced in her mind. “Plus, I really wouldn’t try to lie or hide anything from her. It just won’t work, trust me.”

So together, starting with Rarity, the group told Zecora of the events of the last four months. For the fall formal, though ashamed, Sunset took up the role of explaining. 

After Sunset finished her part, Zecora simply nodded slowly. “Ahh, through her lust for power her mind was infected, unfortunately… it was something I had undoubtedly expected.”

Pinkie practically hopped out of her chair. “What! You knew she was gonna turn into a big evil red genie?!” She yelled, moving past Fluttershy and Rarity and appearing in front of Zecora’s face with huge sad, eyes. “Why didn’t you try to stop her?”

Sunset quickly stood up and moved Pinkie away. “She probably did, Pinkie. I wouldn’t listen though. Plus, I’m not surprised that she saw through my plan.”

Zecora couldn’t help but chuckle. “A devious plan is always hard to conceal, when my most dangerous potions you were always trying to steal,” she said, looking up at Sunset with a sly look.

Sunset’s face gradually turned redder and she sat Pinkie back down in her seat.

After Sunset had retaken her seat the girls continued on with their story. From Sunset’s sulking to the various attempts by the other girls to cheer her up, to Rarity explaining the fashion show, to even the situation with Daring Do.

Rainbow nearly jumped out of her chair, eyes wide in surprise. “You’ve worked with Daring Do!”

Zecora, though calm, was slightly taken aback by the sudden exclaim. “Indeed,” she began. “She comes to me for advice and support of all sorts, though if you were to ask I’m sure she’d deny it, of course.” Zecora let a small sigh and shook her head. “Though, ‘I work alone’ was always her motto, her bravery is a trait we should all follow.” 

Smirking, Rainbow reclined back into her seat. “Don’t gotta tell me twice! Who knows, she might have put you in one of her books at one point without me realizing it.” She turned her head to look at Sunset. “Later we should go through the books to see if we can find Zecora!”

While Sunset nodded, Zecora simply shook her head. “Looking for me would be time not well spent, for my inclusion in her series, I was sure to prevent.”

“Still though,” said Coco, “I don’t like to think that Miss Daring Do is someone that holds back credit, I’m sure there’s at least a proxy in her story.”

“Speakin’ of stories,” interrupted Applejack tipping up her hat, "we should finish up ours. It’s gettin on in the day an’ Ah still wanna ask our host here a few questions.”

The girls nodded and continued the story, Coco shyly finishing off the parts about the talent show, her chewing out the bullies, and how they are now living together. All the while Zecora listened respectfully, head down and eyes closed, as if seeing it all occur before her.

After Coco finished her part the girls waited silently for her response.

“Like I said, by lust for power I could sense she would be afflicted, but that she would find loyal friends I had also predicted.” Zecora turned to stare straight into Sunset’s eyes as she continued. “Sunset I am proud of how much you’ve matured, from a spoiled young chick to a newly freed bird. And I can see that you’re struggling to rebuild the bridges you’ve burned, but you must never forget to cherish the friendship you’ve already earned.”

Sunset, gaped at her, for an instant, she saw an image of Celestia next to Zecora, both sporting the same mentorly look. Sunset had no doubt that the Princess would have said something similar. She felt a pang of melancholy but nodded resolutely regardless. 

Zecora looked around the rest of the room. “Now I’m sure you all have at least one inquiry, so one by one, I will now answer them to the best of my ability.” She then made it a point to look directly at Applejack.

The cowgirl nodded and jotted a thumb behind her. “What was mah sister doing up here?”

“Was she supposed to be Sunset’s replacement?” snickered Pinkie, much to Sunset’s annoyance.

Zecora nodded. “Ah yes, the girl in the red bow; she and her friends had wandered up here a while ago. After an odd event which, she did help to contain, she proceeded to come back every now and again. Her presence is neither intrusive nor obstructive so I deemed nothing bizarre. However, I had never thought about whether she was allowed to be up this far…” she finished in a flat voice, accompanied by a flat stare towards Applejack who was nodding in understanding.

“Yeah, she’s not allowed out any further than the mall,” she explained. “But I don’t blame ya none cuz ya seem like a nice person. I’ll have a talk with Apple Bloom when Ah get home.”

Pinkie raised her hand up high. “My turn! My turn!” She squealed, bouncing up and down. “You study alchemy right! Does that mean you turn gold into frosting and stuff?”

And to that, Zecora couldn’t help but laugh. “I-I’m sorry to remove your sense of glory but synthesizing gold—or from—is nothing but a children's story,” she said through her laughs. “Alchemist is what Sunset calls my employment but the truth is I’m nothing but a scientist. Specifically, a botanist.” 

Sunset nodded. “Zecora works with plants and the like that have strange anomalies. For example in this forest, if you compare two leaves from two separate but identical trees, it’s possible that one would have strange and inexplicable properties. I’ve concluded that some of the trees were exposed to magic seeping into this forest somehow, but we can’t figure out where the source is, or even if there is one.”

Sunset glanced at Zecora. “Apparently, it’s not just this forest, but all over the world. She’s always dealt with them, but she found that there’s a higher concentration of, quote/unquote, ‘magical’ plants here. I think this may have something to do with the portal to Equestria. In fact, that was the entire reason I wanted to work under her.” Sunset shrugged. “Of course I had no other proof than some strange plants here and there.”

Before anyone else could say anything Pinkie threw her hand up again and shouted, “Can I see your lavatory?!”

Rarity just stared at her. “Do you need to use it?”

Zecora chuckled and stood up. “I think she means my mixing lab. I don’t mind showing, though it is a bit drab.” 

Opening the door, each of the girls followed Zecora out of her sitting room and down to the end of the hall where they saw a twin set of stairs going in both directions on the right and left walls. Zecora led the group down the set to the right.

Zecora led them into the basement,. As they descended, and it came into view, each of the girls let out a gasp of amazement at the sight of it. Finally, halfway down the stairs, Zecora stopped and waved her arm around, presenting her work room.

Down here, the room’s walls were far curvier and more natural looking. Odd masks and bottles of all sorts hung from the walls and ceilings. Branches grew along the wall weaving the structure of the place of its own accord and vines and leaves grew around the room with reckless abandon. Along the ground was a basic green room where growing plants of all sorts sat organized in several distinct rows under bright, warm lights. The room seemed to encompass the entire base area of the cottage.

Fluttershy leaned over the railing to look out at it all. “It’s beautiful,” she gasped.

Sunset, impressed, looked over at her. “You expanded, I see.” Zecora nodded and Sunset glanced at the ceiling. “Can we see the other half? I wanna see what you did with it.”

Zecora, walking past her up the stairs, gave her a sad smile. “Sorry to disappoint you but it is substantially less. Because of a recent business change, the lab I had to compress.”

As she walked away, Sunset gave her a curious look. “Are you not going freelance anymore?” She asked as Zecora led them up the second set of stairs. To the group's collective surprise this room seemed to be the opposite of the basement in every way. If the basement had been the size of the entire first floor the second floor about the size of the sitting room. Not only that but unlike the basement which looked like a botanical garden, this room looked like a research facility. Tools and strange devices littered the area around a large cauldron that sat placed in the middle of the room connected to a bevy of tubes and scanning equipment.

While the rest gaped once more Sunset and Zecora continued to talk. “Over the break an old friend of mine gave me an invitation. I accepted after giving some thought to the situation.”

Sunset gave Zecora a flat look as her answer had only raised further questions. But before she could voice them, Zecora turned back down the stairs, calling behind her. 

“I suppose that’s enough sightseeing, my dear. It’s getting late, and the moon may already be out, I fear.”

Following her down the stairs and out the front door, the group looked around to see that the sun had indeed begun to set.

Fluttershy looked around until she saw the faint silhouette of the moon. “Oh, my... she’s right.”

“Will you girls be alright? I would hate to worry about sending you home at night,” said Zecora.

Applejack reached into her pockets and pulled out her phone. “Iffin any of y’all don’t wanna take the bus home Ah’m sure Ah can get Big Mac to come an’ get us.”

Sunset turned back to Zecora with a shrug. “We’ll get home alright so don’t worry about us. I’m glad I got to see you again and I’ll be sure to come and help out as much as possible,” she said earnestly.

Zecora reached over and gently patted Sunset’s head. “Don’t you worry about coming here everyday, whether you’re with your friends or at school I’m sure you’ll see me anyway.”

The girl could only tilt her head in confusion as Zecora shut the door with a wry smile.

~~~

Sunset let out a loud yawn as she entered the gymnasium alongside Coco and Rainbow Dash, the latter giggling at her.

“Did you get any sleep last night,” joked RD stopping in front of the door.

Sunset gave her a flat stare. “It’s not about getting to bed at night it’s about it still being cold enough that I don’t wanna get up in the morning.”

Coco, meanwhile beamed as she looked around the bustling gym, the area full of students chatting away and walking around. “I’m really excited, this is the first announcement I’ve been to at CHS. Where are the chairs? Do we all just stand and wait? Or should we sit on the bleachers?” She turned to glance at the multiple large bleachers that seemed to seat the majority of the rest of the school.

Rainbow smirked at her excitement and opened her mouth to answer. However, instead of words she ended up letting out a surprised yelp, falling over Trixie as she made her great and powerful way past. Standing in front of the group, Trixie pointed to Coco.

“To answer the new girl’s question, unless you want to sit on those crowded and uncomfortable stairs then we all stand and wait for Principal Celestia to deliver the news, however boring and time wasting it is.” She then pointed at Rainbow who was picking herself off of one knee. “But that doesn't mean you clog the entryway, Rainbow Dash. Hmph,” she finished, flicking her hair.

Rainbow, seething, stood right up to Trixie. “That doesn't mean you can just push people around!”

Trixie scoffed and turned her head away. “Please, when you’re as great and amazing as I am you don’t have time to ask bugs to move away.”

“Your two-bit stage magic wasn’t anything to look at before,” argued Rainbow before giving Trixie a wrathful smirk. “But it’s even less interesting now that we know actual magic exists!”

Trixie fumed and sent a death glare to Sunset who was in the middle of another yawn before freezing up at Rainbow’s words. “H-hey don’t bring me into this!” she stammered.

“Speaking of malevolent magic, Trixie would like to have some words with you, Sunset Shimmer,” she seethed. “But first, Rainbow Dash, how dare you call Trixie’s abilities fake. They were real to begin with even before that demon made this school her nest!”

Seeing Sunset flinch from that verbal pimp smack, Coco decided to step in. “H-hey, girls can you please calm down, people are starting to look over here,” she pleaded, nervously glancing around.

Rainbow looked around to see that Coco was right as people were starting to stare. Not willing to get in more trouble with her father, than she already was from her grades, she backed off. 

Crossing her arms, she took a few steps back and turned away, choosing to face the back wall while Trixie turned to face the stage. “Whatever,” grumbled Rainbow. “So what are we even here for anyway?”

Trixie rolled her eyes and another voice sounded out, echoing over the room.

“Well if you would kindly turn around, Rainbow Dash, I’d be happy to tell you.”

Stiffly, Rainbow turned around to see Principal Celestia looking right at her with an amused look. “Thank you. Now students, my announcement is fairly short and, I admit may only concern a few of you. But since I see this school more like a family than a student body and faculty I thought you all should be here when I announce that our beloved teachers, Mr. Cranky Doodle and Mrs. Matilda will be retiring early. Apparently, they’ve won the lottery and are going sightseeing. I, and I hope all of you, wish for them the best.”

While the rest of the gym filled with the hushed chattering of students, Rainbow silently fist-pumped at the news. Meanwhile, Coco leaned over to whisper to Sunset. “I know what Mr. Doodle teaches… err taught, but what did Mrs. Matilda teach?”

“She was head of the performing arts department, she taught drama class and the PA elective class that Rainbow, Pinkie, and I were going to be in this semester.”

“Egh,” Sunset glanced over at Trixie who had her tongue stuck out and was making a disgusted face. “That means that you two and I are in the same class then… how unpleasant.”

“Now, students,” called Celestia. “This has left us a bit short handed. Though we were able to fill a few of the positions rather easily by having currently employed teachers volunteer, we still found ourselves short. So…” Celestia hesitated, “I had to reach out to an old friend of mine to fill the position.”

Sunset immediately thought back to the other day and her mouth grew into an impressively wide grin. “No way,” she whispered.

On stage Celestia nervously moved her hand and gestured to the side of the stage. “Now today I would like you to meet your new teacher—”

Then, all at once the lights shut off, leaving the room completely dark. In the frantic chatter of the dark room there was a splattering sound and a single spotlight came on above Celestia who could only sigh as a deep voice began to laugh, its chuckling echoed throughout the gym.

“Oh, Celestia, don’t be so reluctant.”

Trixie let out a loud gasp when she recognized the voice. In that instant the entire stage suddenly whirled around, moving Celestia away and revealing several large neon arrows pointing down to a single figure, with black hair and a white beard wearing mismatched shoes and gloves, comfortably sitting in one of the school chairs.

“After all… it’s only me.” As he said that a second neon sign popped up right above his head. The sign was also printed with the word “Discord!!” with large, multi-colored lettering in addition to its tiny voice saying it out loud.

The room was awash with cheers as some the students lost their minds with excitement. Though some of them were confused, the ones who weren't cheered loud enough to drown out what may have been Celestia banging on the back of the stage to be let back in, or the sound of a body hitting the ground near the back of the gym.

Ignoring Trixie, who had fainted for some reason, Coco stood in shock at the the sight of Sunset who had, at some point during the blackout, had a pie thrown in her face.

In addition to staring at Sunset, Coco had also been giving glances to a smiling little girl whom she could have sworn wasn’t standing there before. Ignoring her for the moment Coco fell out of her shocked state and quickly got to trying to remove the pan from Sunset’s face.

Once she removed it, Sunset wiped her eyes and opened them, only to see the man on stage staring directly at her. Looking into his odd yellow and red orbs, Sunset felt a shiver go down her spine. Needless to say, she had a really bad feeling.

Breaking his gaze from her, Discord stood up and, pulling a long cane out of his shirt pocket and leaning on it, he looked out over the crowd. “I’m impressed. When I first found out that I was popular even over here, I didn’t believe it.” The crowd cheered louder. “Well now that I see it for myself, I can most definitely say that I’m going to have a lot of fun!”
	
	
	
> CH19: Chaos 101
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Slamming her palms down on either side of Rainbow Dash’s desk, Trixie leaned over it and leered at Rainbow herself. It was easy since she had been already leaning back in her seat with her arms crossed. 

Behind Dash, students in every part of the classroom eagerly discussed the events of that morning, most notably Celestia’s angry words to Discord after being let back in the gym.

“You have no idea?” asked Trixie, her brow twitching in frustration.

Rainbow simply shook her head with a blank look.

Sunset tilted her head and looked towards the ceiling in thought. “The name certainly rings a bell. I’ve probably heard of him on the other side.” Her brow crinkled a bit as she paused and struggled to remember something important, but when it didn’t come to her she shrugged and continued. “No, I’ve never heard of any famous magician by the name of Discord.”

Trixie simply glanced at her and let out a scoff before continuing to lecture Rainbow. “How have you never heard of the Magician of Chaos! He’s like, the most talented showman in the world.”

Behind Rainbow Dash, Thunderlane, who had been half listening to music in his headphones and half listening to what was going on in front of him, chimed in. “If it helps, I’ve heard of him.”

His statement was accentuated by multiple people around the class as they raised their voices in agreement.

Lyra, sitting one seat behind Rainbow, threw up her hand eagerly. “I still watch his reruns on TV!”

“So did I,” added Bon Bon with a frown. “You know, until he stopped making public appearances that is.”

Letting out a tiny squee of excitement, Derpy, who was seated next to Sunset, leaned over to Sparkler and said “Do you think he’ll be teaching our class?”

Sparkler just giggled and shrugged. “Who knows? Isn't Vice Principal Luna also teaching a class? We might wind up with her.”

Derpy nodded. “But think about it, if we get a real magician then we might actually learn how to do magic!”

Rainbow shrugged. “I was never into magic, didn’t think it was real. Well… till now I guess.”

Sunset rolled her eyes. “It still isn’t real in this world. Every bit of magic on this side is glorified slight of hand.”

Trixie’s head snapped towards her with an audible crack, her gaze boring into Sunset’s. Taking a deep breath, Trixie angrily stomped over to stand in front of Sunset who had quickly realized her error and had clapped a hand over her mouth.

“Listen you little d—”

“Now, now, settle down my little students; it’s time to start class!” Everyone’s head shot towards the man sitting behind his desk at the front of the class. Not a one of them had even seen or heard him come in.

Trixie, however, had completely frozen. “D-d-d-d-d-”

Discord simply grinned and reached a hand up to the cord dangling down from the nearby projector screen. Yanking it down he revealed, pasted onto the white screen, colourful paper letters spelling out his name in a childlike pattern. 

“Just spell it out,” he cheered, pointing to the letters. “Duh-is-cord,” he said slowly.

Trixie seemed to snap out of her daze and nearly threw herself at him, stopping just short of his desk. “O-of course! Discord, the one and only! Trixie is your biggest fan!”

Discord just stared at her. “Who’s Trixie?”

Trixie froze her smile twitching slightly on her face. “I-I’m Trixie… your biggest fan. I’ve even memorized all your tricks!”

Discord just chuckled and muttered, “Oh I doubt that.”

Trixie leaned forward, her eyes wide and sparkling with excitement. “No, really! Like that one time where you—”

While Trixie began fangasming all over their new teacher, Rainbow was busy trying not to roll her eyes out of her skull. Receiving a small nudge to her side, she glanced over to see Sunset smirking at her.

“Hey, I guess this is what we were like when we first met Daring Do, huh?” she asked jutting her head in Trixie’s direction. 

Rainbow just laughed and waved her hand. “Nah we played it way cooler. But speaking of Daring Do,” she trailed off as she reached down to her other side and pulled up her backpack. Reaching into it she pulled out a copy of Daring Do and the Abyss of Despair. Holding up the book, she looked back at Sunset. “Let me know when Trixie’s done and we start class.”

Sunset shrugged and went back to leaning over her desk. However, before she could zone out a hissing noise called out to her.

 “Psst!”

Curious, Sunset looked around the classroom, only to see nothing out of the ordinary. People were either following Rainbow’s example and distracting themselves, talking to one another or, in one case, bombarding the teacher with questions.

“Psst!”

Deducing that the sound was coming from below her, Sunset cautiously leaned back in her seat and looked below. Looking back up at her from between her legs were two odd, swirled eyes that could drag anyone into a hypnotic trance. Attached to those eyes was a young girl crouched under Sunset’s desk. 

The girl wore a purple, arm-length fingerless gloves and striped knee-high socks as well as a purple skirt. Her curly white highlights bounced in her bright lavender hair that matched perfectly with the tank top she was wearing. To Sunset’s further confusion, on top of how this girl managed to fit under her desk in the first place, the strange girl was also wearing a suspiciously familiar looking propeller beanie that seemed to spin constantly even while almost scraping against the bottom of the desk.

For almost a full thirty seconds Sunset’s wide eyes were locked onto the swirling magenta ones beneath her. “You’re fatter in person, you know,” the girl stated poking Sunset’s thigh with her index finger.

Sunset’s reaction was immediate: she jumped out of her seat with a small yelp, while throwing her chair back in the process. Unfortunately, in her surprise, every head in the room turned to her, some in confusion, some in surprise. Sunset met most of their gazes even as a large blush began to form on her face. 

With Rainbow sitting directly next to her, she was part of the latter, her reaction having been to jerk herself to the opposite edge of her seat. “Are… you alright, Sunset?”

Before she could even acknowledge Rainbow’s question, Sunset rushed to check her seat. The girl was gone by the time she looked.

“What?” asked Sunset turning to stare at her. “O-of course, there was just a… well a girl under my desk.

Rainbow went from a concerned friend to a skeptical classmate when her gaze fell as flat as the floor around them. “Um… What?”

Sunset opened her mouth to respond when the sound of clapping reached her eyes.

“Wonderful,” cheered Discord, standing up from his desk. “What an excellent way to start the class. I was starting to get bored.”

Trixie reeled back in shock. “Bored?! But Trixie has been—you didn’t answer any of Trixie’s questions! You just… sat there,” she complained.

Discord gave her an overdramatic shrug, lifting his shoulders as high as he could. “And isn’t listening the greatest magic of all?” he asked, his voice dripping with sardonic tone.

“But!”

Discord held his hand up and shooed her back to her desk. Huffing, Trixie complied, taking her seat next to Rainbow Dash.

“Now,” began Discord, reaching down to grab the cord of the screen once more, “before we get started, I would like to introduce you all to my assistant, and your new classmate…” With a single tug the screen flew back up, revealing the young teenage girl from before. “Screwball.”

Screwball just gave an innocent and cutesy grin and a cheerful wave.

Lyra let out a loud gasp. “I didn’t know you had a daughter!” she nearly screamed.

Bon Bon crossed her arms and shook her head in disagreement. “I don't think that's his daughter, Lyra.”

Discord’s cheeky grin broke and his face went flat. He opened his mouth to say something, closed it, then looked to Screwball who took the opportunity to jump up and hug the larger man.

“Daddy!” she cried. 

Discord for his part ran with it and began twirling around with the young girl in his arms.

“Screwy!” he cried back, the two laughing as they spun.

Sunset, having gotten back in her seat, frowned at the pair in question. “She's just as weird as him,” she muttered.

With one final twirl, Discord gleefully tossed Screwball out of the classroom door, the preteen whee’ing all the way out into the hallway.

Just as some of the kids in the classroom sood from their seats in surprise, Discord waved his hands and gestured for them to sit back down. Snapping his fingers, their surprise increased when the door slammed shut.

“Now!” he exclaimed holding his arms out wide. “Let’s start this lesson…” Discord held the pose for about a minute longer, just long enough for the students to start exchanging looks. 

“Anyone know what I’m supposed to be doing?!” Discord finally called, his excited expression unchanged.

Bon Bon slowly lifted her hand, her eyebrow raising along with it. “Umm… sir, you’re supposed to be teaching us about—”

“You need to teach us magic!” blurted Trixie, her arm flailing in the air. When everyone proceeded to stare at her she blushed lightly and shrank back. “Trixie means… you have to teach Trix—us about what you know best.”

“Gardening it is!” he said, his eyes lighting up in glee. When the class just looked at him funny he calmed down a bit and thought about it. “No… wait… Poetry?! Class Action Lawsuits?! Hackysack!” Discord paused when he noticed Trixie's dismayed expression. With a small chuckle he snapped his fingers, as if only just remembering the right answer. “Oh, the OTHER thing I do best!" 

Discord slammed his palm on his desk, a squeaking noise echoing out instead if a normal wooden pound. “Alrighty then, let’s talk about chaos!”

Sunset’s head snapped upwards in a very alert manner. Her former teachings racing to the forefront of her mind and then further to her mouth before she could stop them. “What? But… what does chaos have to do with magic?” she blurted out in surprise. “Isn’t magic the opposite of chaos? You know, harmony,” she asked.

While the others looked at her strangely, Discord just smirked and produced a white sphere of of chalk from… somewhere unseen. “That’s what they want you to think, my dear.”

“They?” she asked.

Discord turned and began writing on the board with the single white chalk stick. By the time he was done he had written one word in five large letters in five different colours, to the amazement of the class.

“Chaos,” he began, dropping the chalk to the ground, “and magic are far more similar than magic and harmony, especially in this little world of ours. What do you all think of when you think of magic.” Just as Sunset opened her mouth Discord put a finger to his. “Not you, you little cheater, someone else—YOU!” he declared pointing to Trixie. “What is magic to you, speak your heart and wow me!” With that last word, Discord sat himself back in his seat, lifted his feet up onto the desk, and gestured for her to go.

Taken by surprise, Trixie stuttered for a bit before awkwardly standing up at attention and starting. “I-uh.. magic. I-is.... umm…” she trailed off, a large blush creeping onto her face.

“Psst!” Trixie glanced over to see Derpy winking at her. “Just talk about it like you always do, this is your chance!”

Trixie nodded and took a deep breath. “Magic… is something mysterious and beautiful, it's the act of showing the world that not everything can be explained and that not everything wants to be explained. Magic isn’t something than can just happen with a reason because, in essence, it’s the act of surprise, revelation, suspense and the unexpected—”

Before she could continue, Discord let out a round of applause and stood up. “Wonderful, bravissimo! Excellent choice of words. Yes! Magic, and showmanship in general, is the act of subverting the expected and living within the unexpected. However, to truly be a great… errm… well me, you have to bypass even that. For example, something unexpected is about to happen, I want you all to try as hard as you can to not be surprised when it does.”

For a hot second everyone in the class tensed up, curious and cautious about what was about to happen. While some people were staring at Discord who was standing calmly at the front of the class, others like Rainbow Dash were looking around the room.

With a whip crack, just about everyone flinched in shock when Sunset was suddenly pelted by an egg to the back of the head. With a second crack, everyone turned to look at the back of the classroom. Nobody was there.  With renewed awe, everyone began muttering to one another until a hollow chuckle began echoing through the room.

Sunset sat there, her head still lowered from the force of the egg throw, chuckling darkly. “Sorry to say, but I expected that. Few days go by without someone throwing something at me,” she said darkly, egg shell and ooze falling from her hair. Reaching into her pack she pulled out a box of tissues, half of which were gone from fixing the incident this morning. 

Discord just smirked and leaned forward. “Did you now? You really think that’s egg?”

“Huh?” gasped Sunset mid-wipe. Narrowing her eyes at him she hesitantly reached up and stuck in a finger into the yellow liquid on her head. Bringing it up to her face she craned her head this way and that, examining the fluid. She chanced a glance at Rainbow Dash who could only shrug and, with a shrug of her own Sunset stuck her finger in her mouth. 

To both her shock and surprise her face immediately puckered at the sour taste and she quick spat it out. “Lemon?”

The class was immediately filled with low mutters of disbelief and curiosity. Bon Bon, the resident cooking student quickly stood up and reached under Sunset’s seat to pick up the white shells from the ground, examining it the same way Sunset had.

“These are definitely eggshells,” she muttered. “How did you get the lemon in the egg without breaking it beforehand? A syringe? 

Discord grinned wider. “Do you really think that’s an ordinary egg shell?”

And with that, Bon Bon’s sure attitude cracked and she gave the egg a second look with time with wider eyes. As she tentatively brought it to her mouth, Discord’s grin grew ever so slightly. And when she immediately spat it out he let out a loud guffaw. 

“Yes,” seethed Bon Bon, “it’s an egg shell…”

Rainbow Dash just scoffed and crossed her arms. “So what, you hit Sunset with a Lemon-flavored egg. Plus, I’m pretty sure that wasn’t even you. It was probably that weird girl from before who threw it.”

Discord simply shook his head and began pacing around the room, head held high. “You’re missing the point my little polychrome. The challenge here was to expect what might happen and not be surprised. Did you see how you were all united in this endeavour, half of you looking at me, and half looking around, all united in silence and suspicion. But with one simple sudden act I not only broke your collective concentration but divided your attention even further. I also fostered confusion and even subverted your expectations a second time with a follow up. Whether or not I was directly responsible is irrelevant.”

Discord stopped in front of Bon Bon who had gone back and sat in her seat. “Take you for example. You were so confident that was an egg shell but after seeing Sunset surprised to find a not-egg filling, you stopped believing in what you were so sure of. You were ready to believe that I had turned the egg shell to marshmallow or something similar. 

Crossing her arms in resignation, Bon Bon averted her eyes from his and nodded.

“And there you go!” he shouted jumping back to the front of the classroom. “The pure definition of mystified! A true showman can even make the expected unexpected.” He looked directly and Sunset who had been staring at him like he was making absolute zero sense. “Order is boring, order can be predicted, only chaos can bring stars to the crowds’ eyes, literally at times.”

In complete opposite to Sunset, Trixie was staring at him like he was a god who had descended to earth just to teach her.

Before anything else could happen, Screwball broke through one of the panels in the ceiling and, hanging upside down from the hole, held out a ear-shattering loud alarm clock. The high-pitched ringing forced everyone to cover their ears. The only ones apparently not affected were Discord and Screwball, the latter swinging back and forth with a cheshire like grin on her face.

“Oh would you look at that,” Discord exclaimed over the din, “looks like class is over! Bye students.”

Like a balloon, the alarm clock expanded and popped in Screwball’s hands. Afterwards, the girl flipped onto the ground and took her spot next to the teacher’s desk.

“What?” asked Trixie her palms slamming down in defiance. “But it’s only been like thirty minutes since class started.

Cocking his head slightly, Discord made his way to the door and opened it, revealing dozens of students making their way to their next class. With a straight face, he turned towards Trixie. “I know it’s my first day but I don’t quite feel like getting fired for holding students past the bell, Ms. Lulamoon,” he snarked, going back to his desk.

Trixie let out a small gasp and gave a dumb smile. “You do know Trix—my name then!” she sighed.

All of the students exchanged odd looks and shrugs but ultimately decided not to question it. With the rushing speeds employed by any suddenly late student, they all grabbed their bags and piled out. Except for Trixie who stopped to admire her sensei from the doorway.

“Um, Sunset Shimmer, could you stay behind one second? Discord called.

Rainbow, who was halfway out the door looked at Sunset, then back at Discord. “I guess I’ll see you later then,” she said before running out, pushing Trixie into the flow of foot traffic.

Sunset quickly reached out for her to wait, but she was too slow as Rainbow had already exited the scene. Sighing dejectedly, she turned back to Discord, quickly noticing that it was only her and him left in the room.

“Oh, why the glum look,” he teased, “you don’t like your new teacher?”

Sunset immediately stood to attention and shook her head. “N-no, I’m just… umm…” she trailed off, unsure of how to actually describe her feelings for this… curious new teacher.

Discord continued nonetheless. “Well anyway, I’m sorry for the egg. I have been given,” he threw up his hands in quotes and put on his best Celestia impression, which of course happened to be spot on, “‘express orders’—for me—‘not to pick on Sunset Shimmer’.”

“By Celestia?” asked Sunset in surprise. “Why?”

Discord just grinned and laid his head on the table. “Oh well you know good ol’ ‘Princess’ Celestia, always having to make sure her students are doing well even if they are in a tough spot socially. I’m just not supposed to make it worse.”

Half way through Discord’s line Sunset froze, eyes going wide at his words. “Pr-princess Celestia?” she asked hesitantly.

Discord glanced up at her then flinched. “O-oh yes,” he said, waving her off with a flick of his wrist. “That was her college nickname. We called her that because of how she always acted like a leader, lording over her fellow students, and now her own students. Really it’s only gotten worse. She hates it but I’m gonna try and get the students to call her that.” He winked at her. “Don’t tell her.”

Sunset deflated in relief, last thing she needed was this teacher knowing about her roots, or worse, if he was from Equestria himself. “Please don’t call her Princess Celestia,” she sighed.

Discord shrugged. “Sorry, I’m too used to it. Despite my time in Equestria, the nickname has stuck. Don’t ask me why though.”

From deflated to regid once again in two seconds flat. Sunset’s eye began to twitch ever so slightly. “A-and by Equestria you mean…” she trailed off, trying to get a definate answer.

Discord simply burst out laughing, further increasing the twitching of her brow. After a second, the man stood up and pulled down the screen from before, this time revealing a world map. With a twitch he ripped out a lock of his hair and, flicking his wrist, extended the hair into a solid black stick at least twelve inches long. 

“Honestly,” he scolded while tapping the map, ”What do your geography teachers teach you? Equestria is a small suburb in South Africa.” He began circling the continent with the hair stick. “Right in the Pretoria area I think.”

Looking back at Sunset, whose jaw had fallen during the explanation, Discord grinned mischievously. “What did you think I was talking about?” 

It was then that the late bell had decided to ring, forcing Discord to roll his map back up and usher Sunset out of the room. “Oh dear look at the time, you really should be going,” he said, gently nudging her towards the doorway. Sunset, for her part, took mostly small steps while still trying to have her mind catch up.

Finally, as she found herself outside of the classroom, she looked back up at him.

Discord, for his part stared at her through the slowly closing door. “By the way, Ms. Shimmer, harmony isn’t all it’s cracked up to be in magic. I think you of all people should know, all it does is get you a rainbow to the face.”

And with that, the door shut with a quiet click. 

Sunset stared at his door for a hot second, mind reeling. One blink… two blinks… it took her three blinks before her mind caught up and she hurriedly reached for the door handle.

“Wait hold on! What did you mean…” she paused, looking into the completely empty room. Before she could say anything else she felt a large shove to her backside, forcing her to stumble forward until she eventually fell to her knees.

“What the—Why!” she screamed, looking behind her. Standing in the doorway was the the odd girl from before, Screwball, Sunset recalled. The girl was turned mostly away, but was still looking at her. With a small giggle she pointed a thumb at her back. 

Raising her brow in confusion, but getting the gesture. Sunset reached behind her back. She let out a deep sigh when she pulled off a bright yellow and orange piece of paper, same colours as her hair actually. Her face contorted into an annoyed frown at the words on the paper.

Still giggling, the odd girl spun around, swinging a light purple backpack out of nowhere and putting it on. And with a wink and a wave she skipped away merrily. 

Sunset shook her head, bringing her composure back to her. She had dealt with worse teasing before. All she could do now was pick herself up, whip the dirt off, and walk out into the hallway. With her head held high, Sunset tossed the note in the garbage and made her way to her next class, her mind filled with questions.

Just who was this Discord and what was with his weird daughter?
	
> CH20: Rhyming is Difficult
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunset, lying down on the cool linoleum floor, could only sigh as she stared up at the ceiling above. Swinging freely above her feet was her locker door, and sticking out of said locker was a comically large, red extendo glove that, having only just been sprung from her locker, bobbed lightly.

Slowly, Sunset’s eyes craned down from the ceiling to the top of her locker. Crouched on top of it on all fours was none other than the odd girl, Discord’s so called “daughter,” Screwball, who eyed her with the suspicion of a mischievous kitten.

Sunset closed her eyes and let out another tired sigh. “This is my life... huh?” she muttered, as if finally coming to a great realization.

“Sunset?”

Ears perking, Sunset turned to see Coco, holding her school books and looking at her from around a corner. “Are you alright?” she asked. Without hesitation, she raced over and helped her up.

“What in the world happened?” she asked, dusting off Sunset’s clothes. "Do you need to see the nurse?”

Sunset shrugged and shook her head. Looking back to her locker she noticed that both the girl and the glove were gone. Rolling her eyes, she addressed Coco’s questions while closing the locker door with only a tiny bit more force than needed.

“No, I’m fine,” she answered, giving Coco a tired smile. “I’ll tell you more about it later. But we should really get to class. The late bell already rang right?”

“That’s true, Ms. Shimmer.” The two turned to see Principal Celestia standing behind them, arms crossed but a playful smile on her face. “I don’t think being late is exactly what you need at the moment either, now is it?”

“Principal Celestia,” gasped Sunset. “Of course! I’ll go right away. B-but before we go. I had a question I wanted to ask you. If that’s alright?”

Celestia put a finger to her chin in thought for a second before nodding. “Alright then, but you may as well walk to class while we talk.”

Sunset nodded and the three began walking down the path that Coco came from. While Coco looked at the two in curious silence, Sunset took a second to find the right way to form the question in her head.

“So… the new teacher… you know him right?” asked Sunset.

Celestia gave her a small giggle. “I can only assume you’re talking about Discord.” When Sunset nodded, she continued. “Well yes, I do know him.” Sunset sighed with clear relief. “But I really was surprised when he suddenly showed up after all these years, with a daughter no less and requested to be a teacher. After he dropped out of college to become a magician I hadn’t personally heard anything from him aside from a few mentionings, many of which I had assumed were rumors. I had no idea he had become famous.”

Sunset tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. “So… you didn’t call for him specifically?”

Celestia shook her head and shrugged. “Unfortunately, when he showed up we were just in need of a new teacher. Don’t get me wrong, he is talented at what he does, always has been, but he’s not exactly reliable… or easy to understand. But, he has a valid teaching degree… somehow... and we had an opening we couldn’t fill in time.”

Coco couldn’t help but giggle into her hand at her principal's defeated tone. “So you had no other options huh?” she asked.

“Discord may or may not be the best person to be taught by and he might have left a bad impression on you, but I know that he’s a good person.” Celestia stopped by Sunset and Coco’s classroom and smiled down at the girls. “So I’m sorry if he's done anything… questionable, but I’ve ordered him not to pull any major mischief while he’s a teacher so you should be able to get used to him.”

Sunset and Coco both immediately nodded happily. However, just as the Principal turned to leave Sunset called out a to her once again. “H-hold on, I have one more question. If Discord isn’t the one you reached out to, who was it?”

Celestia opened her mouth to answer but after a second she simply gave the girls a coy smirk and shrugged before turning to continue walking away. “Oh I’m sure you’ll meet her eventually, she’s bound to stand out.”

Sharing similarly confused expressions, Sunset and Coco glanced at each other before opening the door to their next class.

~~~

Groaning, Scootaloo slammed her head on her desk. “I can’t believe it! A super famous magician comes to teach at our school and his class is nowhere near us!”

One seat over, Apple Bloom slouched heavily in her own seat. “I know, right. I was really hoping he’d take over for Cranky so we could ask him for advice on magic!”

Another seat over, Sweetie Belle sat upright and proper but craned her head towards her friends. “I didn’t know that you were interested in magic?”

Apple Bloom quickly sat up, her increasing slouch finally proving to be more uncomfortable than it was worth. “Well yeah, after the whole thing last fall we know that magic is real. I wanna see if I have a knack for it.”

Scootaloo pulled her head off of the table and fist-pumped, a wide grin spread across her face. “Plus if we learn magic we can get revenge on Sunset! Then we’d be heroes in this school!”

“Heroines,” corrected Sweetie Belle.

There was a scoff from behind them. Turning around, the three immediately frowned at Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon who had been eavesdropping on their conversation.

“Honestly, you’re better off joining her little group,” said Diamond, shaking her perfect head. “I’m sure you’d make perfect brainwashed minions. Not having the ability to think might even be your special talent. What do you think, Silver?”

Silver Spoon smirked and adjusted her glasses. “I don’t know, Diamond. I don’t even think that demon could use her magic to make their talents evident.”

Scootaloo’s frown immediately evolved into a scowl for a second before slowly turning into a smirk of her own. “Well aren't you particularly evil today. Frankly, I’m surprised Snips and Snails turned evil back then. I would’ve been sure that Sunset would have sniffed you two out much easier. I mean, you already look like demons.”

Diamond and Silver reeled back in surprise. “What did you—” Diamond started.

However, picking up on where she was headed, Apple Bloom joined in and cut her off. “Yeah, with you two on her side Sunset might’ve even won against Twilight. Even with our big sisters helping her. Right, Sweetie Belle?”

Sweetie, who may or may not have been paying attention jumped at the sound of her name. “Huh? Oh yeah! I bet you… err—”

Just then a loud groan echoed across the classroom. Rumble, who was seated in a circle with Twist and First Base. Throwing down his playing cards, he looked to the front of the class. “Alright, it’s been like ten minutes, where is our new teacher?!”

First Base chuckled and gathered the cards. “Yeah sure, say that just when I put down my last card to win the game.”

Twist also let out a cute snicker. “Well allth fair in love and war, you know.”

First Base glanced down at the table, scoffed, and rolled his eyes. “Not when there’s two aces and a king I was about to win from this hand.”

Scootaloo, her previous argument already won in her head also turned towards the front. “Huh… he’s right. If Discord is teaching some other class who do we have?”

Just then the door to the room opened and Apple Bloom beamed at the person who walked in in.

The strange woman grinned nervously as she made her way to the teacher’s desk on the other side of the room. Similar to her attire that she wore the other day, Zecora wore a bright white buttoned up lab coat with four golden bangles around both her wrists and going up her neck. “M-my apologies for the disservice… I may have stalled outside being a bit nervous.” she said, trying to relax her stiff posture and expression.

Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. “And who are you?”

Rumble, who had immediately began gathering the cards that let out loud scoff. “Obviously she’s the new teacher, why else would she be here?”

Diamond scowled and turned his way, ready to deliver a scathing rebuttal. “I know that, you idiot. I was asking for her name!”

Scootaloo simply rolled her eyes from her seat at the front. “Well you sure got a weird way of asking for it.”

“Children, children please,” interrupted Zecora, holding her hands out, “there is no need to fight, so please be at ease. I am indeed your new teacher, call me Zecora at your leisure.” To accentuate her point she wrote “Ms. Zecora” on the blackboard behind her.

By this point just about everyone had noticed the elephant in the room. Each student chanced a glance at the other, but only one student had the gall to pipe up.

However, before that rude, rude student could blurt anything out, Twist politely raised her hand. Zecora smiled, and gestured with a hand for her to ask her question.

“U-um yeth,” she began, “do you always speak in rhymes? I’m just curious.” With the ice broken the rest of the class began muttering similar questions, some regarding her odd markings, and others regarding her rings.

That’s when the rude one piped up. “Yeah, and how come you can wear jewelry to school but I can’t?” exclaimed Diamond Tiara, gesturing toher her tiara shaped hairpin. “I’m only barely allowed to wear this!”

Zecora nodded in understanding. “I completely understand your curiosity, but trust me, there is no need for secrecy. I wear these rings because of my family. They were passed from mother to daughter, and so I wear them happily.”

Rumble half raised his hand. “Yeah but what about the rhyming? I mean… it's cool and all but I feel like it’ll get confusing to understand at some point. Ya’ know what I’m saying?”

Zecora nodded and  glanced to the side. “My tendency to speak in rhyme is what you could call, a personal quirk, as odd as it may be, I do hope it won’t interfere with your work,” she said shyly. However, before Rumble could respond, Zecora began making her way towards the boy.

Leaning in closer to his face, she said, “However, for you, I will keep the rhymes simple and light, so if you get lost, please tell me, alright?” she said, giving a coy wink.

Rumble’s face immediately flushed and he nodded repeatedly.

Zecora beamed and made her way back to the front of the class. Silver Spoon, however, merely rolled her eyes.

“Fine, Ms. Dodge-the-question. You’re our new chemistry teacher right? Wouldn’t it be easier for you to teach something like reading or poetry?”

“Ahh a wonderful question. It’s true, that was the suggestion, however, my true talents lie in Alchemy or, as you may call it, the art of Chemistry. Anyway, I’m sure you’re perplexed, so let us start with page eighty-three of your school text.”

With a couple of groans and some eye rolls, the various students all reached into their packs and brought out their chemistry books. As they did, Zecora’s shoulders finally laxed from their formerly stiff position and the fluttering butterflies that were making their home in Zecora’s stomach finally began to settle. Having been worried that her appearance and slight social awkwardness might have made teaching difficult. Seeing all the students actually follow her instructions made her feel slightly more at ease.

To her surprise, one hand rose up among the students. The hand belonged to the only other girl with accessories on her.

Diamond Tiara, noticing that she had been noticed, began talking. “Yeah… no. I kinda agree with Rumble,” she said, the sass strongly evident in her tone, “Chemistry is hard enough with all of these formulas. If you give them to me in rhymes there’s no way we’re going to learn any of this. And if I fail because you can’t speak right then—”

Zecora raised a palm to stop here there. “I see. There is no need for threat, it doesn't take much to understand your mindset.” Pausing for a second, Zecora frowned, her brow furrowing in thought. After a few seconds, her pensive expression changed into one of excitement. “I agree, many formulas are as you proclaim, so how about,” she gave the class a sly smirk, “we turn what is hard into something that is a game?”

The class exploded into a chorus of murmurs and confused mutterings. Among them Zecora could see the beginning of excitement and anticipation. She could only hope that her idea would work.
> CH21: Story Changer
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Oh! ohh!! I know,” cheered Pinkie, thrusting her pink smoothie into the air. “Let’s have her host a pizza party!”

As Rarity wiped off the smoothie staining the table under Pinkie, Sunset anxiously looked around at the other patrons of Sugarcube Corner.

“Pinkie could you please not yell that so loudly?” she hissed, still checking to see if they were being stared at.

Pinkie, however, deftly ignored her in favour of elaborating her, rather interesting, plan. “Wait, but it should be a surprise too. Like, we invite the school, and when they show up and start eating the pizza,” she pointed directly at Sunset, “you show up and reveal that you put the whole thing together.”

“And then some wise guy assumes that they’ve been poisoned and the party descends into chaos,” retorted Sunset, her expression as flat as her tone. Moving Pinkie’s hand away, Sunset reclined into her booth and gave them a tired smile.

“I appreciate the enthusiasm, Pinkie but getting people to like me isn’t why I called you two here,” she said, shaking her head.

Rarity tilted her head. “Really? I was under the impression that was still our goal.” Leaning slightly over the table, Rarity gave Sunset a concerned look. “Is something the matter, darling?”

Her tired smile turning into an exhausted frown, Sunset sat her head in her hands and sighed. “Honestly, yes I still want people to like me but…” Sunset, as though struck by a thought, threw her head up and looked around frantically. Afterwards she leaned in close to Pinkie and Rarity.

“It’s Screwball,” she half whispered to them. “Ever since she transferred in with Discord, I keep seeing her and she keeps pranking me. I swear it’s up to three pranks a day now!” she said with a scowl.

Pinkie, having sat down to slurp on her drink, stopped to chuckle a bit. “Oh yeah, I heard about that! You know some of those pranks aren't her right?”

Sunset flinched back in shock. “What?”

Pinkie only continued to giggle as she recalled something. “Yeah, like Sunrose distracting Granny Smith so she could sneak a firecracker in your mashed potatoes.”

Hearing that, Rarity put a finger to her chin in thought. “Now that I think about it, one of the more rowdy members of my class were prattling on about a prank involving a rubber band and some bacon.”

The two winced back into their seats as Sunset slammed her palms onto the table. “Are you kidding me?” she nearly screamed. Throwing herself back into her chair, she covered her face with her hands. “It’s worse than I thought,” she moaned. “She’s inspiring people to prank me as a way of getting back at me without getting in trouble.”

Moving across Pinkie, Rarity switched to the seat next to Sunset. Gently taking her into an embrace, she spoke softly. “Oh Sunset, darling. It’s not that bad. At least this makes the problem clear. Right Pinkie?” she asked.

Pinkie, blank faced, could only shrug in response.

Rarity rolled her eyes. “It means we simply need to ascertain why Screwball is pranking you,” she stated plainly.

Sunset let out a deep sigh, extracted herself from Rarity, and slumped further into the seat. “Isn’t it obvious?” she said, crossing her arms. “Even if they don’t show it, people still resent me. I wouldn’t be surprised if Screwball just doesn't like me, or knows that nobody will complain if it’s me she’s pranking.”

Narrowing her eyes at Sunset, Rarity spoke. “Well regardless if you do or don’t, which you don’t, I think it would still be prudent if we could at least find out why and maybe,” she reached down and forced Sunset to sit upright, “we can take a step forward by convincing her to stop,” she finished with a smile.

“Oh I get it, if she stops maybe the others will stop too!” cheered Pinkie, having crawled under the booth to appear on Sunset’s other side.

Surrounded by friends, Sunset couldn’t help but feel the grey clouds that fogged her heart lift a bit. “Alright then,” she chuckled, looking between the two. “What do we do?”

Rarity smiled, happy to see her friends spirits lift. She cleared her throat. “Well the first thing we need to do is track Screwball down. She has a habit of coming to you first so we need to be the ones to find her first.”

Sunset shrugged. “Well no... that’s the problem. I have no idea where she is when she isn’t pranking me. I mean… we could go back to school and ask Discord… maybe.” She shook her head. “And even then I don’t know if he’s the one making Screwball do this or if he’ll help me.”

Rarity closed her eyes and nodded. “That’s true, but it’s still a good course of action. I—”

“Or!” Pinkie interrupted. “Or, we could just make Screwball come to you personally.” Pinkie poked Sunset’s nose and smiled a grin that, to Sunset, seemed to be just a bit too wide.

~~~

Sunset anxiously glanced around as various people walked around her. Every so often someone would meet her eyes, forcing her to swiftly glance in a different direction. In her mind she could swear that there was a clear radius around her that nobody entered.

However, some rational part of her mind told her that anyone would think that a girl randomly standing in the middle of mall traffic was worth giving a weird glance towards.

Eventually, Sunset sighed and, contrary to Pinkie’s orders, Sunset decided to leave the crowd to sit on a nearby bench and relax. Taking out her phone, she dialed up Pinkie’s number.

Halfway across the mall and hidden between two plants, Pinkie calmly chewed on some gum while she stared at Sunset through a pair of light blue binoculars. Before Pinkie’s phone could even ring once, the girl had already answered it and brought it to her ear.

After chewing for a second and blowing exactly one bubble, Pinkie answered. “This is Pie One, over,” she said… seriously.

Pinkie watched Sunset look around and behind her before responding. “So, Pinkie, I understand I have to be out in the open to be pranked but did I have to stand in one place for twenty minutes?”

Pinkie nodded. “Of course, you had to be able attract attention without calling it to yourself. Get it?” Pinkie smirked, knowing that Sunset would understand and think she was a genius.

Sunset frowned, her brain unable to wrap itself around that logic. “Alright, so what now?”

Pinkie blew and popped another bubble before answering. “Alrighty! So now, you gotta act all normal like. Go buy groceries and stuff. You gotta act unsuspecting so that you look like an easy target.”

Sunset blinked once, then twice, then glanced over to the local market up on the second floor above her. “But Coco usually does the shopping. I honestly don’t even know what she regularly buys.”

Over the phone, Sunset heard another pop, then the sound of paper rustling. “That’s okie dokie, because I did research! Normally, every afternoon Coco usually only goes off to buy supplies for her sewing kits. You know, thread, buttons, the usual stuff. But as for groceries, usually Coco goes to buy food every Saturday, but you two developed a weird pattern of running out of milk every Tuesday.

Sunset frowned, seemingly offended. “No we almost never run out of milk because when we’re close it’s usually around--

Just then, Sunset’s phone buzzed in her ear. The sudden vibration startled her and forced her to jerk it away. As she rubbed her ear, she read the text. It was from Coco, reading,

“Pinkie just texted me. Are you at the mall right now? Could you possibly please pick up some milk for us? I used the rest of it with my second bowl of cereal this morning. I’m so, so sorry! I’ll pay you back the money, I promise ^_^;”

Sunset could only stare at the text with a blank look on her face.

“Coco has two bowls of cereal every morning?” she muttered to herself. Glancing upward, a thought occurred to her. “That explains why we have such a large stock of cereal.”

“Told ya!” Pinkie’s voice sounded from the phone.

Rolling her eyes in annoyance, Sunset placed the phone back at her ear. “Alright you win. So I’m getting milk then.”

Sunset nearly fell over then and there as her phone buzzed, once again, right in her ear.

“Oh! Also, we’re out of that coffee you like. Could you please pick some of that up too. I’ll still pay for it if you want! :3”

Sunset’s mouth hung open in surprise. “We… really need to have a talk when we get home about how much the both of us like to drink things.”

Tentatively, she put the phone back to her ear and stood up from the seat. “Alright then… coffee and milk. Got it.”

“Just a normal food run. You got this!” Pinkie encouraged, giving Sunset a thumbs up from a place Sunset could never have seen. “I’m giving you a thumbs up by the way.”

Sunset could only smile and end the call. Knowing that she was being spied on, rose her right thumb into the air.

~~~

Inside the store, Sunset looked upwards at the overhanging signs to see where the milk would be. While the task itself proved to be boring, a few mindless errands, she found, did wonders for taking her mind off things.

It was only a matter of minutes before Sunset checked out and left the way she came.

Taking out her phone, Sunset speed dialed Pinkie’s number once more. Hearing the telltale ringer stop and the pop of bubblegum from the other end, Sunset got ready to talk, but before she could, a different voice from either of the girls piped up.

“You know, you’re really bad at being bait.” 

Sunset’s mouth clamped shut. She recognized the voice, even if she’d only heard it a few times. Taking the phone away from her ear, she looked down and verified that she had indeed dial Pinkie’s number.

Scowling, she put it back to her ear. “Screwball? Is that you? Why do you have Pinkie Pie’s phone?”

Letting out a huff of pride from her end, Screwball answered. “Well you wanted to meet me right. You know you could have asked me,” she sighed. “But you had to do it this way and get your friend involved.” 

Sunset’s expression darkened from that statement. “Where is Pinkie?” she said, her voice low and angry, but still calm.

“Ohhh,” Screwball said, her tone developing into a teasing sing songy one. “I dunno, I’d say she’s the victim of a pretty dangerous prank right now. If you want her back safe you should probably come over here to TOYSЯUS.”

Sunset immediately hung up the phone and started running towards the stairs. As she ran, completely unaware of the fact she was shoving past people in the process, she could only imagine what kind of horrible prank Screwball might have pulled. A part of her wondered if this was some kind of trap to get her completely banned from the mall.

“Does Screwball hate me that much…” Sunset wondered. “So much that she doesn’t care if it also gets my friends involved?” Sunset clenched her eyes shut. “I’m so sorry, Pinkie!”

After sprinting and almost tripping down the stairs, Sunset made her way over to where she remembered the store being. However, what she saw there forced her to bring herself skidding to a halt.

Both her jaw and her bags fell to the floor as she could do nothing but gape at the scene before her. Screaming in delight, was one of her best friends, bouncing up and down on a large display trampoline in front of the store.

“Oh, Sunset!” screamed Pinkie. “Check this out! Screwball convinced the store to put that trampoline I wanted outside! It’s! So! Awesome!” she cheered, each word being emphasized by the increasing height of each jump.

“See… look at that!”

Sunset jumped from the sudden voice behind her. Turning around, Sunset stared directly at Screwball who stood there holding her arms out towards the trampoline and continued on as if nothing happened.

“Look at how dangerous that trampoline is,” she said with mock concern. Shaking her head Screwball took a few steps towards Sunset, leaned in and looked down at the floor. “You get what I mean right floor? She didn’t even let them put up a safety net before she went and bounced in there.”

Sunset stared at her, then back at Pinkie. Slowly, she turned back towards Screwball. “Umm, yeah… that’s kinda dangerous, if it was anyone but Pinkie,” she half joked.

Screwball smirked and stood up straight. The two proceeded to stare at each other, silent except for the sounds of mall chatter and Pinkie’s cheering.

While Sunset couldn’t keep direct eye contact with the girl, Screwball’s purple orbs remained locked onto Sunset’s.

Eventually, she came to a surprising epiphany. She had no idea how she was going to go about starting this conversation.

“Hey, could you stop pranking me?” she thought about saying. She shook her head and decided it was too direct,

“Are you really Discord’s daughter?” She frowned at that one, who was she? Bon Bon?

“How are you liking CHS? Having fun?” Sunset sighed, realizing that talking with strangers was somehow harder than it used to be.

In her reverie, Sunset failed to realize that Screwball had, at some point, brought out a hand puppet of a purple pony, a pony who bore a striking resemblance to Screwball herself.

By the time she had snapped herself out of her mental conundrum, she realized that two sets of swirling eyes were staring at her.

Covering her mouth with her free hand, Screwball leaned in and whispered to Screwball. Which one was doing the talking was a mystery to Sunset as she couldn’t even make out Screwball’s chin movements.

“This girl’s making some really weird expressions. You think she’s even worse off then we heard?” said one of the Screwballs.

Taken aback by that statement, Sunset’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean? What have you heard?” she asked warily.

Moving her hand away, Screwball simply smiled and moved the puppet pony closer to Sunset. “Well if you must know,” the puppet said, flipping it mane. “We’ve heard a lot of things, from a lot of ponies.”

“Ponies?” repeated Sunset.

Screwball rolled the puppet’s head in a circle to simulate rolling it’s eyes. “Well I guess you would say ‘people’ on your end,” Screwball said, putting up air quotes with her hooves.

Sunset glanced from the pony to the actual Screwball, who had taken to examining her nails, giving not a single sign that she was the one talking or performing ventriloquism.

Pony Screwball moved back into Sunset’s field of vision. “But anyway, we’ve definitely heard stuff. We’ve heard stuff from how you’re still a demon pretending to be good while gathering power, to how that weird rainbow thing people talk about completely brainwashed you. Heck we’ve even heard things about how you’re from some weird other universe where you’re some kind of pony-human hybrid who controls fire and the sun.” The pony rubbed her chin. “That one is my favorite actually. Screwball came up with it,” she said, pointing to the actual Screwball who puffed her chest out with pride.

Sunset’s took a step back and tilted her head in confusion. At first it seemed like she was going to get some answers to the things she’d been wondering about for a while now, namely what people were saying about her. But now she’d only gotten even more questions.

“So…” she began, eyes moving to and fro, “what do you think I am?” she asked, ending the sentence with a nervous but hopeful grin.

Screwball’s own grin fell and she stared at Sunset with a neutral expression. Taking a few steps back, where they couldn’t be heard, the Screwballs engaged in a quick meeting. After about a minute of discussion the two came back over to Sunset.

Balling her fist and putting it over the pony’s mouth, ScrewballPone cleared her throat. “We have decided,” she started thematically, throwing her hooves into the air, “that Screwball think’s that you’re interesting.”

Hearing that, Sunset smiled for a second, then frowned. “Wait, then why do you keep pranking me? You know that’s only making my situation worse right?”

Both Screwballs nodded. “Well,” started the puppet, “telling you our reasoning for that would be a bit too exposition-y for right now. Screwball thinks that things would be much more fun if you figured it out.”

“But… but why?” Sunset asked. Taking a step closer, she kneeled down to Screwball’s eye level. “I’m trying to be a better person and make friends.” she said, blushing. “I’d like to try to be your friend if you’d let me.”

Both Screwballs blanched, each making a disgusted face at the sentiment. “Ew, no, we,” the doll proclaimed, pointing to itself and the original, “have friends, and both of them are far cooler and cuter than you are. So no thank you.”

Sunset could only frown at her. “Alright… but then why me? Is it because Discord told you to?”

This time the original Screwball responded. “Pfft, like he has to tell me how to have fun,” she muttered, facing away from Sunset.

“Well, I was gonna tell you to figure it out but… there you go I guess,” said the puppet honestly seeming to be unsure with itself.

Mouth open in shock, Sunset once again looked from the puppet to Screwball again. She stood up, put her hand on her hip, and pointed to the two of them. “Alright what’s going on here. You were talking earlier so why do you need a puppet now?”


With a flat gaze, Screwball looked towards the puppet then at Sunset. Without a moment's hesitation, Screwball took off the puppet and tossed it away where it exploded like a firecracker.

As Sunset watched pieces of the fabric fall around her, Screwball spoke with a shrug. “Well I was under strict orders from Daddy not to talk or bother you directly.” Relaxing back with her hands behind her head, she continued. “But shame on me for trying to follow the rules for once.”

Sunset, her expression still one of confusion, could only stare at the girl. Screwball, seeing nothing coming, decided to continue, this time with a tone that was far less dramatic and playful than the puppet.

“Either way the puppet’s right,” she started. Like a shark circling its victim, Screwball began to slowly walking around Sunset.

“You’re way too interesting to leave alone Sunset Shimmer.”

Sunset followed the girl with her eyes. “Wh… what do you mean?”

“Well haven't you ever seen a helpless animal and just wanted to mess with it. That’s kinda how it is for you and me, isn’t it? Without your friends, you’re just like a helpless little animal trying to pretend like it has spirit,” she said softly.

Sunset turned to face Screwball who had made a half circle around her. Clenching her fist, Sunset stared at Screwball with an uncertain yet defiant look. “You may have been right about me a few months ago but I’m trying hard now. I’m not going to back down to your taunts.”

Sunset flinched as Screwball smile grew huge and the girl quickly closed the small distance between them. Now close enough that their chests were touching Screwball looked up and locked eyes with Sunset.

“So If I backed you into a corner, framed you for something horrible, and reignited the hate that the school has for you, could you honestly tell me that you’d be able to stand up and defend yourself?” Screwball asked, her tone as cheerful as if she were talking about a party. “Like really really? Cuz I’d love to hurry and get this over with!”

Screwball glanced down and frowned at Sunset’s shaking fist. Glancing back up revealed more body language to read. Sunset’s slouched figure and wavering gaze. Her stiff shoulders and tight lipped frown, Screwball read all of it.

Chuckling, Screwball took a few steps back and turned around. “Yup, you look exactly like a scared animal who’s faking confidence. You know that only makes me want to mess with you more.”

Turning around, Screwball crossed her arms and looked Sunset dead in the eye. “You really are just too pitiful to leave alone, Sunset Shimmer. Someone has to be around to kick you until you get it together.”

“But I don’t understand,” Sunset muttered, her head drooping forward. “You seem like you want me to be strong… and you seem like a good person.” Bringing her head up, Sunset looked at Screwball with wide eyes. “So why make things harder for me to be that way.”

Screwball stared at her with an unblinking gaze. For a long time the two stared at each other.

Slowly, Screwball began to smile. The smile grew and grew, and it continued to bigger until she finally burst out laughing. Despite the people who stopped to stare at her, she laughed. She laughed so loud that even Pinkie stopped bouncing with the kids who had joined her to stare.

Eventually, Screwball’s laughter died down as she hunched over and grabbed her gut. “Oh, I’m sorry. I really am. I was trying to think of something to say to that. You look so genuine so I wanted…” she trailed off, still rolling through the last of her laughter.

After another few seconds of laughter, Screwball finished and stood up straight. With a wide grin, she pointed at Sunset. “I was going to make you figure it out yourself, but I gotta give you some credit. So here’s a hint. Messing with you is literally why I’m here.”

Sunset arched an eyebrow at the declaration.

“Oh screw it!” Screwball threw her hands up into the air. “I’m part of your hero’s journey, Sunset! I’m here to make things weird so that you can overcome them. Get it? I’m being paid for this and I’m going to have as much fun as possible!”

Pausing her speech for a second, Screwball let her hands flop to her sides and dipped her head. With a voice softer than anything she’s used so far, she continued. “So I hope you’re ready, cuz things are gonna get real crazy from now on.”

“Like right now!” Suddenly Screwball rose up a hand and, for just a moment, Sunset could see a small black ball being held aloft. However, before she could so much as blink, Screwball slammed it into the ground.

Shocking everyone in the vicinity, the ball exploded in an impressively large cloud of smoke. The explosive noise itself startled nearby people enough to think a small bomb had gone off, but the smoke only caused them to panic even worse.

As the smoke spread smoke detectors and fire alarms everywhere went off, first filling the area with sound, then water as they tried to put out the non-existent fire.

Being near the epicentre, Sunset stood in place, her arms covering her upper body as she coughed violently. Even as her ears continued to ring, she opened her eyes enough to glance around. Even though smoke covered everything around her, she had a sneaking suspicion that Screwball was long gone.

“Did she have to be so flashy?” she coughed.

“Sunset!” Through the ringing and screaming of the crowd, she could faintly hear what sounded like Pinkie calling her name.

“Pinkie!” she called back, swinging her hand around to clear the smoke.

Seeing a figure through the smoke she slowly moved towards it. “Pinkie is that—”

And then, to her surprise, the figure grabbed her arm. With a grip far too tight  and a hand far too large to be Pinkie, Sunset understandably jerked backwards. Unfortunately the figure was strong enough to not only keep her from moving back, but actually pull her closer.

Close enough to be seen through the smoke, Sunset’s eyes shrank at the sight of a fully uniformed police officer with sunglasses on his head.

Yanking her towards his face, she could see the deep scowl on the large mans face. “Did you set this off?!”

Sunset flinched for a second before quickly shaking her head back and forth. “No! No I didn’t. I swear.”

The officer seemed to calm down a bit. However, as he opened his mouth he just so happened to glance down at two interesting bulges protruding from her jacket. Unceremoniously reaching into her jacket pocket, the officer nearly popped a blood vessel scowling at what he had found.

“Then what is this?!” he yelled at her.

Held up to Sunset’s face was a black ball. On the front, facing Sunset, was a label with a red pen writing that read, “Homemade Smoke Grenade #2”

Sunset could only stare at it in disbelief and horror. Before she could recover she felt something hit her wrist. Looking down, her heart sank when she realized that she was now in handcuffs.

She’s had a lot of nightmares that she reasoned could actually happen, but the argument could be made that this one was the worst possible one.
> CH22: Jailbird
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Alright, kid,” grumbled the guard as he shoved Sunset into his office. 

Still attached to her arms were thick handcuffs. However, unlike the shining silver bracelets she was expecting to be wearing, these were thick plastic and starting to dig into her wrists. She looked up at him with wide eyes, her mouth still agape as her mind struggled to come to terms with her current situation.

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” he continued, glaring down at her, his large, round frame, while not as imposing as he wanted it to be for most people, definitely worked to keep Sunset Shimmer shaking. “First I'm gonna get your name and your parents' numbers.”

Sunset baulked, her expression falling and her jaw somehow falling even lower. The guard smirked, clearly enjoying this display of fear before proceeding. “Then I'm going to write you up and issue a ban for setting off dangerous fireworks inside the property. You won't be able to come to this mall for a long time, girl.”

“Wait,” Sunset cried as the man walked past her. “I didn’t set that bomb off. You have the wrong person.” 

The guard rolled his eyes and sat down at his desk. “Oh really now?” he said dryly.

“I have proof!” 

The guard raised a single brow. “And so do I.” He pulled out both of the other smoke bombs, helpfully labled ‘Homemade Smoke granade 2&3’, and sat them both in front of him on the desk. “Two of them, found quite obviously on your person. This is my proof, where’s yours?”

Sunset flinched, taking a step back. She looked from the guard to the balls, then back. “W-well… I…”

Before she could muster up a possible explanation. The guard slammed his hand down on the desk. “Yeah, that's what I thought. Jeez, you teenagers thing all of us adults are stupid. I’ve caught you red-handed,” he exclaimed, pointing a fat finger in her direction. “I don’t know what you were doing with these. Honestly, I should call the cops on you for being a public disturbance!”

This caused Sunset to begin breathing heavily, bordering on hyperventilating. 

The guard rolled his eyes once again before leaning back in his seat. “But since you’re a first time offender, and nobody got hurt. I’ll just call your parents and tell them that you’re banned and be done with it. Less paperwork.”

Sunset couldn't tell which was worse. Being banned from the mall, or revealing to this stranger her living conditions. Her mind spun with thought until finally latching onto one. 

“Y… you can’t call my parents,” she said slowly, a crooked smile finding its way onto her face. “I live alone.”

“Hmm,” the guard hummed. “Be that as it may, they should still be informed.”

“No,” Sunset continued, looking down in a feign attempt to look sad. “I’m kind of an orphan. I don't have any parents anymore.”

This caught the guard by surprise, his eyebrows raising several millimetres. For the first time he looked mildly uncomfortable. Sunset’s nervous smirk gained a bit of confidence.

But only for a second before the guard politely coughed into his hand and restarted his thought process. “Well, I'm sorry to hear that, girl. However there are still documents to be filed with your removal from the property. And because you don't have anyone who can legally come retrieve you. I’m going to have to call in a police officer to make you go directly home. 

Sunset’s smirk fell deeper into the pits of suffering. She began to shake as the guard reached for his phone. She could get caught up with the police, they might try to ask her questions. What if they found out that she doesn't belong here or that she actually doesn't have proper identification. Sweat began to bead down her face.

This was bad. 

The door suddenly rattled, shocking both Sunset and the guard. Both looked towards the door with slight curiousness before it burst open. Standing at the door frame was a small-ish girl with lavender and white hair, sparkling golden jacket, and a shining white tiara sitting atop it. Diamond Tiara could barely hold back the evil grin she had while looking at Sunset with cuffs on. 

This was worse

“Miss Tiara!?” the guard exclaimed, standing up from his desk. “To what do I owe the pleasure today?” he said, stepping around his desk to stand in front of her. He gave a nervous glance to the girl next to her, who looked even more scared than before.

Diamond Tiara hautilly flipped her hair and strode into the room, looking around with a disgusted sneer. “Well this place smells as bad as always.” She turned that sneer towards Sunset. “Fitting considering the trash you brought in.”

Sunset held her tongue, her fear of somehow making the situation worse overpowering the urge to snap back at the brat in front of her.

The guard put on a strained smile. “Y-yes, Miss Tiara, I was just about to remove and restrict this girl from the premises.”

DT scoffed and rolled her eyes. “While I would love to see this demon thrown out onto her face, you can let her go.” she said, waving the guard off and shocking both Sunset and the man in question.

“Wh… huh??” Sunset leaned forward, eyes wide at this announcement. Her expression was mirrored by the man next to her.

“B-but, ma’am,” he began, stammering his words. “Sh-she set off a smoke bomb in the middle of the mall. This clearly violates several rules.”

“Did you not hear me, grunt!?” Diamond asserted, her voice raising slightly. “I said release her, that is an order from Daddy!”

He flinched back at the mention of his boss, and the owner of the mall. Grumbling, he slowly took out his keys and uncuffed a still dumbfounded Sunset Shimmer. 

“Good boy,” Diamond whispered, smirking triumphantly. She pointed at Sunset before throwing a thumb behind her. “And you, get out of here before I change my mind.”

Sunset opened her mouth to say something, but before the words could leave her throat she caught sight of Pinkie hiding in the doorway behind Diamond Tiara. She had her finger over her mouth and was waving Sunset over. 

Looking between her and the kid, Sunset slowly moved closer to the door. She moved slowly, taking small hesitant steps while still glancing between Pinkie and DT.

Just as she passed by Diamond Tiara, she heard something that sent a shiver down her spine. 

“You owe me.”

Sunset all but ran past Pinkie and out into the mall proper.

“Alrighty, Sunny!” Pinkie said, nervously stepping closer to Sunset while holding her hands behind her back. “I know what you’re thinking and…”

She yelped as Sunset grabbed Pinkie by the arms and looked her dead in her bright blue eyes. Her face was simultaneously confused and terrified. “What… just happened??”

“Weeeellll,” Pinkie began, drawing out the word, a staple sign of her about to go on a long winded explanation. 

“So while I was having fun in the gigantic fun bounce house I thought to myself ‘wow, I bet Sunset would love Love LOVE this thing. And then I remembered our mission. But when I did I saw you talking to screwball, and you looked like you two were having a lot of fun. But then she set off this HUUUGE dust cloud and I couldn't see you anymore. But then I figured you were just playing hide and seek until this big squishy guy grabbed you and took you away. And I remembered him from when my big sis Maud accidentally broke his window so that's how I KNEW he was a mall cop.”

By this point, Sunset had more or less calmed down and let go of Pinkie to let her finish her long story.

“But by the time I finished my hopping set you were already being dragged away. And I was scared to go near them because I’m still technically banned from that time with the waffles. But then I noticed Diamond Tiara by her store laughing and pointing so I thought ‘she could definitely save Sunny’! So I went over and we talked and talked and argued for a bit. She really wanted to see you banned by the way so it took a WHILE to convince her but we did end up agreeing that you would do any one thing that she wants you to do.”

“You agreed to WHAT??” Sunset nearly spat, her eyes nearly bulging from their sockets.

Pinkie cowered backwards, her hands held out in front of her. “Well it was either that or get banned from ever coming here again!!”

Sunset stared at her for another few seconds before deflating back into a nearby bench to sit down on and put her head in her hands. She let out a long weary sigh.

Pinkie looked around awkwardly before inching over to her friend's side. Unsure of what else to say, she simply swung at the first topic that came to her head. 

“So… uhh. I guess Screwball won that hide and seek game huh? Did you at least find out why she’s pranking you.”

Sunset’s only answer was a long drawn out groan.

That groan was interrupted by the sound of a portly man clearing his throat. Sunset and Pinkie’s heads shot up and beheld the security guard from before. Pinkie immediately went into panic mode and dove behind the bench that Sunset sat on.

The guard simply rolled his eyes and looked directly at Sunset. “In light of recent information, I need to apologise to you, Miss. Shimmer…”

~~~

Sulking, Sunset sluggishly opened the door to Coco’s home. Blissfully happy, Pinkie followed her in.

Still slumped over, Sunset made the turn into the living room, walked up to the couch, and with a pomf, fell face first onto the cushions. 

Getting down to her knees, Pinkie scooted close to the foot of the couch and started to gently pet Sunset’s hair.

“Come on, Sunset,” she cooed, “it wasn’t that bad!”

A muffled groan was all that she heard in response.

“Well yeah I guess being held in mall jail was pretty rough” she said, shrugging. “But hey, at least it wasn't an actual prison,” she finished, smiling.

A slightly louder groan.

“I mean…” Pinkie glanced back and forth, signs of panic began forming on her face. “At least the cameras caught Screwball so they didn’t blame you.”

A moment of silence. Oddly enough the lack of a response of any kind actually made Pinkie panic even more.

“Well… I mean now you owe a favor to Diamond Tiara and she could ask you for AAAAANNYYYTHING,” she sang, leaning her head over to bump Sunset's playfully.

Luckily, the pattering of feet coming down the stairs took her attention off of Sunset for a second. Peeking into the room was Sunset’s roommate.

“Coco!” cried Pinkie, bouncing over to her. After a quick hug, Pinkie covered her mouth with a hand and let out a stage whisper. “Thank goodness you’re here, I’ve never had to cheer up a convict before.”

“I’m not a convict!” cried Sunset, her outburst muffled by the cushions still covering her face.

Coco looked between the two worriedly. “Um… I’m confused… Did you get in trouble while getting the milk?”

At that point Sunset’s head snapped up from the couch, her eyes glaring into space. “Oh yeah… I forgot the coffee and milk at the mall... “ Slowly her head fell back onto the couch. “Just when I thought the day was over.”

Coco stared blankly, first at Sunset then at Pinkie. However, before she could say anything she felt herself being dragged away.

With a nervous giggle, Pinkie snatched Coco's arm and pulled her over into the next room "Eh, let's just give her a few minutes. Not every day you escape The Fuzz. Hey! You wouldn't believe the size of the trampoline I got to try out today!" she said cheerfully.
> CH23: Breakdown
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

After a quick explanation from Pinkie, Coco came back into the room and looked over Sunset, who was still laying on the couch. With newfound understanding, Coco took a seat on the armrest and gently nudged Sunset. A second passed before the girl stirred and moved the pillow slightly, just enough for Coco to see one eye looking up at her. 

“Hmm?” she groaned.

“So,” began Coco, a gentle smile gracing her face. Her voice was soft and tender, every bit the comforting motherly tone one would use to cheer up a grumpy child. “I heard about what happened. Pinkie went to go get something. But I’m still here if you wanna talk about it?”

“Not really.”

Following Pinkie’s lead from earlier, Coco reached out to gently pat her roommates head. “You know whatever happened wasn't your fault right?”

Sunset let out a small groan in response. 

“You didn't do anything wrong, Sunset,” she continued in a soft voice. “All you wanted to do was reach out to Screwball. I’m glad you at least tried.”

After a few more seconds of silence, Sunset finally muttered. “All it did was get me arrested.”

“Yes, but they let you go, didn't they?” Coco replied. “Come on, Sunset. Look at the bright side.”

Sunset lifted the pillow to glance at her once again. “Yeah, because getting arrested and owing a favor to the school's spoiled brat is the 'bright side' of things.” Sunset rolled her eyes and retreated back under the pillow. 

However, Coco wasn't letting her escape that easily. Gently, but forcefully, she raised the pillow up from Sunset’s face. Not enough to rip it away from her, but enough to be able to keep her face visible.

“Yeah, I know it might be scary now,” she said. “But still, you might be able to turn that favor into a chance to win Diamond over. Not to mention, you were at least able to talk to Screwball, right.”

Giving up on the pillow, Sunset let out a small sigh and reluctantly sat upright on the couch. “Sure, but that still doesn't change my situation. Diamond Tiara could ask for ANYTHING and if I refuse she’ll blackmail me.”

Coco tilted her head slightly, a confused look adorning her features. “But didn't they catch Screwball on camera? Diamond cant go back and make the mall ban you… can she?”

“Probably not,” replied Sunset, looking downcast. She paused for a second before glancing back up at Coco. “But she would probably start spreading the word around that I got arrested at the mall. Then everyone will know about today and go back to treating me like I actually DID try to blow up the mall.”

“But…”

“People won't care about the context, Coco,” she blurted, knowing all too well what the demure girl would say. “All they’ll hear is that I’ve finally become a criminal…”

The sudden volume change shocked Coco for a second, and Sunset looked over at her with glistening eyes on the verge of tears. Just as she was about to respond, her attention shifted as movement caught the corner of her eye.

“It’s always something,” Sunset continued, unaware of any change. Her voice breaking and tears forming at the edge of her vision she sat her head in her hands and glared at the floor. “I’m trying so hard and now those two kids are gonna make my life miserable no matter what I do. Not to mention that Octavia’s still threatening me even after I apologised. And now everyone is out to get me because of Screwball's pranks! I just…” 

Just as tears began to flow from her eyes, Sunset felt someone sit next to her. And before she could find out what it was, two bodies hugged her from either side as a thick blanket fell over her head. 

She looked to either side to see Pinkie and Coco pressed up against her, their warmth increased by the weighted blanket that Pinkie brought back with them.

“Oh Sunny,” Pinkie giggled, pressing her cheek against Sunset’s wet one. “You keep thinking about all the super duper bad stuff, but don’t you know how many friends you made during the snowball tournament?”

“Not everyone’s against you,” added Coco. “I’m sure a lot of people know how hard you’re trying, and I know for a fact that a lot of teachers are on your side too.”

Sunset let out a tiny sniffle and wiped her face. Nervously, she reached out to grab both girls and pull them closer. 
None of them knew how long that sat there, huddled up under a blanket comforting Sunset Shimmer, but for the girl in question, it was as much time as she needed.

That was, until Pinkie popped up with her typical sing-song voice. “And guess what I brought~”

From under the blanket came a piping hot mug of coffee. Coco and Sunset both shot up and stared down at the cup, then back to her, then back to the steaming cup. One look at Pinkie’s innocent smiling face kept them from asking the very obvious questions. 

Tentatively, Sunset took the cup and gave it a slow sip. The same kind of sip you would give to a drink when you really want to test its flavour, and test it she did.

Her head shot up and she looked down at it with eyes wide. No smiling face could stop her next question. 

“Is this Death Wish Roast?” she exclaimed, looking directly at Pinkie. 

The girl in question just winked. “You’re favourite. And it’s the premium version.”

Coco covered her mouth, hiding a small gasp. “Isn’t that really expensive? Where did you get that?”

Both Sunset’s and Coco’s lips suddenly had a manicured finger covering them. “Shhhhh,” she shushed. “Don’t sweat the deets.”

Sunset pushed her finger away. “At least let me pay you for it?”

Pinkie crossed her arms in a giant X form and pouted. “I don't want money!! I wanna hear what happened with Screwball!” she whined.

Sunset stared at her for a few seconds before bursting out in a fit of giggles. 

“I guess so,” she said, getting comfortable and taking another sip of her delicious coffee. 

~~~

Later on that night, past the closing time of Sugarcube corner. Mr. Cake yawned as he walked into the kitchen to begin cleaning up. If Pinkie were here, this would already have been done. But not having her here made the entire closing process take a bit longer. But, she had specifically requested the day off, and this was the trade off. 

However, her not being here did provide some benefits.

Moving past the dishes that needed to be washed. Mr. Cake gleefully turned on the coffee maker before opening the cabinet.

One minute. 

Two minutes.

After three entire minutes of rummaging around the cabinet, he baulked at the realisation that the rest of his special coffee had mysteriously vanished, container and all. 

“That’s weird,” he muttered before craning his head to yell out towards the exit.

“Honey!?”

“Dear!?” 

Mr. Cake turned around to see Mrs. Cake, already poking her head through the door, having called for him at the exact time she did for him. 

He smiled at the funny coincidence but continued anyway. “Have you seen my roast coffee?” he asked. She just gave him a confused look and shook her head.

“Oh you know I don't touch that bitter stuff,” she waved her arm and rolled her eyes as she remembered the taste. “Anyway, have you seen my weighted comforter?”

Mr. Cake scratched his head and looked back at the cabinet. “Nope. Weird. I know Pinkie didn’t take it, she’s not allowed to have caffeine.”

Mrs. Cake thought about it for a second before smirking and sauntering into the kitchen. “And exactly why were you trying to brew coffee this late at night?” she asked, playfully approaching him.

Mr. Cake blushed and quickly avoided her gaze. “W-well, ya know. Pinkie is staying at her friend’s house tonight. I thought… ya know,” he said as Mrs. Cake causally rubbed up against him. 

“Ya, know, “ she began, her voice low and seductive. “I was thinking something similar. After all, that comforter is great for cuddling,” she finished, whispering into her husband's ear, exploding his face into a bright red tomato. 

“We can clean up later,” was all she said as she dragged him away and up the stairs.
> CH24: Nervous Breakdown
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

With a very slow and tense squeak, Sunset carefully opened her locker. As if anticipating that something would pop, out she cautiously held up her bag in defence.

One second…

Two seconds…

Only on the third second of holding the door fully open, did Sunset's eyes do the same. She peaked out past her backpack with extreme trepidation, looking, waiting for something to explode out…

Regardless if it was an object or a person. 

Behind her, several paces behind, stood Rainbow Dash.

“Are you done?” RD asked, tapping her foot while taking glances at her watch. “Can I come over there now? We’re gonna be late.”

~~~

SECOND PERIOD 

“Sunny?” asked Pinkie, her brow raised curiously “What are you doing?”

Sunset, having just walked into class, furiously inspected her desk. As usual it had its fair bit of writing on it, mostly from students who still had a grudge against her, and a ton from Pinkie, who spent most of the space, drawing balloons and ponies and scraping out other comments written onto the desk. 

However, Sunset ignored those things and how they made her feel as her hands flew all around the wooden desk, giving it a full pat down inspection. 

Bon Bon, who was sitting behind Sunset, sighed. “Can you sit down?” she groaned.

~~~

THIRD PERIOD

“No,” Sunset said plainly. “Not a chance.”

Applejack, who stood in front of her covered in sawdust and annoyance, slowly put down the hammer she had held up. “Alright then…” she said, deadpanning. “How about you hot glue these two sides together then?” she asked, passing the hot glue gun and two planks of wood towards Sunset. 

Sunset quickly took a step back, “And risk someone having made it so that it bursts all over me?” she said fearfully. 

All around them, people worked studiously in shop class, putting together their various projects. The sounds of saws, hammers, and the occasional cry of pain echoed through the large room.

Applejack slowly put her head in her hands, took a deep breath, and tried again. “Well will ya please at least put on an apron so it LOOKS like you’re helpin out here an’ there?”

Sunset stared at the apron that had been laid down on their workbench. With only the most careful of touches, she reached over and gave the fabric a tentative poke before furiously pushing it off the table and onto the ground. 

Applejack couldn't give a deeper sigh if she tried.

~~~

LUNCH

“Oh dear,”  Coco, muttered, as she watched Sunset poke at each of the food choices in the cafeteria, a manic look in her eye. Behind the timid girl stood most of Canterlot high, all of them yelling and complaining about the line being held up.

“Sunset do you need any-”

“Stay back, Coco!” Sunset yelled, furiously jabbing at the mashed potatoes. “Any one of these might be rigged to explode in your face.”

“Umm, I don't think-” 

Just then, an explosion rang out, and Sunset, who had been investigating the mashed potatoes, had now become covered in them from head to toe. 

“I knew it!” cried Sunset, throwing down the ladle she was using to inspect the food with.

Far back into the cafeteria several boys began crying out in laughter. Meanwhile Coco quickly began trying to help.

“Oh my goodness, Sunset are you alright?! Was this what you were looking for?” she asked, trying to grab as many paper towels as she could?

Sunset, however, stared back at the boys who were laughing with wide eyes. 

One of the boys caught her gaze and sneered at her. “What? You gonna do something about it?”

“Nevermind, it’s not what I thought,” Sunset said, gritting her teeth and moving to leave the cafeteria. “I’m going to the bathroom.”

Coco quickly followed after her, but stopped when Sunset paused mid step and began mumbling.

“Wait, what if this is it… maybe she wants me to go to bathroom?” she mumbled.

“Sunset what are you-” Coco tried, only to be grabbed by Sunset at the last second. Coco stared up into her eyes as Mashed potatoes dripped off her face and shirt.

“Don’t you get it, Screwball just WANTS me to go clean up,” she said with a crazed grin. 

Coco squirmed away, getting just enough distance between them so she wouldn't get any food on her nice clothes, but enough to still whisper back. 

“Well you can’t stay like that for the rest of the period.”

Sunset just smiled. “She wont get me that easily!” she yelled, running off. 

The boys near the back eventually stopped laughing and just stared in the direction of Sunset and Coco, their mouths agape.

“Well that was boring… She’s so weird.…”

~~~

“She didn't!” gasped Rarity, clutching her iced mocha latte in one hand and covering her mouth with the other. Next to her sat Rainbow and Applejack who could only nod in sympathetic understanding.

The three of them and Coco all sat comfortably in a corner table of Sugarcube Corner, all with a drink and a story about what Sunset had been like at school that day. Meanwhile, Pinkie zoomed around the area and kitchen helping others.

Coco, who sat across from Rarity nodded furiously. “She tried until I convinced her to wipe most of it off. I’m really worried for her, you guys.”

“She’s acting completely crazy,” added Rainbow Dash plainly while taking a loud slurp of her smoothie.

“And where is she now?” asked Rarity. 

“Fluttershy went with Sunset back to her house so she could change clothes,” AJ answered . “Girl done said she needs a ‘witness in case anything happens’,” she said, doing a very visible air quoting gesture. 

She rolled her eyes and chugged her root beer before continuing. “I don't know why, we know she’s getting pranked, but she’s been gettin real nervous about it all… a little too nervous.”

Coco, nodded and took a slow morose sip of her vanilla milkshake. “I thought she would be feeling a bit better after talking to me the other day… I wonder if I just made it worse,” she said, a tinge of sadness in her tone.

Rarity immediately jumped on that tinge. “Of course not, dear! You’ve done the best you could have. I think Sunset Shimmer may have just decided to deal with this the wrong way. And as her friends, as soon as she gets here we should set her-”

*CRASH*

Rarity’s speech came screeching to a halt as the sound of glass smashing to the ground echoed throughout the building. All four girls immediately turned to the source of the sound.

Standing in front of a distraught and stunned Pinkie Pie, was an equally stunned Fluttershy. Next to her, with her arms stretched out was a shocked and ragged looking Sunset Shimmer. And between all of them was a platter that had fallen onto the floor surrounded by shards of broken glass and what looked like the remains of a red and yellow milkshake.

The entire building went quiet as all eyes went from Sunset to Pinkie.

Sunset took a step back, staring down at the defeated drink. “Pinkie, oh my Celestia, I am so sorry. I just… I decided that I wasn't gonna take things from people because they might be a prank so my hands just.. I just-”

Pinkie held her hand up, silencing the girl. Her eyes bored into Sunset and her mouth had become a straight line. 

Without warning, she grabbed Sunset by the arm, turned and all but dragged her over towards the other girls. Fluttershy, moving around the glass, quickly followed behind.

“Sit.” Pinkie ordered, basically shoving Sunset into the open seat next to Coco. Turning face, she walked away back towards the broken glass.

“You done messed up now, sugarcube,” AJ began, shaking her head. “Nobody wastes a premium Pinkie Smoothie.”

Rainbow stared at Sunset and sucked her teeth. “Eeeeeeyeaah. You did the one thing you REALLY shouldn't do around Pinkie.”

Coco stared worriedly between them and Sunset, who’s face had gone extremely pink while she stared down at her feet. 

“Is… is that bad,” Coco asked. “It was an accident right?”

“You didn’t tell me that Sunset was THIS bad,” Rarity sighed before addressing Coco. “I’ll put it this way, darling. Do you remember when we explained the concept and consequences for breaking a Pinkie Promise?”

Coco’s eyes shrank. “That bad?” she all but whispered, glancing over to Pinkie who was still silently cleaning the floor. It was then that she realised that she wasn't the only one looking. The entire building was still quiet, watching to see what the pink girl would do.

Rarity, meanwhile, shook her head. “No, but close. She’ll be in a foul mood for the rest of the day until Sunset apologises properly.”

“But… but I did apologise. It’s just that I didn't know if it was a prank and-”

“Sunset!” interrupted Rarity, leaning forward and causing Sunset to shrink into her seat.

“Ugh,” Sunset groaned. After a moment of silence she took a slow deep breath, held it, and let it out slowly. “I’ve been a bit… crazy today.”

“Ah’ll say!” called out AJ as she finished off her drink. “What are ya thinkin’ girl? You don’t have to be all paranoid ya know.”

“I know, it's just… After my run in with Screwball, I don’t know I’ll get pranked next. I found some today but those were by some kids at school. None of them were from her,” she said, groaning.

“How can you tell the difference?” asked Rainbow. “Don't tell me you can sniff out pranks like Pinkie can?” she continued, smirking.

“Where is she anyway?” mumbled Rarity, looking around. The glass and drinks had been cleaned up, and Pinkie was nowhere to be found on the floor. 

Sunset shook her head. “No, nothing like that. It’s just…” she scratched her head. “I don’t know, I can just tell when it's Screwball’s prank. She’s got a certain style.”

“Pfft, almost sounds like ya miss ‘em,” snickered AJ.

“Of course I don't.” Sunset rolled her eyes. “But now I’m nervous and I don’t know if she’s just out to get me or if someone is siccing her on me. Either way, I don’t know how to deal with it aside from just being hyper vigilant.”

Just as she finished a glass slammed down  in front of her. A glass eerily similar to the one that was on the ground in pieces a moment ago. Inside was the same red and yellow swirled smoothie that was ALSO very similar to the one that was all over the ground before.

Sunset slowly looked up to see Pinkie staring down at her, her face still the same expressionless visage it was before.

“Pinkie, I’m so sorry about-”

“Drink,” she said simply.

“But, I really need to-”

“Drink…” Pinkie stated again. “The smoothie. Sunset.”

Sunset stared at the drink, a flurry of perfectly swirled colours with white foam nested neatly on top, as if comforting the white straw that poked out of it.

Cautiously, Sunset leaned over and took a sip. 

One sip.

Two sips.

Sunset grabbed the drink right off the table and began loudly slurping it down, a massive smile on her face as she did. 

Pinkie simply looked on with a big grin and her chest stuck out. All in all she was the very appearance of smugness. 

Finally tearing her mouth away from the straw, Sunset took in a large breath that she’d been putting off before looking up at Pinkie.

“I’m so sorry. But this is so good,” she said, stars in her eyes.

“It better be, I spent all afternoon making that for you,” Pinkie said, giggling “It’s my secret Shimmer Shake. Perfect for cheering up sulking Sunset sadsacks.”

And with that she skipped off, her mood completely restored.

Sunset took another large sip before turning to her other friends. “I’m sorry for today guys.”

“I’m glad you’re feeling better,” Coco said, smiling brightly.

Sunset looked down at her nearly empty glass. “I'm pretty sure today made it obvious that actually predicting Screwball only leads to me going insane. So what should I do? “ she asked, glancing around.

Rarity nodded, “True, however your incident in the mall also proved that Screwball will show up if you’re intent on looking for her. So, why not use that?”

“And why would I go looking for her again?” she asked, a single eyebrow raised.

Rainbow leaned forward onto the table, a wide grin on her face. “So we can prank her back obviously!”

Pinkie immediately popped up, a tray of glasses on a platter. In a flash she switched out everyone's drinks before leaning onto the table and past Fluttershy. “Did I hear the word… ‘pranks?’” She moved in close to Sunset. “Are we starting a prank war?” she said, covering her mouth and stage whispering at Sunset. 

“What?” Sunset stared at her incredulously, leaning away and accidentally pushing against Coco. “No! That will probably make me look worse. Plus I’m terrible at pranks.”

Realising that she had been putting Coco inbetween her body and the wall, Sunset pushed Pinkie away and reoriented herself. “That’s not gonna work.”

“Umm, well-”

“Ah say you just ignore the girl,” AJ said plainly, beginning to take a few swigs of her now refreshed drink. “She’s around the same age as Apple Bloom an’ her friends right? If you ignore her she’ll move on to something else and you’d be fine, trust me!”

“Actually, I think-”

“You think that will work, dear?” wondered Rarity, calmly stirring her drink. “Based on what they’ve told us, Screwball seems laser focused on one person. I fear that ignoring her would only serve to make the pranks MORE intrusive.”

Sunset flinched. “Her pranks are already really annoying, I can't imagine them getting worse. I don’t think I want to either,” she said, her words falling into a mumble near the end.

“I still think we can at least hit her with one counter prank!” Pinkie said, chipping in while going back to work.
“Well that might-”

“Ah’m tell ya, ignoring her works wonders for little bullies,” Applejack interjected. 

“Girls!” To the surprise of everyone, all eyes turned to Coco who had yelled over the back and forth. She let out a small, slightly embarrassed cough and smiled. “I think fluttershy is trying to say something.”

She looked over towards Fluttershy who had been trying to chime in during the discussion, and winkied.

“Oh! Um… well,” she began. “Well wouldn't it be easier to just try to talk to Screwball?”

Rarity let out a small polite sigh. “Fluttershy, dearest, we already tried that.”

The shy girl merely shook her head in response. “No, that’s not what I mean. I mean we should try to be friends with her. If Sunset can teach Screwball how to be kind and friendly, then everything will go back to normal.” She looked over at Sunset and gave her a small smile.

“Maybe you guys can pull pranks together… small ones I mean.”

The table went quiet for a moment.

Rainbow Dash was the first to start. “Will that even work? Screwball’s kinda… ya know…” she said, using her finger to make tiny circles near the side of her head.

“Rainbow Dash!” chided Rarity. “It’s as good an idea as any, and worth trying.”

Sunset scratched her head for a second before replying. “Yeah… I guess. But that would mean that I have to find her again. Which we established is kinda hard.”

“Well,” began Coco, “she’s bound to show up eventually. I think we should just let things play out naturally. And when you see her, try your best!” she finished with a small smile.

Sunset stared down at her drink before taking a big swig and standing up. “I’ll do it!” she declared, her face full of fire and determination once more. 

“I’m going to be friends with Screwball!”

~~~

Several hours later, in the comfort of her home, Pinkie and Rainbow held a two person sleepover. 

Together, with nothing but the light of Rainbow Dash’s phone illuminating the room, the two sat on Pinkie’s ultra fluffy bed and talked.

“Are you sure we should do this, Dashie? I don’t think Sunny was really into the idea,” Pinkie asked worriedly, looking at the notebook that sat on the bed between them.

“Pffft!” Rainbow puffed, waving her off. “She also said she’s bad at pranks. Trust me! When we’re done giving Screwball a taste of her own medicine, even if Sunset doesn't become friends with her, she’ll think twice about pranking anyone again.”

“Hmmm, Okay!! if it’ll help Sunset!” Pinkie said gleefully.

Rainbow gave her a devious grin and went back to writing in her notebook. “Great! Now, I have the perfect plan.”

The only sounds that would come from that room for the rest of the night were the sounds of two girls giggling and the frantic scratchings of writing in a book.
> CH25: Cashing in a Favor
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Um, hello!” called Fluttershy in her typical, little more than a whisper, voice. Reaching out slightly she offered a paper to a local passerby who deigned to give her any attention. 

However, as that person walked passed, a person wearing a large golden retriever outfit stood in their way and forcefully handed said person a piece of paper. 

“Woof,” they said straightforwardly, much to the nervousness of the person taking the flyer. Without delay, that person jaunted down the sidewalk, hesitantly moving past the large guard dog. 

This continued, standing outside the local pet shop that Fluttershy worked at, the two of them working hard to promote an upcoming adoption event being held by said pet shop. Although there was a sizable amount of foot traffic on this fine morning, no matter what she tried, Fluttershy continued to fail to gain attention. But, like a loyal guard dog, the person in the costume assisted with more… forceful methods. 

This girl turned out to be Sunset Shimmer who, in fact, had volunteered that day in an attempt to help out and raise her trustworthy status with the people. 

“You know,” Sunset said, her voice muffled by the thick layer of dog costume around her, “When I said I’d help you, I didn’t think it would be like this.” Inside the costume, Sunset, her brow shimmering with sweat, rolled her eyes. 

Fluttershy looked over at her and smiled. “Oh but you look so cute in that outfit!” she chirped, her voice as melodic as a singing bird. “Plus, it's so hard to get anyone else to wear it, Pinkie and Coco are the only ones, but Pinkie usually has to work and Coco is too small.” she muttered, frowning slightly. “No offence!” she quickly added.

Sunset chuckled. “It’s alright, she’s not even here. I think Rainbow needed her for something anyway. But, what I really mean, is that I thought this would be helpful in getting people to see me more favourably.”

Sunset handed out a flyer to a passing woman before turning back to Fluttershy. “Cuz, you know, nobody can tell it's me?”

Fluttershy gave a slight gasp, realizing immediately what Sunset meant. Glancing towards the ground shyly, she  began to mumble. “Oh… I’m sorry, Sunset. I didn’t realise. You don't have to wear it, you know!” she urged. 

Just as she said that, though, two kids came up to Sunset and hugged her legs. They were a pair of small twin girls, one with bright pink hair and another with pretty blue hair. Sunset smiled, and leaned down to give them both head pats. 

“Do you two want a puppy just like me?” she said, her voice a bit higher pitched and silly.

The two girls nodded happily and Sunset gave them both a flyer. “Then give this to your parents. Come adopt a puppy later this month! I’ll see you there!” she said. 

The girls ran off giggling while Sunset just smiled, something pretty much impossible to see from within the costume. “It’s alright, I kinda like the feeling though. It feels… nice,” she muttered, trailing off into a whisper.  “Not being judged… or at least feeling like I'm being judged, I mean.”

Fluttershy, who had been trying to offer a flyer to a man at that point, turned to Sunset. “Hm, I’m sorry Sunset. Did you say something?”

Sunset shook her dog head, her silly costumed tongue flopping back and forth. “I said it’s fine! I don’t mind. I’ll be doing more things later with the other girls too,” she answered, loudly this time.

~~~

“Oh, Darling, I’m so glad you’re taking our advice about not worrying about Screwball,” Rarity beamed, adjusting her stylish work glasses. “You’ve been doing so much better recently.”

In the library, Sunset and Rarity sat surrounded by papers and flyers as the two engaged in both planning and jovial gossip. Having gotten permission from Cheerilee to use it as an afterschool base, the two managed to avoid being kicked out for talking at length. 

Sunset glanced and the sheet in front of her, a long sheet with a list of names, before filing it into a stack next to her. “Well, its not so much that I’m not worrying about her,” she muttered, still filing. “It’s more like she’s been pretty quiet for the past week.”

“Really?” Rarity gasped while clicking away at her laptop, on it was an art program that housed a prototype flyer for some kind of event. 

“Actually, it’s kind of weird,” Sunset mused, a grin slowly growing on her face. “It’s almost like her pranks are getting less effective. Maybe she’s finally gotten bored.”

“Tsk tsk tsk,” Rarity chided, sucking her teeth. “Don’t you dare get too comfortable, darling. She could be building up to something. By the way,” she asked, looking over at the paper Sunset had been studying, “can you hand me that list of participants you’re holding?”

Sunset handed over the paper and continued. “No, I really mean it, it's strange. Like, for example; my locker, you know the one that's always got something in it, was open this morning, and the egg trap was already triggered.” She said, looking over at Rarity with a raised brow. The girl in question simply hummed and continued her typing, paper in hand. 

“Or after I had finished helping out Fluttershy, I went back to change into my regular clothes, and the bathroom looked like it had seen a whipped cream explosion, but for some reason, my clothes were fine?”

Sunset grabbed another set of papers and began organising them. “I mean, I had an extra set anyway, just in case, but my original clothes were…” She paused at one particular sheet. Looking over at Rarity, she pointed to one specific name. 

“I didn’t know that Pinkie’s sister went to this school,” she said, pointing to Marble Pie’s name.

“Hmm? Yes, she’s in the Pottery club with Softspot and Shoeshine. Speaking of which,” she leaned over towards Sunset and removed her glasses to look directly into Sunset’s eyes for the first time during that session. 

“I really cannot thank you enough for spending time helping me with this year's Art contest<’ she said, her tone soft and genuine. Hearing it caused something to swell inside of Sunset. “It’s always such a hassle organising all of the artistic clubs in this school.”

“Of course!” Sunset said, turning back to her, a bashful smile plastered on her face. “I don’t want a repeat of what happened last time, so I really hope just organising it might put me in at least a few people’s good graces,” she said sheepishly, looking down at the floor. 

The feeling in her chest from Rarity’s words of appreciation grew, however, so did the longing to hear them from others outside of her group. Just like with Fluttershy, only getting them from working outside of the spotlight was the only way she could get close to that feeling. But someday, perhaps she could step in front of a crowd and hear them directly.

Rarity reached a hand into view and sat it onto her thigh. ”Don’t you worry, this year’s show will be magnificent, especially since they’re allowing the sewing clubs to submit clothes as art” she said, a sly grin growing on her face. “My club will most certainly be taking home first place!” she finished, turning her nose up into the air.

“Oh, my gosh! Finally,” an exasperated voice echoed through the library. Turning in their seats, Rarity and Sunset watched as Diamond Tiara of all people strode into the room, a disgusted look on her face. 

She glanced from book to book, sticking her tongue out all the while. “Eugh, I should have known you would be here,” she muttered, glancing back over to Sunset. Hand on her hip she stopped right in front of the two.

“And… what do you want?” asked Sunset, confused. Looking over a thought occurred to her, and in an instant her mood soured.

Diamond simply smirked at her. “Time to pay your debt, Shimmer.” 

This elicited no small groan from Shimmer as she sat her head right into her palm, much to the confusion of Rarity who could only look between the two. 

“Can this wait,” she moaned, gesturing with a hand to Rarity and the stack of papers between them. “I’m kinda busy.”

Diamond Tiara gasped and rolled her eyes indignantly. “Of course not, you think I have the kind of free time that you do?” she said, smirking and looking Sunset up and down. “Or do you want me to use what little I have to blast that picture of you all over the school.” She held up her cellphone, a glitter and rhinestone embedded status symbol of her social power.  

With a sigh, Sunset turned to Rarity and began whispering. “I’m sorry Rarity, remember I told you about the incident at the mall,” she whispered, glancing over at Diamond Tiara. 

It took her a second, as Rarity was currently in work mode and not in gossip mode, for her to recall that particular conversation. But as soon as she did, her eyes lit up and she began to shoo Sunset away.

“Oh, of course, darling. Go take care of it. I can handle the rest,” she said quickly.

Sunset looked back at the pile and grimaced. “Are you sure? I only managed to organise the list of signups by art submission, section out the gymnasium by club, create a list of judges, and fill out the information packets of only 80% of the entrants. There’s still so much left to do!”

Rarity could only stare at her in shock, her mouth embarrassingly agape. “Sunset, we’ve only been working for an hour.”

Sunset’s eyes went wide as she looked between her and DT who, at that point, began surfing her phone in boredom. “Exactly, we’re running so far behind,” she urged, desperately looking for a reason to NOT go with the entitled preteen.

Rarity merely rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Sunny, dear. All that's left are designing and printing these flyers to spread around the school and finishing those information packets. I think I can handle it on my own.”

Sunset nodded and reached over to grab her back. However, the bundle of air she grabbed apparently wanted her attention more. Leaning down, Sunset peered around and under the table, searching with increasing fervour for her missing backpack.

“Can you PLEASE, hurry up?” Tiara’s voice echoed from behind her. 

Eventually, Sunset returned to the world above the table. “Have you seen my book bag? I know I brought it with me.”

“Isn't your pack usually trapped with a prank of some sort?” she asked in return. 

Sunset merely shrugged as she continued to look around. “Usually, but I’d rather have it with me than let it go off in front of someone else.” 

“Just so you know, my finger is hovering RIGHT over the send button with at least 30 students in this school attached and 10 from Crystal Prep… just so you know,” muttered DT, casually still playing on her phone. 

Rarity sighed and pulled Sunset from under the table. “Then I will make sure to be careful when I find it. Go find out what Ms. Tiara wants please before I need to spend more time recovering your social image,” she said, the last part through gritted teeth.

Just as ordered, Sunset left the work to Rarity who immediately began typing and clicking away. 

“Finally,” she huffed, turning to walk out of the library. “This place is for nerds.” As she strode away, she gave an arrogant flip of her hair.

“I can see why you two like this place,” she said, smirking back at an increasingly annoyed Sunset. “Follow me, please, I’ve got a special favour for you.”

The girl in question looked back at her current problem, yet another one to stack on her growing list, and sighed before trudging after Diamond Tiara.
> CH26: Coalstone
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the two continued to walk, the girl leading could simply not stop bragging about her never having to step foot in the library, about how she’s too smart to need it, and how she can just pay her classmates to do it if she felt like practising her “delegation” skills.

Meanwhile, behind her, Sunset’s annoyance grew to the point where she had to voluntarily remind herself that this was both a child younger than her, and someone who easily held her social status, what little of it there was, in her hands.

Eventually the two came to a stop at the other side of the school building, further away from the classes in a spot she rarely came to before. 

“Alright, listen up, Shimmer,” DT said, snapping her fingers. This, being a good way to press almost anyone's buttons, almost set Sunset off… Almost. “So, like, normally I’d have you do something incredibly embarrassing and hilarious…”

“I figured,” Sunset mumbled under her breath, slumping her slightly. 

Ignorant of her comment, Diamond continued, “There’s actually something more important I need you to get done for me so I don't have to,” she finished, rolling her eyes. 

Sunset couldn't help but cross her arms and give the younger girl a raised eyebrow. “What? You want me to go shopping for you?” she said snidely. 

What she didn't expect was for Diamond Tiara to smirk at her in return. “Pfft, you WISH I'd let you shop for me. No,” she waved her off, “I have other people to take care of. What I need is someone to take care of my cousin for me.”

“Babysitting?” Sunset asked incredulously. Immediately, her thoughts turned to what a child of the Rich family would be like. Sunset imagined a loud, obnoxious child with a growing entitlement issue. A shiver ran up her spine just from the thought of it.

DT sighed dramatically. “Yeah something like that. My cousin came back from boarding school in Manehattan and is going to this school. And now my dad wants me to hang around with him and,” she raised her hands up to make air quotes while speaking slowly. “Make friends’ with him because ‘he’s an artist’ or whatever,” she finished. 

“So… he’s your age?” Sunset asked, her image of the cousin in question suddenly becoming a male version of Diamond Tiara but as a haughty narcissistic artist waving around a paintbrush. 

“Ugh, you ask way too many questions.” she groaned, rolling her eyes. “Here’s all you need to know about Coalstone.”

“Wait is that his-”

“He’s a weirdo who likes making creepy statues,” she continued, “he’s got NO social skills, and I can NOT be seen with him.” Turning she pointed down the hallway they had been heading a moment ago. Said hallway was dimly lit and stood at the very edge of the school.  

“Listen, he's right down the hall and in that gross room no one ever goes in. Just… I dunno, do your friendship thing you’ve been failing at, alright. Tell him you like his art or whatever. Just keep him away from me.”

Sunset reeled back in slight offence as DT checked her studded phone once again. With a smirk she began walking back the way the two came. “I have things to do, so get it done already.”

Just as Sunset turned to ask more questions, Diamond put her phone to her ear and began loudly talking. 

“Hey, Silvey! Yeah I just finished,” she said cheerfully. “Like I was talking to a brick wall. I’m on my way though…”

As she walked away, Sunset let out a tired sigh. Having to deal with helping out at multiple events and trying to avoid Screwball had left her schedule with unsurprisingly little time to herself. And now, what little time she would have had to hang out with Coco or lay around at home had just vanished. 

With that thought passing through, another quickly followed, followed by an audible groan. “She didn’t even say how long she wanted me to do this for,” Sunset sighed. 

Turning in the other direction, she slowly made her way to the end of the hallway. As she grew closer, she could faintly hear the sound of metal slamming. Were they hammers? 

“Diamond did say that he makes statues,” she muttered, reaching for the handle. 

Sunset paused and thought for a second and a spike of unease flew through her. How long has he been here? Did he already know about what she did, or was he like Coco? Can she even do this? Last time with Coco was by pure chance thanks to Rarity and Rainbow Dash.

Sunset glanced back down the hall she came from. It was dimly lit, long, and most of all… empty. She was alone. 

Slowly, she took in a deep breath, an anxiety relief technique that Fluttershy had taught her. And at the same time, she gave the door several small knocks. 

…

Nothing. 

She knocked again. 

Only the sounds of metal slamming, and something breaking responded to her. This close, she could tell that there was some sort of sculpting going on, she could hear the chisel scratching against rock, and the sound of the same rock hitting the ground.

Gathering even more courage, she twisted the knob and opened the door.

~~~

Whatever Sunset was imagining when she opened the door was immediately thrown away once she actually saw the inside. 

Statues, sculptures, and busts of all kinds littered the room on shelves, on counters, on the floor in various places. 

However, it wasn't just the amount of sculptures that surprised her, it's that they were made in the image of strange creatures Sunset had never seen before. Each of them were styled with rather hideous-looking faces, sharp, lizard-like eyes, large bat-like wings, and mouths filled with fangs. As she looked around, she realised that she really couldn't call them ugly as even from a distance she could see there was an impressive amount of detail put into it. And if there was one thing she could get behind, no matter what it was, it was detail. 

Her eyes slowly scanned the room, taking in the many statues, some small, others relatively larger, some a bit more detailed and others looking half finished entirely. And in the centre of them all, directly in front of Sunset, was something else she didn't expect. 

When Diamond Tiara mentioned her cousin, she imagined someone her age, dressed expensively while doing pretentious paintings. 

However, standing in front of her, facing away, was the exact opposite of her imagination. It was a young man with a wild grey mohawk that wouldn't look too out of place on a certain teacher of hers. He stood about two to three inches taller than Flash and considerably more sturdy-looking in terms of build, if his surprisingly strong-looking back had anything to say for it. Accentuating his large appearance, he wore a dark grey, bordering on back, tank top with cargo pants and boots.

In front of him was the largest piece of stone she had seen in a long time. It was clearly a work in progress, only barely taking shape with each slam of the chisel against it. 

Speaking of which, the boy holding the chisel continued to reach up with his hammer and slam down, seemingly unaware of the person who had stepped into his room. 

Unsure of how to proceed, Sunset went with the most obvious option. 

“H-Hello!” she said, raising a hand and putting her best completely not nervous smile on.

*Chink* *Chink* *Chink* 

The sounds of metal slamming against itself and rock was his only greeting.

Sunset felt a new feeling well up inside of her. Once a familiar feeling, it was now one that she would usually try to suppress as it reminded her of her more… selfish tendencies. However, something told her that maybe, just maybe, she’d let it through just a bit. 

Said feeling was, as any human would put it, the desire to NOT be ignored when you’re trying to get the attention of someone.

She took a step forward, fully intending on trying again to greet the new boy when something caught her eye from the side. She stopped, and stared at a few small sculptures that she hadn't noticed before. They were on a smaller scale compared to the others in the room, desk size even. 

They were sculptures of a humanoid creature with hair and clothes like flames, sharp teeth and claws, wide spread wings and… the most notable of all, a tiara with a star in the middle sat upon its head. All of them were in different poses. 

Sunset froze. Some of the smaller details were off, but there was no mistaking it even in their slate grey, unpainted, states. They were all of her, in her demon form.

Slowly, she reached out a hand to touch it, her thoughts racing a mile a minute. “Why did he have this? Was he there? Does he already know who she is? If not then who told him? Why did he make this?

“Um… Can I help you with something?”

A sudden voice snapped her out of her thoughts and her head snapped towards the voice. The boy finally stopped sculpting long enough to notice that he wasn't alone. Finally facing her, Sunset was able to see him holding his goggles up from his eyes. Said eyes were sharp and grey, like pools of silver.

Combined with his rather deep and somewhat dry-sounding voice, a voice that almost sounded like the individual had rocks in his throat, made him seem daily intimidating. A feature which wasn’t helped by the somewhat blank look on his face, which made him difficult to read.

Still mostly shaken from seeing her worst self sculpted out, Sunset hesitated for a second. Thankfully, the boy in front of her also had nothing else to do but wait for her answer. 

Soon enough, Sunset’s critical thinking kicked back in and time slowed to a stop when it brought forth a very important question. 

“What do I tell him??” she thought loudly, her mind aching from the imaginary volume.

“Do I tell him the truth?” she thought. As if responding to her dilemma, another version of herself appeared in front of her. 

Second Sunset crossed her arms and raised her eyebrow. “Of course you can’t. How would you react…” he mood, like her eyebrow, fell quickly as she amended her statement. “I mean, how did YOU react when someone tried to be friends with you just because they were asked?” she said, looking down. 

Main Sunset glanced off to the side. “But, this is different. I’m different,” she mumbled. “I don’t want to lie to him. Diamond Tiara may have asked me to do this but that doesn't mean I can't put in a genuine effort. 

Second Sunset scoffed and shook her head. “Sure, whatever. Still though you could at least word it better. Maybe just hold back the part that it was Diamond?

Main Sunset just looked at her, and let out a tired sigh. “No, that's the same as lying if he finds out later. I think I'd rather just tell him directly.”

Second Sunset shrugged and began to vanish. “Whatever, I'm just trying to help you out here. Good luck.” she said, her voice vanishing as time began to speed back up.

“Um, Hi!” Sunset began, giving a slight wave and a shy smile. “I’m Sunset Shimmer.”

The boy glanced between Sunset and the sculpture she was standing next to and gave a terse response. “Coalstone. Are you here for some art supplies?”

“Art supplies?” she questioned, before it finally clicked. “Oh, this is the old art room, isn't it!” 

Coalstone nodded, regarding her with a puzzled expression. “Yes… it was. They left some things behind that they come to get sometimes. Though, judging by your reaction, you probably didn't know that.”

Sunset reeled back, embarrassed. “Yeah, no I didn't’. I don’t come down here often,” she said, giving a nervous chuckle. “But I’ve heard some girls around school talking about the sounds coming from this side of the school,” she continued, trying to keep the conversation going.

The tall boy scoffed and looked around. “That tracks, they’re already talking about me, huh,” he finished, looking down at the floor. Sunset, for just a split second, could see the same downcast face that she herself used to see every morning. 

“Oh no, that’s not what I mean!” she backtracked. “People in the school are quick to notice when things are out of the ordinary, since that happens so often to them.”

Sunset let out a short awkward chuckle. However, Coalstones stony expression didn’t waver. 

“Well either way,” he replied after a tense second. “I’m just minding my own business. The sounds are from my hammer. Anything else that goes on in this school is none of my business.” 

Sunset nervously rubbed the back of her head as the silence set in. Unsure where to go from here she began really wishing she’d written down some conversation topics. Usually, she’d have someone with her, either Coco’s bubbly and friendly demeanour, or Rainbow’s straightforward attitude. She could also really use Rarity’s charisma or Applejack’s reliability. Even Fluttershy’s shyness would probably help here. 

But what exactly did she have in the way of helping to make friends? Sure she was smart, a bit athletic and knowledgeable. But her time as a queen bee, and then as a loner hardly left her with the best set of approachable traits or conversational skills.

Coalstone looked down at her, his gaze seemingly seeing right through her lack of confidence. “So, with that being said, why are you down here suddenly. I’ve been here a while, and you don’t seem the type to go investigating rumours.” He averted his gaze for a second, seemingly thinking. After another second, his gaze snapped back to her, meeting her eyes. 

“Did someone ask you to come here?” Sunset couldn't help but pick up on the small emphasis placed on a certain word in that sentence. 

Taking a nervous gulp, Sunset realised that there probably wouldn't be a better time to do this. As much a part of her wanted to do this as cautiously as possible, a stronger part of her wanted to make her friends proud by doing this the honest way, a way that would make her friends proud.

“Well,” she began, glancing around, anywhere that wasn’t his eyes. “Yeah, actually. Your cousin Diamond Tiara asked me to come welcome you to the school. And to give you a warm welcome,” she finished, cautiously. Despite her inner self winning out, she couldn't help but hide just the smallest bit of the truth, much to her internal disappointment  

Coalstones expression finally changed, and much to Sunset’s chagrin, his narrowed eyes turned his expression into something worse than what it was.

“I see,” he said simply, before turning back to his sculpture and lowering his goggles. “I figured as much. Tiara wants to make sure I don't mess with the ‘popular image’ she’s built.” With a smooth and practised motion, he raised his arm and brought it back down with a very loud rock breaking.

“You can leave then. I don’t have any intention of leaving this room. Not like anyone really wants to come see the gross things that I make,” he said, mumbling his last few words. Just as Sunset was about to interject. He continued, his deep voice and metal pounding overtaking Sunset before she could even talk.

“Last thing I need is to inconvenience a random girl because my cousin thinks I need a babysitter. Sorry you had come here…” he finished. 

“Wait, hold on a second!” Sunset called out. However, it was too late. Sunset could tell that he was lost in his own world again and that her words, much like the first time, couldn't reach her. After having been friends with creatives like Rarity and Coco, Sunset had developed a kind of sense that tells her when her people like them have entered a state of extreme focus. And she could tell very quickly that Coalstone was one of them. 

“So… he doesn't know who I am then,” she muttered to herself. The thought that he was in fact, like Coco gave her a bit of confidence. 

His last statement also gave her a bit of thought. 

“He likely stays in here all the time,” she wondered aloud. “I doubt he gets that many, if any visitors throughout the day.”

She stared at his back as he worked, a bold figure surrounded by sculptures in a room at the end of the school. The world grew just a bit darker around him. 

With that thought in mind, Sunset decided that she was in for the long haul. And definitely not since she wasn't sure what Diamond would do with her blackmail material if she backed down. 

She took a single step forward to grab his attention once again.
> CH27: Next Move
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Well… that didn’t work.”

Sunset stared at the closed door in front of her, idly recalling what the definition of insanity was, and if it would apply if she tried the door knob again. Just like how one would look inside of the fridge for food multiple times, she lazily tried the knob one more time. 

Still locked. 

After steeling her resolve, Sunset attempted multiple times to get Coalstone’s attention, first by shyly calling his name. Then, after a while of that, she tried getting closer to him. Though she made sure to not get close enough to experience firsthand how hard you have to swing a hammer to break a stone. 

Afterwards, she began studying the sculptures around him and mused about how detailed they were. When that got tiring, she went back to trying to make conversation with him, though it ended up being more like making conversation with herself. She went on about her day, ranted about Screwball, and her pranks, and the events of the last few days. 

By the end, she actually felt a bit better, though no closer to even getting a small bit of his attention. 

Then, just as she had been about to leave, he stopped hammering. Sunset, who had been checking her phone, looked up in surprise to see him stretching and taking a small break. 

She called out to him, and unlike the last several dozen times she did, he actually turned to face her. 

He said only one thing before ushering her out physically.

“Oh, you’re still here?”

The sweet sound of a guitar riff snapped Sunset back to reality. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out her phone and opened it to see an image of one of her friends sticking their tongue out at her.

“Hello?” she answered. 

Rainbows voice came loudly through the phone. 

“Sup, Sunset! Whatcha doing?”

Sunset looked back up to the door before turning and leaning on it. “Trying, and failing to make a new friend. I think I might just go home,” she said, sighing. 

The girl on the other end of the phone let out a short laugh. “More Screwball problems? Pfft don’t worry about it. But I’m glad you’re going home because I wanted to tell you that Coco is also on her way back.”

Sunset’s brow rose a few millimetres. “Oh so you’re done ‘borrowing’ her?” she said, smirking. 

“Eyyup!” Rainbow said, mimicking a certain cowboy. 

Sunset shook her head and began walking down the hall, taking one more second to look back at the door. Making a short promise to herself she went back to Rainbow. 

“So what did you need her for?” she asked. 

“Can’t say, it's a secret!” she quickly replied. “Listen, I’ll talk to you tomorrow! Gotta go.” And with that, she hung up, leaving only a bemused Sunset to stare at her phone before making her way downtown. 

Maybe Coco would tell her.

~~~

“I can’t tell you,” Coco said, crossing her arms in a large X shape in front of her. 

Sunset slouched over. “Oh come on!” she groaned. 

The two of them met up at the house and decided to recap the day's events at the kitchen table over a drink. Well… drinks, as Sunset had one cup of tea, but Coco was already on her third cup of milk.

And what was supposed to be a recap was immediately more of Sunset talking about the volunteering she did while Coco kept quiet about everything that happened after the two had separated that morning.

“Sorry, Sunset,” Coco said, chuckling. “But Rainbow made me promise not to say anything about what we did. 

Sunset rolled her eyes. “Whatever, I’m sure you guys will surprise me with something at some point SOMEwhere down the line,” she said, leaning back in her seat and crossing her arms, her face the very definition of a pout. “It’s cool.”

Coco’s chuckled quickly turned into outright laughter, said laughter, made even cuter by the fact that she struggled to cover her mouth, immediately turned Sunsets fake frown into a very real smile and soon, their laughter filled the room.

“Oh! Wait,” Coco said, finally stifling her laughter. “So what happened? Diamond asked you to meet her cousin right, how did it turn out?”

Sunset’s laughter also ceased and her face slowly fell into more of a pensive look. Her gaze fell to the table and she found herself fiddling with her fingers. 

“Well… Not terrible, but not great either… or really even good,” she began in a low mumble. Coco urged her to continue. 

“I thought it would be better if I told him upfront why I came to see him, but I was awkward and didn’t really know how to follow up. So he ended up telling me that I didn't need to do what Tiara said and that he’s fine being out of her way.”

Coco tilted her head slightly. “So… what do you want to do?” she asked.

Sunset shook her head. “I thought about leaving, but you should have seen him. He was all alone in that big room and when he talked I could hear some of that loneliness in his voice. 

“So be his friend!” Coco said, smiling that usual bright smile. 

Sunset smiled alongside her and nodded. “I don’t think I want to just give up. .Like you all did for me, I want to show him that he can open up to people. He seems really closed off right now. I think it might have something to do with the kinds of things he sculpts.” Her thoughts immediately went back to the sculpture of herself that she saw among his collection.

“What kinds of things does he make,” she asked innocently.

Sunset’s brow furrowed in thought. “They looked like… goblins… or manticores? They had really wrinkled and gross faces, bat wings, claws,” she paused for a second, “ and most of them were hunched over, like they were parched on something.”

Coco thought for a second before her eyes lit up. “Are you talking about gargoyles?” she said, leaning forward. 

Sunset could only shrug and tilt her head. “I don't know… maybe? Is that what those are?”

Coco stood up and turned to walk out of the room. “Hold on a second.” 

Sunset took a sip of her drink, idly noticing that at some point Coco had finished off her cup during the conversation. Meanwhile, she could hear Coco walk briskly up the stairs and begin rummaging around her stuff for something. 

After about a minute or five, Coco returned to the kitchen as Sunset poured herself another cup of tea. Sweet delicious soothing tea.

Excitedly, Coco returned to the table and began flipping through pages to find something. Just as Sunset sat down, Coco pushed the book towards her, nearly hitting her hand that was holding the drink.

Her eyes widened, and she pointed to the image in front of her. “That’s it!” she exclaimed, looking right at the picture of a grotesque statue with the same claws, wings, bulbous body and hunched over pose. It wasn’t an exact match, but definitely would be something in the same species as what Coalstone sculpted.

Coco nodded, her smile beginning to look more like a smirk. “I knew it! This is a gargoyle, they’re staples of gothic architecture. My dad is a big fan. You can normally find them perched on top of skyscrapers. I’m guessing you probably don’t have them in Equestria.”

Sunset simply raised a brow curiously while scanning the book in detail. “What’s a skyscraper?”

Coco hummed. “Or those… I guess.” She raised a hand as high as she could. “Skyscrapers are really REALLY tall buildings.”

That caused a light to shine in Sunset’s head. “Oh! Like in Manehattan!”

Coco quickly stifled a giggle, this not having been the first time she heard a pony parody of a name from her world, though it wasn’t any less funny hearing it again.

Sunset, meanwhile, continued to read through the book, oblivious to the joke she just told. Her brow furrowed as she turned the page. “This book doesn’t say what these creatures are though?”

Coco gently took the book from her and closed it. “No, this is just the first architecture book I found with a picture of it. My dad is an architect so he sometimes sends me books with interesting building designs.” She let out a small chuckle and held the book close to her chest. “I think it’s his way of trying to connect with me since I'm a fashion designer.”

Sunset could only smile. “That’s cute. But do you have a book I can read about what they are, maybe then I can learn why Coalstone makes so many of them.” The put a finger to her chin in thought. “Actually, now that I know the name, I can probably find a book on them in the library.”

Coco shook her head furiously. “No, don’t do that!”

This took Sunset by surprise. “What? Why?”

“If you want to be friends with him, ask him directly,” she said leaning in close. “If he likes them as much as you say he does, he’ll probably love to finally be able to talk about it.”

Sunset looked from her, then to the book, then back up at Coco. “That way I can connect with him in a genuine way! That’s brilliant!” she cheered, looking up at her friend with a wide smile. 

Coco immediately blushed and sat down back into her seat. “Th-thanks,” she mumbled, hiding her face behind the book. “I’m just glad I could help. Sorry, if I got too excited.”

Sunset, meanwhile, had immediately begun forming a battle plan. Meeting Coalstone today was too sudden, and she didn't have any time to get mentally ready. But now, armed with info on who he was and what he liked, Sunset was certain that she could become friends and get him to open his heart to her. 

*DING*

Interrupting her thought process was the familiar chime of her phone. Reaching down, she pulled it out to see a new message notification.

“It’s from Rainbow,” she muttered, her eyes scanning the message. 

“Oh!” Coco gasped, shaking herself back to normal. “What did she send you?”

Sunset looked up at her, and her face immediately gained the most malicious smirk, the kind that would definitely be familiar to someone who knew Sunset a year ago. And it was a smirk that told Coco exactly what she was about to hear. 

“It’s a secret!”
> CH28: Try Try Again
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coco, with a smile almost as radiant as the sun, took a deep breath as she stepped off the bus. Staring out to the front of the girls school. The clouds had finally parted, a drastic change from the mess that was yesterday. Now gone, the world above them revealed a blinding bright light surrounded by an impeccable blue sky. 

A light breeze wafted across the area, lightly blowing some hair into Sunset’s face as she followed her friend out onto the campus of their school. 

Coco gave a huge stretch, continuing her deep breaths and appreciation of nature. “It’s such a beautiful day!” she exclaimed, looking around at the various students pooling into the school. Some rushing, some taking their time. Others walked with friends and some strolled alone.

Sunset nodded. “Yeah, I guess it is,” she muttered, looking around at the surprisingly small number of kids coming off the bus behind her. “And quiet for once.”

Coco turned back to Sunset. “Definitely a perfect day for a new friend!” she said, excitedly. Her expression softened however. “Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you to talk to Coalstone? I can help!”

Sunset smiled softly but shook her head nonetheless. “I know you could. But this is something I have to do on my own.” She looked up into the blue sky and remembered seeing Coalstone for the first time, his large back surrounded by stone and lifelessness.

“I can’t really explain it… but he reminds me of me somehow… before we met, I mean.” Coco looked over her, her head cocked curiously, but a concerned look on her face regardless. Sunset continued. 

“All I can really say is that I want to help him get used to this school and people, like you did for me,” Sunset caught a quick glimpse of Rainbow running from nearby into the school. She had thought of waving, but the girl clearly seemed to be in some sort of rush, definitely enough of one to have not noticed Coco or herself. Seeing her friend in such a rush, Sunset couldn't help but chuckle.

“All of you,” she finished, turning back to Coco. Looking the shorter girl in the eyes, Sunset nodded resolutely and held up her hand. “I got this!”

Coco nodded and eagerly met Sunset’s upheld hand with her own, completing the high five.

~~~

“Easier said than done,” Sunset mused as she made her way down the school hall.

Not more than 20 minutes later, she found herself striding down the same path that led to the very room she had been unceremoniously kicked out of the day before. Taking out her phone, she once again checked her recent text from Rainbow. The first of which came only a few minutes after she and Coco had separated to go to their first classes.

“Yo! Dont come to 1st period today, got cancelled.”

“How??” she had replied. 

“Ok well not canceled, more like its study hall cuz the teach isnt here. Anyway, go do something else! See you next period!”

And she hadn't gotten another text since then. 

Sunset sighed. Originally her plan was to use most of the school day to build up herself mentally and maybe plan out some conversation topics in a helpful bulleted list or something. And while she could probably do the same during study hall, something told her that talking to him sooner would be better. 

So, she found herself making her way down to this wing of the school, passing less and less students as she went. By the time she turned the corner to her destination, almost all student traffic had ceased. 

Much to her surprise, the art room door was wide open. Glancing around, she hesitantly made her way over.

Peaking in, she was greeted with the sight of Coalstone standing near the corner of the room, once again, his back turned towards the entrance. 

Sunset took a deep breath, and readied herself before walking in as naturally as possible.

The sound of her boots quickly caught Coalstone’s attention. A stark difference from how he was yesterday when he wouldn't give her existence the time of day while he was working. He quickly turned and glanced at her direction before subtly rolling his eyes. “What do you want?” he asked tersely. Upon turning his body Sunset discovered a set of tools on the table in front of him, in his hands held a chisel that he was wiping down with a damp looking washcloth. 

She mentally nodded, resolving to try to take advantage of his attention. “Judging by the state of the room, I don’t think he’s started anything yet,” she idly considered. “This is perfect!”

“Umm, well I,” Sunset began, stammering, “Well I was just surprised to see that you left the door unlocked. So I just…” she shrugged. 

“Hmph. The art teacher was upset when she found out that I had the door locked,” he said stoicly. “That still doesn’t mean that I was looking for company.”

Carefully setting down his tools, he turned to Sunset once more. “I told my cousin that I’m not interested in hired friends, so you don’t have to come here anymore.
Sunset shook her head and took a step forward. “That may be, but I do genuinely want to get to know you. You have so many interesting things here.”

Coalstone looked at her for a second, before turning away. “Interesting, huh. I guess you could call them that. But I'm good. Not really interested in getting to know anyone in this school, fairly sure I told you that before.”

Moving back to his tools, he quickly wrapped them in cloth, and picked them up. 

“Not sure why you even care,” he continued as he moved. It’s not like you would have known I was even here if it weren’t for Diamond Tiara,” he finished. As he talked he had walked his tool set back to the centre of the room where a pedestal with a semi chiselled piece of stone sat.

Sunset shook her head, expecting this response. “Even so, I’m here now and I want to know more about you, and these statues. I heard they were something called gargoyles, right?”

This caught his attention, and for a brief moment when he turned to look at Sunset, she saw something that resembled a pang of interest in his eyes. However, a single blink and it was gone, replaced once more with his usual stony gaze.

He let out a small sigh. “Listen, I don’t know how much Diamond Tiara is paying you to put up with me, but there’s no point. I’m just a guy in the corner making statues. I’m sure they’re unsightly and ‘interesting’ so I don’t blame you for being curious, but honestly, I’d rather make my ‘creepy’ statues in peace.”

And with that he turned to reach for his hammer to begin the day's sculpting. 

“Creepy? I don’t think they’re creepy at all though,” Sunset replied, her tone laced with genuine confusion.

Coalstone’s hand paused, still as a statue while Sunset continued. “I’ve honestly never seen or heard of these creature shapes before.” She glanced around at the various statues. “And I thought I knew a LOT about various creatures.”

She glanced back and Coalstone who, once again had turned to her, a bit more light shining in his eyes than before. “Right... You’ve really never seen a gargoyle before?” he asked skeptically. 

Sunset shook her head and Coalstone nodded before turning away. “I see, well you strike me as the studious type. I’m sure you can swing by the library to pick up a book or two and read up on them.”

Sunset noticed that he wasn’t immediately reaching for his tools anymore. Her chest lit up, excited to see that her efforts were not in vain. Her thoughts immediately went back to her first conversation with Rainbow Dash in the library. What was little more than a few months ago suddenly felt so far behind her. But what still remained fresh in her mind, was the topic that brought them together.

“I could,” she said, smiling softly. “But I thought I could come to you about them. I can see how much detail you put into them. I admire hard work and craftsmanship and I can tell that you put a lot of work into carving every wrinkle, every imperfection, and every detail you can into their image.”

Coalstone stared at her, and hummed for a second. “Thank you for noticing, I suppose you do have a good eye.” He turned away and picked up his tools to begin carving. “Or at least a passing interest,” he finished, lowering his goggles.

With the swing of his hammer, Coalstone began working. “Fine then, I’m losing time. You can stay, I guess, just don’t break anything.”

Sunset flinched and her mind raced for a solution. She had expected the conversation to flow from there, maybe he would take the time to teach her. What she had not been expecting was for him to give her slack and voluntarily back out of any further conversation.

She quickly leapt out to grab the last thread of conversation she had tried to weave prior. “So will you tell me more about what these are and why you make them?

The sounds of iron against stone continued to permeate the air for several seconds before his response. “Like I said, go read a book about them. Better than I could explain. Or you could ask a teacher,” he said, between strikes.

Sunset wracked her brain for a second, mildly annoyed that this wouldn't be as easy as she was beginning to believe it was. 

However, what came to her was not the mind blowing solution that would continue the conversation that she had hoped, but rather, an explosion of a different kind.

In an instant, the ground shook under her feet as a dull boom echoed around the room. Several statues in the room began shaking along with the shock wave, however, due to either their size and weight, none came crashing. 

“What was that?” Sunset yelled, lowering down to the ground for safety.

Coalstone lifted his goggles and looked around. “Doesn’t feel like an earthquake…” he muttered standing up. As he did the shaking died down and Coalstone made his way towards the window on the far end of the room. 

Sunset, still low to the ground, began looking around once the shaking stopped. “Then…”

“That class over there,” Coalstone said, trailing off.

"What class? What about it?" Sunset asked, carefully standing up.

"It exploded," he deadpanned. "Right over there."

Sunset’s ears perked up and she quickly made her way over to him. “A class? Did someone set off some kind of science project?”

However, just as she reached the window, her eyes went wide. Looking out into the distance she could see the sight of a classroom in an adjacent wing, its windows were blown out, and there were signs of damage hanging out of them. From where she could see there were also some odd stains covering the entire outside frame of the window.

Although, one thing stood out more than anything else. The room that had exploded was the same room that she should have been in for the first period and the same one her friend might still have been in.

“Oh no,” she muttered before running off. Coalstone turned and watched her leave before turning back to the window.