What did happen?
It was a bright and beautiful weekend morning. The birds sang, the leaves rustled in the wind and Sunset Shimmer had woken up with a pounding headache. She was laying on her bed as if she had fallen from a building while half naked, her covers were on the floor and she felt as though she hadn't slept in weeks, even though she'd been sleeping great lately.
She managed to crawl herself out of bed and made her way to her bathroom. She looked into the mirror of the bathroom and she looked awful! Below her eyes were as black as night while also being very baggy, her hair was a riot and her breath was horrible. Just what did she do? What happened to her? Sunset was going to leave the questions for after she cleaned herself up. She stripped out of what was left of her current clothing and hopped into the shower. She just let the warm water run over her as she was too tired to do anything, even scrubbing herself. She just laid there in her bathtub letting the water run down her hair and body. She wasn't in any hurry so she could stay there for a while.
Once she got out, she changed into her usual everyday clothes and searched her phone, in hope that she would get answers. First, Sunset checked her phonebook. She was surprised at how many calls she had gotten yesterday...
...all from Twilight...
...that had been rejected or missed...
It wasn't looking good so far. Next, she checked her messages. Again, it was blown up with texts from Twilight.
Sunset, are you there? 22:33
Pick up the phone! 22:34
Seriously, you're really starting to worry me. 22:35
Fine. If that's how you feel, I won't worry about you anymore. 22:47
...
Sunset? Are you there? 00:11
I'm sorry for what I said. 00:12
Are you still mad at me? 00:12
Please call me back. 00:14
Okay, so apparently Sunset had done something last night that caused Twilight to worry about her. But what had she done though? She wasn't able to think with her headache. Each pound felt like another stone directly to the head. Then another pounding sound came, this time from her front door. She waljed over to her door and opened it. She was greeted by none other than Twilight.
"Twilight?" Sunset rubbed her eyes for them to adjust to the outdoor light. "What are you doing here?"
Twilight nervously smiled. "I-uh, just wanted to check up on you... and apologise. After, y'know, last night?"
Sunset shook her head in response for she didn't know about last night, at all. Twilight wasn't sure to be surprised by this or not.
"Don't you remember last night?" she asked.
"I can't say I do, no," Sunset blinked. "I was actually trying to figure that out but I couldn't focus because of this raging headache I've developed." She gripped her forehead in pain.
"Then I guess I'll have to tell you," Twilight assured Sunset. "May I come in?"
Sunset stepped out of the way to let her lavender friend inside. They both took a seat on Sunset's sofa.
"Why is it so dark in here?' Twilight asked.
Sunset rubbed the back of her neck. "Yeah, sorry." A yawn escaped her. "I only got up like twenty minutes ago."
Twilight walked towards Sunset's large curtains and swung one of them open. All of the light spilled into the room so fast that it burned Sunset's eyes. She covered her face and hissed like a vampire. Twilight ignored her and took her place back onto the couch. She looked confused on how to tell her fiery-haired friend what happened to her. She tapped Sunset on the shoulder to gain her attention. She squinted at her as if she was blinded by the sudden sunlight.
Twilight sighed. "Okay, so this is what happened. It began yesterday, after school..."
The school bell rang, signifying the end of the school week. Crowds of students came flooding out of the school, including Sunset Shimmer with her closest friend Twilight Sparkle. They chatted about their school day and predicted how their weekend was going to be.
"So, you got any plans for the weekend?" Twilight asked.
"Nah, I'm pretty much just going to be at home the whole time," Sunset answered.
They both sat down at the school's statue, which still lacked an actual statue. Twilight never let destroying the statue go. Everytime she saw it, she would think of Midnight Sparkle back at the Friendship Games. Sunset would notice Twilight's guilt almost every time and pass her a smile. Twilight would smile back and she would calm down in an instant. Sunset might have known Twilight for the least amount of time out of her six friends, but she's definitely the one she relates to the most. They are both very intelligent, they would worry about complicated things from time to time and, most importantly, they were consumed by negative magic.
"You think we should make some sort of plan?" Sunset asked.
"Eh, why not?" Twilight shrugged. "Couldn't hurt to go out for a while, could it?"
That was when another female individual appeared from behind the statue. Sunset knew this girl all too well. Twilight on the other hand didn't know her at all.
"Hey, there. I heard you two be looking for something to do this weekend," she said.
"What do you want, Gilda?" Sunset wasn't very pleased to see someone like Gilda talking to them.
"Hey man, I was just checking if you had plans or not."
"Who is this girl?" Twilight whispered into Sunset's ear.
Sunset stood up. "Twilight, this is Gilda, an old friend of Rainbow Dash's." She folded her arms and glared at Gilda. "And I know you know Twilight."
"You'd be correct. Anyway, I was just about to ask you if you wanted to come to a party being held at Lightning Dust's tonight," Gilda explained.
"Why would we want to do that?" Sunset cocked up an eyebrow. "Us of all people."
"Listen, Sunset! I'm trying to be nicer to people these days, maybe make some new friends, but it's kinda hard to do that if you're talking to me with that attitude."
She did make a point. Sunset hasn't been hearing anything bad about Gilda lately. Maybe she is telling the truth. She turned to look at Twilight. "What do you think, Twilight? Should we attend this party?"
"Well, I guess so? I'm not doing anything tonight anyway," said Twilight. "And she does sound like she wants to start over after..." Twilight still knew nothing about this girl. "...whatever she has done. I may have to prep myself up though when I get home."
"You'll be fine. No one will really care what you look like," Gilda said impatiently.
Sunset turned back to Gilda. "Alright, we'll come. What time?"
Gilda smiled. "7:00PM, sharp. Lightning Dust's place. Be there." She began walking off home, leaving the girls behind.
"She seems... nice?" Twilight smiled, with an eyebrow raised.
Sunset laughed. "You have no idea."
~7:04PM~
Sunset and Twilight arrived together at Lightning Dust's house. They could hear music blaring and the cheers and chatter from the guests inside. Sunset climbed the stairs to the door but she turned around to see that Twilight was still standing at the bottom, staring up at the house.
"You okay, Twi?" Sunset asked, climbing back down the stairs.
Twilight was brought back down to reality. "What? Oh! Yeah, I'm fine. It's just..." Twilight tried to find her words. "...this looks pretty wild."
Sunset smirked. "You do know you're friends with Pinkie Pie, right?"
Twilight smiled back. "Of course, but even her parties didn't make me feel so uncomfortable."
"What's uncomfortable? It's only a house party."
"I know that but this was pretty sudden. We were invited by a girl who you don't really like and I don't even know. Something about this just doesn't feel right."
Sunset rolled her eyes. "Twilight, she said she's been trying to turn herself around. If that's the case, then I guess I'm fine with trusting her."
"Yeah, but-"
Sunset raised a finger, interrupting Twilight. "And you even said that it was worth giving her another chance."
"Wait, no I didn't."
"Still, you agreed to come tonight."
Twilight looked back up at the house. She was very unsure with what she should do. Should she turn away or go with Sunset?
"Come on Twilight. Trust me, it'll be fun," Sunset said grabbing Twilight's arm.
Twilight let out an audible sigh. "Fine, I'll do it for you."
Sunset smiled at her. "Thanks Twilight."
They both climbed the stairs and Sunset knocked on the front door. The door was opened by none other than Gilda.
"Took you two long enough. Where've you been?" she asked.
"We were only seven minutes late, calm down." Sunset smirked again.
"Whatever." Gilda rolled her eyes while stepping out of the way. "Come in and help yourself to food and drink."
The girls entered the building. They looked around and saw that everyone, whom was here, they either barely knew or not at all. They had been invited to a party where they didn't recognise a single face.
"You still thinking this is a good idea, Sunset?" Twilight tried to whisper over the loud music.
"Yeah. Why? What's worrying you now?" Sunset whispered back.
Twilight stared at Sunset. "It's just that I don't recognise a single person here, and they don't all look the friendliest."
Sunset analysed everyone around her. She also didn't know anyone and Twilight was right about how friendly they all look. Still, that wasn't going to ruin anything.
"So what? It's a party, someone's bound to get pretty reckless tonight." Sunset giggled. "Hell, it's practically inevitable."
Twilight began looking at the floor."I-I just don't know..."
Sunset put on a serious face to gain Twilight's attention again. "Hey! Don't you go leaving on me now, young lady. We came here to enjoy this party and we damn well are going. To have. A good. Time."
Twilight's expression now smiled. "I can't take you seriously when you talk like that," she said.
Sunset sighed. "Let's just see what kind of snacks they got." She headed towards the kitchen and found large bowls of just about anything: Crisps, sweets, you name it. A variety of different drinks were served to: Soda, lemonade, energy drinks and... alcoholic cider?
"Where did they get alcohol from?" Twilight asked with a twinge of anger.
Sunset looked over the bottles. "Applejack's family, apparently," she answered.
She picked up the bottle and to look closer into it but not before Twilight pulled Sunset’s arm away from her face. "What do you think you're doing? You can't drink that!"
Sunset pulled away from her. "What? I'm not actually going to drink it. I'm just looking at i-"
"Hey, Sunset!" Lightning Dust came out of nowhere. "Glad you could make it." She looked down at the glass bottle in Sunset’s hand. "I see you're getting a drink, huh? You have no idea how hard it was to get this stuff." Lightning Dust took a bottle of her own.
Sunset opened her mouth to speak but Twilight had beaten her to it, "Yeah, and I kind of want to know how and why you brought alcohol to a party, despite the fact that literally everyone here is underage."
Lightning raised her hands in defence. "Woah, calm down there. I just wanted to make sure everyone had a good time while they were here." She flicked the lid off of the bottle. "If anything, maybe you two should try some. Loosen yourselves up a bit."
Twilight glared at her. "If you think that we are both dumb enough to-"
"Hmm, perhaps a little bit couldn't hurt," Sunset said shrugging. She opened the bottle and brought the brim to her lips.
Twilight stopped her before the bottle could reach her mouth. "What are you doing?! Put that down!" She tried to steal the bottle away from Sunset which only resulted with her face being pushed away.
"Sheesh Twilight, maybe Lightning is right," she said bringing the bottle back to her face. "We've been saving the day quite a lot lately and it's, if I'm being honest, quite stressing. Just need a way to loosen up a bit, y'know?" She gulped down a large swig before having a coughing fit.
Lightning patted Sunset on the back. "There you go. That's it," she said to her.
Sunset managed to clear her throat and stood up straight again. "Huh, it honestly wasn't that bad," she admitted smiling at the bottle. She brought it back up again and took another drink of it.
Twilight stared at her with complete disbelief. "Do you not realise what effects alcohol can have on a teenage girl?!"
"Relax Twi, I won't have too much," Sunset assured her.
"You promise?"
"Cross my heart. Hope to fly. Stick a cupcake in my eye," Sunset said while doing a series of hand gestures.
Twilight calmed down a bit, but was still pretty mad that Sunset drank it in the first place. But she knew Sunset was responsible so she could trust her fiery-haired friend.
Which was a big mistake.
Twilight found herself searching the house for Sunset. She tried texting or calling her but Sunset just didn't pick up her phone.
"Sunset! Sunset, where are you?" Twilight called. The loud ass music wasn't helping though. "Sunset! Sunse- oh there you are!"
"Oh hey, Twilight. Glad you could make it." Sunset was found on a couch, sitting inbetween two guys with another bottle of cider in her hand. "Meet the boys. This is Flaring Dusk." She pointed towards a boy with black hair, dark skin and a green scarf. "And this is Brush Stroke." She then pointed to another boy with blonde hair, light skin and an orange beanie hat.
They both waved at Twilight. "Hey." "What's up?"
Twilight paid them both no attention. "God Sunset, look at yourself; you're a mess!" She pointed towards Sunset's frazzled hair and her tired looking eyes. "How many have you had already?"
Sunset began counting with her fingers but didn't manage to get past four. "Maybe a couple... I think?" She was completely clueless.
"A couple? Sunset, your breath is so bad anyone would think you drank an entire case!" Twilight barked.
But Sunset didn't respond. Instead, she just laughed. "You look like you could use some sugar," she said, standing up and spreading her arms out. "C'mon, bring it in."
Twilight didn't accept Sunset's attempt of affection. She just continued to look at her in disappointment. Sunset walked towards Twilight, trying to get her to hug her. It didn't work however, Twilight only just pushed her away.
"Seriously Sunset! You've got to stop it with the drinking!"
"I'll stop whenever the hell I want to!" Sunset waved another bottle around.
"Put that thing down!" Twilight shouted, slapping the bottle out of Sunset’s hand.
Sunset looked to where the bottle had landed. "Aww. I was going to drink that," she said sadly.
"No, you were not going to drink that! You have a serious problem Sunset!" Twilight realised she was making a scene and tried to calm herself down. "Seriously Sunset. I'm just very worried about you-"
Sunset interjected by pushing Twilight backwards. "Well I don't need you to worry about me! I am perfectly fine without you constantly worrying about me!"
Perhaps calming down wasn't the right approach. "You promised me you wouldn't overdo it and now look at you! Drunk as a pirate, interacting with people you don't even though, and yet you think this is fine?! Oh my God, I shouldn't have let this happen! I should've just pulled you out of that kitchen as soon as Lightning Dust showed up!"
"What, and be a complete fucking buzzkill by ruining the party for both of us?! Because yeah, that totally would've been great!" Sunset shouted. "I've been having a blast so far and I don't need you ruining it because you're so uptight!"
"Uptight?" This was the limit breaker. "It would have been the responsible thing for me to do! I thought you would have known this from the start, but right now you've shown me just how 'responsible' you really are!"
Immediately after finishing, Twilight's face met with Sunset's hand. The music stopped and a round of gasps came from everyone around them.
Twilight held her cheek were Sunset had slapped her, with tears beginning to form in her eyes. "If anything, you ruined this for yourself. I was just trying to be a good friend!" She cried as she ran out of the house.
Sunset then noticed that everyone's eyes were glued onto her. Murmurs could be heard amongst the crowd. She was then able to acknowledge the events that had just occurred. Twilight got mad and Sunset had hurt her in return.
'What have I done?' she thought. "Twilight! Wait!" She ran outside hoping that Twilight was still close by. Unfortunately though, she was already gone. Sunset looked around when her phone vibrated. She unlocked it and saw that she received a new message from Twilight.
'Fine. If that's how you feel, then I won't worry about you anymore. 22:47
She looked back down at the empty neighbourhood. Twilight was right, Sunset only ruined this for herself, and all Sunset did to repay her was hurt her. How did she get so carried away?
"Hey Shimmer!" called Gilda. "You coming back inside or what?"
Sunset didn't look back at Gilda. "W-we shouldn't have come here," she murmured.
Gilda climbed down the stairs as to hear Sunset better. "What was that? You gotta speak up."
"I-I gotta go." Sunset began walking down the street, heading for home. "See you later, Gilda."
"You sure you don't need a lift or anything?"
"I think I'll be fine," she said gripping onto the fences that stretched down the street for support.
Gilda walked back into the house. "Suit yourself."
Sunset was now alone; a drunken mess heading home in the middle of the night.
"...and that's it. You got so out of control at the party that we, uh, kind of caused a scene," Twilight finished.
Sunset laid back against her couch, completely in disbelief. How had she become so stupid? How could she be so irresponsible? "So I guess why I'm feeling this way right now is because I'm...?"
"Going through a hangover? Yes. Also, like I said at your door, I came back to apologise."
"What do you have to apologise for?" Sunset asked. "It's me that has to apologise. I got so out of control that I broke the law and I hurt you." She placed her hand on Twilight's shoulder. "You have nothing to apologise for Twilight."
Twilight lifted her friend's hand off of her shoulder. "But I left you behind. I should have stayed and tried to help you but I just left you there. God only knows what happened after that." She looked at Sunset confusingly. "What did happen after I left though?"
Sunset didn't exactly have the clearest of memories of last night, however she did kind of remember what happened when she got home...
Sunset turned her door key and swung her door open. She immediately crashed onto her couch and let out a loud groan. She felt tired and she felt sick, like, no joke, she felt very sick.
She quickly rushed over to her bathroom incase she had to puke up all of the cider she had consumed that night. And boy, was she glad she did because Sunset almost immediately through a furious coughing fit before having to let out a stream of upchuck into her toilet. She sat there with her head over the toilet for a few minutes before coming to the conclusion that she was done.
Sunset flushed her toilet and walked up the stairs leading to her bed. She was too tired and nauseous to do anything now so she just slipped out of her boots, threw off her shirt and pulled down her skirt. She laid there in her nice and comfortable bed in only her bra and pants. She laid there for a solid hour before her brain was pulled out of thinking about nothing other than Twilight and how she hurt her, and got the message that all she wanted now was to sleep it off. She would talk with Twilight in the morning.
Sunset smiled. "Guess it was a pretty shitty night for the both of us, huh?"
Twilight returned the smile. "Yeah, I guess it was."
"You're not still mad at me, are you?"
"I was furious! My God, Sunset, you were drunk out your mind! But no, I'm not really mad anymore."
Sunset pulled Twilight in for a hug which Twilight gladly accepted. "I'm sorry, Twilight," Sunset whispered to her.
"I'm sorry too, Sunset," Twilight whispered back.
They kept eachother within the embrace for a few minutes before letting go of eachother.
Twilight cleared her throat. "So, uh, have you had breakfast yet?" she asked.
Sunset answered with a shake of her head.
Twilight stood up and walked towards Sunset’s kitchen. "Then I should probably make us both something to eat. What have you got in here?"
"Eggs, butter, cheese..." Sunset listed. "...some other stuff."
Twilight pulled out the carton of eggs from Sunset's fridge. "How about I make us some fried eggs?"
"Sounds good to me!" Sunset winked at her lavender friend.
Twilight turned the stove on and released the yoke from the cracked eggshells onto the frying pan. Once they were cooked, Sunset and Twilight shared a delicious breakfast together, putting last night's events behind them as if it never even happened. All was forgiven, and most was forgotten, especially from Sunset.
"Promise me that you'll never drink alcohol again," Twilight said.
"I promise," Sunset replied. "But can I turn to drugs though?"
"Wait, what?!"