> Equestria Girls: The Cursed PJs
>  by CatrosCreativeCorner
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> A New Pair of PJs
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Crystal Empire, a land that was once lost to time after vanishing 1,000 years ago, suddenly returned with all the ponies who lived there with no memory of how they vanished. But it also made Sombra, the tyrant pony who had ruled over his people like a dictator and forced them to do his bidding through strange mechanical means, return with it. But thankfully in the end there was a happy ending for the people of the Crystal Empire, who could now live happy normal lives without any fear of anyone trying to attack them. A young princess named Twilight and her friends had come and destroyed Sombra, the little dragon Spike the Brave had found and returned the Crystal Heart to its place, and even the unicorn Sunburst found out how to fix the Crystal Heart if it was ever broken. 
The Crystal Heart was what kept the entire empire shielded from the magical blizzard that roared and banged against the force field. Without it on its podium the magical shield protecting them from the storm would vanish, making the empire instantly start to freeze. Which the people had to deal with before when the new Princess’s baby, Flurryheart, was born and her out-of-control magic zapped the heart, making it shatter. Thankfully since that event, nothing had come even close to destroying the heart.
So everything in the Crystal Empire seemed to be going well for the first time in over 1,000 years. The people's rulers, Princess Cadence and her husband Shining Armor did all they could for their people and led them into the new era of life. But that didn’t mean they didn’t have some problems from time to time. Mainly concerning Flurryheart and her wild magic… as the filly was one of the few ponies to ever be born an Alicorn, meaning her magic was far stronger than any other filly's magic. And with baby unicorns, it was already hard to help them control their magic, but a child with magical power equivalent to some fully grown unicorns made things interesting.
“WAAAAAAAA!” The young alicorn wailed, her cries echoing through the entire castle as if it was being blasted through a speaker. The two guards waiting outside of the toddler's bedroom groaned with every new wave of crying that radiated out of the room. 
“Come on, Flurryheart.” The lime-green pegasus man prayed as he closed his eyes, “I still have an hour before my shift ends and I feel like I’m going to lose it!” He said through gritted teeth.
“Don’t complain, you choose to be in the guard.” The dark purple female unicorn standing on the other side of the large gold-colored door, staring at the wall in front of her.
“I choose to be on the guard to fight evil wizards or the next threat to our homeland.” He groaned, also staring at the wall in front of him, “My training didn’t cover having to suffer through a toddler throwing five tantrums throughout my shift.” 
“You don’t hear me complaining and I have to stand here and listen to you as well as little Flurry Heart.” She said, smirking a bit as she darted her eyes over at the man for half a second, throwing a joking jab at the man.
“Ha ha ha,” He laughed sarcastically, “You’re not even the tiniest bit annoyed by this?” The pegasus asked her with a raised eyebrow as he shot his eyes over to his coworker.
“Not in the slightest.” She scoffed, stomping her foot and standing up even straighter than she had been beforehand, “I find it an honor to stand here and guard the filly who may rule over our people one day. I’ll stand through a hundred tantrums if I have to. That's because I’m-!” She continued when suddenly the nursery door flew open, making both of the guards return to attention, staring at the wall, and not saying a word. Even as a pink footie, with different colored balloons on it, flew out of the room and landed on the ground in front of them. The crying only grew louder now that the door was opened
“Dispose of that thing! Get it out of the castle!” Shining Armor demanded, his white head popping out of the room, his blue mane a mess and his eyes bloodshot as he looked between the two before retreating into the nursery and the doors slamming shut.
“Will do Mi’lord!” The unicorn said, the PJs suddenly covered in a dark purple mist of magic as the unicorn ran off with the PJs following after her.
“Hey, wait! What happened to ‘It’s an honor to stand here through the tantrums’?!” The pegasus called out, not moving from his spot.
“Sorry, can’t hear yoooooou!” The other guard said as she turned the corner and went in search of a trash can. Finding a large dumpster outside of the castle the pegasus tossed the childish PJs into the trash can, shutting the lid before sighing. “Now time to get back to guard duty.” She said, before cringing as another high pitch WAAAAAAA left the castle. But as she started to walk away she heard a light slam from the dumpster, making her look over. “Hello?” She asked, walking back over and looking around the dumpster but didn’t see anything or anyone. “Huh, must’ve been the wind.” She said before starting to slowly head back to her post, not exactly rushing back.
“Welcome back.” The Pegasus soldier said, still staring at the wall as if it was going to do something interesting.
“Glad to be back.” She said, returning to her position and starting to stare at the wall as well.
“I can’t imagine how difficult it is to have an alicorn as a baby.” The soldier groaned as a purple flash of light escaped from the cracks around the door of Flurry’s bedroom. “She's been enchanting her PJs.”
“Really? Enchanting them to do what?” She asked him but only got a shoulder shrug from the man. And it would be hard to tell what the baby alicorn was doing to anything she enchanted. It's not like the baby was able to tell them what she was doing, she was way too young for that. And it wasn’t even clear if the tiny filly knew what she was doing. Just hopefully whatever she was doing wouldn’t be crazy, like giving it life and trying to take over the world.
__________________________________________________________________

“You sure you wouldn’t want to spend the night at my place?” Applejack asked as she and her six friends walked down the hall, their textbooks in their arms as they headed to their lockers. Another long day of school and classes behind. She and five others had their eyes planted on a girl with scarlet red and bright yellow hair that matched her skin.
“No, I’ll be fine guys, really,” Sunset said, walking backward so she could face them all, her black leather boots making a click click click as she stepped down the hall, the stylish shoe choice making her have to focus extra hard on walking backward so she would fall on her bottom. “I’ve been left home alone dozens of times before. Just never for a week before.” She said. “But my folks said that it was an important trip and they trusted me enough to be home alone. And after everything that has happened in the past few years, it’s good to know I didn’t ruin my chance to get to know them.” She said, a small smile on her face as she hugged her books.
Though she was surrounded by her friends, and everyone in the hall was saying ‘hi’ to her or at least smiling and waving, it hadn’t always been that way concerning the teen. There was a time when she had no friends at all, the closest thing would have been her two henchmen who did some of her dirty work, and had some sort of fear monopoly on the school. Ruining people's reputations, making friends hate each other, and a dozen other things she wasn’t proud of. And that behavior leaked into her home life, not listening to her parents and treating them as badly as she had her peers. But after the events at the school dance all those months ago she almost succeeded in her plans, she realized how wrong she had been. She turned into a peach-colored monster with fiery hair, in complete control of the magic that she had taken from her home world, and becoming more power-hungry than she had in her normal human form.
Maybe in Equestria, where she was from, she could have used that magic normally and without any real consequences. But here in this world that still wasn’t used to the little bit of magic that seemed to leak in from the other world, it seemed to take control of anyone that was infected by it. Well for the most part Sunset and her friends could do something called “Pony Up” where they got magical powers and were in control whenever that happened, but even that Sunset still wasn’t 100% sure how it worked. But after the events at the school dance, she had learned the error of her ways and thankfully the girls she had messed with had forgiven her and taken her in as a friend. And Sunset would be the first to tell you that having friends was a lot better than not having any.
In the pony world, she scoffed and walked by anyone who would even attempt to try and befriend her. She felt like she was better than anypony else there. She was a powerful unicorn, a magical prodigy, and was the student to Princess Celestia the ruler of the pony world. She didn’t see the need for anyone in her life if they weren’t going to help her climb the ladder of success. She didn’t even have any parents, so she was used to pushing herself and getting stronger.
But for some reason in the human world, she did have parents, both of whom were very busy. One of them was a lawyer and the other a doctor. But did appreciate the fact that she suddenly had a mom and dad who thought that she was always their daughter. Nope, they were just a couple of more people in her life that she had to learn to ignore. 
Now she tried to have a good relationship with them and tried to be a daughter, which was hard for someone who never had to deal with a family before. But clearly, it was going well if they were leaving her home alone for an entire week. But it took time for that trust to grow after she came home after the night of the dance and confessed everything about herself to them and what she had done. But no matter how good things were going now, she could feel a sliver of awkwardness between them… and maybe that was normal in a family. How was she supposed to know, that she never had one before?
“Y-yeah, aren’t you n-nervous?” A soft-spoken girl with fair yellow skin and pink hair asked, “W-w-what if something goes wrong? L-like a fire o-or a tornado sweeps you away to a foreign land and you have to fight an evil witch to get back home?!”
“Eh, that wouldn’t be the strangest thing that has happened to me,” Sunset said with a chuckle as she spun around and started to walk normally down the hallway.
“If that happens make sure you bring me back some ruby slippers, kay darling?” A girl with bleach-white skin and purple hair said, also giggling.
“Oh oh oh! I call dibs on the magic flying broom!” Her friend with rainbow-colored hair said as she dashed beside the girl, putting her shoulder. “Just bring it back in one piece!” She said, her eyes sparkling with excitement as if her trip to a magical land was a scheduled trip.
“Sure. So Rarity wants my shoes and Rainbow wants a non-burnt and intact witch’s broomstick. Want me to ask an old man posing to be a great wizard to give you a souvenir, Twilight? Or you Pinkie?” She asked her two remaining friends. The pink-skinned girl tapped her chin as she thought about it.
“Oh, ask the Lollipop Guild who their supplier is. My guy is struggling to keep up.” The girl said with a giggle, getting an eye roll from Sunset and an amused head shake.
“If it’s the guy who plays Starswirl in King of the Bracelets then maybe his autograph.” The final girl in the group said, giggling at the conversation. But having the autograph of the man who played her favorite wizard would have been cool.
“Oh if you wind up in the Wizard of Sire Hallow just please make sure Ray will be ok.” Fluttershy begged her friend, wanting to make sure Sunset’s pet lizard would be okay.”
“Ok I will, I promise,” Sunset said, winking at the girl, making Fluttershy sigh in relief. “But thanks for worrying guys, I appreciate the offer to spend the night with you guys. At the beginning of the school, I would have been in serious trouble if I needed a place to stay.” She said with a sheepish chuckle.
All of her friends, having heard that she was going to be by herself for the week, offered to spend the night with her. But since this was the first time her parents were leaving her alone she didn’t want to betray their trust by having a week-long sleepover. Maybe the second time they left her alone she would have a few friends over, but not this time.
“Besides if anything weird did happen or I really needed your guy’s help you’re just one phone call away.” The girl said, stopping at her locker and opening it up. A picture of the redhead with all of her friends taped to the back, making it the first thing that she saw in the green metal locker. She kept a few other things in there, like a light blue and pink birthday card with a cupcake with pink frosting on the front of it, an emergency umbrella, and an open bag of chips that she was going to toss out eventually. But not today as she covered the chips with her books and shut the door. Only holding onto a leather-bound notebook that had a red and purple gem on the front of it. “And Princess Twilight is only a letter away.” She said, holding the brown book in the air.
“Fair enough, Sugar Cube,” Applejack said with a smirk. “Just remember to call the fire department before us if something smells smokey.” She teased as she started to walk away, the rest of the girls following her to go to their own lockers.
“I doubt she’ll need Princess Twilight. When was the last time we had a magical problem? I think we’re done with them.” Rainbow said, getting some shushes from the rest of the girls, no one wanting the rainbow-haired girl to jinx this time of quiet. But Sunset gave a giggle and head nod to her pink friend as she walked in the opposite direction and through the glass doors to the front of the school. She took a deep breath in and felt cool spring air fill her lungs and sting her face. It was another peaceful and calm day in her town, which she was more than pleased with. Saving the world a half dozen times made one appreciate the quiet moments when things weren’t going crazy.
The girl, taking in the fill of the school's front yard, jumped down the steps to start heading home, making her way across the pavement. Her boots once again made their clicks as she moved forward toward the pedestal that once had the school mascot made of marble on it. The school was planning on replacing the statue soon enough, which the teen couldn’t wait for, since her going berserk when controlled by magic was the whole reason the statue was destroyed. And, like she did every day, stopped for a moment to look at the empty pedestal and touched the base of it. The marble block rippled like she had thrown a rock into a lake, as she activated the portal that would take her to Ponyville if she went through. It was tempting to go there and say hi to Princess Twilight, but she knew that her friend was busy doing princess stuff. And it wasn’t like she had any business in the other world anyway. She didn’t have any friends or family there, past Princess Twilight, she apologized to her once mentor for being a witch, not ever bothering to listen to the Alicorn, and stealing from the castle. 
This human world was her home. Everything she had to do was in this world, all her friends were here, and she even had a mom and dad. A mom and dad whom she had to make a relationship with, but she had them nonetheless. But it was nice to know that the portal still worked and that if she ever needed to go back to her homeland she would be able to.
“Hm?” She asked as she caught something out of the corner of her eye, making her eyes drop down. Her body tensed up as she got ready to jump back. If there was something in front of the portal then it might be magical. But as she got a glance of a small pair of PJs she let her guard down. Bending down she lifted up a pair of pink PJs that had different balloons decorating them. “That's strange… maybe someone in Home Ec dropped it?” She said as she stood back up and checked the PJs. They were super soft, like Angel's fur after Fluttershy dries him off from a bath, and they looked cozy with the feet covering them. Checking them over she found a tag that said From: PP in bright pink ink. “Oh, Pinkie Pie must’ve gotten them for the Cake twins.” She said, figuring her hyperactive friend must’ve dropped the PJs while rushing around. “I’ll give them to her tomorrow.” She muttered as folded the PJs and started to walk home again. Not that she had anyone waiting for her, but if her folks gave her a call then she wanted to be home. Just to show their trust wasn’t misplaced in her.
Thankfully the girl didn’t live too far away from the school, just a few blocks away in fact. If she was running late to school she just had to run and she could make it to the bakery that was between her house and the school, get a scone and coffee, and still make it to the school before the morning. Speaking of the bakery though… as she passed by the little mom-and-pop shop the smell of fresh orange scones wafted out and grabbed the girl by her nose.
“Eh… I guess getting a little snack wouldn’t be the end of the world.” She said, her stomach growling at the smell. She had opted out of eating the school lunch that day, she had a rule about eating chili that growled at you when you poked it with a spoon. So popping into the store, getting his with the full smell of the baked goods and a heat wave from the ovens cooking at full blast. She could smell freshly baked peanut butter cookies, apple pies, and her favorite, scones. And the smell of flour was mixed in with the rest of the smells.
“Hiya there Sunset.” A lady with taffy pink skin and dark purple hair said, instantly greeting Sunset. “It's either I’ve worked a 24-hour shift or you’re here for a second scone.”  The lady was dressed in a flowery dress and a white apron with a name tag that said ‘Sugar Belle’, all of which was covered with a thin layer of white flour.
“Yeah, a second one just sounded good today.” She said sheepishly, still finding it weird that the lady was calling her by her first name. She had been another person that Sunset had been rude to, but she had forgiven her for it after Sunset apologized. “But I don’t need another coffee, school over. I don’t need help staying awake.” She joked, getting a chuckle from the lady.
“Fair enough,” She said, putting a glove on and grabbing a triangle-shaped pastry with a yellow jelly-like substance on top of it with a pair of tongs, “Well consider this one on the house.” She said as she dropped it in the bag.
“What, you don’t have to do that?” Sunset said, cautiously reaching for the white paper bag.
“It’s fine… Trying to get rid of these sweets as fast as I can.” She said, “I got plans for after work, and when I sell all these I can go get ready for it.” She said. This made Sunset smirk having a good idea what these plans were, as she had overheard Applejack talking about Big Mac freaking out about something that day. The two were probably going on another date that night.
“Ok, well thanks, Sweetie Belle,” Sunset said, reaching into her black leather jacket, pulling her wallet out, and shoving a couple of dollars into the tip jar. “Well, enjoy your plans.” She said waving her hand bye.
“Thanks. But a piece of advice.” Sugar said as she pointed at the girl's sleeve, “Wake up a bit sooner so you have time to get out of your PJs.” 
“Huh?” The teen asked, looking at her sleeve and jumping, noticing that her arm, which had been bare a minute ago, was covered with a soft pink material that had balloons covering it. “Wait what?” She asked, looking down at herself, she still had her light blue blouse and black mini skirt on, but under that, she was wearing some sort of jumpsuit… or as Sugar Belle said, PJs. And she instantly thought that the pajamas she was in were eerily familiar… and the little PJs she had picked up were nowhere in sight. Just the leather notebook that lets the girl contact Princess Twilight. The only PJs in the bakery were the ones on her. “Um… T-thanks. I gotta go now.” She said, slowly walking out the door before dashing down the sidewalk, suddenly feeling like getting home would be a good idea.
The street lamps, signs, and all the houses went by in a blur as she ran as fast as she could. But as she got to her block, she had to pause for a breather, leaning forward as she planted her hands on her knees. But as she looked at the ground she noticed that the notebook in her hands was starting to grow bigger, “Oh no…” She whined, not liking that as she looked around and saw the world around her start to get bigger. Which probably meant that she was just getting smaller. “Come on!” She groaned, “Rainbow Dash, you just had to say something!” She yelled as she returned her sprint to her house, a brown brick house that was wedged between two other houses, but hers was the only two-story one on the block. But with every step the girl took the world just grew that much bigger. Thankfully her outfit shrunk with her so she wasn’t running in just a pair of childish PJs. 
Getting to the door, she threw it open before rushing to her room, scaling up the steps, which took a lot more effort with her shorter legs, and practically dover into her room. She threw the notebook onto her desk and climbed onto her office chair. Grabbing a pen she immediately started to scribble in the notebook:


	Princess Twilight, there's a problem! I found a pair of pajamas in front of the school. They suddenly appeared on me and now they’re making me smaller! Don’t mean to rush you but this is an emergency!


With that she dropped the pen as she nervously kicked her feet, which now hung a few inches from the ground, waiting for the princess’ response when she felt a tingle across her body, making her eyes go wide. “Oh no.” She squeaked, knowing that wasn’t a good thing, and suddenly shrunk a few feet. Her head did not even make it to her desk making her have to stand on her chair. Grabbing the pen once more, it was now large and almost heavy in her hand, making her writing squiggly and almost unreadable, and she yelled the words that she wrote, blushing at how high-pitched her voice was.


	PLEASE HURRY!


She sighed, dropping the pen as she slid off her chair, grunting from the drop she had to deal with now. “Well… at least I’m home?” She said trying to think of a positive in the situation as she started to pace the room until she got to the mirror in her room, making her pause. The person in the reflection didn’t just look like a smaller Sunset, but a younger one. Her eyes were wide and innocent, her cheeks puffy and very pinchable. Even baring her teeth she saw baby teeth, not the grown-up teeth that completely filled her mouth. She looked like the Sunset in the pictures her mom and dad had of them hanging in the hallway. A little kid that looked like they were getting ready for second grade.
“Yeah, I’m liking this less and less.” She said, reaching out and touching her reflection with her tiny little kid hand, before puffing her cheeks out in a childish pout as she glared at the dumb PJs before suddenly getting an idea. If the PJs did this to her, then taking them off would fix it, right? Well, it was the only idea the girl had so she had to give it a shot.
Sadly, and probably predictably, the PJs wouldn’t come off of her. There wasn’t any zipper or any buttons to free her from her cozy prison. She had discarded the rest of her clothes, standing in just the footie. “Get off!” She demanded, tugging at the neck hole, trying to tear the pajamas off. But either she was super weak while she was stuck like this, or the magic protected the nightwear, maybe it was a bit of both. But the yellow-skinned girl tugged, bit, and rolled on the ground as she tried to pull them off. But sadly it only led to the girl lying on the fluffy blue carpet on the floor, panting as if she wrestled Applejack.
“No, stop!” Sunset begged, her body feeling tingly again and she covered her eyes with her hands, not liking what happened the last time she felt the tingle. She didn’t want to look at herself, but she knew that she had to see what the damage was. So she kept her eyes covered as she sat up, waiting until she counted to 3, and dropped her hands before gasping.
She saw a girl who was barely starting school, maybe going into kindergarten, looking back at her. But past that, the PJs had also suddenly changed and were no longer pink with balloons. But now it was the same red as her hair was with yellow number fives and lizards decorating it. But there was also a white line going from her foot to her back.
“A zipper!” She cheered, her cheeks tinting red at how high-pitched and frankly adorable her voice sounded. “Get off me!” She yelled as she reached down, unzipping the PJs before kicking them off, and scrambling to the wall furthest away from the PJs as if they were going to start chasing after her. Sadly her theory of taking the PJs off didn’t pan out as she was still a little kid pinned against the wall. 
“I think I’m going to need some help.” She said, cautiously inch-worming her way to the pile of shrunken clothes and pulling her phone out of her little leather jacket. But she just finished typing out ‘Rainbow Dash! You just had to say it was quiet!’ in the group chat when she suddenly felt something wrap around her wrist. And looking down she saw that the PJs had put themselves back on her. And Sunset knew this was going to be an interesting thing to explain to her friends. Hopefully, Princess Twilight would have responded to her and would have been able to explain what was going on.
But quickly sending a code red text to her friend the girl quickly discarded the footie, shoving it in her dresser, and got her shrunken clothes back on. She wasn’t sure what the possessed children PJs wanted from her or why it turned her into a kid but she did know she did not want them on her. They had already caused enough trouble for her in the few minutes that she had them on.
As she waited for her friends to get there she climbed back onto her chair, needing to stand on her tiptoes to even reach the seat, and then the wheels on the chair made it more difficult. As she pressed her body against the chair to try and climb it the chair tried to roll away from her.
“Ah no, stop!” She pleaded as she was pulled along with the chair as it tried to escape her, and when the chair wheels hit the carpet the chair suddenly turned and sent her stumbling towards the stairs that lead to her bed. She waved her hand in circles as she stumbled forward trying to gain her balance. But apparently, she also had the athletic prowess of someone ‘her age’ as she hit the bottom step and immediately fell, face-planting onto a wooden step. “Ow ow ow ow ow!” She immediately whined, pushing up, and grabbed her nose with her hands. Waves of pain pulsed on the wounded area as she let out a high-pitched mmmm as she jumped around trying to do something to ease the pain.
“Sunset!” Someone said as her bedroom door burst open, immediately getting her attention and making her stop bouncing. Standing at the doorway was Rainbow Dash, still in what she wore to school that day, though a pair of green turtle slippers were on her feet. But as the two locked eyes the teen's face turned from one of concern to one of confusion. “Sunset?” She asked, confused.
“Yeah, it's me.” She grumbled her high-pitched voice nasally from her pressing down on her nose. 
“Oh…my… gosh!” Rainbow said, bringing her hand to her mouth to hide a smirk that was quickly growing into a smile as she looked at her friend. “What happened to you?” She asked, reaching into her pocket with her spare hand to get her phone out. But before she could do that or Sunset could explain what happened, the bottom drawer of her dresser slid open and the pair of red PJs started to climb out.
“Ah!” The little girl squealed, running almost as fast as Rainbow could, and hid behind her friend. “Keep that thing away from me!” She cried, “No better yet, leave. Let's leave!” She said already walking out of her room and flying down the stairs.
“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea,” Rainbow said, not sure what was going on but when she saw a pair of pajamas moving on their own she figured it was time to leave.
Downstairs Sunset was huffing and puffing as she made it down the final step. It had been like trying to scale down a mountain getting down all the steps in her new body. But she would get down 1000 more steps to get away from those cursed PJs.
“Sunset?” She heard a group of people say at the same time, and looking into the living room she saw the rest of her friends crowded into the living room. All of them looked at her wide-eyed with their mouths dropped open.
“O-oh you’re all here already?” She said, as her cheeks tinted red. She had invited them over to help but it was clear that she hadn’t actually been prepared for them to see her right now
“Guys look!” Rainbow Dash said as she rushed down the stairs and lifted the girl up, tossing her in the air and catching her before holding her out to her friends. “She's so little!” She said with a giggle, making Sunset's cheeks burn a bit hotter as that happened.
“Yes, I’m sure they can see Rainbow Dash!” She whined as she squirmed trying to get out of her friend's arms.
“Darling!” Rarity gasped, rushing over and taking Sunset from their athletic friend and hugged the girl, twisting and turning. “You look adorable!” She said, burying and shoving the Sunset’s face into her shoulder as she hugged her.
“Uh… Rarity,” Apple Jack said, tapping on the teen’s shoulder. “Perhaps we should let Sunset explain what happened before you suffocate her.”
“Uh fine.” She sighed, sounding disappointed about that as she sat the girl down and patted her head.
“Thank you,” Sunset said with a sigh, but let out an epp as she felt someone grab her and she quickly ended up in Fluttershy's lap, getting an eye roll from Applejack this time.
Sunset sighed as Fluttershy wrapped her arms around her like a carnival ride seat belt. Looking up at the girl the little kid didn’t have the heart to break away from the smiling girl. She was looking down at Sunset like she had just found a diamond.
“Kay, Sugarcube. Tell us what happened.” Applejack said as she took a seat on the ground.
And Sunset tried to explain everything that had happened since they had seen each other. From her finding the PJs in front of the statue at the school and thinking Pinkie had gotten them for one of the Cake twins. To them magically appeared on her and started to shrink her until she was this age. Even explained how she had to try and trap the PJs in her dresser but how they managed to get out so she and Rainbow had trapped them in her room.
“Guys, I don’t know what to do!” She said, nervously twisting her hair with her fingers. “I can’t call my mom and dad. They’ll want to come home and they can’t. This trip was really important for them.” She sighed, hiding her face in her hands. “But what am I supposed to do? My desk chair just threw me around the room like we were in a fight! I doubt I can do anything like this!” She said.
“Aw… I’m sorry Sunset.” Fluttershy said as she hugged the girl tight as if she were trying to console an actual child. 
“Hey don’t fret.” Apple Jack said, placing her hand on the girl's puffy red and yellow hair. “We’re obviously gonna help you, Sunset. Why don’t ya come and stay at my place tonight? I’m sure we can figure out how to fix this as quick as a rabbit kicks.” She said to the girl, making her look up, her cyan-colored eyes shimmering as if she had been ready to cry.
“R-really?” Sunset asked, giving a sniffle as used her sleeve to clear her eyes and nose.
“Yeah, of course! What else are friends for?” Apple Jack asked the girl, “We can always use an extra set of hands to help out. No matter how small.” She teased, poking the girl's hands.
“Yeah, we can all take turns giving you a place to stay.” Twilight said, “Until we can figure this out. It’ll probably take a couple of days like it normally does.” Twilight said with a smile.
“I can get you a fabulous wardrobe to wear until that point. Even something for roughing it with the pigs while you’re at Applejack's” She said with a chuckle.
“And I’ll make sure Ray is taken care of,” Fluttershy said with a soft smile. “And I’ll bring him to you if you get back to normal.”
“Yeah, this stuff always manages to sort itself out.” Rainbow Dash chirped, not sounding worried at all. “So how about we go upstairs and get some stuff packed up while everyone else figures out who you’re staying with and when? And I’ll make sure to fight off those weird PJs if they decide to show themselves again!” She said, throwing a couple of punches and a kick, getting a giggle from her friends. So Rainbow Dash led the charge up the stairs when Sunset managed to break free of Fluttershy's grasp and she started the long climb up the stairs.
“You… you guys… don’t have… a lot of… steps… do you?” Sunset asked, getting a word or two out in between each step that she climbed. 
“Nah not at my place.” Her friend responded, “Shame, stairs give a good burn on the legs.” She said as she turned the knob to Sunset’s when the girl finished climbing the steps. And when she was ready she pushed the door open and walked in, fist raised ready to throw out some karate jabs. “Ok, I think we’re safe.” She whispered to her friend, “But be quick in case it shows its face again… or um… cloth again?” She said, and Sunset was quick to run into the room, to grab a red backpack, and immediately throw some stuff in it that she would need. Toothpaste and toothbrush, a soft baby blue blanket she had, and even the notebook to contact Twilight with. She didn’t bother checking the book at that moment, wanting to get out before the PJs reappeared. Though sadly it was too late for that to have happened.
“Uh… are those the PJs?” Rainbow asked, an eyebrow raised as she pointed at the girl as she walked up ready to leave, making Sunset look down. And like at the bakery the bright red PJs poked out from her sleeves and the top of her shirt. 
“Ah hey!” Sunset yelped, looking down, and immediately started to try and find the zipper as she kicked her shoes off, starting to take off her outer layer of clothing. But the zipper wasn’t in the place where it had been the previous night. “This is going to be a weird time, isn’t it?” She asked with a groan as she flopped onto her back.
> Morning At The Farm
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Cock-a-doodle-do! Cock-a-doodle-do!” The roster outside yelled with all his heart, his call echoing across the farm yard and into the forest of apple trees that waited patiently for the fruit to be plucked. It stirred the animals that lived on the farm as they called back to the roosters with their moos and baas, making it hard to sleep through. Even if you were trying to do your best to do so and get back to sleep after being woken up by the rooster who started it all.
“Mm…” Sunset groaned as she covered her head with her pillow trying to block out all the noise of the farm starting to stir to life. Which worked as well as sticking your fingers in your ears at a rock concert, so in other words not at all. But it was the only thing she could think to do to try and block out the noise in her tired state. Maybe if she was more awake she would have grabbed her phone and headphones and used those, but that was for a clearer thinking Sunset Shimmer. She had to stay with the Apple family as part of an unseen circumstance, and she had offered to help around the farm the little she could, but she didn’t realize that it involved getting up at the crack of dawn!
She had seen on TV and read in books that farmers got up at that hour, but she figured it was an exaggeration or something they stopped doing now that the lightbulb was invented. But apparently, nobody ever told the animals how good sleeping in was. The joys of actually having rest and being up when it was bright enough to see what you were doing were lost on the creatures. And Sunset knew it was still practically dark out since when she opened her eyes it looked like she hadn’t done so. Maybe that would be her project for the day, trying to convince the animals to sleep in later. That may have been something more suited for her friend Fluttershy since the girl could speak to animals, but it seemed like a good use of her time. But that would have to wait until later, as the animals seem to have calmed down for the time being. Leaving the girl to sigh as she let go of her pillow, but not bothering to move it from the top of her head, and just closed her eyes again to go back to sleep.
“YEHAAAAAAW!” Someone cheered, kicking the girl's door open and throwing the light switch up and illuminating the room.
“AH!” Sunset yelped out, jumping up from her bed, floundering around, rolling right off her bed, and crashing onto the ground with the blanket over her body. “No…” She whined pulling the blanket close to her body. They could not be getting up already, what kind of cruel prank was this?
“Oh, sorry Sugarcube,” The person said, going over and lifting her up, sitting her on the bed, and peeling the blanket off the girl as if it were a banana peel. “Didn’t mean to scare ya like so.” They giggled, as Sunset opened her eyes, wincing as the unwelcome light attacked her eyes. But she saw her friend Applejack bend over smiling at her like she had just found a million bucks, her emerald green eyes sparkling with excitement. Gosh, how could people be so perky this early in the morning?
“Mm…” The girl grunted as she fell backward and crashed on her back, keeping her baby blue blanket wrapped around her tightly.
“Up up up, that won’t do,” Applejack said, picking the girl up and literally tossing her in the air and catching her a few times. “Don’t be goin' back to sleep on us. You said you wanted to help, so you gotta get up and help!” She said, sitting the girl on her feet, still smiling. “Granny Smiths almost got breakfast ready and if you want any of it I’d suggest gettin' dressed and heading downstairs.” She said, and at this point, with all the tossing in the air, Sunset was wide somewhat awake and saw Applejack was already ready for the day. The teen was in a pair of blue well-worn overalls, brown leather boots, and red and white plaid shirt, and her signature cowgirl hat, her hay-yellow hair in a ponytail. Meaning that the girl had been awake before the rooster crowed and was just using that as an alarm to wake her up, how was that even possible?
“Kay…” Sunset said with a yawn as she rubbed her eyes with her hands, trying to wake up a bit more. It was clear going back to sleep wasn’t exactly an option for her. So when Applejack left the girl stretched her arms as she looked around the room. It was technically the attic of the farmhouse that had been changed into a makeshift guest room for anyone staying at the farm. So it wasn’t exactly the most spacious area, about half the size of a school classroom with an old, or antique as many people called them, dresser off into one corner, a mirror sitting beside it, the twin-sized bed that Sunset had slept on, a large brown carpet, and a teeny table with a small chair. The walls of the room were slanted up into a point since it was the top of the house.
Thankfully Sunset had picked her outfits for the week already picked out for the week her thanks to Rarity. And her outfit for the day at the farm was already waiting on the wooden chair, so she didn’t have to stumble through her clothes while half asleep. But that didn’t change the fact that she had to get dressed half asleep. But it wasn’t like she really cared about if her shirt was on backward or inside out, she had gone out like that a dozen times before. So she got out of her PJs, a red footie that had little lizards and numbers 5’s decorating it and got into her clothes for the day. A light blue T-shirt with music notes on it, a denim dress that fell right to her knees, a red sock on her left foot and a green sock on her right foot, a pair of pink cowgirl boots, and a cowgirl hat that matched her boots.
Looking at herself in the mirror Sunset did let off a satisfied smirk as she did a little twirl in the mirror, making her dress rise up a bit as she did so. She knew if Rarity, her fashion-forward friend, saw her she would probably melt into a puddle at how cute she looked. Which wouldn’t normally be the look that she’d go far, as she was much more accustomed to leather and much cooler-looking clothes. But in her current predicament, it was a lot harder to look cool.
After everything that had happened the previous day, the girl wasn’t sure how things could have gotten any weirder. A pair of magical pajamas forced themselves on her, turned her into a kindergartner, and she had no idea how to turn back. At least her parents weren’t home to have to deal with this, she was trying to not have them affected by magic more than they already had been. So she hadn’t exactly told them that she was currently a fraction of the size she normally was and going to be bouncing around staying with her friends until either this got fixed or they got home. And she knew it probably would be better to just rip the bandaid off and tell them now, and it would only get worse every minute she didn’t tell them. But she and her friends usually found the solution to these weird situations before it was too late. So she was banking on them to figure this out before it was too late.
She was just glad that she had managed to get the PJs off again, the zipper reappearing when she needed to get change. She wasn’t going to be thrilled to be stuck wearing the same pair of PJs for who knows how long. She imagined that situation would stink in more ways than one.
Though the way the PJs acted she was sure they were clingy and got jealous of the other clothes she could wear! The only thing she had been able to wear to bed was the footie! Not just because of the zipper on it disappearing and reappearing, but because she tried to wear one of her T-shirts over it to try and hide the fact she was wearing childish clothing. But suddenly the PJs changed from a red color with yellow fives on it to a blue color with white frowny faces on it, and then moved Sunset's hands to take the shirt off. Then when Rarity brought her a new wardrobe they turned green with envy though it didn’t do anything to the new clothing. The worst part was, that the PJs were so comfortable and felt soft and warm. Like she had just pulled them out of the dryer and she was being wrapped in a hug. But she knew she couldn’t just keep them on, they had turned her into a little kid. Who knew what would happen if she continued to wear them? Princess Twilight still hadn’t responded to her, which was kind of a common theme for a lot of issues. But this wasn’t exactly life or death and the Twilight in Equestria was busy with princess duties. Thankfully she hadn’t gotten any younger so that was good, but she hadn’t returned to her original age which wasn’t exactly fantastic. But since the situation wasn’t getting worse, she wasn’t going to bug her princess friend as if it was. Even if the PJs were weird.
Even now the Pjs walked up beside her with its arms crossed and tapping its foot, revealing the little rubber pads at the bottom of the white foot for traction. What was really creepy about it was the fact the PJs were blown up like there was someone in them. It faced her like it was wanting to talk to her about something, except the PJs didn’t have a mouth.
“Yes?” She asked the PJs confused by the Pjs, poking them on the belly and pushing her finger, and watching the stomach of the PJs cave in and then pop out when she moved her finger away. The PJs immediately jumped up and slapped at her hands as they wiggled, as if she had tickled them. It then waved its arms up and down at her outfit like it was trying to tell her something. “My… clothes?” She asked confused, grabbing the edge of her dress. And the PJs started waving their arms at her sporadically. “OK, this isn’t working, I can’t understand you. Yes or no questions. Raise one hand up for yes, two hands for no.” She said, and the PJs stood still. “Is it about my clothes?” She asked, and the footie rose one arm into the air. “You don’t like them?” She asked next leaving the PJ to keep its hand in the air. “Ok… I wish you could just tell me what you want!” She huffed crossing her arms and tapping her foot now.
The footie dropped its arm to where a chin would be and moved back as if stroking a chin trying to think. It then excitedly raised both arms as its design changed to a white color with little crayon stick figures with footie PJs decorated it. The stick figure was made with a yellow crayon with the person having red and yellow pigtails. It excitedly pointed to the person as it hopped up and down.
“Is that supposed to be me… wearing you?” Sunset asked raising an eyebrow, making the footie stop jumping as it raised a hand in the air. “You’re kidding me, I can’t wear you outside!” She scoffed, making the PJs shift to having the design be a bunch of question marks. “For one I don’t exactly want to wear you! You turned me into a little kid and won’t change me back. But secondly, you aren’t exactly farm clothes.” She said with a huff as the footie started to stroke its nonexistent chin again held its arms up and suddenly changed in color. Making it look like a cowgirl with a striped shirt, blue pants, and brown at the bottom, even a golden star on the chest that said SHERIFF SUNSET  on it. But it was all melded together and was very much a footie still. “No that won’t work. You’ll get dirty and if I don’t want to wear you now, I really won’t want to wear you if you smell like a pig pen! Now stay up here until I come back.” She groaned rolling her eyes as she walked out of the room. The girl really hoped that Twilight would figure out a way to fix all of this before the PJs got any crazy ideas. At the moment it seemed like it lost a lot of its power during the daytime and didn’t want to move around much. But magic in this world was always so unpredictable so Sunset wasn’t going to let her guard down.
But for now, she seemed safe as she scaled down the steps, her little pink boots making a thud thud thud as she took each step, soon making it to the kitchen Which along with the rest of the house was simply looking. A tile flooring with an oven and stove, an old-looking white fridge, and a simple-looking wooden table with wooden chairs pushed up to it. Well, they would be pushed up if people weren’t sitting at them, as the Apple family was already munching on away on their breakfast. The smell of salty greasy bacon filled the air and made Sunset's young tastebuds cry out as she salivated. She rushed over to the chair that she had sat at the previous night for dinner, sitting on a hard thick phone book that Granny Apple had put down so she would be able to make it to the table. Where a plate with a couple of stripes of bacon, a little pile of bright yellow scrambled eggs, and a slice of buttered toast waited for her. And if she was her normal age that definitely would not have been enough to fill her up, but with her little body came smaller portions.
“Okay so here's how we’re breaking up the chores for the day,” Applejack said to everyone, standing up and taking her empty plate to the sink and placing it in. “Big Mac, you go ahead and get things ready for the different crafts. Saucing, juicing, coring, all of it. We might as well get it all ready since cider season is coming up. I’m gonna make sure the pigs and cows are taken care of. Leaving Applebloom and Sunset to take care of the chicken.” She said to the two youngest people at the table. “That's gettin' the eggs, lettin' them out of their coop, and feedin' them. You two got that? Applebloom, make sure you help Sunset, she's never done anything quite like this before.” 
“You got it, Applejack!” Applebloom said, giving her sister a thumbs up as she inhaled the last bit of her scrambled eggs before turning to Sunset and giving her a thumbs up, the girl's yellow cheeks puffed out like a squirrel with its mouth filled with acorns. “Don rry. Sh zy!” She tried saying to the younger girl, though with her mouth full of food it made it a bit difficult to make words.
“Now what have I told you about talking with your mouth full, missey?” Granny Apple said from the head of the table, giving Applebloom a stern look that even made Sunset shrink back a bit and she wasn’t even talking. "You wanna act like a little piggy, you can march off to the one and eat with 'em!"
“Sorry, Granny!” The girl yelped after swallowing her mouthful of food as she rushed her plate over to the sink. But hearing the oldest member of the family talk made Sunset realize that Applejack didn’t say what Granny was doing. 
“Granny does what Granny wants,” Applebloom said to Sunset before she could get her question out.
“Yep.” Big Mac said from the other end of the table before he shoved an entire piece of toast that had eggs and a slice of cheese on top of it into his mouth at once. Chewing three times before swallowing it down, making the kindergartener's mouth drop. Getting up before the rooster crowed, eating mountains of food as if were nothing, was the family secretly magical?
“Anyways, we’re losin' daylight!” Applebloom said, rocking back and forth on her heels as she watched Sunset eat her food.
“You could always go and get started on your own, Sugarcube,” Applejack said with an eye roll as she grabbed her little sister by her shoulders and dragged her out. 
“But what if she gets lost, Applejack? I’m trying to be responsible!” Applebloom huffed as she was dragged off.
“Yeah and I know why, and you still can’t babysit the Cake’s babies on your own.” The older girl said with another eye roll, “Sugarcube, when you’re done go to the little building that has chickens and chicks painted on the front of it.” Applejack said to Sunset as the two farm girls finally got out the door.
“Yep.” Big Mac said, eating another stacked piece of toast in three bites before getting up and putting his plate in the sink as well. As he walked out the door he brushed the crumbs off his red button-up plaid shirt. Leaving Sunset alone with Granny, who got up and went to the sink to start the dishes. 
Sunset scarfed down her breakfast, smiling with every bite that she took. All the food tasted so much better than it normally did. And that could be chalked up to her now having much more sensitive taste buds. But Sunset was certain it was from all the food being fresh and from the farm. But when all of her food was gone, she took the plate, which was practically licked clean, over to the sink. Revealing the red and green apples designed onto the middle of the plate. Once there she stood up on her tippy toes to try and put the plate in the sick. And doing that in brand new firm leather boots wasn’t the best idea.
“Ah, whoa, whoa, whoa!” Sunset yelped, as she stumbled backward, the boots having practically thrown her back when she tried to get a few extra inches of height. 
“Careful youngin!” Granny said, reaching over and grabbing the back of Sunset’s shirt and holding her until the girl got her feet back under her.
“Thank,” The five-year-old said, blushing a bit as Granny took her plate, “I guess I still need to get used to these boots.” She said with a small giggle before turning and rushing outside to make her way to the chicken coop. And in her rush to the small structure, she tripped and stumbled a few more times in her boots. She really needed to get them broken in if she was going to be spending more time at the farm as a little girl. But she didn’t end up hitting the ground face first and that's what was important. “I’m here, Applebloom!” She chirped to the yellow-skinned girl, who had her head buried in the top of the coop.
“Ok good!” The freshman said as she stood up straight, a brown egg in her hand. “I already got the other side all gathered. So we just got to finish this side and then feed them.” She informed Sunset, as she used her foot to point at a small grey step ladder that was already popped open. “Use that to be able to get into the top of the coop and just reach in and gather whatever eggs you can get.” She instructed, bending down and carefully setting the egg in a basket that had about a dozen eggs in it already.
Sunset nodded her head, took the ladder, sat it beside the older girl, and climbed up it before peering into the coop. She smirked as she saw all the chickens walking around bobbing their heads as they let out baaawk bawk bawk. But directly below her sitting in a nest made up of hay sat two eggs, one a snow white and the other a chocolate brown. Reaching down the girl went to carefully grab the eggs. But when her little fingers wrapped around them she immediately yelped and let go of them, feeling the warmth coming from the eggs. She was not expecting the little ovals to be warm!
“What happened?” Applebloom asked, immediately looking at the girl, “Did a chicken peck you? They can be a little ornery when it comes to the eggs. Which one was it?” She asked, glaring daggers at a brown chicken that had speckles of white over her feathers, clearly having beef with that chicken already.
“No. I just wasn’t expecting the eggs to be warm.” She said, reaching back down and grabbing them, the eggs need almost all the reach of her fingers to hold onto them. But as she started to hear a giggle radiating from the other girl. “Is that normal?” She asked. Whenever Sunset got eggs from the store or when she cooked them they were usually cold.
“Yeah Sunset, that's normal.” She said ruffling the girl's head, “Since the chickens lay them and sit on them.” Applebloom explained.
“Oh… right.” She said, her cheeks tinting red as her head was ruffled. That did make sense, it just wasn’t something that she had to think of before. 
But other than that the egg gathering went off without a hitch. They gathered the rest of the eggs, having to shoo away a chicken here and there but nothing bad. Well except when Applebloom yelled at the brown and white chicken when it jumped up and pecked the girl's arm and jumped back down.
“Ok with that done,” Applebloom said, rubbing a little red peck mark on her arm before lowering the roof of the coop so the chicken wouldn’t try to jump out or anything else jump in. “Time for the easy part.” She said, turning to a large barrel and popping the lid open revealing a bunch of dried corn. But since the barrel was almost as tall as Applebloom Sunset couldn’t exactly see what was in it. But when the older girl dipped an empty ice cream bucket into the barrel pulled it out and handed it to Sunset the little girl could see what was in it. Then getting her bucket Applebloom led Sunset into the coop, which was surrounded by a weird netting, and shut the gate behind them. “Ok, when I open the door to the coop just lightly toss the feed at them.” She said, tossing out a small handful to give the girl an example, and when to the small door of the coop and threw the latch on it open and the door swung open. A wave of chickens immediately rushed out, flapping and stretching their wings out as Sunset started to toss the food out, showering the birds with dried corn. The older girl soon joined in making sure to shower the birds with food, her head on a swivel as she looked back and forth.
“Everything ok?” Sunset asked the girl as they tossed out food.
“Jessabelle,” The older girl muttered, “She always tries to attack me. She's an evil chicken!”
“Oh is that the chicken that pecked you earlier?” Sunset asked though it was more a deduction as the girl had only been glaring at one chicken.
“Yeah. I don’t know why but she hates me!” She huffed getting ready to toss another handful of food, when suddenly her eyes grew as wide as saucers. “AH!” She cried, tossing her bucket in the air, and immediately tried to rush out the gate, but immediately got stopped and stuck at the gate and struggled to get it open.
BAAAAAAAWK a chicken screamed as something flew over Sunset's head, making her red and yellow hair blow up. And the brown and white chicken, Jessabelle Sunset guessed, flew onto the older girl and immediately started to peck the girl. Making Applebloom yelp and cry out as she struggled with the gate, Sunset too shocked to even move, but eventually got it open. She threw her hands around until she managed to knock the chicken off of her head, its beak filled with red hair.
“Sunset, get out of there! Quick!” She ordered the girl, getting ready to open the gate for the kindergartner. But before Sunset could move Jessabelle flapped up and landed on her shoulder, making the girl freeze again. She did not want to get pecked or attacked like Applebloom was, it didn’t look like a pleasant experience. 
“What do I do?” She asked in a whisper, so she wouldn’t spook the chicken into attacking, her voice squeaking and quivering a bit as she looked into the chicken's light brown eye. If she had been her normal size this wouldn’t have been so scary, but as a little girl, her fear meter was going off the charts. But before anyone could say or do anything Jessabelle nuzzled its head against Sunsets, the chicken's feathers tickling the little girl’s cheek. “Hehehehe.” She giggled her shoulders jumped up and the chicken jumped up onto the girl's head and immediately sat there before it looked down at her. “Aw…” The girl cooed reaching up and petting the chicken, making it bawk happily.
“What's goin' on?!” Applejack asked, rushing over, “I heard screamin’, who's hurt? Will a first-aid do or am I callin the ambulance?!” She said running beside  Applebloom, who was looking at Sunset with her mouth dropped open.
“Jessabelles not attacking her.” The girl said pointing at Sunset and the chicken, Sunset holding a handful of feed up to the chicken and letting it peck the food out of her hand. This sight made Applejack smile a bit, glad to see her friend not being attacked and having a good time so far.
“Ok, well that means Jessabelle just doesn’t like you, Sugarcube.” She said ruffling her little sister's head, “Once she's done in there you two come over and help me with the horses, kay Applebloom?” She instructed her, “But don’t rush her, it's good to see she's having a good time.” She said, knowing being a kid again wasn’t easy on her friend, but seeing the girl with a smile on her face having fun was a good sight to see. And if she was finally having some fun then who was she to stop her? As long as she had the girl ready for Rainbow Dash when the blue girl showed up. Not that Applejack thought that her friend would show up on time since the girl with super speed always seemed to be the one running late. But for now, she’d let Sunset have some fun and make sure she was ready later.
> A Day At The Field
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunset took a deep breath and sighed in relief as she felt the cool breeze hit her face, her crimson red and yellow hair lifting and hovering for a few seconds before floating back down on her shoulders. The fresh air was great to breathe in and being out in the warm summer weather was a nice change of pace from staying stuck in her house looking at everything in her room. Not that she exactly had a choice about it at the current moment. Still being stuck as a kindergartner didn’t give her much liberty to do what she pleased. But the situation could have been a lot worse like she could be doing farm work for a second day in a row. Not that she was ungrateful for Applejack letting her crash at the farm for a night and was glad to have helped out for the day. But she wasn’t sure she believed Applejack when the farmgirl told her that the workload given to her was the same amount Apple Bloom had when she was Sunset’s ‘age’.

Collecting the eggs and feeding the chickens were fine, and outright hilarious when Apple Bloom was chased off by Jessabelle, but the rest of the day was not quite so easy. She helped milk cows, collect apples, and pull weeds. They worked from as soon as they finished breakfast to when Rainbow Dash swung by to pick her up. Then Rainbow had to ride to her house with the windows down and carry the girl to the house since her new designer cowgirl boots were covered in different farm sludges and smelled like the farm. And after taking a long hot bath, scrubbing her body three times over, the smell of Apple Acres still lingered on her. However, the fact that the only thing that Rainbow’s family had was apple-scented shampoo probably didn’t help.

Now she had to deal with an unpleasant phone call with Rarity about the boots. But that would have to wait for another day as she would enjoy this day out without having to deal with any work giving her sore muscles, a chance to relax from yesterday's workout as the Rainbows Family was much more laid back than Apple Jacks.

Sunset got to sleep in, making up for the sleep that she had lost at Apple Jacks, and was sure that no one had even thought about getting up until around 9 o’clock. Which might have not been sleeping in for some people but when she had gotten up at the crack of dawn the morning before if she had been woken up at 7 she would have thought it was sleeping in. Then she, Rainbow, her mom and dad, and her little sister Scootaloo sat in the living room eating waffles and strawberries for breakfast as they watched cartoons. It was probably the best breakfast experience that she ever had, minus the footie not making the zipper appear until a certain time. She felt like the footie was making the zipper appear later than it did the previous morning. No, she was positive it was doing that and on purpose too. Unlike yesterday when the zipper appeared when she woke up, she almost resorted to begging the footie to let her go. It almost led to an embarrassing accident when she had to use the bathroom but couldn’t get out of the PJs, but thankfully it let go of her. It was as if the pajamas were trying to make up for the lost time of her not wearing them the previous day.

But now she was in a blue shirt that had a cloud and lightning bolt on it, a pair of denim shortalls with a large pocket in the middle of the shortalls, a pair of socks that was divided into rainbow color rings that looped around it, and blue velcro shoes. Taking another look at the outfits the fashion girl made for her was divided into who she was going to be with. Yesterday she had been in an outfit for working on the farm, even if it looked like it should have been down a runway. Then today her clothes were meant for running and playing around in, and the outfits that were yet to come matched one of her friends in some way.

“LETS GO DASHIE!” Rainbow’s dad Bow cheered, wearing a blue T-shirt with a picture of Rainbow Dash in her soccer uniform. In one hand he had a small light blue novelty flag with a rainbow RD on it, and in his other hand, Scootaloo was in the man's arm, being hosted up, holding her own Rainbow Dash flag. Both of them had a rainbow painted on their cheeks as they cheered as loud as they could for the girl. Not that Windy, Rainbow’s mom, was much better. While her husband and daughter sat on the bleachers behind Sunset the teen's mom was standing beside the stand with sparklers burning away in her hand as she waved them around acting like a cheerleader.

“GO DASHIE, SHE OUR GIRL! IF SHE CAN'T KICK A GOAL THEN NO ONE COULD!” The lady cheered out, not worrying about the rhyme rhyming as she cheered her daughter on. The lady wore a thick light blue sweater that had DASH ATTACK in different colors of the rainbow, and a pair of checkers pants in the same pattern as a soccer ball. It was kind of insane to see the family in action cheering for the high schooler, nothing that Sunset had ever witnessed before.

But it made sense with how good Rainbow Dash was at rallying everyone. That song number that she sang and danced to get the school riled up for the Friendship Games was probably the best attempt at school spirit that the girl had ever seen. And now Sunset got to see where that energy came from firsthand.

Unlike Rainbow, Sunset didn’t exactly have a group of family members lined up to cheer and praise her for literally everything she did. Besides the fact she was in a whole different world than the one she was born in, she didn’t have any parents. So her athletic friend was already ahead of her in that sense.

But weirdly enough Rainbow’s parent's cheering didn’t just stop at their oldest daughter, but it spread to almost everyone from what she saw. Scootaloo finished her dinner the previous night before anyone else and the entire family practically gave her a standing ovation, celebrating how fast the girl ate the pizza. And then when Sunset finished her pizza and went to throw her crust away, since only crazy people at the crust and since all of the family watching her ate it… it kind of explained the family a bit. But Rainbow rushed the girl back to her chair and made her shoot the crust into the trash can. And when she made it Rainbow’s dad grabbed her and ran around the house with the girl, as if she had just made the winning shot at a professional basketball game.

But with the nonstop cheering that the family was giving the oldest girl, it was clear who got the most encouragement. Heck, Rainbow's little sister was the president of the Rainbow Dash fan club in the school. Sunset was sure it wasn’t a stretch to say Rainbow Dash got the same amount of attention from her family that the movie star would get from the press.

“Ah, mm…!” Scootaloo suddenly gasped and groaned as she grabbed her left leg and started to massage it. Her eyes closed tight as if she was in pain, but she was quick to hold up a hand. “I-I’m ok,” She insisted as her parents looked at her concerned. “I think I just need to go on a walk.” She said as her dad lowered her down to her mom, who then sat the girl on the ground.

“Ok Scoots,” Bow said, sitting forward as he reached into his back pocket and pulled his wallet out. Digging in the brown leather square for a few seconds he pulled out a crisp twenty-dollar bill and handed it to the girl. “Why don’t you walk to the concession stand and get us some refreshments? Sunset could you go with her?” He asked, leaning forward again so he could put his wallet in his pocket again. But also using the opportunity to whisper in Sunset's ear. “Just to make sure she’s ok. Come back if her leg starts to hurt.”

“Oh yeah, let me help!” Sunset said, nodding her head to what she was told, scooting over to the edge of the cool metal bleacher that she had been sitting on, and dropping to the ground. Since she was sitting on the middle row she was pretty high up and ended up hitting the ground with a soft thud and squatted a bit. But she was quick to recover as she shot straight up and stood beside the president of the Rainbow Dash fan club.

“Need me to get you a chair, Princess?” Windy asked the girl, calling her by the nickname she gave Scootaloo, “The vans right over there, I can have it set up before you get back.” She offered, placing her hand on the girl's shoulder.

“O-oh, no it's fine Mrs… I mean mom,” Scootaloo said, catching herself from saying something else, blushing a bit as she looked down at the ground. “I think I’ll be fine.” She said quietly as she reached up and took Windy's hand for a second. “Thanks though!”

“No problem, Princess.” The lady said to the girl, “Kay now go! I need to hydrate so I can keep cheering for Dashie!” She said before going back to waving her sparklers as the two young girls walked off on their quest to get food and drink. Thankfully the little brown wooden hut wasn’t too far from the field where Rainbow Dash was playing so the two got in line and ordered some snacks.

“Glad you’re here to help,” Scootaloo said as she stepped to the side and leaned against the little shack, planting her foot against it as she stuck her hands in her pocket and looked at Sunset. She stared at the girl as if something was crawling on her and wasn’t sure what to say.

“Uh… yeah it's no problem,” Sunset said, blushing a bit as the girl stared her down at her outfit to make sure everything was ok. She even wiped her face to make sure she didn’t have any syrup on her face left over from breakfast. “Everything ok?” She asked the girl, making Scoot’s eyes go wide as she looked away.

“Oh yeah.” She said, her cheeks tinted red as she looked at the sky. “Just was thinking about how weird it is to see you so… small.” She said. “Like you were never this size here, you’ve always been taller than me.” She mused.

“Uh yeah, I guess,” Sunset said rocking back and forth on her heel, “Guess I haven’t given that too much shock.” She said, also looking up at the clear blue sky now. That wasn’t true at all, when she first got to Rainbow’s place she immediately noted how big Scootaloo was now compared to how she normally was.

“Yeah, you should be lucky that this happened after you started being nice to everyone.” The orange-skinned girl said, “I probably would’ve left you in a locker or something.” She joked, but Sunset was sure there was truth in the girl's words. She couldn’t exactly remember everything that she did to everyone throughout her years and she couldn’t place what she ever said to Scootaloo.

“Did I… Was I ever mean to you?” Sunset asked, which probably was a dumb thing to ask. Everyone had moved on from that time and having Scootaloo relieve the memories probably wasn’t the best idea. But she was curious if she had done anything specific to the CMC member. She was just a dorky kid who did the chicken dance in public it was a normal dance move, not like she would have been a threat to Sunset and her plans. So there wasn’t any real reason to pick on the girl.

“Yeah sort of…” She said, looking back up in the sky to avoid eye contact with the girl, shoving her fist in her pockets. “When I was telling Sweetie Bell and Apple Bloom about being assigned to Rainbow Dash as my Big Sister, you said ‘Why did they have to assign you one, did your real one run away because you wouldn’t shut up’.”

Hearing that made Sunset want to be a turtle, that way she could hide her body in her shell and hide away. She felt her mouth drop as Scootaloo recounted that experience to her, leaving her wondering how she could say something so horrible to the kid. And she couldn’t decide what was worst about that situation, the fact that she couldn’t remember saying that to the girl or that even not remembering it she knew it was probably true.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Scootaloo,” Sunset said, her eyes shooting down to the ground as her heart sank. It was hard to believe that she had been so mean to not just Scootaloo but everyone in the school. She knew Scoot was right about the timing of this whole being turned into a kid thing, she would have been in serious trouble. Forget not having friends to stay with, but everyone in the school would probably want to take their shot at picking on her and get some revenge.

“Eh… I’m over it. But it hurt at the time.” Scootaloo said, still looking up at the sky with her fist in her pockets and her jaw clenched.

“If you don’t mind me asking, why were you assigned a sister?” Sunset asked, going over and sitting next to the older girl.

“Oh, a lot of the orphans are thrown into big sibling programs.” She said, looking down at the girl and saw that her cyan eyes were filled with confusion. “OK. So the big sibling program is when older kids, usually teens, volunteer to hang out with orphan kids to make it feel like they have some family. And I decided to try it, well more like was nagged into it. But I had been assigned to Rainbow Dash… and you can probably imagine how excited I was for that. She has always been the star soccer player at the school, and she is just so cool! At least 20% cooler than anyone else I knew!” The girl said, audibly gushing her hero, stars in her eyes as she talked about her sister.

“Oh, well that's cool!” Sunset said, her eyes also lighting up. “We don’t have anything like that in the pony world. So someone who has a big sibling gets to stay with them and not in the orphanage?” She asked trying to get more information about this Big Sibling program, it would be a great thing to talk to Princess Twilight about.

“Oh no, you just kind of hang out with them for a bit every day, maybe it's at the big sibling's place or the park.” She explained that they were called to get their order. The two girls fill their arms with their order, hotdogs, candy bars, and bottles of water. “I got adopted about a month ago, so that's why I stayed the night.” She said. “I’m pretty sure it’s illegal to adopt a kid and then not let them stay in the house.”

“Probably. At least the stars were pretty last night.” Sunset teased, jokingly bumping into the girl. “I’m sure your parents would be nice enough to lend you a sleeping bag.”

“Yeah, I tried asking for a tent but they just gave me the sleeping bag.” Scoot laughed along with Sunset as they got back to the bleachers. Scootaloo’s parents still cheering for Rainbow Dash as if their lives depended on it. “Here you go Mr. HotHoof.” She said, picking out a couple of hotdogs and a water bottle for the man. “Oh I mean, dad.” She said with a sheepish giggle catching herself. Sunset had noticed the girl do that a few times and now it made sense why Scoot had to catch herself.

“And here you go, mom.” She said net, handing Windy a bottle of water, the lady paused from her cheering and wrapped a girl around Scootaloo as she huffed and puffed a bit.

“Thank you, Princess.” She said before cracking the water bottle open and emptying the water bottle in a matter of seconds. “I set up your chair for you while you were gone.” She informed the girl, gasping for breath after she stopped drinking from the bottle, and pointed to in front of the bleachers. A pink chair that could be folded up was sitting and waiting for someone in it, but the chairs that you would normally see this one had a footrest attached to it. “Go ahead and relax and enjoy your snack.” She instructed the girl before going back to cheering for her oldest daughter.

“Oh, thanks.” She said blushing a bit as she went over to the chair and sat on it, propping her left leg on the chair, wincing a bit as she stretched it but quickly smiled and sighed in relief.

“You ok?” Sunset asked the girl, noticing how she seemed to be in pain for a few seconds.

“Yeah, just my leg.” She said reaching down and massaging it again, as if that explained everything.

“Is your leg ok?” Susent pressed, because ‘Yeah, just my leg’ explained nothing to her, there was so much about Scootaloo that Sunset didn’t know, and the more she found out the more interesting the girl was.

“Oh, yeah right now it is.” She said with a sigh, looking down at her leg like it had just decided to stop working on her. “I got this weird thing with it where it randomly starts to hurt every once in a while.” She explained. “If I were running around like Rainbow Dash it would be really bad. But since I haven’t done a whole lot today it was just cramping a little bit.”  She said.

“Oh… I didn’t know that.” Sunset said, which didn’t help Sunset's wave of guilt. Not only did she pick on a girl younger than her. Not only did she pick on a girl younger than her who also happened to be an orphan. She picked on a girl who was younger than her, happened to be an orphan, and had a handicap. She sure felt like a million bucks at that moment.

“Come on Dashie!” Scootaloo cheered in unison with her parents making Sunset jump out of her skin and her little pity party and look up to see what her friend was doing. Rainbow Dash was currently running across the field in her sky blue soccer uniform, a white #1 in the middle of her uniform. The opposing team, the Fireballs, had managed to get the ball to Canterlot's side of the field, but the blue teen wasn’t going to let that slide. She managed to steal the ball from one of the girls before she started to pass all the girls in the dark red uniforms and got to the other side of the field. She wasn’t even using her gemstone to give herself super speed, which Sunset knew her friend wouldn’t use her powers to cheat like that. Rainbow would even go as far as to tell her ‘I don’t need superspeed to win. I’m awesome enough to win on my own’. But no one would be blamed if they thought the girl was using her powers just a bit. It seemed like it only took a few seconds for Rainbow to get from her team's side to the other side, where there was only the goalie and one defender.

“Gerrr-ya!” Rainbow Dash growled at the two opposing team members, making the defender freeze up as Rainbow cocked her foot back and kicked the white and black soccer ball. The ball headed to the side of the net, looking like it was going to hit the pole that the net was wrapped around, but it suddenly turned going right into the net. The goalie tries to dive for the speeding ball, but her hands just miss it and the ball goes right into the goal.

“YEAH!” The team routing for the Canterlots cheered, everyone jumping to their feet, popcorn and candy flying everywhere. Even Sunset couldn’t help but get caught up in the moment, throwing her little hands up and jumping in place as she cheered for her friend. The entire Canterlot soccer team ran up to the girl and lifted her up on their shoulders.

“And that's the season!” Windy said with a smile as she put her hand on Scoot's head.

“And thanks to Dash Attack,” Bow said as he dropped to beside his wife, “We had an undefeated year! I think that deserves a special trip.” He declared, making Scootaloo gasp and she turned around in her seat, sitting on her knees, as she looked up at her dad excitedly.

“Dad, you don’t mean?” She asked, not finishing her sentence as she held onto the back of her seat excitedly.

“Oh, I do.” He said with a smirk and head nod as he grabbed his daughter under her arms as if she were a child and lifted her out of her chair and onto the ground before folding her chair up and lifting it up. But before anything could be said a lady in a black suit and white buttoned-up shirt, that had the top couple of buttons undone, approached Bow and Windy. Her hands were in her pockets with her thumbs on the outside and she wore a pair of black sunglasses on her face.

“It's either you are Rainbow Dash’s family or the most devoted fans of a high school soccer player to ever exist.” The lady said in between chews of gum in her mouth.

“Both actually.” Windy said to the lady, “As her family, we’re her number one fans.” She explained to the lady, looking over at Rainbow who was being tossed in the air by her teammate, a large gold and blue trophy in her arms.

“Can’t argue with that!” The lady laughed as she ran her hand through her spikey brushed back orange and yellow hair. “Anyways, the names -.” She started to introduce but Scootaloo was quick to interject and cut the lady off.

YOU’RE SPITFIRE!” The girl squealed as she practically stood on the lady’s feet. “MY SISTER AND I ARE YOUR BIGGEST FANS!” She gushed, as she looked up with stars in her eyes. “WELL MY SISTER IS MORE OF A FAN THAN ME! SHE HAS SEEN ALL YOUR GAMES, HAS ONE OF YOUR TRADING CARDS WITH YOUR SIGNATURE, AND LIKE A LOT MORE STUFF!” She said practically vibrating, making Spitfire laugh out loud as she placed her head on.

“Sounds like she is a super fan.” The lady said with a smirk. “But I’m sure I’ll hear all about that from her. But speaking of her, mind if I talk to your mom and dad alone for a second, kid?” She asked.

“NO!” Scoot said, “I MEAN, NO I DON'T MIND! NOT ‘NO DON'T TALK TO MY PARENTS’! I FEEL LIKE I’M TALKING A LOT! I’M JUST GOING TO LEAVE!” She said, grabbing the chair from her dad and Sunset's hand and dragging her off to the van.

“Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone that starstruck before,” Sunset said with a giggle as they got to the brown van. “Who is she anyways?”

“What?! You don’t know who Spitfire is?!” The girl asked, dropping to her knees, grabbing Sunset by her shoulders, and shaking the girl a bit. “She is the star player on the Wonderbolts! The greatest soccer team ever and she's like the greatest soccer player ever besides Rainbow Dash.” She explained.

“Ok Ok Ok!” Sunset said, trying to break away from the shaking that the girl was inflicting on her. “I get it, just stop before I throw up!” She said, which thankfully made Scoot stop. Though Sunset's eyes bounced around her head for a couple of seconds before settling down. “What do you think she wanted to talk to your parents about?” She asked as she looked at the adults.

“Maybe she wants to recruit Rainbow Dash?” She mused, “Or maybe she just wanted to see Rainbow play? My sister is the best soccer player ever so it would make sense that Spitfire would hear about her eventually.” She said.

“I guess that makes sense.” Sunset mused as she looked at Rainbow's parents, who both looked excited as Spitfire talked to them. But over the loud crowd talking and vehicles starting up it was impossible to hear what they were talking about. Reading lips wouldn’t have done her much good since she couldn’t read lips and then everyone walking past her would make it impossible to do that. But before anything could be said she felt a shadow casting over the girl. She only had a second to think about how weird it was that nothing else had been cast under a shadow before she felt something land on her and knock her to the ground.

“Ah, Sunset!” Scootaloo cried and felt the girl start to tug on her, “Get off her you weirdo PJs!” The older girl demanded as she tried to tug on whatever had hit Sunset. But it all happened so fast that Sunset couldn’t process what was going on as she lay on the ground. She just vaguely noticed that Scootaloo tried tugging something off her before landing on the ground with a thud.

“Er… what?” Sunset asked as she stood back up to her feet and looked around. The first thing she noticed was Scootaloo looking at her shocked and the second thing was that most of the clothes that she had been wearing were scattered on the ground. Her shortalls, T-shirt, and socks were scattered around as if someone just tossed them to the wind. And she blushed realizing that she didn’t have anything on… but that wasn’t right. She felt her clothing wrapped around her, in fact, her clothes felt way more soft than the clothes on the ground did. “Oh no… Not here, not now.” Sunset epped as she slowly looked down and sighed in annoyance seeing her fears were true. The red and yellow footie was on her, the zipper missing from where it was supposed to be. “Why?!” She groaned as she grabbed the foot and tried to yank it off.

“Wow… you weren’t kidding when you said those things were weird,” Scootaloo said as she got back up and tried to give the girl a hand. But the PJs stayed right where they were.

“Yeah and apparently they can track me!” She huffed crossing her arms, these PJs were getting really annoying. “It's not even time for me to go to bed!” She yelled at the fabric, but if it heard her it didn’t respond in any way. “Oh well, at least I got these other clothes to cover it up.” She mumbled as she went to grab her shirt. But as she started to bend down she felt the pajamas tighten up and stop her arm from moving. “Ah, hey!” She huffed. “It's stopping me.” She said pulling her arm away, the fabric immediately loosening up.

“Really? Wow.” Scoot said, reaching down grabbing the T-shirt, and trying to put it over Sunset’s head. But as she started to lower the shirt, Sunset's arms were pulled and she slapped the shirt away.

“Sunset!” Scoot said in surprise as the girl's family came up, confused as to why a T-shirt was flying through the air.

“I’m sorry!” She said, “I didn’t do it! My arms just acted on their own! It's these stupid pajamas!” She declared, grabbing her hair with her hands ready to yank it out. This was getting to be too much and it already hadn’t been an ideal situation. She was a little kid being picked on by a pair of magical PJs that were becoming more and more annoying each day!

“Hey, don’t worry Sunset.” Rainbow Dash said, dropping to one knee as she placed a hand on Sunset’s head. “It's gonna be alright. You’ve faced way worse than this, haven’t you? Like the end of the world, twice.” She pointed out, “Besides, Princess Twilight might have answered your message while you were here, or maybe our Twilight has figured out a way to fix this. She’s been working on a way to fix this since she saw you.” She said.

“R-really?” Sunset asked, letting go of her hair and looking up at Rainbow Dash.

“Of course she has,” The teen snorted as she lifted her hand up from Sunset's head, “What did you think that she wasn’t going to try and find a way to fix this? It’s Twilight Sparkle we’re talking about!” She said throwing her hands to her side, “She's coming up with solutions without even thinking about it!”

Hearing that did make Sunset feel better as she gave off a childish giggle. Who would have ever thought the strong-headed athlete of the group would be able to calm down a kid so easily? Maybe Scootaloo was really lucky and Rainbow Dash was a good big sister after all.

“And you can ask her about it later since you’re going to be staying with her tonight.” She said as she gathered the scattered clothes and opened up the van.

“Oh, that's right!” Sunset said with an excited grin, she had completely forgotten that fact. She was going to stay with Twilight, then Fluttershy, next was Pinkie Pie, finally Rarity, and then finally her parents would be home. But hopefully, after tomorrow, she wouldn’t have to worry about needing to stay with one of her friends and she could go back to her normal life.

“Yeah, so no need to have a frown painted on your face. Just bask in the glory of my awesome trophy!” Her friend said, holding up the large trophy for everyone to see. And getting a better look at it Sunset could see that the blue and gold had glitter on it making it shimmer, and a golden soccer ball model on the top of it.

“Good job, Dashie!” Windy said as she planted a kiss on her daughter's cheek, “And to celebrate we’re going to your favorite all-you-can-eat pizza buffet!” She informed the athlete, making Rainbow’s mouth drop.

“Awesome!” She cheered jumping in the air.

“But we should probably do it another day.” She said to Rainbow Dash, “Since your friend is having trouble with her wardrobe.” She pointed out. “We don’t want to embarrass her.”

“Oh no it's fine,” Sunset assured Rainbow's mom. “It could be a whole lot worse.” She informed the lady as she climbed into the van and sat next to Scootaloo.

“Ok if you’re sure.” The lady said as she and Rainbow got it and Bow started to drive to the pizza place. Sunset hoped that no one would notice her in pajamas and said pajamas didn’t have a problem with her eating pizza.

But on the way to the pizza place Scootaloo tried to ask about the meeting the adults had with Spitfire, but her dad was quick to stop her, holding a finger up to his mouth. Which Sunset couldn’t tell if that meant good news or bad news. But Sunset was sure she’d hear about it in the group chat either way. For now, she was just focused on the promised pizza.
> Nightmares
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I’ll take that!” Sunset sneered, pulling the crown down from the air as she caught it in her hands, the cold gold chilling her hands as she clung to it. The pure and clean metal reflected the teen’s reflection on it. She had spent so much time trying to get the stupid piece of metal and now it was finally here. She had stolen it from the pony world, then lost it, and the schools stupid principal couldn’t even see that she had more power shoved and locked in her desk drawer than what she would ever see again, she lost the Homecoming Queen contest, and now her and those two idiots she had as henchmen chased the six girls around the front of the school. Just for that foolish Princess of Friendship to flinch and chucked the crown behind her and now it was all hers. Everyone who ever wronged her doubted her and didn’t see her for how great she truly was had a rude awakening coming their way. “At least…” She hissed like a snake, practically foaming at the mouth as she stared at the purple gem that looked like a star design with all the points on it. “All the power I could ever imagine!” She declared, raising the crown above her head and dropping it down on her head, the weight making her head bounce down slightly. Finally, she would get everything that she deserved was hers.
The teen held her hands up in the air as she waited for the energy to fill her, to finally get the magic she lost while being in this world back, and to be able to show everyone who they have truly been messing with. She kept her eyes closed as she was ready to be bathed in the energy to wash over her. Which took a few seconds as the crown realized she was capable of using magic. But sadly that’s where things had started to go off course.
Sunset could feel every single cell in her body pulse with energy, like the time she had licked an outlet when she first appeared in the human realm. But this was 1,000,000 times worse as her body kept filling with more energy. Her body felt like it was a balloon filling up with more and more air to the point that it was ready to explode. She wanted to cry out in pain, to yell for help, or even toss the crown away. But her body didn’t respond to her and she could only stare at the six teens in front of her, pleading for help with her eyes.
But her vision darkened and left her in total darkness as the world around her vanished. Her body was numb as she floated in a void of darkness, not even able to twitch her fingers or toes. She was oblivious to what was going on outside of the world around her but she was somehow aware that things weren’t good. She felt magic leave her body as a spell was cast, only to be refilled instantly. Regret immediately washed over her.


	Help, someone help me!


Sunset tried to call out, but the words never left her lips. But some, how it filled the cold endless void. 


Somebody anyone! Please! I was wrong! I’ve messed up! I’m scared!


She called out, trying to see if by some miracle someone would be able to reach out and pull her out of this. She confessed everything that she could, from how she treated the ponies while she was a student under Celestia, sneaking into the forbidden library to learning about what the mirror did, ruining the friendship of the five girls helping the pony princess, to now stealing the crown. If she could take it all back she would!


I’M SORRY!


The girl felt tears slowly start to leave her eyes, but as she wasn’t able to blink them away, not that her vision becoming blurry really messed with the pitch black darkness, and the tears quickly ran down her cheeks. The only little bit of warmth that the girl had as she floated alone. The worst part was, she couldn’t blame anyone for her being here than herself. Her selfishness and pride is what had gotten her there.


I hear you…


	The voice pulled the teen out of her pity party. Had she imagined it, was somebody else there with her? 


Hello?



I… Can’t… Reach you!  Your dream… It’s out of… Reach.


A dream? Was she dreaming?! If this was a dream then it felt completely real, as if it was something she had actually gone through.


You must wake up… Wake up… Sunset wake up!


“Ah!” Sunset yelped, her eyes shooting open as she sat up, a new voice having taken over for the deep regal one and shocked her awake, her arms wrapped around something warm and soft. “It's a dream!” She yelled, her heart pounding in her chest.
“Sunset… you ok?” Someone asked her, making the girl's skin crawl before she jumped again and looked at who it was, and sighed in relief seeing it was just her friend Twilight. The teen still wasn’t ready for the day as she was dressed in a pair of dark purple shorts and her light blue Camp Everfree T-shirt. Her long dark hair was a rat's nest as it was in some weird attempt to be put in a bun. Her eyes were wide and filled with concern. “You were crying in your sleep.” She said, getting on her knees and immediately putting her hand on Sunset's forehead to make sure the girl wasn’t sick.
Hearing that Sunset raised a hand to her face and rubbed her face, which was indeed soaked with tears from the rather intense nightmare. She hadn’t expected to have cried in real life because of the nightmare, that she had almost every night since the incident. But she wasn’t exactly in the same state that she normally was. She didn’t even need to take off the pink blanket that she was covered with to know she was wrapped in the magical footie. She hadn’t bothered to try and take it off since it had jumped her at the soccer field the previous day. As much as she didn’t like the PJs she couldn’t deny the fact that they were really comfortable. They were still super soft and they didn’t smell like she had been wearing them for 3 nights in a row, so that was nice.
Though she was concerned about the lump under the blanket that she was hugging. So she quickly grabbed the blanket and tossed it off her chest, revealing Twilight's pet dog Spike sleeping soundly on the girl, his little purple tail wagging slightly. Making Sunset roll her eyes, at least one of them seemed to be having a good dream.
“Mm… squirrels… almost gotcha.” The puppy mumbled in his sleep, making Twilight let out a slight giggle and Sunset let out a small smirk. She wasn’t sure when the dog joined her on the couch in the living room, but apparently, he thought she was comfortable enough to use as a pillow.
“Oh um… yeah I’m fine. Just a nightmare.” She said, taking her sleeve and using it to clear her face. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to worry you.”
“That looked like a pretty serious nightmare,” Twilight said, reaching over and gently petting Spike on the head. “Wanna talk about it? Shining Armor and Cadence did that a lot for me when I had nightmares.” She said.
“Oh no, it’ll be fine.” She said, squirming a bit as she thought about a way to change the conversation. She had been dealing with the nightmare for months now, and some nights were worse than others, that night probably being the worst that it ever had been. Probably because her little kid's body was reacting like a little kid would. “Sorry to worry you. But I'm fine, really.” She said, giving the purple-skinned girl a smile.
“OK if you’re sure.” She said, reaching down and lifting her sleeping puppy off the girl's lap. “Well, hopefully, you’re hungry. Cadence made pancakes and since we had an extra person she may have made a few too many.” She said sheepishly as she scratched under Spike’s neck. The purple dog immediately kicked his little leg as he started to wake up. Sunset hadn’t noticed it before but now that her friend pointed it out the sweet smell of pancakes filled the air, making her tiny tummy growl out for it.
“Huh, what?” He asked, his voice not sounding much more mature than Sunset’s at the moment, looking around. “Aw come on, I almost had that squirrel, Twilight!” The puppy pouted as he was placed on the ground. “Couldn’t you have waited another minute?”
“Knowing your luck we could’ve let you sleep another day and you still wouldn’t have it.” Sunset teased as she reached down and petted the dog's soft fur.
“Mmmm….” He growled, probably trying to say something, but was too distracted by trying to shove his head into the head scratched, his little foot banging against a thousand times a minute.
“Besides, we have real-life pancakes that will need your attention,” Twilight said leading the way to the kitchen area. Unlike the rest of their friends, Twilight didn’t actually live in a house but in a fairly large apartment area. Since it was her, her brother Shining Armor, and her sister-in-law, aka Shining Armor's wife, Cadence it was probably cheaper to rent an apartment than to get a house. Or that was Sunset’s guess at the very least.
As they entered the kitchen area Sunset froze as she saw Shining Armor on his knees, twisting the leg on a white high chair, the seat decorated with animals of different colors. Blue alligators, pink elephants, purple monkeys, and a few other different kinds of animals you would see in a zoo.
“Morning girls.” Shining Armor said, dressed in a blue tank top and black shorts, looking back at the two as Twilight pulled out a chair for Sunset and then got into one for herself. 
“Finally got that thing built for my niece?” Twilight asked, making Sunset sigh in relief having been worried that the family had expected her to sit in it. But thankfully that wasn’t the case as she climbed into the light brown wooden chair beside Twilight. A thick yellow phonebook did wait for her on the seat helping her reach the table.
“Yep, and I believe that should be in besides baby-proofing everything.” The bleach-white man said as he slid into the chair at the head of the table. “Good thing you came when you did, Sunset. Or you would’ve had a challenging time getting around here with… this going on.” He said, picking up a fork and waving it in a circle at the girl. 
“Yeah, thanks for holding off all the prep stuff.” The girl said with a blush as she shifted as she sat. Why couldn’t phone books be more comfortable if little kids had to sit on them?
“Are you sure that you set it up right?” Twilight asked, holding her hand up a small booklet covered in purple glittery energy flew through the air past Shining Armor's hair, brushing against his blue hair, and flew into Twilight’s hand as she went over the instructions again. Though he took a deep breath in.
“Yeah Twili, I followed the instructions to a T.” He assured the girl, “And what did we say about… magic, at the table?” He asked, saying magic cautiously as if the word was going to make something blow up.
“Um… not to do it at the table. Sorry.” Twilight said, her cheeks blushing a bit. “I won’t do it again, promise.” She said, with a giggle. “Anyways the chair looks like the picture, so good job BBBFF.” She praised.
“Now hopefully it works like it's supposed to.” A new voice joined in the conversation as a lady dressed in a purple robe with Crystal Highs emblem on it, with dark pink skin walked beside Shining Armor, setting two plates of pancakes down, and making Sunset’s eyes grow wide. Each plate had at least twenty perfectly round golden brown discs stacked on top of them.”I wasn’t sure how many pancakes you would want, so I made extra.” Cadence said with a smile as she looked at Sunset.
“Oh thanks, Mrs. Cadence,” Sunset said, looking at the lady who rested her hand on her extended belly. Twilight had told them that her brother and sister-in-law were expecting a little girl. The lady had a sweet smile on her face and with her being pregnant Sunset didn’t have the heart to tell the women she would never be able to eat enough to help make a dent in the stacks of pancakes. “They… look delicious,” Sunset said giving the girl a smile as Twilight gave her a hand and dropped a couple of the circles onto her plate. Now the little girl knew why Twilight wanted her little dog's help, as she grabbed one and held it down for the pup.
“Score!” He cheered, getting on his hind legs and grabbing the pancake from Twilight's hands before scurrying off.

“Uh…” Sunset groaned once her plate was cleared, “I don’t think I could eat another bite.” She said, rolling her head over to look at Twilight, who was in the same boat. The little girl had managed to get four and a half pancakes down before she had to tap out. Maybe if she was a teen she could have handled that and a bit more, but in this tiny body, the girl was sure she was going to be full for the rest of the day. 
“You wanna take leftovers home?” Twilight asked as she stared at the leftover twenty-five pancakes.
“No, I think I’ve had my fill of pancakes for… ever.” She groaned, sliding off of her phone book and chair before heading back to the living room to get her backpack. Reaching into the bag she pulled out the next set of clothes that Rarity had prepared for her and took them to the bathroom. “Are we going to be difficult today?” She mumbled to the PJs as she looked at her chest and sighed in relief seeing the little red zipper there, meaning the PJs weren’t holding her hostage that day. Well, it could still try and hunt her down so it wasn’t holding her hostage that morning to be specific. 
She quickly switched over to her new outfit and looked at herself in the mirror, grimacing a bit. She was in a purple shirt with ‘Math Kind Of Gal’ in dark glittering purple and a green skirt with black dots. It looked like she was trying to cosplay as Spike and the colors definitely didn’t look that good on her, but it was better than nothing. But as she looked at herself suddenly her PJs inflated as if a body was in it. It jumped up to its feet and instantly wrapped its arms around the girl.
“Hey, no! No! I just got you off! Do not get back on me!” Sunset growled as she shoved it away, glaring at it. The red and yellow PJs immediately waved their arms back and forth as the neck part moved left to right like a head was shaking no. “Ok, we’re doing the arm thing again. So you aren’t trying to get on me?” She asked the piece of clothing, to which it responded by raising both arms up. “Ok… well then what do you want?” She asked next. It dropped both arms as the neckpiece moved again as if it was trying to look for something. But then it froze up and the design on it changed from lizards and fives to two stick-figures hugging. “You want… to hug?” She asked a mix of shock and confusion filling her voice. The clothing instantly shot a hand up before dropping it and holding its arms out for the girl to accept the hug. “Ok, why do you want a hug?” She asked next and the design changed to a stick figure girl lying under a blanket. But instead of looking like the girl was relaxed as she slept, she frowned and clutched the blanket she was covered with. Sunset knitted her eyebrows trying to figure out what was going on. “Is that me having a nightmare?” She asked making the PJs raise one hand and making Sunset’s expression soften a bit. She wasn’t exactly fond of the soft kid PJs, in fact, it was the main source of her problems. But the fact that the clothing was wanting to comfort her only left her to smile. “Fine, but no funny business.” She said, walking over and wrapping the PJs in a hug and sighed. It did feel nice to be comforted from her nightmare, even though she had assured her friend that she was fine. 
“Thanks.” She said, after a few seconds, and let go of the PJs. “Nightmares aren’t fun, no matter what age.” She sighed watching the PJ raise one hand as if she answered a question. “Yes? How would you know?” She asked staring at the PJs before she raised an eyebrow, “Do you have nightmares?” She pressed the PJs, who froze up at the question. But as it slowly started to raise one arm there was a knock on the door, making them both jump.
“Sunset, once you’re ready meet me in the basement.” Twilight said, “I wanna try and run some tests to see if I can fix this!” Twilight informed the girl and the sound of her walking away could be heard.
“Coming right now!” Sunset assured her friend before turning back to the footie and giving it another hug. “Thanks, I guess.” She said, before picking the piece of clothing up and folding it up to put it back in her bag.
“So um… this is safe, right Twilight?” Sunset asked, lying on a grey cold metal table, looking up at a round red bulb pointed directly down at her. She was eager to get back to normal more than anyone else, but not at the risk of death or becoming a weird Frankenstein monster.
“Of course it is, why would you assume it’s not?” She asked, rolling over on a desk chair and putting a pair of goggles with black lenses over her eyes, “Here, hold these here. I don’t have a child-size pair.” She instructed, holding the goggles until the little girl took over the job.
“Mainly the way you are dressed.” She sighed looking at her friend, who was currently trying to cosplay as an evil scientist. Her hair was put up in a bun, a pair of matching black goggles on her face, and a white lab coat with a leather belt around her waist, black slack, and black flats. Also, black rubber gloves pulled up to her elbows. “It’s kind of off putting.” There was also the fact she was in a lab in Twilight’s basement that had all sorts of weird beeping machines lining the walls that had flashing lights on them
“Don’t worry about it, Sunset,” Spike said, jumping on the table suddenly, making the girl just. “Twilight’s done this to me a hundred times, it doesn’t hurt. Plus you get a treat afterward. Well… if you sit still and don’t scratch during it.” 
“I don’t think the scratching thing won’t be an issue,” Sunset assured the pup, reaching over and scratching the dog. Immediately making him smile as he collapsed down, exposing his fuzzy belly to be petted, and the girl obliged the canine and petted his belly.
“I’m glad to hear that, but if you don’t hold your goggles with both your hands you won’t get a treat.” Twilight threatened, rolling to the other side of the table and taking Spike away, petting his belly as well, before sitting him down.
“Wait I get a treat?” She asked, holding her goggles like she was supposed to as she watched Twilight go over to one of the desks in the room. Opening a drawer she pulled out a packaged chocolate chip cookie that was half the size of Sunset's head.
“Uh huh, only if you are good though.” She said, pushing away from the desk, over to a metal box that had a bunch of flashing buttons, pressing a large green button, making a low brrrrr sound fill the air. The bulb above Sunset immediately started to glow, little bolts of electricity dancing in the glass. The yellow-skinned girl's body started to tingle as if invisible hands were tickling her. Immediately, unable to control herself she started to squirm a bit on the table as she let out a childish hehehehe. But thankfully it only lasted a few seconds before the light died down. “And that's it,” Twilight said, pulling out her phone and immediately tapping on it. “That this is a magical energy reader, if there's any trace of magic on you or in you I’ll be able to see thanks to this handy app. And yes you can take the goggles off.” She said.
“Finally.” She sighed as if the goggles had been the biggest inconvenience of her life, and sat them beside her.
“You know she probably could’ve used mine,” Spike said, jumping back onto the table walking onto Sunset's lap, and lying down.
“Yours? Like goggles? Why do you have goggles?” She asked, immediately petting the dog.
“Yeah, duh! I’m her assistant, of course, I have a pair of my own goggles.” He said as if it was supposed to be super obvious. “Plus the light from the bulb is really bright and would probably blind me.”
“Yeah, I used this a lot right after I built it.” She said, “After the friendship games I wanted to understand magic, and since Spike can talk I figured it would be a good chance to. But, sadly, I don’t think I’ve actually gotten any closer to that.” She said, rolling over to the table.
“Join the club, I’ve been trying to figure it out a little bit longer than you.” Sunset sighed, looking at her friend's phone. The outline of a human with their feet colored in green. “So… what's the diagnosis doc?” She asked her friend.
“Well…” The purple teen said with a frown as she looked at her phone. “According to this, you don’t have any unexpected magic. This is what it would look like if I were to be scanned and wearing my gem too.” She said. “This means whatever magic did this to you has either left you or there was never magic in you to change you. Kind of like Spike, he can talk now but he has no magical properties to him,” Twilight explained as she reached up and pulled a pen that was resting between her ear and hair, immediately chewing on the gray cap as she thought. “I was hoping fixing this would be as simple as draining you of whatever magic keeping you this way.”
“Yeah, sadly it's never that easy.” She sighed, patting Twilight's head. But then an idea popped into her head. She may not have been filled with magic, but maybe the thing that did this to her was. “Wait, how about we check out the PJs?” She suggested. “Maybe if we can get the magic out of them it will reverse this too?” She theorized, sliding off the table and landing on the cold floor.
“I mean, I suppose it’s worth a try,” Twilight said, getting up and going to a computer and starting to type something into it. “Why don’t you go get them?” She muttered, clearly thinking about something else as she typed the girl rushed back to the living room, where her bag had been sat neatly on the floor and the blanket and pillow she had used the previous night were gone. 
Unlike Rainbow Dash’s place where everyone had been pretty loose with rules such as bedtime and where they were eating, Twilight's family was pretty strict. Having made her go to bed at seven due to her younger age, not letting her watch any TV or glance at her phone after that time. They had to eat dinner at the kitchen table, not allowed to eat it in the living room. Even clean-up seemed strict as it didn’t even look like Sunset had slept on the couch, and the smell of pancakes was already gone and replaced with a flowery scent.
“Ok,” She said, opening her bag, the red PJs immediately jumping out of the bag, again inflating to look like someone was in them. “Hi, I need you for a second. And then you can go back to sleep or not sleep… whatever it is you do.” She said. A few question marks popped up on it as she grabbed its arm and tugged the PJs back down to the basement lab. Twilight got the PJs onto the table, gave Sunset her cookie once reminded,  and started the weird scanner. Sunset looked at the ground to avoid blinding herself, munching on her cookie, though she did steal a glance up and saw the PJs were squirming much like she had when scanned.
“Yeah, this thing is filled with magic,” Twilight said, looking at her phone again, a small smirk on her face as she hovered her hand over a red button. “Magic extraction starting!” She said slamming her hand down and suddenly the bulb started to glow again, making Sunset look down. But like before she looked up again, this time more curious about what the reaction to having magic drained was. But when she looked up her mouth dropped open. She could see what looked like a rainbow-colored mist leaving the PJs and going into the orb. But her eyes were focused on the PJs themselves, instead of squirming they seemed the writhe as if they were in pain, and seeing it made Sunset’s stomach twist in knots.
These piece of clothing may have turned her into a kid, something she was desperate to get fixed. They may have been really weird, having forced themself on her multiple times. But she did want to see it suffer! 	
“T-Twilight…” She said softly, her lips dry as she couldn’t believe what she was going to say. “I think you need to turn it off!” She said.
“What?” The girl asked, “But this might fix you, Sunset.” The girl pointed out, the bulb started to glow brighter, making the room flash white. 
“I know but this doesn’t seem right!” She said, closing her eyes and looking down at the ground, her eyes quickly stinging from the bright light. “Please just-!” She started to almost beg but suddenly there was a loud CRACK! Making Sunset look again, the room now completely pitch black.
“AH!” Twilight yelped, “Too much! It had too much magical energy for me to contain!” The teen groaned, “And it looks like it blew a fuse… Well, hopefully, it was just one.” She muttered to herself as she turned on the flashlight on her phone, Sunset quickly did the same. Suddenly Sunset felt something soft hug her, trembling. And at this point, she knew what it was, and patted the shoulder of the PJs.
“Yeah yeah, it’s all over.” The girl sighed, patting the PJs on the back as if she was trying to console a child. But soon she gave the PJs a hug as she buried her face in its shoulder. This had possibly been her ticket back to being normal, but not only was she too weak to let the clothing suffer just a bit, but also the PJs had too much magic to absorb. Was she going to be stuck like this?
“Ok let's get out of here and I’ll check the fuse box,” Twilight said, which the girl had her own personal lab at home Sunset figured her friend was accustomed to having to flip breakers maybe even replace them. So she pulled the PJs off of her and grabbed them by the arm cuff to walk them out. But as she did her body immediately began to tingle and her vision immediately went white for a second before going black.

A foul stench filled her nose like she was surrounded by rotten and moldy food, her entire body felt cold making her want to shiver even though she couldn’t. Her heart panged like someone had taken a knife and stabbeed it like when Wallflower had made all her friends forget who she was. Betrayal, confusion, and hurt all mixed together into one intense pain. But she wasn’t going to just lay here and do nothing, there were other people who would want her if not them. Reaching up she pushed a plastic lid up and jumped out of the container she was put in, a ‘dumpster’ the one white pony with a blue mane had called it. Once she landed on the ground she saw the dark purple unicorn pony that had thrown her in the trash can. Her nerves immediately being set on edge as she quickly ran away on all fours away from the unicorn. Not wanting to be caught again and thrown back in the dumpster she knew she had to make a break for it.

“Come on Sunset,” Twilight said, pulling the girl out of her trance as she led the way out of the basement. 
“Oh, right.” She said, shaking her head before walking off, looking back at the PJs. Was that a memory from the clothing? She was used to her magical powers of looking into the past for other people, but she never had it work on clothes before! But more importantly, she had felt what the PJs had felt too. Their memories became hers for a few moments like normal, but it gave a clue. There was something about a white pony with a blue mane, and if she remembered right they were in front of a castle of sorts. Oh, and the unicorn looked weird like it was made from crystals or something. Maybe Princess Twilight would know something about it. She would write her as soon as they got power back in the house.
> The Pet Store
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Ray!” Sunset cheered as she walked through the front door of the pet store, the brass bells ring echoing through the building. Curled up in a little yellow ball was the girl’s pet Lizard, Ray, fast asleep. She hadn’t seen the little guy since the day the incident happened. Sunset knew that being with Fluttershy he was in good capable hands, she had been the one to take care of him before Sunset had adopted her scaley pal. But she still missed the little guy.
She immediately ran up, propping herself up on her tippy toes, and reached up to pet Ray’s head. The lizard shot his head up in surprise that someone would try to interrupt his mid-day nap. But once his sleepy eyes planted on his pint-sized, yet still plenty big compared to himself, he perked right up, immediately hopping up and bouncing in place in the red cat bed he had been napping in, before jumping onto Sunset's shoulder. The little lizard immediately ran around on the girl's shoulder and neck. His claws pierced through Sunset’s pink shirt , and a lime green skirt like what Fluttershy would wear was her outfit for the day, poking her sensitive skin and tickling her a bit and getting a childish giggle from her. 
“Ah! Ah! Ah!” Sunset winced as Ray suddenly started to scale up her hair, tugging at it until she was at the top of her head, and spun around and lay there, finding a new napping spot. “Yeah, I missed you too, buddy.” She said to the lizard, hearing a light giggle from behind her making her blush a bit.
“I knew he would be excited to see you,” Fluttershy said, gently brushing the top of the lizard with her finger. “He usually looks around for you around bedtime.” She informed the little girl. 
“Yeah, it’s usually when I let him out of his cage and play with him.” She informed the teen. “You’re making sure he’s eating his food and not just treats, right? It might be because I’m a lot smaller now, but he’s feeling kind of chunky.” She informed her friend.
“Yep, I’ve been following your instructions very closely.” Her friend assured her. “He gets his food, then a cricket, and then I make sure to play with him for a bit. I think Angel has been getting jealous from all the attention Ray getting.” She giggled as a small bunny with pure white fur popped out of the girl's long pink hair and glared down at Sunset.
“Um… yeah,” Sunset said, taking a step back as she held a hand over Ray to block her sleeping scaly friend from the rabbit's line of sight. She hadn’t heard of rabbits attacking lizards before, but she didn’t want her lizard to be the first case to be recorded. So she gave a small wave with her free hand to Angel, who took his paw and pointed at the lizard before pointing to his eyes and back to Ray before slowly melting back into Fluttershy’s hair. “Anyways, uh… what do you wanna do?” Sunset asked, dropping her hands now that Angel's glare was off of her friend.
“Well, I wish I could have planned something super fun for us to do,” The teen sighed, walking past Sunset going to the other side of the counter, and opening up a large black binder that had been beside Ray’s bed. “But I got a food delivery today, a couple of people are scheduled to come in and take a look at some pets, and then I have to groom a couple of pets for pick up today.” The yellow-skinned girl explained.
“Sounds like you need a helper,” Sunset said to her friend, thinking back on it whenever she was at the pet shelter Fluttershy was usually by herself. There was a time when she was passing out flyers for people to help at the shelter.
“I know, and I had one last week. She sighed, crashing down on a pink office chair, “But they quit on me after their third day.” She sighed, reaching into her hair pulling Angel back out, and hugging the bunny. “I think they don’t expect this job to be kind of hard.” She admitted.
“Really, it’s hard?” Sunset asked as she looked around the building. There were a few pens in the room they were in that had some cats and kittens dozing or eating food. Then dogs and puppies running around and playing. If anything this job seemed like one of the more easy jobs you could have. 
“Yeah.” Fluttershy said, “It's not just playing with puppies and kitties all day. We gotta make sure that they’re all fed and watered, their pens are clean, taking care of them when they get sick. Then there's taking in new animals that people find or they can no longer take care of.” She pointed out. “It can be pretty intense.”
“Wow,” Sunset said, she hadn’t really thought about any of that stuff before. But the shelter was practically spotless as the white floors showed off her reflection. But now that she thought about it that definitely wasn’t by accident. And all of the animals that were perfectly groomed had to have had someone do that. “So you usually do all of it by yourself?” Sunset asked.
“Usually,” She said as she got up, “Sometimes I can get my brother to come and he’ll clean a pen or two. Or the Cutie Mark Crusaders will pop in and see if I need help.” 
“Well, that's something, though I’m not sure how much help Zephyr would be.” She said, “But I bet the CMCs can get this place cleaned up in no time, as long as they don’t get distracted with the animals.”
This earned a giggle from the older girl, probably because both statements were true to some degree. Sunset could see Fluttershy’s brother being too helpful since he was known to talk a good game, well talk some sort of game anyways, but always came up short. Then Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle could do all sorts of amazing things when they put their minds to it. But Sunset could see each of the girls getting distracted by the cute fuzzy animals in the building. It wouldn’t have been out of character for Scootaloo to open all the pens to let the animals run free. Which Fluttershy did from time to time, but Sunset doubted Scootaloo’s free time would be as controlled as the teen’s.
“Anything I can do to help?” Sunset asked her friend, her hands on the counter as she stood on her tippy toes. “It's only fair I try to do something around here since you’ve been watching Ray. Even though you’ve let him get chubby on me.” She said with a smirk, flinching a bit as the lizard’s tail flicked the top of her head, getting another giggle from Fluttershy.
“Well if you really want to help,” The teen said, picking up a pen and clicking it as she slowly spun in the office chair and tried to think of something Sunset could do. If her friend was her normal age she could have trusted the redhead to walk the dogs… but tasking Sunset with that right now seemed like an accident waiting to happen. She could practically see the girl being dragged behind a few of the large dogs, her little body unable to do anything but cry out for help. She could walk some of the smaller dogs, but if they managed to get away from the girl she would have a hard time catching them. “Oh, why don’t you take care of the other lizards here?” She said, figuring that would be easy enough for the girl. Ray was currently the largest lizard in the shelter and Sunset was handling him with no issues. 
“Yeah, I can do that! As long as you get me everything that I need.” Sunset agreed, nodding her head. Thankfully her friend was quick to get everything for her,  feed, extra water bottles to replace any dirty ones, some plastic gloves, and a step stool to help her reach up. 
“Ok, you take care of this while I take care of a few other things,” Fluttershy said, “If you need me please don’t hesitate to call for me.” She told her friend before going through a door leading to the backroom.
Sunset simply nodded as she moved the step stool to start cleaning the different lizard cages. Thankfully there wasn’t a lot of lizard in the shelter so it wouldn’t take her too long to take care of the pens. The first one had a little lime green gecko in it who was more focused on swimming in a little pool of water than on checking out what Sunset was doing. So the girl was able to fill the little plastic bowl up with the dried worms that consisted of the lizard food, switched out the little guy's water bottle, and left him alone to swim in peace. Immediately moving on to the next pen a chameleon was resting on a branch, shaded the color brown to hide itself from Sunset. Meaning the girl could restock the food bowl without any issues, though that was about as far as she got. When she finished filling the bowl she got ready to switch the bottle out. But the chameleon, seeing their dinner, immediately shoots its long tongue out and gets a few worms from its bowl. The acting caught Sunset off guard, making her jump back.
“Ah, whoa whoa whoa whoa!” Sunset cried out, her arms spinning around in circles as she stood on the end of the step stool and tried to grab her balance, the bottle in her hand immediately slipping out and flying across the room. Thankfully she was able to get her balance and not go crashing to the ground, but she did take a few seconds to catch her breath as she looked down towards the ground. The ground looked pretty far up from being on the stool, so she was glad to not have taken a tumble and had to explain an embarrassing situation to Fluttershy. “Ah!” She yelped as the water bottle reappeared in front of her face, but this time she made sure to not jump away. But standing at the bottom of the steps the PJs stood offering the bottle up. “Oh, thanks.” She said, taking the water bottle and replacing the chameleon's water bottle before getting off the steps and as she pushed the stool forward she felt a light tap on her shoulder. “Yes?” She sighed, turning around to face the piece of clothing.
The PJs had a dozen question marks decorating it as it pointed a hand up to Sunset's head, making the girl frown. Was there a worm in her hair? She didn’t throw any food so that didn’t make sense. But then she remembered the chunky lizard taking a nap on her head, and she reached up and picked Ray off her head.
“Oh, this is, Ray.” Sunset was introduced, and the yellow and black spotted lizard blinked his eyes open as he woke up and looked around the room. If he was alarmed by the set of living PJs standing there he didn’t show it. “He’s my friend and pet.” She said before pulling him away from the PJs, “You’re not gonna make him younger next are you?” She asked them, the PJs waving its hands back and forth to state no, and Sunset looked at the footie skeptically and carefully moved her scaly friend closer. The PJs carefully took its arm and touched the lizard, Ray’s tongue shooting out and licking the arm, making the red and yellow PJs jump and shutter, its colors changing every second and soon going through every color of the rainbow. Sunset was sure if the PJs could talk it would be squealing its lunges out. “Not a fan of lizard tongues?” She asked, sitting Ray on her shoulder and giggling as the lizard’s tongue hit her cheek. The PJs stomped its foot, though the soft cotton didn’t make any noise, as it turned completely red as if it were blushing. “Ok well, I wouldn’t stand too close to me then. I’m taking care of the rest of these pens and there are lizards in each of them.” She said, grabbing another bottle and some more dried worms, and went to take care of the next lizard, who looked a lot like Ray except they were red with green dots. They quickly walked over to the Sunset, curious about what the child was doing in his pen. But when the girl took her finger and gently petted the bottom of the reptile’s neck he decided the girl was ok and even leaned into the pets. 
But as she started to climb off the stool she heard the click click click of the office chair being moved, and at first Sunset thought that Fluttershy had returned. But soon she felt the chair gently nudge her, making her lean forward a bit. But thankfully she didn’t go crashing forward, maybe she needed a pair of steel shoes so she could jump around or fall over.
“Hey!” She huffed, turned around, and glared at the PJs, making them jump back. “Can I help you? I’m trying to do something here.” She said, making the PJs hold both arms behind its back, one foot bouncing off the ground. After a couple of seconds, it reached up and pushed the seat part of the chair, making it spin a bit. A picture of the chair with a whirlwind around it appeared on the PJs as well. “Do you want me to spin you?” She asked the PJ set, it immediately holding both hands up in the air to say yes before scrambling onto the chair, kicking its feet excitedly. Sunset wanted to just ignore the piece of clothing, she only had two more pens to clean up. But the PJs seemed so excited, kicking their feet excitedly as they waited for her. “Fine, but I’m not doing it for long.” She informed the PJs as she reached up grabbed the seat and pulled it, slowly making the chair spin, the old chair making a low creeeeeeeek sound as it spun, and when it made one spin the PJs had its arms crossed as a few sad emoji’s appeared on it. “What are you not satisfied?” She asked in a huff seeing the sad emojis on the PJs. And it slowly raised one hand making her scoff. “Fine then!” She said, grabbing the chair, and smirking as she got ready, “Hold on!” She said before pulling the chair again with all her might. Then she used her little hand and slapped the arms of the chair to keep the chair spinning, sending her crashing onto her bottom from the effort. And soon the PJs were nothing but a blur of red as it spun in a circle. But soon the red changed to a light green color, making Sunset frown. The PJs could not be getting sick, it was an inanimate object, and they didn’t have the ability to eat or throw up food. But Sunset pushed herself back up, grabbed one of the arms, making the chair stop immediately but it also sent the PJs flying and slamming against a pen on the other side of the room, a couple of puppies who had been chasing one another immediately changed their target and rushed over to sniff and lick the strange object that crashed against their pen.
“Um… Are you ok?” Sunset asked, walking over before setting the clothing up. Its color is still green as an emoji of a face with dizzy eyes on it. But it lifted up both of its hands in the air, “Good.” She said, lifting them up to their feet, a little brown and black puppy giving a high pitch howl upset that their new toy was yanked away. The PJs needed a few seconds to regain their balance. “Ok, anyways I gotta get back to get work.” She said, she only had two more pens to finish taking care of and she would like to get it done before Fluttershy came back. Maybe her friend would trust her with something a bit more intense than refilling food bowls.
But as she tried to walk away the clothing grabbed her hand and pointed at the chair as a picture of a girl sitting on a chair, a whirlwind surrounding her. Making Sunset frown as she tried to figure out what the PJs wanted. The stick figure girl usually represented her and she's sitting on the chair that the PJs used to say it wanted her to spin them.’
“You want me to take a turn?” She asked, the PJs raising both of their hands in the air. “I don’t know about that… I really should get back to work.” She said, but apparently, the PJs weren’t going to take that for an answer as it grabbed Sunset’s arm and tried to pull her to the chair. Though a piece of clothing against a child, Sunset wasn’t exactly being dragged to the chair. But she sighed as she watched the clothing try and force her to the chair and figured it would be easier to just go ahead and humor the piece of clothing than struggle with it as she tried to finish stocking the pens. So she huffed but went over and climbed into the chair,  needing a minute to do so since the seat was at chin level to her. So she jumped up, her little legs kicking as she tried to get some footing. But soon the footie aided her and pushed her up. “Ok… there…” The girl said taking a moment to take a breath, sitting Ray on the arm and watching him jump off the chair, as the PJs grabbed the chair and tried to spin it, immediately crashing to the ground as it attempted to push it. “Oh come on, you made me really spin you.” She said, smirking as she crossed her arms and one leg over the other leg, making the PJs turn a dark red as it grabbed the chair and tried to spin it again and push it forward, but its feet just slipped across the smooth shelter floor. Sunset was going to say that it was pointless and get off the chair when suddenly the PJs must have gotten its footie as the chair suddenly started to spin, instantly making the world around her blur into a blur of white, grey, red, yellow, and green.
“AH!” Sunset immediately squealed out, holding onto the armrest of the chair as she spun around. Her hair and green skirt with the air and she spun in a circle. She wasn’t sure how long she was on the chair, it could have been a few seconds or a few minutes, but the girl quickly lost all sense of direction and time. She almost didn’t notice the chair slowing down since the world was still spinning to her as she slowly tried to climb off the chair. The soft arms of the PJs immediately wrapped around her, trying to suppose her, but Sunset made sure to lean against the chair so they both wouldn’t just end up on the ground. “Wow, I didn’t know Pajamas could be so strong.” She said, turning to face the PJs, impressed by the feat of strength from the PJs. But the PJs held one hand up to say no and then pointed behind Sunset, making her shoot her head behind her and look up, where she saw Fluttershy looking down at her, a soft smile on the teen’s face as she leaned against the chair.
“Have fun?” Fluttershy asked with a giggle as Sunset blushed.
“Oh, Fluttershy I was getting ready to finish up the pens, I just got distracted.” She explained to her friends.
“Ok, that's fine that you took a break,” Fluttershy said, spinning the eat of the chair to face her as she collapsed into it and turned to face Sunset again. “I just got done grooming a couple of pets that are being picked up today and I’m ready for a quick break.” She said with a giggle. And now that she mentioned it the scent of wet dog was slowly filling up the room. “So these are the PJs that…” She said, her voice trailing off, and Sunset was able to figure out what the teen was trying to ask.
“Yes.” Sunset sighed, “These are the PJs that turned me into a little kid. PJs, this is Fluttershy.” Sunset introduced, though when Fluttershy waved at the piece of clothing it immediately dived for Sunset and hid behind the girl. “As you can see, we need to work on personal space.” She sighed as she patted the shoulders of the PJs.
“Aw, they’re so cute.” Fluttershy said with a giggle, “It's hard to believe that something so little could cause such a big problem." She said, giving another wave to the PJs as they peaked around Sunset.
“Yeah tell me about it, they’re so clingy.” Sunset sighed as she tried to move to the side, dragging the clothing as it hugged her. 
 “I mean they’re PJs they’re supposed to not fall off you.” Fluttershy pointed as she let out a giggle. 
“Yeah, but I wish they were cling in just that way.” Sunset muttered, “The other day they ambushed me at the park and forced themselves on me. They make their zipper disappear for the night whenever I put them on… it’s just annoying.”
“Well, have you ever asked them why they’re so clingy?” She asked next, “There must be a reason for it, right?”
“What reason would they have? It’s a pair of pajamas.” Sunset sighed before pausing as she thought back to when they were in Twilight’s lab where he saw memories of the PJs and how they seemingly were scared of the dark. “Fine, you might have a point.” Sunset sighed as she gently grabbed the arms of the PJ and pulled them apart before turning to them. “Is there a reason why you are so… attached?” She asked the PJs before reaching down and grabbing the cuff where her hand would slip through and felt her body tense up as her vision went white
Suddenly she was in a room that looked like a nursery, with light blue walls with rainbows on them, baby toys like rattles and blocks were thrown all around along with a dozen different pairs of clothing. Her body felt so sore as she started to move, getting on all fours as if she was back in the pony world as if it had been the first time that she had moved in forever. In one corner of the room, she saw a white stallion with a dark blue mane and tail, looking exhausted as bags hung under his eyes. A tiny white alicorn filly with purple and blue hair sat in a crib, slamming its hooves against the crib mattress as tears streamed down its ace and yellow beams of magic blasted from the tiny alicorn’s horn. The baby looked uncomfortable, maybe she could help them feel better. Or at least that's what she thought as she walked to the stallion, tapping him on the leg.
But instead of being given the chance to help the pony’s eyes grew wide as he grabbed her and tossed her out of the room, leaving her to lay on a red carpet in shock. What did she do wrong? All she was trying to was help out, she didn’t mean to do anything wrong. But before she could process what was happening she was picked up and rushed outside before suddenly being tossed in a trash can, all alone in the pitch dark. Her body immediately started to shiver as she scrambled for an exit. Her hands felt a cool plastic that moved as she pressed against it. She pushed against it a bit harder, getting a little light of the outside world pouring into her dark prison. Quickly she jumped out to find someone to help her, knowing there was just some sort of misunderstanding. Why would she be thrown out like so after all the nights she had made sure the tiny Alicorn was cozy and safe? So she quickly stumbled around, trying to find somepony to help. But sadly her reception wasn’t as warm as she hopped, everyone screaming and running away from her as she got close as if she were some sort of monster. She quickly ran away, trying not to scare anyone and she didn’t want to be tossed away.
Making it outside of the city she immediately was attacked with a blizzard. The sharp cold wind flowed through her as snow clung to her. Sadly even if she wanted to go back to where she was, she had no idea how to get back there. But she didn’t want to go back and scare anypony, she would just press forward. She would find a town eventually, or she would at least get out of the blizzard. Or thats at least what she thought as another large gust of wind hit her, sending her tumbling into a snow drift, making her fly away. There was no way to know how long she flew or the distance that she had traveled. But as the wind died down she landed in another pile of snow, a field of clean white snow was all she could see. Except for a faint yellow light that was glowing under her. What was it? It couldn’t be any worse then what she was dealing with at the moment. So she started too dig, soon finding a pool of golden light. She reached one arm down but the light immediately sucked her up.
Suddenly she found herself in the warm sunlight, falling from a random building and landed on the ground, taking a chane to relax. Feeling the warm ground beneath her was so much better than the bitter cold she had dealt with. But she didn’t get to rest for long before she was lifted up by… herself, looking down in confusion as she started to walk. Soon ending up in the coffee shop where she felt herself in a bit of distress as she talked to the lady who gave her a scone. She wasn’t able to help the alicorn filly, but maybe she could help her.
“Gah!” Sunset gasped, letting go of the PJs as she landed on her bottom, the PJs doing the same. She took a couple deep breaths, she hadn’t ever spent that long inside someones memories before. Though it only was a couple seconds in the real world, she felt like she had taken a tour of Equestria. “You were trying to… help me?” She asked to PJs who rose both hands up, making Sunset frown as she thought. The PJs had given her a hug after her nightmare the previous night. “Ok… I’m not sure this was the best way to go about it. But thanks I guess.” She sighed as she got up. “But that doesn’t exactly answer my question on why you’re so…” She started to ask but froze as she thought about what happened at the castle and in the town. “You don’t want to be alone?” She asked the PJs who put their arms back up. “Oh…” She said with a sigh as she lifted the PJs up from the ground as she felt a mix of emotions. She felt sorry for the PJs for being chased out for just trying to help out and the fact she had been yelling at them for doing the same for her. She was mad that the PJs just invited themselves to try and help her like this. But she was curious why they hadn’t just left her like the they had the crystal empire. 
“See I knew there was a reason why they stayed so close to you.” Fluttershy said, “And the poor thing is afraid of being alone.” She said, reaching into her hair and pulling Angel back out and hugging him.
“Yeah.” She said, “Is that why you stay with me? Cuz you don’t know anyone else?” She asked, the PJs raising one hand in the air. “What why then?” She asked next. And soon the PJs design changed to that of a girl laying on a bed a frown on their face. “Is that me having my nightmare?” Sunset asked, getting two hands in the air before it hugged her.
“Aw!” Fluttershy cooed seeing that, “Isn’t that sweet Angel?” She asked her bunny, who didn’t look amused with the display.
“I guess I could have been looking at this wrong.” She sighed, “Look it really wasn’t cool that you turned me into a little kid. But thanks for wanting to be there for me.” She sighed and returned the hug. “I guess… we can hang out a bit.” She told the PJs as she let go of them. The clothing immediately clapping their none existence, getting a smirk from Sunset. “But first we got to finish restocking the lizard pens. And since I’m this size because of you and you want to hang out you’re gonna help.” She said playfully poking the PJs, making them shutter and jump back before giving the girl a salute and going to get the water bottle and dried worms for the lizard pens.
> Small Babysitting Issues
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Bweah!” Sunset growled, shooting her hand down from her eyes to the ground, and lunged her head out a bit, her vision instantly being taken up by two babies both with light yellow skin. One with brown hair that went up like a mohawk and swirled at the tip like curly frosting and the other baby had pumpkin orange hair that was being hugged by a blue hair scrunchie leaving it floating in the air. The girl made sure to try and make a silly face for the two babies in front of her. Crossing her cyan eyes and sticking her tongue out, dropping it down to her chin.
“GAH!” Both of the tiny babies in front of her squealed, sounding like a tea kettle, and the water in it was boiling, as they leaned back and crashed to the ground. The two immediately burst into a fit of giggles as they kicked their little feet in the air. Thankfully that had been the attitude of the two since Sunset had gotten there and was asked to keep an eye on the two while Pinkie Pie took care of customers in the diner. The smell of fried greasy food, freshly baked bread, and pie filled the air, making the girl's stomach rumble a bit. But she knew she would have a chance to get some baked goods later.
Sunset could only smile down at the two giggling babies as they squirmed trying to sit up. It was nice that she was still bigger than some people she knew, even if those people happened to be like a year old and couldn’t form words yet. She was taking any victory she could get, no matter how small it was.
“You can come down from there,” Sunset said, looking behind her where her PJs were standing on a wooden end table, their arms wrapped tightly around a vase as the neck around moved back and forth, saying no. “Come on, they’re just babies they didn’t know any better.” She sighed, planting her hand on the ground, and pushed herself up off the floor to get up. “I’ll try and make sure they don’t do it again.” She promised, holding her arms out for the clothing to jump down into them. When they first got to the Sugarcube Diner they were ushered to the back where Mr. and Mrs. Cake had their kids the PJs had gotten curious seeing the two babies and went over to investigate.
 And of course, since the PJs were made of the softest material Sunset and ever felt the two babies quickly fell in love with them. It wasn’t bad at first as the babies just held onto the red pant legs of the PJs. But when the two decided to crawl away to try and do their own thing they started a game of tug-of-war. Thankfully Sunset was able to get the PJs away from the two babies before they managed to tear a hole in her PJs after a bit of threw way tug of war. The babies even started to laugh as they fought against the girl, thinking it was just a game. And sadly it took Sunset a bit more time to get her PJs free than she would have liked to admit. Why were babies so freakishly strong? But the PJs had been hiding up there, out of the baby's reach for maybe ten minutes or so. 
They held one sleeve at its waist and tapped its foot as if it were asking Sunset ‘Really?’. Clearing they weren’t too pleased with her rescue attempt from earlier and probably didn’t want to be put back into that situation again. Of course, it showed this by making a few stick figures appear all holding onto a piece of clothing.
“It won’t happen again, I promise.” She said with an eye roll, “Just get down from there before the babies try to shake the table to get you down.” She instructed the PJs, which thankfully listened to her and jumped down. As she went to watch them the PJs shimmered with a golden light and seemingly vanished in the air, but Sunset knew better than that and looked down and saw her outfit was puffing out a bit. Rarity had prepped a pink T-shirt with chocolate cookies on it, a pink dress, white leggings stretching up her legs, and a pair of green sneakers with alligator eyes on the sides of them. Of course, the outfit minus her shoes was puffed out as the PJs hugged her body. “I mean I guess it really won’t happen now.” She said with an eye roll. Though an imagine of the Cake twins playing tug-of with her to get their PJs filled Sunset's head.
Thankfully the two babies seemed to be happy with doing their own thing, the one with brown hair hugging a stuffed cupcake in his hand as he watched the TV that was left on for them, and the baby with orange hair was occupied trying to squeeze a giant plastic cube into a triangle hole, even banging it on the hole, to have nothing happened. But the tiny girl didn’t let her stop her from trying again and again. 
“Ok, I guess we’re both safe for now.” She sighed as she crashed back down on her butt and looked up at the TV. There was some show with cartoon dogs on the screen cleaning the room while their dad pretended it was some kind of game. A blue dog was tossing dirty shirts into a laundry basket while her little sister, a tan dog, tried to block. “It's weird to think that I thought that you were for one of these two.” She said to the PJs as she relaxed. If it hadn’t been for that thought she probably wouldn’t have picked them up and she would have saved herself a lot of headaches. But on the other hand, the PJs hadn’t exactly had an easy time before their meeting, feeling the need to run away from their home because they weren’t wanted. And then they instantly just wanted to help her when she picked them up. She just wished that the PJs hadn’t felt the need to turn her into a kid to try and help her. But at least it wasn’t some crazy wave of magic that hit her and then just disappeared with no clue on how to fix it. They had no way to fix her little problem, but the PJs were still there so that counted for something.
“How's things going back here?” Pinkie Pie asked, her head popping into the doorway, her pink hair puffed out like normal and a blue and white hat on her head as she looked at all of them. Though before Sunset could say anything the Cake twins shot their heads in the direction of the new voice and immediately squealed in delight and started to crawl over to the girl. However, when they got to a white baby gate that was blocking the door they whined, the girl even banged the block she had against the gate, not getting it through the plastic bars.
“Inky! Inky!” The boy whined, reaching his pudgy little hands up and opening and closing them, making grabby hands towards the pink teen.
“Hiya Pound Cake!” The teen giggled, reaching down and lifting both the babies and giving them both an Eskimo kiss, rubbing her nose against theirs gently. “And hi to you Pumpkin Cake. Are you both being good for Sunset?” She asked the two. Pumpkin Cake answered by taking her free hand grabbing onto Pinkie's cheek and tugging at it while Pound Cake tried to reach up and take the bow out of the girl's hair.
Sunset's right hand immediately shot up as the PJs responded No to Pinkie's question. But Sunset rolled her eyes at the pajama's response and forced her hand to go down. It wasn’t as if Pinkie knew what that meant, well Sunset was pretty sure she didn’t anyway, sometimes Pinkie managed to know weird and random things without anyone telling her about it.
“They’re doing great. They tried to fight over my PJs a little bit but past that, they’ve been great.” She said, feeling her PJs tugging at her arm, trying to lift it up and disagree with her, but Sunset fought to keep her arm down.
“Good, I’m glad they aren’t giving you a hand time,” Pinkie said as she leaned over and sat them back into the room. “Sometimes they can be so much that even I have a hard time keeping up with them. Good thing they don’t have wings or magical powers!” She joked, letting out a snort as she laughed, making the twins giggle trying to mimic her.
“Nope, they're being good,” Sunset assured her friend, glad she was being helpful even if it was by being the distraction for a couple of babies for her friend while she finished up her shift. Even if her PJs weren’t as keen to be there to watch them with Sunset.
“Just hang in there a little longer and then we’ll get out of here. My shifts almost over.” The pink girl promised before waving bye to them all. “You two be good!” She said to the two babies. Pumpkin just blew a raspberry as Pound clapped his hands and giggled at his twin sister as Pinkie disappeared. Then the two immediately started to make their move, as if they took Pinkie’s words as a challenge. The two immediately wrapped their tiny pudgy fingers around the holes of the plastic baby gate and immediately started to push and pull the barrier.
“Hey hey hey!” Sunset yelped seeing the two doing that and rushed over to stop them. The last thing she wanted or needed was the Cakes or Pinkie to rush back because the two babies managed to pull the gate down on themselves. She grabbed Pumpkin first and tugged the girl back, trying to get her away from the baby gate. “Eh, just let go!” She huffed, mentally cursing the two babies’ weird baby strength. Either that or they had glue on their hands because Sunset pulled and pulled out the tiny girl only whining in annoyance at the attempts to get her to let go of the gate. She even kicked Sunset, though thankfully the yellow baby had most of her attention and strength on the gate. “Come on, please let go, it’s not safe!” Sunset pleaded before getting an idea and let go of the girl. She then gently started to dance her fingers all over the baby, making Pumpkin squeal as she was tickled and let go of the gate to try and stop the older girl from tickling her.
“Ha ha!” Sunset cheered as she grabbed the baby and tried to lift her and pull her away. Though with her little kid muscles, she more or less managed to get Pumpkin's heels off the ground and dragged the girl's toes across the carpeted floor away from the pen. Maybe the babies didn’t have super strength, maybe she needed to do a couple of push-ups while stuck as a kid. 
Sunset was quick to deposit Pumpkin on a large brown teddy bear that was lying on the floor and rushed to get the other little Cake. Using the same tactic that she used on the boy's sister soon the baby boy was giggling giving the girl a chance to grab him and drag him to where the bear was. But as she walked backward with the giggling boy in her hands she soon saw Pumpkin crawling back towards the baby gate. 
“Ah no!” She yelped as she dropped Pound on the teddy bear before rushing to Pumpkin, diving and grabbing the girl by her feet, halting her process. “You gotta stay away from that thing.” Sunset huffed, hoping the girl would somehow understand her. But hearing Pumpkin squeal and giggle as Sunset butt scooched backward, dragging the baby with her, she figured nothing was getting through. “No, Pound Cake!” The girl whined as she watched the other baby crawl past her. She let go of one of Pumpkin's feet and grabbed Pound's foot. Immediately the boy stopped and Sunset tried to move back, but with the weight of the two babies, they weren’t budging. The opposite happened as the two started to crawl forward, leaving Sunset to be pulled behind them as if she were a sled and they were sled dogs.
“Would you like to help?” Sunset huffed, looking down at the PJs beneath her shirt, “If I get in trouble because these two get hurt and you did nothing to help I’ll be mad at you!” She threatened, hoping that it would be enough to get the clothing to pitch in. She had no idea how she would punish a pair of kid's pajamas, she would have already used it on the PJs if she had some way to punish them, so she hoped the bluff would be enough. And when the girl felt her clothes loosen up she sighed in relief and soon she felt something grab her feet, slowly stopping her and the baby's advances to the gate. Pound and Pumpkin Cake’s little fingers reached out and tried to reach the gate, but sadly for them, they were just inches away from being to their target.
“So… what now?” The girl asked, looking back at the PJs, which were standing up, leaning back, their arms wrapped around Sunset's foot. It gave a quick shoulder shrug making Sunset roll her eyes. “Thanks.” She sighed though she suddenly felt the two babies stop tugging.
“Gah!” Pumpkin cheered making Sunset whip her head around to see the tiny girl pointing behind Sunset with an excited look on her face. She tried to see what the girl was so infatuated with and noticed her PJs, who let go of her foot and started to wave his arms around as if it was trying to scare off a couple of wild animals. But the babies didn’t seem too scared by it as Pound crawled beside her and Pumpkin crawled over Sunset heading to where the PJs were at.
“Nope, they’re not a plaything either.” The girl said, spinning around and picking Pumpkin up as soon as the girl crawled off of her. But like with the gate Pumpkin didn’t seem too interested in what Sunset had to say and just tried to squirm out of the older girl's arms. As she struggled with Pumpkin she watched Pound chase the PJs around until the clothing was behind her tapping on her shoulders frantically. “Yes I know, I’m trying to stop them right now!” She groaned, wanting to keep her word to the PJs about the babies not torturing the PJs. But when she could hardly keep one of them on her lap contained, there wasn’t much she could do about the second child. But soon she felt the soft feeling of the PJs back on her and sighed in relief, glad there was less thing she had to deal with and Pumpkin stopped squirming on her lap as she and her brother looked around to see where the PJs went. “They went away, they’re not here anymore.” She said to them. However, when the baby on her lip popped out its bottom lip the girl winced and waved her hands next trying to stop the incoming storm. “No please don’t cry! There's no need to cry!” She said desperately as she looked back at Pound and saw him getting ready to cry as well. Panicking as she looked back and forth between the two babies seeing they weren't calming down she tried making a silly face. Sticking her tongue out, crossing her eyes, and went “Bweah.”
“WAAAAAAH!” Was the response the two kids gave off. Pumpkin immediately shielded her face with her hands as she cried, Pound immediately started to bang his fist against the carpeted floor.
“Er…” Sunset groaned as she grabbed her shirt and lifted it up, revealing the top part of her PJs. The cloth’s patterns immediately changed to explication points as the two babies looked up and saw it. “Don’t worry I’m not gonna let them hurt you. She assured the PJs as the two babies immediately grabbed onto them and started to giggle. Pumpkin, with a beaming smile on her face, rested her head against Sunset like she was a pillow and Pound rested in head against her leg and let out a yawn. “See, they just want to cuddle cuz you’re soft.” She told the PJs as she gently petted Pumpkin's head the girl’s eyes closed and she stuck her thumb in her mouth, quickly falling asleep against Sunset. Probably worn out from the playing and dragging Sunset around the room. “Now they’re just gonna chill out for a while,” Sunset said with a giggle as she held Pumpkin in her arms before letting out a yawn herself. “And we just wait for Pinkie to finish up her shift and we’ll get out of here.” She sighed as she rested her head down, smiling a bit. Thanks to her PJs she was warm and comfy and the past little adventure of trying to stop two babies from crushing themselves from a baby gate really took it out of her. And before she knew what was going on she was fast asleep, snoring softly alongside the two other babies.
> A Whacky Tea Party
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“You what?!” Rarity shrieked out, making Sunset wince as she took a step back from her friend before she had a chance to be attacked. She knew that the fashionista wouldn’t take the news of the farm clothes too well. Maybe pushing it off to right now wasn’t the best decision she had ever made. Or maybe attempting to clean the clothes wasn’t the right thing to do, especially after a couple of leaving them in a plastic bag outside to spar everyone the smell of Apple Acres. But she hadn’t expected her friend to freak out over the ruined clothes completely… ok maybe she should have seen that coming since most of Rarities outfits were dry clean only. But Rarity also wasn't off the hook for it because why would you send fancy clothes to a farm and expect them not to get dirty?
In the white-skinned girl's hands were the remaining bits of Sunset's outfit when the girl had to spend the day in at Applejack's place. The poor clothes had been covered with mud, chicken feed, and many other different farm sludges and then while she was with Fluttershy she had asked her friend to give the clothes a quick wash. Since it was at an animal rescue center she felt like it was ok to have the clothes go through the wash there, they probably weren't the worst things that the washer and drier had been through. And the clothes looked and, more importantly, smelled great. So Sunset put them in her bag and when Rarity asked to see the clothes Sunset went to pull them out and it wasn’t good. The T-shirt lost all the sparkles on the musical notes, the dress was torn up at the ends the tears were hiking up all on their own, and even the boots seemingly had changed color, having gone from a dark brown to a light tan. 
“I um… put them in the wash?” Sunset repeated sheepishly, unsure if she should stay there or run and hide. She knew how seriously her friend took fashion and seeing one of her outfits completely destroyed probably was worse than taking a knife to the heart.
“Darling. Whyyyyyy?!” She squealed out, dramatically spinning away, her hand going over her forehead as she fell backward onto a purple couch, the famous ‘Fainting Couch’ in the corner of her room. “These clothes are supposed to be hand-washed and dried, darling!” The teen cried out, make Sunset bounce her head around. At least they hadn't been dried cleaned only, or was hand washed the same thing, it wasn't like Sunset knew. Rarity immediately sat up and took a deep breath in and out. “Oh well,” She said as she tossed the ruined clothes over her shoulders. “That outfit was out of season anyways, so it's not a huge loss.” She assured Sunset, making the little girl frown as she looked at her friend confused. Rarity was the only person who could switch from being the most dramatic person ever to the most understanding in a matter of seconds. “Just pretty please don’t ruin this one or any other outfits.” She said, squatting down and tapping on Sunset’s outfit for the day. Which consisted of a red sparkling dress that had a ribbon tied around her waist, white tights, and some black shoes that were apparently called ‘Mary Janes’. It was the fanciest outfit that she had worn that week that much was for sure. 
“Uh, yeah. I’ll do my best.” She promised nodding her head, the girl wasn’t sure if this outfit was still in season or not. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to see how her friend would react if she ruined a fashionable dress.
“Thank you.” Rarity said, looking around her creative space, “Well with the bad news out of the way, perhaps we should leave here. I fear this room may be a bit messy for a casual hangout.” She said, gently kicking at a roll of pink fabric that was lying on the floor. The two were currently hanging out in the teens ‘Creative Workspace’ where she would design and make her new outfit. A rainbow of fabric colors littered the ground, her table, and even hanging against the wall. Buttons and ribbons were scattered everywhere as if someone had thrown an accessory-themed grenade into the room and used that to scatter the buttons and ribbons around. Thankfully all the needles seemed to be stuck into little yarn balls lined up on a countertop. The yarn balls were in different little shapes like a red apple with a little green leaf on it, a pink and white snail, and even one of a knitted doll with yellow skin and red hair which Sunset tried not to read too much into that.
“Yeah, it might be a good idea, not that I’m gonna try and play with some needles or something,” Sunset assured her friend. But it was more not wanting to become Rarity’s model if she suddenly had an inspirational burst for a kid's series of clothes. “Did you have anything planned for today?”
“Yes darling, of course, I had prepared something. Nothing too crazy though, just something whipped up last minute since I didn’t have too much time to plan.” She assured, reaching down and slipping her hand into Sunsets as if the girl was actually a child and leading her away. Leading her out of the room and through the house she soon through a glass sliding door to the back yard. As soon as Sunset stepped on the wooden back porch, which had a dark blue canopy covering it, she saw what looked like a scene that had been ripped out of a page of a children's princess story. A sea of dark green grass was in front of them with shrubs cut to look like hearts every five feet or so, a large white marble fountain spewing clean blue water in the middle, and the entire thing was guarded by rose bushes that reached up seven or so feet in the air.
“Wow!” Sunset gasped, her eyes growing wide as she drank in every detail. She had never been to the girl's place before as they usually all met up at Pinkie’s or Applejack’s if they ever needed to meet up at a place out of school. 
“Yes, I know it's a bit drap this time of year.” Rarity sighed, blushing as she rubbed her eyes, “We’ve yet to set up the arches for the lilys and the rose wall needs some serious attention.” She said making the little girl look at her friend and see that she was genuinely embarrassed by these ‘issues’. 
“No this is great!” Sunset assured Rarity, “It reminds me of Princess Celestia’s garden at Canterlot Castle.” She explained, and yeah the castle garden was only about twelve times the size of this, with a dozen different kinds of flowers growing there, but the feel and simple beauty of the backyard reminded Sunset of her teacher's garden nonetheless.
“Oh, that’s sweet of you to say Sunset, darling.” Rarity giggled, “Compare my little garden to a princess'.” She said but before anything else could be said an ac-hem shot through the air, like someone trying to clear their throat, pulling the attention of the two. Sitting at a white table on the porch was Rarity’s little sister ‘Sweetie Belle’, shredded in a blue dress, not too different from the design Sunset was wearing, minus a ribbon but had on white leggings and dress shoes, a white sun hat with a blue ribbon on it sat on the freshmen's head, and a tin can was in her hand, “THE DARLING JAR” was written on the front of the can. Rarity gave out a little groan as she let go of Sunset's hand and walked over to her sister, reached into her purse, pulled a dollar out, and dropped it into the can.
“Was that the only time you’ve said it?” Sweetie Belle pressed, jingling the can as Rarity rolled her eyes as she got another dollar and dropped it in. “There we go.” She said as she sat the can down and looked across from her where there were two other girls. “Sorry about that girls.” Sweetie Belle said though the grin on her face suggested otherwise. 
“Sweetie Belle, you said there wouldn’t be anyone else here.” A girl with tangerine orange skin and purple hair said. She was in a frilly light blue and white dress and a tiara sat on her head. “And if I’m counting right there's two more people here.”
“Calm down Smolder, this is my sister and her friend.” Rarity’s sister assured, waving her hand to dismiss Smolder's comment. “It's a long story why her friend is a kid, and it has to do with those PJs over there.” She explained, picking up a white glass tea cup that had blue flowers painted on it, pointing to a chair that had Sunset’s PJs sitting on one of the chairs, the neck hole twisting as they looked between all the girls.
“Oh, they’re magical.” The other girl with light blue skin said. She was dressed in a simple red dress with black dots on it looking like a ladybug, and a white hair band keeping her pink hair back. “I was kind of wondering why they were sitting there like that.” She admitted, though her voice barely was louder than a whisper as she brought her white glass tea cup to her lips and took a sip from it.
“I’m sorry but, who are you two?” Sunset asked, frowning a bit as she tried to recall who these two girls were. She had learned her lesson from Wallflower that it can be dangerous not to notice someone. But Sunset had no idea who these two were, they didn’t look slightly familiar to her.
“I’m Smolder!” The orange girl said proudly, puffing her chest out and jabbing her thumb in her direction. “Star playing of Queen of the Mountain at Crystal Prep and that is my girl- Er…” Smolder fumbled as she looked over at the other girl at the table, both of their cheeks instantly flashing red as they met each other's gaze. “Er, she um, girl, yeah, um…” She stammered out before the other girl cleared her throat. 
“I’m, Ocellus,” The other petite build girl said with a soft smile, “I’m the president of the Tabletop Club at Crystal Prep.” 
“Oh, that's why I didn’t recognize you two.” Sunset sighed in relief, she had already made one girl mad by not recognizing her she didn’t need any more issues concerning that. “How do you three know each other? Being from two different schools… two different schools that almost hated each other until this year?”
“Oh, Sweetie Belle and her friends caught us while we were spying on your school for the friendship games.” Smolder said before looking at Ocellus, “Want to explain why we got caught?” She asked the other girl.
“Not particularly.” She said, pointing her nose in the air as she turned her head away from Smolder and looked like she didn’t want this part ever mentioned. But Smolder had a grin painted on her face as she banged her fist on the table and laughed.
“We were trying to watch your soccer team so we could report back to Principal Cinch,” She said before she started to chuckle. “But Scootaloo found us under the bleachers and when I ran away I looked and saw Ocellus here trying to throw a dice at the girl to stop her.”
“Excuse me, that's not what happened and you know it!” Ocellus interrupted, in a manner that Sunset assumed was supposed to be her yelling or at least raising her voice a bit, but the girl was so soft-spoken it was kind of hard to tell. But as she put her cup down and shot a glare to Smolder she sighed. “First off a singular die is called a die, not a dice. And I didn’t merely throw it at her, I rolled for an invisibility spell to help me slip away. Which would have worked if I hadn’t…. Rolled a Nat 1.” She sighed blushing as she grabbed one of the tiny sandwiches that sat on a tower in the middle of the table. Sunset wasn’t sure what a Nat 1 was or how rolling a die would help her slip away. But Smolder reached over and patted her girl on her shoulder, her large hand almost covering Ocellus’ entire shoulder.
“Next time I’m sure it’ll end up differently.” Smolder assured her friend, “And besides, we some new friends out of it. So it's probably a good thing that you… failed you invisibility spell…” She said, muttering the last parts and rolling her eyes like she couldn’t believe that she had said it.
“That's true.” Ocellus said, smiling at Smolder and then at Sweetie Belle, “Still I told Principal Cinch that my dice rolls had been awful that day and I shouldn’t go. I’m just glad we didn’t get in trouble for getting caught and not finding any information.”
“Yeah, I’m gonna guess that's not a hard thing to do with her,” Sunset said to herself, she didn’t know much about the principal past what she saw at the Friendship games and what Twilight told her.
“That's because someone stopped you from telling her those things,” Smolder said proudly, jabbing her thumb toward herself with a smile. “Anyways aren’t we here for a tea party? Not to talk about school and stuff.” She huffed before grabbing her tea cup and went to grab a tiny triangle-shaped sandwich. 
“Quite, Smolder dar-...” Rarity started to say, but when her little sister held up the can and shook it the teen cleared her throat. “Yes, Smolder dear, let's hold on the boring conversation.” She said as she walked over and took a seat and reached over to pull a chair out for Sunset to sit. Which the tiny girl gratefully accepted, walking over and climbing into it, which was a bit more of a struggle than Sunset would like to admit. She jumped up, grabbed onto the sides of the chair so she was dangling in the air and tried to pull herself up.
“Er…” She growled as she tried to shimmy herself onto the chair, kicking her feet as if that was going to be able to help. But after a few moments of struggling, she felt someone grab her arms and hoist her up into the chair.
“There you go.” Rarity said, turning Sunset around sitting her down, and patting her head. It was a white plastic chair like the others but Sunset couldn't help but notice that her chair had a thick green cushion on it, which made it so she was just tall enough for her head to make it over the little table. 
“So,” Ocellus said, taking a quick sip of her tea. “You’re a teenager?” She asked, her eyes falling on Sunset for a second before they darted to the pile of sandwiches.
“Yeah,” Sunset said, her cheeks still burning red as she also tried to avoid some awkward eye contact to go with the awkward question. “Until the whole situation with those happened a few days ago.” She said, nodding her head over to the PJs, who were currently holding an empty tea glass upside down, shaking it as if wondering why nothing was pouring out. 
“Yeah, they’re magical, right?” Smolder asked, staring at Sunset, not concerned with it being awkward, unlike Ocellus. “That's so cool! We don’t have anything magical over at our school! I bet its so cool getting to have magic!”
“It can be cool,” Sunset said with a head nod as she watched Rarity start to fill her glass with some warm water before dropping a tea bag in it. “Sometimes it lets you shoot laser beams from your hands, see into people’s past, or a dozen over things. Then other times you get turned into a weird demon creature or it turns you into a little kid too small to climb into a chair without help.” She said, reaching over and gently grabbing her glass. “It doesn’t help that in this world magic seems to work however the heck it wants.” She mused out loud, staring into her cup and at her reflection in the light brown liquid.
“This world?” Ocellus asked, frowning a bit as she returned her stare to Sunset. “Is magic different on the Moon or Mars?”
“No,” Sunset said shaking her head before pausing realizing she wasn’t actually sure if magic would work differently on the moon. The only person who might be able to answer that was in the pony world, and Sunset doubted Princess Luna wished to recall her time on the moon or as Nightmare Moon. “Well, maybe. But I was talking about something a bit more… strange.” She said as she took a sip of her tea.  The flavor of sweet and spices of the tea danced on her young taste buds. “I’m actually from a different dimension where everyone is ponies, dragons, other animals and creatures.” She said, a small smirk growing on her face as she watched the other two girls freeze. Smolder's mouth dropped open while Ocellous’ eyes shaped into stars.
“Wait you really come from a world with dragons and magic?” The girl asked, her hands slamming on the table as she stood up, making everyone else jump. “That's so cool! What's it like there? Can anyone use magic? Do you have to roll a D20 to use spells?” The girl started to shoot off questions.
“Cell,” Smolder said, clearing her throat, “Calm down, one question at a time for her.” She instructed the other girl. Which seemed to work as the teal-skinned girl took a deep breath and sat down. Though she kept her eyes on Sunset, waiting for her answers.
“Well, it's a lot different than here,” Sunset said, her eyes shooting up to the clear blue sky as she tried to think of what to say. “It was really just ponies around when I lived there but since then other races have started to live there.”
“Like what?” The girl asked leaning forward, clearly excited to hear about what other creatures past ponies live in this other world.
“Well there's dragons,” She started to list off, but that alone made Ocellus gasp as she grabbed Smolder's arm and shook the orange girl's arm.
“Like your character for the game, maybe they even exist in this other world.” She squealed excitedly.
“I wouldn’t be too sure about that, from what I’ve seen only people who really exist in this world exist in the pony world,” Sunset said.
“So, we’re ponies in the other world?” Smolder asked, sounding a bit disappointed in that fact and her bottom popped out in a pout.
“I mean maybe?” Sunset said, shrugging her shoulders as she took another sip from her cup. “I don’t think I’ve ever met anypony like you two before. So maybe you’re a hippogryph or a changeling?” She suggested, which prompted the other two girls to look at Sunset confused and ask about the creatures. But they each asked about a different species at the same time making it sound like ‘whats a hichpgrling’, making Sunset jump not expecting that. “A Hippogryph is a species that can transform from a mermaid-like creature to a griffin-like creature. I haven’t met too many of them myself mind you, but I read about them in a book once. And then a changeling is like if you mixed a bug and a pony and gave it the ability to shapeshift.”
“Really?!” Ocellus said, “They can shapeshift?! That would be so cool to be able to do! Imagine having a tabletop session but being able to change into your actual character! LARPing would be so easy to do!” She said, turning to Smolder.
“Uh… yeah sure?” Smolder said, reaching over and patting the other girl's head. “It could be interesting to do I guess. But I told you, I’m not LARPing, you already got me doing the actual game. But I’m not going out dressed like a barbarian, I’d get laughed off the field next time I went to the Queen of the Hill battles.” She said.
“I know, I know.” Ocellus sighed, clearly disappointed in this fact, but she didn’t push the subject. “Just saying… plus if you were a changeling you could just make it so you looked totally different and no one would recognize you.” She pointed out, making Smolder roll her eyes. Sunset couldn’t help but let a small giggle escape her as she witnessed the two girls banter back and forth. It was nice to have a relaxing day where nothing weird was going on, well besides the pair of PJs sitting across from Sunset. Who had managed to get a hold of one of the little sandwiched and was turning it around as if trying to find a secret switch on the food.
I hope Princess Twilight has seen my messages. The little girl thought to herself, and more so was hoping the alicorn would know how to fix this. Her parents were going to be home in a day unless something would keep them occupied unable to come home. So time wasn’t on her side anymore. But for now, she didn’t worry about it as she took another sip of tea… maybe no worrying about magical PJs should be added to the no-school-talk rule?