Sunset Slumber Party

[Sunset Shimmer]

”So what is the point of this again?” Sunset Shimmer asked of her companion, Fluttershy, as the two walked along the suburban sidewalk.

It was sunset, with the night sky just starting to peek out. Normally Sunset would enjoy this time, the bolded colors serving a nice reminder of her own personality. But right now, she was giving it a slight death glare, as if that would make time stop and what was about to happen would be avoided. Because for every minute the sun continued to set and the stars shown, she was one more minute closer to being dragged into...

A sleepover.

It had been Rarity’s idea, a way of getting the three of them to have some “bonding”. It hadn’t been too long ago that Sunset had tried to destroy them all, so it was figured there was a pressing need for her to do this. After all, they had been tasked by “Princess Twilight” to help her learn about friendship. And while Sunset was making the effort because, hey, friendship had blasted her into a crater so there had to be something to it, that still didn’t require her to like every single bit of it.

Still, she had committed to at least trying the whole friendship approach, and so she had agreed to join in on this scheme. She shifted her backbag around a bit, which was filled with the supplies she had been tasked with bringing. Change of clothes, hygiene stuff, and, most importantly, various dips for chips. At the very least, no matter how this night turned out, she would at least get some food out of it.

[Deleted]

Fluttershy had been on board with Rarity's plan since she had heard of it. It would be important to really get to know Sunset Shimmer and really get a stronger sense of unity with each other. After everything that had happened, she believed that all of their group could benefit from building some memories together. And it was very gracious of Rarity to offer her own home for the occasion.

It didn't hurt that the plan was in line with the type of activity that Fluttershy was decent at. A small gathering of friends getting together on a lovely day as opposed to something more out in the public or anything based on skill. Plus, Rarity enjoyed a lot of quieter activities.

She walked alongside Sunset Shimmer, nervously smiling at the question. ”Well, it's to get to know each other better. My father would say it's for 'esprit de corps',” she explained, not exactly sure what the best route to go was since she didn't know all that much about Sunset Shimmer, ”I think Pinkie would say it's to have fun,” she attempted, going from a different, less pragmatic angle.

She imagined that Rarity would be best able to explain the situation, but since she wasn't here now, she could not pass it off to her. Fluttershy had never had a ton of friends and the one she had made before High School wasn't the traditional sleepover type, so she had largely missed out on sleepovers and what they typically consisted of. As such, she was far from an expert on them, beyond what one would see on television. She was quite excited to see what would be in store for them.

[Sunset Shimmer]

”Fun and camaraderie, got it,” Sunset Shimmer replied, nonchalantly crossing her arms to emphasize that she “got it”.

Of course, she really didn’t get it still. Yeah, the basic idea sounded simple enough. Accomplishing that task, however, would probably be easier said than done. First off, there was the whole “outsider” thing. Despite the one year breakup, caused by Sunset Shimmer herself, the rest of the group had all been rather close friends. Now all of a sudden here she came, the one who tried to turn them all into zombie slaves, acting as if she was part of the group. Despite their reassurances they truly were her new friends, Sunset still felt like the whole thing was a farce. She couldn’t say why she thought that other than distrusting the motives of others had up to this point served her well. Whatever the case may be, Sunset was still at a lost at what her role in the group was to be.

The second issue, of course, was the whole“from a land of ponies” thing. There Sunset had been the personal student of the ruler of the land. That didn’t leave one with a lot of time for socializing, even if Sunset had wanted it. Becoming more powerful, of course, had trumped social grace, so the knowledge of what was supposed to go on at one of these things was beyond Sunset Shimmer’s expertise. Except whatever she had seen on television, but she was smart enough to assume that fictionalized accounts were probably not accurate. B

”So….you don’t think she’s going to make us wear matching hand-made pajamas or anything, do you?” Sunset added, recalling the fashionista’s love of dress up and recruiting poor saps to be her dolls.

[Deleted]

Rarity was busy preparing her basement room for her two guests tonight. Both Sunset Shimmer and Fluttershy were on their way over and her place was definitely not to her standards. It was almost as if Pinkie Pie held a party down here. Moving Opal up onto her bed, the fashionista started to sweep up the clippings of silk that had gathered on the hardwood floor. She had a fold out table lined with chips, snacks, and different party foods, as well as a couple boxes of pizza. She had games, facials, movies, and a few surprises lined up for tonight. But her aversion to messy spaces was bothering her. Her Pièce de résistance was a set of evening wear for each of the girls and custom sleeping bags.

Despite having the largest room in the house, she often felt cluttered and barely had space to walk around. With her materials and equipment stacked up and stored closer together she felt like she had enough room to have a sleep over for all the girls and one guest each. Though her food budget would get strained. Maybe another night. Sweeping up the last of the silk carvings, she poured them into the fabric waste bin and put the broom and dustpan in the closet. This was the first night Sunset was actually getting so close to them other than to humiliate her, so everything had to be just perfect or this could become the worst possible thing.

[Deleted]

Fluttershy paused to consider that question. Rarity did love fashion and was quite handy at developing new ideas based upon a person's appearance and temperament. She had no doubt that her friend would enjoy making them something nice like that. She really did work hard for others. But even if she would like to, they were only high school students who lived on high school student budgets. That would be pretty expensive. ”I don't think so,” she answered once she felt confident enough about her inclination.

”B-but, I haven't exactly been to too many of them, either,” she admitted, ”So I don't really know what to expect.” But, along with her generous attitude when it came to tailoring and sewing, Rarity was also unique in other ways. She doubted a Rarity ran sleepover wouldn't be full of new ideas that were entirely special to this occasion. There was really no guarantees.

”We're almost there... by the way,” she said as the street became very familiar. It had been so long since she had been here, but the landmarks were hard to forget. But even if she had, she doubted she could mistake Rarity's house. It was surprising that Rarity herself hadn't picked it.

[Sunset Shimmer]

”I guess that makes two of us then,” Sunset Shimmer replied to Fluttershy’s hesitation to give a secure confirmation.

Sunset couldn’t think of any time that she had actually done something like this. Back in Equestria, her studies hadn’t left her with much time to have friends. That, and of course her complete lack of interest in them, despite whatever token attempts to do so she did to make Celestia happy. So as far as Sunset Shimmer was concerned, she was going into this whole thing blind as a bat. And with her sort of controlling nature, that was not something she particularly enjoyed.

When Fluttershy mentioned that they were starting to get close to Rarity’s, Sunset started to look around for it. From the description they had been given, it was supposed to be kind of squarish or something? Whatever, they had the address as well, and that’s all they really needed. Still, from the looks of things Rarity was living in a rather nice neighborhood. Of course someone as fashion obsessed as her probably came from a rather elite background.

Stop it Sunset; that kind of thinking has to stop. she mentally chided herself for the rather rude way of describing her ‘friend.’

Pulling out her phone, she checked the message with the address to make sure it was correct before looking around again. Seeing one of the houses with the matching numbers, Sunset began to head towards it.

”This should be it…” she stated, informing Fluttershy that they should be at their destination.

Standing at the door, Sunset took a deep breath. There really was no way to get out of this now. With a deep breath, and a mumbling of “Here goes nothing,” she did the last thing that needed to be done: she pressed the doorbell.

[Deleted]

Almost as soon as the doorbell was pressed, the door swung open and a big tall, fairly muscular amn stood at the entry way. He could have easily been a football player. Or a professional wrestler. On his face was a fumanchu mustache and atop his head a straw hat. A great looking hawaiian shirt finished off the relaxed fit feel. "Oh you two must be Rarebaer's friends." Turning he yelled into the house. "RAREBAER! YOUR GIRLFRIENDS ARE HERE!"

Rarity was running as fast as she could up the stairs hearing this with a fully red face. "Please ignore my father. He does his best to infuriate me." Turning she leads her two guest in and over to a purple painted door. As she slides it open, bells ring in the stairwell that appears and sh leads them down to her room. "I also made proper precautions incase Sweetie and her friends try to interrupt tonight.

[Deleted]

Fluttershy found herself nervous for reasons that she could not adequately understand. It wasn't that she was oblivious to her social anxiety, but she had expected to feel some nature of guilty relief once they had arrived. An additional person would diffuse her responsibility to respond to any of the dialogue and that would mean that she'd have more options in what to respond to. Then again, there were few places more private than someone's home and she was about to enter Rarity's. There was some pressure to this situation that could not be entirely relieved through numbers.

She smiled once their friend appeared, not having the courage to have said much to Rarity's father during their brief interaction.

”Your house is lovely,” she said as she followed along. ”Thank you again for hosting,” she added, not wanting to forget her manners in all of the excitement.

”Are they having a party too?” She didn't mind Sweetie or her friends, she thought they were adorable, but the media was pretty clear about the wall of seperation that siblings often liked to have between themselves.

[Sunset Shimmer]

Sunset attempted to look polite when what had to have been Rarity’s father opened the door, but a large, muscular man in a Hawaiian print shirt was not exactly her first impression of what the fashionista’s parents would have been like. That, and apparently Rarity’s pet name was Rarebear. Sunset made a note to keep that in the back of her mind for teasing later. In the meantime, however, she simply had a bit of a look at confusion at the man before coming back to her senses at the arrival of Rarity.

She listened as Rarity apologized for her father sometimes being infuriating. All Sunset could do is shrug.

”Yeah, I can get that, though considering my mom is also my principal that probably makes it a little more irritating sometimes,”

Ironically that pretty much worked regardless of whether she was talking about Celestia here, as she was meaning to, or Princess Celestia. Even after all that had happened between them, now that she had time to reflect on it Sunset had to admit that the Princess wasn’t really the horrible mentor she had thought she had been. Considering what had happened when she had gotten the Element of Magic, Princess Celestia probably had a point in thinking she wasn’t ready for that kind of responsibility.

I wonder what she’s up to now… Sunset thought for a moment before being snapped back to reality with the introduction of Rarity’s room and a warning about her sister.

”Your sister and her friends were the ones who uploaded that video of them singing and everyone laughed at right?” Sunset asked, going for the first thing she could think of that she remembered about Rarity’s sister. Granted not the most pleasant sounding memory, but from what she had heard the group of them had taken the teasing quite well. Something about them thinking their calling was in comedy or something?

[Deleted]

As they entered Rairty's room she just stepped aside to welcome them in. "Thank you Fluttershy. And while I wouldn't say they are having a party in the traditional sense. When one is nearby, one can always expect all three to show up." When she hears Susnet's reference to the video that shall not be talked about in the house, she winced a bit. "Quite. I still can not beleive that those three used our backyard for that...that...monstrosity." Her eyes looked like she was just about to snap thinking back on it. Their crimes against fabric and good taste in gneeral. Rarity must have been adopted with a sister and parents with thier clothing choices.

Her face clamed down slightly as she walked over to the couch and sat down. "Oh do feel free to make yourselves at home. We literally have all night to have fun and socialize." A smile crossing her face as she started relaxing some. The guest had started arriving, cleaning was done, so there was nothing left to worry about. The room was 90% of the floor size of the house with intermittent support beams. The walls were bare white and the floor and ceiling had dark brown bamboo hardwood covering them. While normally the floor would be hard to walk on, it sank just slightly at each step due to the padding under the wood. Rarity's boots were over in a corner by the door. Off to one side between two support columns was what looked like dressing rooms. And piled in a pyramid in front of them were rolled up sleeping bags, one matching each girl's personal color motif. Inside the roll was the outfit she designed for each of them.

[Deleted]

Fluttershy made sure not to bump anything as they walked through the house toward Rarity's room. She had seen the video they were talking about. She had thought it was pretty cute herself, but she had no intention of arguing with her friends. This sleepover was about getting closer together, not having a spat. Plus, she didn't think Sweetie Belle would be too sad about this conversation on account of her not being able to hear it. Once again... it wasn't Fluttershy's place to judge how siblings interacted since she had none of her own.

”Oh, thank you,” Fluttershy said as she looked around the room. As close as she felt to Rarity, she still paused before deciding where she wanted to sit. She didn't want to make any assumptions and sit somewhere that Sunset Shimmer wanted to sit. If she sat too close to Rarity, it might make Sunset feel like there was some inner circle that she couldn't breach. If she sat too near Sunset, Rarity might feel as if they weren't comfortable and had to bond together to brave the new conditions.

Clearly, it was time to stall so that she didn't have to go first. ”You found sleeping bags that match each of us,” Fluttershy said, appreciating that quite a bit, ”Did you already have these before?” She asked, thinking that it would be cool either way. If Rarity had already owned the matching bags, it would be like destiny. If she had needed to search them out and buy them, then it was nice of her to go through that trouble.

[Sunset Shimmer]

Okay, do not mention the video again… Sunset thought as she noticed the slight moment of rage that Rarity brought forth at the just the mention of the video. She honestly didn’t think it was that terrible…yeah, it was. Whatever, it was in the past and that was that.

Seeing that Rarity’s boots where off in a corner, Sunset figured that was the normal thing to do. Before getting too comfortable, Sunset bent down to start taking her own off while Fluttershy started up a chat. Sunset hadn’t noticed the customized bags, customized enough that Sunset doubted that they were just bought somewhere. This, of course, meant that they were probably handmade. Now, Sunset didn’t know that much about slumber party etiquette, but she still figured that was probably bit overkill.

Boots finally off, Sunset headed over to join Rarity on the couch, lacking the concern for positioning that Fluttershy was currently suffering through.

”Let me guess, you made them yourself didn’t you Rarity?”

[Deleted]

Rarity watched as Sunset and Fluttershy went through thier motions to get comfortable. Sunset seemed a little more comfortable than Fluttershy, but then again, knowing her, she was contemplating various factors of ettiquite and what others thought, despite there only being three of them here. She didn't think that either of them would notice the sleeping bags yet, but both of them caught sight of them. Then again it was a pretty big pile. "Yes and the sleepwear rolled up inside them. The sleeping bags were easy enough, I designed them during Chemistry class a couple days ago. I mean you can only do so much with a rectangle stuffed with fluff."

As she looked to her two friends, or one friend and one in progress, she could tell the beginning might be uncomfortable, or a little woozi, but they should get into some fun sometime. And of course it was only a matter of time before the others showed up.