The sun was shining brightly down on the local park of Canterlot, and everywhere you looked, you could see people hanging out and just generally enjoying themselves. Two such people were a pair of girls from formerly-rival schools; Pinkie Pie and Sour Sweet. The former was skipping along happily, while the latter kept up in a more normal way of walking, her face plastered with a look of slight annoyance. However, the one thing of real note about these girls at this particular moment was that they were both bringing their respective pets along for this walk. Pinkie had her beloved toothless alligator, Gummy. And as for Sour, she’d brought with her a large Rottweiler dog, which growled in a menacing manner at every passer-by, resulting in them giving both him and his owner a wide berth. As for Pinkie, she was oblivious to all of this, instead just carrying on as if she were the happiest girl in the world.

“Isn’t this great, Sour? A lovely day, our pets with us, and I get to spend time with one of my new friends!”

Sour turned to her and gave a brief nod.

“Yeah…great.”

Hearing that lack of interest in her voice, Pinkie stopped, turning to her.

“Something wrong?”

Sour shook her head and shrugged her shoulders a little.

“Maybe. I just keep expecting old Killer here to go nuts and attack everything in sight.”

But Pinkie, rather than seeming concerned with that, merely let out a loud giggle before walking closer to her.

“Silly! We had Fluttershy look after him, remember? If anyone can get your growly old dog to behave, it’s her.”

Sour considered that for a moment before nodding.

“Yeah…still not sure.”

Stifling another giggle, Pinkie started to bounce off with her alligator off down the path, with Sour walking close behind her. After carrying on in silence for some time, Sour turned to her with a raised eyebrow.

“So…what’s your angle?”

Hearing that, Pinkie stopped, before then turning to her walking companion with confusion.

“Angle?”

Sour nodded.

“Yeah. I mean…you’re pretty much the bubbliest and most unbearably-cheery person I’ve ever met. Aren’t you gonna...you know…ask me to cheer up?”

But Pinkie simply smiled at that.

“Of course not, silly! We’re friends, remember? Friends don’t make friends do stuff they’re not happy doing.”

Sour raised an eyebrow at that.

“Yeah…I don’t believe ya. A girl who spends as much time as you trying to get people to smile has got to have some kind of secret make-me-happy plan somewhere.”

Again, Pinkie simply smiled.

“Nope!”

Sour opened her mouth, ready to reply to that, only to stop when another voice entered the fray.

“She means what she says, you know.”

Although surprised by the sudden and unexpected voice, both girls turned to its direction, and there, they saw a third girl, about their age, walking towards them. Wearing a distinct and slightly torn green vest, the girl had very noticeable purple pigtails, and was striding towards them with a rather cocky look on her face. Although Sour narrowed her eyes at this newcomer, Pinkie broke out into a massive smile, rushing forward and embracing the new girl in a tight hug.

“ARIA!!!”

Although she was taken aback by thus cuddly assault, Aria soon composed herself, letting out a brief chuckle before returning the hug, albeit in a less enthusiastic way.

“Yeah…good to see you too, Pinks.”

Sour raised an eyebrow at all this, taking a few steps closer to meet up with this new arrival. As Pinkie finally released her, Aria turned to Sour, looking her over before speaking up.

“So…this a new friends of yours, Pinkie?”

Pinkie nodded frantically at that, clearing her throat a little before gesturing to Sour.

“Aria, this is Sour. Sour, this is Aria, an old friend of ours.”

Aria nodded to Sour.

“Sup?”

Sour regarded her carefully for a moment, before then giving a cautious nod in greeting. As for Pinkie, she turned to her old friend with that huge smile still plastered over her face.

“I didn’t know you girls were back yet! You shoulda called or something!”

Aria shrugged her shoulders with a somewhat irritated look on her face.

“Yeah, we decided to come back early. Kept on raining every time we went to the beach. Totally sucked.”

Although she probably wouldn’t have wanted to interrupt, Sour cleared her throat, gaining Aria’s attention.

“Sorry, but…you’re another student of CHS, right?”

Aria nodded.

“A pretty recent one…but yeah.”

Sour put on a smirk before assuming what, to her, was a very sure-of-herself pose.

“Well…I’m from Crystal Prep Academy, just so you know.”

Aria raised an eyebrow, looking her over a little before speaking up with a smirk of her own.

“Oh yeah? Well…I'm a centuries-old Siren from Equestria who once tried to take over the world.”

And immediately the smirk was washed off Sour’s face, replaced instead by a look that seemed to be half-disbelief and half shock, leading to Aria letting out a very loud chortle.

“I swear, I will never get tired of that look!”

Pinkie giggled at that, but it was short-lived, as all three of them began to hear a distinct set of bells coming from not too far away. A look of surprise and realisation crossed the pink-haired girl, as she then handed Gummy’s leash over to Aria for a moment before assuming an “I’m-about-to-run” pose.

“Ice cream truck! Gotta go!”

And with that, she was off, leaving a comical Pinkie-shaped cloud where she’d been standing, which promptly disappeared soon afterwards. Now alone together, both Aria and Sour looked at each other, with a mood of discomfort and awkwardness now having set in for them. After a long and incredibly uncomfortable silence between the two, Sour cleared her throat before speaking up.

“So…you don’t strike me as someone to be friends with someone like…well…her.”

Aria shrugged her shoulders and chuckled a little.

“Yeah…there was a time when I’D have thought that too. But, you know…things change.”

Sour nodded.

“Fair enough. A whole bunch of stuff happened while you were gone.”

Aria nodded.

“I can guess. Something always goes on at that school. Guess that’s what makes it fun.”

Sour raised an eyebrow.

“So…Pinkie…is she gonna be on my case? I mean, no offense, but you kinda look like a girl who’s been on the receiving end of a few pep talks from her. I know Applejack already gave me the live-and-let live talk, but…”

Aria turned in the direction Pinkie had run off to, before looking back to Sour. She stared at her for some time, as if to silently get a better feel for her, which was not something the latter seemed to appreciate, as evidenced by the frown that now crept upon her face. In the end though, Aria cracked a small smile before finally speaking up.

“Look…I bet you’re a pretty angry girl, right? Always ready to snap at someone, gets annoyed easily…and keeps it in, right?”

Sour’s eyes widened somewhat, and she looked to Aria with a degree of discomfort at having been figured out so easily. In the end, she simply nodded in confirmation, leading to Aria giving a nod of her own.

“Thought so. Look…I’ve had more than my fair share of anger issues over the years. And trust me…that’s a lot of years.”

Turning, Aria looked in Pinkie’s far-off direction once more, before, to Sour’s surprise, putting on another smile, and a much warmer one at that.

“But…being friends with her…with all of them…well, it helped. She never said I should be happy if I didn’t want to be, and she never made me do stuff I didn’t want to do.”

Slowly, she looked back to Sour.

“I know she may seem annoying, because believe me, I‘d had to put up with someone very similar for a lot longer. And yeah, she may be all over the place…but she knows how to be a friend. If you want to feel angry or bad about something…she’ll let you. Because Pinkie…she doesn’t make people smile.”

Letting out a sigh, Aria’s smile widened a little.

“…She…just makes you feel like you want to.”

Sour looked at her, seeing no hint of a lie behind those words, and her expression softened somewhat. In the end, she looked away, looking more than a little unsure about all this.

“I…I know that. She’s never told me to cheer up or anything. Her and her friends…they’re the only ones who’ve ever said that to me.”

Aria looked to her and chuckled a little.

“Yeah…it was weird for me too. But trust me. Being friends with them…it’ll help. Maybe not at first…but one day.”

Looking back to her, Sour opened her mouth to speak, only to stop when Pinkie came rushing back, holding a pair of ice creams in each hand. However, she said nothing, since her own mouth was stuffed with a third ice cream, which was presumably her own. After handing the ones in her hands to the other two girls, who graciously accepted them, Pinkie finally took out the one from her mouth, which inevitably led to her taking in a massive gasp of air. After that, she spoke up with her usual huge smile.

“Isn’t this great? Me and two friends just having fun in the park?”

Aria let out a brief laugh before nodded.

“Yeah. Who’d have thought a day would come when I’d actually agree with that?”

Pinkie giggled at that, turning to Sour, who, to her surprise, was actually starting to smile a little bit. After a while, the Crystal Prep girl finally spoke up.

“Thanks, Pinkie.”

To that, Pinkie gave a nod.

“No problem! I love giving my friends ice creams!”

Snorting a little, Sour spoke in a hushed manner, making sure Pinkie couldn’t hear her.

“…I wasn’t talking about the ice creams.”