It was Saturday. Twilight had now been here four days and had to constantly remind herself this was not her home. With each day she felt more and more at home. She had even stopped thinking about Sparkle's parents not being her own. Even now, as she was helping Ms. Sparkle in her garden on a beautiful, sunny day; her only thought was I'm helping mom.

Whatever the relationship between Sparkle and her parents had been (and it seemed to be just fine), there was a difference with her. Both of Sparkles parents commented on how much more out going she was, how she took part in the family more. Twilight - too, noticed she acted differently around them than she did her own parents. Maybe she was subconsciously doing a do over. Making up for the mistakes she made as a child.

As she helped her mother dig holes and plant bulbs (which was an exercise in futility considering the drought), she couldn't help but feel the twin burdens of being Twilight and Sparkle. As Twilight, she had to find the monster and stop it. As Sparkle, she had to be a good student and daughter. At first the former was her primary concern. Now, both had equal weight. In another week or so - who knows?

"Sakurakai? Sakurakai?"

Twilight turned to her mother in surprise. She had been so lost in thought, she hadn't heard her mother talking to her.

"Sorry Haha. I was . . ." Twilight started but was cut off by her mother.

"Lost in your own world? I noticed." Mrs. Sparkle smiled and put her hand on Twilight's cheek. "Oh sweetie, you've been so outgoing recently. Much more open than I've ever seen you before. You, here, helping me plant flowers? That would have been unheard of just a couple months ago. But - when I really look at you; I see a sadness in your eyes. Like you're carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders."

Twilight looked down at the ground. You have no idea, she thought to herself.

"Just thinking about stuff."

"Ah, the universal teenage answer. I understand. I was a teenager once as well. In fact I used to drive your oba-chan crazy with answers like that. It's ok. I'm here to listen when you want to talk."

"Haha, mom . . . I love you." Twilight never looked up when she said that. She just kept looking down at the ground, tears starting to roll down her eyes. She had gone from a loner book worm to a princess in charge of saving the world. She had never had time to just be. She went from zero to one hundred. She thought about her own family and all she had missed, first because she didn't want to be involved; then because she was too busy to be involved.

Mrs. Sparkle looked at Twilight in surprise. She had never seen her daughter so vulnerable. She quickly hugged her daughter and held her tight. At this, Twilight burst into a full cry. All the years of regret and self doubt came out. She let herself be emptied of all she had been holding in. After a few moments she pulled away and looked at her mother.

"I, I just want to be your daughter. I just want to be a girl. I'm, I'm sooooooo tired of trying to be perfect and, I, . . ."

"Oh honey, you don't have to be perfect. We never asked you to be. I'm sorry you feel you had to be. Honey, Sakurakai, all we ever wanted was for you to just be our daughter. We love you no matter what." Mrs. Sparkle couldn't believe her daughter had felt like she had to perfect. How long has she felt that way? Why hadn't she ever noticed it before? Was she that blind?

Twilight looked at her mother and smiled. It was a bitter smile. She knew that this woman, Sparkles mother, was speaking as a mother trying to placate her teenage daughter who thought if she didn't perform well on a test, her parents would hate her. But she wasn't a teenage girl, she was an adult, she was a pony princess from another dimension, and she had to save the world.

"Thank you," Twilight said honestly as she whipped away the remainder of her tears.

"So," Mrs. Sparkle said; trying to bring up lighter topics, "is Flash and his family coming over tomorrow? "

"Just Flash for now." Flash and Twilight had talked about it. Flash's family had known of Twilight since the Fall Formal. It would be kind of difficult to explain if one of his family started to talk about how long she and Flash had known each other since at that time Sparkle had still been a student at Crystal Prep. It would have to be something they'd have to work out before the two families met.

"Ok, that's fine. I look forward to it."

*****************************************************************

"Wake up, wake up sleepy head," Sonata said playfully as she tried to shake Pinkie awake.

"Wha ? Sonnie, it's Saturday morning. Please just let me sleep," Pinkie grumbled.

"No. You're still being a grumpy muffin. So today, I plan on making this the happiest day of your life. This is Pinkie Pie's Awsomeness Spectacular Super Fun Day!"

"Sonnie, I appreciate the effort, but I - AH!" Sonata grabbed Pinkie by the arm and yanked her out of bed and onto the floor.

"Ohh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that."

"Ow, you hurt my Tushie! Well, I guess it was the floor that actually hurt it, but it was you dragging me out of bed that caused it." Pinkie slowly stood up and rubbed her bottom. "Well I'm up now."

Ever since Wednesday night, Pinkie had been in a gloomy mood and having nightmares. No matter how Sonata tried, Pinkie just couldn't seem to snap out of it. So she had come up with a plan to cheer her up. First they would go to the zoo. Then they would go to the park. Then it would be the beach. Finally they would go to the mall. It wasn't much, but all were places Pinkie loved and all were free (except the zoo, but that was only five dollars a person).

Pinkie slowly got dressed and followed Sonata out. She appreciated everything she was doing for her; but it didn't matter. No matter what, she couldn't get over the feeling she had a monster inside her, waiting to get free. Her dreams now were all about her Diane persona. Every night, it would another dream in which Diane was doing some unspeakable thing to one or all of her friends. She would always wake up in terror and Sonata would have to hold her until she fell back asleep.

Sonata and Pinkie didn't even try to sleep alone anymore. Sonata had moved her things into Pinkies room and the two just slept together as a matter of course. It felt strange only because they had started because of Sonata's nightmares; now it was Pinkie who was having the bad dreams. In fact, Sonata no longer had nightmares. If she dreamed at all, it was about her and Pinkie running through candy forests or flying to other planets.

At each stop, Sonata would talk the place up, make jokes and funny faces, but Pinkie just walked or sat, completely blank faced. By the time they got to the beach, Sonata was worried Pinkie was beyond reach.

"Lookie Pinkie; we're the only ones here!"

"It's late September Sonnie; beach season is over."

"It's still warm though. Here," Sonata took her back pack off, "I brought our sandcastle tools. Let's go!"

"No thank you Sonnie. I'm not in the mood. I'm not even dressed for it."

Sonata scowled and dropped her backpack. She then shoved her finger into Pinkie's chest. "Ok, I've had enough. You want to be little miss grumble bum, FINE! But you listen here. You're all worried about who you might be or do; well guess what? - I've done those things. Well maybe not exactly, but I know I've caused people to get hurt, probably even to die. You're afraid you might get blood on your hands, but I've got it on my hands."

"Sonnie, you've told me this before."

"And you apparently you weren't listening!" Sonata stopped to collect herself and calm down. "Do you consider me to be a monster?"

"No, of course not."

"Ok, if you don't consider me a monster for what I have done, why consider yourself a monster for things you haven't done?"

"Because. Because I might."

Sonata shook her head. "You leave me no choice." She reached down, unzipped one of the compartments on her pack, and pulled out a container with cupcakes in it. She opened it up and pulled one out. "You asked for this," she said and smashed right in Pinkie's face.

"WHA, WHA, what the heck!"

"You forced my hand," Sonata said defiantly and crossed her arms.

"Oh yeah?" Pinkie grabbed Sonata's pack, opened the main section, and pulled out a bucket. She then bent down and scooped up some sand.

Sonata looked at Pinkie confused and intrigued by what she was doing. Pinkie walked up to her and then dumped the whole bucket over Sonata's head.

"AHHHHH!" Sonata screamed.

"You. Forced. My. Hand," Pinkie said with a smile.

Sonata growled, grabbed Pinkie and threw her over her shoulder. She then ran down to the shore line.

"Sonata! What are you . . .," before she could finish, Sonata dropped her in the water.

"There!" Sonata got a pleased look on her face but that faded as soon as she saw Pinkie's expression. "Oh crap," she said and took off running. Pinkie jumped up and took off after her.

Despite her head start, Pinkie soon caught to Sonata and tackled her. The two rolled around on the ground - yelling, slapping, biting each other. Eventually they stopped when they ran out of breath. They just looked at each other for a few seconds and then they both burst out laughing.

"You look ridiculous," Sonata said

"So do you," Pinkie responded still giggling. Then she got quiet. "Thank you," she said with a big grin on her face.

"Anytime," Sonata replied back with an equally big grin on her face.

The two looked into each others eyes and then kissed briefly on the lips.

"Let's go home," Pinkie said, still smiling.

"Ok."

Author's Notes:

Haha - Japanese word for referring to your own mother
oba-chan - Japanese for grandmother
Sakurakai - Japanese for cherry blossom