As hot as the afternoon was, the Canterlot City Pool didn’t seem to be all that busy. It was a moderate crowd, yes; but nothing too much to handle for anyone who was currently there. Young children played in the shallow area where mini water fountains and a giant mushroom-like structure had water getting pumped out of its top end before it came cascading back down in a full, three-sixty curtain which few of the children enjoyed darting in and out from repetitively.

Taking company in few of the lounging chairs was Sunset Shimmer who currently was reading a magazine that she brought along to read. She donned a dark red clad two-piece swimsuit with a pair of sunglasses that had matching color frames. Accompanying her on both sides was Rarity with her own two piece swimsuit with a hue of white that didn’t clash or blend in with her alabaster skin, along with a pair of definitely shaped sunglasses with pink frames and a fancy wide-brimmed sun hat; and Twilight who was the only one amongst the group who wore a dark-lavender one-piece swimsuit. She still wore her everyday glasses, but she had the lenses equipped with a couple of clip-on shades that matched the lense shape accurately. The activity that she was currently doing seemed to be texting someone on her phone.

After a while, Sunset was starting to get curious about who Twilight was texting; but made sure not to get too nosey with her choice of words.

“I never knew you were a texting enthusiast, Twilight,” she said in a teasing, but playful manner.

“Yep,” Twilight replied simply, still preoccupied with her activity. She then snapped out of her entrancement with her phone when she realized that Sunset had spoken to her directly. “Oh. Uh. What I meant to say was that I never knew it either.”

Sunset smirked at this.

“Hey, it’s what us teenagers do.” she then took a brief pause. “So?”

“So...what?” Twilight asked with a raised brow.

“So who is the lucky person who’s caught your attention to be so engrossed with texting to?” Sunset asked. “If it isn’t too much to ask or anything.”

“Um… you know. Just a friend of mine,” Twilight replied a bit sheepishly. A blush was already making itself apparent on her cheeks to indicate there was more to what Twilight was letting on: and that Rarity recognized this kind of behavior from the many romance novels and movies that she’s read and watched.

“Ooh~! Do tell who it is, darling!” Rarity sqeed with utmost giddyness. “Please don’t leave it in so much suspense either!”

“I want to know to!” Pinkie Pie chimed after she suddenly popped out of the water wearing a shark-themed swim mask complete with dark, blue-framed goggles with a dorsal fin on top. On her hands she wore a pair of gloves that had a dorsal fin off to the side where the pinky finger was, and on her feet was a pair of flippers that completed the themed set.

This sudden action caused Applejack, who was relaxing on an innertube nearby to yelp in surprise before her jolt caused the tube to flip over and dunk her into the water. When she emerged, she shot Pinkie an annoyed and unamused glance, which in return the party girl just gave a shrug at.

“I...uh,” Twilight stammered as she started shrinking back a bit. Sunset then realized that maybe her and the girls were putting unwanted pressure on their bi-spectacled friend.

“You know what? It’s fine, Twilight,” Sunset assured and signalled to the others to ease off. “If it’s something to wish to keep to yourself for now, then we can respect that. Right girls?”

AJ agreed without hesitation, while both Pinkie and Rarity gave a reluctant nod.

“I just thought it’d be something worth a conversation,” Sunset explained. “But I guess if you’re not yet comfortable with the topic; then we can let it slide until whenever you wish to talk about it, alright?”

“Mmhm,” Twilight replied softly. “Thank you, Sunset.”

“You’re welcome, Twilight.”

Sunset never told anyone, but she thought it was way too cute when Twilight got shy. She guessed it had to do with her bisexual crush on the lavender girl. This also extended to Princess Twilight to. Of course she was aware that the Twilight of this world had already had a thing going with Timber Spruce, Camp Everfree’s assistant director and Gloriosa’s brother. With the princess, it was for her ex Flash Sentry.

Sunset however remembered that back at camp, Flash actually proposed that they should try to start their relationship over just as friends since he seemed very impressed with how much she’s turned herself around since they first dated. Before she could give a proper response, she witnessed Timber sneaking off into the woods when she had her suspicion of him being Gaea Everfree. In her distraction, she just patted him on the shoulder and said that she needed to get going: giving him the impression that she wasn’t interested.

Thinking back on that moment now, Sunset wanted to dope-slap herself for choosing such a poor and misleading set of words. On the upside though, she knew that she helped Flash move on from not settling on Princess Twilight due to her being needed in Equestria for most of the time since it’s where she belonged. Yet at the same time, there were plenty of other single girls at CHS that he could hook up with before she could get a chance to talk to him and clear things up in the hopes of a second go.

The only thing that Sunset worried about was that she could screw up again despite now having a welcoming and warm personality. Like her hair, Sunset’s temper was like a blazing fire whenever she encountered extremely stressful or frustrating situations. If her old bullying days were one thing to end her first relationship with Flash, then surely her temper could be the second thing if she can’t find a way to control it.

Sunset decided not to dwell on that thought and instead go back to enjoying the day with her five friends. Wait. Five? Sunset mentally did a roll call of her friends. Both Rarity and Twilight were lounging next to her. Applejack and Pinkie were cooling off in the water, and Rainbow Dash was at the board practicing some diving moves. They were down by one.

“Hey? Does anyone know what’s taking Fluttershy?” she asked. “It’s been at least twenty minutes since we got here, and she still hasn’t shown up yet.”

“I certainly don’t know,” Rarity replied. “I just assumed maybe that she wished to find a fabulous swimsuit to wear and show off.”

Applejack furrowed her brow.

“Ah’m quite positive that ain’t the case, Rare,” AJ said with a shake of her head. “That girl ain’t too keen on makin’ a display of herself: especially in a public place such as this.”

“ Well, she is now!” Pinkie called out, prompting the friends to look up and over at the direction that Pinkie was pointing at. When their eyes fell on Fluttershy, their mouths hung in agape. Rarity’s sunglasses even slid down her nose to reveal her slight pinprick pupils.

The girls were used to seeing Fluttershy normally wearing a cover-up t-shirt that draped down to to the calves of her legs to completely shroud her striped green and white two-piece swimsuit since she always felt self conscious wearing it until she decided to go into the water. Not this time. Instead, she was proudly showing it off in a prideful, if a bit suggestive stride with a smirk on her face and a pair of her favorite oval-lensed sunglasses with pink frames and tinted lenses with a darker hue of the same color. As she passed male onlookers, they were practically drooling; but Fluttershy didn’t seem to notice or care in the matter. She just kept her attention forward and on her friends.

Once Fluttershy reached the girls, none of them said a word as they continued to gawk at their normally shy and self-reserved friend now proudly displaying skin that she would rather have censored out due to her social anxieties.

“Hello girls,” Fluttershy said in a tone that was slightly more assured than her familiar gentle one. The girls could have be imagining it, but there seemed to be a slight reverberation at the start of each word she said. “Sorry if I’m late. I hope I didn’t miss anything important.”

“Oh of course not, dear,” Rarity reassured. “We’ve mostly been pretty silent this entire time. We only were concerned about why you weren't with us sooner without even a notification of your delay.”

“I apologize for that. I was just so caught up in getting use to my new….swimsuit, that I let time slip by me a bit. I’ll try not to let it happen again. Promise.”

The girls glanced at one another for a brief moment, each with a concerned frown. Applejack was the first one to speak up, and voiced what each of them was thinking in her own saying.

“Are ya feelin’ alright, sugarcube?”

Fluttershy cocked a confused brow and frown at this question as if she didn’t know what Applejack was even talking about.

“Of course I am. Why do you ask?”

There was another brief pause.

“Well. It’s just that you seem more...poised than usual,” Sunset stated. “Not saying that’s a bad thing coming from you. It just seems so…. sudden, and not built up. It’s like you’ve become a whole new person overnight.”

“And that you’ve had that complimentary bikini for a couple of years now,” Rarity added in. “There should’ve been no reason for you to replace it. Was there?”

Fluttershy pondered this for a moment. The girls expected that she would tone down this newfound persona of hers if it was truly bothering them. Instead, Fluttershy just casually shrugged as if she acted like it was no big deal.

“I guess I just surprised myself is all; and yes, Rarity. I noticed there was a slight tear in one of the straps, so I decided I needed to go out and buy a new one of the same brand and design.”

Rarity gave a bit of a hurt look and asked, “Well why didn’t you instead notify me, darling? I would’ve loved to patch it up for you free of charge.”

“I...um,”

“Perhaps she jus’ didn’t wanna trouble ya, Rare,” AJ said.

Rarity frowned and turned her nose up in the air.

“I’ll have you know that I’ll always make an arrangeable time for my services for anyone who needs them, and that a simple patch or stitch-job hardly ever takes that much time.”

Applejack just sighed as she decided to drop the subject since it was not worth an argument over.

“There’s one question that still hasn’t been asked yet,” Sunset averred. “What gave you such a strong confidence boost that apparently took only one night to achieve, Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy seemed to be very hesitant to find an answer to this question, and could only utter minor sentence stammers as she struggled to find a proper answer. Before she could collapse under the apparent pressure, Rainbow Dash’s voice spoke up.

“Isn’t it obvious? Giving her the opportunity to host last night’s slumber party had to do with it.”

The friends turned toward Rainbow with a variety of uncertain looks. Before one of them could make a disputed compliment, Fluttershy cut them off.

“That’s exactly the reason why. Thank you, Rainbow. I was just having a difficult time deciding how I should put it in a more interesting way. But that helps to.”

“No prob, Flutters,” Rainbow replied with a smirk as she finished up wringing the last of the excess water from her hair before tossing it over her shoulder. “You certainly have me impressed, that’s for sure.”

Fluttershy looked a bit uncomfortable with a compliment, but quickly decided to go along with it.

“Good to know,” she said with a smirk of her own. She then glanced over to Twilight and her smile seemed to grow a bit more. “And it’s good to see you, Twilight.”

“Um...same here, Fluttershy.”

Twilight couldn’t be sure since it could only be her imagination, but she found something about Fluttershy’s so-called confidence rather unsettling; and somewhat familiar that Twilight had yet to put a point on.

“I was wondering if perhaps maybe early on tonight, that you would join me at the” - their was a pause as if Fluttershy was looking around in her head for what she wanted to say next which was really starting to arouse suspicion and concern from the girls “- animal shelter to provide extra support for the….cute and cuddly animals?”

“Tonight?” Twilight asked with a hint of uncertainty and disappointment. “Oh. I’m so sorry, Fluttershy, but I already have something special planned for that night that I need to be home.”

“Ooh! Like a date?” Pinkie asked. Hearing that question made Twilight’s cheeks flush to dark scarlet.

“S-Something like that,” Twilight stammered a bit, but managed to compose herself before reverting her focus back on Fluttershy. “I would love to maybe try tomorrow night, if that’s alright with you.”

Fluttershy at first looked disheartened by Twilight’s excuse, and Twilight herself worried that she upset her; but she was put at ease when Fluttershy gave a soft and understanding smile.

“That sounds fine, Twilight. Speaking of which, I got called down to the shelter just the moment I arrived here so I need to get going anyway. I’m so sorry to put you all off all of the sudden on short notice, but things like this can happen time to time, and I thought I’d let each of you know. You girls understand, right?”

The friends were briefly hesitant since they were all still uncertain what to make of Fluttershy’s unfamiliar behavior, but mutually decided to give their approval before Fluttershy could suspect that they were holding her back.

“Well if they must really need you, dear, for any reason at all; then we all understand perfectly,” Rarity said with a nod and smile. The rest seemed to do the same.

“I was going to ask you to rate my diving moves, but there’s still plenty more days of Summer left for that,” Rainbow assured. “Besides, I bet it’s air conditioned enough in there so the air is more tolerable than out here.”

Rainbow then began to fan herself off as she felt the heat starting to get to her.

“Better get back in the water before I cook to death out here,” she said before taking off back toward the diving board.

“At least put on a new coat of sunscreen!” Rarity called out to her, but it fell on deaf ears.

“I’m glad we could all agree on this,” Fluttershy said one last time before turning around and heading away. This time, she was walking with what looked like a bit of a disgruntled march instead of her previously suggestive strutting.

When they were sure Fluttershy was out of earshot, Pinkie took the honor of being the first to speak up this time.

“Well...that was pretty weird.”

“Ah second that,” AJ agreed. “Even Ah know for a fact that people can’t change that drastically overnight: especially over somethin’ so simple as hostin’ a sleepover.”

“You don’t think she could be under some kind of stray spell that escaped from Equestria and targeted her somehow, right?” Rarity asked to no one in particular, but all the gazes fell on Sunset who herself looked unsure in the matter.

“I could ask Princess Twilight to see if anything passed through the portal on her side that could’ve caused this,” Sunset said once she became aware of her friend’s eyes anxiously observing her. “I don’t know how long it will take for her to respond though; but hopefully it will be soon enough.”

Sunset understood how busy Princess Twilight could possibly be due to her role as the Princess of Friendship with her own responsibilities, and Sunset didn’t wish to involve her in most of the magical mishaps that happen in the human world now: but the concept of stray magic spells that had the capability of travelling in-between alternate dimensions was something new, and very alarming to Sunset.

If only she knew that her assumptions were false, and that the situation that was currently at hand was much more worse than an AWOL matter of magic.

The last unusual thing that her and the girls took a mental note of was that before Fluttershy took off: that out of all seven of them, Fluttershy was the only one who wasn’t wearing her necklace.