"'Quiz ya'" Applejack's voice echoes in Shade mind. "Pfft. I am probably smarter than all the ponies here combined."

Shade strolls down the lane which will take her to the library but first it cuts through the town/market square. City Hall stood proudly to her right, its architecture resembling some of the newer buildings back home. Comparing the buildings and structures to home would not be fair since her world was at least one hundred times larger so everything there was built gigantic. Shade sees the banana stall as a single ray of sunlight shines down on the heavenly bunches of fruit.

"Tomorrow," she notes in her head.

She does not realize the pair of golden eyes following her as she crosses the square. She stops at the edge where the square turns into the street and looks behind her, feeling the sensation of being watched.

"Hi!" A pony shouts, jumping in front of Shade which makes her step back with her ears pressing against her skull. "I'm kinda new to Ponyville so I'm looking for friends!" the loud pony continues.

"Good luck with that," Shade grimaces as she turns around to head to the library.

"Where you goin'?" the pony asks, hopping beside Shade.

Shade grits her teeth. She pulls the frizzy haired filly close to her by hooking her left hoof behind the loud filly's neck. "I'm only going to tell you this once: you're loud and annoying," Shade hisses in a low tone.

"Whoa! You're kinda scary!" the filly giggles. She leans closer to Shade and wriggles her eyebrows, "I kinda like that."

Shade steps away from her; genuine confusion on her face, "What?"

"Teehee," the filly giggles in a hoof. "My name's Pinkie Pie! What's yours?" she leans forward on her front hooves with her rear in the air where Shade saw her fluffy tail. . . wagging.

". . . Shade," she replies reluctantly. They stand in awkward silence. Shade becoming increasingly unnerved by the filly's face splitting smile. Her eyes shone with a joy and mirth that rivals even Death.

"So, where were you headed?" the pony asks.

"Library," Shade grinds.

"You kinda remind me of my sister, Limestone Pie."

"Stop the presses," Shade rolls her eyes.

Pinkie Pie giggles. "I used to live on a rock farm. I've been looking for a place to stay and work since I got my cutie mark a couple years ago. Ever since I got my cutie mark, it was hard for me to stay on the rock farm. Well, when I say 'me' I mean 'my family'. I kinda talk a lot and I'm loud and cheerful, the total opposite of my family; I know they love me but I could tell I was getting on their nerves. Kinda like how right now I am getting on your nerves."

Shade turns to glance at the filly who smiles sheepishly. Shade continues to walk in her confident manner. "I am not from Ponyville. I moved here three days ago. I have yet to receive my cutie mark. I have no family, only Deathly Belladonna; don't ask. I am reserved, introverted, succinct, and acerbic."

Pinkie Pie smiles brightly. "Why do you wear sun glasses?"

"Medical condition."

"Why do you have three horns?"

"Genetics."

Pinkie Pie prances around her new friend Shade. "This is the longest conversation I've had in, like, forever!"

"I'm sure you can find more pleasant company who would love to hold long conversations with you."

"Yeah," Pinkie Pie stops bouncing and leans up against Shade smiling sweetly, "but they wouldn't be as pretty!"

Shade cranks her head to the filly beside her on her right. Pinkie Pie's eyes flutter. "Tell me something I don't know," Shade brushes her mane back with her left hoof.

"Aw!" Pinkie Pie pouts slightly, "I thought you would blush!"

Shade shrugs which nearly topples the yellow journal balancing on her back.

"So why are we going to the library?"

Shade stops dead in her tracks. "Why the Hell am I going to the library?"

"What's 'Hell'?"

Ignoring Pinkie Pie, Shade does an about face and heads home.

"So no library?"

"No library," Shade confirms, "I already checked out history books and Applejack knows that which means she must be up to something."

"Ooooo! The plot thickens." Pinkie Pie busts into giggle fits and snorts, "'plot'!"

"What is funny about 'plot'?"

"It's another word for butt. And butts are funny!" Pinkie Pie latches onto Shade's flank and circles a pink hoof where a cutie mark would be, "Excpet yours. Yours is nice."

"Pinkie Pie," Shade snarls, "get off me before I kick you."

Feeling a sudden chill and threatening aura, Pinkie Pie releases Shade and titters nervously, "Heh heh. . . personal space. Right."

Shade snorts and snaps her head in front of her to keep walking. Pinkie Pie smiles broadly as Shade's cheeks return to their default tone.

"How old are you anyways?" Shade asks aloud.

Pinkie Pie springs along side Shade. "Nine years old!"

"What the fuck! 'Nine' and already having adult thoughts? Do ponies mature faster or is she just a weirdo?" Shade stops at the center of the square, hiding behind the fountain of an earth pony, as she spots Applejack and family walking by with boxes on their backs.

"Ooooo! Is it !"

Shade clamps a hoof over Pinkie Pie's mouth and pulls her down in front of her. Pinkie Pie sat between Shade's legs as Shade kept her eyes on the Apple clan. As she fears, they turn down her street and stop at her house. When they go inside, Shade releases the loud filly and stands up, grimacing at the water.

Pinkie Pie leans against Shade's left side, "If you wanted to hug me so badly, you could've just said so."

Shade stares at Pinkie Pie as of she grew a third eye. "That does not even merit a response." Shade shakes her head and turns her attention back to her house again.

"Do you know whose house that is?" Pinkie Pie asks as she watches the same blue house as Shade while she rests her head atop Shade's, making sure to avoid the horns.

Shade slips out from under Pinkie Pie, spitting out frizzy mane, which oddly smells and tastes like cotton candy. "Yes," Shade grumbles.

"Were you not invited to the party?" Pinkie Pie asks with her head to one side with wide eyes and pouty lips.

Shade furrows her brows at Pinkie Pie's sad tone and expression. "Something like that."

Pinkie Pie reaches out and places a reassuring fetlock on Shade's withers. "It'll be okay," she smiles.

Shade brushes of Pinkie Pie's hoof and starts walking away from her and the fountain.

"Where you going?" Pinkie Pie inquires.

"To buy flammable liquid."

Pinkie Pie stops in her tracks with wide eyes. Her muzzle splits into a malevolent grin, "I'll buy the matches!"

Remembering her twelve steps, Pinkie Pie snaps out of her pyromania and convinces Shade to not buy the kerosine. She also convinces Shade that perhaps they are throwing her a surprise party, after all, it is at Shade's house.

Shade's view of Pinkie Pie changes into a better light; despite Pinkie Pie's. . . eccentric behavior, she shows a high degree of higher thinking and problem solving. She also has a dark past and side to her Shade saw a glimpse of which piques Shade's curiosity. She begins to wonder if adding Pinkie Pie to her list of "friends" will unlock another power for her. Shade walks along side with Pinkie Pie as she thinks about which power to unlock next.

At the door, Shade stares at the individual grains of the wood with a hoof on the knob. She opens the door slowly. . .

And stops.

More like freezes.

Her hair tingles as the magic aura holds her in place.

"Hello, dear daughter of mine!" Death chimes in the doorway. She levitates Shade away from the door and quickly closes it behind her as she steps out.

"I just ate; don't make me vomit."

"Doesn't she say the sweetest things?" Death smiles at the pink filly behind Shade.

"Right!" Pinkie Pie giggles.

"Do you mind?" Shade protests still in the air.

"Oh!" Shade pops the magic bubble around Shade.

Shade falls to the ground with an audible splat. "Thanks," Shade grimaces.

"My name is Deathly Belladonna. I am Shade's mother." Death smiles and holds out a hoof for Pinkie Pie.

"I'm Pinkie Pie!" the pink filly chimes and shakes the cerise hoof of Death.

"That's great!" Death pulls the filly close to her and whispers into her ear.

Pinkie Pie looks up at Death with a beaming grin, "I'll get right on it!" She salutes and disappears in a pink cloud of dust.

"So whenever your horn glows, that means you are using magic, right?" Shade asks rhetorically. "That's why I couldn't hear what you told her."

"Mhmm!" Death nods.

"I already know about the party," Shade states.

"What party?"

Shade turns her attention from the door to Death only to see a flash of light.

"Shade?" a familiar drawl whispers in Shade's ear. She feels her body shake. "Shade," Applejack calls out again.

"Riiiiiiiiiise and shiiiiiine!" Pinkie Pie trills, picks Shade up, and shakes her like a doll. Glowing yellow eyes glare back at her when Pinkie Pie opens her eyes. "The library is closing soon, you silly sleepy head."

Pinkie Pie sets Shade down on her hooves. Shade looks around the dim library, feeling somewhat lost. "How did I get here?"

"We walked here, silly," Pinkie Pie smiles.

"If the library is about to close. . . then I've been asleep for eight hours. . ." Shade concludes.

"Yeah, you were sleeping like a log. We didn't wanna wake you up." Applejack adds.

Shade narrows her eyes at Applejack. "Is that so?"

"Y-yup!" Applejack chuckles nervously and a bead of sweat rolls down her face under the intense stare of Shade.

Pinkie Pie plops Shade's sunglasses onto the alabaster filly's bridge breaking her glare. "Applejack was telling me how she was going to quiz you! Let's go to your house and do it!"

"How about we all go our separate ways?" suggests Shade.

Pinkie Pie hooks her right foreleg under Shade's left, "C'mon! It'll be fun!"

Shade wrenches her leg out of Pinkie Pie's hold. "Must you touch me?"

"Yes," Pinkie Pie declares with a firm nod.

"Stop." Shade demands and starts walking out of the library.

"Have you ever touched Shade?" Shade hears Pinkie Pie ask Applejack not far behind her.

"Uh, I kinda touched her when we tried to wake her up," Applejack's answer.

"Doesn't touching her send electricity through your body?! It's shocking." Pinkie Pie laughs at her own pun.

"Yeah," Applejack twists her face in thought, "every time we have touched it feels like I've been shocked."

"What are you two talking about?" Shade decides to involve herself into the conversation about her.

Pinkie Pie hops to Shade's side. "Hold out your hoof."

Shade mirrors Pinkie Pie's actions. She watches intently as Pinkie Pie draws her hoof closer. Zap! Pinkie Pie withdraws her hoof with a giggle. Shade stares at her own hoof.

"I didn't feel anything."

"But ya saw it right? Even I could," inputs Applejack.

Shade looks back at her hoof before setting it on the ground. "Intriguing," Shade muses and starts walking home again.

Five minutes later, the three fillies are outside Shade's blue two story house. Shade sniffs the around the door and a number of new scents of ponies fills her nose. She snorts their odor from her senses.

"What is it?"

Shade picks up the hesitation in Applejack's voice. "What is going on here?"

Pinkie Pie zips past Shade, opens the door, and shoves Shade into the house. Before Shade could protest, the lights turn on.

"SURPRISE!" a choir of voices exclaim.

"Shock," replies Shade dryly. She starts walking towards the stairs.

"Aw! No need to be bashful!" Pinkie Pie appears before Shade. "Happy Birthday, Shade!"

Shade frowns. She removes her eyes from the filly in front of her to the crowd of ponies in the house. Where did all the shelves and counter go? A white banner hangs from the ceiling that reads, "Happy 10th Birthday Shade!" in varying shades of gray.

Shade groans and drags a hoof down her face. "Let's get this over with."