There was a knock at the door and Sunset Shimmer bolted out of her seat, nearly knocking her laptop off the kitchen counter in the process. Cursing under her breath, the girl pushed the edge of the computer back onto the ledge and ran a hand through her hair; she knew it was a mess, but she didn’t want to look completely unpresentable. Even though she was still in her jammies—whatever. In a few steps she’d traversed the linoleum to her front door and, with a shrug of her shoulders and a sigh, her fingers clasped the doorknob and turned.

“Is this, uh, Ms. Shimmer?”

The delivery guy in the hallway looked young—probably only a few years older than Sunset, and probably trying to pay for college—and from his weary expression and laboured breaths she could tell he was overworked. Well, that or it was the packages. Directly on her doorstep, in front of the boy, was a large box that went up about as high as her chest, one that she could probably fit inside once she removed the contents—and then another box, this one much thinner around but more than a head taller than her.

“Oh, uh, yeah, that’s me,” Sunset rasped, unconsciously running her hand through her hair again. “You need me to sign for these?”

“Yeah,” he said, procuring a clipboard and handing it to her over the box. Sunset pulled out her own pen from a pocket and quickly scribbled down something resembling a signature—one that had gotten a whole lot better since her first attempts with hands, years ago. She handed it back over, and with a nod and a tip of his hat the boy skedaddled away towards the elevator.

For a moment, Sunset smiled. Then, she looked at the boxes before her, and groaned.

It wasn’t actually that bad getting them inside; the tall one was easy, and lugging the large one in only took a minute. Once she got the door closed, Sunset nodded approvingly and stepped over to the kitchen for a moment, pouring herself a glass of water, downing it, and then pouring another one to set aside. Then, she turned back to the centre of the studio apartment, where on the carpet a sleeping bag lay. But not for long—within a moment, she’d rolled the thing up and pushed it into the closet. Wouldn’t be needing that thing anymore except for sleepovers, thank Celestia.

She decided to start with the taller box—the frame. Scissors sliced through tape and she lifted up the cardboard to reveal a bunch of metal pieces in plastic and styrofoam, which she pulled out until she spied the instruction booklet. A cursory glance made it look easy—everything was numbered, and there weren’t even that many parts—so she shrugged her shoulders, took another drink of water, and got to work.

It took her a couple minutes to get everything oriented properly, but once she did it was just getting them screwed together and then laying out the slats—all in all, about thirty minutes of work. Once she was done, Sunset wiped her brow and stood to admire her handiwork. Progress! She’d been waiting for the bed to get there for more than a week, so long it felt like it would never get there, but now it was right in the middle of her apartment and she was so close to being able to sleep on it. She turned to the other box and, with a quick motion of the scissors, she sliced through the tape and opened the flaps revealing the box’s precious cargo—her mattress.

Which seemed like a great idea until she realised she couldn’t lift the damn thing. Oh, and it’s not like she didn’t try; she huffed and puffed with it for a minute, trying to get a good hold on it—but it just wouldn’t budge. Grumbling, Sunset stepped back... and kicked the box over, where it landed on the carpet with a loud THUD. From there it was just a shimmy away from being free from the box and she could—

It was in a clear plastic bag. Inside of a thick white plastic bag. She groaned as she turned the whole thing over so that she could slip the white bag off from the top, but... it slid suuuper slowly, and she had to keep pulling at different angles and fixing the bunch-ups before it would go. But—finally—the bagged mattress came loose and partially unrolled at her feet. Sunset closed her eyes and took a deep breath before leaving it there to have another glass of water.

Now all Sunset had to do was get the mattress onto the bed frame and cut off the bag; that seemed like the easier option, rather than trying to remove it from the plastic and then trying to lift it up. Unfortunately, for a girl her size—and she was actually pretty tall, thank you very much!—that was easier said than done. Her first attempt at lifting it over the edge of the frame just ended in the mattress folding in over itself, back onto her and nearly knocking her over. Her second, third, and fourth attempts ended this way as well.

Sunset huffed and, deciding it was time to try something different, crouched down and pushed up from under the thing, starting with her hands but then moving in with the rest of her body and head. For a precarious second, she regretted this; the weight of the mattress nearly sent her down face-first into the slats. But she persevered, determined, and she was able to slide out from underneath as the mattress landed with a muffled clatter. As she unrolled it completely along the bed frame, she let out a dry laugh at how destitute the mattress looked, all wrinkled up and compressed. Once she was done, she took a quick glance at the little instructional page that had slipped out onto the floor while she was unpacking it, just to make sure there wasn’t anything she missed before she cut open the plastic.

And her eyes goggled. “Let it sit for twenty-four to forty-eight hours?! What in Tartarus...?!” Groaning, Sunset rubbed her eyes—but there wasn’t really anything else she could do. So—somewhat disgruntled—the redhead took the scissors once more and slid them along the foot of the mattress in a neat line, careful to avoid cutting into the outer fabric.

*pwooooooof*

The sound of decompression filled the air almost immediately, and Sunset giggled at the abject silliness of the sound. She could see the mattress already start to poof up, too, so she kept going, slicing through the plastic on the left side.

*pwwOoooOOOOOooOoOOOoOooOOOooooofffff.....*

Almost immediately a cloud of something like dust filled the air around her, sending Sunset into a coughing fit and making it impossible to see even a foot in front of her face. She waved her hand around, stumbling, and she leaned into the wall once she found it.

“Urgh...” Sunset groaned. As the haze cleared, so did her cough, and she stood there rubbing her eyes and blinking until the apartment came back into view.

And then she screamed. Before her, not five feet away, was an unfamiliar, humanoid shape—except its whole form was a translucent, eerily iridescent lilac and it was floating a few inches off the ground. Sunset’s eyes tried to focus on the contours of the face but they were ever-shifting into unearthly dark patterns with nothing for her brain to latch onto, to recognise.

“G-ghost...?!” she stammered. “Piss off, I’ve been waiting for this for three weeks, you can’t ruin it for me!” Her eyes snapped shut and Sunset instinctually cowered in terror, expecting imminent annihilation.

But annihilation did not come, not as far as she could tell, and though her heart still beat hard in her chest, Sunset grimaced and reopened her eyes. Eyes which went wide at the sight before them.

This spectral form, still standing a few feet away, was boffing itself in the head. And with each hit, the inky-black shapelessness fizzled out a little further. Sunset straightened her pose and tried not to gawk too much as, one by one, bits and pieces of something recognisably human began to take shape. A pair of glasses. A button nose. Deep purple eyes. And then, with one final bop, there was a sparkle of light, and the thing lowered its arm.

Except it wasn’t a thing; it was a girl. The lilac hue of her whole body seemed to shimmer off her skin, complemented by her indigo hair with a purple stripe which was done up in a neat bun. She wore short-sleeve top and pleated skirt that looked like some sort of school uniform, and she looked to be about Sunset’s age, more or less.

“Um... hi? Sorry about that, I guess I must have been pretty freaky-looking; I think that was from the compression. Anyway, I’m Twilight Sparkle! What’s your name?”

Sunset blinked, and then blinked again. She looked from the girl—Twilight—to the mattress, and then back to Twilight. “...I think I need to sit down,” she intoned.

“Oh!” Twilight looked around. “Yeah, come over here, there’s a chair. Wait, you probably know that, ’cause you live here.”

Sunset didn’t respond; she was too busy lurching and reeling over to her computer chair, seating herself comfortably against the back and letting her eyes close. “Could... could I have some water...?”

A pause. “I, um... I’m sorry, I don’t think I can get it for you.” Sunset squinted open an eye to see the girl turned towards her, an apologetic look on her features. “I’m not... corporeal. I can’t make stuff move.”

Sunset groaned again, putting a hand to her forehead. “You can’t... I don’t believe this! Ghosts aren’t real! Not here, not in Equestria, not... not anywhere.”

Twilight just shrugged, sheepishly. “Well... aren’t I living proof that’s not true? Or, well, not living, but you know...”

Sunset said nothing. After another moment, she stood, and she walked past Twilight on the way to the kitchen sink. As she passed, her shoulder came only a few inches from where the girl appeared to be—and it felt very cold. She tried to ignore this as she refilled her glass, and drank. She set it back down on the counter with a clink, and turned back to the girl in the middle of her room.

“So...” Sunset began, “assume you are a ghost.”

“Oh, I do, I really do,” Twilight said, “because—” Sunset’s eye roll cut her off. “Oh, wait, that was rhetorical, oops. Nevermind me, go on.”

Sunset sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. “If you’re a ghost... why were you in a mattress? And why mine?”

Twilight laughed. “Well, that’s easy—I’m haunting it. That’s how these things work, I guess. At least as far as I can tell.”

“You’re haunting a mattress.” When Twilight just grinned and nodded, Sunset couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it all. “The mattress I just got... is haunted. What in the hay...? How?”

“Welllll...” Twilight sat down on the foot of the bed. “I think that’s where most of me ended up when I, uh, exploded.”

Sunset quirked an eyebrow. “You exploded? What? You’re a high schooler, right?”

“Yeah, or, like, I was. Heh.” Twilight scratched her head. “I’ve got my own lab in my bedroom, though, and I was working on this pet project of mine. Nothing for school, just, uh—well, actually, I won’t get into it, that’ll take too long to explain. But basically I, uh, maybe mixed together two things I shouldn’t have.” She shrugged, nonplussed. “So then I exploded, mostly all over my bed. I dunno. It didn’t really hurt, and I didn’t see it happen, just the aftermath. Parents weren’t too happy, as you might imagine.”

“...I bet that’s an understatement,” Sunset breathed, but if Twilight heard her she didn’t say anything. “Sooo, wait, did I somehow get a used mattress? I bought this thing new off Amarezon, though I guess it did seem a little cheap...”

“Oh, no, haha, no.” Twilight waved a hand, laughing. “No, they break them down and recycle the parts. I know mine was pretty stained by, uh, exploding, but I guess there was still enough to be recycled and enough of it... ended up in this mattress.” She patted the surface of the mattress beside her, and Sunset could have almost sworn that it actually pressed downward. “Whew. But now I’m here, and it’s all good!”

Sunset nodded, her eyebrows turned up with skepticism. “Yeah... just peachy. All... all good.”

Twilight grimaced. “I’m... I’m sorry. I know this must be a lot to take in—”

“...possibly the most I’ve had to take in, and I’ve gone from being a pony to being a human...” Sunset grumbled.

“—but I’m sure soon, once you get to know me, we’ll be great friends!” Twilight finished with a smile.

For a moment, Sunset nearly frowned and told Twilight to just go... but something stopped her. She wasn’t sure what it was, but... she felt sorry for the girl. It was a weird situation, sure, but she was trying her best—and Sunset should have the dignity to do the same. So, hardly knowing what she was doing, Sunset stepped over from the kitchen to the foot of the bed and sat down alongside this spectre of a girl. She could feel the same odd cold from before radiating beside her. “Sure, why not.”

Twilight Sparkle, now grinning ear to ear, reached over to give the redhead a hug. Sunset felt something odd; though it wasn’t like physical contact, the cold aura transformed into a warm embrace, almost like she were basking in the light of the sun. She didn’t dwell on it too much, and simply lifted her arms to return the hug. They sat there for a few moments before letting go, scooting out to a comfortable sitting distance.

“So, uh, if I might ask,” Twilight started.

“Go ahead,” Sunset replied.

“You said you’ve been waiting for this mattress for three weeks... but I know the box shipped only like a couple days ago.”

Sunset gritted her teeth. “Yeah, it’s been three weeks since I moved over here, but it took me forever to get around to ordering the thing. Been sleeping on the floor ever since, in a sleeping bag. Kinda why I was champing at the bit to get this thing set up. But I procrastinate, I like to take my time.”

Twilight nodded, slowly. “Just like how I like... to take your SOUL. Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha.” Sunset jumped back with a yelp, and Twilight giggled.

“Not funny!” Sunset exclaimed with a scowl, playfully swiping with a hand towards the spectre. “C’mon, I don’t know what wacky ghost powers you have! Maybe taking souls is one of them.”

“You’ll never know, I guess.” Twilight flashed her a mysterious smile, which only lasted a moment before giving way to more giggles. It took her another few until she settled once more. “Oh, and, um... thanks.”

Sunset tilted her head. “For what?”

“Uh, you know, I mean, I think you took this pretty well, all things considered,” Twilight replied. “And you don’t know me really at all. You could have just told me to leave. I mean, not that I could, but still.”

Sunset blinked. “Wait, what?”

Twilight grinned, sheepishly. “Yeah, uh, like I said, I’m haunting the mattress. You’re... kinda stuck with me?”

Sunset groaned, letting her face fall into her knees. “And it’s not even going to be another damn day until I can sleep on the mattress, is it.”

“Oh, no, you can sleep on it now,” Twilight said. At this, Sunset looked back up to see the girl giving its surface an experimental pat. “They say the whole 24-to-48 hour thing in the instructions, but I can tell. It’s fine.”

“!!!” Sunset leapt up from the bed and into the other room, slamming the door behind her and leaving a confused Twilight Sparkle sitting on the bed there, alone. The girl just sat there for a few moments, looking over the room, until eventually she just... fizzled out of being. At least that’s how it appeared; in one moment she was there, albeit still translucent, and in the next she’d vanished without trace.

“I just realised that means I can—” Sunset started as the bathroom door swung open a couple minutes later, but she stopped in her tracks when she realised that the girl she was talking to simply wasn’t there. “Uh, Twilight? You there?” she asked through a toothpaste-and-toothbrush-filled mouth. There was no reply.

She turned around, stepping back into the bathroom to rinse out her mouth, and then returned to the side of the bed. Everywhere she could think of, she looked; underneath, behind, even inside the zippered portion. Nothing.

Had she hallucinated the whole thing? Daydreamed it? Was she losing her mind?

One thing Sunset did know, though, was that she was still sleepy, and she could think about this more on a full night’s sleep. On a full night on a bed’s sleep. It only took her a couple minutes to grab the bedsheets from her closet and put them on the mattress, and then another couple more to wrangle with her quilt cover. But soon enough she had a blanket and pillows, and when she stepped back to look she realised the apartment looked a whole lot less empty... and a whole lot more like home.

With that, Sunset nearly danced her way over to the far end of the room to flick off the light. In complete darkness, she catapulted herself back over to the mattress and let herself just fall face-first onto the quilt, rolling over so she could get nestled in between the covers.

It only took a couple minutes for sleep to find her, and when it did, she was smiling.

Not ten minutes later, a soft lilac glow sparkled back into the room, this time on the side of the bed with her legs dangling down to the carpet. She looked down at the slumbering form between the covers, the red-and-yellow hair splayed out on the pillows around her head. The soft, peaceful breathing. Comfort.

Twilight Sparkle leaned over and planted one tiny kiss on Sunset Shimmer’s forehead. The next moment, the spectre was gone once more.

thats it thats the fic