Sunset Shimmer awoke to the sounds of her alarm going off, as the sun slowly grew farther away from the horizon. She turned onto her side to see the time, the clock on her bedside table reading 11:30 am. It was later then she usually tended to get up, but with today being a holiday, it didn't bother her all to much.

Sunset got up from her bed and shuffled over to her window while stifling a yawn. With groggy eyes, she looked over the newly illuminated streets of Canterlot from her higher vantage, and noticed a distinct lack of people and traffic covering the streets. She had not yet had a chance to visit many other locations around the human world she now called home, but of the few she had seen, Canterlot city definitely was the most populated. No matter what day it was, she tended to usually see people walking down the sidewalks in groups or in pairs, or at least could note a car or two driving down the road on slower days. But today the streets just seemed... barren, like nobody had touched them since the city went to sleep the last night before.

Sunset considered this uneasy feeling for a moment, but ultimately shrugged it off as that usual creepy Halloween vibe. It probably wasn't anything she really needed to be worried about anyways. She turned from her window and walked towards her bathroom, stripping off her purple pajamas as she did so for a shower. Little did she know, something pink and highly spastic was darting across the street as she turned away. It leapfrogged over a parked car as it reached the side the of the street her apartment was located on and quickly ran to her door.

Sunset, meanwhile, was running her fingers through her hair as the hot water from her shower began to cascade over her body, partially waking her from the confines of her tired stupor. She had found over the last couple months that her morning showers had become her favorite part the day. The hot water and steam rushing over her body and kissing her skin made the ex-unicorn feel relaxed, and allowed her to think more clearly then in any other place she found in her daily life. It was this, coupled with a hot cup coffee with cream and sugar, that woke her up completely every morning, and she made it a rule to never miss doing these things when going about her daily routine.

A sudden slamming echoed loudly from Sunset's front door, alerting the fiery-haired teenager that someone had come to visit. She sighed and slowly turned off the water. Apparently, not everyone fully respected her rules of routine.

She wrapped herself in a white bath towel, drying herself off just enough so she wouldn't drip across the carpet as she made her way to the front door. Upon reaching the door, she brought her eye up to its peephole to see if her visitor was anyone she cared to address. As she blinked the sleep out of her eyes, Sunset asked, "Who is-" Only to have the question die in her throat, as her eyes widened in shock. "PINKIE!" On the other side of the door stood Pinkie Pie, looking as naked as the day God birthed her into this world.

"Hi there, Mr. talking door." Pinkie stated in reply. Sunset slammed her door open, tightened her towel around her midsection as to make sure it didn't fall off, and franticly pulled Pinkie Pie into her house by the bicep of her arm. She then, just as quickly, slammed the door shut.

"Pinkie?! What do you think your doing?!" Sunset shouted at the confused looking pink girl. "You can't be wandering around town without clothes on! It's indecent! And illegal!"

Pinkie only blinked at her friend. "It is?"

"YES!" She restated earnestly.

"Well that doesn't seem fair?" She pouted. "I'm always naked around this time of day. It's fun, and I like having the breeze on me. It tickles!" She exclaimed joyfully.

Sunset whispered in astonishment. "Your always..." She then sighed and placed her head in her hand. "Well sometimes it is fun for some people, but you can't do it here..." Sunset explained like she had somehow become Pinkie's scolding mother. With another hushed whisper she continued, "...trust me I already know."

Sunset looked back up at her friend, now fixing her with a more curious expression. "What are you even doing down here anyways, Pinkie?" Sunset asked. "Your house is an awfully long ways away from mine, and I really doubt you'd run all the way down here in your birthday suit." She paused for a second as a new scenario popped into her head. "Wait... Did Rainbow Dash dare you to make it through the park unseen again? Celestia-dammit, I thought we already warned her to stop taking advantage of you!"

Sunset groaned, before exhaling an annoyed sigh. She turned away from Pinkie and began heading towards her bedroom. "Wait here a minute Pinkie." She commanded more then she asked. "I'm going to go get dressed and grab you some clothes while I'm at it. Then I'll drive you home..." Sunset soon felt a sudden pressure squeeze around her left hand as Pinkie shot to grab it. She turned around and gave her friend a confused expression.

"Someone seems awfully cranky today~" Pinkie batted her eyes flirtatiously at Sunset. "Maybe joining the collective will help put a smile on that face."

"Pinkie what-" Pinkie's hands suddenly shot upwards away from Sunset's, and cupped her face by the cheeks. Now unable to un-pucker her lips, Sunset finally noticed Pinkie slowly beginning to lean in. Her eyes shrunk to the size of pinheads as she desperately tried to pull her head out of her friends surprisingly vice-like grip. Pinkie's eyes closed as she grew closer, and Sunset found herself unable to protest with her face currently scrunched up. She was almost about to give in and submit, when suddenly... the door slammed open.

*BANG* "GET BACK HERE CLONE!"

Pinkie's hands let go of Sunset's cheeks in an instant, and she turned in surprise to see another girl standing in the doorway. "Jeepers! It's the fuzz!"

The girl leap for Pinkie like a linebacker leaps for the player holding the ball, but Pinkie was quicker and ducked under her and began sprinting towards the door. The girl ended up tackling Sunset to the floor as Pinkie managed to run out into street. "YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE! AHHH!"

"STOP!" The girl tried to pick herself up, only to have her ankle grabbed as she tried to give chase. She soon fell face forward, bumping her head again the door causing it to close.

Sunset screamed in frustration. "Oh no you don't! Who do you think you are breaking into my-" Her eyes widened upon recognizing another one of her friends from Equestria. "Starlight?!"

Starlight looked back, and too recognized her ex-unicorn friend. "Sunset?"

"What are you doing out of Equestria?" Sunset asked.

"Why aren't you wearing any cloths?" Starlight asked curiously. Upon being asked the question, Sunset looked down and noticed that, indeed yes, her towel had come undone in the slight scuffle. She shrieked loudly before quickly bolting back into her room.

She started shouting through the door. "Why in Tartarus, are you and Pinkie Pie barging into my house!" A second question soon popped into her head. "...And why was she naked!"

"It will take more time then I have to explain, I'll tell you later." Starlight exclaimed as she bolted for the door. "Right now, I need to focus on catching her."

"Good luck!" Starlight thought her last comment must have amused her, because she could have sworn she heard Sunset just laugh. "You know as well as I do, what Pinkie Pie is capable of doing... or lack there of. She'll probably be gone by the time you open up that door." As if to test her theory, Starlight opened Sunset's front door to check for Pinkie, and like she had guessed, the pink party thrower was nowhere to be seen.

Embarrassedly, Starlight began to search for a reply. "I... Umm... Well..." She didn't find one.

"Exactly..." Sunset said as she continued to snark through the door. "So just sit your caboose down in one of those chairs out there and wait for me. Your not getting out here without giving me a full explanation." Starlight, still finding no reason to argue, decided to take a seat at her host's behest.

Within a few minutes, Sunset Shimmer exited her room now fully clothed. Surprisingly, she found that Starlight had followed her orders and was still occupying her living room instead of chasing Pinkie like she was so adamant on doing before. She looked up at Sunset and gave her a slight giggle snort. "What the hay are you wearing?" She giggled.

Sunset scoffed. Her new outfit was something that looked like it had come straight out of a military movie, complete with shoulder pads, lock pics, an insignia cap, and a pair of black belt bags. Starlight didn't recognize any of it.

Sunset huffed indignantly. "This is my Halloween Costume. A homage to a main character of an awesome game series."

Starlight chuckled. "So... Like what nerdy foals do on Nightmare Night?"

Sunset blushed in frustration. "That's not important right now!" She shouted. "Why are you chasing Pinkie Pie through Canterlot city, and more to the point... WHY WAS SHE NAKED?!" She nearly blew out her voice at the end of her question to give it more emphasis.

"She's not your type, I assume?" Starlight shot back mockingly.

"Of course not!" Sunset said beginning to hug herself. She shuttered in discomfort as she whispered, "...dear Celestia, I actually though she was going to kiss me."

Starlight chuckled, but a sudden forlorn expression enveloping her face dissuaded any further sense of mirth she may have felt at the moment. She sighed and began rubbing her eyebrows between her index finger and thumb. "I'm sorry. Things have been really crazy in Equestria recently, and I needed something to lift my spirits a bit."

Sunset noticed the pure sorrowful look that permeated through Starlight's once boisterous mood. She quickly adopted a concerned expression and asked her friend with the utmost trepidation, "Starlight... what exactly is going on?"

Starlight looked up at her and took in a deep breath. "It all started a few days ago... ironically enough, on Nightmare Night." She expressed somberly. "It was your usual sort of celebration. Fillies and colts were dressed up in costume, adult ponies where handing out candy and playing carnival games... generally everypony was just enjoying the festivities and treats." She paused. "But me and my friend Trixie... well, I guess you could say, we were feeling a bit more 'tricky' then 'treaty' this year."

Sunset grimaced. Starlight took this as a voiceless cue to continue.

"She convinced me to help her pull a prank on the citizens of Ponyville. Something based on another prank the citizens played on Rainbow Dash using some dyed filly scout cookies. We decided to bake a huge batch of cupcakes, enough so everypony in town would get one, but used a special potion that made the cupcakes' cream filling taste like hot sauce."

Sunset raised an eyebrow and asked curiously. "I'm gonna guess that was your idea?"

Starlight nodded. "I thought it would be funnier if the ponies being pranked didn't know where the burning sensation was coming from." She inhaled again, using the the brief moment of silence to remember were she left off in the story. "The first pony we decided to test the cupcakes on was Pinkie Pie. At first, She seemed like the logical first choice. She's fun, crazy, always enjoys a good practical joke. Of course the prank turned out to be a failure anyways, because Pinkie Pie apparently puts hot sauce on everything."

Sunset nodded in agreement. "You don't have to tell me twice, I've see how she eats. Did you know she puts peanut butter and prunes on her pizza?"

Starlight snickered, if only slightly."Anyways... when we went to test the cupcakes on Pinkie we found that potion we used in the cream had a strange effect on her. As it turned out, the Pinkie we tested the cupcake on first wasn't the actual Pinkie, but clone of her from another earlier incident in Ponyville involving something called the mirror pool."

She waited for Sunset to ask her another question, assuming she didn't already know about the magical pond. When no further questions came and the somber silence only continued, Starlight decided to continue her story.

"The clone didn't act any differently at first..." She admitted. "But then she suddenly began kissing ponies for no reason. Like she had somehow spontaneously grown an innate urge to lip lock with everypony she came across. Which was only weird in the beginning, and I guess partially arousing to some ponies involved..." She mumbled only loud enough so Sunset wouldn't hear her completely. "But then those ponies she kissed started turning into Pinkie Pies themselves."

"What?" Sunset asked bewilderedly. "They turned into Pinkies?"

"Yeah, I was confused too." She admitted poignantly. "What's worse was that the ponies that were turned into Pinkies started kissing other ponies as well, and before you knew it, the entire town was completely overrun." Her voice seemed to hitch as she admitted that. Whatever had happened during the Pinkie clone's outbreak clearly had left an effect on her. Starlight began to rake her fingers through her hair. "Using their unique abilities, the Pinkies were able to infect almost the whole of Equestria within only a few weeks. Eventually the only ponies left unaffected where me, Princess Twilight and a few other survivors." She proclaimed nervously. "When we had finally gotten cornered, Twilight gave me Star Swirl's time travel scroll and told me to go back in time and stop the clone before she could infect her first victim." Starlight sounded like she wanted to cry. "I did what she asked, and ended up chasing the clone through the magic mirror to your world."

Sunset was struck silent. Her friend was in obvious turmoil, and she barely knew how to approach the situation. How was she supposed to react? A Pinkie Pie clone was running around her city naked, and apparently her kiss turned you into a Pinkie Pie too. She couldn't help but think about some horror films she had enjoyed watching with her friends from Canterlot High, who had similar premises. But none of what she had seen could have prepared her for something this... ridiculous.

Sunset soon noticed that Starlight was holding her head in her hands, and quickly pulled herself out of her own thoughts to comfort her. She placed her hand gently on Starlight's shoulder drawing the other ex-unicorn's attention. "It's okay Starlight." She expressed soothingly. "You didn't know this would happen. No pony could have know."

Starlight only seemed to glower at her. "How can you say that!" She shot back. "I'm the cause of all this, and I'm also the reason she got into your world in the first place! If she isn't stopped, what happened in Equestria could happen here! HOW CAN YOU BE SO CALM ABOUT THIS!" She shouted, tears flowing down her cheeks from the guilt.

"Because you're my friend, and I forgive you." Sunset admitted. The tears in Starlight's eyes almost immediately seemed to stop flowing. "And I'm going to help you fix this before it gets too out-of-hand. I'm assuming you have a plan?"

Starlight smiled thankfully and began to rub the tears out of the corners of her eyes."Sort of..." She admitted. "I think I can synthesize an antidote from the Prime Pinkie if she has already begun infecting people. Otherwise, we just need to find her and bring her back to Equestria, where I can perform a spell that will send straight back to the mirror pool."

Sunset nodded understandingly. But then a quick popped into her head. "Say Starlight, Why didn't you just go back in time and stop yourself from making those cupcakes in the first place?" Sunset asked curiously.

Starlight looked down guiltily. "I damaged the time travel scroll back when I used it to get revenge on Princess Twilight. It can take a pony back farther in time then a normal time spell would, but only a certain distance. This was the best I could do." She admitted somberly.

Sunset shrugged. "Well, I guess I can't argue with explanation like that." She admitted. "Anything else I should know before we start searching?"

"I've found that the infected people turned into Pinkies are extremely susceptible to sugars and sweeteners due to the potions unique reaction with the sugar in the cupcakes. Any extra sugar placed into their systems will cause them to crash like foals after a sugar high."

Sunset nodded. "Okay..." She began to think. "I have a bit the soda still left in my fridge and a few Nerf super soakers from my last trip to the beach. Maybe if we put those together we could-"

Sunset was cut off as her cellphone began to ring. Judging by the country music that was playing, she assumed it was Applejack who was calling her.

She picked up the phone. "Applejack? Is that you?"

"Sunset! Thank goodness ya picked up!" The farm girl exclaimed with clear exhaustion in her voice. "We got some kind of magical who-ha going on over here at the farm, and we could really use your help!"

"Applejack, calm down." Sunset asked. "What's going on?"

"Pinkie Pies, loads of 'em." She explained. "A whole mob of 'em dressed in different outfits, just showed up an hour ago and snogged our mailman. Now they and him are tryin to break into our house and snog us! Ah was hopin' you may have a way to fix this before that happened."

Sunset eyes widened with worry. "I'll be there as soon as I can!" Sunset exclaimed. "I have a friend who can possibly help us fix this. Just try to keep them outside as long as you can!"

Sunset couldn't tell for sure, but she imagined Applejack nodded. "Will do!"

Sunset ended the call and quickly turned to Starlight. "We'll need to fill those super soakers faster then I thought. Applejack needs our help!"