“For the last time, Pinkie, they’re called T-straps, not Mary Janes!” Rarity sighed and held one elegant hand to her forehead. “I’ll have you know those were somewhat difficult to acquire, so I’d take it as a personal favor if you could at least use the proper term!”

Pinkie giggled and plopped over onto her side on top of the grand piano. Then she propped her head up with a hand and grinned. “You totally sound like Twilight right now.”

Rarity blinked once or twice. “I do not.”

“You… really do.” Sunset said with a little curl of her lip. She was sitting on the stairs, tuning her electric guitar with the occasional strum.

Sunset used that special smirk she loved to use on Rarity. It usually got Rarity all flustered. Sometimes it even made Rarity sputter. Normally, Pinkie wouldn’t like making her friends sputter, but Pinkie had learned a while ago that Rarity actually liked to sputter once in a while. Pinkie could always see it in Rarity’s eyes.

Like right now!

“That’s… that’s absurd!” Rarity sputtered. “I’m simply requesting that you respect the care it took to get those wonderful shoes for your outfit—which you look smashing in, dear. It’s the difference between a hairtie and a hairbow. These are very impor—”

Rarity stopped for two seconds. Sunset sniggered really hard, but she at least tried to hide it by doing a few quick chords on her guitar. Pinkie twisted a bit so she could kick her feet—with her T-straps—in the air.

After a few moments of composing herself, Rarity faced the truth.

“Oh dear, I really do sound like Twilight, don’t I?”

“Who sounds like me?” Twilight asked as she stumbled into the room holding a stack of books almost taller than she was. Spike walked beside her, watching warily, though Pinkie couldn’t tell if it was to help or to dodge. “What’s going on?”

“Twilight!” Rarity gasped as she ran forward to snatch half the pile away from Twilight. Rarity instantly staggered under the weight and stumbled to the side to drop them in a small heap at the top of the nearby stairs. She turned to stare at Twilight with really big eyes. “Whatever are you doing? Were you trying to hurt yourself?”

“Um… no. Not really?” Twilight sounded sheepish, but Spike rolled his eyes. Twilight stepped over and placed the rest of the books in a very neat stack next to Rarity’s pile. “I’ve never taken the time to study the evolution of dance orchestra and jazz music into the swing music era! It’s a fascinating concept, one that has a multitude of possibilities in tracking the development of cultural norms in areas outside of music and into art, literature and any other creative endeavor!”

“And this explains why you have a book stack as high as you… why?” Sunset grinned at Twilight.

“Well… I didn’t really realize it was that big…” Twilight hesitated and blushed a little.

Sunset’s grin widened.

Pinkie’s eyes flicked back and forth between them. It was kinda funny how Sunny had this totally huge crush on Twilight, but could still talk to Twilight like she was just one of the other girls. On one hand, Pinkie thought it was pretty neat that Sunset had that much control.

On the other hand, Pinkie thought it was a little sad Sunset could hide her feelings that well. It meant that she was sorta cut off from the rest of them sometimes. But, she tended to have a pretty cool head though. That’s why she’d sorta turned into their ‘leader’ when Princess Twilight couldn’t be around.

After all, Sunset had been the one to really help their Twilight deal with all that ‘overwhelmed by evil magic’ junk.

Now if they’d only figure out that they’d be totally adorable together! Even Rarity agrees with me! Though she went on a lot about color compliments, so I’m not sure she was talking about the same thing. Oh well!

“Vice Principal Luna told her to stop juggling books with magic in the hall,” Spike said with a smirk almost as bad as Sunset’s—and that was pretty bad.

“I didn’t know you could juggle, Twilight!” Pinkie felt a little slighted. Why wouldn’t Twilight tell her something like that? “We should totally do a juggle-off after you’ve practiced. Then again, you do have the whole magical floaty thing, so you’d have to promise not to use it in the competition!”

“Spike!” Twilight protested as Sunset and Rarity started laughing. “Sorry, Pinkie, not that kind of juggling.”

“Aw.” Pinkie pouted a little, just enough to make Sunset giggle.

“Be that as it may,” Rarity said with a cocked eyebrow. “Spike’s telling the truth, isn’t he?”

“Ugh. Yes,” Twilight groaned, rubbing her hand over the little purple geode wrapped up in a black necklace Rarity had made her. “Doesn’t mean I like it.”

“Why the secrecy?” Sunset asked. She strummed out another few chords on her guitar, frowned and again tweaked a few of the tuning knobs. “I’m pretty sure everyone at school knows what we can do by now.”

“Apparently, there’s some visiting dignitary arriving before lunch.” Twilight adjusted her glasses and knelt down to rearrange the books Rarity had dropped. “Some ambassador? Seemed kinda strange to me.”

“Why would an ambassador visit CHS?” Sunset frowned. Then she blinked a few times. Pinkie knew her well enough to realize Sunset had just had an idea, and it was an idea she didn’t like. “Unless… they’re going through the portal.”

Rarity laughed, though there was a bit of an edge there. “While I believe our gifts may have become public knowledge within our little community and even entered into the urban lore, I suspect at least one of us would have been informed if a diplomatic envoy would be arriving to visit Equestria. At the very least, Princess Twilight would have told you, Sunset.”

Sunset nodded, but she still didn’t look entirely convinced. “She hasn’t said anything, but… maybe I should double check.”

Sunset pulled that cool magical journal that let her write back and forth to Princess Twilight out of her backpack and flipped through the pages.

“Let me see…” Sunset muttered. She chewed her lip as she scanned the book.

Pinkie stared at the picture on the front of the book and scratched her head. Sunset had once told Pinkie and the rest of the girls all about the pictures ponies had on their butts called ‘cutie marks.’ Sunset’s old journal had Sunset’s own cutie mark on it, since it had been a special present from the Celestia from Equestria—who was some super-powerful alicorn who’d been around forever. But the new one was different.

Obviously, half of the design was Sunset’s cutie mark. The other half confused her. It seemed to be a star like the one Princess Twilight wore on her dress—or their Twilight had on her geode—but it was funny looking.

Was it supposed to be Princess Twilight’s cutie mark? If that were true, why did the colors remind her of that other girl Sunset had brought from Equestria, Starlight Glimmer?

Pinkie shook her head and pulled out Shelly. She smiled at Pinkie and her eyes spun a little. Apparently, Shelly thought her friends were silly too.

“She hasn’t written a word about any visits to Equestria.” Sunset flipped through a few more pages, frowning. “But I don’t understand. Why would—”

Oh, wait a minute! Silly me!

“Oops!” Pinkie cried. “I’m sorry, I totally forgot. Skystar’s coming here with her mom!”

Everyone stopped and stared at Pinkie.

“Whoever might that be?” Rarity asked as she stepped over to look at Shelly.

“She’s the one who gave me Shelly here!” Pinkie replied, holding out Shelly for everyone to see. Shelly gave a really big grin—though her eyes spun around a bunch. She’d have to ask Skystar about why her pet clam did that so much. Maybe Shelly just didn’t take things seriously. “I met her during my early morning dance on the beach! She’s really nice and pretty!”

“A Lyropecten nodosa? I mean… it might be.” Twilight frowned as she peered through her glasses and studied Shelly with a critical eye. “I’m at least sure it’s a member of the Pectinidae family.”

That’s Twilight. Pinkie smiled. Always has to use fancy names for everything.

“That’s… a clam.” Beside Twilight, Rarity stared at Shelly. Rarity looked really confused. “And while the googly eyes do give it a somewhat whimsical appeal, I wouldn’t call it pretty.”

“Not Shelly, silly!” Pinkie laughed. “Though Shelly’s much prettier than her brother Sheldon. After all, Shelly’s purple.”

“I’m afraid you may have lost us, Pinkie.” Rarity chuckled.

Twilight just looked a bit confused. Sunset—as usual—snickered.

“I meant Skystar’s really pretty!” Pinkie said. She may have helped Shelly roll her eyes at her friends. “Like I said, I met her while dancing on the boardwalk! She and her mom are coming around to all the high schools today, though Skystar doesn’t know why.”

“All the high schools?” Sunset raised an eyebrow. “You sure, Pinks?”

Pinkie nodded happily. “That’s what her grumpy bodyguard said before she left. She said she’d give me a text before she arrived—” Pinkie frowned. “Actually, no she didn’t. I just gave her my number. Anyway, she totally wants to meet you, Sunset!”

Rarity and Twilight turned to look at Sunset. Sunset, on the other hand, stared at Pinkie, looking really surprised.

“Me? Why me?”

“Welllll…” Pinkie blushed a little and played with a lock of her hair.

Sunset’s expression fell into a flat stare and she cocked an eyebrow at her. “You told her I was a magical talking unicorn, didn’t you?”

“Nope!”

“Oh good.”

“I told her you were a magical talking pony. I didn’t get a chance to mention the fact that you were a unicorn.”

Sunset facepalmed.

“Pinkie!” Twilight waved her hands in the air, obviously exasperated—but she did that a lot. “You can’t just go around telling people that Sunset’s a magical talking pony!”

“But…” Pinkie frowned. “She is!”

“Guilty as charged,” Sunset said with a shrug and played a few chords that sounded suspiciously like that song everyone had sung in the cafeteria before the Fall Formal.

“How can you be so cavalier about this?” Twilight demanded, refocusing her annoyance on Sunset. “I mean, I’m already trying not to worry about getting locked away for having magic superpowers. I can’t even think about E.T. anymore!”

“Why?” Pinkie asked. “If you need to phone home, just use your cell.”

Sunset burst into laughter. Even Rarity giggled a little.

Twilight just glared at Pinkie. “Not what I meant!”

“I know!” Pinkie declared. “But it was still funny.”

“Yeah, it was.” Sunset said. “Look, Twi, all of us grow pony ears when we play music or do something in line with our Elements. Heck, Fluttershy and Rainbow even grow wings! So do you, though I can’t figure out why… er… no offense.”

“I told you!” Twilight rolled her eyes. “Princess Twilight and I discussed it. It has something to do our morphological matrices being in sync through the dimensional rift between realities. Anyway, not the point! You keep trying to distract me!”

“And apparently I’m not doing a very good job.” Sunset shrugged and inspected one of the knobs on her guitar. “I could try harder, if you want.”

Rarity stepped back to Pinkie as Twilight stalked toward Sunset to berate her better. She leaned against the piano and dropped her voice to little more than a whisper.

“They really are adorable together, aren’t they?” Rarity sighed wistfully. “I can’t imagine how I didn’t see it before Camp Everfree.”

Pinkie nodded and Shelly joined in.

“Oh well.” Rarity shrugged. “We’ll just have to wait and see. It would be most uncouth to intentionally break up Twilight and Timber.”

“They’ll figure it out, don’t worry.”

“You sound so confident, darling.” Rarity eyed her suspiciously. “Any particular reason?”

“Just a hunch!” Pinkie rolled over and stared at a very upside-down Rarity.

Rarity raised an eyebrow. “The last big hunch you had, you determined that our other dear Twilight was, in fact, a transformed pony princess on a quest to recover a magical element to help protect her world.”

“I know! Wasn’t that great?” Pinkie beamed at her.

“Oh, Pinkie.” Rarity laughed and shook her head. “Never change.”

“Wait a minute!” Twilight suddenly cried. Her hands were on her hips and she was staring at Sunset. “Why am I angry with you?”

“Because I’m way more realistic about the fact that if the government was to haul us away, they would have done it already?” Sunset said, leaning back on the stairs and looking super smug. “And the fact that between the six of you, no one’s taking anyone anywhere they don’t want to go. Seriously, you girls would wreck anyone who tried anything.”

“But that’s not the point!” Twilight snapped. “I was angry with Pinkie for just telling some random stranger about us! Well, you in this case. More you.”

Pinkie smiled at Twilight. She suspected that Twilight secretly enjoyed panicking, a bit like Rarity enjoyed sputtering every so often.

Still, calling poor Skystar a ‘random stranger’ seemed kinda harsh.

“Skystar is super nice,” Pinkie said as she poked Shelly. Shelly tried to nip at her fingers. “And really lonely. She’s been moving around for years because her mom’s an ambassador for a bunch of islands! She needed a friend, and after I asked if she was a mermaid, it just kinda came up.”

“Why’d you ask her if she was—” Twilight shook her head and rubbed her temples. “No, never mind. So, why didn’t you tell us about this earlier?”

Pinkie flopped back over onto her stomach. She crossed her legs in the air and shrugged. “Sorry, I’ve been distracted all morning.”

Rarity’s eyebrow rose. Like Sunset’s smirks or Twilight’s levels of panic, Rarity had a lot of different eyebrow poses. Not as much as Applejack of course, but Applejack’s were really obvious. Rarity’s were way more subtle.

Though, the twinkle in Rarity’s eyes wasn’t subtle at all. Pinkie wondered if Rarity knew how totally not subtle she was being. Not that Pinkie would be much help. Subtlety wasn’t exactly something Pinkie was really good at.

“Distracted by what, Pinkie?” Rarity asked in a semi-sing-song sort of way that told everyone in the room she had some very strong suspicions what the answer might be.

Pinkie booped Shelly again, trying not to look Rarity in the eye. Rarity had a sense about this sort of thing. It was probably already too late, but Pinkie could definitely try!

“Um… nothing?”

Rarity let out a little noise halfway between a squeal and a gasp. “Could it be?”

“Could it be what?” Twilight asked, scratching her head. “I don’t get it.”

“I think our dear Pinkie Pie may like someone! As in like like!” Rarity clapped her hands together and did that little bounce she did when she was super-duper-extra happy. “I don’t believe it!”

“Rarity?” Sunset asked from the other side of the room. She’d stashed her journal and was now fiddling with a file folder. “Don’t you think you might be seeing things… again?”

“Oh, please!” Rarity huffed and stopped a foot on the ground. She even gave Sunset an icy little glare. “Just because I was mistaken about Big Mac’s crush on Cheerilee doesn’t mean I don’t possess at least some powers of romantic deduction!”

Twilight nodded and raised a finger. “Rarity did accurately predict the development of the relationship between Flash Sentry and Ditzy Doo after Camp Everfree.”

“See! There!” Rarity cried, throwing her hands into the air in triumph. “Validation!”

“I notice you’re not adding anything to this, Pinks,” Sunset said as she flipped through the song sheet for tonight. “In fact, you’ve been a little quiet all day. Well, quiet for you.”

“And when Pinkie Pie is quiet…” Rarity added, “that usually means something is very, very wrong… or occasionally, very, very right!”

Pinkie blushed a little and smiled to herself. Shelly smiled back at her from the comfort of Pinkie’s nice warm hand.

Sunset paused for a few seconds before laughing. “Rarity, I think I owe you an apology.”

“I should think so!” Rarity put her hands on her hips and wiggled them a little. That lasted for just a few seconds before Rarity shoved herself into Pinkie’s face with a rather silly grin—and Pinkie knew silly. This was really silly. Rarity had almost climbed on top of the piano with her!

“So, I’m going to need to know everything, dear Pinkie! Whoever is this Skystar and however did you meet? I want details, darling! All of them!”

Pinkie glanced at Twilight, Spike and Sunset. All of them had stopped what they were doing. All of them were watching Pinkie really closely, all with really big smiles, too.

Unless she wanted to blow up the piano, Pinkie was pretty sure she wasn’t getting out of here without an telling them all about this morning. And she didn’t think Miss Free Beats, the Canterlot High music teacher, would be very happy if she came in later to an exploded piano.

Plus, blowing up musical instruments to get away from her friends was pretty rude. To the piano and her friends!

So, Pinkie told them about dancing along the boardwalk, finding Skystar all sad and frowny, learning about Skystar’s mom, meeting Shelly and Sheldon, that tight hug and all the way up to Skystar’s cute blush where Pinkie could count the freckles. She didn’t mention that she’d been counting them in her head all morning. Then Pinkie remembered and added all the parts about Stratus and what he’d said about visiting the schools.

When she was done, Pinkie herself would have had trouble matching Rarity’s grin. Sunset’s grin was almost as bad. Twilight was just blushing a lot and playing with a strand of hair. Spike was sniggering so hard it sounded a little like he was coughing up a hairball, which was totally silly since he wasn’t a cat.

“Oh yeah, you got it bad,” Spike said.

I wonder if all dogs are as sassy as Spike? Pinkie thought idly. I should ask Fluttershy.

“Wow.” Sunset burst into another round of laughter. “When Spike calls you out on something, it’s pretty serious.”

Pinkie gave a little sigh and made Shelly roll her eyes at all of them.

“Someone appears to be quite smitten with one little mermaid,” Rarity said in that same silly sing-song voice. “I believe you did spend at least four minutes talking about her freckles.”

“Five,” Twilight corrected automatically. “If you count it all aggregately.”

“I like her freckles.” Pinkie shrugged. “A lot.”

Pinkie wasn’t really sure what she thought about Rarity’s idea. She had just seen a lonely girl on the pier this morning and thought she’d been pretty! The girl had needed a friend and Pinkie was always up for a new friend.

Huh. Now that I think of it, she kinda reminds me of… no, that couldn’t be it! That’s just silly. Silly heart doing silly things! Stop that!

Skystar was just her newest friend! That’s all! Nothing to get all worked up about, but everyone else around her seemed so excited, she couldn’t bring herself to tell them otherwise. So, she’d play along. It might be fun!

“Hmmm.” Rarity pulled out her glasses from her purse. She looked at Pinkie critically, as if she were analyzing her dress again, but now from a completely new perspective.

“What color did you say Skystar’s dress was, Pinkie?” Rarity produced a sketchpad and took a few notes.

“Orange and blue. It made her look like the ocean at sunrise.”

Rarity let out a little squeal and scribbled furiously.

“Uh…” Twilight once again raised a hand, as if she were in class—well, technically, this was the music classroom, so she was in a class, but there wasn’t a class in session right now, so it didn’t really count. “Can I just point out that Pinkie’s known this girl for… what? A few hours? You’ve met her only this morning and—”

“And how long did it take you to start making eyes at Timber Spruce, hm?” Rarity asked without turning around.

“Ooh!” Sunset said in her best Pinkie impersonation, waving her hand wildly back and forth. “I know this one!”

“I think we all do, Sunset.” Rarity chuckled mildly.

“I’ll… um… be quiet now…” Twilight mumbled, blushing furiously.

“Anyway,” Rarity continued. “It’s not as if dear Pinkie is professing her undying love or anything as cliche as that. It’s just been quite some time since I’ve seen Pinkie interested in anyone.”

Sunset winced, but Pinkie smiled at her really hard. Pinkie still had to remind Sunset every so often that she had forgiven her a really long time ago for what had happened sophomore year. Sunset had a nasty memory though, one that liked to nip at her sometimes, like a mean yappy dog.

Still, Pinkie could see that little memory go run off and hide when Sunset smiled back. Another win for Pinkie and Sunset!

It also helped distract her from Rarity’s last words. So, it had worked for both of them!

Rarity suddenly stopped scribbling and removed her glasses. “Pinkie?”

“Huh?” Pinkie glanced up at her.

Why did Rarity look so worried? She was all happy just a second ago!

“Are you alright?” Rarity asked, her voice suddenly a little bit concerned. “You do seem a tad quieter than normal.”

Pinkie looked at Shelly, but this time, Shelly wasn’t smiling. Her eyes weren’t rolling either.

“I just feel bad for her,” Pinkie murmured. “I keep thinking of what it would be like without any friends at all, constantly having to move all over the world? Her mom sounds… really mean to make her do that.”

She kept the little heart backflips to herself. Those were probably just a side effect of the… cereal she had this morning? Maybe she hadn’t gotten her proper intake of sugar? Yeah, that was probably it. She was absolutely positively sure of it!

Mostly.

“If she’s an ambassador, Pinkie,” Twilight said, “then her mom’s responsibility is to her country first. From your descriptions, I can’t think of her being anywhere other than from the Aris Islands. Their population is very small, but they have a powerful economy. Come to think of it, her title probably isn’t ‘Ambassador,’ but ‘Ambassador-At-Large.’ Especially if she’s moving around a lot. Traditional ambassadors or ‘ambassadors-in-residence’ stay in one country at an established embassy, even if they’re from small countries.”

Pinkie could hear every quotation mark Twilight used.

“But that doesn’t help Skystar,” Pinkie insisted. “She’s still alone! And what if she ends up leaving tomorrow?”

“We cannot choose our family.” Rarity put a hand on Pinkie’s shoulder and squeezed it gently. “And sometimes a family’s legacy is a difficult one.”

Sunset put down the music sheets and walked up to Pinkie. All three of them were around her now. The piano didn’t feel so comfortable to lie down on anymore, so she decided to sit up instead. Pinkie stared at her shoes before glancing back up at her friends, not really sure what to say.

“She might leave tomorrow, Pinkie,” Sunset said slowly, as if she was saying something she really didn’t want to say. “You can’t control that. But if she is coming here, then maybe you should ask Principal Celestia if you could show them around?”

“Like… a tour guide?” Pinkie blinked a few times. “Wait! I already offered to do that for her!”

“There you go!” Sunset grinned. “Or you could just sneak her off and show her the really fun parts of Canterlot High. After all, I can’t think of anyone who could pack months of fun into an hour or so.”

“Oh!” Pinkie gasped as another of the best ideas ever struck her. “Oh! I could… what if I find a way to keep her here until tonight?”

“Why? What’s tonight?” Twilight asked.

Rarity rolled her eyes. Pinkie helped by rolling hers too. And Shelly’s.

“Twilight, I’m quite sure you heard about tonight’s festivities,” Rarity said, sounding super exasperated. “You were there when we announced it!”

“In her defense,” Spike said from where he’d curled up on the floor, “she probably had a book in her hands at the time.”

“Stop helping me,” Twilight muttered.

Spike chuckled.

Sunset laughed. “Rainbow got the Rainbooms booked tonight at the Tempest Jazz Club on Venture Lane.”

“Oh, so you aren’t just dressed like a swing dancer for fun?” Twilight asked, sounding honestly surprised. Then again, on Monday, Pinkie had gone to school in her best jester outfit for the first time in months, so Pinkie could understand if Twilight was a little confused.

“No, silly!” Pinkie said. “I only do my swing dancer outfit on Wednesdays for fun. If it’s on a Friday, it’s something special.”

“Ah,” Twilight said. She was obviously pretending that explained everything, even if Pinkie knew it wasn’t actually enough for Twilight. But that was okay. Sunset had once told her that if she really tried to answer all of Twilight’s questions, she’d be doing it for weeks or maybe even longer. And it would probably end with Twilight’s hair on fire.

Heck, just seeing Sunset trying to figure out their magic had been really funny and that had only been one day! Sunset still got a little nervous anytime Pinkie got too close to her with balloons for some strange reason.

“Oh my, I just had the most marvelous idea!” Rarity’s eyes lit up. “If you’ll excuse me for a moment!”

Sunset and Twilight shrugged as Rarity rushed over to the corner of the room where she’d placed her backpack. She pulled out her cell phone and started quickly typing away.

“Do you have any idea when Skystar and her mom are going to be here?” Sunset asked.

Pinkie shook her head, so, of course, that’s when her phone suddenly started singing about smiling.

“Thanks, Sunny!” Pinkie chirped as jumped off the piano and dove behind the drums to get her backpack.

“For what?”

“For asking!” Pinkie shook her head and pulled her phone out.

“Why are you thanking me for that?” Sunset blinked at her a few times. “I’m missing something.”

Pinkie rolled her eyes. “It’s obvious, silly! That’s the best way to make something happen! It’s kinda like asking that question in a movie. The ‘what else can go…’ question? Since you asked if I knew when she was going to be here, and I didn’t, she would obviously text me now!”

“That makes no logical sense.” Twilight pointed out with a huff. She even crossed her arms.

“Since when has that stopped Pinkie?” Sunset said with a smirk.

Twilight apparently didn’t have an answer for that.

Pinkie giggled as she finally got her phone unlocked. Then her heart did that little flipping thing again!

Silly cereal.

“She’s here!” Pinkie squealed. “Her and her mom are here! They’re pulling up right now!”

“Excellent, Pinkie!” Rarity declared as she marched over. “Then you must go meet her at once.”

“But… free period is almost over!” Pinkie protested. “Class starts in like ten minutes!”

“Leave that to me, darling,” Rarity replied. Her eyes were glittering again. Rarity was definitely plotting something! “I shall handle all of your affairs.”

“It’s not like anyone in this school really cares about class attendance anyway,” Sunset said with a shrug. “Seriously, with the amount of time we spend out of class, it’s a miracle we haven’t gotten kicked out.”

“Don’t even joke about that!” Twilight cried. “Oh my. I… I should make sure to be there early! I can’t have a bad record! Being tardy is a sin!”

“A sin?” Sunset asked flatly. “Seriously?”

“Gah!” Twilight grabbed her backpack and scampered out of the room.

Spike looked up, did a little doggie shrug and went back to sleep under the piano.

Sunset cocked an eyebrow at Spike. “Aren’t you technically her therapy dog? Shouldn’t you be going with her?”

Spike opened one eye, looked at Sunset and laughed. “I’m a therapy dog, not a wonder dog.”

Ba-dum tish!

“Pinkie, get away from the drums.”

Pinkie whistled innocently, since she just happened to be near the drums. Didn’t mean she was doing anything with them though. Totally random happenstance!

“I’d better go after her,” Sunset said with a sigh as she tossed on her backpack. “Otherwise she might do something crazy.”

“You do realize our definition of crazy is rather wide, right?” Rarity asked as she shouldered her own backpack.

“Yeah, yeah.” Sunset rolled her eyes. “Have fun, Pinks!”

“Thanks, Sunny!” Pinkie gave Sunset a little wave.

“Now!” Rarity declared as soon as Sunset had left. “You are to immediately report to the front of the school to meet your dear Skystar, her mother and her entourage.”

“But…” Pinkie suddenly remembered just how serious Stratus had looked. Her mother was probably gonna be even more serious! “What if—”

“Tut tut!” Rarity tapped Pinkie’s lips with a single finger. “I won’t hear of it! Go now and be yourself. Your only objective is to make sure Skystar has a wonderful time for as long as she’s here! However, I do recommend against blowing anything up.”

Pinkie nodded, snatched her backpack from the floor and decided to head out on her new mission. If Rarity said she’d handle everything else, then Pinkie knew Rarity would handle everything else.

Before Pinkie could get all the way out of the door though, Rarity called back to her.

“Oh, and Pinkie?” Rarity asked.

“Yeah?”

“How many freckles does the lovely Miss Skystar have?”

She didn’t even need to think about it. She just knew! Not that she wouldn’t mind counting again. Just to be sure, of course.

“Five above her nose, four on her right cheek and six on her left.”

Rarity let out another squeal.

Pinkie smiled and hurried toward the front of the school.

Rarity could be so silly sometimes!

Anyone notice a tiny little character cameo in this one?

This chapter has some of my favorite quips in the whole story. Matchmaker Rarity is a delight. Especially her little squeals! Major props to Little Tink for coming up with the Wonder Dog line! Spike is so full of snark, he could give Sunset a run for her money!

Plus that whole pony/unicorn bit? Gah! I love it!