"Twilight, darling, are you absolutely certain about this?" Rarity was nervously standing amongst four of her friends as they watched Twilight place their seven multicolored necklaces into a small compartment of a much larger machine.

The human version of their Equestrian friend was currently dressed in a white lab coat with her hair done up in a bun to keep it from falling in her eyes. She turned around upon hearing the fashionista’s voice and smiled at the group in a way that made her look slightly deranged.

"I’m not only certain about this experiment, Rarity, I am excited beyond belief that we finally have the materials needed to perform it!" Twilight answered giddily. "These geodes we got from Camp Everfree are the first physical forms of Equestrian magic I've ever been able to study." She closed the compartment and began to dance happily in place. "Just imagine what this experiment alone could teach us!"

The girls briefly glanced at each other through the corners of their eyes, a collectively feeling of unease welling up inside them as they watched Twilight perform a few more minor calibrations to the machine. Their bodies grew visibly more tense every time they saw her push a button or turn a dial. It worried them greatly that they weren’t able to keep up with Twilight as she worked on the machine, especially since they knew they wouldn’t be able to personally jump in and turn it off should something go array. Suffice it to say, it didn't take long for one of the girls to start voicing their concerns.

"Yeah...what it could teach us." Applejack repeated. "But again, are ya absolutely sure this here experiment is safe?" Twilight turned her head to look at her stetson wearing friend. She quickly stifled a giggle and waved her unease off before returning to the machine.

"Of course it’s safe, Applejack. I personally went over this experiment multiple times on paper and studied for every possible outcome." Twilight explained proudly. "I also made sure to check that every apparatus on this machine was working properly and performing at peak condition. I even had our own resident magic expert check for me to see what kind of effects magical items like our geodes could have on this kind of machinery." She pointed her thumb over her shoulder towards Sunset Shimmer, who was sitting in front of them at one of the school's old box computers. The two girls had borrowed the device from the school’s computer lab and had somehow wired it up to the strange machine. The fiery haired girl in front of them, who was also in a lab coat, swiveled her chair around and gave them a reassuring smile.

"I can guarantee you all that nothing bad is going to happen." Sunset said with somewhat believable sincerity. "This machine is simply going to scan the geodes and tell us about their physical makeup." She tapped the printer sitting next to the computer with her hand, pointing out where said information was going to be produced from. "I swear to you, nothing is going to explode this time...or catch fire...or suddenly implode on itself like the start of black hole...again." Sunset suddenly began to mumble, "at least we're 90% sure..."

Applejack raised an eyebrow in casual disbelief. She had spent enough time on the farm to know bull shit when she smelt it. "What was that?" She asked her ex-Equestrian friend incredulously. The others narrowed their eyes at Sunset as well, clearly now picking up on what Applejack was thinking.

Sunset giggled nervously, her eyes darting between her friends' hardened gazes in a slight fit of apprehension. "I said...this experiment has a 90% chance of success!” She successfully lied. “Those are very good odds and provide complete confirmation that nothing catastrophic is going to happen here today." The girls’ gazes seemed to lighten somewhat upon hearing Sunset’s explanation, but not nearly enough to make the redhead feel as confident as she had been a few seconds ago.

Rainbow Dash folded her arms, "it better be, because if I have to wear that stupid rainbow wig again! I swear to god-"

Pinkie Pie’s hands suddenly shot upwards to cover her mouth. She could barely contain her own laughter. "Oh yeah, I remember that!" She snickered. "You’re talking about that time their experimental shampoo made your hair fall out and you had to wear that afro wig for a month straight, right?" The others soon snickered at the memory, causing Rainbow to glare deathly at her pink poofy-haired friend. Pinkie suddenly burst out laughing, “everybody called you Disco Dash!”

"Are you looking to get yourself knocked back to the 70s, Pinkie?” Rainbow raised her fist up in front of Pinkie’s face threateningly. “Because this is a good way of doing it.”

Pinkie gasped dramatically. "But Dashie, I’m not packed to be going on a long trip! And my bell bottom jeans haven’t even shown up in the mail yet!”

"Alright, that should do it!" Twilight’s voice cut through the conversation as she backed away from the supercomputer-like device. She ran back behind the desk where her friends were standing and tapped Sunset on the shoulder to get her attention. "Run the program!"

Sunset nodded.

"Ah'm just gonna go and stand back here, if that’s okay with everyone else?" Applejack quickly stepped back and behind the rest of her friends. The worried looks she saw on their faces indicated to her that they weren’t opposed to doing the same should the need suddenly arise.

Sunset began typing a long and intrinsic code noisily into the keyboard of the computer. She soon struck a triumphant pose in her chair like an overconfident hacker in a TV drama just before hitting the final key to start the program.

The machine that Twilight had set up in the Canterlot High science lab suddenly sputtered to life. It whirled, it beeped, it clicked, and it made all those other worrying sounds that all scientific equipment seemed to make during experiments like this. The compartment that held the geodes suddenly began to light up like a microwave oven when in use.

The two young scientists smiled eagerly as they turned their heads towards the computer screen. They watched in anticipation as scanned information was downloaded and processed onto the computer's hardware. They could hear the sounds of paper being formatted and printed besides them. The scanning of their group's necklaces was going better then either of them could have ever imagined.

But then they heard a disconcerting clunk. The girls all turned their eyes back towards the large machine.

The machine's clicking had suddenly become more violent; multiple blinking and non-blinking lights on the machine shinned and popped from being overloaded; and a fire suddenly burst from the side of the device causing all the girls to shriek out in terror.

"Quick, shut it off!" Twilight shouted. Sunset was even quicker to agree, and began violently punching in the machine's kill-code.

The compartment that held the geodes began to glow brighter. The girls were forced to cover their eyes as a multicolored strobe-like light shot out from where their necklaces were placed. A high pitched whine sounded from the device and the machine began to shake violently.

Applejack's eyes widen in realization. She jumped at her friends with her arms outstretched and tackled them all to ground.

"Get down!" She shouted.

The scanning machine exploded in a small but violent way, sending pieces of metal and wiring in all directions. The girls were forced to duck and cover under the desk as they waited for the explosion to subside. Only when they were certain the room had stopped shaking did they rise to their knees to peer over the desk and to assess the damages the machine had caused.

Fluttershy was the first to rise aove desk height after Applejack got off her and their friends. "Is everybody okay?" She asked nervously. She could see the other girls nodding and let out a sigh of relief.

"Ouchie...could you be a little more gentle next time you save our lives, Applejack?" Pinkie was the third to pick herself up. "Oh! And thank you for saving our lives, by the way. I super-duper appreciate it!" She gave the farm girl a thumbs up as if it were enough to show her her thanks.

Applejack was the first to fully get back to her feet. "Twilight... Sunset..." Applejack spoke calmly. "As your friend, Ah ask you this with utmost respect..." a familiar fire soon blazed in the young girl's eyes, "ARE YOU TWO TRYIN' TA KILL US ALL?!"

The rest of the girls rose to their feet around Applejack with Twilight being the last to stand. She placed her hand on her head and began raking them through her hair. "I-I'm sorry, I-I don't understand what could have happened?! We went through every possible scenario, we implemented every possible precaution, this experiment should have gone off without a hitch!" Twilight looked about ready to have a panic attack, earning her more than a few worried looks from her surrounding friends.

Sunset quickly placed her hand upon the younger girl's shoulder, showing her an equally concerned look to match the ones the others were giving her.

She looked toward the burnt and melted bombshell of a device that was now scattered over half the room. "I just don't know what went wrong!" Twilight suddenly shouted. Her friends immediately drew closer in order to comfort her.

Sunset removed her hand from Twilight's shoulder and strode closer towards the wreckage that was once a vastly expensive scanning computer. Strangely, she found the closer she got the colder the debris became, even despite it recently being part of an explosion. She looked down into the wreckage and noticed the geodes. They were all sitting on the room’s floor tiles in a circle of surrounding debris. Oddly enough, the geodes and the tiles beneath them were completely untouched by any sort of damage that could have been caused by the explosion.

She turned back towards her friends with a look of confusion. "I guess the geodes didn't like what we were doing to them." She bent down and retrieved the magical jewelry before walking back towards her friends. "So they decided to stop the experiment for us." She handed each of friends their respective necklace. “Unfortunately, I guess that meant having to destroy the scanning machine in the process.” She glanced over towards the box computer. “And the computer and printer too, apparently.”

Twilight moved her eyes from the destroyed machine towards the computer and printer. Much to her dismay, both looked to have been run through by large pieces of scrap metal. She groaned anxiously, "Principal Celestia is going to kill me." Judging by her tone, the girls could tell she felt utterly defeated.

"Us." Sunset said defiantly. Twilight looked up at her in confusion. Sunset continued, "we both decided to run these tests. So it was both our fault that the machine went ka-boom. That means we both have to share the blame and the wrath of Celestia too."

Twilight smiled back at her friend appreciatively and soon pulled her into a deep and thankful hug.

The rubble suddenly shifted with a couple resounding clangs. The girls all turned towards the noise and noticed a large rounded piece of purple debris rolling out of one the larger piles of scrap. It rolled down the pile until it came to a stop right on the tiles where the geodes had once been sitting.

Sunset raised an eyebrow in confusion and began walking back towards the wreckage. She knelt down once she reached the new oddity and lifted it so she could cradle it in her arms.

"What is it, Sunset?" Fluttershy asked. She turned back towards her friends, now holding the strange piece of rubble on display as if it were a baby.

"Oh! Oh! I know! I know!" Pinkie Pie shouted excitedly. "Its an egg!" She promptly high-fived herself and smirked victoriously. "First point goes to Pinkie Pie!"

The girls shot their hyperactive friend a few deadpanned expressions before turning back to look more at Sunset’s egg. "What is it really, sugarcube?" Applejack asked curiously. She glanced back towards Pinkie Pie. "Ya know, besides the obvious."

Sunset's expression was wary and uncertain. She did have an idea of what the egg could be, but it just seemed so ridiculous that one would even be in the human world to begin with. Still, the seven of them have faced weirder situations before, and it didn't hurt to at least voice her assumptions. She took a breath and then spoke without a hint of doubt in her voice. "I think this is a dragon egg."

"Eeep!" Fluttershy squeaked at her friend's declaration and immediately hid behind Rainbow Dash. The other girls’ expressions, likewise, varied from shock, to terror, to vague feelings of excitement.

"Wait… so you're telling us that there's a baby Godzilla in there?!" Rainbow asked quizzically. Of all the girls present, she looked to be the most excited. "Like an actual dragon we could hatch and tame for our own?" Rainbow's eyes began to sparkle. “Like an actual fucking dragon we could put a saddle on and ride and use to burn insulting messages into Crystal Preps' front lawn!”

"We can't keep it Rainbow Dash." Sunset stated flatly. "And even if we could, I would never let you do that." Sunset’s voice soon grew much calmer. “Besides, I’m not even sure if this is a real dragon egg or not.”

Twilight rubbed her chin quizzically, "is it really that hard to tell?"

Sunset gave her friend a so-so look to answer her question. "I've only ever seen depictions of dragon eggs in books and scripture, let alone held one. Princess Twilight was the one who hatched a dragon for her entrance exam, not me."

"Then perhaps she might know more about the little darling?" Rarity suggested.

"Rarity's got a point." Applejack continued. "If we really want answers, she's gonna be our best bet. Heck, Princess Twilight might even be able to take the little critter back to Equestria for us and get him back to where he belongs. Wherever that is, of course."

Sunset nodded in agreement. "I'll send her a message as soon as I get back to my apartment. We can work out what to do from there once I get her reply." She looked down at the purplish-blue egg she held in her arms. A faint smile crossed her lips. "Till then, we’ll need to figure out where we're going to keep him."

"Ooh! Ooh! Let him move in with me! Let him move in with me!" Pinkie Pie bounced excitedly while frantically waving her arms about. "He’ll be the perfect playmate for Gummy!" She explained. "He gets super-duper lonely whenever I leave the house, but he’ll never have a chance to be lonely again once he has his very own egg to take care of!"

The girls stared at Pinkie in confusion. “Pinkie Pie, dearheart, you do realize Gummy is a stuffed animal, correct?”

Pinkie Pie folded her arms and turned away from her friends in a huff as if they had just told her her cupcakes tasted bad. Her cheeks puffed up and she grumbled out a response, “doesn’t mean he still wouldn’t make a good mommy.”

Twilight cleared her throat and adjusted her glasses. She wanted to cause a distraction to avoid having any more arguments start up. "Gummy’s potential for parenthood aside…I personally think it would be best if Sunset took care of the egg."

Sunset blanched. "W-what m-m-me!?"

"You do have the most experience with these kinds of endeavors, Sunset." Rarity stated. "Besides you already take care of a lizard at home, correct? I’m certain egg care for a dragon can’t be that much different. You’ll just need a larger heat lamp and a box to keep it in.” The young fashionista darted her gaze towards Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, causing Sunset's gaze to do the same. She whispered into Sunset’s ear, "besides, I personally feel safer knowing you are the one taking care of this creature as opposed to some other people. At least with you, I can feel certain that you won’t try to hatch this thing."

Rainbow Dash leaned back after listening in on their conversation. "Hey!"

Pinkie Pie leaned back after doing the same. She shrugged in response, "that's fair."

"But taking care of an egg like this is way different than taking care of Ray! I haven’t even taken care of an egg in my Home and Gender Studies class yet!" Sunset exclaimed in panic. Her friends noticed a few stray hairs falling out of place on her fiery head. "An egg's embryo requires constant amounts of heat and warmth to ensure the yolk inside doesn't go sterile! We'd need to build an incubator, but we neither have the time nor the materials for that!" A sudden look of terror appeared on Sunset's face. She shouted, "WHAT TIME OF THE MONTH IS IT?!"

"Uh... we're about halfway through November." Rainbow answered disconcertedly.

"THE COLD WEATHER HAS ALREADY SET IN!" The other girls winced worriedly as Sunset clasped the egg tighter in her arms like it were a security blanket. They feared she might crack the poor thing open out of sheer anxiety.

Fluttershy suddenly stepped in and slapped her hands onto her worried friend's shoulders. She gave her a stare that she normally only used on her misbehaving animals and Sunset almost immediately felt herself go slack. She spoke in a commanding voice, "Sunset Shimmer, please calm down."

"Okay." Sunset answered in a calmer, near trace-like voice.

"You do not need to feel overwhelmed. Your friends are going to help you, okay?" Sunset nodded.

"Good. Now here's what you're going to do: you're going to take that baby dragon home with you; when you get there you are going to turn up your heater to a higher degree; and then you will wrap the egg's shell in the warmest clothes you can find. Do you understand?"

Sunset nodded again. “Yes.”

Fluttershy raised her hands from Sunset's shoulders and slowly backed away towards the rest of their friends, who were all carrying expressions of extreme unease. Twilight silently leaned over towards Rarity and quickly whispered in her ear. "She scares me when she uses the stare on people." Rarity nodded in agreement.

Sunset shook her head to clear it of its dizziness. "I really wish you wouldn't do that Fluttershy." She stated groggily.

Fluttershy blushed in embarrassment. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be, in truth, I should be thanking you." Sunset said forgivingly. "I mean... at least now we have the start to a plan." She gave her friends a genuine half smile.

"And we're going to help you every step of the way until we come up with a full one." Twilight stated optimistically before pulling her friend into a second deep hug.

"Indeed. You have our total undying support and aid." Rarity continued as she joined the hug.

The rest of their friends nodded in agreement before joining the three in a much bigger group hug. Sunset smiled happily. She very much appreciated their love and support, but maybe now was not the best time for a tender embrace.

"Girls…not that I don’t appreciate the hug, but you're all kind of crushing the egg."

The girls all stepped back from Sunset in sudden shock. An awkward silence soon filled the room, only to be replaced by the sounds of laughter when the girls fully absorbed how absurd their situation had become.

Little did they know, another was listening in on their guffaws. It didn’t know where it was, nor why it was currently so dark. All it did know was that the sounds it was hearing were pleasant and something was placing a comfortable amount of heat on its body. It soon decided it would like to find the source of these things just as soon as the world became a little brighter and a lot less cramped.

******

Sunset returned to her apartment as soon she and the other girls cleared most of the debris from the Canterlot High science lab. It had been a long and busy day for her even before the explosion occurred, so she was happy to finally have made it home.

She unlocked her door and gently pushed it open. She flicked on the lights, her one room flat looked exactly the same as it did that morning before she had left for school. It was slightly messy she had to admit. Some of her dirty clothes were lying discarded in random places all over the floor and her kitchen sink was filled with a leaning tower of dirty dishes. She decided that she would make a note to herself at some point to clean her apartment tomorrow morning. It was a Saturday after all, it wasn’t like she wouldn’t have the time.

Sunset sauntered over to her couch and gently placed her backpack on the cushions. She leaned back and placed her hands on her aching spine, gently pushing it forward until she could hear the pops of her vertebra. She turned her eyes back towards her backpack. The egg that was inside may not have been heavy, but its round shape certainly made it uncomfortable to carry. She leaned down and unzipped the backpack before pulling the egg from its canvas-lined innards. She placed the egg on the coffee table in front of her couch and then started heading for her thermostat.

Sunset began mentally reciting the steps Fluttershy had given her in order to keep the egg warm. She was about to reach for the thermostat, when something suddenly caught her attention from the corner of her eye. She turned her head and soon noticed Ray, her pet leopard gecko, darting towards the glass nearest to her and pawing at it as if trying to gain her attention. The tiny lizard must have noticed her when she came in, Sunset surmised, and he must have wanted to spend some quality time with his favorite human.

Sunset smiled and immediately walked over towards Ray’s terrarium. The leopard gecko nearly jumped into her hand the moment she lifted the terrarium’s roof and reached down far enough to grab him. Sunset giggled as Ray scampered up her arm and nestled himself into a spot on her shoulder amongst her long flowing hair. “How’s mama’s little man doing today?” She raised a finger and scratched Ray under her chin. The gecko chirped happily in response. “Did you miss me while I was gone?” She continued to coo. “I bet you did! Yeah, I bet you did!”

She moved her finger and let Ray settle into her hair. It was normally at this point that the gecko liked to turn in for a nap, the warmth of her hair and body being one of his favorite places to lay. Sunset smiled tenderly and turned her head back towards the terrarium. She hadn’t thought about it much, but the case she had bought for her pet lizard was actually quite big. It had a thick wooden frame, actual glass and wire fencing to keep Ray inside, a grassland patterned poster on the back to remind Ray of home—even despite Fluttershy telling her Ray was born in a pet store and not the arid grassland of some distant country—and even a pair of two foot branches and a hollow log for Ray to climb on. In retrospect, the thing was extremely massive and cost her quite the pretty penny to afford, a little over three months of paychecks from her job at Samurai Sushi in the Canterlot Mall. But on the bright side, the terrarium also came with its own industrial strength heat lamp, which was more than enough to keep Ray warm even during the colder months of winter.

A thought soon popped into Sunset’s head and her eyes widened. She rushed over towards the couch and quickly grabbed the egg before rushing back. She held it up against the front of the terrarium and smiled. The egg was definitely a great deal larger than her leopard gecko, but it was still a great deal smaller than the massive terrarium, enough so that she could easily fit the egg inside and crank up the heat to keep it warm until Princess Twilight could be contacted.

Sunset smiled excitedly and began to dance happily in place as if she had just found a hundred dollar bill on the sidewalk. She soon stopped when she realized Ray had been holding onto her for dear life ever since she had started zooming around the room. Sunset grimaced sheepishly and held still while she let Ray resituate himself on her shoulder. The lizard glowered up at her from her shoulder, leaving Sunset only able to chuckle awkwardly in response. “Sorry buddy, I got a little excited.” She placed the egg down and reached for the terrarium's roof. Once she placed it aside, she then picked the egg back up and set it down gently in the sand lining the bottom of the case. She dug the egg a little further into the sand in order to keep it from falling over and placed the roof of the terrarium back on top.

Ray looked up at her in confusion. “Don’t worry, Ray, I’m not taking your house away.” Sunset reassured. “I’m just letting this little guy borrow it for now until we can send him back home. Okay?” Ray didn’t understand what she was saying, because he was a lizard, but decided not to worry about it for now. He had a nap to get back to anyway.

Sunset was proud of herself for finding a way to keep the egg warm. Now she didn’t need to kill herself by turning her home into a sauna. She marched over towards her couch and gently laid herself down so as to not disturb Ray.

She turned her head to look at the egg and began laughing at herself for how flustered she had been acting back at the school. What was she so worried about? This was going to be easy. It’s an egg, not an actually living baby. She didn’t even need to feed it. She just needed to make sure it stayed warm and that no one mistakenly used it to make an omelet.

Her thoughts slowly started to become more nostalgic as she turned her head towards the ceiling. "If you could only see me now, aye Celestia?" She said as if speaking to a shrink. "First, I become your personal student at the most prestigious magic school in Equestria; next, I become the world's first 'quote-on-quote' immigrant to an entirely different dimension; and now..." she chuckled again, "just call me Sunset Shimmer, professional egg-sitter." She folded her arms behind her head and continued to lazily stare at the ceiling. She had told her friends that she would send a message to Princess Twilight concerning the egg as soon as she had gotten home, but now that she had reached the point of being able to send the princess her message, she didn’t really feel like doing it. Right now, all she wanted to do was decompress and nap after a particularly harrowing day like the snoozing lizard on her shoulder. She briefly considered the idea of taking a nap and soon decided that it wouldn’t hurt anything if she did. Her friends wouldn’t know anything about it if she did, and the egg wasn't going anywhere, so what was the harm?

She started to close her eyes and took in a deep breath to relax herself. The message could wait till later, she fully decided. Right now, it was Sunset time and she was going to take a nap, by Celestia! She kicked off her boots and let out a loud sigh of contentment as she wiggled her toes. She didn’t realize before just how badly she needed to take those off.

Her eyes finally reached being closed and she let her head slump to the side as sleep slowly began to take hold of her.

An abrupt knocking suddenly came from Sunset’s front door, startling the girl upwards into a seated position and sending Ray flying off her shoulder to the opposite arm of the couch. Sunset shrieked and dove over the end of the couch like a football player trying to catch a punted ball. She caught Ray in between her hands and curled them and her body around him as they both hit the floor. Sunset groaned in discomfort as she rolled onto her back. “Oooww…” She lifted her hands above her body and opened them up to reveal that Ray had not been harmed in the collision.

A second round of knocking came from the front door and Sunset and Ray both turned to glare at it. Sunset stood up and placed her pet back on her shoulder. She turned towards the doorway and began marching towards it with the full intent of decking whoever was standing on the other side in the schnoz.

A third round of knocking was heard and Sunset grasped the doorknob with so much force that she wouldn’t be surprised if she dented it. She swung the door open much harder then she intended to and ended up slamming her wall in the process. “Who’s there and what the f-”

Her eyes widened when she noticed one of her friends was standing at the door. The blue-haired boy with a pizza box in one hand and a two liter of soda in the other stared at her in confusion. “Umm… Hey Sunset.” Flash Sentry replied. “I’m sorry if this is a bad time. I could come back later?” He framed his last choice of words as a question because he honestly couldn’t read her expression. She looked mortified, but sounded a few seconds ago like she had just come off a heated argument with her ex. He continued to think about that analogy for a second while he waited for Sunset to reply to him, and slowly over time began to fear that Sunset might have been upset with him for some reason. An angry Sunset was not something anyone found pleasant, so in order to protect himself from possible harm, he decided to calmly speak to her in hopes of finding the root of her problem. His first guess was unfortunately himself.

“Hey are you alright?” He asked, noticing Sunset hadn’t replied within the minute he had spent thinking to himself. “Umm… did I do something that upset you? If I did I’m sorry.”

Sunset shook her head finally realizing Flash was talking to her. A blush spread across her face, “what? Oh no, no Flash, I’m not mad at you. I was just lying down for a nap when you started knocking at my door. It scared me awake and I ended up launching Ray off my shoulder and nearly onto the floor.”

Flash grew immediately concerned. “Oh my god! Is he okay?!”

Sunset reached up and pulled the gecko off her shoulder and showed him to Flash. “Yeah, he’s fine. A little motion sick, maybe?” The gecko sniffed the air in front of him and turned his attention to the pizza box. Both teens soon realized what the gecko was thinking and before Sunset could pull him back from leaping distance, Ray jumped from her hand and landed on the lip of the pizza box, which he then crawled inside.

Flash raised a brow at the box he held in his hand. “Sure hope he doesn’t hork in there.”

A moment of silence was held between the two before Sunset finally broke out laughing. “Don’t be gross!” She pushed him in the shoulder. Flash began laughing soon after.

“So what are you doing here anyways?” Sunset finally decided to ask.

Flash raised up the pizza and soda in front of her as if presenting them to her for holy sacrifice. “Parents aren’t home, Scootaloo’s at a sleepover at Applejack’s house, and there was nothing good on TV.” He replied. “So then I thought, I got a few spare bucks lying around, why not order a pizza and crack open a bottle of Pepsi since I got nothing better to do.”

Sunset cocked a brow at him. “And you decided to share them with me?” She asked skeptically.

If Flash could scratch the back of his head, he would have. “Well… you were close by, and it's been a while since we last hung out without the other girls.” He suddenly caught himself after he realized what he was implying. “Not that I don’t like them, of course! Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and the others are awesome. It just feels weird sometimes when you're the only guy in a large group of girls. Other dudes either come up to congratulate me as a legend among men or curse my existence for preventing their chance at making a pass at you guys.” He shook his head in dismay. “It’s both very flattering and somewhat embarrassing at the same time. It leaves me very confused.”

Sunset patted him gently on the cheek. “I would consider it flattering.” She said encouragingly. “Think about it this way… Men either see you as a threat or as an idol to respect and strive to be like. Plus, think about it from our perspective. The girls and I know we’re hot, so we’d be swamped by guys 24-7 if we didn’t have some way of regulating them. With you around we know guys aren’t going to make a pass at us because they think we’re with you and a lot of them are afraid to start something with you because you look tough. You are, in a sense, the big brother to our friend group. You keep away any sleazy guys who may try to get in our pants and weed out the more respectable guys who would have the courage to ask us out even despite you being there to protect us. You’re also funny, charming, and quite frankly just a nice person to be around. It’s why we like to have you around whenever you can hang out, because we enjoy your company.”

It was Flash’s turn to blush. “Jeez, stroke a man’s ego till he bursts, why don’t ya?” He caught himself again. “Sorry, that sounded dirty.” He smiled sheepishly. “I regretted it as soon as I said it.”

Sunset shrugged her shoulder and turned to head back into her apartment. She looked over her shoulder and gave Flash a ‘come hither’ look, “You gonna stand out there all night or bring that pizza in before it gets cold? I just realized I haven’t eaten anything since lunch and I am starving.”

Flash Sentry nodded in response. He stepped in just far enough to kick the door shut. He then walked over towards the kitchen and placed the box and soda onto the table before moving over towards cabinets for some cups.

"You do know we aren't dating anymore, right Sunset?" He asked after realizing how flirty Sunset was had been just a few seconds ago.

Sunset noticed the slight blush on her ex's face and snickered to herself audaciously. "Is it really my fault you're just so easy to tease." Flash chuckled in response.

"Guess not. I just wouldn't go around talking like that though open doorways." Sunset's eyes widened upon hearing Flash's words. “You never know who could be listening.”

"Wait? Was there somebody else out there?" She asked worriedly. Flash gave her his own patented smirk.

"There was a creepy looking guy with a beard and trench coat sitting at the bus stop nearby.” Flash replied. “But I don’t think you have worry too much about him spreading rumors to our friends. I sincerely doubt he’s the kind of guy they’d like to be seen with.”

Sunset scowled at Flash in response. She could tell he was lying. "Jerk... I thought you meant someone from school. You really scared me there."

"Right, now who's easy to tease." The expressions on the two teens quickly began to brighten, and soon they found themselves laughing uproariously.

Sunset flopped back down onto the couch as Flash began pouring a pair of drinks. He walked over and handed one to her as soon as he was finished. “Thank you, sir.” He walked back toward the kitchen table and opened the box to grab a couple slices of pizza. There was a small pile of paper plates sitting on top of the pizza inside, so he took two and deposited two slices each onto the plates before heading back over toward the couch. He chuckled slightly to himself as thought about Ray, who was gnawing on the crust of one of the slices he left behind, as he made his way back towards Sunset.

“Here you go.” He handed Sunset her pizza and she smiled sweetly as she took it.

She looked at the many vegetables that decorated the pizza. “Aww, you remembered I'm a vegetarian." She jokingly said.

"Kind of hard to forget. It's not everyday your ex-girlfriend tells you she's some kind of magical talking horse from another dimension."

"Pony. Not horse. There's a big difference." Flash nodded and took a sip of his soda. He turned his head without reason and soon noticed the giant egg sitting in the terrarium not far from the couch. He stared at it for a brief while and blinked at it a couple times in confusion. He soon placed his drink down and turned to look at Sunset.

"What's that?" He asked, quizzically pointing at the egg.

Without even batting an eye, Sunset answered. "An egg the girls and I found after an experiment with our necklaces went wrong." Flash blinked in reply.

"Is... is it a magical pony thing?" He asked.

"We think it's a dragon egg." Sunset continued to explain. "But don't worry, we plan to send it back to Equestria before it has time to hatch."

Flash felt somewhat relieved. "Guess that explains why its taken over Ray’s terrarium." He looked back at Sunset curiously. “Speaking of which, does Ray have somewhere to sleep now?” He looked back at the egg, “I can’t imagine it would be comfortable to be in there right now with the egg taking up the majority of the terrarium’s space.”

Sunset waved a hand at him. “Yeah, Ray’ll be fine. I got a smaller cage in my closet I use for him whenever his terrarium needs cleaning.”

Flash nodded his head. "Alrighty then." He reached forwards and grabbed the TV remote off the coffee table. "Let’s see what's on TV." He pressed the power button and immediately began flicking through the channels.

Sunset snickered and without thinking leaned over to place her head on Flash’s shoulder in order to find a more comfortable way to sit. "Check to see if there's any good movies on."

******

The two spent most of the rest of the night eating pizza, talking, and watching bad movies on Syfy. It wasn't until a couple hours later that Flash finally decided to take a look at the time. It was a quarter past 10:00 and getting pretty late.

Flash silently rose from the couch and stretched out his back. "I think it's about time I head home, Sunset." Flash grabbed his hoodie off the floor and picked up the trash from dinner. He headed towards the door with Sunset following close behind him.

Flash reached for the door before turning back to say goodbye to his friend. "I'll see you at school on Monday, Sunset. Tell me how this whole egg thing works out then, okay?" She nodded in response, earning a smile from the boy.

Flash then opened the door, only to be met with a sprinkle of water to the face. The outside world was currently being drenched by an unexpected storm. Flash blinked in surprise. "Huh?" He stated unenthusiastically. "Guess I'll be walking home in the rain then."

"Nope!" The door to the apartment suddenly slammed shut in front of him. Flash turned to look at Sunset, who had her arms crossed over her chest. "You are going to stay right here tonight. You can go home when the rain dries up in the morning." She stated with authority.

Flash briefly remembered the conversation he had with himself concerning how an angry Sunset was not something anyone found pleasant, so to avoid enraging her in any way, he decided to go along with her commands and tell his parents he’d be sleeping over at friend’s house tonight. “Okay, I guess I’m staying here.”

Sunset patted him on the head affectionately. “Good boy.” She had returned to teasing him.

Flash sighed in defeat. “I'm going be sleeping on the couch then, I assume?” Sunset nodded. “Great. You got any spare blankets?”

"Top shelf of the closet, just above my winter clothes." She pointed towards the east side of the room where the closet was located. She then began sauntering past him towards the stairs where her loft bed was located. "Feel free to stay up as long as you want, but as for me, I'm going to bed." She climbed the stairs and sighed upon seeing the state of her sleeping area; she had forgotten she waded up her sheets for laundry this morning.

Sunset continued to talk. "And if you need me please knock on the steps first. I don’t know what it is, but I always seem to get really hot during the night. I'll be sleeping in my underwear and I'm not even kidding." As one would expect, Flash blushed wildly. “So no trying to sneak a peek while I’m snoozing, alright? This is me putting my trust in you. You understand me?”

Flash nodded his head. "Y-Yes. Yes I do." He stated in embarrassment. He quickly cleared his throat, regaining Sunset's attention. "Before you go, could you maybe tell me where the bathroom is located? That soda ran right through me."

"It’s through the door right next to the kitchen." Flash turned and quickly started walking towards it. "And I don't want any guy stink in there, Flash Sentry!” She shouted in hopes that he’d hear. “Keep your waste purely liquid! You hear me?!" She didn’t wait for a reply and instead started stripping down before jumping into her sheetless bed.

As the two left the room at large, both teens failed to notice the egg in the terrarium beginning to twitch. Its twitching soon turned into a jostle and then a violent rumble until it had shaken itself free of the sand that was holding it. But as soon it came loose from the sand and fell over, it became stagnant and motionless again. If one were to look straight at it they wouldn’t notice a difference besides its current sideways position. But if one were to look closer and actually feel the egg, they might just notice that a strange new warmth was now resonating off of its shell.

Next Chapter: Chapter 2: A "Fresh" Start Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 21 Minutes