“Hey, Pixel, Pixel, Pixel~!”
The cream pony looked up from the handheld game she had been concentrating on and looked around for the source of the voice. Her eyes were met by the rapidly approaching Sugar Rush and Cloudy Skies, Cloudy was the lead, running with reckless abandon while Sugar struggled to catch up and keep a white box steady on her back, Pixel didn’t even have the time to return the greeting before the blue pegasus crashed into her, sending Pixel off of the bench and both of them tumbling to the ground.
Sugar skidded to a halt before she could join the pile of flustered fillies. “Cloudy, Pixel! That was quite a crash! Are you guys okay?”
“I'm fine!" The muffled voice of Cloudy sounded from her position beneath the larger foal, "Oooh Pixie, I'm so so sorry about running into you! I was just so so excited to tell you about what me and Sugar made that I wasn't thinking! I'm such a klutz..."
"Hey, no big dealio, Sky. I'm not hurt, and neither are you, so no harm done." Pixel stretched her lanky form and rose up off of the ground, offering a hoof down to her friend to grab, "Though whatcha doing in such a rush? On a delivery run for the Cakes?"
Cloudy stared at the outstretched hoof for a second before placing her own on it and standing, "No, we were...uh...Oh yeah, me and Sugar wanted to tell you something! We were in the kitchen at Sugarcube Corner taking stock when–"
"–I suggested that we should try to make rock candy, ‘cause the last time we made it was when Auntie Maud visited!" Sugar interjected with a grin.
"Sugaaaaaar, I thought I was gonna tell her!"
"No, I said I was going to tell her because it was my idea, remember?"
"I don't, so that means it probably didn't happen!"
"That doesn't even make sense!"
"It does too!"
"Nuh uh!"
"Uh huh!"
"NUH UH!"
"UH HUH!"
"Sugar, Sky."
"WHAT?!" Both twins turned towards the interrupter of their war of words.
Pixel stared back at them, an incredulous smile on her face. "Both of you, chill out. I swear you argue about the silliest things. What about rock candy were you on about?"
The sisters blinked simultaneously, before breaking out into a giggling fit as if they weren't just bickering a moment ago, "Hehe, sure! Sorry for getting off track!"
Sugar motioned to the box still secure on her back, "So I suggested that we try making rock candy, because who doesn't love rock candy, right? So I asked Cloudy to get the sugar while I heated up the water–"
"–except that I measured out too much sugar..." A slight red tinge crept up on Cloudy's face from her confession, "Buuuuut Sugar said it was okay and adjusted the water amount–"
"–and while I was doing that there was a tingly in my nose, right? I felt a sneeze coming on so I quickly put my muzzle in the crook of my leg and let go," The unicorn mimed the action for emphasis, "So I thought it was all good and dandy but Cloudy pointed to the pot–"
"–because magical sparkles shot out of Sugar's horn when she sneezed, and they landed right into the sugar mixture! Before we could even blink an eye the pot started glowing all weird and bright and then BOOM!" The pegasus crashed her hooves against the street, causing the cream unicorn to jump slightly, "The rock candy was done!"
“But it was really...different from how we expected it to be.” By now the two sisters were sitting on either side of Pixel on the bench, the box held between Sugar’s hooves, “See for yourself.”
She lifted the lid off of the white container and tilted it so Pixel could see inside. Lying inside on a piece of wax paper was a white glob of hardened, crystallized sugar, about the size of a softball, attached to a wooden stick. Pixel swore she could see faint pink sparkles glimmering around it, “Wow, that is a LOT of sugar; that can’t be good for the body. Is that even safe to eat?!”
The cotton candy colored twins glanced at each other for a moment before replying in unison, “Who knows!”
“Well, I hope you’ll find someone who is brave enough to eat that, because the sugar crash caused by that thing will be horrible.” Pixel nodded at her assessment of the sweet abomination as she turned back to her game, unpausing it.
She played for a good few minutes before she realized that both Sugar and Cloudy were still sitting by her sides, a pair of ridiculous grins on their face, “Um, is something the matter?”
“Weeell~!” Sugar sang, sliding the sugar sphere closer to the other unicorn, “We were just hoping that maybe you might eat it for us?”
“Me? Why me? Why not Icy, Nighty or Api?”
“Because we’ve never seen you have a sugar rush before, hehe~!” Cloudy exclaimed, wings flaring out, “Actually, you never really eat sugar that much now that I think of it. Why is that?”
Pixel leaned back, “Well, Mom suggested against it, saying something like ‘Your dad got crazy when he had sugar. He still gets crazy when he has sugar actually!’ I just avoid sugar as a general rule to steer clear of whatever ‘crazy’ is suppose to mean.”
“Aw, that’s no fun! Are you sure you don’t want to try at least a little bit?” Sugar’s bottom lip protruded ever so slightly as she sniffled. “I worked really hard on this one! You know how hard magic is for me!”
“Your silly puppy dog face hasn’t worked on me in any of the years we’ve known each other, sorry. I don’t want my mom to get upset. Thanks for the offer, though.” Pixel was about to unpause her game for the second time when another voice rang out.
“You’re not being very true to yourself, Bit.”
“Hmm?” Pixel glanced over to Cloudy, who was staring up into her namesake, as if the vast blue space held some sort of secret, “What do you mean?”
“ I mean, you’re always telling me that you should be yourself right? You shouldn’t try to to hide a part of you because of what others say. If that’s the case, do you not want to eat the rock candy, or does your mom not want you to?”
Pixel looked hard at Cloudy, evaluating her facial expression before shifting her gaze to the mass of sugary mess still in the box.
“Ah, what the heck, let’s do it.”
“Wow, Sweetie, we weren’t expecting you to be home from your tour until next week!”
The couple consisting of the chocolate earth pony and ivory unicorn walked down the street leading from the train station to the town hall, a purple trunk on his back and a few suitcases suspended in her magic.
“The last concert in Trottingham got canceled suddenly; apparently a bad case of the pony pox is going around there and my manager advised me to not go.” Sweetie sighed, adjusting her magical hold to better support her luggage, “It’s unfortunate, but at least I get to go home and be with my favorite stallion and my favorite filly~!”
“Yeah, and I can hang out with my most favorite princess in the world, ‘cause she’s finally back in her right castle!”
Giggling, she stood on the tips of her hooves and planted a kiss on her husband’s cheek, “Where’s Pixel Bit at, Button? I wanna surprise her.”
“Uhhhhh... she said something about hanging out in the main square somewhere playing Mareio Kart 7, even though I told her there’s no way she could beat my high – Oof!”
Button stumbled over the suitcases that had been in Sweetie’s magic grip but now laid scattered on the pavement, “Owwwww, Sweetie, what gives?!”
The unicorn stared ahead, eyes wide. “Button, is that...Pixel?”
In the main square in front of half of the townsfolk was Pixel Bit, dancing around with a lampshade inexplicably on her head and crystals caked around her mouth, belting out lullabies as if they were rock ballads from the ‘70s.
“TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR! HOW I WONDER WHAT YOU ARRRRRRE!”
“Oh, it looks like someone gave her sugar, that’s no fair!” Button puffed out his cheeks, “They’d give her some, but not me!?”
Sweetie rolled her eyes, quickly returning her gaze back to the scene at hand. Pixel was nw heckling her audience, trying to perform a comedy act through her sugar hazed mind.
“WHAT DO YOU CALL A HEDGEHOG WITH A STICK OF DYNAMITE ATTACHED TO IT?! SONIC BOOOOOM, AHAHAHAHA!” She cackled at her joke as she bounced back into a double somersault, the lampshade falling off her head
“Well, how do we deal with this, Button? I assume you have some experience with sugar highs, right?”
“Well, yeah. If she’s anything like me she’ll probably run out of energy within the next few seconds.”
“I’M SO EXCITED, I’M SO EX–Clunk!”
Mid lyric, Pixel Bit collapsed face first into the ground, a dazed look in her eyes. Her parents quickly rushed forward and picked her up, settling her on her father’s back in place of the forgotten trunk.
“Pixel, honey, are you alright?” Sweetie gently brushed a hoof against her daughter’s face, eliciting a slight moan, “Oh dear, I think she’s completely crashed.”
“Aw, man! I hate when the console does mid-game! Especially when you’re in the middle of a qu–”
“...neeevregin…”
Both ponies gazed at the near comatose unicorn as her mouth fumbled to form words, “Pixel, what did you say?”
Slowly, weakly, Pixel Bit raised her weary head and managed to squeeze out two words through her uncooperative lips.
“...Never again…”
