TIME TO SHARE THE POINTS
00:00:00

"Points?" Controller Roller asked.

"You receive points based on how many aliens you killed during the mission." Sunset explained while making sure there was nothing wrong with Hope's reformed arm. "At least that's how I think it works."

"What are they used for?"

"Hopefully, we'll find out tonight." the blue-haired boy said with a smile.

The first person to receive points was the new guy.

CAMPER
40 PTS / TOTAL 40 PTS
ONLY 60 MORE AND YOU'RE DONE

"Daaaaamn!" the boy said while patting Roller on the back. "If the new guy got that many points, a veteran like myself surely will--"

ROCKSTAR WANNABE
15 PTS / TOTAL 86 PTS
ONLY 14 MORE AND YOU'RE DONE

He blinked, a look of disbelief on his face. "Fuck you, BB." he kicked the ball in frustration. "Fuck you!"

PIPSQUEAK
0 PTS / TOTAL 0 PTS
HIDES TOO MUCH
GETS HURT TOO OFTEN

"Don't worry, Hope." Sunset said, placing her hand on the girl's shoulder. "In my opinion, you did great."

"But I didn't do anything." Hope said, crossing her arms in frustration.

JAIL BAIT
20 PTS / TOTAL 89 PTS
ONLY 11 MORE AND YOU'RE DONE

"This is your fault, Treble." the blonde said, crossing her arms. "If you hadn't been captured, I could have focused on killing aliens instead of saving your sorry ass."

"I almost got raped just a few moments ago, Goldie. I'm really not in the mood!"

"Wait, what?"

MOMMA SUNNY
45 PTS / TOTAL 52 PTS
ONLY 48 MORE AND YOU'RE DONE

She cocked her head. "'Momma'?"

"Not bad, greenhorn. Not bad." the blonde girl called Goldie commended.

TWEEDLEDUM
0 PTS / TOTAL 0 PTS
CRIES TOO MUCH
LACKS WILL

"Oh, right, you're still here." Goldie said, turning around to look at the girl sitting on a corner, staring at her feet.

"M-My best friend is dead..." she mumbled.

"Hey, at least you're still alive." Treble said. "Be thankful for that!"

"By the way, I just realized we barely know each other." Goldie pointed out. "We gotta work together if we wish to survive this mess, and calling you guys 'you guys' isn't gonna help much." she cleared her throat and placed her hand on her chest. "I am Goldielocks, but I'd rather be called Goldie."

"Treble's the name, the best guitar player in town!" Treble, the blue-haired boy, said while pointing at his chest with his thumb.

"Sunset Shimmer. And this here is Hope."

"Nice to meet you!" Hope said with a big smile.

"You already know my name is Controller Roller, but everyone just calls me Roll."

"And you there?" Goldie called. "What's your name?"

"P-P... Pearl... Black Pearl..." she mumbled.

"So, what now?" Roll asked.

"Now we go home. The door's unlocked." Treble explained. "You can take your suit if you want. We take ours every time! But you can leave it here, it really doesn't make a difference."

"We take ours just for fun." Goldie added with a shrug.

"I think I'll leave mine here." Sunset said. "And when you get yours back, we'll leave it here, too."

Hope nodded. "Okay!"

"Yeah, there's also that. Don't leave your suit at home, that's a big deal. You get teleported back, but if your suit is not with you, it will stay where it is!" Treble told Roll.

"And don't forget the biggest deal: you tell anyone about this, you're dead. BB doesn't like snitches." Goldie looked at Pearl. "Same goes for you."

Pearl nodded.

"Anyway, time to go home. I got shit to do and not enough time." Treble then walked toward the corridor.

"Wait!" Sunset Shimmer called. "That girl with the glasses. What was her name?"

Treble and Goldie looked at each other, then back at Sunset and shrugged.

"Dunno." Treble said.

"Never bothered to ask, she always just sort of stood there." Goldie added. "Anyway, why do you care? She's dust now."

"It's just--" she sighed. "No, nothing. Nevermind that. I was just curious."

Treble and Goldielocks left the room, this time without being stopped, followed by Roll.

"You're gonna be ok?" Sunset asked Pearl.

"Sincerely? I-I don't know... Clap was... We were friends since kindergarten and now she's just... Gone. Poof, just like that. What am I gonna tell her parents?"

Sunset squatted in front of her. "You want me to walk you home?"

"No. No, thanks. I just need... I just need a moment."

Sunset patted her shoulder and got up. "Hope you get better soon. Take care!"

Sunset Shimmer and Hope left, leaving Pearl alone with her thoughts.

Hope's black suit was stuffed in a box inside Sunset Shimmer's closet, but she took it out, folded it and placed it on the bedside table. She looked at Hope, sound asleep on the bed. She looked so small, so weak, so helpless... She looked at the girl's forearm and sighed.

"What happens if I'm not there to protect you anymore?" she mumbled. "Will someone take care of you in my place? Or will they just leave you behind to die? Or worse?" Sunset sat on the bed and gently caressed Hope's face. "I don't want to teach you how to fight, but you need to learn how to take care of yourself. What should I do?" she laid down beside her, then hugged her. "I wish there was an easy answer to that..." she fell asleep soon after.

* * *

Sunset Shimmer didn't want to talk about the infamous car accident, and their friends respected her wish. But there was one thing that was never brought up, thus no one ever promised to never speak of it, and Rarity was feeling a little curious, but since jumping straight to the question was never her style, she decided to work her way up to the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question with smaller questions:

"Say, Sunset Shimmer, dear, what were you doing in the shopping mall yesterday?" Rarity asked. "Or, more specifically, at the Thread & Needle Clothes Store?"

Sunset's heart skipped a beat. Rarity was proud of her work and, seeing how she tended to overreact to basically anything, she feared what would happen if she told her she was buying clothes there.

Rainbow Dash nearly choked on her drink. She wasn't very fond of seeing her friends fighting, but a little bit of Rarity Drama was always welcome. All the other girls dropped what they were doing and stared intensely at Sunset Shimmer. After a quick glance around, the blonde/redhead noticed that a few of the students at the cafeteria who knew of Rarity's work were also looking their way, interested in knowing the reason behind Sunset Shimmer's "betrayal".

"first and foremost, I want you to know that I'm not mad at you or anything." Rarity's statement was enough for most of the eavesdroppers to lose interest in the conversation. "I just want to know why you'd go to such an unsophist--" she cleaned her throat. "I mean, unappreciated place. You know I would never turn you down!"

"I know, Rarity, I know. But... Well... It's just that... You don't exactly have what I needed."

"Oh, nonsense, darling! If I don't have what you want, then I'll have it in no time. Now tell me, what was it?"

"I... Uh... You see..."

"Is it related to that little girl?"

"Little girl?" all the others asked at the same time, surprised.

Sunset knew her friends would find out about Hope eventually. But was she supposed to tell the truth about her being a runaway or come up with something?

"I-I-I'm... Babysitting." was the excuse she fabricated. "A couple that lives in the same building asked me to take care of her for a few weeks while they're away on a business trip."

"And you wanted to keep that a secret because...?" Applejack inquired.

"I-It's not that I wanted to keep a secret, it's just... Well... I wanted it to be a... Surprise?"

The awkward silence that followed was broken by Pinkie Pie.

"Can we go meet her? Huh? Can we, can we? No, wait, even better! Can I throw her a party? A 'Have-Fun-With-Sunset-Shimmer-While-Your-Parents-Are-Away-On-A-Business-Trip-Because-They-Probably-Have-Very-Important-Jobs' party?"

Sunset smiled. "Pinkie Pie, you have the best ideas."

"Yeah, so I'm told!"

* * *

"SURPRISE!" the girls all shouted at the same time when Sunset Shimmer and Hopewell opened the front door and entered the apartment. The place had a few party decorations, such as balloons tied to everything Pinkie could find, but the most prominent decoration was the banner on the wall with the words Hope's Have-Fun-With-Sunset-Shimmer-Whil.

"Forgive me, darling, but it's been a busy month and I haven't had the time to replenish my fabric stock." Rarity said when she saw Sunset looking at said banner.

"It's ok, Rarity. What matters is that we're going to have lots of fun today, aren't we, Hope?"

"YES!" she yelled with a smile on her face and her arms up in the air.

Rainbow Dash immediately ran straight to the shelf stereo and turned it on; one of her favorite and most upbeat songs started playing.

"Then let's not waste another moment and get this party started!" she cheered.

~ ~ ~

The party was wild enough for all the girls to have fun, but also tame enough for the neighbors to not find a reason to complain or call the police. By the time the sun was setting and the party was dying down, Hope had already crashed on the sofa and fainted of exhaustion, but with a huge grin from ear to ear and a look of satisfaction on her face.

"Quite a lil' party animal, ain't she?" Applejack commented.

"It's like she haven't had that much fun in a long time." Rarity pointed out.

"No one knows true fun until they experienced one of Pinkie Pie's parties!" Rainbow Dash patted her cotton-haired friend on the back.

"Thank you so much for that, girls." Sunset Shimmer said. "We really needed that."

"Anywhere, anytime, partner!" Pinkie Pie said as the four girls left the apartment.

"And now, it's off to bed with you." Sunset said as she gently picked the girl up and carried her to the bedroom and carefully laid her on the bed. She was about to turn around and leave the room when she heard Hope call:

"Sunset Shimmer?"

"Yes?"

"I had lots of fun today. Thank you!"

Sunset Shimmer bent down and kissed the little girl's forehead.

"So did I, pipsqueak. So did I." leaving Hope to have a good night's sleep, she left the room, closed the door and sat on the couch. "I beg you, Black Ball. Today's been a great day so, please, don't summon us tonight. Please!" Sunset Shimmer fell asleep on the couch while watching some old movie she didn't even bother to learn the title.

Sunset Shimmer had a nightmare that night. In this nightmare, Sunset Shimmer was on the passenger seat of a car that looked oddly familiar, but she couldn't see the face of the driver, though she could see his blue hair. It was night, it was raining and she couldn't see the road clearly, but she saw someone standing in the middle of it, though the only reason she could see them was because the person was dangerously close to the headlights. The driver steered to the left, successfully avoiding a collision, but only by mere inches. Sunset looked at them, noticing that the person was a girl with reddish-rose hair, thick glasses and wearing the Black Ball's suit. She muttered one simple phrase:

"Sincerely, I don't give a fuck."

Sunset Shimmer woke up covered in sweat. She walked to the bathroom to wash her face on the sink. Her face dripping wet with clear water, she stared at herself in the mirror for a moment.

"She really hated me." she thought. "And I don't even know why. I don't even know her name. What happened between us?"

They were called back to the room two weeks later. Pearl, Roll and a few newcomers were already there, Treble and Goldie arrived soon after with some more newcomers. After explaining the situation the best way they could, the song that signalized the beginning of the mission started playing.

"You are so young
And you are so free
But you're aimless
And I can't help but see
That you don't know what you really need
Are we there yet? A-A-Are we there yet?
You've done it all
From A to Z
Are you trying
To find your destiny?
One day you'll know who you wanna be
Are we there yet? A-A-Are we there yet?"

YOUR LIVES HAVE ENDED
HOW YOU USE YOUR NEW LIVES
IS ENTIRELY UP TO ME
THAT'S THE THEORY, ANYWAYS

Author's Note

This entire chapter is based on a couple of lines on the bottom of the 6th page from the handwritten script. Only 38 more and I'm done!

And here's a little bit of trivia: By the time I publish a chapter of The Black Ball Room, the next already has at least 2,000 words written. I like this style, I think I'll start using it from now on.