Whatever you do, don't read them!
Congratulations! Your submission to the ‘Chance to Prance’ music video competition has been selected as the grand prize winner! Make sure to reply to this email and also post a link to the video to share it with your friends and family and thank you for taking a Chance to Prance!
“What does it say, Rarity!?” Pinkie Pie squealed as she leaned over the booth brom behind Rarity. It was surprisingly quiet for Sugarcube Corner, as only the seven friends and a middle aged couple to the far side of the room.
“Well darling… you girls aren’t going to believe this… but we won the Chance to Prance contest!” She cheerfully announced, turning her laptop around so her friends could read the email she had just received. Every one of the girls, including Sunset and Twilight, were rather excited, especially since they were going to use the prize money in order to help pay for repairs for Camp Everfree.
“Yee haw! Nicely done girls! We did it!!” Applejack said in excitement and she gave Rainbow Dash a high five.
“I bet Sour Sweet and the others will be thrilled to hear the news!” Sunset told them, before thinking of something. “Perhaps we should do something in order to celebrate-”
“Sleepover at my place!” Pinkie suddenly cried out, confetti shooting out from behind her. “Maud won’t be there until later, so Sunset won’t have a heart attack!”
“I second that!!” Rainbow added onto it. Which was later followed by her friends agreeing along with that… including Sunset. Mostly because she was relieved to hear about Maud not being there.
“Alright then, I believe that’s settled then… just gimme one second and… there.” Rarity said as she clicked the mouse pad a couple of times on her laptop and looked back at her friends. “I placed our winning video up for everyone to see and sent a reply back to them. Now, what time should we meet for the sleepover tonight, Pinkie?”
“I’m thinking eight or nine…” Pinkie all of a sudden stopped and tapped her chin. “I think I just came up with a crazy idea!”
“What kind of idea, Pinkie?” Twilight asked as her and Sunset looked back at their friend.
“It’ll be a surprise! I can’t wait!” Pinkie squealed in excitement before vanishing in a cloud of dust. Leaving Twilight to just stare at what just happened as she twitched a bit. Even after cleaning her glasses, she still was like that.
“Uh… Should I be excited or worried after what I just saw?” She then asked her friends.
“To be fair… that’s just normal for Pinkie.” Sunset shrugged in response before looking at her friends. Only leaving Twilight to raise an eyebrow as the fire haired girl responded. “Just trust me on that one.”
“Duly noted.”
A couple of hours after getting everything she needed for the sleepover that night and making sure to feed her pet lizard Ray, Sunset was finally at the door of Pinkie Pie’s house as she lifted up her clenched hand to knock on the door a few times. Hoping that her friend would hear her knocking and come to open the door for her.
The door opened, but it wasn’t Pinkie, but Rainbow Dash. “What took you so long? Everyone’s here!”
“Sorry, I had to make sure I fed Ray before I went out. Plus, I walked all the way here,” Sunset replied back, scratching the back of her head nervously as she began to walk inside. “Did I miss anything?”
“No darling, we only started a few minutes ago,” She soon heard Rarity as she walked over to welcome her friend. “I’ll let Pinkie Pie know that you’re here while you go take a moment to get yourself ready.” Shortly after hearing this, Sunset took the chance to excuse herself for a minute so she could use the bathroom to go change. By the time she came out, Sunset was now wearing a pair of PJ’s similar to the ones she wore before, but were a cyan blue color instead.
“Finally you're done,” Rainbow groaned, arms folded and a bit disgruntled from having to wait on her friend. “Come on over to the living room. Pinkie’s only going to tell us what she’s planning once we’re all here.”
“Alright alright, hold your horses Dash.” Sunset told her, following Rainbow into the living room where all of the Rainbooms were as she set her bag down on the floor. “Hey girls, sorry for making you wait.”
“It’s alright,” She heard Twilight speak up, before they turned their attention to Pinkie Pie now. “So now that everyone’s here, what’s this… surprise crazy idea that you have, Pinkie?”
“Alright, so when Rarity said she posted the music video to YouTube, I remembered a video I watched and it had a really popular guy reading off hate comments. You know, those negative people on the internet. He looked like he was having a blast, so I thought, ‘why not make a game out of it!?’ And so here we are now, and I’m explaining what the surprise is!” Pinkie Pie explained, not even taking a break to breath. So once she was done she desperately tried to inhale what she’d used.
That… had some of her friends blink for a moment and Applejack raised a hand for a moment in order for Pinkie to stop. “Hold up, sugarcube… breath…” After a few seconds of her friend getting some air, she then lowered her hand down. “Okay, do continue.”
“So I came back here and watched the comment section grow for even the slightest negative comment, and I compiled a list we can all laugh at! I even had enough time to compile it into separate people and the band as a whole!” Pinkie added as she pulled out her phone and scrolled through it. “There were quite a few, but I decided to mess around and add a few other of our music videos into the list. So maybe we take a turn reading the messages?”
“So let me get this straight…” Rainbow then spoke up, looking confused. “You want us… to read mean comments from all the songs that we have done… about ourselves… and you had enough time to compile a list?”
“I’ve had hours to myself to do it! I barely read most, so it’ll be a surprise to even me! I also thought that we could read each others, but then I realized that it’d be the battle of the bands all over again!”
“Well, I’ll be… honest, don’t think that many people would have much mean things to say about us since our performances have been rather popular with those at Canterlot High.” Rarity soon chimed in.
“Are you nominating yourself as the first person to volunteer reading?” Rainbow then asked.
“Wha-? No, I-” At that point, Rarity had personally found herself in a bit of a pickle as she cleared her throat. “Well, it was my idea for us to participate in the Chance to Prance contest so… ‘why not?’ as they say.”
“Lemme get your list… Ah, seventy four items, including negative replies.” That… even had Rarity herself stare in bewilderment at Pinkie as she went over and handed the phone to her as she looked through each one and was utterly stunned by each one.
“‘Marshmallow girl’s sense of style is like she got stuck in the 1950’s…’… ‘Listening to her play keys sounds like my morbidly obese cat walking across a piano…’ ‘Oh my god, please make this stop, KMN…’” After the last one, she looked at her friends for a moment before asking a question. “What’s KMN?”
“I believe that means ‘kill me now’.”
“Twilight!” Applejack shot back at her.
“What? She asked!” Twilight groaned for a moment, before looking back to the Rainboom’s Keytarist. “Sorry Rarity.”
“It’s okay…… It’s just… only a few things…” She said, before turning to Pinkie Pie. “Pinkie, where do you keep your Ice Cream?”
“In the freezer, just above the chocolate. And if you want, make an ice cream s’more!” Pinkie said. Which soon lead to Rarity running towards the kitchen… while somehow keeping herself somewhat composed, even though the rest of them could hear her sob every moment or two.
“Uh… I’m sure she’s fine! Heh…” Pinkie chuckled nervously, scratching the back of her head as she picked her phone back up. “Um… Anyone else wanna go? Anyone?”
“Oh come on, Rarity’s just over reacting.” Rainbow rolled her eyes and snatched the phone out of Pinkie’s hand. After a few moments though, she soon found something that made her just as surprised and shocked as Rarity.
“Well, what does it say?” Sunset said, as everyone else was waiting on Rainbow to speak.
“‘Oh god… Did that guitarist girl decide to dye her hair like that or was she the naturally born mascot of the LGBT community...?’” That… had Rainbow wait for just a moment as she continued to look at some more. The girls, especially Pinkie, looked shocked. “‘Wow… The main guitar lead knows how to be overdramatic for the wrong reasons, Sad’…… ‘I rather listen to both of my pets pester me for five minutes than listen to this auto-tuned shitstorm…’ Okay, who really spends the time in order to make stuff like this…?”
“I don’t know, why?”
“Well, they really must spend too much time behind a computer to put up something like this next one,” Rainbow replied, before looking down at the phone. “‘Is it just me, or does the main guitarist look like one huge walking seizure warning with the amount of bright colors she wears… then again, the entire group is a collective seizure waiting to happen’.”
That caused Applejack to reel back, Twilight to rub her eyes, Sunset to try and unblock anything that was in her ears, Fluttershy to look upset… and made Pinkie think of a way to try and change the subject.
“So, uh, who wants a s’more!? Or whipped cream? Or better yet, order a pizza?”
“Anything to get our mind off of what ah’ just heard please.” Applejack told her friend.
“I’ll get right on it! Oh, um… Oh! Try Fluttershy’s!” Pinkie rushed into the kitchen.
“U-uh o-okay…” She said, shyly before taking the phone from Dash and looking at it. Gasping for a moment before them speaking. “Uhm… ‘Got The Music’s my new fave’?”
“Wait… That didn’t sound bad at all,” Twilight then spoke up, before turning to where Pinkie was. “Pinkie, are you sure that everything on this list is suppose to be mean things?”
“I couldn’t find anything bad about Shyshy!” Pinkie said, before reassuring the pizza guy on the phone. “Oh, no, I was talking to my friends!”
“Uh…” Fluttershy stammered, before continuing. “‘I wish the shy one would get more screen time’… ‘She wrote that song herself?! That’s unbelieveable!!’... ‘This song was one of the best I’ve heard in a long time-’.”
“Okay, give me that!” Rainbow snapped, trying to reach out for the phone that her friend was holding. Only to be partially restrained by Sunset as she tried to figure out why Rainbow was acting like this.
“D-dash, what are you doing?!”
“I saw the length of that last comment. Fluttershy’s leaving out another few lines.”
“O-only because it would upset you…” Their friend said… before deciding to hand the phone back over to Rainbow. “H-here… I’ll let you read it.” Dash sighed, restraining herself for a moment before taking the chance to read it fully.
“‘This song was one of the best I’ve heard in a long time… what could make it much better though is if it was a solo song and not a duet with Rainbow Douche. She doesn’t have enough screen time as it is, so why can’t we have a solo for just her…… Hashtag Rainbow Douche’.”
“Alright, I think we should call it quits!” Pinkie yelled as she ran back into the living room and snatched her phone back from Rainbow. “This game sucks! And I wasted hours doing this!”
“No no… Hang on a second, Pinkie Pie…” Sunset replied back. “Just because these people said mean things about us doesn’t mean it should ruin anything… I mean, come on. How would we let some jerk’s comments try to ruin the evening?”
“I agree with Sunset… In fact, next time at the music room, we should try that solo idea with Fluttershy for when we do that performance at Crystal Prep,” Applejack commented. “Besides, it’s not like we’re reading every single one. Just a few.”
“Hey, you know what?” Twilight then asked. “How about we have Pinkie go next? She decided to come up with this based on something she saw on the internet, so how about she gives it a try this time?”
“Oh, okay!” Pinkie said and looked for the folder with her name on it. “Alrighty! ‘Why do they even let the pink one sing? She’s got… no… singing talent, and is annoying to listen to...’” Pinkie stopped reading the moment the words came off her tongue.
“Come on now! What do they know about you?” Dash replied to try and cheer her up. “We’re the living definition of talent! So keep going.”
“‘I love rapping, and this girl can’t rap’... ‘What’s up with this fu-’” Pinkie’s eyes shot wide open. “Not even finishing that… ‘Dear god, please give us back 2pac in exchange for the pink one.’” Pinkie cleared her throat, shortly before croaking for a moment and then saying something..
“Yeah, I don’t think this is fun anymore…”
“It seems like it’s a lot funnier when you’re seeing other people reading these comments through a video than trying it ourselves.” Twilight then replied. “Besides, we don’t really need to finish some of them if you are not up for it.”
“Yeah, what’s the point of reading off negative things if it’s going to make people upset?” Applejack asked.
“Yeah!” Pinkie said, tossing her phone onto the grey couch to her right. “The pizza should be here soon. I’ll go check on Rarity!”
“Alright, awesome!” Rainbow Dash announced as she got up from the couch and ran to the kitchen. Followed by a few of her friends shortly afterwards… even though Sunset for a moment stared at the phone that was just lying there on the couch.
“Come on, Sunny! Ice Cream’s melting!”
“Coming!” She replied back, before turning around and returning to the kitchen with her friends for the moment.
The sleeping arrangements were vastly different from the last sleepover. Rainbow Dash and Rarity got most of Pinkie’s bed, most likely as an apology from Pinkie Pie. Fluttershy and Twilight slept on a futon that Applejack dragged in. Applejack was laying at the foot of the bed while Sunset and Pinkie slept in sleeping bags. Yet… Sunset couldn’t really get herself to fall asleep. Mostly because she could not stop thinking about the comments from earlier.
And more importantly… what exactly was said about her. Turning over a little, she tried to see if Pinkie Pie was still awake somehow in her sleeping bag. Her friend was indeed sleeping, snoring loudly and oblivious to the world around her. So instead, she decided to look and see if Pinkie placed her phone anywhere. Turns out… Pinkie had left her cell phone on the couch earlier and never bothered to go get it after they were done eating Pizza and ice cream sandwiches.
“Okay, I can’t take this anymore. Once I get my mind off of this, I can actually be able to get some sleep,” She told herself, slowly getting up from her sleeping bag and tiptoeing across the floor so she didn’t accidentally wake anyone else up before making her way to the living room. After finding the phone though… came the next small dilemma. “What was Pinkie’s passcode again? I swear, she changes it like every few weeks or something…”
At first, she tried 7465, which would also mean pink. Only to get a message saying it was the incorrect code. Second, she tried 4669, which was the shortened name for Pinkie’s pet, Gummy. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to work either. Yet, the combination was much different than she thought it would be… and something that Sunset personally thought she should’ve realized sooner.
“Hmm… what about…” Slowly, she typed in the numbers 6283. Which meant ‘Maud’ as her phone then said ‘Passcode Accepted’. “Figures… for passcodes, it’s either her sister or her pet. She told us all that before, so why am I just remembering now?” After hearing that, Sunset just shook her head for a moment, trying to refocus herself as she searched for the list that had the mean comments directed towards her specifically. Personally, she believed that once she actually saw what they said, things could settle down a little in her head and she could get some sleep.
Unfortunately… everything she saw was more unsettling than anything else. ‘This video here with the Cowgirl and Ms. Bacon hair must be the most embarrassing thing on that poor horse has ever done… and I believe that at one stage in it’s life, it used to do porn.’
“Oh dear Celestia… I’m not looking at the horses on AJ’s ranch the same way after this…” Sunset sighed to herself, trying to not think about what she just read. More and more did she look over some of the hateful speech that was used to insult her and her friends… however, there were three comments that stood out on their video performance during the Battle of the Bands that stood out to her the most.
‘I wanted the sirens to win! U suc!’ -TotallyNotSonata
‘Check out my page, bitches! I’m sure it’ll be better than this.’ -DazzlingLead
‘You’re all losers…’ -NoCareInTheWorld
“Wait a minute…” Sunset said to herself… before realizing who it could possibly be. “You have got to be kidding me.”
“How is this supposed to mess with those girls, Sonata?” Adagio asked with a baffled expression.
“Matter of fact, why did we let Sonata come up with this idea, Adagio?”
“It was pointless endeavor anyways… Sonata said what’s said on here matters but it’s all a bunch of bullcrap.” Adagio sighed. “There’s no point to this anyways, we’ll never get our revenge… And they keep getting stronger.”
“It’s the internet! Everyone’s sensitive about-” Sonata tried to explain, before looking at her screen with full on anger as she began to go on a furious tirade. Using language that even her sisters didn’t think she would use. “HEY!! What the fuck did you just say about me, you little bitch!?! I’ll find out where you live! You hear me!?”
“Sonata… It’s just a coward on the internet looking for attention.” Adagio said, cracking her neck. “I have to go to work anyways…”
“Oh NO!! I’m not letting someone get away with calling us that!!” Sonata shot back. All while Aria looked at Adagio and followed her sister outside.
“Hey, Adagio… I’m beginning to think that Sonata may be a little too… addicted to being on the internet… I mean, I don’t really care so much about it, but the landlord of the apartment said that they heard a few noise complaints about Sonata while she’s been home over the last week.” Aria told her sister. “Do you think we should have an intervention at some point?”
“Probably. It’s not paying the bills so it’s worthless to our cause.” Adagio looked out into the night sky through the window with a determined face, her hair blowing in the air conditioner's wind. “World domination-.”
“Oh really?! Is THAT how you want to play it, hunh?! Fine, let’s play!!!” They both heard Sonata shout out loud, catching their attention for a moment as they stared at each other.
“We need to take those away from her…” Aria muttered.
“Yeah, totally.” Adagio agreed. “You do it.”
“Ugh… Not those three…” Sunset said for a moment as she tried to look at the phone again and not fall asleep.
“Sunset, what are you doing?” Pinkie asked, her voice as awake as ever.
“Agh!” Sunset jumped, almost falling off the couch and dropping the phone on the cushions as she realized her friend was right there. “P-pinkie, you scared me!”
“Oh, sorry. I was just worried since there wasn’t the great wall of Sunset next to me.” Pinkie then put her hands behind her back. “What were you doing with my phone?”
“Uh……” Sunset found herself in a pickle at that moment, before taking a deep sigh. “Okay… I couldn’t get any sleep because of the fact that I didn’t see what was said about me, so I was out here reading them… I’ve been doing a lot in order to change after the Battle of the Bands, but I wasn’t sure if I was doing the right thing after hearing that you found comments on everyone, including me.”
“Oh Sunset, there’s no way anyone’s perfect!” Pinkie wrapped her arm around Sunset’s neck. “It may be hurtful, but meanies will be meanies. Think about the Sirens and how they tried to belittle you, but you stood tall and helped up defeat them! Who cares what a bunch of meanies online think, there are more likes than dislikes and it took forever to find them!” That… actually helped restore a bit of confidence to Sunset as she turned her head around to look at her friend.
“Thanks Pinkie… I really mean it, that helps a lot.” She said with a smile on her face, before thinking of something. “Though… now that you mention it… I’m beginning to think some of the comments were actually from said Sirens. Look here.” That was when she backed up a bit and then showed Pinkie what she originally found earlier.
“Huh… Well, who cares. We defanged them, and they’re harmless.” Pinkie waved the comments off.
“That’s true…” Sunset replied. “Though… I’m probably not going to be looking at AJ’s horses the same way again after tonight.”
“Why?” Pinkie tilted her head. Sunset sighed, looking back at her for a moment before shaking her head and banishing the thought that was inside her head.
“You know what, nevermind… Come on, let’s get some sleep now.” Pinkie cheered and dragged Sunset back to her bedroom. At least now she was able to rest easy for tonight and not worry about anything. “Thanks for cheering me up, Pinkie.”
“No problem, Sunny! That’s what BFF’s are for!”
Author's Note
So yeah... I did a thing other than the usual for me... that's something right?
Anyhow, hope you guys enjoy this little random one shot I decided to do. With that, good night!
-Frost
