The Bar and The Bands, Side A
Simply put, Pinkie Pie was a party girl. She loved the atmosphere, loved the excitement, the laughter, the company. Even and Especially when she didn't know who the company was. It wasn't that she partied so hard at University for the sake of partying; she partied to forget. And when that didn't work, well, she found some person and used her charm to take it further. Just to take her mind off of them.
Tonight, however, Pinkie had vowed to do nothing of the sort. It was Applejack's birthday, and the girl had refused the party in favour for a night out with the girls - Rarity, Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle - so she had directed them across the city centre from a movie theatre to their favourite hangout, The Golden Oak Inn.
The GOI was a relatively simple establishment, boasting a large beer garden with a stage, simple wooden table and countertops, a spacious bar and even a small restaurant area. It was cozy and normally emptier than most other city centre bars, mostly due to it's alleyway entrance. Pinkie also liked it because of her employee discount, but that was besides the point. Tonight, though, it was busy.
The group approached the bar, pushing their way through crowds, and Pinkie caught sight of a familiar face on shift.
"Hey Cheese! How's the shift going?"
Cheese Sandwich, Pinkie Pie's coworker, looked up at her and shook his head, before shouting a response over the music.
"Busier than it's ever been Pinkie! There's three girls out on the stage, and once they rocked up people started flocking. I get the feeling they're pretty famous."
He looked back down at the drink he was pouring, quickly finishing and handing it over to a man before walking over to the group.
"Say, you wouldn't want to hop in on an overtime shift, would you?"
"Sorry Cheese. It's my friends birthday. You can have a few from my tally, though."
Cheese's eyes lit up, as the tally the bartenders kept of drinks bought for them was often well used, and Pinkie almost always had more than everyone else.
"That'll do. So, what'll it be?"
They ordered their drinks and watched as Cheese quickly worked his way around the bar, pouring and mixing, before he handed each of them their drinks.
"If you want to see the stage, there's the balcony bench."
Pinkie nodded in thanks before she began ushering her friends up a small staircase marked 'employees only', much to Twilight's distress, but Pinkie assured her that they were fine as long as they were with her.
The small balcony area wasn't often used other than as a smoke spot for employees, but it did have a bench in case for the rare scenarios where there was no where else for an off-shift worker to sit. As they approached the top of the stairs, the music began to die out and a voice could be heard.
"Alright! We'll be playing a few more songs before we head out for the night, and I just wanna say you guys have been awesome tonight!"
Cheers.
"This next song isn't one of ours, but you'll know it when we start playing."
Another voice, and for a moment Pinkie could have sworn she knew it. She just couldn't recognise where, so she dismissed it.
"This one has a personal note for me, and I'd like to play it out for my high school ex, who I never quite got over."
Cheers went up as the group played the opening riffs, quickly recognised as Arctic Monkeys' 'Do I Wanna Know?'. It was easily one of Pinkie's favourite songs, for reasons not too dissimilar to the singer who had introduced it.
She turned to the girls as she pushed open the balcony door, and saw awed looks on their faces, except for Applejack.
"You guys okay?"
"Yeah!" They chimed instantly.
Rarity spoke first.
"I didn't know you had Raincheck playing tonight!"
"Raincheck, Raincheck, oh!"
Pinkie clicked her fingers.
"They're that one really popular local band, right? We didn't book them, they didn't book us, the stage is open play. Anyone can rock up and go!"
"That's amazing! Raincheck is awesome!" Twilight cut in.
"Who's even in Raincheck anyway?"
This was Applejack's question, and as a country music gal, she didn't know other genres so well. She still enjoyed them, though, which was lucky.
"Oh, well, there's Rainbow Dash - she's the rainbow haired one, obviously - and the lead singer slash guitarist."
Fluttershy continued from Twilight, the usually quiet girl shouting with an excited look on her face.
"Then there's Lemon Zest - the drummer -"
"And finally, there's -"
Pinkie finally walked onto the balcony after all of her friends, eyes flicking over the packed garden as they talked. The names Rainbow Dash and Lemon Zest were familiar to her, but there was no way it could be the same ones she went to high school with, right?
Tables and benches could be seen with fairy lights strung between the umbrellas posted in each bench, all the way up the garden to the large oak tree that they spiralled up behind the stage.
After all, if they were, then there'd also be-
And then her eyes locked to a familiar figure on said stage, bright red and yellow hair flowing out behind her.
"-SUNSET SHIMMER?!"
The girls, and a few people underneath them, looked at her in shock.'You know her?!'
Pinkie rubbed her eyes, as if she didn't quite believe what she was seeing.
"Uh, heh, you could say that. I uh- I'm her ex."
"WHAT?!"
"THE EX?! THE ONE SHE TALKS ABOUT ALL THE TIME?!"
"FROM HER HIGH SCHOOL?!"
Pinkie nodded dumbly, her stomach fluttering, warmth spreading over her cheeks.
"She- she never got over me?"
"PINKIE!"
AJ just laughed as the other three shouted at Pinkie Pie, and she saw one of the guitarists, Rainbow Dash, look up at them, then at Pinkie, then at Sunset, who had taken lead vocals for this song, and a look of realisation and recognition dawned steadily over her face.
Pinkie barely noticed it, gaze fixed on Sunset as it was. The amber, flame-haired girl was wearing a tight geometric red-orange tank top and black jeans, and the leather jacket that Pinkie had given her for her birthday the year they broke up, emblazoned with Sunset's favourite red-yellow ying-yang sun symbol, was tied around her waist. She was still playing the same guitar she'd had in high school, and, in fact, if she squinted, she almost thought she could still see her own name carved into it.
It had been years, but it was like nothing about her had changed. She was still the same Sunset she fell in love with.
"Uh, hello, Earth to Pinkie, are you there, darling?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, what's up?"
"You have to talk to her! It's clear she hasn't got over you, and, judging from how you're ogling at her, you haven't got over her either!"
"I'm not ogl-"
"Darling. Please."
"I dunno, Rares. We never apologised when we broke up."
The alabaster fashionista gripped Pinkie's shoulders and fixed her with a sharp look that almost made Pinkie wilt into the floor.
"Then tonight's your chance."
Pinke noticed Rainbow Dash look up, directly at her, with a smirk, before nudging Sunset and pointing at her. Directly at her. At Pinkie. And Sunset was looking.
The music from Sunset's guitar stopped, Rainbow's following soon after, and the drums ceased as Sunset's eyes widened in shock and recognition.
"PINKIE PIE?!"
That was all the invite Pinkie needed. She quickly vaulted the railing and dropped off the balcony onto a table with practised ease, and snaked her way through the crowd, tears beginning to form on her face. The crowd began to part in front of her, and before she knew it, she was running across the stage, tears on her cheeks.
"Sunset! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I-"
She felt arms wrap around her, felt tears on her cheeks, felt her arms wrap around Sunset, and she buried her head into the shoulder that had appeared, Sunset's achingly familiar scent of Lavender and Leather that had haunted her dreams for years filling her lungs. It took a moment for her to realise the other girl was crying too, and she lifter her head up to look at her ex, who began to speak.
"Pinkie, Its- I'm sorry, so sorry, I- I should've-"
Pinkie caught the look in Sunset's eyes as she spoke, a look she had seen many times before, several years ago.
Without as much as a moments hesitation, she raised an arm to the back of Sunset's head, pulled the taller girl down and in, and felt their lips collide, melting seamlessly back into each other like no time had passed at all.
It was heaven. She was dimly aware of the cheers erupting from the crowd, from her friends, but her eyes closed as the world faded out around her. In that moment, the only thing that mattered was her and the fiery-haired goddess in her arms. For those moments, nothing else existed. She felt herself pulling away, the need to breathe leaving her dizzy. She felt Sunset gripping her waist, steadying her, and looked into teal eyes filled with a happiness and love that Pinkie had missed, so dearly fucking missed for several years.
Pinkie couldn't help but giggle as she looked up at Sunset, and raised a hand to both caress a cheek and wipe tears from her eyes, and soon Pinkie found herself in the tightest hug of her life, and the same part of her that screamed for air also didn't really care if she died in Sunset's arms, because, after all, it would be worth it.
When eventually the hug came to an end, the duo were still just stood there, giggling and staring into each others eyes, and Pinkie couldn't recall ever seeing them so stunning, so simply hypnotising, and she couldn't look away. Then she heard a squeal behind her, and before she knew it, Rarity had her arms around Pinkie, almost knocking her and Sunset over.
"OHMYGOD YOU TWO ARE SIMPLY ADORABLE!!"
They laughed as the others arrived at the stage, and Pinkie took a moment to grab Sunset's hand.
"Sunset, these are my friends, Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Fluttershy and Applejack, it's her birthday by the way, she wouldn't let me throw her a party so we ended up coming here instead and I cannot believe that she wouldn't let me, I mean, come on, a Pinkie Pie party is the best there are! But at the same time, I'm kinda glad because it meant we came here, and you were playing, and we wouldn't have otherwise so we would-"
"Pinkie."
Pinkie's rambling stopped instantly at Sunset's word, eyes darting back to the girl. The others simply stood there as their jaws dropped.
"She- She just stopped? She listened?!"
Sunset threw Rarity an inquisitive look.
"What, she doesn't when you do it?"
They wordlessly shook their heads.
"Huh."
"And friends, this is Sunset Shimmer, my ex-"
"Girlfriend. I'd like to go back to girlfriend, if, uh, if you'll have me."
Pinkie turned to Sunset again, and saw her eyes sparkling in the light. She couldn't help but let out a small squeal as she threw her arms around Sunset once more.
"Yes, yes, absolutely, positively, yes!"
Pinkie buried her head into Sunset's chest, and she heard footsteps approaching across the stage. After a moment, Pinkie released Sunset from her grip and took a slight step back, feeling a blush spread across her cheeks as she finally became aware of the cheers from the crowd. Sunset giggled, and a new voice spoke up.
"Let's go backstage, huh?"
Pinkie perked up again, quickly darting forward to give her old friend a hug.
"Rainbow! I haven't seen you in years! I can't believe I didn't recognise you instantly, I mean, there couldn't be two Rainbow Dashes, right?"
"Pinks! C'mon, backstage first, mushy stuff later."
Author's Note
[Note copied from Archive]
So I mean if you want to let me know if the music sync thing worked out. In other news, I wrote this as more of a one shot, but if enough people seem interested in this world I could be convinced to continue it, both this fic itself and it's Side B counterpart, which exists in the ideas folder currently.
Otherwise, new chapter to Dying Rays very soon (probably like 5 minutes after this post tbh so if you're reading this it's probably already out.)
And also, Dying Rays is part of the Where The Sun Goes series, which as of right now has 2 prequels most people haven't seen, so make sure you check them out too!
I will just copy paste that section into the chapter notes on Dying Rays, yes, you can't stop me.
Anyway, as per usual, thank you so much for reading, check out some other things if you have time, I would really appreciate it, don't stay up forever, I love you all GOODNIGHT