Between friends
In Aurora's room, Aurora and Sam were looking through a page in the spellbook. The pictures helped explain how to do a spell that seemed to specialize in hypnosis, and the top of the page told that it was part of the chapter belonging to Skywynne, the Queen of Hours. The two of them were probably planning to have Aurora cast the spell on Sam to see if it would help him recover his lost memories.
"Are you sure this is gonna work?" he asked the princess with concern.
Aurora continued looking at the instructions on Skywynne's chapter and then after putting much focus into it, managed to turn the bell of her wand into a clock face. "I'm pretty sure. I tested the technique out on my grandparents already." she answered. "Though there were details I learned about them that no one should ever know." she then shuddered. The two then got into position to try it out on Sam, Aurora let out a sigh to calm herself and prepared to cast the spell.
"Are you ready?"
Suddenly, the sound of the doorbell was heard, which caught their attention. Aurora suddenly gasped with excitement and squealed with enthusiasm. "She's here!" she cried happily as she ran downstairs to the door and opened it. The visitor was none other than her best friend, Princess Lavinia Ponyhead.
"Hey Rory." she greeted her bestie.
"I'm so glad you could come!" Aurora squealed with excitement.
While Aurora was happy to have her friend visit, Sam couldn't help but wonder how Ponyhead was able to come to Earth. "How did you even get here?" he asked.
"Well, I invited her here." Aurora shrugged. Sam didn't take this answer well and grabbed Aurora by the wrist and dragged her to a corner to talk privately.
"Aurora, don't you remember that you're not supposed to tell anyone about where you're hiding?" he calmly scolded the princess. "We don't want whoever's after you to get wind of where you're at and come her to try and finish the job."
"Relax, Sam." Aurora tried to calm him down. "It's just Ponyhead. And she's my best friend who would never tell anyone. Trust me, everything's fine. Besides, I invited her here because I wanted all three of us to hang out together. You know, as friends."
Due to how she acted the last time they met, Sam didn't have much hopes of that going well, and was about to argue when the two of them heard laughing coming from the living room. They came back to find Angie and Rafael sitting with Ponyhead on the couch.
"Oh, I can't believe how well-behaved you are." Rafael commented.
"Not to mention adorable." Angie added, with Ponyhead giving a formal nod in response.
Aurora couldn't help but giggle at this. She's known Ponyhead most of her life and knew full well that she was only pretending to behave, because that's what she does when around adults besides her parents and even her own mother. But whenever they were alone, she reveals to be just as wild and untamed as her mother was back in her youth. Sam however, only frowned at this display of false formality.
After Aurora's grandparents left, the princess came and gave her best friend a warm hug. Ponyhead was caught off guard at first, but soon joined Aurora in laughing at how great it is to see each other.
"So, A-Fly, you ready to get your groove on?" Ponyhead then asked excitedly, Aurora replying with an excited nod. Sam on the other hand, wasn't really that thrilled with going out today.
The first place Aurora decided to go to was the doughnut shop, to show Ponyhead some of the things she saw on her first day on Earth. As Aurora showed Ponyhead the donuts, Sam decided to keep an eye on their visitor, still feeling uncomfortable with having someone outside the Earth dimension knowing where the princess of Mewni was hiding besides her parents.
"Why do humans even put the holes in these things?" Ponyhead asked, though Aurora just answered, "I don't know." Aurora soon felt nature calling. "I'm gonna need to use the bathroom. You two play nice." she told her two friends as she left.
As soon as she left, Ponyhead decided to confront Sam on something and quickly got in his face. "Listen here, we are not gonna be besties. You know why? Because I don't buy your little story of losing your memories." she said menacingly. "Rory's my best friend, so let me make one thing perfectly clear that you won't ever be able to forget even if you tried. You do anything to hurt her, then I'll let you know how sharp a unicorn's horn really is." she said menacingly pointing her horn at Sam's face.
Sam however, didn't seem all that frightened. "You know what I think? I think you're jealous." he instead said mockingly.
"What? Me, jealous?"
"Yeah, jealous that Aurora's spending more time with me than with you."
This made Ponyhead feel like she was being challenged, but wasn't able to counter back by the time Aurora returned. She quickly got under Sam's arm and the two pretended to laugh with each other like they were buds already, much to Aurora's joy at seeing them getting along.
"It's so nice to see you two not fighting." she praised. "What are you laughing about anyway?"
"Oh, Sam was just telling me about this game that's suppose to be tons of fun." Ponyhead explained before turning back to Sam. "What'd you call it again?"
"Bowling." Sam replied.
The three were soon at the bowling alley, with people being seen having a good time playing the game. As Sam was getting his bowling shoes on, he was watching Aurora explain to Ponyhead how the game works.
"So, the goal of the game is to knock down as many of those pins as you can with your ball." Aurora explained showing one of the bowling balls. "And if you can knock down all ten on your first try, that's a strike." She then decided to demonstrate how it's done and calmly got into position, slowly pulling the ball back and preparing to let go. In an instant, Aurora got the ball rolling, it going in a straight line towards the front pin. In a quick crash, the ball had managed to knock down all the pins except for the ones at the far end corners.
"Oh, a seven/ten split." Sam cringed. "Knocking down both of them at the same time is gonna be tough to do."
"What? Are you kidding?" Ponyhead replied in disbelief. "Tough is just how me and A-Fly like it." she boasted, Aurora giggling softly before picking up another ball.
Taking a deep breath, Aurora let go of the ball and sent it rolling straight towards the seventh pin. The angle of the ball caused its collision to bounce the pin to the other one and knock them both down, earning Aurora a spare. Aurora leaped with joy while Sam and Ponyhead looked with surprised expressions on their faces.
"Okay, I'll admit, Aurora's got talent." Sam praised before turning to Ponyhead. "Why don't you go next."
Ponyhead didn't even seem nervous, but gave a small smirk and used her magic to levitate the ball so she could use it. Pulling the ball back, she quickly released it and got it rolling at the pins, which scored a strike, much to both Aurora's surprise and Sam's shock.
Ponyhead turned back to Sam with a wide smirk on her face. "I think it's your turn." she told him. Though she was most likely wanting to see him fail to score a strike and embarrass himself and let her have a laugh.
Not wanting to chicken out and satisfy her amusement, Sam decided to play along and picked up a ball and got into position. Taking a deep breath, he safely pulled the ball back and quickly sent it rolling down the lane. To both Aurora and Ponyhead's surprise, Sam scored a strike as well.
Sam turned back to the girls and gave a subtle smirk at Ponyhead, much to her hidden anger. The game went on normally from this point on, though Sam and Ponyhead acted a bit more competitive with each other while Aurora just focused on enjoying the game. The two competitors were able to score both strikes and spares, Aurora doing no different.
By the afternoon, the game was finished, with Sam and Ponyhead both looking exhausted while Aurora still feeling fine.
"Out of curiosity, what's the score?" Sam asked out of breath.
"Well, let's see." Aurora said going to the score board to check. "Times five, carry the one... What do you know? All three of us got the same results. It's a draw." she revealed, must to both Sam and Ponyhead's shock
The three headed out the front door of the bowling ally, with Sam and Ponyhead secretly glaring daggers at each other while Aurora's back was turned, but quickly switched to wide grins when she turned to face them.
"Was it my imagination or were you two being a little fierce with each other?" she asked in a suspicious manner.
"What? No. We must've just got into the game a little." Sam said nervous.
"Yeah, you know most games are more fun with a little competition." Ponyhead added in.
Aurora just giggled in response. "Oh, stop. I already knew it was that. I've known you most of my life, Ponyhead, so I know you like to do that every so often." she said, the two of them both sighing in relief. "Hey, I know something else we can do." Aurora was quick to suggest. "Let's go to the carnival. I hear it's open today."
The carnival was full of fun things to do, from rides like the Ferris Wheel and the Roller Coaster, to small games like the ring toss and the bottle stack game, to fun houses like the Haunted house and the house of mirrors. And Aurora, Sam and Ponyhead were having tons of fun enjoying everything the carnival had to offer.
The kids were helping themselves to some popcorn and cotton candy when Ponyhead noticed the unicorns on a nearby Merry-go-round. Sam took notice of this and decided to joke at her expense. "Hey Ponyhead, don't these look like your relatives?" he said with a smirk.
"Oh, ha, ha, ha. That was so funny, I forgot how to laugh." she replied sarcastically. The two then left when Ponyhead noticed a game that looked like a tall plank with a bell at the top and a small board with a ball at the foot of it and a mallet sitting right next to it.
"Hey Sam, what kind of game is this?' she asked curiously.
"Oh, that's a game that tests your strength." Sam casually replied. "How it works is you use the mallet to hit the raised end of the board to try and make the ball go high enough to reach the bell." he explained.
"Oh" Ponyhead understood, then gave a smirk as she got an idea. "I bet you can't hit it hard enough." she said mockingly.
"Oh, really?" Sam shot back, feeling challenged. "Well Mr's Bodily Challenged, let's see about that." He took the mallet and rested it over his shoulder. Taking the time to process the weight of it, he used all his might to hold it up and send it hard on the board. The ball was fling up so fast it it reached the bell in an instant with a loud ding. Everyone who watched the spectacle were in awe, even Ponyhead.
"Okay, spill it! How did you get that strong?" she demanded to know. Sam just gave a shrug. "I told you before, I don't remember anything about my past. If I did, I would tell you." Ponyhead just gave an annoyed snort before Sam noticed something. "Hey, where's Aurora?"
"EEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHH!" Aurora was heard screaming around the corner, causing her two friends to worry something bad happened and quickly rushed to her aid. But what they saw wasn't the princess being in distress, but rather her standing at a shooter game booth eyeing the stuffed animal prizes, one in particular.
"Oh my gosh! Look at how fluffy that unicorn is." she told her friends. It was plump with white fur and pink hooves and a mane, and a yellow horn on its head. "It's so fluffy I think I'm gonna die!" she squealed with her eyes sparkling.
Both Sam and Ponyhead groaned in mild annoyance from getting worried over nothing, but decided to make Aurora happy anyway. "Alright, we'll try and win it for you." Sam told her, making her smile as he went over to the game manager. "So, what do we have to do to win this?"
"Well son, all you have to do is shoot one of the little white balls in your blaster and knock over that little tin spaceship." the manager explained, pointing to the toy blasters and the little spaceship in question.
"Hm, Seems easy enough." Sam said with a shrug. He then paid the man a five dollar bill and the owner pressed a little button that started the game. The little spaceship started moving around unpredictably to make it hard to hit. Aurora, Sam and Ponyhead each manned a blaster and tried to score a hit on it, but the little thing moved to fast and randomly to hit it. Just then , the timer ran out, ending the game.
"Again!" Aurora cried out.
"I don't know, Aurora." Sam replied unsure, not really wanting to waste too much money on one game. But Aurora gave him pleading puppy-dog eyes. "Please!" This made Sam relent, not having the will to resist a face like that.
He gave another $5 to the owner and he pressed the button to restart the game. The three kids picked up where they left off at trying to hit it, to no avail. But then, suddenly by sheer luck, one of Aurora's white balls managed to land a hit on the little spaceship, making it tilt a smidge.
"I hit it! I hit it!" the princess shouted in joy, thinking she won. But her happiness was short-lived when the timer ended and declared she lost, much to her confusion and sadness.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What was that?" Sam questioned the game owner. "How can she have lost when she hit the thing?" he asked, feeling like his friend was ripped off.
"Well, son, I said you had to knock over the little tin spaceship, not just touch it." he explained again. But then, Ponyhead floated over to the little tin ship and gave it a moderate tap, only for it to barely even move. On closer inspection, she saw there was some sort of mechanism that kept it from falling over.
"Hey, this game is rigged!" she told Sam. "There's this gizmo that keeps it from falling over." This made all three of them look at the game manager with shocked and angry looks, as they now realized that he was a sleazy crook who cheats people out of their money.
"Hey, what are you trying to pull?!" Sam angrily asked.
The Manager was quick to defend. "Oh, I'm not trying to pull anything. Just tryin' to make a livin'." he said. "What can I say. better luck next time." He was sure he would have the his boss to back him up and keep them from ratting him out.
Both Sam and Ponyhead looked at Aurora and saw her hanging her head in sorrow, feeling like she got her hopes up for nothing. This made tears leak out of her eyes. That was the last straw for the both of them, for as much as they've been hostile towards each other, they can' stand seeing someone making Aurora cry.
"Okay, time to do this our way." Ponyhead said with venom to the game manager, much to Sam's confusion. "Uh, what do you mean our way?" he asked. Ponyhead then whispered into his ear and made Sam understand. "Oh, I get it." she said with a smirk.
Sam paid the man a third time, with the manager giving a smug look, certain he would still get the last laugh on these kids. But Sam and Ponyhead were about to prove him wrong, for instead of taking the blasters for the game, Sam instead grabbed Ponyhead and cocked her horn like a gun and she started building up a yellow ball of magical energy. Seeing what was to happen, Aurora quickly ducked out of the way before they released the magic blast, which obliterated both the spaceship and the entire back wall of the stall.
When the smoke cleared, the game manager picked himself up, his face covered in ash, and looked at the kids with a bewildered expression. "That knocked over enough for ya!?" Ponyhead said getting up in his face and laughing mockingly. Not wanting to argue any further with these kids who destroyed his game, the man quickly handed the toy unicorn to Aurora and even gave their money back. the three kids then happily left knowing they put that con artist in his place.
"It's so FLUFFY!" Aurora screamed with joy as she tightly hugged her new toy. Sam and Ponyhead couldn't help but smile at seeing their friend's mood changed for the better.
The three friends then left the carnival when it ended. Aurora feeling happy with how this day went.
"You know, I didn't really expect you guys to do so well on our first day out together." Aurora told her two friends, earning looks of confusion from them. "I know things have been a bit tense between the two of you, with Ponyhead not trusting Sam due to not knowing his backstory and Sam not liking Ponyhead giving him the cold shoulder. But you guys were able to ignore your issues and help me forget my problems with being away from home. Thanks, guys. You let me have the best day I've ever had since I left Mewni."
This left both Sam and Ponyhead at a loss for words. Sure they were secretly fighting with each other, but Aurora was trying to help them get along. This made them start feeling guilty for arguing all the time when Aurora was just trying to help ease the tensions. They both chose not to say anything and make her feel like her efforts weren't wasted.
"Let's go to the park and have some ice cream to celebrate." Aurora suggested and turned to head that way. As soon as she left, Ponyhead and Sam looked to each other with guilt, the both of them feeling awful for fighting all the time behind Aurora's back without thinking about why she brought them together in the first place.
"Look, I understand you have no reason to trust me due to the both of us not knowing my past." Sam said to her. "But I want you to understand that I have no intention of hurting Aurora, not after she's going through so much to help me remember who I am."
"Yeah. I guess that's true." Ponyhead sighed. "And look, I may have gone overboard with the hostilities, but it's just because I'm a tad protective of A-Fly. You see, I've had to keep those noble snobs back on Mewni from picking on her since she was eight years old. And those jerks know how to use subtle means to make her feel bad. So, I guess I can put up with you a little, if only to make her feel happy." she said softly.
"Yeah, so can I." Sam said before having his hand out. "So what do you say? Truce?"
Ponyhead hesitated briefly, but smiled and gently put her horn on his hand and the two shook on it. "Yeah, for Rory's sake."
With that, the two nodded and followed Aurora to the park in a more civil manner. The three were soon seen sitting on a park bench with ice cream cones in Aurora and Sam's hands and levitated by Ponyhead's magic while watching the sunset.