//------------------------------//
// Family Breakfast 
// Story: Altered Perspectives: Adapting to Change 
// by CapNTilfy 
//------------------------------//

Sunny Flare heaved a sigh as she stared at her plate, which was full of food. Neither she nor her parents had spoken since she came to.

"What happened up there," Glaze asked concernedly.

Sunny sighed again. "Oh, nothing much, Mother," she said casually. "I only came to the sudden realization that I could've died yesterday, blacked out, then relived the most horrifying part of the Friendship Games. Oh, and I got strangled by Twilight's warped form." She smiled sadly. "Never a dull moment for me, huh? The way things are going, I'd welcome ennui with open arms."

"Sunny..."

Stellar frowned. Had he known what was going to happen yesterday, he would've forbidden Sunny from participating. It was horrible enough that she lost her boyfriend recently, but to have two near-death experiences within a week! It quite frankly astounded him that his daughter still had the ability to be sarcastic.

Sunny began to eat. "Can we talk about something else?"

Glaze and Stellar glanced at each other, then shrugged.

"What would you like to talk about," Stellar asked.

Sunny rolled her eyes. "Shoes, ships, and sealing wax. I don't know! Something. Anything to get my mind off what happened yesterday before it inevitably rears its ugly head and gives me a panic attack!"

"Okay, then," Stellar said before taking a swig of milk. "Let's talk about how you treated... Flash Sentry, was it?"

Sunny blanched, then looked at Glaze.

"You did say anything," Glaze said with a shrug.

Sunny grunted in frustration, then sighed. "Fine. Look, I know what I did was wrong, and getting lost in my emotions was no excuse for slapping him."

Stellar nodded.

"Besides, I apologized to him last night via a personal message. I have yet to hear back from him."

"Good enough for me," Glaze said. "Now how about getting some friends?"

"Well... there is this guy, Sunburst. He had a crush on me..."

"Had?"

"Yeah." Sunny blushed as she put her hand behind her head. "He probably still has it, but I turned him down in a rather... unpleasant way."

Glaze heaved a sigh. "Sunny..."

Sunny rolled her eyes. "Let me finish, Mother. I'm at least being nice to him, so there's that."

"What about the girls," Stellar asked.

Sunny blinked. "The girls?"

"Yes. Sugarcoat, Lemon, Indigo and Sour. From what you told us, you five banded together under an enormous amount of pressure!"

Sunny raised an eyebrow and folded her arms. "That was more of an... alliance of necessity. It just happened so suddenly! It was like we all ran on instinct."

"But the five you acted like a team," Stellar said. "Tell me, Sunny. When was the last time something like that happened at Crystal Prep?"

Sunny furrowed her brows for a moment. "...I... I don't know."

"Exactly. If you made friends with them, who knows what you all could accomplish together!"

Sunny scoffed. "'If'. After all the things I've said to them... would they really want to be my friends?"

"You won't know unless you give it a shot," Glaze said.

"You'll have to forgive me if I remain skeptical, Mother. In case you've forgotten, Crystal Prep doesn't exactly have a 'forgive and forget' mentality."

Glaze folded her arms and smiled. "It didn't have a teamwork mentality either."

Sunny paused for a moment. Her mother may have had a point, but she wasn't going to hold her breath about the whole 'friendship' thing with the girls. "I suppose I'll think about it, at the very least."

Glaze shrugged. "Fair enough."

"Can we stop talking now? I'd like to eat breakfast." And think.

"Of course."

Sunny dug in, contemplating her conversation with her parents. It was almost ridiculous how hard they were pushing this friendship thing.

"Sorry, dearie... I'm taken, but it's so cute that you thought you had a chance with me!"

Sunny shook her head rapidly. Why'd that come up all of a sudden?

"Why, Sour," Sunny said, in a tone of mock surprise. "Whatever makes you think I have an ulterior motive?"

Sour rolled her eyes. "Because you're you, dumbass!" she yelled. "I don't think you've ever done anything without an ulterior motive!"

Sunny Flare rolled her eyes and smiled. "Sour Sweet... you know me so well! It's like we're becoming friends or something."

What was going on?

"Hmph. 'Friendship is magic.' That nonsense is for little girls. We're teenagers, we've moved beyond that point."

"Yours must be a sad and lonely existence, Sunny," said Lemon.

Sunny barked a laugh. "Oh, please," she said. "If anyone's existence is sad and lonely, it's most likely Sour Sweet's!"

"You don't know what she's been through," Lemon said through clenched teeth.

Sunny's eyes widened as an epiphany struck. She knew then what Lemon had said was true, but this time her statement had more weight to it.

Sunny was fairly well-adjusted, and this past week had been filled with nothing but tragedy and trauma. If this was the case for her now...

...then how badly damaged was Sour Sweet before the Friendship Games?

Sunny lost her grip on her fork, and it fell to the table with a clatter as she put her head in her hands. "Oh, god," she whispered.

"Sunny?" Stellar walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?"

Sunny shuddered. "I don't know... but I'm realizing just how terrible I've been to everyone at Crystal Prep." To say nothing of friendship actually being magic.

Glaze put a hand on Sunny's other shoulder. "That just means you're growing as a person, sweetie."

Sunny heaved a sigh. "Yeah... I don't know how I feel about this."

"You don't have to worry. The guilt will go away when you apologize and make amends."

"You mean I'm going to be stuck with this the entire weekend?!"

"It's possible," Stellar said casually with a shrug.

Sunny growled in frustration, then got up.

"Where are you going?"

"To get another fork."

"I hope you don't think you're going to eat the guilt away."

Sunny snorted. "Oh, if only it were that easy." She sat back down. "No, I'm going to finish my breakfast with no further interruptions!"

Sunny Flare all but wolfed down everything on her plate, paying no mind to anyone or anything until she finished with a satisfied sigh. "My compliments to the chef," she said to her parents as they stared at her with mouths agape.

Sunny's phone buzzed, notifying her of a message from MyStable. "Now if you'll both excuse me, I have some personal business to attend to." She walked back to her room, eager for Flash's long-awaited response.