//------------------------------// // Golden Hours // Story: Rainbow Rocks: Another Story // by ArcanaMaverick7 //------------------------------// Azalea, Sunset, and the other teenagers stared at the second Sunset in front of the piano of the music room and back at the one by the door. "Does anybody want to tell us what's going on here," the blue-skinned guitarist asked out of confusion and impatience. "I'm sure that these new girls will explain why one of them is a doppelganger of Sunset Shimmer, Rainbow Dash," the elegant purple-haired keytar player declared. "Sunset Shimmer," the two visitors asked together. "Uh, yeah... I'm Sunset Shimmer," the redhead with highlights awkwardly introduced herself. "And this is Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy," she said as she gestured to the band members. Each of the five girls greeted Azalea and the Sunset doppelganger. "I'm Flash Sentry," the blue-haired boy introduced himself. "Oh, I'm Azalea Calla Holstein and this is my best friend, Sunset Blaze," Azalea politely responded. "I get the feeling like we might get confused by a first name basis," Applejack said as she looked at both Sunset's. "Everyone seems to go with my full name anyways, so just call her 'Blaze' or some other nickname," Sunset Shimmer suggested. "I always liked 'Phoenix' for a stage name when performing," Sunset Blaze remarked. "That sounds fun! But, so does 'Blaze'... Eh, either one works," Pinkie said as she spun her drumsticks around and tapped them on her cymbals. "Anyways, me and Azalea are here with ten other friends from... out of town and we were wondering if we could hang around here until we go back," Sunset Blaze continued. "You think she knows our other friends from 'out of town'," Flash asked with a hopeful tone. "I don't think we would know anyone from here," Azalea apologetically said. "We just got here today and don't know anyone outside our little group." "I wouldn't call twelve people a little group," Fluttershy mumbled. Flash moaned in disappointment, "Well, I just thought that with the Musical Showcase being a special charity event and all, maybe Twilight would've decided to visit." "Twilight," Azalea asked. "Sorry, Flash," Applejack apologized. "I don't think Twilight is coming back to Canterlot High anytime soon." "Who's Twilight? His girlfriend," Sunset Blaze asked in curiosity. Flash blushed at this and began to stammer as he answered. "W-well, the thing is... Twilight's... s-she's just... M-maybe I should go. Need to practice for the showcase. I just, you know, thought I'd ask about Twilight. Uh, k-keep on rockin' it," he managed to get out as he started to leave. Bumping into the wall as he walked backwards, Flash sheepishly made his exit and the girls all started to giggle at what happened. "Well," Rarity giggled. "Someone's quite the smitten kitten," she commented about Flash Sentry. Azalea and Blaze saw Sunset Shimmer was apparently upset with herself. Putting two and two together, Blaze spoke up. "You two used to date, didn't you," she asked her body double. "Oh, that's right," Rarity remembered. "Sorry. I always forget that you Flash used to be an item," she apologized to Shimmer. "It's okay," Sunset Shimmer stated. "Flash is a great guy and all, but I never really liked-him liked him. I was just using him to become more popular. Ugh! The old me really was just awful, wasn't she," she said like she was disgusted at herself. As the Rainbooms all confirmed Sunset Shimmer's question, Azalea and Sunset Blaze just stood there confused. "What do you mean by that," Azalea asked. Sunset Shimmer looked down at her boots and grabbed her arm as she awkwardly explained. "Well... It's just that I was a bit... different in how I acted back during my last few years of school." "That's putting it lightly," Rainbow Dash said and got elbowed in the ribs by Applejack. "But, I'm changing for the better," Shimmer stated. "Exactly," Applejack reassured. "The important thing is that you went and turned yourself around." "Thanks, Applejack. But, I'm not sure that everyone else here at CHS feels the same way," Sunset Shimmer remarked. "If Rua was here and heard this, they would," Blaze mentioned quietly to Azalea. The P.A. system turned on and somebody spoke. "Sunset Shimmer, please report to the main foyer." "Well, gotta run," Shimmer said as she approached the door. "I volunteered to show some new students around the school. Thought it'd be good for them to get to know the new me before they heard all the stuff about the old me," she said with downcast face. "We'll come with you," Azalea said as she and Blaze walked alongside Sunset Shimmer. "You would need to give an actual tour to the rest of our friends, right?" "Yeah, I guess," Shimmer responded. "I'm just going to come out and say this. You used to be a bully, didn't you," Blaze suddenly asked. Sunset Shimmer was taken aback by this, but Blaze continued. "You said that you're changing for the better, you don't want these new students knowing about the old you, and you really regret your past," she listed. "Yes. It's just that something went wrong back during the school's Fall Formal and Twilight helped me realize what I did wrong in my life," Sunset said as she grabbed the sleeves of her jacket. "Everyone still doesn't trust me because of what I did, though." "These things take time. You can't change the world overnight or deal with criminal organizations in one day," Azalea mentioned. "That second thing was oddly specific for an example," Sunset Shimmer remarked. "Like in movies," Blaze quickly elaborated. "You can't just go all 'action hero' and play the role of the cop visiting their wife's workplace and deal with a gang of bad guys that took over the whole place." "I actually liked that movie," Sunset Shimmer mentioned with a smile. As they walked along to the foyer, Azalea and Blaze messaged the rest of their friends to head there as well. "Sunset Shimmer, these are our friends," Blaze said as she started introductions. "Silver Wuruhi is the gray-haired boy, the blue-haired girl is Lapis Ondine, the girl in the kimono-style outfit is Vixen Kosaku, and this is Rua Amaranth," she introduced the first four members of the group. "This is kinda weird," Silver admitted as he saw the second version of Sunset. "We've seen weirder," Lapis reminded. "Like some of Vixen's pranks or the time Ruby Rose decided to eat a cookie through her nose," Rua asked with a blank face. As Vixen laughed at the memory of some previous pranks she pulled off, Sunset Shimmer thought about that second thing Rua said. "I would actually expect Pinkie Pie to do that so that everyone would laugh," Shimmer mused. After thinking about the image, she began to chuckle at the idea. "Okay, okay, okay. Who else is there?" "The girl with glasses and two different eye colors is Cereza Fujita, the belly dancer is Layla Carbuncle, and the cowboy is Slate Quartz," Azalea introduced. "They're all my roommates back at our school." "Boarding school, huh? That's gotta be rough when you feel homesick," Sunset mentioned. "It was," Azalea said before Slate wordlessly placed his hat on Azalea's head. The two smiled at each other and Sunset eyed them, wondering if they were together. "Back to the others," Azalea said in order to get back on track. "The blonde in the green dress is Celadon Flynn, the girl with the red scarf is Rebecca Haze, and the last one with the headphones is Vinyl Aurum." Seeing how similar that Vinyl Aurum was dressed compared to another student at CHS, Sunset had a couple of questions before she gave the official tour. "I just want to ask a few things. First, what's with all the color-related names?" "Who names their daughter 'Rainbow Dash', 'Rarity', or 'Fluttershy'? Ever think of that, Sunset Shimmer," Blaze retorted with deadpan tone. Sunset Shimmer looked at her doppelganger and only replied with one word, "Touche." "There's a few reasons why we're named the way we are," Azalea confessed. "But, let's just say that art is very important thing in each of our families. So, colors and names related to them mean a lot." "That's... pretty neat," Shimmer admitted. "Second, why is it that several of you seem to have armor?" "We don't make fun of your hobbies," Cereza calmly replied as she pulled a lollipop from her jacket pocket. "Okay, then. Third, why is it that she looks like another student here only with blonde hair instead of blue," Shimmer asked as she pointed to Vinyl. "Purely coincidence, Darling," Celadon answered. "Although, she does dye her hair neon blue. I almost ended up using that instead of my conditioner the first day we were at Beacon Academy," she remembered fondly. "Could you all imagine me with blue hair," she asked her friends. The twelve and even Sunset Shimmer began to chuckle at the idea. "You guys are pretty fun to be with. I hope that we can see each other around after the tour," Sunset Shimmer said after catching her breath. "We just need to show the three new girls around the school."