“hey shims. r u alright?”
She felt stupid. She didn’t know what she was expecting to hear back, if she was going to hear anything at all. But Rainbow Dash had sent the text off before she really knew what she was doing, and it did make her feel a little better just to reach out. Sunset hadn’t contacted her since she walked off. With a sigh, she looked up from her phone, letting herself hope that her girlfriend would get back to her soon.
Rainbow and the others had made their way to Pinkie’s after the girl insisted on a slumber party to celebrate Twilight’s return to CHS. They all jumped at the suggestion, and the mood had really gotten better once they sat back to enjoy each other’s company. When Rainbow looked at the other girls — giggling, gossiping, and playing games — she could swear that they had forgotten all about the Dazzlings.
She didn’t know how to feel about that. She wished she could just push her worries out of her mind and enjoy their time together like everyone else. She tried, and she could for a minute or two. But her thoughts always trailed back to the way things were, and to the flame-haired girl… and she couldn’t fight that tiny prickling feeling that came with them.
One thought always repeated. Sunset should be here too. But the others didn’t seem to agree.
Rainbow shook her head as she tapped absentmindedly on the keyboard of her phone, trying desperately to focus on the brighter things for what seemed like the hundredth time that day.
“:)” The text sent with another groan from Rainbow. Why wouldn’t Sunset respond?
Her gazed shifted to Twilight. The princess was sat on Pinkie’s bed scribbling in a notebook, a look of deep concentration on her face as she worked on the spell they’d all use against the Sirens. Rainbow cracked a half-smile; Twilight had a plan, and it was only a matter of time before they really had something to fight back with.
Twilight and Sunset said that the best way to fight the Siren’s music was with a song of their own. A ‘musical counterspell’, that’s what they’d use. Rainbow’s smile grew as she sniggered, looking out over the room at her friends. If there was anybody who could pull a musical anything off, it was her band.
“\m/” Another short text.
She was determined to play the best song in the world. It would have to be, if it had the power to save everyone. The Rainbooms would make those girls wish they never messed with CHS. Rainbow couldn’t wait to see the look on the big-haired one’s smug face when they broke their spell.
…
…but…
…what if the spell didn’t work? The athlete remembered how confident they were in the last one, and how stupid she felt just standing there when nothing happened. She shot another glance at Twilight, spying the girl pinching the bridge of her nose with her eyes screwed shut. Rainbow chewed on her lip. What if Twilight couldn’t finish the spell in time? What if it wasn’t enough to fight the Siren’s magic? What if they couldn’t save the school? What if they couldn’t help Sunset?
Her chest tightened as she remembered the girl pushing her away and leaving her behind, like she was nothing but a nuisance.
“<\3”
Rainbow tapped the heel of her hand against her forehead, trying to push the thoughts out of her mind. She was better than that.
Worrying was for chumps without a plan.
It was a thought she kept coming back to, and it gave her some pep when she needed it before. But the words got emptier and emptier every time they crossed her mind. Now, it was just something she used to drown out the feelings that nagged at her.
Worrying is for chumps…
Everyone’s counting on us…
Worrying is for chumps!
What are we going to do?
Worrying is for chumps!!!
Dammit… Sunset… where are you?!
Rainbow let out a startled yelp as her phone suddenly vibrated, almost dropping it to the floor. She scanned the text on her screen, letting out a puff of relief when she saw it wasn’t some bitchy brush-off.
“Better, I guess.”
Her fingers flew across across the screen.
“where r u sunset?”
Rainbow Dash sat unblinking, hunched over her phone with a slight impatient rocking to her form. After a minute that seemed like twenty, she typed the same question out on her phone. Her finger hovered over ‘send’, but she caught herself. She straightened out, shaking her head as she let in a deep breath through her nose.
She let it out of her mouth slowly, her breath coming out through a small smile as she felt her phone vibrate in her hands again.
“Just left Turner’s house.”
Rainbow furrowed her brow.
“what were u doing there?”
“It’s complicated. Been a weird night.”
The rainbow-haired girl hummed to herself, tapping on her screen before a smirk crawled across her face.
“sounds kinky. didnt know u were into older guys. ;)”
She waited…
…waited…
…waited for a response…
She fretted after some minutes, typing out a few apologies and deleting them all, each one more pleading and mushier than the last. She nibbled down on her lip and fidgeted as she tried to find the right combination of words that said ‘sorry’ and ‘I didn’t mean it’ and ‘please get back to me’ and…
“You’re not funny. >.<”
Rainbow let out a breath and wiped the back of her hand across her forehead.
“I thought you’d be mad at me.”
“cuz of what u said?”
“Well yeah.”
Rainbow thought about it again — just how much it hurt to think that Sunset didn’t want her, and just what that meant too. It wasn’t like when she fell out with her friends. Sure, that sucked when it happened. It sucked a lot. But, with Sunset, things were… different. She was different.
Duh! the girl thought to herself. Me and Sunset, we’re… what we are. That’s… how it’s supposed to be.
She didn’t know how else to put it, and she really didn’t like to think about it. Every time she did, she felt her mouth go dry and her heart lodge in her throat.
But, it was Sunset that did that her — thinking about the Sunset she saw when everybody else remembered a ruthless bully, or a heartless demon.
“i said it b4 shims, i know thats not u.”
…
…
“:)”
The athlete allowed herself a cheesy grin, mirroring the smile appearing on her screen. She couldn’t help it; just hearing from Sunset came as such a relief, and it made her feel a little something in the pit of her stomach.
If she was sappier, she might have called it butterflies.
She tsked at herself as she typed.
“were at pinkie’s. u should come over.”
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea. I was going to go home.”
Rainbow rolled an argument or two around in her head, but she knew that, for Sunset, the thought of coming over now was probably no better than the thought of what she would walk into at school each and every morning.
The athlete looked back up to her friends, all more carefree now than she ever remembered seeing them. She could see Applejack swatting her hat at Fluttershy, who giggled softly at beating the farmer once again as she guarded herself with the controller in her hand. The shy girl was almost scary-good at every video game they put in front of her.
She looked over to see Rarity, struggling in vain to separate Pinkie Pie’s frizzy hair for a braid. Pinkie had to chew on her lip to stop from laughing out loud at every unladylike, half-stifled curse that the fashionista let slip when the mass of pink poofed back to its regular shape.
But then she thought back to how sour things were when Sunset was around them. Maybe she could talk to them — Applejack, Rarity, and Twilight. Maybe she could get them to understand that the flame-haired girl didn’t mean what she said.
But how could she say it? It was just like… a bad mood, Rainbow thought to herself. You guys know how that can be, right? I know I can say some harsh things when I have a bad day, hehe. But you know that I’d never say anything to hurt your feelings on purpose… I’m your friend.
But that was just it…
Could Sunset say the same thing? Did they feel like she was still their friend? Did they ever?
She sighed to herself. Sunset was right; no one would be happy with her there right now. But the athlete wasn’t happy to think of the other girl out on the streets by herself in the middle of the night, on her way to… wherever it was she lived.
What did she say? A factory?
“what if u went to my place?”
Rainbow winced as she read over what she sent — it kinda just came out. But hey, it was that or nothing, she reasoned. What was the worst that could happen? She waited for a response — the little bubble that said Sunset was typing appeared and disappeared several times before a new text popped up.
“What do you mean?”
“y don’t u come to my house? its probably closer than urs anyway.”
“Where would you be?”
“there… obviously.”
“I don’t want you to leave Pinkie’s just because of me, Dash.”
“stop tryna argue w/ me shimmer. u gonna b there or am i gonna have to go out and hunt u down?”
…
…
…
…
“Fine”
Rainbow let out a small, triumphant ‘ha’ under her breath. She typed out a quick ‘c u there’ before she finally put her phone down. The athlete stretched out as she sat on the floor, feeling invigorated. Her limbs and joints cracked lightly at their peaks, eliciting a small, crooked smile from the girl before she finally pushed herself to her feet.
Rainbow Dash zipped back and forth across the room, gathering the few stray belongings she had strewn about and placing them in her backpack. The other girls were still a little too busy enjoying themselves to notice as the athlete haphazardly packed.
Rainbow stepped behind Applejack just as the farm girl leaned back on her hands to collect herself after yet another resounding loss to Fluttershy. Rainbow’s foot caught in the crook of Applejack’s elbow, sending the athlete to the floor with an ‘oomph’ as the last of her belongings scattered from her grasp.
“Ah, shoot! Sorry there, Dash,” Applejack fretted as she turned over and reached out to help her friend up off of the floor.
“Don’t worry about it, AJ,” Rainbow said absentmindedly as she took the farm girl’s hand and pushed up onto her knees. She let out a quick ‘thanks,’ but kept her head down as she reached for the things she dropped.
Applejack raised a quizzical eyebrow at Rainbow Dash, but it was Fluttershy who spoke.
“Um… are you going somewhere, Rainbow Dash?” she murmured questioningly as her eyes drifted over to Rainbow’s crammed backpack.
Rainbow scooped the rest of her things into her arms and stood up straight before it seemed that she heard Fluttershy at all. “Oh,” Rainbow blinked. “Uh, yeah, I was… just gonna go home, got somethin’-” she finished as she shuffled over to her backpack and shoved her belongings inside.
A sharp gasp brought a start to Rainbow’s frame before a pink hand gripped her shoulder and spun her around. Pinkie Pie’s eyes bored into the rainbow-haired girl incredulously as she held her in place by her arms.
“What?! Why, Dashie? Are you not having fun?” Pinkie gasped again, screwing her eyes shut. “Why aren’t you having fun?!” she cried desperately as she shook Rainbow Dash.
“P-Pinkie!” Rainbow grumbled as she struggled against the girl’s panicked grip, “It’s n-nothing like that.” She managed to slip an arm free and placed it on Pinkie’s shoulder, trying desperately to soothe her friend.
Pinkie stopped manhandling Rainbow, and she took a second to let her dizziness subside. Her vision cleared to meet the sight of every eye in the room suddenly trained on her. Pinkie kept her in place and looked at her with a questioning gaze.
Rainbow pursed her lips sheepishly as she peeled Pinkie’s fingers off of her.
“I… uh… heard from Sunset. She’s heading over to my place, and I was going to meet her there,” Rainbow said.
A mix of expressions formed on her friends’ faces—some guarded, others less so. The girls looked between each other, the room silent but for the video game Applejack and Fluttershy had left idle.
“So, yer leaving because of her.”
It wasn’t a question, so much as an accusation.
Rainbow peered over Pinkie’s shoulder at Applejack, scowling at the farm girl’s tone and disapproving gaze. “Because of Sunset? Yeah,” Rainbow said firmly. “And she’s fine, by the way…
“Yippee,” Applejack snarked.
Rainbow felt her anger rise. “…but, she’s out on the streets by herself,” She took a breath to settle down a bit, swirling her thoughts around in her head. “Look, I know you’re probably still sore after what happened earlier. But you gotta understand that’s not how Sunset is. Not really.”
“Oh?” Applejack drawled incredulously as she rose to her feet. “Wow, she’s really got you by the lariat, huh?”
Rainbow furrowed her brow at the farm girl. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Applejack crossed her arms, defiant. But before she could open her mouth to speak, Rarity stepped forward to chime in.
“Rainbow Dash, I think what Applejack is trying to say is that… or… well… what I’m trying to say is... have you considered the possibility that Sunset hasn’t been the most sincere… with you, that is.” Rarity said as delicately as possible.
Rainbow’s chest tightened at the suggestion, but she quickly pushed it to the back of her mind. Rarity clicked her tongue and spun her hand in thought.
Rarity continued, lightly pushing Pinkie away as she stepped closer to Dash. “You must admit, what we saw back at the school was a bit… familiar. Is it so hard to believe that what we’ve seen these past weeks has just been an act on her part?”
Rainbow shook her head, getting into the fashionista’s face. “You don’t have any idea what you’re talking about! I’ve been with Sunset almost every day since the Fall Formal, and all she’s done since then is apologize and try to make up for the things she did in the past! Nobody’s made it easy for her, so what reason would she have to put up with all that just to throw it away?”
As Rainbow’s voice rose, so did Rarity’s. “Rainbow, she’s been duplicitous before! Do you remember when she first came to CHS? She was the picture of decorum; polite and unassuming. Is wasn’t until she became popular that she let the mask slip,” Rarity took a breath and her gaze softened. “I know you might not be... inclined to see things that way given how close you are to her. But… didn’t she mention that whatever she had with Flash Sentry was all for image’s sake? What should have us believe that she’s not doing the same with you?”
Rainbow sputtered; she had no clue what to say to that. Sunset, leading her on? No way! She knew Sunset better than anyone. Sunset didn’t have it in her to do something like that.
Not anymore.
Not to me… Rainbow Dash thought.
“Shackin’ up with one of the people who brought her down either makes her look good or makes us look like fools,” Applejack said before grunting in frustration. “Ugh, we should all have our heads examined for trustin’ her, even for a second!” the farmer fumed, grabbing her hat off of her head and swinging it. She looked to Rainbow Dash. “Probably you most of all.”
“Hey!” Rainbow protested as she motioned over to the princess sitting on the bed. “Twilight asked us to look out for Sunset after she left, and I was the only one to lift a finger to help. I was keeping my promise, but would any of you have even done anything if I hadn’t pushed you?”
When nobody responded, Rainbow crossed her arms and huffed. “Thought so.”
“Girls, please...” Twilight spoke, but went unheard as the argument continued.
“Well, can you really blame us?” Rarity questioned. “After everything she did?”
“Yeah, yeah, we all know how you feel.” Rainbow Dash jeered. “What about you, Pinkie? Are you with them?”
Pinkie Pie seemed to freeze in place with the attention suddenly focused on her. Her head zipped from each of her friends as her eyes grew wide. “Dashie, I don’t wanna see you girls fight...” she began sadly. “I mean, I love making friends. You know that. But... What Sunset did was really, really, really awful.”
“She apologized!”
Suddenly a soft voice added, “She tried to kill us.”
Dash whipped around to face the source with eyes as wide as dinner plates. “Fluttershy?”
Fluttershy eep’d and grabbed a pillow to shield her face as Rainbow looked at her. “I-I mean... I know that the m-magic probably made her into something she’s not but... that was a huge fireball... it was scary...”
“Exactly!” Applejack butted in. “And with how she was actin’ at the school, it’s gonna take more than an ‘I’m sorry’ this time.”
“She’s changed! I know it! Why can’t any of you see it?! What happened at the school was... was...” Dash’s voice faltered as she tried to come up with a reason. “... I don’t know what it was. Hell, maybe it was the Dazzlings! They’re making people act horrible, how do we know it wasn’t them?”
Applejack’s eyes narrowed, as did Rarity’s, as they thought over Rainbow Dash’s words. Yes! Dash thought. I got through to them!
“But...” Twilight spoke, and Rainbow’s heart sank. “The effect the Dazzlings have seem to be turning people into something they’d never be otherwise. Sunset, she... she was acting exactly like she was when I first got here. Plus, it hasn’t changed any of us. I can only assume it’s because of the magic we still have. Why wouldn’t that protect Sunset?”
“I-I... I don’t know, but there has to be a rea-!”
“Face it, Rainbow Dash.” Applejack interrupted with a scowl. “She never changed, she was never our friend, and you should have never fallen for her!”
“Shut up!”
The room went quiet as Rainbow’s yell washed over them. The rainbow-haired girl took in several deep, shaky breaths as she balled her fists and looked between her friends. They all stared at her with mixed expressions of shock, anger and pity. Rainbow hated those looks. “What are you all looking at?” She said tersely.
The girls simply looked between themselves, saying nothing. Rainbow tsked as she lifted her backpack from the floor and moved to leave Pinkie’s room.
“I’m not sorry for giving Sunset a chance. And I’m sure as Hell not sorry that we’re together. I’m just sorry that I’m the only one who has the backbone to believe in her,” Rainbow said with finality, slipping out of the room and down the hall.
The remaining girls could hear the front door slam from where they stood. They stayed silent-- Applejack let out a dismissive huff as she looked to Rarity, the fashionista matching her expression with a purse of her lips. The sounds of Fluttershy softly sniffling reached their ears, and Pinkie went over to console her.
Twilight Sparkle stood from the bed, smoothing out her borrowed nightclothes clothes as she looked to regard her friends. Her expression morphed to one of indignation.
“So, when was somepony going to tell me about Rainbow Dash and Sunset Shimmer?”