//------------------------------// // Part VI: Full Circle || Chapter 47: Emergencies False and True // Story: Full Circle // by Sotharan //------------------------------// It was the end of another day at school, and Sunset began the short walk to her motorcycle, parked in the student parking lot. It had been an unremarkable day, which was just fine with her. It was mid-March now, and buds could be seen swelling on the still-leafless trees as a chilly wind blew through their branches. Sunset rubbed the arms of her new jacket to try to keep warm. It wasn’t really a winter-weight jacket and didn’t keep the wind chill out, but Sunset loved it so much she had a hard time not wearing it when she could possibly get away with it. In retrospect, she realized she should have checked what the wind would be doing today before leaving for school. She felt a vibration against her stomach and heard the chime from her cell phone. The chime was the one she had chosen for Rainbow Dash. Having reached her motorcycle, she put her backpack down and reached into her jacket pocket for her phone. Pulling it out, she read the message: Guys, meet at the statue now! New crisis! Sunset felt her heart speed up as adrenaline shot through her stomach. Grimly, she shoved the phone back into her jacket, grabbed her backpack, and took off for the portal statue. Here we go, she thought to herself. It was a short run and she wasn’t quite out of breath when she reached it. She saw that Applejack had made it there first and was talking to Rainbow up on the steps leading into the school. Her other friends were arriving all around her. They all ran to the steps. “I got your text, Rainbow!” Sunset cried as she reached the bottom step in full crisis mode. “Did something come through the portal? Is Equestrian magic on the loose again? Did Twilight come back with a problem that only we can solve?” Running up next to Sunset, Pinkie’s speculations on the emergency at hand were somewhat more fanciful (and less helpful). “Has a giant cake monster covered all the cakes in the world in cake?!” The other girls looked at her in amazement. Pinkie clearly would relish such a disaster. “Um, not exactly,” said Rainbow, a bit sheepishly. “Uh, I don’t understand,” said Sunset, who was starting to get an unpleasant feeling about the situation. Applejack stepped in, allowing some irritation to show in her voice. “Well, Sunset, Ah was jus’ tellin’ Rainbow that a broken guitar string does NOT qualify as an emergency.” Rainbow looked scandalized. “It totally does!” Rarity huffed. She looked quite annoyed. “Really, Rainbow Dash! I was in the middle of sewing a very complex appliqué onto my latest frock!” Fluttershy nodded and added: “And I was just about to tuck everyone in for the night at the shelter.” She sighed. “Now we’ll have to start the stories all over again.” Sunset allowed a bit of annoyance to show as well. “Why would you send all of us an emergency text for a guitar string?” But Rainbow’s good humor was unassailable. “Well, I was going to pony up and show our fans some awesome guitar licks,” she crowed, gesturing to Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, who were standing next to her and practically jumping up and down in excitement. “But I kinda need all six strings to do it. Got any extra?” The other Rainbooms groaned with one voice. Still looking slightly irritated, Sunset rolled her eyes and started rooting around in her backpack. She pulled out a spare string and handed it to Rainbow – as annoyed as she was, Rainbow was her friend and Sunset wanted to help her. “Here. But everyone’s already finished practicing for the day. I’m pretty sure you’ll find all the music rooms are locked up.” Rainbow took the string gratefully and started to fit it to her guitar. “Thanks, Sunset. As for the rooms, it’s no problem. The acoustics in the hallway are perfect for power chords. ”She tried an experimental chord to make sure the guitar was fixed. It sounded as awesome as usual. “C’mon guys! Let’s go!” With diminishing reluctance, the other Rainbooms followed Rainbow into the school – it was hard to say no to a chance to play together. Sunset held back – she’d just remembered something. “You comin’, Sunset?” asked Applejack. “I’ll catch up!” Applejack smiled and went into the school. Sunset watched her go. As Applejack left, Sunset thought to herself about Rainbow’s text message. I’m going to have to talk to that girl. She needs to realize what a real emergency is. If she keeps doing things like that, we won’t know if she’s in true danger or not. Sunset wasn’t consciously aware of it, but her role in her group of friends was evolving. As she gained self-confidence and healed from the self-inflicted wounds of her former life, the fact that she was between two and three years older than the other Rainbooms was starting to become more apparent. In addition, she had been trained by Princess Celestia herself, and that training had included no small amount of emergency management, strategy, and tactics. Even though she had not finished the training, she had been close to graduating from apprentice to journeypony when she had left, and so her abilities were quite significant. Her thought patterns were therefore more mature and organized than those of her friends, and, again unconsciously, she was always preparing to deal with and overcome any potential threat. Unintentionally (in fact, at this stage it would have distressed her to realize it consciously), Sunset was becoming the leader of her group of friends. Having resolved to speak to Rainbow, Sunset sat down on the school’s steps and reached into her still-open backpack, pulling out the magical journal. She had remembered that she wanted to write Twilight a quick note. She smiled happily to herself. It was still such a joy to be able to communicate with Twilight again whenever either of them wanted to. She opened the journal to the first blank page and started to write. After a few minutes she looked the letter over, making sure it said what she wanted to say and that there were no typos. As she checked it, she noticed the bus stopping across the street. Huh, that’s odd, she thought to herself. Hardly anyone ever gets off at this stop at this time of day. But she shrugged her shoulders and looked back down at the letter. A slight figure dressed in jeans and a blue sweatshirt had gotten off. Timidly, it crossed the street and disappeared behind the statue. Sunset hummed a Rainbooms song to herself as she finished her check. Idly, she looked up to see if anyone had gotten off the bus. That was when she noticed the blue sweatshirt-wearing figure seemingly inspecting the statue. A cold feeling began to manifest itself in her stomach, which intensified as the figure removed an object from its pocket and began to run it over the front of the statue. The object extended two probes and began to flash and whirr. Sunset leapt to her feet. Clearly, the portal in the statue had attracted unwanted attention. Sunset realized she had to act quickly – this was one of her chief fears. If the magic in the portal came to the attention of the authorities or the scientific community, there could be real trouble. She sped toward the statue, calling out. “Hey! What are you doing?” The figure started and turned to look at her. The person was wearing sunglasses, and appeared to be female. She had pale purple skin but Sunset wasn’t able to determine anything further about her appearance because her hood was up. Instantly the girl broke into a run back across the street. Sunset dashed in pursuit. “Wait!” she cried. “Stop!” The girl skidded in front of another bus as it was slowing. Sunset was about to cross the street, but in her haste she forgot to check both ways and was nearly hit by a car as it screeched to a stop. Sunset waited for the car to pass, the driver looking at her in anger, and made it to the middle of the road, but by then the girl had already jumped on the bus and it was starting to move. Sunset looked frantically in the windows of the bus as it passed but didn’t see anyone who matched the figure she had just seen. She turned back to the school. Who was that? she wondered to herself with concern as she crossed the street. The next day, during a study hall, the Rainbooms met in the library. Sunset was telling them about what she had seen at the portal the day before. “She was definitely trying to analyze or study the portal,” she reported. “Do you think she came through it?” Fluttershy asked. Sunset shook her head. “No, I’d have noticed that. I think she was from this world.” “Well, that’s relief,” Applejack said playfully as she leaned back in her chair. “The last thing we need is another magical so-and-so bent on world domination comin’ over from Equestria. ” She gave Sunset a comically elaborate wink. It was a sign of the strength of their relationship, and Sunset’s increasing ability to make peace with her past, that good-natured teasing was taken just as it was meant to be taken. Sunset stuck out her tongue at Applejack, feigning irritation. Applejack just chuckled. If they’d all been at a sleepover, it would have started a pillowfight or a ticklefight. “Well, I do agree,” said Rarity. “I have no interest in another fight against the powers of dark magic. For one thing, the wear and tear on my wardrobe is just too much to keep up with.” “Still, a mysterious figure snooping around the portal? Don’t you want to know what she was up to?” Sunset pressed. “I don’t even want to guess,” answered Fluttershy with an honest shudder. “Well, you don’t have to,” said Rainbow confidently. “I’ve totally figured out who it was!” Pinkie could not contain herself. “OOH! OOH! Was she a night-time statue cleaner? Or maybe a magical portal maintenance maintainer? A GARDENER!” she cried, jumping up and down. Rainbow, wisely, ignored her. “Seeing as how she got off a bus coming from the city, and then got back on a bus headed into the city, I’ll bet she goes to…” “CRYSTAL PREP,” everyone but Sunset finished with a depressed sigh. “Yep,” Rainbow confirmed. “With the Friendship Games starting tomorrow, they’d totally try to prank us by defacing the Wondercolts statue.” “Why would anyone take a bus all the way from the city for that?” Sunset asked, genuinely confused. “Because the Crystal Prep Shadowbolts are our biggest rivals?” Applejack suggested. “Because that’s just what the students at Crystal Prep would do?” Rarity offered. “Because even though they beat us in everything – soccer, tennis, golf – they still have to gloat!” growled Rainbow. Sunset considered this, but didn’t find any of those reasons good enough for her. “Seems kind of silly to me,” she said pointedly, fully expecting her friends to agree. To her surprise, they all objected with one voice. “SILLY!?” “So I guess you think the Friendship Games are silly, too?” Rainbow asked a bit darkly. Sunset was taken aback. Still, she tried to stand her ground a little, even though she suspected she had just committed a major neophyte friendship faux pas. “Well, it’s not like we’ll be fighting the powers of evil magic…” “No,” said Fluttershy, putting a hand on Sunset’s shoulder to lessen the impact of what she was about to say. “We’ll be fighting against a school full of meanies. Not everything has to be magical to be important, Sunset.” Sunset looked somewhat chastened. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I…know it’s a big deal.” “That’s putting it mildly, darling,” said Rarity. “They’re still revamping the entire football field in preparation.” “I just don’t understand why there’s this big rivalry!” Sunset protested. She knew she didn’t quite get it yet, so she asked for more info. “Aren’t the Friendship Games supposed to be about our two schools getting along?” “You got a point, sugarcube. But, well, it’s kinda hard to get along with someone who beats you at everything,” Applejack explained. “Not anymore!” Rainbow cried. “This time, things are gonna be different!” “What do you mean?” Sunset asked. “Oh, you’ll find out,” Rainbow answered cryptically.