//------------------------------// // My past is (not) today-part 2 // Story: Pony heart // by sunsetsjournal //------------------------------// Chapter 12: My past is (not) today-part 2 The night had fallen, painting the sky in an obsidian colour: the moon, spreading its ashen light, was shining brighter amongst the dark, the wind had grown weaker and was not nearly as unbearably cold as a few moments before, a group of bats, illuminated by the silver stars, flew above Sunset’s head: “Maybe I should go...” the girl sighed, imagining what hour must have been: “After all, I still need to wake up early tomorrow”. Before getting up though, Sunset laid her eyes on the journal one last time: “not glowing”, she said in the end. “Woo!” Applejack shouted all of a sudden: “It’s a big one, get out of the way!” The girl was sitting on a boat in the very middle of a stream, fishing rod in hand: just a few moments earlier she had felt something biting the tackle, but as soon as she had tried to pull the lured fish on the boat, the animal had made a violent movement, sending a powerful vibration under the water and now it was dragging the poor girl along with it in a desperate attempt to free itself: “Applejack, don’t worry!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed from the shore: “We’ll save you!”, showing the intention of jumping into the watercourse; yet Rainbow Dash stopped her immediately: “Are you nuts?! The current is too strong for you to swim across the river: stay here or we’ll have to save you, too!” “But we have to do something!” “Yeah, but what?” Fluttershy questioned worried: “Oh, I only wish I knew what to do” “Principal Celestia has already called the emergency services” Rarity intervened: “Yeah, but thanks to this field trip of ours we’re stuck in the woods: it’ll take time for any help to reach us and meanwhile our friends could get into some serious danger: at least we gotta follow’ em!” the others nodded in response and followed Rainbow Dash. At the same time Applejack’s boat had been dragged so far away, it had entered a ticker part of the forest, where nothing but pines and hemlocks was visible: “This is getting out of hand” said Sunset who was with her: “Let it go AJ, we got too far from our camp already!” “And go to bed without dinner? No way!” “But Applejack...” “Enough complaining and more helping, Sunset”. The effort the two of them made together was admirable, but worthless, for every time they pulled the fishing rod, the animal answered with a movement powerful enough to make the whole raft shake dangerously which gave the impression it would capsize any moment: “Shoot!” AJ exclaimed furiously , refusing to give up: “This thing must be big as a barn!” “Applejack!” her friend shouted: “Applejack!”, she repeated, noticing the girl would not pay attention to her: “What are you yelling about, can’t you see I’m mighty busy?! And why in the hay did you stop pulling anyway?!” “You’ll find out soon enough” Sunset answered , encouraging her to turn around: “What are you pointing at...Woo!” she suddenly screamed, loosing her composure: “A waterfall, why didn’t ya warn me sooner?!” “I tried to, but you were too concentrated on the fish to listen!” “Blast the darn fish... we gotta get out o’ here quickly: take this and don’t spare your energies!” AJ nervously replied , handing her friend a paddle. Having let their pray go, the girls did the best they could to contrast the current of the watercourse, alas, they did not stand a chance and they both knew it too well: “C’mon Sunset!” Applejack kept exclaiming: “Do it harder!” “I am trying, but I can’t” “If you don’t, we’ll drown!”. Despite their effort, the current pushed them closer to the danger until, hearing the threatening roar of the water, they understood they had reached the edge of the river; at that point Applejack tossed her oar into the stream and hugged the other girl tight: “Sunset!” she started saying: “If we don’t make it, I want’ ya to know that you’re the most wonderful friend I could have asked for!” “You, too AJ”. Watching their raft slowly approaching the waterfall, they closed their eyes and began to scream frightened; yet not a moment too soon a trunk fall right in front of them, blocking their path: “Applejack, Sunset!” a shouting voice caught their attention: “Rainbow Dash, girls!” they answered almost at the same time: “Grab the trunk, quick!” The two of them did as their friend had said and watched the whole gang saving their lives, as they were being pulled out of the river. As soon as she was safe, AJ laid on the ground, looking completely glass-eyed, while Sunset, dropping water all over, hurried to hug Rainbow Dash and Pinkie: “Ah!” she shouted, bursting into tears: “I don’t know how to thank you: it was horrible, I was certain I would...” “Sh...”intervened Fluttershy, embracing and caressing her on the head: “It’s alright now, let it come” “You’re my heroes!” “Oh, shacks, it’s kinda what we do!” Rainbow Dash blushed, hearing these things: “Are ya kiddin’?” replied AJ who had regain consciousness from the shock: “Y’all just rescued us from certain doom!” “and the way you did it!” Sunset exclaimed excited: “You were awesome!” “Ah, thanks: it’s like I always say: never fear, when your friendly neighbour Rainbow Dash is here” at the sound of those words, the entire group could not help but laugh uncontrollably: “Hey, I, too, have feelings; you know?” Rainbow exclaimed bothered : “C’mon, friendly neighbour” Sunset answered her : “I say It’s time to go back to camp” “Indeed” Rarity added: “I had quite enough of epic rescuing adventures for today, thank you very much!”. The six friends slowly strolled into the sunset with the dying daylight in front of them, walking amongst the giant oaks and the fan-shaped sycamores: “Hold on a sec...” Dash suddenly said , breaking the silence: “Now that you two have lost the fish, what are we gonna have for dinner?” “Heck If knew!” replied Applejack: “I’m starvin’ ” “Oh, don’t worry” Pinkie Pie intervened at that point “I brought marsh mellows: who’s up for some S’ mores?”. “Mmm...” Sunset whispered , reading: “...they sure were delicious”, shortly afterwards the girl turned her gaze upon the following entry: “Look...Twilight answered this one saying she would have loved to be with us to taste Pinkie’ s sweets...”. Breathing heavily, she slowly started turning the pages of her journal one after the other: “All this time I’ve been filling this with my most precious memories, every single day...some of these things didn’t even happen that far back in the past...like this one: today Fluttershy and I spent some time together at the animal shelter; that’ll be hard to forget, especially the first part, a real tragedy! Others are very funny, like...this one, baking contest with Pinkie Pie: what a day...” “So” Pinkie exclaimed, standing in front of the school entrance: “Did you bring everything I required, Sunshim?” “Yep” her friend answered: “Got everything with me from flour to wiped cream and sprinkles” “Good, now get ready to fight!” “Uh...Pinkie, we’re just taking part in a charity baking contest” “Exactly” “What I mean is: there is no fighting involved” “Sunset, look at me!” the girl furiously replied: “This is not just any day, this the most important day of your life, this day will define who you are, this day we’re gonna win and crush our enemies!” “What enemies? The other contestants are Bulk Biceps and Micro Chip!” “When it comes to bake a cake, nobody messes with me, nobody!” ignoring Sunset’s following questions, Pinkie dragged her friend to the soccer playing field behind the school building where two stages had been set, both highly equipped with kitchen utensils such as measuring cups, whisks and bowls. The opposing team was already there, planning the perfect strategy and choosing the right recipe for the contest, while a whole bunch of other students had gathered all around to assist the competition: “Shoot!” Pinkie shouted: “We’re late!” “We’re not” Sunset pointed out : “we still have fifteen minutes before the beginning” “What, why didn’t you warn me earlier we got so little time?!” “Well...I would have If you just listened...” “No time to argue” Sunset’s friend interrupted , seeing principal Celestia approaching: “we need to get going now!”. The two girls quickly reached their stage and got everything they needed to compete ready, in the meantime the headmistress neared a microphone, placed at the centre of the field: “Good morning students and welcome to our first, but surely not last, baking contest where your talented schoolmates are going to prepare for us one of their delicious desserts!” The ones watching answered with a loud cheer: “It is very heart-warming that many of you have decided to come watch the competition, it means a lot that you all care so much about the charity project our school has decided to be a part of: I’d also like to remember you that the funds we have collected today thanks to your participation will be given away as contribute to renovate the city orphanage. And now without further adieu, let the contest begin!” In a moment the timer was set and the two teams rushed to grab their ingredients: Microchip’ s was fast and well organized, Bulk Biceps quickly followed his classmate’s instructions and in a short time he had already prepared the base of his cake; as for Pinkie’ s, things were going slightly differently: “C’mon, Sunshim!” shouted at that moment the leader: “pass the granulated sugar” “Here” Sunset answered , sweating from the stress of the competition: “and the baking powder? Where is it?!” “Take it”. Time was flying and the boys had already put their dessert into the oven: their recipe consisted in a large pretzel cake, fresh, enjoyable, yet a real challenge to prepare under pressure; whereas to Sunset was not exactly clear what kind of cake her friend had in mind, as the only thing she had done so far was asking for more and more ingredients: flour, unsweetened cocoa powder, baking soda, chocolate chips or buttermilk. As Pinkie was mixing up everything in the bowl, the girl finally had a chance to take a break and observe her working: she new her friend was keen on baking, but she never had witnessed such a perfect technique: Pinkie was calm and concentrated on what she was doing, her eyes constantly laid on the mixing bowl and it looked like nothing could distract her: “vanilla extract” she exclaimed after a while: “Sure” Sunset replied , quickly passing the ingredient, showing a sudden grin on her face, probably getting into the spirit of the event. Having taken a look at the timer, Pinkie grand her teeth: her eyes were as flaming as those of a furious bull during a rodeo and even her voice, as she to cried, began to sound more bovine than human: “It only needs the final touch” she whispered to herself: “Pinkie”,Sunset intervened, interrupting her thoughts: “we’re running out of time!” “only the final touch” the girl insisted , adding two tablespoons of yogurt, before putting the whole mixture into the oven: “finally” she sighted relieved: “it’s done” “Sure” the other one said at that moment : “Now...would you care to tell me what exactly are we supposed to present to the judge?” “Oh, haven’t you guessed, yet? Think about what we just used for our recipe, don’t all those ingredients ring a bell to you?” “Well...” the girl answered, reflecting : “they al sound pretty common and normal; I mean: what’s so special about chocolate chips or baking powder that is going to get us to win this thing?” “Absolutely nothing” Pinkie replied , grinning: “Wait...what?” “That’s right, we’re baking a simple chocolate cake with whipped buttercream: not everything has to be overcomplicate to be successful, sometimes you just need to stick to simplicity and add something on your own to be creative” “Understood” her friend agreed : “so the whipped buttercream is our winning card, but I can’t see it anywhere; haven’t you prepared it, yet?” “I’m exhausted, silly” Pinkie giggled in response: “It’s your turn now to get your hands dirty” “Oh...right”,Sunset smiled , having giggled herself. The girl hurried to grab a new bowl, put together two cups of salted softened butter, four of powdered sugar, another of unsweetened cocoa powder, a tablespoon of vanilla extract, five of heavy whipped cream and began to mix them with a whisk as fast as she could: “Double the speed, Sunshim” Pinkie intervened : “do it with more energy!” “I’m trying to!” the other one replied, clearly feeling her hand more and more tired by the minute; luckily for her it did not take much longer for the oven timer to start ringing, warning the cake was ready. Sunset’s friend placed it on the table and smelled it: “Yeah, this is good!” she exclaimed, smiling: “Uh, Pinkie...”Sunset protested : “...would you mind lending me a hand?” “Woopsie...sorry”. The two of them helped each other out to push the whipped cream into the piping bags and decorate their cake fast as lightning, ignoring both that time had almost run out completely and the other team had already completed their job. Suddenly a loud: “Stop!” was heard and both of the girls collapsed on the ground at the same time, while principal Celestia slowly approached the boys’ table, took a bite of their dessert and wrote something on her small notebook. As the woman neared, the two friends either began to bite their own nails or simply closed their eyes; without uttering a word, the headmistress took a sample of their cake and wrote down a note: “Okay” she finally said, having gotten the microphone back in her hands: “our contest has reached its end and I want to congratulate both of the teams for the effort they showed us today; but sadly there can only be one winner” hearing those words, Pinkie’ s heart started pounding quick as a stallion galloping in the open fields, as the girl hugged her friend nervously: “and the lucky ones to claim today’s prize are...” “Ouch” Sunset complained in the meantime: “you’re holding me too tight” “Sh...” was the response she got “...Pinkie Pie and Sunset Shimmer!” At that point the couple jumped euphorically into the air, screeching like restless babies: “congratulation girls!” principal Celestia, kept saying , handing them their winning ribbons: “Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!” Pinkie exclaimed with a wide smile on her face: “we did it, we did it, Sunshim!” “we sure did!” Sunset answered , hugging her once more: “we make an awesome team you and I” “You bet’ ya” “Now help me get this cake to the others” “Mmm...” giggled the girl maliciously : “Uh...Pinkie, what are you thinking about?” “I might have a better idea on what to do with this” “What’s that?” “Watch!” and, having said these words, Pinkie devoured the whole cake in one bite under everybody’s stunned eyes. “Ha, ha, ha” Sunset laughed unstoppably: “that sure was fun; I’ve never managed to fully understand how she does that sort of things”. The girl began to turn the pages of her journal once more, until she finally laid her gaze on one particular entry, putting on a sorrowful expression: “This one I have written during the first Christmas holiday I spent with my friends” she sighed heavily: “Yep, it all started nicely, till a certain event happened; luckily I had somepony to remind me to never give up hope and everything turned out alright...eventually”. “I just can’t believe it!” AJ nervously shouted “How could y’all do this to us...and especially to Sunset, she hasn’t done anything wrong to y’all!” “I’m sorry sis”Apple Bloom replied , lowering her gaze, shortly copied by her friends: “It’s just that…y’all have been spending an awful lot of time with her and none with us… after all, it’s Christmas” “Well...duh!” Rainbow Dash loudly intervened: “That’s exactly why we’ve been planning slumber parties each and every night: Sunset never got a real holiday and deserves to spend one with us, her friends!” “But Christmas is supposed to be spent with family!” “Apple Bloom, how many times have I told’ ya good friends count as family, too?” “Uh...practically since when I was born” “Exactly” “I can tell first hand how that true is” Scootaloo whispered , intimidated by Rainbow Dash’ s angry eyes: “Plus, you’ve almost destroyed her reputation here at school” Rarity firmly added : “and that really is the worst thing you three young girls could have done: the least you can do is apologise yourselves!” “Ah...we know” Sweetie Belle slowly answered , turning toward Sunset: “Sorry, we never wanted you to get you into so much trouble because of us, we just wanted to spend some time with our big sisters; I guess we really messed everything up this time” “It’s okay, don’t worry” the girl ,sighed trying her best not to show the youngsters the sorrow she was carrying in her heart: “What?!” Sweetie Belle and the other Crusaders exclaimed, hearing these things: “you let us go just like that?! But we’ve been terrible to you!” “I know what it is like to feel sorry about something wrong you did and I certainly can tell that in such moments what one needs the most is a forgiving smile. So, what do you say, friends?” “friends!” the CMCs quickly answered: “Mmm...” Sunset added after a while: “Now that I think of it, we have just the time for one more get-together tonight; would you like to come?” “We sure would!” Scootaloo replied , immediately blushing afterwards: “I mean...we’d like to, but after all we’ve done...” “As I said, It’s in the past...Applejack, can I count on you?” “I’d be darned If I don’t come up with the best party you’ve ever had and I guarantee it’s gonna be a blast!” “Oh...I don’t doubt that!” “Just make sure to bring your best country outfits and come see me later at Sweet Apple Acres” the whole gang nodded confused in reply, while AJ grinned suspiciously. “What in the hay happened here?!” Applejack shouted , as soon as she opened the barn door: “Big Mac!” she exclaimed, calling her brother who arrived after a few seconds: “have you any idea what happened to the barn these past days, when you were the one supposed to do the cleaning?!”. AJ was not overreacting, being upset: every inch of the building interior was in fact covered in dust, furthermore hay had ended up all over the place and the walls invaded by spiders: “Uh...”Big Mac whispered : “...Nope” “Ah...fine, I’ll take care o’ this myself, you just skedaddle”. The girl hurried to grab a broom from the warehouse in the garden and swept the barn clean from top to bottom; just in time before the gang showed up: “Y’all here, finally” she gasped, reaching her friends, who were all wearing cowgirl outfits like she had recommended, at the edge of the farm: “Goodness darling!” Rarity exclaimed, seeing her sweating: “has something wrong happened? You look like you’ve been working all day!” “Well...” she slowly answered: “turns out something needed a little cleaning, but don’t you worry: it’s all fixed now” “Are sure you’re okay?” Sunset questioned worried: “Who, me?! I’m as fresh as Apple Bloom the day she was born; so, y’all ready?” Not wasting time, the group reached the barn and partied all night long, country style obviously: Applejack played the guitar, while watching her friends dancing at the rhythm of the music, all sorts of apple based desserts were displayed on the tables for dinner: caramel apples, apple fritters, apple pies, apple cinnamon crisps, apple dumplings, apple Brown Betties and other irresistible treats on which everyone could not help but feast on: “Hey, AJ” Sunset timidly said , having called the girl in a corner, while the others were getting their tummies full: “Thank you for everything you did for me these days, thank you from the bottom of my heart!” “Oh, shacks!” the other one blushed , hearing those words: “no need, I already told’ ya you’re part of the family and here, on my farm, we take a lot of care of family members. Now, If ya’ ll excuse me, I’m starving!”. Once Applejack, had gotten far enough from her, Sunset whispered: “Yeah...part of the family”. “... family” the gir lkept repeating to herself : “that was the first time I’ve ever felt truly happy and accepted”, a tear dropped from her left eye, lining her face: “Let’s see what the next page says”. “Granny!” yelled AJ, not being able to stand the “thrill” of the trip: “Are ya sure this road is safe?!” “What?!” the woman asked, not hearing a thing but the sound of the vehicle tires going up and down, as the bus proceeded on its way: “I said: are ya sure this road is safe?” “How dare ya doubt me, young’ en? I’ve travelled here my whole life and guarantee it’s perfectly...safe!” Granny shouted , right before stopping the bus in front of a bunch of cows, blocking the path: “you were saying?” “Well...perhaps it’s not one hundred percent recommendable, but it’s also the only way we can get to Goldie Delicious’ s cabin in time” “And how are we supposed to get there, when there’s cows in our way?” “We just need to make’ skedaddle: shouldn’t be too hard”. At sound of the klaxon, the animals left frightened, leaving a mess behind; some of them even hit the vehicle, causing it to shake dangerously: “See? Nothing to worry about my dear; now sit and leave the driving to your old Granny Smith”; reluctantly her granddaughter obeyed. After nothing but a few minutes the woman drove the bus across a stream; scared by the unusual event, all the fishes swum away, except for a large trout which, jumping out of the water, ending up on the front glass of the vehicle; Granny Smith screamed scared and the bus got off the road. Instinctively, she pressed the break pedal and the vehicle stopped violently, not before having crashed into a pine: “Ah!” AJ shouted : “Granny, what are you doing?!” “Oh, sorry, dearie...I guess our trip ends here” “We even got a tire popped” Pinkie pointed out : “Great, just great, how will we ever get to Goldie’s house now?!” “I don’t know, Applejack”. The girl nervously breathed until she had calmed down: “Okay, not to worry: things like this can happen. I’ll just phone Goldie and warn her we won’t be able to make it for the concert we have scheduled at her place in five minutes” “Hey!” Sunset intervened at that moment , catching her attention: “I think that won’t be necessary, look...her cottage is right in front of us!” seeing what her friend was saying was true, AJ could not believe her eyes: “How can we be this lucky?” “I have no idea, but we’d better move”;having grabbed their instruments, the girls left the bus and rushed to Goldie Delicious ‘s. Having been announced by the cabin’s owner, the Rainbooms climbed up the stage that had been built in front of the cottage just for the occasion and played many of their songs; amongst which there was one Sunset loved particularly: the band had played it once already in the city park and, according to the girl, it expressed what each of them felt for one another, the very reasons why they had come together in the first place, despite all their differences, the very reason why they would stuck toeach other forever: their friendship. “With my best friends, we can depend”, Sunset kept singing : “they will always follow true, there’s a guarantee for fun, when I spend it with you!”; the sun was about to rise in front of her eyes and its rays, already visible beyond the horizon, illuminated the sky in a bright light, while the stars, the girl had admired all night long, slowly started to disappear: “See you at dusk” she thought, bidding them her farewell: “It’s funny” she sighed after a while, keeping her weepy eyes down: “how I kept seeking answers from somepony so distant and ignored those who I should consider closet to my heart, the ones who have displayed their affection for me, even when nobody else would, the ones who I swore not to let down, the ones I love the most: my friends...my family. Drying her remaining tears, Sunset turned around toward the highest point of the school rooftop, made completely out of glass, she watched herself into that mirror and, for the first time, she had the courage to face up to her own shadow. She sent it away with an assertive expression on her face and finally saw a new girl in the glass: not timid, vulnerable or suffering, but strong, brave, loyal, caring and lovely. She smiled to this new her and closed her eyes for a moment: “My past is not today...” she whispered: “...my past is not today!”. Sunset turned around again, this time headed to the opposite edge of the roof, the one where she had spent the night laying on, and witnessed the luminescent fiery sun, rising from the hills beyond the city. Suddenly, the girl felt like something had taken control of her, something much more powerful than her will; having faith like somepony had told her to do long ago, she let that energy do what it was meant for. While closing her eyes once more, she felt that power lifting her from the ground, she felt like something new, something magical, penetrating her whole body from feet to hair, filling the deep whole in her heart, and, like phoenix, she spread her flaming wings, rose high up in the endless sky and cried from joy: “I may not know what the future holds, but here me, when I say that my past has not defined me’ cause my past is not today!”. Having reached the very limit of her new energy, she felt the magic placing her back on the school rooftop; at that point she raised her gaze upon the infinite space above her head and noticed the moon was still there and delayed to fade away. Sunset smiled kindly to what had been her companion during most of that sleepless night and, for an instant, she had the impression the moon was smiling her back; then disappeared in the blue sky: “Sunset?” questioned unexpectedly a familiar voice: “Sunset Shimmer?”, the girl turned around: “Vice Principal Luna?! What are you doing here?!” “I always come early in the morning to check on the school ground and I happened to hear a voice coming from over here: I suppose it was you. Now it’s your turn to tell me what you are doing on the school rooftop at this hour” “Well...” the girl answered : “I was having a hard time, so, I decided to spend the night here, this school is, too, a part of me, after all” “And I suppose it helped, judging by your smile” “It did...a lot” “Fine, then” the woman, kindly replied having put on a cheerful face herself: “I think I could close an eye on you, but next time, If you need somebody to talk to, just come to my office.” Sunset slowly walked home, holding her precious journal on her chest, and, once she had gotten to her flat, she kissed it and placed it on the desk of her bedroom, whispering: “Write to me a message or two, when you’ve got some time. The girl got all comfy under the warm blankets of her bed, decided to finally have a few hours of sleep before going back to school, only to hear her alarm clock ringing unbearably: it was already 7: 45: “Shoot!” she exclaimed, bothered: “I’ll be super tired today in class! Ah, at least I don’t have to get changed”. While grabbing her things, Sunset heard her phone and noticed she had just received a new message: “It’s from Rainbow Dash...” she read: “...it says she wants to meet all of us in front of the school building for an emergency!”. The girl took the journal from the desk and put it back in her rucksack: “Maybe...maybe it’s her!” she suddenly gasped, while heading for the exit door; she was so excited she had not even felt her journal doing what she had hoped for such a long time: it had started vibrating on her back. Little did Sunset know that what Rainbow Dash needed was no more than an extra guitar string...