“I do love you and I meant what I said about us being family.” Celestia began carefully, knowing that if she didn't approach this delicately that it could go badly, especially since the teen seemed to be an emotional mess currently.
“But you said nothing would change!” Sunset reminded her, voice raising slightly as her fists clenched on her lap “if that's the case stop giving me mixed signals!” Sunset's voice broke slightly as she tried to wall away the pain that seemed to erupt inside her chest.
“Sunset, do you think I meant that I wouldn't want you to get attached?” Celestia asked, sharing a look with Luna who had leaned up against the door frame. It seemed like hours had passed before Sunset finally spoke, not daring to look up but from the way her voice strained, both women could tell she was trying to hold back tears.
“Yeah, I mean you're my teacher, right? Wouldn't that be improper or something?”
Celestia didn't answer right away, instead choosing to move to kneel in front of the teenager, gently lifting her chin so that they made eye contact before she spoke.
“Sunset, where did you even get that idea? What I meant when I said that nothing would change is that I wouldn't make things harder nor push anything onto you. I could only imagine what was going on in your head when Luna dropped those papers onto my desk.” She replied, hoping that Sunset believed her.
“It's been on my mind for a while now.” that was the only answer Sunset offered, adverting her eyes once again. Does she mean it? That she didn't mean it like I thought? Could she really see me as family...as maybe even...Stop it Sunset Shimmer, stop being stupid...Of course not! Of course no one will see you like that. What are you? A foal? You know that's not how that works!
“Whenever something is bothering you, no matter how stupid it seems...Please talk to me, okay? I really do hate to see you hurting so.” Celestia said, unsure if she should move to embrace the girl or not since Sunset seemed to want to withdraw into herself.
“Okay.” the reply came out hoarse and weak, a signal that the unicorn turned human was on the verge of tears. “I'm sorry about all of this, I mean...I'm old enough to not let shit get to me but...”
Luna cut her off then, her tone almost taking the same authority that it did at school, the single word prompting the words that the teenager was about to say to die in her throat as the dark-haired woman moved to stand beside Celestia.
“Stop.”
Closing her eyes Luna tried not to remember exactly how she had felt when her own life had seemed like shit. There had to be some way they could make the girl understand.
“There is nothing to apologize for. Everyonefeels confused, scared, lonely, and whatever else in between and just because someone calls something stupid doesn't make it so. You were worried about what was going to happen and I can only imagine what being in your situation must feel like, how hard it must be.” Luna stated, glancing over at Celestia before sighing
“I know it's hard to trust others because I've been there. I've been to a place where everyone has given me a wide girth and during those times I felt like nothing I felt or done mattered but you know what? It does, you just have to have the right kind of people to be there to catch you when you stumble.”
“How would you know how I feel?”
Sunset spoke without hesitation, though when she looked up both older women could see the desperation and accusation in the girl's teal gaze.
“because the girl in that story I told you earlier was me.”
you could have heard a pin drop after Luna had said, both women wondering if the thought of the violent act perhaps frightening the girl. However, before either of them could speak the redhead spoke again.
“How did you survive the guilt? Sometimes it feels like everything is just crumbling down around me.”
“With help. To be honest Sunset, this isn't something anyone can do alone. If I hadn't had my friends and my sister, I don't want to think about what could have happened. I know you're used to dealing with things on your own but you don't have to now.” Luna answered, glancing over at Celestia who adverted her gaze at the implication of those words.
“I know I'm not alone anymore...I mean I can talk to the girls and to you guys about everything. Rarity and Fluttershy have blown my phone up with texts.” Sunset responded, chuckling a little as she thought about some of the contents of the messages that her friends had sent her.
“You know, I never knew people could honestly care about each other so much. I mean, when I came to this world and saw some of the stuff that happened all over the world it made me see humans as lesser or something.” Sunset confessed, earning a scoff from Luna who retorted
“Did you not realize that your biological build-up had turned into one of those lesser beings?”
Sunset blushed at that as she glanced down “To be honest? Back then I only thought about proving myself at being smart and strong enough to use powerful magic. I didn't think about much else.”
“Why do I believe that? I know that you failed at acting.”
That comment broke the tension that had been lingering in the room and also got a genuine smile on Sunset's face.
“Hey! You fell for it! Twice!”
Celestia chuckled at the two as she listened to their banter, knowing exactly what Luna was doing. Good work sister...Now I'll have to put up with you both acting like toddlers this evening. But at least Sunset seems to be cheering up a bit.
She knew she was stupid for wanting to go to school the next day but she couldn't just hide away and hope that the problem would disappear. But as soon as she walked into the building she could feel the panic beginning to form inside her. Just calm down, they're just teenagers not a pack of timber-wolves. Just get through the day...This weekend is Halloween and your friends invited you over to celebrate.
She thought as she walked down the hall, trying to ignore the fact that people were throwing both insults and objects at her. However, to her relief, her friends were waiting beside her at her locker.
“Man, you look like you got no sleep at all last night.” Rainbow Dash stated, earning an elbow to the ribs by Rarity.
“I got like two hours. I kept worrying about what this Anon-A-miss will post next. I mean, everyone blames me for it when I found out about it yesterday after Score decided to throw me into the wall.” Sunset sighed, earning wide-eyed looks from the group.
“He did what? No wonder Spitfire had him thrown off the basketball team!”
“What the tarnation was that boy thinkin'? He is literally twice your size in muscle mass!”
Sunset was surprised by her friends' reactions to this, she was sure that they would hate her by now especially since some of the posts had been about them. However, before anything else could be said everyone's phone's buzzed.
“Anon-a-miss?”
Sunset asked, earning a worried look from Fluttershy.
“Yes.”
Sunset had to suppress a groan as she asked “How bad?”
Everyone exchanged a look at that.
“You might want to avoid Vice Principal Luna today. Anon-A-miss posted a photo of....well look.” Rarity said, turning her phone around only to Sunset to burst out laughing at the image which was of Luna covered in what looked to be like dough.
“Do I even want to know the story behind that?” She wondered aloud, not even noticing that someone was standing near the group until a voice said.
“I believe she was filling in for the Home Economics Class.”
All six of the girls jumped at that, though Sunset was the only one who didn't seem intimidated by Celestia's sudden appearance.
Though to most of their confusion and surprise, Celestia handed Sunset her phone before walking away, leaving Sunset to deal with answering questions about what just happened.
“Um...Why did she have your phone?” AppleJack asked, arching a brow as she glanced between the retreating figure of the Principal and Sunset.
“I'll fill you guys in later okay? We better be getting to class because I do not want any more days added to my detention sentence.”
Celestia felt a migraine coming on as she sat at her desk, trying to block every social media site from the schools networking system, though it seemed like every time that a site was blocked, someone would use an unblock-er in order to post something else.
“There has got to be more than one person behind this account....at least five since they have used that many different devices in under two hours.” she told Luna who had just gotten off the phone with superintendent nay-say, who she could imagine wanted to crawl into a hole somewhere after triggering Luna's more hostile side.
“You know what, those little rats think they're being sneaky...But enough is enough...But we're going to have to go over the school boards heads about this.” Luna commented, smirking at the look the older woman gave her.
“Chrysalis is good on computers and Discord can be cunning as hell when it comes to getting people to talk...without nitrous oxide. I don't really want to deal with him and I know that you and Sunset feel even worse about it but this whole thing is derisory enough that I doubt Sunset is going to care if a flying pig puts an end to it!”
Celestia closed her eyes as some of the words she had seen on the screen flashed across her mind. “You call those two and see if they would be willing to help.” she said as she glanced back toward the screen.
Before this whole thing ends up with someone getting hurt or worse...We need to end it. But why would someone do something like this? Didn't the school face enough of this kind of blackmail back when Sunset was literally hacking emails? What are they trying to accomplish by making it seem like Sunset is doing this? Isn't it enough that nearly everyone is out to get her anyway? Without all this added fuel?
Celestia's thoughts were interrupted by Raven suddenly entering her office, an unsure look on her face as she paused by the door.
“Celestia, One of Sunset's friends are out here wanting to speak with you...Something happened.”a