Chapter 2
“My Vanguard!...”
“-ake up...”
“...you okay!?
Sunset groaned, her head aching as she slowly opened her eyes. When she came to, Sunset found herself once again on her back, a warm touch of someone’s hand against her forehead and another hand lightly scratching her head through her hair. The warmth helped alleviate her headache somewhat, and the soft lap she was resting against was quite comfortable. (If she had her pony ears, they would be flapping in delight)
“Are you alright?” Sunset heard Hari’s voice asked. Sunset looked up and saw the pink haired girl looking down at her, Hari’s yellow eyes wide in concern. Sunset slowly pushed herself into a sitting position, holding her head. Ardent was in the corner, being chewed out Paige, Eagle Eye and the blue haired girl. Bamboo was off to the side, reading her book, but she was still glaring at Ardent from the corner of her eye.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Sunset said with a small grimace. “What happened? Who won?”
“Well,” Hari started, frowning slightly that Sunset had gotten up. “To answer your second question, you had lost the game. (Understandable really, since it was your first time ever playing.) But in regards to your first, we don't know. You were pretty spaced out during the entire game, but you collapsed when you took the last bit of damage.”
Sunset groaned, sighing as cool relief came in the form of a cold canned drink pressed into her hands by Hari.
“You know, I’ve been meaning to ask,” Sunset started, opening the canned juice. “But what is her name?” She took a quick sip, before she pointed to the blue haired girl. It was at that moment that she felt saw a symbol on the back of her hand. It resembled the top half a skull, but surrounded by two flowing blue lines. It was glowing with a deep blue color, before it slowly started to fade. ‘What is this? When did this get here?! When did...no, no, calm down. More questions to ask for later.’ Sunset thought, taking a deep breath.
“Well you already know,” Hari said slowly, tilting her head to the side. At Sunset’s deadpan stare, Hari’s eyes widened in realization, as she said, “Oh, you meant her name while here!”
“Yes,” Sunset said with a deadpan.
Hari, looking embarrassed, gave a small laugh and said, “She’s going by ‘Rosey Nights’ here.”
“...really?” Sunset asked, looking at the Nightrose card, keeping her deadpan going. Hari shrugged in response.
Before either girl could say anything else, a massive Saint Bernard from behind the counter walked up to the two, breathing heavily as it sat in front of Sunset. The red head blinked in confusion, as she read the collar “Sub-Manager, Raymundo", and nearly yelped when the dog rest its head on her lap, drooling a little. Hari giggled a little as the big dog wagged its tail as it looked at Sunset rather expectantly. Giving Hari a confused look, the pink haired girl mimed a petting motion on the dogs head, which Sunset mimicked the best she could. If the dog’s fast wagging tail was any indication, she was doing it correctly.
“Heh, it's rare that Ray likes someone the first time he’s seen someone,” said a young man wearing a green apron, chuckling as he walked up. With a whistle, the Saint Bernard got up and walked towards him. Underneath the apron he wore a pair dark brown slacks and a long sleeved white shirt, and kept his long hair dark brown hair tied back in a ponytail.
Pushing his glasses back up onto his nose, he smiled and offered Sunset a hand. “It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Fair Play, and I'm the owner of this humble shop. And you've already my old friend and backup manager when I'm not around, Ray.” The Saint Bernard let out a low bark and gave Sunset the equivalent of a smile.
“It's nice to meet you as well,” Sunset said, taking the offered hand. “My name, if the other girls haven't told you yet, is Sunset Shimmer.”
“Well met, Miss Shimmer,” Fair Play said, smiling as he shook her hand. Looking over to the other girls, he cleared his throat and called out, “Girls, I'm closing up in ten minutes! Please clean up before you leave!” Ray let out a louder bark, as if an alarm for those who didn't hear his owner speak.
The other three gave their acknowledgments, Ardent more relieved than the others, and approached Hari and Sunset after collecting their belongings. Ardent looked as if she had gone through the ringer, with Rosey Nights and Eagle Eye looking annoyed.
“I’m sorry for going all out against you in our cardfight!” Ardent exclaimed, rigidly bowing to Sunset. “Its just, I get a little caught up in it and I sorta forgot you were still learning it and-"
“Its fine, its fine,” Sunset said, raising her hands in a calming manner. “I appreciated that you decided to not treat me like an absolute beginner; I actually learn better by being thrown into the thick of things, really.”
“HA! SEE!? I told you so!” Ardent said, snapping back upright and pointing at Rosey and Gallant.
“Girls, five minute warning!” Fair Play called out from a nearby storage closet.
“We’re going, we’re going!” Eagle Eye called back, sliding her jacked on. After saying their goodbyes to Raymundo and his owner, the seven girls made their way out to the city streets. The air was cold and grey, and a light flurry of snow was making its way down.
“I didn’t think it would be this late,” Sunset said, getting the time from a nearby automated sign. “I’ll be lucky if I can it home by midnight in this weather.”
“Where do you live, anyway?” Eagle Eye asked, pulling out her helmet from her bag.
“Ponyville Commons,” Sunset said without thinking.
“That’s, hmm,” Eagle Eye started, moving her head from side to side as she mentally calculated the distance. “That’s not too far from the city, actually. If you want, I can drive you home.”
“Wait, what?” Sunset asked, eyes widening as Eagle Eye walked around the corner. Seconds later, a silver motorcycle came around, parking next to the group. Pulling off her silver helmet, Eagle Eye offered it to Sunset.
“So, want a ride?” Eagle Eye asked over the engine, pulling a second helmet from her bag.
Sunset looked at the helmet, and then at the other girls. Hari and Nightrose gave her her a thumbs up, Ardent nodded happily, while Bamboo and Paige just smiled at her. With a small sigh, Sunset pulled the helmet on, and took her seat behind Eagle. “Will I see you girls here tomorrow?” she asked.
“I suspect you’ll see us sooner than that,” Ardent said with a wink. “Have a good night!”
“Hold on tight, Sunset!” Eagle Eye said, revving up her engine before Sunset could respond. “Here we go!” Sunset screamed as she Eagle Eye took off, going from 0 to 60 mph in a few seconds.
“Do you think we should have told her?” Hari asked.
“Nah, its more fun this way,” Nightrose said with a smirk.
“Lets go ladies,” Ardent said, leading the crew down the street. “Our Vanguard awaits…”
---0---0---
The Next Morning
Sunset woke up with a small scream, kicking off her blanket and falling off her bed with a small groan.
“Where am I!? What happened!? What-!?” she yelled, breathing heavily as she pulled herself back onto the bed. Looking around, she found herself in her two floor studio, in her own bedroom loft. She was wearing her pajamas that she could not recall changing into. “How did I get home…?”
The smell of breakfast wafted from the small kitchenette in her little studio, underneath her loft. Sunset slowly made her way downstairs, her phone in her hand with emergency services on speed dial, only to stop at the sight of Eagle Eye, clad in a loose fitting sleeveless shirt and baggy sweatpants. She hummed to herself, flipping a pancake onto a nearby plate.
“Uh, Eagle Eye?” Sunset cautiously called out. The white haired girl turned to her in surprise.
“Oh, morning there Sunset,” Eagle Eye greeted, putting two plates of pancakes on the table. “I figured the least I for letting me crash her last night was make some breakfast. Hope you like chocolate chip pancakes.”
Sunset found herself moving towards to the table, where it was already set, as the plate was put before her. She sat there for a few seconds, watching the other girl gleefully dig in to her own stack, after pouring enough syrup that would even give Pinkie Pie pause. Reaching for the hot cup of coffee, she took a small sip, letting the caffeine wake her slightly,
“How did I get home last night?” Sunset asked.
“I drove you home?” Eagle Eye said slowly.
“But, I remember getting onto you bike, but then everything was a blur,” Sunset said, looking down.
“Oh. You had passed out after we went from zero to 120 on the highway,” Eagle Eye said casually, taking a bit as Sunset stared at the girl. “Although, I gotta say, you’ve got one hell of a pair of lungs on you! Granted, I had to slow down when you passed out, but I say we made good time getting here before midnight.” She paused to take another bite, before continuing, “When we got here, I asked you if it was alright to stay the night here, and you had said ‘yes’, or something that sounded like it. You were pretty out of it when we got here.”
“I see,” Sunset said slowly, looking at her phone. Today was Friday, and it was only 8:00 AM. Sunset took a long swig of coffee and placed it on the table softly. That was fine. Everything was fine.
It actually wasn’t fine.
“I’M GOING TO BE LATE!” Sunset screamed, running upstairs. Seconds later, Sunset came running back down, clad in the same outfit as the day before. “Eagle! Can you drive me to school!?”
“I don’t have a problem, but aren’t you gonna eat breakfast?” the white-haired girl asked, pointing at the untouched food.
“I don’t have any time!” Sunset said. “My classes start at 8:30!”
Eagle Eye nodded, getting up to grab her jacket and a pair of helmets. “You sure you okay without breakfast?”
“It wouldn’t be the first time,” Sunset said, accepting the helmet.
After another hair-raising, high-speed drive through town, Eagle Eye made it Canterlot High School with only ten minutes to spare. Giving the white haired girl back the helmet, Sunset made a mad dash toward to the school gates.
‘Ok, just need to keep my hood up and make it to my locker, that shouldn’t be too hard.’ Sunset thought to herself, keeping her head down and her signature red and gold hair in her black hood.. ‘Just keep walking, head down, eyes forward and-’
“You’ve got some damn nerve, showing your ugly mug here after that crap you posted yesterday!” yelled the voice of one Rainbow Dash behind her. Sunset nearly flinched, but kept her head down, lest she end up making a scene like the one several weeks ago.
“Oh? Well your a rude one, aren’t you? I can guarantee you that we’ve never met before,” replied a familiar voice.
“Trying to pull the whole ‘I don’t know you’ shtick? Really? What, did the fact your a friendless freak finally break your brain?” Rainbow snarled back.
Wait, that wasn’t directed at her? Sunset, despite herself, couldn’t help but feel a tad bit curious. Doubling back, she peeked around the corner and saw the Rainbooms, with Rainbow as the instigator, yelling at...Ardent Blaze?
‘What is she doing here!?’ Sunset thought to herself, pulling back behind the corner. It wasn’t just Ardent; the other girls from last night were standing behind her! What was going on?
“Is that how you students of Canterlot High welcome new students?” Sunset heard the voice of Hari ask. Sunset risked another peek, seeing the pinkette hiding behind Paige.
“No, this is how we deal with secret stealing skanks like her!” Rainbow snarled, stepping forward to shove Ardent back. “You can change however you look, or even bribe these new girls to follow you around, but everyone else knows who you truly are, Shimmer!”
Ardent raised an unamused eyebrow, smacking Rainbow’s offending hands away off her shoulders. “First thing, my name is not Shimmer. Second thing, I don’t much care about you or your own little posse behind you.” She glared the other girls, where only Fluttershy seemed to wilt as she stood behind Applejack. “Last thing, if you approach me or my friends like this again, I don’t care when, where or why, I will throw you down to the dirt, got it?” She walked past Rainbow, roughly shoving her aside with her shoulder.
Sunset turned slowly turned around, feeling a migraine coming on. Why were they here? What were they doing here? HOW WERE THEY HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE!?
The warning bell snapped her out of her thoughts, pushing her forward towards her homeroom. Today was going to be one of those days.
At least they wouldn’t be able to cause a problem in the school.
...Right?