Sunny Flare sat alone in her home’s living room, dressed in her pajamas, the remote control in her hand and in bowl of chips in her other. Her parents were still out at work and her little brother had basketball practice today, so she had the whole house to herself.
After heading home today, Sunny had gone straight to her room and flopped on her bed, yelling into the pillow. She had been betrayed by the ones she had called friends, the ones who now thought that Silver Rose was a better friend than she was.
Sunny just couldn’t stand it. Since enrolling, the daughter of Ebony Wings had somehow managed to ruin life for her in just about every aspect. Sunny found she wasn’t concentrating well enough in classes, she wasn’t getting her homework done fast enough, she had to sit out from sports because of her recovering ankle, and now her friends had all turned away from her.
Deciding to try to calm down a little, Sunny had gone to have a shower and changed into her pajamas early. She figured watching TV would help with distracting her mind a little.
Putting in one of her favorite films in the DVD player, Sunny had sat back and watched Epimetheus, a story of a space exploration gone wrong. Since young, she had been a big fan of horror and thriller movies. Sunny figured that she liked feeling on the edge of her seat and the thrill of the film, like when people rode on roller coasters.
As a bonus, the movie starred her favorite actor of all time, Fast Bender. The brown haired man was usually acting as some cool guy and Sunny liked those roles. In this movie, he was an android assistant, but that didn’t mean his acting was worse. It just showed that he was capable of acting in a lot of roles, just like Ebony Wings. Sunny also thought that he was incredibly handsome. She held back a squee as the movie began, the camera bringing up a view of space.
The mulberry haired girl smiled to herself when Fast Bender came on screen, piloting the shuttle down to the planet surface. She absolutely adored him.
The movie had suddenly gotten quiet as the characters readied themselves for the exploration, but a sudden shrill sound beside the girl made her jump in her seat. Picking up her phone, Sunny sighed as she looked down at the caller ID. It was Sugarcoat.
“What do you want now…?” Groaning, Sunny accepted the call and put the phone to her ear. “What, Sugarcoat? I’m busy. What do you want?”
“Sunny, look. I wanted to talk. Things have been very out of hand lately between all of us.”
“Yeah, so?” Sunny raised an eyebrow. “Unless you’re here to apologize, I don’t see a reason for us to talk.”
There was a loud sigh on the other end. “Sunny, can you please stop being like that? You’ve let this obsession with Silver Rose get the better of you. You’ve chased away everyone close to you, Sunny. It’s not our fault that you don’t want to talk to us now.”
“No, no I won’t,” Sunny barked. “You’ve never said anything when I do this to others. Why do you only want to stop when it comes to Silver Rose? What has she done for you? Has she promised you an autograph from her mother? Why are you supporting her and not me?”
“Other times, you’re not this… desperate to get back at others. You’ve let this go on for too long. Have you even heard yourself? You sound crazy, Sunny. Just stop this and we’ll be your friends again.”
“You know what then? We’re not friends and we never will be. You’re all useless! I thought I could count on you all to help me out, but I guess I was looking for help in the wrong place.”
“Okay, if that’s the way you want it, then fine, Sunny. From here, you’re on your own. Go on and destroy your life. Have fun ruining yourself.” Then the line clicked off.
Sunny had to resist the urge to throw her phone across the living room as she stared at her reflection in the now black screen. The other Shadowbolts had abandoned her, but she wasn’t done yet. Silver Rose had torn them apart and she was going to pay.
Pressing the pause button, Sunny stalked up to her room and pulled out a sheet of paper from her school backpack. It was a list of pranks she and Sour Sweet had come up with when the other Shadowbolt was still her friend.
Right now, none of these pranks seemed fitting enough to get back at Silver Rose. Sunny wanted it to be bigger, to be more embarrassing. She wanted to ruin Silver Rose’s life.
The mulberry haired girl continued to stare at the paper, tapping a pen to her lips as her brain worked. Everything she thought of didn’t seem embarrassing enough to teach the new girl a lesson. Sunny still wanted to look bigger.
Groaning, she looked over to a poster of Fast Bender by her window, wishing he would just walk out of that desert landscape in the poster and help her out with all this. Of course, the actor continued to smile and stayed unmoving, clutching his stetson on his hip.
The Shadowbolt rubbed at her hair and buried her face in a purple bear plushie, still at a loss of what she could do. Surely there had to be something that would embarrass Silver Rose greatly. Pulling down her shorts during PE had worked out quite well, but it wasn’t enough. Then Sunny thought about it. What would happen if it wasn’t just her shorts that had been pulled down? What if Silver had lost all her clothes instead?
Then the girl smirked deviously to herself. What if somehow, she could make all of Silver Rose’s clothes disappear, like during PE when the girl was showering? Sunny rubbed her hands together as she tried to think of the possibilities of this prank.
They had hidden her shoes before and that had been quite easy. Pulling down her shorts had also seemed easy enough, so maybe, just maybe, stealing her attire would also be as easy. She couldn’t count on Sour Sweet or the others anymore, so this time, she would have to do it herself.
The only problem was that she had to think about and perfect the plan herself, so she told herself she would give Silver a few days, maybe a few weeks, at least until she had masterminded a good way to steal Silver’s clothes and embarrass her.
Sunny wanted this plan to be perfect. She wanted this to be it. If Silver would comply and fall in under them, then there wouldn’t be much more reason to teach her her place anymore. Sunny could go back to her normal life of scoring high marks in her classes, beating others in basketball, and maybe even making some more friends. There was no way she was going to go back to her other friends to apologize. She felt that they had wronged her by not standing with her in these trying times. If there was any apologizing to be done, they were the ones that should apologize to her.
This plan was going to be the big one. The mulberry haired girl just couldn’t wait to see what she could really come up with.
“You won’t be ready for this one, Silver Rose…” Sunny rubbed her hands so much that it looked like she could start a fire. “You led me to this… Whatever will happen, it’s all on you for ruining my life. An eye for an eye, Silver.”
Leaving her room, Sunny Flare returned back downstairs to continue her movie. At least she could always count on the dashing Fast Bender to cheer her up.
“Are you feeling better, sweetie?” Aunt Ivory Wings poked her head through Silver Rose’s door. “I brought you a glass of watermelon juice. It’ll help.”
“Somewhat better Aunt Ivory,” the pink-grey haired girl smiled, though her mauve colored face still looked slightly green. “Thanks for the drink.”
“Mhmm. Anything for my favorite niece.” Ivory ruffled up the girl’s hair. “And about this. You can’t keep getting sick every time you breathe in smells you’re not used to. We’re going to have to do something about it, sweetie.”
“I know, Aunt Ivory, but I didn’t know before hand that she was going to have so much ambition and stuff today…” Silver gulped down some of the juice. It was really refreshing.
“It might’ve not been the ambition, but don’t worry about it, Silver,” Ivory said, stroking her niece’s hair. “What’s done is done. However, we’re going to have to see about boosting your immunity to these smells. That way, you won’t miss too much school.”
“Yes, Aunt Ivory.”
“But I guess for now, rest, Silver.” Ivory got off the bed. “I’ll have to see about arranging a testing range to help you out. I’ll talk with your mother about it when she gets back. You better call your friend again, tell her that you’ll need to know the homework tomorrow.”
Silver sighed, but she knew her stomach still wasn’t feeling too good. “Yeah, I’ll do that, Aunt Ivory. I have a question. Why aren’t you or mother affected by any of it?”
“We adapted,” Ivory said plainly, twirling a lock of hair around her finger. “Changelings are among the most adaptable creatures on the planet. We can filter and choose what emotions we absorb, while blocking out the undesirable ones. It takes a lot of practice, but I think the end result is well worth it.”
“Were you ever like me?” Silver asked.
“Whatever do you mean, sweetie?”
“Did you and mother start out like me? Did you get sick like this whenever you smelt something… bad?”
Ivory Wings considered the question carefully. “Well, the only time where I recall a poor reaction to an emotion was thousands of years ago. It ended up costing two of my siblings their lives,” she finished somewhat glumly.
“Oh… I’m so sorry, Aunt Ivory.” Silver recalled her mother mentioning something like that, but she had never pried before. “What happened, Aunt Ivory?”
“I’ll spare you the details, but in the end I had to kill off an entire village to make sure the truth never got out. Such was my first assignment as the Queen’s Reaper.”
“Hmm…” Silver had heard plenty of stories where either her mother or her aunt had wiped out entire villages. This might’ve very well been the first of many. “So after that, you’ve been able to handle your emotions well?”
“It took a bit of time, but we eventually mastered it. Now the problem is you. You’ve not had our experience with blocking out undesirable emotions, which means that your mother and I will have to come up with a crash course on filtering smells and tastes.”
“When can we start?” Silver curled her knees up to her chest and sipped more from her glass. “The faster I get used to foreign smells, the better.”
“For now, just relax and recover. I’ll discuss this with your mother once she gets back. Does that sound agreeable?”
“Yeah, Aunt Ivory…” Silver rubbed at her stomach. It started acting up again. “I think I needa use the bathroom…” She handed her glass of watermelon juice to her aunt.
“Oh dear…” Ivory Wings took the glass. “Well, hurry on, dear, or-”
Then Silver was sick as she passed her bedpost.
“...Or that…” Ivory cringed at the greenish puddle on the floor. “I’ll… I’ll get a mop.”