I arrived at the park that Fluttershy told me to pick her up from. She was waiting for me on a nearby log. I turned off the power on my motorcycle and waited for her to get on, patting the seat behind me for her to sit.
She smiled back at me with a genuine smile, but she didn’t move. “Hey Sunny, g-glad you were able to come. I-I-I hope it wasn’t too much to ask.” She said in a bit of a worried tone, casting her eyes to the ground.
“Pfft, no not at all. It’s all good, I could use a friend to share this beautiful morning with anyways.” I say to her.
She smiles brightly as the sun seems to shine down on her, causing her light yellow skin to glow in its brilliance. “Ah, too bright! I think I might go blind.” I say in a playful tone, bumping her on the shoulder. Which in return she let out a soft giggle and bumped me back.
“S-so are you, heeheehee!” She tells me. I smile at her and then glanced at my watch. “Well we have a minute to spare before we have to go to school. So do you want to do anything before we leave?” I ask.
Her face goes blank for a moment as if she wasn’t expecting this kind of question, but as if she got an idea, her eyes brighten. “Can we walk around the park?”
“Sure” I knew how much she loves nature stuff, so I did not mind this. Besides, I appreciate nature as well, so it’s not much of a downer for me. I nod and motion my hand toward the path a few feet away from us. “Lead the way.”
She gets up from the log and we start down the little path through some trees. As we round a corner I somehow manage to accidentally trip over a pine cone and fall face first. I nearly face plant into the ground, but I immediately throw my hands in front of me, human instinct kicking in, and I catch myself. I pick myself up off the ground, patting down my jeans and wiping off my hands.
“Oh my goodness! Are you okay!” Said a voice. I look up to see a very concerned Fluttershy looking at me. I smile at her and nod my head. “Yes, don’t worry, it was just a little fall.”
“And it was all my fault, I’m so sorry! I-“ I didn’t even let her finish. In one stride I was by her side. I put my hands on both her shoulders and gave her a very stern look. “Fluttershy! Calm down! It is fine, it is not your fault. Okay?” She nods. “Please do not think that it was your fault. If anything, it was my fault for not looking at where I was going. A typical thing I’ve been doing lately actually.”
She slowly starts to calm down and gains back a small smile. “O-okay. Well, if you say so.” She looked genuine, but there was something in her eyes that made my next words push through without warning. “It was not you’re fault. Everything will be okay.” I gave her a smile to reassure her. I don’t know why I felt like making sure she knew that it wasn’t her fault, but I just felt a need to.
She nods, “Okay.” We continue our walk through the park. I then spot a little robin on the ground not far from where we were. “Check out that robin.” I whisper.
She looks at where I was looking and smiled. “Awww, she’s looking to feed her little ones.” She commented.
She glanced at her phone and panicked. “Oh dear, I-I think we’re going to be late!”
I glanced at my watch and notice that she was right, but me, being the school bitch (still kinda am), I was not worried. I have always had a way out of situations like this. “Eh, we’ll be okay. We can leave now and be late, or we can finish this walks and still late.”
“B-b-But wouldn’t we get in trouble?” Fluttershy said. I shrug. “Ehhh.....not really. Maybe a scolding, but not really much trouble.”I say to her. “I-I have never been late before.” She says, thinking to herself. She has never been late to school before?! Oh no, no, no, this is changing today! Poor girl has not lived.
“You have never been late to school before?” I ask. She nods. “Alright, you’ll be fine. Let’s finish this walk first and then we can get to school.”
She looks in the direction of the school for a long moment, then faces back at me. “Okay.” She gives me a brave smile, but I knew she was low-key panicking inside. I grab her hand and take her a little further down the path.
“Oh, look at that turtle.” I say as I gesture toward the ground. An odd shaped rock poking its way through the ground.
She giggles, “Um, that’s a tortes.” I blushed at that. I should have known that, heck Rainbow’s pet is a tortes. “Oh, hehe, right.” I laughed it off.
We keep walking, watching as the sun shines bright against the trees, feeling it’s warmth around us. A cool, light breeze joins the sun in its nature dance. Every now and then a bird will sing a little tune as well. The park also smells of freshly cut grass and mist. A nice combination in nature.
Coming up to our spot, we take our time getting there. Enjoying the beauty that surrounds us. “This is pretty.” I say.
“Yeah it is.” Fluttershy agreed.
“Alright, I think we should probably head back now.” I tell her. She frowns a little, seeming to be disappointed with my words. Though she nods and says a simple, “Okay.”
We get on my motorcycle, her arms wrapped around my waist tightly, and her head out of the park. But we do not head in the direction of school. Instead to Sugarcube Corner.
“Um, why are we here?” Said a soft voice next to my ear.
“To grab something before we go to school. We’re already late, might as well make it worth being late.” I say to her, smiling at over my shoulder. Then we get off of the two-wheel vehicle and go inside.
“Hello Mrs.Cake.” I say as I walk through the door, holding it open for Fluttershy.
“Oh! Hello girls!” She looks at a clock near the counter. “Uh, shouldn’t you be in school?” She asked both of us, but she was looking at me with a raised eyebrow.
I let out small laugh, “Well, yes , but we’re running a little late today. So, since we’re already late, might as well make it worth.”
Mrs. Cake smiles, “Oh, well I suppose that’s a good explanation. What would you like?” Giving Fluttershy some time to look over the menu or anything that she might want, I decided to go first. “I’ll just have a hot coffee with three shots of vanilla, and 1/2 a cup of sugar and cream, and a glazed donut. Mrs. Cake nods and retrieves the items.
Then she looked at Fluttershy, whose eyes went wide, “Oh I’m good, I don’t have any money to pay....” She says with reddening cheeks.
“Oh, don’t be silly, I’ll pay.” I tell her. “N-No, I cant let you do that, you’ve already done so much.” She says. I shake my head, “Nah, really, I’m offering, it’s kinda rude to refuse an offer you know.”
She sighs and rolls her eyes. “Okay, w-well, then I’ll take a green tea and a glaze donut for me as well please.” Mrs.Cake gets the items and rings them. I pay the total and we head out the door.
When we get on the motorcycle, I can hear Fluttershy’s voice through my ear. “I’ll pay you back when I get my pay check.”
I glance over my shoulder. “Eh, Fluttershy, I appreciate your concern, but I’m alright. Don’t worry about that.” I tell her.
“Oh, a-are you sure?” She asks. Feeling like I might have to agree to this, I decide to approach the conversation a little differently. “Yes, I am sure, but if you insist in paying me, you can pay me half when ever you have the chance.”
“Okay!” I can hear the relief in her voice. She relaxes her muscles a little bit, but kept her grip as we had toward the school.
When we arrive on school grounds, it is pretty clear from the looks of the parking lot that we are most definitely late. Fluttershy gets off first, and then I shortly follow her lead as she picks up her backpack and slings it over her shoulder. My bag was already slung over my shoulder, so I just had to wait until she was ready to go inside. Once she was ready, we both head in the direction of the school building.
As we near the school doors, she pauses, let’s out a sigh and keeps going. I don’t think she knows that I noticed her hesitation, but I decide not to question it and hold that thought for another time. But I wouldn’t blame her for giving the school a dreadful look because I also am feeling the same way right now. I take a look at the tall white building and sighed inwardly, so that Fluttershy doesn’t hear.
I did not want to dampen hers or my day so I let out a breath, puffed out my chest, stood up taller, my lips forming a firm line. “Come on, let’s hurry to your class.”
She looks up at me, “What? B-but what about yours?” She asked.
“Eh, I know the way there, plus what’s a few more minutes late? Come on let’s hurry.” I grab her wrist gently and I quicken my pace, hurrying across the school yard to her classroom. It’s actually quite a ways away from the school, but I don’t let that discourage my intentions. When we arrive at the door, I turned you Fluttershy. “Alright, here we are.”
“Thank you for walking with me here.” She smiled up at me. “I know it’s pretty far from your class. Thank you though.”
I nod, “Sure, no problem.” She nods and then heads into her class. Once she has gone through the door and closes it, I run as fast as I could to gym class. I ran as if I had an angry moose was chasing me. Getting to gym class, there is a bit of a steep hill from Fluttershy’s classroom and the gym and the school. So when I got close to the door of the gym, I did my best to slow down but I slipped on a small rock, “whoooah!” and crashed into the door. “Oohf!”
Suddenly there was laughter, lots of laughter. “Oh.......no.....” I have one idea of where it’s coming from, but I have a feeling that I’m probably not going to like it. I get up off the ground, and looked up to see almost the whole gym class saw me crash into the door. My face getting a little heated, I open the door that I crashed into and finally stepping into the gym.
A girl with tan skin and white and grey fluffy hair named, Gilda came up to me. “Hey Sunset, that was quite the splAt you took!” Then she bursted out laughing, as so did everyone else around me.
“Yeah, you were like, Whoooah! Splat!” Derpy put in, giggling afterwards.
“Hahaha, yeah, are you sure you didn’t leave your face in the door?” Said a certain rainbow-haired athlete laughing hard at my expanse.
Not wanting to show any weakness toward this little fiasco, I decide to just brush it off and laugh with them. “Haha, yeah, I guess I was.” I looked at the door and notice I had left a bit of lip gloss on the glass. Which made my face turn a little bit more red.
Gilda saw what I was looking at. “Oh! You did left a bit of your face on the glass! Haha haha! Sunsplat.”
I gave her a deadpan look, “Please don’t call me that.”
Gilda rolled her eyes, “What you’d rather me call you Sunbitch?”
This time I laughed. I couldn’t help it, it was too funny to me. “Yes, I most definitely would actually.”
She glanced at the others in the group and then looked back at me with a smirk, “Eh, I think I like Sunsplat better, besides...” She gets a little closer to me and lowers her voice. “It’s kinda fun watching you squirm.” Eh....lets just say that me and her are not on the best terms....
I scoffed at that. “Oh, ha, well then. What are we standing around her for, anyone up for a quick volleyball game?” I say to the crowd. They all cheered. Rainbow smiled at my suggestion. “Yes! What do you guys think? Want to play some volleyball?!” She said in a motivational tone. “Yes!” They all day. “Alright then, let’s get out there in that gym and play some volleyball!” All of the girls cheered once more and we rushed inside the small gym. The boys had the big gym today.
The coach came in as the last girl got inside the gym. She was a young lady in her mid 20’s. She had yellow skin and short orange fire-like hair. Her name is Ms. Supermarine. Aka Spitfire, but we don’t call her by either name. We call her Coach Fire. Alright ladies!” She said in a loud voice. “I heard you all wanted to play a few games of volleyball today, is that right?” Everyone have a chorus of yeses. “Okay, but first we have to get everything else done. “Run 10 laps on the floor! GO!”
Like is a switch went off, everyone immediately went into action and began jogging the laps. “I SAID RUN!!!” She said, causing us to pick up our pace. “If I see you walk, ILL GIVE YOU ALL TEN MORE!” No one wanted extra laps, so we made sure to keep running. The ten laps was not so bad, but we started getting a little tired on the last lap. “Good! Now give me ten bleacher laps! GO!”
There was a bunch of groans from everyone in the gym, but we did as we were told and ran the ten laps around. As I was nearing the end of my seventh lap, I felt a shiver go up my spine. “Hey Sunsplat, watch where you’re going!” Said a rough voice behind me, then I felt a leg collide with my own, causing me to lose my balance and fall face forward. Luck for me I was at the end, meaning to the floor of the gym as for bleacher laps we also had to run along the visitors side, but there was a few steps to get off of the main bleachers and onto the floor which I fell down.
Thank goddesses for human instinct, because I saved my face from getting in contact with the floor at rapid speed with my bare hands, and managed to catch myself. I scraped my right knee a little bit, not enough to draw a little bit of blood. Just a little bit though, nothing too severe or even close to being bad. It made it sting though.
I did not let the pain get to me, I made sure not to let anyone see the pain that it caused me, and I just got up quickly and continued running faster than when I started. It hurt to push myself like that, but I ran like some crazy bitch.
“Alright girls! Good work! I think that will do for now, you may get to a stop and walk a lap around before you join us in the middle to start playing volleyball.” Couch Fire said. Once we all finished are walk, we met our couch at the center of the gym. “Alright let’s see, there’s twelve of you today, since Surprise couldn’t come to school today. She broke her leg this Sunday. It’s only Monday, so she may not be back for a little while. Which means there’s an even number of you today. Each team gets a number of six. Who wants to be team captains?”
“Oh, me!” Gilda said.
“Me too!” Derpy said.
Coach Fire nodded. “Alright, pick you teammates. Derpy, you go first.”
Derpy picked Lyra, Bonbon, Misty Foot, Octavia, and me (cause I was the last to be picked, as always.) While Gilda picked Rainbow, Speedy (an athlete with pale skin , blue eyes, and black and white hair), Cloudchaser, and some other girls in the class.
We split up on either side of the net. Coach Fire blew a whistle and Gilda started the game. First game went alright, Gilda’s team won. Second game, it was Derpy’s team. I was not ready for what was coming to me on the third game though. So far I had been able to dodge and hit every time the ball was spiked and smacked at my face. Rainbow tried not to, but when ever Gilda had the ball, she always tried to spike the ball towards me. I would fight back and make sure to hit it. Not this time though.
As the game began, Derpy’a side started it up again. The girl pitched the ball and it went straight towards Gilda. Gilda smiled widely, jumped up and spiked the ball toward me. I happened to be in the front row, in the middle of the court. There was barely any time to act, I tried to act fast. I hit the ball, but I hit it on my arm leaving it red and stinging. “Ah! Shit!” I cussed under my breath.
Though I said it under my breath, this is a gym, everyone heard it. Gilda snickeredas she catch the ball. “Hah, you’re week Sunsplat.” I rolled my eyes at her. I opened my mouth to say something back, but Coach stopped me. “Good work girls, go get dressed.” I didn’t need to go changed since I never did cause I was late, so I just grabbed my stuff and went to go wait for the bell on the on the built in blench in the wall next to the doors that lead to the other buildings of the school. I waited there for a minute until I heard footsteps coming my way. I looked up in time to see Gilda coming toward me.
“Hey Sunsplat. Does your arms still hurt?” She said with laugh. I rolled my eyes at her again. “Stop calling me that.” I said back. “Alright fine, I won’t call you that anymore.” I nodded my head. “Thanks.”
“I’ll call you Boogar Bear.” She said, smirking. My face went red, my blood starting to boil. “Oh hell no! I don’t fucking care who told you that...”I shot up from where I was sitting and grabbed the collar of her shirt and tugged it hard so that I had my face all up on her. “...but if you EVER call me that again, I WILL RIP YOUR FUCKING HEAD OFF!”
Gilda face had a wide eyed look to it for a moment before it softened into a smirk. “Alright, how about Little Miss Sunny.” I righted my grip on her shirt, and snorted air through my nose like an angry bull. It did not phase her at all, she laughed and was about to say something when the gym door opened.
“U-um, Sunset?” I let go of Gilda and turned around to see Fluttershy standing in the door way. “Oh, Fluttershy? What are you doing here?” She looked down at the ground and pulled out something from her pocket. It was a hair tie. My eyes went wide as I remembered that I didn’t tie my hair. Putting sudden attention to my hair, I realized that it was now all messy. “Ugh!” I groan to add to my dismay. “Thanks, Shy. I must have dropped it.”
She nodded. “Mhm, well that’s all I needed. I’ll see you later, Sunny.” She smiled up at me before she left. She not even once looking Gilda’s way. I watched her leave, completely dumbfounded.
Gilda chuckled beside me, bringing my attention back to her. “That’s perfect! From now on that’s what I’ll call you.” She said with a smirk.
I glared at her. “Don’t you even dare!”
She took a step closer to me, getting al up on my face this time, giving me a bit of my own medicine. “Ssssssuuuunnyyy! Oh, Sunny! You forgot your hair tie!” She said, stretching out my nickname. I squinted my eyes at her. “I fucking hate you.” She laughed. “And I hate you.” She laughed harder as the bell rang, signaling for us to go to our next class.
After gym was......ugh math. I don’t like the subject, eh never really had. I mean I don’t totally hate math, I just don’t have a great relationship with numbers. Yeah, I totally actually do hate it, haha! Math is a bitch to me anyways, I’d rather just read instead of boring myself with numbers.
But since I come from gym, I luckily will have a bit of a high for a few minutes, long enough to get what I need out of the class for the day before I my eyes start to glaze over with a film of boredom.
Then my eyes start to get heavy, so I make myself get up from my seat to grab a tissue, pretend to blow my nose, and throw it away. Then I returned to my seat with a little bit more light in my head. Not much though because I’m still in the dream world.... All I can think of is Fluttershy’s warm breath against my ear when she sits behind me a-..... Woah! Where did that come from? Maybe I’m more out of it than I thought.....
“Ding! Ding! Ding!” Luckily for me, I was saved by the bell. My next class is art, one of my favorite classes of the day. As I walk in the class, I spot Pinkie Pie in the room next to my station. “Hey Pinkie.”
“Hey Sunset!!!” She shouts from where she was, which was only a few feet away from me. It’s Pinkie Pie, don’t even bother to question it. “ARE YOU READY. TO......” She thinks for a moment. “ART!”
I let out a little laugh. “I am, are you?” I respond. She nods. “Yep!”
I roll my eyes and shake my head, then I picked up a pencil pack, a big eraser, a piece of paper, a clipboard and searched for my brain to decide what it is that I want to draw. That’s when the teacher came by.
“Hey girls, are you doing alright?” We nod and tell her that we’re fine, she nods and then goes to help another student with their piece. Our art teacher is Mrs. Palette. She is a nice middle aged white mare with a black and pink hair and a tattoo of a paint palette on her shoulder (which is usually hidden), but today it was poking out of the black shirt she was wearing.
I search through my now blank brain and decided to just go with something random and hope that an idea would struck. As I pick up my phone and earbuds to play some tunes while I work, a thought comes to mind. My favorite animal is a phoenix, aside from cats and lizards, I finally came up with an idea to draw.
“How about a phoenix listening to music?” I ask myself under my breath. I grab a light shade pencil called a 4H and start to sketch out the body of the phoenix. Glancing at an image once or twice just to make sure that I was getting the structure of the bird right.....and also to be sure it was going to actually look like a phoenix and not a buzzard. (Those ugly birds that like to eat the rotting flesh of the dead.)
Then I sketch out the earbuds, but then I unfortunately ran out of time.... UGH! When something in class ACTUALLY gets even a little bit good, something just HAS to ruin it. Though I can take my art home, so I pack it into my bag. Not that I’ll work on it, cause knowing me I’ll forget it’s even there, but still, just in case I do happen to remember it. Then I rush out the door to my next class.
“Bye Sunset! See you later!” Pinkie Pie shouts as she also hurries to her next class. “Bye Pinkie!” I shout back over my shoulder.
My next class is history, which went by pretty fast since we were watching a documentary about....well history. Honestly I get we need to know this stuff but that don’t make it anymore easier.
Then lunch came around, which I always am happy for. I usually eat in the balcony, so that’s where I went. I grabbed an apple from my bag, set my yoga mat down and sat down on the mat.
I quickly finish it, just laid down and put my hair over my eyes. I always love basking in the sun, it’s always been my favorite place to be. I turned on my music on my phone and laid back down, stretching all the way out.
Suddenly I felt the presence of another being near. I did not want to move from my comfort zone yet, so I decided to just lay there a little longer.
Unfortunately I’m not the greatest at keeping a straight face because as soon as I smelt a VERY familiar sent, my lips started to perk up on the ends. The smell of cucumbers and kiwis is the perfume that’s a fluttershy wears. I could hear the sound of feet shuffling and movement as if she moved to sit next to me. I kept my little half held down half escaped smile on like a dumb foolish girl until I heard what sounded like crying. It was very soft and almost silent, but I could hear the sniffles and the abrupt exhale of breath.
My face falls and I get up immediately, “Fluttershy?” My eyes find a very distraught Fluttershy beside me, crying, no....sobbing silently. She doesn’t look up at me, she just cries and cries, her body shaking, her face a bright red, her eyes closed, her lips tight, her front teeth biting into her lower lip as if to try to lessen the sound of her cries. Her head was tilted toward the ground. Her hair was starting to get soaked from the tear, she even had a strand sticking to her lips.
This made me angry, I know that I’ve made Fluttershy cry a few times, but that was because she was in my way in the wrong times. I do not do well with emotions. But I have not seen her like this, and even though I wasn’t the one crying, I felt like even I was hurt a little. Not thinking AT ALL about my next move, I wrap my arms around her and held her in my arms while she cries. I run a hand up and down her back gently, occasionally bringing up a hand to her hair and playing with it gently, trying to give her some my strength.
“I-I’m ssssssorry!” She whispered. At first I didn’t think I heard her correctly. “W-What was that?” I asked. She brings her face out of my chest and looks up at me. “I-I am sssso sssorry!”
I look at her with a confused expression on my face. “What? What are you sorry for?”
She doesn’t look up at me, “I am sorry for this.” She gestured to herself and then to my soaked shirt.
“Oh you mean crying?” She nods, then she looks up at me. I shake my head and smile at her. “Don’t know what your sorry for, please don’t apologize for that.”
Fresh tears ran down her face and she tries to wipe them away. “What happened?” I asked her. She looks up and let’s out a heavy sigh. “You know how I have gym class before lunch?” I nod. “Well, we were playing a game of volleyball, and Blade Heart smacked the ball really hard at my face. It hit me hard and knocked me off my feet. It was so embarrassing and she laughed at me! Then everyone else started laughing WITH HER!!!”
“Yeah, that’s tough.” I said, bringing her chin up so that she was looking at me. “But she.....she is not as strong as you.” She looked up at me.
“Really?” She asked. I nod my head. “Really. She has to make someone else hurt in order for her to feel better, but you don’t. That’s why you are stronger than her.”
She looked down and then she looked back up, a trace of anger gleaming within them. “Rainbow didn’t think so...”
“What?” I asked her. She looked out over the balcony. “Rainbow Dash? Before you came here, she told me that I’m just a weakling. That I didn’t fit in with her and her group. She chose Gilda over me, she.....she didn’t think like you.” She looks back at me. “None of my friends have ever told me that I was strong. Yeah, they’ve all helped me and been there in their own ways, but none of them ever said that I was strong. Not like you. I tried to tell R-Rainbow what happened, but she just told me to ignore it and that it’s no big deal. I tried to forget about it, but I couldn’t! I-I didn’t want to go into the cafeteria with the other girls, so I came here. Do......d-do you really think I’m strong?”
I smiled at the last question, “Well, I may not be like the others, and I’m not.” I looked up at the ceiling, “but I do think that you are very strong.” Then I thought for a moment. “And brave for even telling me this.” Me of all people...... Thats what I thought, but I didn’t voice that last part.
Her face brightens. “Y-you think I’m brave?”
“Yeah you are, shit I don’t think I have the same guts that you have to tell such raw stuff.” I tell her.
She smiles and wipes her tears, the water works finally coming to a complete stop. “Oh, but you are brave. And strong. And confident.”
I scoffed at that, “You give me too much credit, Shy. I am not that brave or strong. Confident? Heh, well I have nothing to say about that other than I suppose that part may be true.”
She shakes her head, “No you are, really. No one would be so strong to come out of a crater and not crack under the weight of the student body or even be strong enough to keep going forward. But you do. For that, I say you are very strong and brave. And you are always so confident in everything you do, it’s incredible.”
I could feel my face heating. This made me look the other way, hiding my face like Fluttershy does. Then I heard her giggle. “Are you blushing?”
This made my face get warmer as I refuse to look at her. “N-no.” Then I felt a hand force my chin toward her, making my face become cherry red, and I gave her an eye squint. “I think you’re cute when you blush..” As much as I tried to hold it in, my lips immediately perk up and a giggle escaped my lips.
I brought a hand up covering my mouth with wide eyes, getting another giggle from Fluttershy. “Don’t mention this to anyone.”
She laughed again. “Don’t worry, you’re secret is safe with me.” Then she looked down and back at me. “Thank you for being there for me.”
“Of course.” I smiled. Then the bell rung and we quickly head to our afternoon classes. When I enter my 5th period class, Rarity noticed my red cheeks and asked me about it.
“Umm....Darling, would you care to explain your red cheeks?” She asked.
I rolled my eyes, “Um, I crashed into the gym door this morning when I was rushing to get in and I haven’t fully recovered from the event.” I said. Which wasn’t a lie. I did still had people say “Sunsplat!” And then burst out laughing. But it wasn’t the full truth because that wasn’t why I was blushing.
She looks at me with concern, “Oh my, well hopefully it only lasts for today.”
Yeah me too. Because although it wasn’t the reason I was blushing, it wasn’t exactly fun to have your name twisted into a joke.