//------------------------------// // 3. Discovery // Story: Dearest of Desires // by twience //------------------------------// Dearest Of Desires Chapter 3 By, Serenityx Rarity was up late that night. She took a sip of her sweet iced tea, making sure she was refreshed. She sighed to herself as she took a hair tie from the desk drawer. She reached up and slowly tied her hair into a high ponytail. When finished, she stared at her computer screen. The light from it was the only thing illuminating the room. She narrowed her eyes at the google image that was displayed and wiggled her fingers. "Okay, Sunset. Let's find out who you are," she spoke to no one. It was internet searching time, and if Rarity was good at anything besides clothes making, it was being a friend. She wouldn't really call what she was doing all that friendship-y. Though, she loved a challenge. This was it. This was going to be one of the most generous things she has done according to her. Rarity began on the first social media sight. She was no Pinkie Pie (not that she knew her), but she had her ways of following almost every girl in her school. Or they would follow her that is. If anybody she knew, knew this girl, it would be easy. On instagram, she went to her friends list and started checking if there was anybody named Sunset through it. No luck, so that meant Rarity didn't know her personally. Then, she began searching through some of her friends instagram's. She then recalled what Twilight told her. Amber skin, red and blonde hair. Why did Rarity think that was familiar? When a big load of nothing struck again, it was hours later. She looked down to the corner of the screen. The time read 1:23am. Great, she's been scrolling through her friends insta list's for almost two hours. That's when Rarity decided to move on. Snapgab, MyStable, Discord, nothing. "Argh!" Rarity groaned, slamming her head on the table. It was even more hours later at this point. Ding Rarity lifted her head up frowning as she reached for her phone. YOUTUBE Rainxtreme: New Video - High Fly Sic Skateboarding Rarity rolled her eyes at the notification. Who posts a video at three in the morning? Why was she still following her old friend Rainbow Dash? Especially on youtube for heaven's sake. Deciding to take a break, she went to youtube on her computer and clicked on the new video. Even though she wouldn't try it in a million years, seeing her old friend skateboard was quite thrilling. Rainbow was quite the dangerous stunter. She clicked play. "What's up everyone? Rainbow Dash here with another awesome sic-tastic video. Today I'm going to showing off another move I've been working on! You guys are gonna be totally soaked when you see this." Rainbow clicked on her helmet. "Always safety first!" She walked over to one of the skatepark ramps that had a railing at the end of it. "Alright! Who's ready for rain extreme skating? Here's the gist," Rainbow pointed to the top of the ramp. "Starting at the top, skate down, onto railing, onto the other ramp, kick flip at the top, one foot down." Rarity gawked at the screen. "Let's get started. So, first things— uh hey, Sunset up here." "Huh?" Another voice called out from behind the camera. "Oh sorry." The camera was instantly fixed so that Rainbow was in view at the top of the ramp. Wait a second. That name! Rarity perked up. Before getting too excited, she reversed the video to see if she wasn't imagining things. When she did, she clarified that Rainbow actually said Sunset. Rarity took a deep breath. "Rarity, you have a lead," she talked to herself. Of course, there was still a possibility that the Sunset her old friend had mentioned wasn't the one Twilight met, but Rarity was too certain that it was. It wasn't exactly a popular name afterall. Well, neither was Rarity, but she wasn't calling herself out on that. Rarity clicked out of the video and went to Rainxtreme's subscription list. She scrolled and scrolled until— "Bingo," she praised herself. A profile picture was in the middle of the screen. She looked exactly as Twilight described. Sunset was beautiful. The channel name listed beside it was Shimmer Code. She clicked on the channel, a video trailer popped up, videos were listed, and the subscriber count was through the roof. Rarity exclaimed, "Oh my stars, she has more followers than Rainbow! She's literally famous." Rarity smiled to herself. She finally found her. Cautiously, she clicked the about section on the channel and found social media sites along with her usernames. She clicked the instagram link. Instant fiery photos were displayed. Ones with her friends, ones of her posing, ones even off guard. Rarity looked to the side at the bio. Sunset Shimmer ~19~ Youtuber/Gamer/Amazing Friend Proudly Bi & Single 💚💛 Rarity pushed her chair away from the desk and threw her arms up in relief. "Ah! I did it! Finally!" she celebrated. She grinned brightly to herself. Twilight was going to be so happy. Now, it was just time for her to take over. It also looked like Twilight's job might get a little bit easier as well. Rarity scanned the biography again. The hearts were the colors green and yellow. That meant, going with she admitted she was nineteen, Sunset Shimmer went to a college with those spirit colors. It obviously didn't look like they related to her. This girl didn't have a speck of green on her. Besides the fact that her eyes looked a bit cyan. Realizing her job was officially done. She got up out of her chair, walked out of her room, and into the hallway. "Twilight, I found her!" When nothing but a groan came in response, Rarity remembered just how late it was. "Heh... nevermind! Talk to you in the morning; goodnight!" The next day, Sunset Shimmer was making a grilled cheese. She buttered the two slices of bread, set one in the pan, threw the cheese and tomatoes on top, and set the other slice of bread on top. "No pickles this time?" Sunset didn't even flinch. She turned around to face her friend who entered the living room. "No pickles this time," she shook her head in agreement. The three lived in a small apartment. It wasn't that small, the living space was still fairly large. Along with two full size bathrooms and three bedrooms. The living room led to the kitchen however, so you could cook while watching someone watch TV. "Huh," Rainbow shrugged, then flopped onto the couch. She took the near remote and turned on the TV to flip through the channels. While Sunset's sandwich fried, she decided to bring up a happy subject. "How's the recent video going?" Rainbow smiled at her. "Great! One and three thousand views already!" Sunset gave Rainbow a thumbs up. "Nice, champ." That's when a pink figure entered view. "Hey ya'll! Sunny, hurry up in the kitchen, I need it to film my recent video." "Alright alright, I'm almost done," Sunset answered, flipping her sandwich to the other side. Rainbow finally settled on a channel. "Oh? Whatcha baking this time, Pinks?" Pinkie threw her mini tablet in Rainbow Dash's face. "Mermaid palooza cake!" Rainbow stared at the screen trying to take in the purple and blue colors and tail formed at the top. "That's specific; is that a new order?" Rainbow asked. She nodded. "Uh huh, a little girl is having a birthdayyy partyyy," she sang. "Good luck," Rainbow wished. "Thanks, Dashie," Pinkie smiled. In the group of friends, each had a youtube channel. Three different people, three different topics. "Finished," Sunset said and set her grilled cheese on a plate. "Just don't make too much of a mess." It wasn't official or anything, and Sunset was almost just as wild as her friends, but she owned the title of mom. "Puh lease," Pinkie giggled. "I always clean it up afterwards anywho." She skipped to the kitchen just as Sunset left. Sunset took a bite of her lunch as she walked through the living room. "Where ya off to?" Rainbow raised an eyebrow. "Homework," Sunset bluntly replied. Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Nerd." Sunset was already out the room when she spoke, "You know it!" When she made it to her room, she set her plate on the nightstand and grabbed her laptop. She settled comfortable on her bed and was just about to start her homework when— Ring Ring Sunset sighed and grabbed her phone. Unknown Number It could be a fan call from someone who somehow found her number, a call from an old friend she deleted from her contacts, a realtor, an ad, a prank call, or some straight up stranger. Not really paying attention to the fact, she pressed accept and held the device to her ear. "Hello? Sunset Shimmer," she spoke. "Sunset! My favorite freshman!" None of those listed apparently. Sunset went over the voice and statement of the phrase in her head. "Mr Letrotski, what a surprise," Sunset said. Just what was her AP english teacher, Jeff Letrotski, calling her for? "Sorry, I don't mean to interrupt anything you're doing," he apologized. "Oh, nothing. It's just your homework," she half joked. He did one of those small bulky laughs of his. "I see." Sunset still felt uncomfortable. "Is there anything you need...?" "Oh! Yes, you're one of my best students, Sunset—" "One of?" Sunset interrupted. "— You are my best student. So, do you think you can do me a favor in tutoring an honors student of mine for a few weeks?" Sunset didn't answer right away. "Why?" She didn't want to be so directly rude to a teacher, but if she was being honest, tutoring was way out of her league. He coughed. "Do you know, Minuette?" "I do actually, not personally. She went to my high school," Sunset answered. "Great! She needs some assistance. She supposedly gets what we're doing, but she's having some trouble with the depths of the topic? I thought you might be some good help for her," he explained. Sunset innerly sighed. "I would love to help, but I'm kind of busy sir. My job, my channel, not to mention my own school work." "Please, Sunset. I'll count it as this week's homework." Sunset didn't answer. Instead, she reached over and took a bite of her sandwich. "This month's homework," he tried. She swallowed. "Fine, when do I start?" Mr. Letrotski happily sighed. "Thank you! Sundays and Wednesdays, three o'clock. Doesn't matter where, though I suggest the first be at the library." "Alright. I'll be there. Is that all?" "Yes, thank you again, Sunset. Enjoy your evening." "You too!" she happily but unhappily answered, then hung up the phone. "Yay! More stuff added to my weeks. Great!" Sunset complained. Not having to do her AP homework, she gently tossed her computer to the side and laid on her pillow. "Hm," she closed her eyes. I wonder what Twilight is doing right now... Then there was a noise followed by a scream. "Pinkie Pie!" One thing went through Sunset Shimmer's head. Full name; uh oh. Sunset threw herself off the bed and ran into the kitchen. "What's going on?" she took in the view, sighed, and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Pinkie, why is there purple and blue splattered in my kitchen?" Pinkie gave her friends an innocent look and waved her frosting covered wooden spoon in the air. "Uh, you see..." Rainbow Dash walked over to the camera stand and stopped her recording. "Hey! This would've made a great blooper!" Pinkie complained. Sunset crossed her arms, still expecting an answer to her previous question. "What. Happened?" Rainbow stood at one of the blenders licking some frosting off her finger. "Looks like she forgot to put the lid on the blender again." "You don't make icing in a blender!" Pinkie Pie frowned. "Frosting, Sunny. Frosting." "I don't care!" "It's still pretty good frosting," Rainbow shrugged. Sunset didn't have the energy to be angry anymore. She slumped her shoulders and spoke, "Whatever. Let's just clean this up." Luckily, she didn't have homework to do anymore. The girls each got a washcloth and started to wipe down the countertops and walls. At least it wasn't as bad as the carrot cake incident last fall. When all the frosting was clear, Sunset took the blender to the sink for a wash. Rainbow started gathering up paper towels, napkins, and a piece of tin foil to ball up and throw in the trash. "So, when is this order due anyway? You still have time to make another batch of frosting right?" Rainbow asked. Pinkie stared at Rainbow, mouth agape, and eyes starting to water. "Pinks!? Hey, what's wrong? We can just buy some more ingredients!" Rainbow tried to tell her. "Y-You..." Sunset turned around and turned off the faucet. "Pinkie, you okay?" Pinkie shoved pass Rainbow Dash and towards the trash. She bent down, grabbed ahold of something and pulled it out. When she turned back around to face her friends, her eyes were more angry than sad. "What's the problem, Pinks?" "Is that tin foil?" Sunset pointed out the obvious. "No! It's not tin foil! Or, it wasn't tin foil. Dash, you ruined my mold!" she yelled at her. "Mold?" Rainbow tilted her head a bit. "Ugh! My mold for my mermaid tail! It took me almost two hours to make it perfectly perfect. I had to get each fin directly symmetrical and undo any creases on the inside," Pinkie explained, then stared at the now un perfectly perfect ball of foil. "You idiot!" "Hey!" Sunset tried to ease her down. "Pinkie, Rainbow most likely didn't know; and I'm positive she's sorry about it." Rainbow slowly nodded. "I'm sorry Pinks... Shimmer is right, I was so caught up in trying to help you clean up I guess I wasn't paying attention." Pinkie sniffed. "I'll help you make a new one!" she walked over and placed her hands on Pinkie's shoulders. "It will be twenty percent cooler than the last one, I promise!" Rainbow exclaimed. Sunset raised her hand. "I will too, if you want." Pinkie wiped her eyes and weakly smiled at the two. "Aw, thanks you guys. You're the best." Rainbow and Sunset gave each other a quick glance. "We know." Sunset took Pinkie by the hand and started walking out the kitchen. "Come on, we'll go over to Mare-Mart and pick up some more supplies okay? "Great! Can I get some more sprinkles too?" Sunset gave a relieving sigh. "Yes, Pinkie. We can get sprinkles too." "Yay." Flashback To This Morning Instead of an apartment, Twilight and her friends shared large dorms on campus. The dorms each had two small bedrooms and a tiny living space/kitchen. A decent bathroom as well. Rarity with Twilight, and Fluttershy with Applejack. Though, they spent time in one another's dorms constantly. Twilight was always a early riser. So, she stood in the bathroom brushing her teeth waiting for Rarity to wake up. When she was finished, she checked the time that read, 8:46am. Shrugging, she made her way to the kitchen and poured herself some cinnamon toast crunch for breakfast. Not the most healthiest option, but it was Saturday. She made her bowl, sat the small table and scrolled through her phone as she ate. Still no Rarity. Twilight finished her yummy breakfast, washed her dish, and decided to water the plants around the dorm. She took the mini watering can from the counter and filled it up with water. One by one, she walked around the dorm watering each plant she had. Plants always made places feel more homey, Twilight thought. When finished, and still no Rarity, Twilight dried the watering can and went into the living space. She turned on the small TV and decided to catch up on the news. She flopped down onto the couch and paid attention to the lady in the violet tailleur. "Twiiiliiight!" someone sang. "Rarity," Twilight responded. "Good morning." "Yes yes good morning, darling." Rarity joined her friend on the couch, still in her pajamas as well. "I found her!" Twilight's eyes lit up. "You did? Let me see." Rarity showed Twilight Sunset's instagram page she found last night on her phone. "Sunset Shimmer..." Twilight breathed, finally taking in her full name. "Now, when Applejack and Fluttershy do their part, they just have to send you the confirmation," Rarity told her. Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Just how many Sunset Shimmer's do you think there are?" "One never knows. Twins?" "Who names their twins the same name?" "Someone else with red and blonde hair?" "That's a rare color combination." "Alternate dimension?" Twilight blinked. "Not possible." Rarity laughed a bit. "Here's the bio, look," Rarity handed her the phone. "She's a gamer? Huh, wasn't expecting that." "I bet so. She has a whole youtube channel and everything! More than five hundred thousand subscribers!" "What!? No way." "Yes way; and look, she's nineteen." Twilight smiled at that. "What a coincidence," she handed her back the phone. Rarity took it. "More like luck," she gave her eyebrows. Maybe this whole plan wasn't as bad as Twilight thought it was going to be. "I can't believe it. I shouldn't believe it! Why are we doing this again?" Or not, maybe she really was stupid. "It's your love life Twi, not mine," Rarity mentioned. Nah, not stupid. Twilight confirmed. "Now check out some of these photos," she started pointing some out on the page. Twilight was definitely interested to see those photos, and didn't even correct Rarity on the 'love life' comment.