//------------------------------// // 4. Afternoon // Story: A Moment in Autumn // by wishcometrue //------------------------------// Sunset pulled out her acoustic guitar—the amplifiers were in Dash’s room and she didn’t feel like grabbing one—and leaned back against the bed, aimlessly strumming chords. Pinkie Pie noticed and hummed along, tapping her thighs as she gave life to a rhythm. Just as Sunset started getting pulled in by Pinkie’s beat, her phone began to beep. She frowned and her playing picked up speed. Pinkie took the increasingly chaotic playing in stride, effortlessly changing her beat to account for both it and the beeping. Sunset heard some shifting, and looked over to the desk. Fluttershy had spun her chair around and was staring at Sunset, pen still in hand. "Shouldn't you check your phone, Sunset?" "I'm in the zone. I'll look at it later." Fluttershy put her hands on her hips and glared, the added height of her sitting position making her intimidating. "I really think you should look at it now, Sunset." Sunset grumbled but she pulled her phone out with no further argument. She ignored Fluttershy's hum of satisfaction. She fought the urge to roll her eyes when she saw it was a text from Trixie. Sunset Can we talk? Did I do something wrong? im busy trixie we can talk later Satisfied that it was dealt with, she locked her phone. It beeped again. Sunset growled and the heat in the room started rising. "Ahem." She looked over at Fluttershy, who just raised an eyebrow. Sighing, she took deep breaths and unlocked her phone. And when is later going to be? i dont know! just later, ok? Sunset wanted to throw her phone at the wall so badly. She could practically hear the satisfying crunch of drywall and glass fighting, and practically wasn’t good enough. Fluttershy cleared her throat and she remembered to breathe, the heat in the room decreasing. Deciding that repair costs weren’t worth momentary catharsis, she instead tossed it onto the carpet and stood up. She looked between her two friends briefly before walking to the bathroom and pretending she didn’t see the fear and disappointment in their eyes. She stared into the mirror and splashed away the emptiness in hers with cold water. "It's just two more weeks, Sunset. Two more weeks." ---- Pinkie tapped on her thighs, humming. She started nodding along and decided this wasn’t enough, so pulled out her drumsticks and started playing the most awesome drum solo ever! Except, you know, without the actual drums, but where’s the fun in technicalities? Ending her solo with a flourish on the base of a lamp, she threw her hands in the air. When the applause she was waiting for didn’t come, she just shrugged and rewarded herself by guzzling her deliciously sugary soda. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Sunset looking at something on her phone with furrowed brows. Pinkie tilted her head. She and the other girls figured something must’ve been happening with her and Trixie for her to be so grumpy, but no one felt like rocking the boat by asking her about it now that she wasn’t going all flame woman on them. Still, she couldn’t help but be curious... but she pushed that curiosity back down with the magic—not actual magic, in this case—of rhythm. No matter how much she wanted to know what was going on and help her friend, she still remembered Sunset glaring down at her as if she was a worthless insect. "Hey, Sunset? Dash is having some trouble finding somewhere to park the bus, and Ah'd appreciate it if you could come help." "Oh, sure." Sunset placed her phone down and quickly followed AJ out the door. Pinkie continued tapping out her new beat before she noticed a glow from Sunset's phone being cast on the wall, accompanied by a faint buzzing. Without Sunset there, Pinkie no longer felt the fear that was helping stop her curiosity. She walked to the phone, glancing around the room, but all of the other girls were off doing other things that she hadn’t really paid attention to. She leaned over and saw it was Trixie that was calling. When it stopped ringing, Pinkie was surprised to see Sunset had left her phone unlocked. She bit her lip and looked at the door, before deciding it was probably fine to look. She left it unlocked, didn't she? It was probably fine. It was on a messaging app and there were tons of texts from Trixie without a single one from Sunset. She scrolled up without looking close enough to read any of them—even her curiosity didn't extend that far—and it was an unnerving number of unanswered messages. Glancing up, she saw the pull-down notification thingy with a missed call icon. She hesitantly pulled it down before gaping at the number of missed calls. Twenty! One or two is a mistake, but twenty... Pinkie heard some footsteps in the hall and quickly put everything back to how it was and went back to her seat. None of the others would know what she’d seen, and Sunset wouldn’t know that she’d seen. Sunset was nice and fun and mostly calm again, and she didn't want to risk losing that. She bit her lip and started tapping on her thighs again. ---- Sunset stared out at the road as she drove along. As fun as the tour had been, she was glad there was only one more show until they were back in Canterlot City. She wanted to just hop in her bed and spend some time away from the world before taking care of anything. ♫First you see me riding on a sonic boom♫ She clenched her teeth, glaring out at the road. Making checklists always helped Princess Twilight calm down, maybe that's what she needed here. She considering what she needed to do first, idly watching another billboard warning about drunk driving pass. ♫I’m so good that you cant defeat me♫ Breath quickening, she decided top priority would be to pick up Ray and make sure the shelter had treated him right while she was gone. Oh, and she should thank Fluttershy for convincing them to take care of him while they were gone. Yeah, that was definitely the most important thing. ♫Watch out for me, I’m awesome as I wanna be♫ Clenching the steering wheel hard enough that if her geode had granted her freakish strength like Applejack it would have split in half, she continued to ponder. Next on the list would probably be making sure her place hadn't been broken into. As the temperature in the bus rose, the girls' conversations and activities faded away in a haze of sweat. “Could one of you go ask Sunset to turn down the heat? I love a sauna as much as the next girl, but there is a time and place for it, and that place is a spa and that time is not now,” Rarity said, fanning herself. Fluttershy held up her hand, placing it beneath one of the vents. “Um, Rarity? The AC is still on.” Exchanging nervous glances, leaving the only sounds they could hear the familiar clunking and droning of their fixer-upper bus and the tinny Rainbow Dash playing from a cell phone speaker. As the leader—or second-in-command, depending on the situation—of the group, Rainbow Dash decided it was upon her to go up first. "Hey, Sunset, you, uh, look a little tense," she said, rubbing the back of her neck as the heat, and obviously only the heat, started getting to her. She heard groans behind her and tried a different tack, "So, uh, maybe you should check your phone? You know, it might be someone or something important, like school, or Trixie!" Rainbow Dash could've sworn it got even hotter as she said that, but there was no missing Sunset’s growl. A glance back confirmed the other girls had heard that, too. "I'll deal with it later." Rainbow Dash frowned, anxiously looking back at the others with wide eyes. "Are you sure about that, I mean-" "I said I'll deal with it later, Rainbow Dash!" Sunset roared, flames beginning to form on her tensed shoulders, the cheap padding of the steering wheel beginning to distort and sizzle around her clenched hands. Rainbow Dash sputtered and stammered, struggling to think of something to say that wouldn’t make things worse. She felt a hand on her shoulder and jumped. When she saw it was Fluttershy, she sighed and lost some tension. The two old friends looked into each other's eyes for a moment before they both nodded. Rainbow Dash slunk back to the benches, idly rubbing her geode. Fluttershy took a deep breath before she sternly said, “Sunset Shimmer! I don’t know what’s going on between you and Trixie, but you can not take it out on your friends.” Sunset sputtered, the flames shrinking somewhat, but not fading. “Wh— Bu— I am not taking it out on you guys!” “Then why are you letting your flames go out of control again?” As if noticing them for the first time, Sunset stared wide-eyed at the flames and the damage they were causing, quickly willing them out. “Sorry, I just…” she trailed off, sniffling. Fluttershy sighed and placed a gentle hand on Sunset’s shoulder. “It’s okay, Sunset. Just breath, like I taught you.” When Sunset had calmed down, she continued, “You need to deal with this though, it’ll only get worse the longer you put it off.” Her grip tightened and her tone grew stern again. “But we aren’t your moms, and we aren’t going to hold your hand through this. You can come to us to talk because we’re your friends, and we want to help you if you want to be helped,” Her tone turned threatening, “But if you blow up at us like that again…” “I get it.” “Good.” Sunset stared out the windshield as Fluttershy walked away, humming. ---- The Rainbooms walked down the street from the venue to Sugarcube Cafe, laughing and hugging. Sunset trailed a bit behind, looking at her phone. I’ll be in Mistmane Park for the next hour if you decide to talk. She looked between her phone and her friends. Pinkie Pie was holding the door open to Sugarcube Cafe, yelling for her to hurry up. She made her choice. “Great show tonight, everyone! I know that the tour had some rough patches—” “You can say that again!” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, looking at the other girls to see if they’d interject as well, before continuing, “—but we made it through them, and that’s what matters.” She held up her milkshake. “Here’s to an awesome tour, and even better friends!” Their cheers finished, Sunset quickly lost herself in idle conversations and the familiar warmth of friendship. They were on their third milkshakes—except for Pinkie, who was on her seventh—when Sunset felt her phone vibrate. Rolling her eyes, she pulled it out and looked. And looked. And she kept looking as her face went from shock to disbelief to pure rage. Throwing her milkshake against the wall, barely noticing the shatter and splatter from the impact, she stormed out the door. The rest of the girls could only watch her leave in disbelief, before they collectively glanced at the phone left behind. On the screen were three simple words. We’re over, Sunset.