//------------------------------// // 3. Falling Apart (Pt. 1) // Story: Sunset's Wonderful Life // by sonicfan05 //------------------------------// It was late in the early evening and it was only two hours until the Christmas Party and Toys for Kids Festival to begin as scheduled. The Equestrian Girls have been working hard on cleaning up all the damages from the gym and then they started to reset everything for the event. Even the CMC's and Twilight's dog, Spike was helping out by recreating the banners for the party to replace the ones that are destroyed. They replaced the tables and chairs, they replaced the decorations, they replaced the toys by placing the back-ups in the school's storage for safe keeping, they pretty much nearly restored everything that was damaged from the mysterious attack. They even managed to keep that mysterious message against Sunset under-wraps so that everyone from school won’t blame her in case if the party gets canceled. Not unless Pinkie has something to say about that. Despite this major setback, they were cutting it close. Even with Rainbow's super speed, they still got more things to do before the guests arrived, including the Mayor. While Sunset kept her act together, she had gotten more stressed by the hour in fear that they won't get to finish on time. She wanted to make sure that everything is in order and that they won't be wasting any more time then they did already. She inwardly cursed whoever did such a cruel act and led them in this position in the first place. "Sunset? Are you alright?" Sunset nearly jumped from the sudden sound of the person's voice. She turned to see Twilight who was giving her her concerned expression. "Oh, I'm alright," Sunset answered. "I just… have a lot on my mind right now with everything that happened." Twilight nodded in sympathy. "Yeah I can understand how stressed you are right now. I would be crazy too if I were in your shoes." She then grinned. "I remember back at Crystal Prep, I would get so crazy over the smallest thing, people over there would say, "Looks like Twilight is Twi-lighting again"!" Sunset snorted in amusement. "Really? People actually made you into a verb?" "Yeeeeeeah, I still don't get it myself," Twilight said sheepishly with a blush before clearing her throat. "Anyway, the point is, you shouldn't have to worry. You got us to help you fix this before the party. Even the CMC's are volunteering to help out!" CRASH! Sunset and Twilight jumped from the loud sound like something have dropped. They turned to see a paint can, which was turned over and paint was spilled all over the floor. Even poor Spike was partially covered in paint as a result. They then noticed Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo by a huge blank banner that they're working on with apologetic expressions. "Oops… um… sorry Sunset," said Apple Bloom. "We accidentally knocked over da paint can and now the paint is all ov'a da floor!" “And Spike!” Sweetie added. “This paint can come off easily... right?” Spike asked nervously. “...probably?” Scootaloo answered with an uncertain tone. While Twilight was trying not to freak out about her pet covered in paint, Sunset felt her right eye twitch repeatedly while trying to put on a stained smile. "That's… fine Apple Bloom… but please... clean that up and… try not to make any more messes… okay?" Apple Bloom gulped from the site of Sunset's reaction. "Y-yes Sunset!" “And we’ll get the paint off of Spike too!” Sweetie added. “Absolutely,” Scootaloo added quickly. “I get us a razor so we can start shaving his fur off right away!” “Great! Thank you girls so– wait WHAT!?” Spike exclaimed as Sweetie carried him off despite him struggling to get himself free. As Apple Bloom and her friends were cleaning up the mess and Spike, Sunset let out an uneasy laugh. "It'll be fine!" Sunset mumbled to herself with a huge crazed grin. "Just a minor setback! No biggie! Is not like the Festival will be on a line over a simple paint spill! Hehehehe!" Twilight felt uneasily and concerned for her friend as she watched Sunset having a mental episode. As she continued to watched Sunset, Fluttershy and the rest of her friends showed up, just to see what was the commotion involving their friend. "Um… is Sunset okay?" Fluttershy asked worriedly. "I'm… not sure," Twilight answered. "Sunset was trying to keep herself composed after Apple Bloom spilled the paint can as they were making a banner." "Paint… It's only paint!" Sunset proclaimed loudly before breaking into an insane laughter. The girls cringed from the site of their friend. "Yeah… I think Sunny is now coco in a loco!" Applejack rolled her eyes as she took some punch from the punch bowl with a cup. She then walked right up to Sunset and splashed some punch all over her face, ceasing her laughter. After finally regaining her senses, Sunset cleared her throat in an awkward manner. "S-sorry about that girls," said Sunset. "I got it out of my system. I'm fine now! It's only just a small… mishap!" "What mishap?" They nearly jumped from the sudden voice. They all turned towards the source, only to have a major shock after seeing who their sudden guest was. It was an older woman in dark blue dress with purple leggings and high heels. She also had half glasses on the bridge of her nose. She had dark purple hair, red ruby lips, a mole on her right cheek and a stern, yet professional expression on her face. But what probably stood her out the most was even wearing a silver cobra medallion with rubies as its eyes. Rarity was probably having a fashion field day after seeing an ugly piece of jewelry like that. “M-Ms. Cinch?” Twilight cried. Principal Cinch was the former Principal of Crystal Prep. The last time she and the others saw her was after the "incident" from the Friendship Games, which she was eventually forced to step down from her position as the position. Seeing her again was a big shot to everyone, including Twilight. "We meet again Twilight," Cinch said coolly before she eyed the others. "And your friend, Sunshed and her gang!" Sunset frowned. "It's Sunset!" "What brings you here Ms. Cinch?" Twilight asked, trying to prevent a fight between her friend and her former Principal. Cinch raised her eyebrow as she adjusted her glasses. "Why Twilight Sparkle, I'm shocked that you assumed that I never come here. Surely you realized that anyone is allowed to come here!" "Hey! Don't get all condescending on her!" Sunset spat. "You were a horrible Principal who threatened Twilight to make her join the Friendship Games for the independent study she wanted and then you forced her to release the magic from her pendant! So no, you don't deserve to come here!" Cinch's narrowed her eyes. "I would watch what you say, Miss Shimmer!" she spoke in her low tone."Especially to one of the Mayor's Advisers!" Everyone nearly dropped their jaws from this sudden revelation. "Y-you... became the Mayor's Adviser?" Twilight meekly asked. Cinch nodded as she placed her hands behind her. "Yes. After my… departure from Crystal Prep, I decided to have a change of career. So I worked for the town since! And I thought you be grateful after suggesting the Mayor to have that Toys for Kids Festival event at your school!" "You suggested the Mayor to come here?" Rainbow Dash cried out in disbelief. "Indeed. I decided to let bygones be bygones and helped out giving a boost to your school's reputation!" Cinch sniffed with an unsatisfied expression. "But from the looks of things… I'm not impressed. You need to be on your A-Game if you ever want the Mayor to approve of this party. But luckily for you, I brought some crew from the town to assist for your preparations for the event!"  Sunset crossed her arms. "Principal Celestia never mentioned that we're getting additional help from the town?" "I suggested it at the last second," Cinch answered. "I even got her approval along with the town! Go ask her of them if you don't believe me!" She then turned with her back facing them. "Anyway, I best be off and see if there's any other section that needs… improving!" Without another word, Cinch made her way to the other room, most likely to inspect the room for the sake of the Festival. The girls were staring at Cinch's back with a mixture of shock, annoyance and anger. "Oooh! That woman is so rude!" Rarity exclaimed. "And scary too!" Fluttershy added. "She really needs to lighten up!" said Pinkie before thinking out loud. "I wonder if I should bake her favorite cupcake flavor so that she'll be less of a meanie." "I doubt that'll work Pinkie," Applejack deadpanned. Rainbow gave Twilight her a serious, yet curious look. "Hey Twilight? Is Cinch really that ruthless?" Twilight sighed, as she rubbed her arm in a nervous manner. "Unfortunately... yes Rainbow Dash. From the years I spent at Crystal Prep, I've known Cinch long enough that she is a brilliant, but cold woman. She has the obsession to be the best at everything all for the sake of the school's… reputation!" Rainbow scoffed. "More like for her reputation!" "Anyway," Twilight continued. "If someone actually threatened or did something to tarnish her rep, even if it wasn't a big deal to most people… you'll be Cinch's enemy number one!" She then shuddered. "One time, someone spoke up about the way Cinch runs the school and not doing a proper job. When Cinch found out about it, she not only she quietly expelled that student for… not fitting in the system, but also blacklisted that student for ever applying to any schools… for life!" "Oh my," Rarity gasped "I knew Cinch isn't a nice person, but this… this is beyond cruel!" Fluttershy whimpered and nodded in agreement. "Well Ah can't believe that snake got away with it for so long from the way she was running dat school!" said Applejack, disgusted from Cinch's actions. "Sure glad that she was fired after what she did to Twilight during the Games!" She turned to Twilight with a sheepish look. "Err… no offense," "None taken," Twilight responded casually. Rarity huffed. "While Cinch got what she deserved, but it seemed that she works for the town now." Rainbow Dash frowned. "Yeah well, I don't trust her! She looks like she was up to no good!" "For once, I agree with Rainbow Dash," said Sunset. "Hey! What do ya mean, "for once"!?" Rainbow Dash cried out indignantly, but Sunset ignored her. "Cinch always had a thing against CHS for years,  and yet she generously suggested the Mayor to come here!" Applejack rubbed her chin. "Seems mighty suspicious if ya ask me!" "Should we do something about her?" Twilight asked. Sunset hummed. "Well she technically didn't do anything wrong, but we should keep an eye on her just in case." She then picked up her clipboard. "In the meantime, we should get back to work!" "But should we take a break first?" Applejack asked. "No time Applejack!" said Sunset with a huff as she walked away. "We need to get this done! Now do your part!" As Sunset headed to the other side of the gym, the girls were given each other looks. "Is it just me… or is she becoming more demanding all of the sudden?" Rainbow Dash asked for the whole group. Meanwhile, Cinch was heading towards the front entrance of the school. She looked around to see if anyone was watching before she opened the door. Then three mysterious figures dressed in a dark blue town staff uniform and work caps, stepped inside of the building. Cinch eyed her crew for a moment as her “workers” were giving her their full attention. "Alright, you all remember the plan?" Cinch asked in her hushed voice. The three figures nodded. "Good!" Cinch said with a grin. "Now go sabotage everything these girls were working on, but do it discreetly!" The three figures nodded again before heading to the gym so they can start their own dastardly deeds. At the stage area of the gym, Applejack was tasked to fix the broken areas of the stage so it will be safe for the musicians to play their instruments. Applejack pounded the last of her nail into the wooden board with her hammer. Once it was in place, Applejack wiped the sweat off of her forehead. "Whew! The stage is almost done!" said Applejack. "Now Ah just need to do some more adjustments and than Ah'm done!" She was about to move on to the next section of the stage, until she heard someone from behind her. "Yo! You need some help or what?" Applejack turned to see one of the town's staff. While this person's face was hard to make out, but Applejack couldn't help but think that this person looked familiar to her, especially after seeing this person's tough demeanor and two pigtails. She mentally shrugged that off, thinking it wasn't important at the moment. "Thanks, but I got it! Ah can handle it mahself!" Applejack answered. The town staff person frowned. "Last I checked, that Shimmer girl instructed me to assist you fixing that stage!" Applejack blinked. "Sunset said dat?" She wondered why Sunset never told her that she's getting additional help, but then she shrugged it off, figuring that Sunset was busy and a lot on her plate to five her updates.  "Well… in dat case, see if you can adjust the center of the stage," Applejack instructed as she pointed towards the center of the stage. "But be careful. Dem boards are looser than da wheel from my family's eighty year old wagon!" "...riiiiiiight! I'll get right on it!" The staff said in disdain before heading towards the center of the stage. The person waited for the farm girl to leave towards the back of the stage before they pulled out different sort of tools out of their pocket and then started "tinkering" with the stage. Pinkie Pie was busy in the kitchen, baking up the storm. Her task was to bake a lot of sweet goodies for the guests to snack on during the party. She already gathered all the ingredients she can used to start her baking project. "Alright then! Time to make us some cupcakes!" Pinkie cheered before she started mixing up her ingredients for her first batch. "All I have to do is take a cup of flour, add it to the mix!~" Pinkie sang as she added the amount of flour into the mixing bowl. "Now I just take a little something sweet, not sour! A bit of salt, just a PINCH!~" "Excuse me?" Pinkie stopped her singing and mixing her ingredients and turned to her visitor. It was one of the town staff who worked for Cinch. While the uniform made the person looked intimidating, but the person seemed friendly enough, especially with child-like eyes and a long ponytail. Pinkie wondered if she ever met this person before. Probably not, but Pinkie loves to make new friends. "Oh hi there! What can I do for you?" Pinkie greeted with a smile. "Actually, what can I do for you?" The staff member replied with a smile. "See, Sunset was thinking that you could use an assistant to make some yummy cupcakes? So… can I help?" Pinkie let out a gasp. "Are you kidding me? Of course you can help! The more the merrier!~" Pinkie cheered happily. Before the staff person could react, Pinkie immediately moved that person to the counter next to her and even placed a baking apron on the person… somehow. "You can start making a new batch right over there!" The staff member saluted with a grin. "You got it boss!" Pinkie giggled. "Just call me Pinkie silly!" "Sorry, you got it Pinkie!" said the staff member. Pinkie went back to her mixing bowl and resumed her work. "Sunny sent me a helper? How thoughtful of her!" Pinkie gushed happily. Little does Pinkie know, the staff person secretly pulls out a small brown bottle and slowly poured the contents into the mixing bowl with a wicked grin. Somewhere at the back room of the gym, Rarity was working on some new clothing line so that she can give these away to the children for the festival. She had been working non stop since this morning and she created over dozens of clothing, she felt like she was on top of the world. "Oooh! The kids are going to love these new outfits!" Rarity said excitedly. "Which type of clothing am I designing next? So many possibilities!~" Just then, there was a knock on a door. The door opened and revealed to be Twilight with a nervous look. "Oh hello Twilight!" Rarity greeted. "What can I do for you?" Twilight shuffled her feet. "Um… Rarity? Can I talk to you for a moment… alone?" "I would love to Darling," said Rarity with a smile before she frowned. "But I can't just leave these clothes behind! These are all too important to leave them unsupervised!" "I'll look after them!" The girls turned to see a sudden new arrival in the room. A town staff member was standing there with full confidence on their face. While the color of the person's poofy hair doesn't go well with the uniform, Rarity could tell that person is very mature. "You will?" Rarity asked in awe. The staff member grinned. "Of course! Miss Shimmer said that you needed a much needed break for slaving on these clothes all day. So I suggest you go with your friend and relax for a bit." Rarity smiled at the thoughtfulness of her friend for her own well-being. "Well in that case, let's head into the storage room!" she stood up and waved at the staff member. "Thanks for looking after my fabrics Darling!" With that, she and Twilight walked out of the room, failed to see the staff person's nasty smirk on their face. "Well, there won't be any fabrics left once I finish with them!" The person then took out a small bottle, which was filled with many moths inside. The person then walked over to rack of many different clothing before the person hovered the bottle over them and pulled out the cork. "Okay boys," said the person in a menacing voice. "Chow time!" Sunset had been working in the storage room for quite some time. She dusted and rearranged the objects around the shelves so that she can use them to store toys for later. She was currently cleaning up the last shelf as she carefully organized the area. "Alright, I'm almost done with this shelf," Sunset mumbled. "Now I just need to store these sport balls in these baskets..." Sunset carefully placed each ball into its own basket that fits the theme. However, as she picked up the baseball, the ball slipped out if her fingers and bounced towards the back behind piles of boxes. "Oh shoot!" Sunset cried. She walked over to the back of the boxes and got on her hands and knees just so she can find that ball. While she was searching for the ball, she heard the storage room door opened, followed by two sets of feet walking into the room. Before she could call out who's there, she heard someone talking. "I just don't know Rarity," said the voice, which clearly belonged to Twilight. "While it was for the best, I still felt bad about it. Especially after Sunset arranged my date with him at that restaurant from downtown." Sunset eyes widened. She knew what Twilight was talking about. Twilight mentioned to her a few days back that she wanted to take her boyfriend out somewhere so that the two of them can have a serious talk. Thinking that it was probably about her friend wanted to take her relationship with her boyfriend another level, so she asked a few favors and managed to get Twilight a reserved seating at the most fanciest restaurant in town. Despite her friend's protests, Sunset insisted that her friend deserved to have a good time with someone special. But by the sound of things... the date between Timber and Twilight didn't go well. Sunset hoped that nothing went seriously wrong between the two. "Don't be so hard on yourself Darling," Rarity soothed, trying to comfort her friend. "You can't help yourself for feeling that way. Besides, he understands." "I know, but… I can still see the hurt in his eyes when it happened last night. I just wish I've done something different." Twilight said quietly. "I know Twilight, but what's done is done," Rarity sighed. "I always knew that you and Timber will break up eventually." Sunset widened her eyes in shock. WHAT!? Twilight and Timber broke up?  A million things ran into her mind. What went wrong between the two of them. Did they have a fight? Did Timber did something mean or anything to make Twilight upset or uncomfortable? The way Twilight acted this morning now makes so much sense because it happened last night. Despite that major bombshell, only one thing came into Sunset's mind. Why didn't Twilight tell me? "How would you know that our relationship won't last Rarity?" Twilight questioned. "A girl has her hunch!" Rarity replied. "But look on the bright side, at least now you can focus on your other goal!" "Yeah… if that ever happens," Twilight said quietly with a sigh. "Listen Rarity… I already talked to the other girls about this, but could you not tell Sunset about this? You girls are the only ones that I can trust you the most about this!" "But Darling, why are you not telling Sunset?" Rarity asked. "You know why Rares!" Twilight replied with a huff. "Besides, now is not really a good time! With her directing the party and that mysterious party wrecker… I don't want to make things worse! This could affect our Friendship!" "But if you don't tell her, things will get even worse for the both of you!" Rarity pointed out. "I just can't risk it!" Twilight shouted. "Just… promise me Rarity!" There were silence so quite sometime before Sunset head Rarity let out a sigh. "Very well Darling, my lips are sealed. But I still don't like it!" "Thank you Rarity," said Twilight in her grateful tone. "Now… let's head back to the gym." The two girls walked towards the storage door and left the room, leaving a hurt Sunset alone. She couldn't believe it. Twilight and Timber broke up. She told all of her friends about her breakup… but not her! Her best friend! And Twilight considered the others to be more trustworthy with the news if her breakup than her. Was she… afraid that she will spread the info to the school to hurt her like she did back in her bully days. She never felt this hurt since her friends thought that she was the one spreading secrets online as a cyberbully or that one time that they have forgotten her due to Equestrian magic and they don't believe that she is their friend despite her proof. She teared up as her heart was slowly broken into tiny pieces. Twilight… why? she thought sadly. Why wouldn't you tell me? Am I… not really a trustworthy friend to you?