//------------------------------// // Chapter 31 // Story: Alternative Origins // by TalkingToMyself //------------------------------// Sunset smirked as she finally found her target. To be fair, it wasn’t hard to track down Pinkie Pie, especially when she was as loud and obnoxious as today. No doubt she had another of her crazy parties in mind. Pinkie didn’t expect a thing as Sunset approached her. Instead, her goofy smile grew even wider when she saw the most popular student of the whole school “Sunset Shimmer! You wanna come to my “Milkshakes and Maracas” party too?” “Milkshakes and maracas? What kind of combination is… um, I mean, sure, why not! Sounds like it could be fun.” Pinkie, oblivious as always, just bounced through the hallway “I know, right? This is going to be the best party ever! And if you come along, I’m sure lots and lots more guys from school will too, and you know what they say, the more the merrier! And that goes double for milkshake parties!” Sunset suppressed rolling her eyes as Pinkie Pie danced around her and kept babbling about her party and how it one was going to top even her last one. She kept up her smile and waited for the right moment. When Pinkie wasn’t looking, her hand darted forward to its target, while she faked stumbling towards her. Pinkie easily caught herself (and Sunset) so they wouldn’t fall over and just smiled and babbled on. She didn’t even notice that Sunset slipped Pinkie’s phone into her own pocket as they separated. “You know what would be great? If we had some milkshakes right now.” Pinkie Pie gasped and stopped dancing “Oh my gosh, that’s right! Why didn’t I think of that? Wait right here, I’ll be back before you can even say ‘raspberry white chocolate supreme shake’!” “Why would I…?” Sunset didn’t bother finishing her question, since Pinkie just ran off. Just as planned. With her smirk back in place, she pulled out Pinkie Pie’s phone. As she had expected, she didn’t even have to unlock it since Pinkie didn’t use a passcode. A few buttons later and the little program she had found on some shadier sites of the internet began working. She grinned when Pinkie’s phone chimed from a new message and the program immediately sent it to her phone as well, then deleted any evidence of doing so. By the time Pinkie Pie returned with milkshakes, as promised, Sunset had a digital copy of Pinkie’s phone on her own. All her contacts, messages, mails and pictures now belonged to Sunset. Using a fake hug as disguise, Sunset easily slipped Pinkie’s phone back to the oblivious girl. Pinkie was babbling about her party again, but now that she had what she needed, Sunset just excused herself quickly, with her free milkshake in hand. Pinkie didn’t seem to mind as long as she promised to come to her party. Satisfied by her job well done, Sunset smirked as she walked out of the school and took a swig from her shake. Her smirk grew even wider. Raspberry white chocolate supreme, huh? Gotta remember that. A few days later, Sunset watched as yet another piece of the plan fell into place, along with half the school it seemed. In the middle of the school yard, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were going it at while everybody stared at them. It only took a few texts to set hot-head Rainbow ticking off, and now Applejack’s famous stubbornness wouldn’t let her back out from the fight any more. Sunset couldn’t hear what they were actually arguing about, but that didn’t really matter anyway. After a fight this big, Rainbow Dash would never back down or even apologize, not when everyone saw what happened. Not when they could think she might not be as cool as always said she was. Applejack on the other hand couldn’t care less what the others were thinking. She was convinced she didn’t do anything wrong, so she wouldn’t go out of her way to fix this. If anything, it was Rainbow who had to come to her and apologize first. Sunset smirked and headed towards the entrance when the two fighting bull-heads walked away from each other in different directions. They definitely wouldn’t talk with each other anytime soon, unless someone convinced them. Let’s make sure the only one who would actually try that doesn’t get that far. It was time for phase two. With all the commotion going on at the school yard, the main entrance was almost abandoned. Only one girl stood around by the old horse statute like she always did, with a large stack of flyers as usual. She never managed to give out many of those, mostly because even when she tried to talk to people, she was hiding behind a veil of pink hair. Sunset approached Fluttershy who already looked defeated just by the fact that nobody was around for her flyers. Sunset was about to make that even worse. Coming from the back, Sunset got close enough without being noticed to give her a good scare, which admittedly wasn’t that hard “Hey!” “EEEEP!” Fluttershy threw her hands up to cover her head, which sent all her flyers blowing away like leaves. She turned around and lowered her hands again when she recognized Sunset. She even had a little half-smile, because why not? Sunset Shimmer was nice and everybody liked her after all. Of course, as soon as Fluttershy let her guard down, Sunset was tearing into her “Geez, what’s the matter with you? Can’t you just say hello like a normal person?” Fluttershy immediately slumped down again and her gaze fixed on the ground. There was a subtle shift in her posture and half her face was covered by her hair again. She didn’t say anything, so Sunset just kept going and glanced at the flyers that were scattered all over “And you’re loitering. I’m pretty sure Principal Celestia will put you in detention for that when she finds out.” At the mention of the principal (or maybe the threat of detention), Fluttershy dared to glance up at Sunset again. In what had to be the meekest whisper Sunset had ever heard, she tried to explain “Um, I was just…” “What was that? Speak up for crying out loud, I can’t hear a damn thing you say.” Fluttershy sunk even more into herself and a deep blush now showed up from behind her hair “Uh, you really shouldn’t swear at school.” “You really think you are in any position to tell anyone how to talk? You can’t even look at me like a normal person.” Fluttershy’s blush intensified and Sunset just smirked on. This was almost too easy. She didn’t even have to be very mean to put pressure on Fluttershy, the girl just fell apart. Of course, that didn’t mean Sunset would take any chances. She watched as Fluttershy gathered all her courage to look up at Sunset, who wouldn’t give her any chance to recover “Um…” “Do you have a speech impediment as well?” “Uh, what do you..?” “Every time you talk, it’s ‘Um’ or ‘Uh’ or some unintelligible noise. Can’t you talk normally?” “Uh…” “There it is again. Geez, you’re so annoying.” By now, Sunset could see that Fluttershy was close to tears, just as planned. Time to send out the important message now. “You’re such a wimp. I don’t know how anyone could stand spending more than ten minutes with you. I bet even your friends get annoyed whenever they see you.” That seemed to be the breaking point as Fluttershy’s head snapped up and she started yelling (which meant, she was talking in a volume other people would consider normal) “That's not true! My friends like me just the way I am!” Sunset's cold laughter quickly doused that sudden rush of confidence from Fluttershy “Sure, keep telling yourself. The way you cling of them, all it needs is one wrong word and they'll throw you out anyway. I hope you enjoy hiding behind that statue, because soon that's all you're going to do. See you later, wimp.” When Sunset turned around, Fluttershy was already close to tears. While the shy girl tried to compose herself, Sunset slipped behind the corner of the building to watch her. Just as Fluttershy seemed to get a grip again, another girl walked up towards the horse statue. Fluttershy smiled and Sunset could hear the relief in her voice as she called out “Applejack, thank goodness. I'm so glad you're here, can I...?” Sunset just grinned and watched the inevitable happen. “Not now, Fluttershy...” “But... but Applejack, I...” “AH SAID NOT NOW! Gosh dang it, why y'all gotta be so annoying at the god damned time?” Applejack, still ticked off by her fight with Rainbow Dash, couldn't keep her temper in check. Fluttershy, who had already been thrown out of balance by Sunset, only saw how her friend exploded into her face and now fell apart in tears “I'm sorry, Applejack. I promise I won't bother you again.” Somehow, these were the first clear words Fluttershy had managed all day and Sunset's smirk grew only bigger when the tall girl ran away in tears, away from the school and away from any other students. Applejack barely even registered what happened, she just stomped towards the parking lot while muttering threats and curses under her breath. Sunset watched it all unfold, just like she had planned. Checkmate. No chance in the world these two will ever talk to each other again. She grinned and glanced down at her phone, and the new messages that were ticking in from her spy software. But why take any chances? She forwarded some of the messages to a select few people, with a few subtle changes here and there, and suddenly what had started as a school yard fight turned into a full-fledged social breakdown. Perfect. The bell rang and called everyone back to their classes. In the hallway, Sunset already heard the rumours she had just spread and even more people arguing who was in the right. One girl in particular caught Sunset's attention, and she stepped closer towards the little group she had gathered around her “Why, if I hadn't seen it with my very eyes, I would have never believed it! I know Rainbow Dash can be a bit brash, certainly. But I would have never expected such uncouth behaviour from her!” Sunset's grin turned into a small frown as she observed how Rarity tried to get on top of all the gossip again. She had already gained too much attention for Sunset's liking and people started listening to her. Of course, Sunset also had a plan for that. Keeping her frown in place, she approached the small group of students and stared straight at Rarity “Wow, you really don't waste any time, do you Rarity? That fight wasn't even ten minutes ago, and you're already here badmouthing Rainbow Dash? Isn't she your friend? If she was, you'd be there to support her... or maybe this is how you threat all your friends, huh? I sure am glad I'm not one of them if that's the case...” Rarity, surprised by Sunset's sudden appearance, didn't know how react, especially now that the other students started staring at her in a weird way, some even took a step backwards, away from her. Before Rarity could regain her composure, second bell rang and everybody scattered, leaving the flustered girl behind. Sunset stayed just long enough to hear a few mumbled accusations towards Rarity's behaviour before she slipped into her own classroom. A class she usually shared with Rarity and Fluttershy, but the pink-haired girl didn't show up, not after what happened outside. Rarity, without the calm friend at her side, was visibly distraught, almost helpless. When the teacher asked her a question, she could only stammer, which gave her some not-so-friendly chuckles from the other students, including Sunset. This was even better than she had expected. Applejack and Rainbow Dash wouldn't talk to each other, Fluttershy wouldn't dare get into their fight out of fear, Rarity would now stay away as well so she wouldn't hurt her reputation even more. Pinkie Pie was too oblivious to figure out anything on her own, but she would try to cheer up Fluttershy at the very least. When the teacher had his back towards the class, Sunset pulled out her phone and scrolled opened her spy software again. After a few minutes of scrolling, she found exactly what she was looking for. Silent auction at the animal shelter, huh? Well, I'm sure Pinkie Pie would love to help you Fluttershy... there! Before the teacher turned around again, Sunset put her phone away and focused on class. Next time Pinkie would check her phone, she'd find a message from Fluttershy, asking for help on the weekend. Sadly though, the word 'silent' was strangely missing. That would give their relationship the dent they needed. Sunset leaned back with a satisfied smirk glued on her face. With them out of the way, this school was practically hers already. And she would make sure it stayed that way. Even if it was almost a little too easy.