//------------------------------// // Chapter 39 // Story: Severed Ties // by Carol Heart //------------------------------// Normally Rainbow Dash loved going fast, after all, Speed was her middle name.  Right now however, as Canterlot sped by the windshield in a nauseating blur of color, Rainbow found herself pressing into the seat even more than the G-forces had already accomplished.  Turning away from the window, Rainbow’s gaze fell on the rigid form of their driver.  Principal Celestia was a far cry from her usual demeanor of relaxed control.  The woman sat tense in her seat, hands tightly gripping the wheel while she glared fixedly on the road ahead, which mercifully had been relatively devoid of other vehicles given the heated glare in the woman’s eyes. “Hey, Principal Celestia, how long until we get to Crystal Prep?” Rainbow asked, obviously worried about Sunset and in no way concerned about being in the front seat of  the questionably old school van being redlined by a woman who looked ready to incinerate anyone who dared be on the road.  No, definitely just concern for Sunset.  This unfortunately drew Celestia’s attention from the road to herself. “More time than it would take than if I threw you out of the car,” the principal stated in a low growl that caused Rainbow to flinch and cower even lower into her chair. “Sorry, sorry,” the shaken girl yelped quickly.   That tone coming from the normally brash girl was enough to draw the woman from her internal rage and take stock of the world around her.  Taking a slow, calming breath, Celestia released it and sighed, “No, Rainbow Dash, I am the one that should be sorry.  I did not mean to be short with you.  I lost my temper.  It was not fair to you.  You are not the one I am mad at and you didn’t deserve that.” “It’s okay, Principal Celestia,” Dash said, affecting an air of bravado back into her tone, “and don’t worry, we’ll make sure Principal Cinch learns what a mistake it was to mess with the Wondercolts.” Celestia sighed sadly, “As much as Abacus Cinch deserves whatever consequences that are coming to her for all the things she’s done both at CHS and Crystal Prep, she was not the one I was mad at.” “Wait, really?” asked the surprised athlete. “I’m not saying I wouldn’t enjoy seeing her get a blast of Friendship rainbow laser to the face,” the educator stated with a smirk before becoming more serious, “but, no, she was not the one I was upset with in this instance.”  Seeing the questioning look from the student, the woman answered the unspoken question.  “Myself.  I can’t help but think that if I had just stepped in one of any number of times I wanted to, this never would have happened.  None of this would have happened.  Cinch, Anon-A-Miss, maybe even the Fall Formal.   “From the moment she stepped into my office to register for school, I could tell there was something different about Sunset Shimmer.  She was so gifted and yet always seemed to be seeing things for the first time.  Her paperwork listed her as an emancipated minor.  Being on your own even at an older age can be hard and she was so young.  I wanted to help her, be there for her if only as someone willing to listen, but she was always so skittish and closed off around me.  I was too afraid of scaring her off to approach her.  Maybe if she’d had someone, the anger and loneliness that grew and came to a head at the Formal might have been mitigated.   “But no, I continued to be too scared to approach her.  Even after I learned the truth of her situation from Princess Twilight.  Because I learned the truth.  Sunset had fled her world, after fighting with her teacher, Princess Celestia.  It made so much sense.  Of course she was standoffish, why would you want to become close to another Celestia, when you had already run from another.   “After the Fall Formal, she needed someone to be there for her but I was too much of a coward.  I said it was because I didn’t want to dredge up old memories for Sunset, but really I was too afraid of rejection.  If I wasn’t so much of a coward, I could have been there for her then and during Anon-A-Miss.  Instead I could only impotently fight MyStable to try and get the site to remove the page and block the user.  Sure I handed out detentions and suspensions for those threatening her during that time, but she was suffering internally, with no one to be there for her, and all I did was stand on the sidelines.  Not this time.  This time I’m going to be there for her, if I have to fight through magic empowered students, winged monsters, or whatever else, I will not stand idly by again.  This time I’ll be there for her.” “But you were,” Rainbow said gaining the woman’s attention.  “Okay maybe you weren’t there for her like you were saying, but through everything you’ve been there for her.  I mean how exactly did an extra dimensional unicorn get enrolled into CHS.  I know the paperwork that takes, and don’t tell me an interdimensional unicorn was able to forge all that paperwork without raising some suspicion.” Celestia blushed a bit before saying, “Whatever background a student has, should not prevent them from gaining an education.” “And after everything that happened at the Formal, even excluding any of Sunset’s activities as Queen Bee, you can’t tell me that destroying the front entrance to the school wasn’t something that should have gotten her expelled at the very least, and more likely arrested.” “I would never have done that even without knowing about Sunset’s extenuating circumstances.” “I know you wouldn’t, but others would have.  I mean do you think someone like Cinch would have let Sunset get off with a few weeks of in-school suspension and a month of detention?  Of course not, but you gave her another chance.  You didn’t kick her out.  That's something that pony princess version of you didn’t do.  You gave her another chance and that meant more to her than you know.” “Really?” Celestia choked out, her breath catching in her chest. Rainbow nodded.  “Yeah.  Not long after the Formal, when things were still really bad with the other students giving her problems, we asked her if she’d thought about transferring.  It wasn’t like we couldn’t still help with teaching her friendship and it might be easier making friends somewhere they didn’t know about everything that Sunset had done.  But, d’you know what she said?”  Celestia shook her head.  “She said she’d screwed up in the past, burning bridges or losing those around her as a result.  She’d moved on or run away every time because she had no reason to stay.  But after the Formal you didn’t kick her out, you gave her a second chance and told her it would be hard, but knew she’d be up for it. “The fact that you believed in her, thought she could do better, be better, was one of the key things that kept her going through all the crap she went through after the Formal.  She wanted to prove your faith in her wasn’t a mistake.”  Tears burned in Celestia’s eyes, as she fought to hold them back, as Dash continued, “And as far as Anon-A-Miss goes, you were working on finding who it was and putting a stop to it.  I mean yeah, if you two had been closer, you might have been able to stop her from running or given her somewhere else to run to when Gilda and her crew hurt her.  Look, none of us were there for Sunset like she needed, but you’ve always been there for her.” “Thank you, Rainbow Dash,” Celestia sniffed tears finally breaking free, “I think I needed to hear that.” “Yeah, uh no problem, Principal Celestia,” Rainbow said, uncomfortable with the obvious emotions of the educator.  “And don’t worry once we get Sunset back, you can make sure she knows just how much you care.”  Looking away, the prismatic girl’s focus was drawn to the imposing building that was looming ahead of them. ***  Twilight stared out the window of the CHS van as the city landscape flew by, idly stroking Spike who was curled in her lap.  The blur of color outside the window was nothing to the blur inside her mind.  A week ago, she had barely worked up the courage to take a bus across town to investigate the mysterious energy readings she had detected.  Now she had not only found out that energy was magic from another world of sapient ponies, syphoned that energy covertly from a group of girls under the direction of one such pony she had accidently pulled to this world, been blackmailed by her principal for that energy only to release it against her principal but be stopped by the pony who was then kidnapped by her principal.  Also along the way her dog had gained and lost the ability to speak.  Twilight let out a sigh.  If she could go back in time and talk to her from a week ago, she’d think Twilight had lost her mind.  She was so lost in thought, the gentle touch on her arm caused her to jump in her seat.  Turning, Twilight was met with an apologetic smile from the pink haired girl she had encountered first at the pet shop.  “Um…excuse me, Twilight,” Fluttershy started in a low hum that was barely audible over the noise of the speeding car.  Twilight quickly noticed, though, that the girl’s eyes never quite met the teen genius’ own.  It was something Twilight recognized and understood well, the timidity and nervousness she felt every day in the halls of Crystal Prep.  Never before had Twilight thought she would be on the other end of this exchange and be the one instilling those feelings in another, but after what she had done at the Friendship Games, Twilight knew it was something she would have to get used to. “Fluttershy, right?” Twilight asked, remembering the girl’s name from her conversations with Sunset.  The shy girl seemed surprised at the recognition, large teal eyes finally meeting Twilight’s own as she nodded in confirmation.  “I’m sorry for what happened at the games.  I was just so upset and mad about what Cinch had done to Spike and what she wanted to do to Sunset and her world, I just…”  Twilight took a breath to calm herself and slow her heartbeat and rambling.  “I’m grateful you all are helping me after everything I did.  I never meant to hurt anyone or scare you, and after today, if you don’t want to see me, I won’t-“ “Oh, um no.  I mean, not no I don’t want to see you.  Um, no, that’s not what I was going to say,” Fluttershy cut her off.  “I was just wondering how you’re doing.  You’ve had a rough day, and I know using magic can be really taxing let alone with everything Principal Cinch did you after everything you’d done with Sunset all week-” “Sorry about that,” Twilight responded immediately, wincing at the memories. “Sugarcube, Fluttershy didn’t mean anything by that,” Applejack joined in from the back seat.  “We understand.  You were doing what you thought was right and trying to help a friend.” “She’s right,” Pinkie chimed in, a bit more life seemed to have been restored to her since their meeting before the Games, “What you did didn’t turn out so great, with the magic and tearing the fabric of space and time apart to punish that meanie principal, but we know why you did it and we know magic can be overwhelming…and make people go all crazy-”  “What she’s trying to say, darling, is that we understand, and we don’t hold anything against you,” Rarity said. Fluttershy reached across the aisle and placed a hand atop Twilight’s own.  “We all know what it’s like to regret something we’ve done, but Sunset was right.  At some point, you have to forgive yourself; learn from your mistake and if possible, try to make amends, but let go of the pain and regret.” “As for not hanging around you, there’s no way we’re not helping you rescue Sunset from Principal Partypooper,” Pinkie said.   “And after that, darling, we’ll be there for you if you want us,” Rarity added.  “We know a bit about magic and regret.  Maybe we can all help each other out.”  Twilight smiled and hugged Spike, but her answer was cut off as the van jerked to a stop and Principal Celestia called from the front, “We’re here.” “Okay, enough with the mushy stuff,” Rainbow called from the front seat, “we’ve got a friend to save.”