//------------------------------// // Chapter 11: Parks and Recreation // Story: Equestria Girls: A New Generation // by Naughty_Ranko //------------------------------// Sunset Shimmer stretched her arm to the side and turned her upper body until she heard something pop. “Oh, ouch, I haven’t done this in way too long,” she muttered under her breath as she lightly jogged along the gravel path that ran around the perimeter of Canterlot Central Park. She’d woken up early this Saturday morning for some reason and decided that it would have been a shame to let this sunny late autumn weather go to waste. So she’d thrown on some old sports clothes and made her way to the park, only for her body to loudly complain that she hadn’t properly exercised like this in over a year and that it was pretty chilly in the air despite the sun being out. The latter problem had solved itself after ten minutes or so of running, but the former remained an ongoing and occasionally painful process. “How do professional athletes do this day in and day out?” she asked no one in particular. As if to answer that question, someone in a light blue hoodie came jogging towards her in the opposite direction, and her smile grew as she recognized the rainbow colored hair tied into a ponytail. The figure returned the smile, and they both stopped, jogging in place, when they crossed paths. “Oh my stars,” Sunset marveled in mock amazement, “is that the hot, new striker of the Canterlot Wondercolts on a game-free Saturday? Why, she must be looking for benches she can warm here in the park.” “Har, har,” Rainbow Dash replied dryly, “make your little jokes while you can. But you better keep up to do it.” Turning around, she started jogging back the way she came. Chuckling, Sunset caught up and said: “How’s it been going, Rainbow?” “I’m doing some extra training on my own time. There’s this indoor tournament for charity coming up around Christmas. The regulars don’t like to play cause they’re afraid of unnecessary injuries. But if I show my stuff there, I’ll have a starter spot by spring, mark my words.” “I’m sure you will.” “What’s it like being back at school?” Rainbow asked with a grin. “You can make fun of me for not getting to play in the important games all you want. But you went through five years of higher education just to wind up right back in high school.” “It’s been an … interesting transition,” Sunset replied after a moment’s thought. “I’m seeing sides of our old teachers they didn’t dare show us when we were students. Did you know that Principal Celestia has a sense of humor?” Rainbow laughed. “She sure kept it hidden well. But how about you?” Rainbow wiggled her eyebrows. “You get any male students writing you love letters yet?” “What?” Sunset blushed. “Don’t be silly. That doesn’t happen in real life.” Rainbow looked her friend up and down. “You go to school in that, it will.” Checking over her sports get-up of black leggings and orange tank top, Sunset replied: “I’ve been wearing this since college. A teacher’s salary leaves little margin for brand sports clothes. It’s all I can do to keep my rust bucket of a car running.” Shifting her shoulders uncomfortably, she added in regards to her clothes: “I guess it’s gotten a little tight over the years.” “I’ll say,” Rainbow quipped, “you look like you’re about to pop right out of it, or at least certain parts of you are.” She gave a suggestive look below Sunset’s eye line. Blushing more deeply, Sunset grumbled in reply: “Where’s this coming from, gossip girl? I expect this kind of talk from Rarity, not from you.” Rainbow groaned. “You try sitting on a bench for three months during games and not start reading trashy romance novels you smuggle in your sports bag to pass the time. But at least it seems to pay better than being a public servant.” She elbowed Sunset and indicated a cart near the green of the park. “Come on, poor teacher lady. My treat.” Sunset didn’t complain, since it gave her the excuse to catch her breath while being spared the humiliation of having to ask Rainbow to slow down. Rainbow, who wasn’t gasping in the least, went up to the smoothie cart. “Yo, you have anything in the range of a sports drink with some protein?” “Sure thing.” The young girl in the cart turned, looked over and then her eyes went wide. “Ms. Sunset!” “Sunny?” Sunset took a step back and looked at the sign. “Wait, you actually run a smoothie stand? That wasn’t just some excuse you came up with when I cornered you?” Sunny gave her a sheepish smile. “Uh, yeah. I actually left it unattended when I ran away from you at the mall the other day. Got an earful from my dad for that afterward. So, what’ll it be?” “Gimme a strawberry, I guess.” “You two know each other?” Rainbow asked in response to that exchange. “Yeah, she’s one of my students.” Sunny put two smoothies down on the counter and in that moment really took a good look at Rainbow for the first time. “Whoa! You’re the speedster one! Can I ask you something? When you run so fast that you leave a rainbow trail, does your magic actually slow down everything around you from your perspective or do you have to think as fast as you run?” Rainbow, in the process of reaching for her smoothie, froze in place and turned her head to stare at Sunset. Sunset rolled her eyes. “It’s alright, she knows.” “Seriously?” Rainbow asked with that crack in her voice. “You’re the one always telling us not to talk about this stuff in public.” “I kinda had to. She was there when the Maretime Bay incident happened.” Rainbow scratched the back of her head. “Oh. We kinda went out with a bang there, didn’t we?” Leaning closer in towards her friend, she added in a conspiratorial whisper: “How much exactly did you tell her?” “Well, it all kinda came tumbling out when the dam broke. Didn’t leave out much,” Sunset mumbled. “You told her everything?” Sunset thought about that for a moment. “Let’s say I told her the PG-13 version. How about that?” Rainbow turned back towards Sunny, who was looking at her expectantly, and grabbed her smoothie. “No, time didn’t slow down for me. Ran headlong into a lot of walls when I was first figuring things out.” At that moment, the door at the back of the smoothie cart opened, and a man with purple mutton chops and wearing a dark vest carried in a basket of fresh fruit. “Dad,” Sunny said turning towards him, “come over here a moment. I want you to meet my teacher.” The man looked over at them across his rimless glasses, and a look of recognition crossed over his face as he laid eyes on Sunset. “You must be Ms. Shimmer,” he said, holding out his hand in greeting with a smile, “Sunny has told me a lot about you. Argyle Starshine. Pleasure to meet you.” Sunset took the offered hand and replied: “The pleasure’s all mine, sir. Your daughter is one of my best students.” He nodded with pride and looked at both Sunset and Rainbow Dash. “And may I say thank you for saving my hometown from … whatever that magical artifact was that caused all that trouble years ago.” Now it was Sunset’s turn to freeze mid-handshake. She glared darkly at her student. “I know what you’re gonna say,” Sunny said immediately, holding up her hands, “but I have two things to say in my defense: Firstly, I specifically recall you saying that I couldn’t tell anyone at school about magic. Secondly, you said that I had a right to know based on the fact I was there. Well, so was my dad.” Sunset turned her glare towards Rainbow Dash when she heard a snort-chuckle next to her. “I mean, she’s got you there,” the athlete said, slurping on her smoothie. “Kid’s either gonna be a lawyer or a sports agent when she grows up.” “Don’t worry, Ms. Shimmer,” Argyle said, “your secret is safe with me.” Sunset sighed and nodded, taking her own smoothie. “What do we owe you for these?” “Oh, please,” he replied, waving it off, “it’s on the house for the saviors of Maretime Bay, not to mention two fellow Canterlot U alums.” “Dad’s actually got a history degree,” Sunny chimed in. “You don’t say?” Sunset said in surprise. “What’s your specialty?” “Ancient Greece,” he replied, “hey, did you ever get Professor Zotz in one of your lectures? Is he still teaching?” Sunset chuckled. “I mean, yeah, those parts of his classes who can manage to stay awake at least. Did he always drone on in such a monotonous voice?” “He sure did,” Argyle replied with a nostalgic look in his eyes. Sunset frowned. “If you don’t mind me asking, why are you running a smoothie stand if you have a university degree?” He shrugged. “I wasn’t cut out for a university career or teaching. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you what job prospects are like outside those two options with a humanities degree.” Sunset simply gave an understanding smile and a sympathetic nod. “Oh yeah, it was either this or sushi waitress for me.” “My research wasn’t going anywhere, and there came a point where a steady income with regular hours became more important.” Sunset noted the sideways glance full of love directed at his daughter with the latter part of that statement. She nodded. “A job is a job. Those are hard to come by these days.” She took a drink from her smoothie. “And this is really good.” He smiled in return, then looked over her shoulder into the distance where the barking of some dogs could be heard. “Sunny,” he said, “isn’t that your friend Hitch?” The group turned to see a green-haired boy leading what seemed to be a dozen dogs towards the center of the park. Sunny nodded. “Oh yeah, he must be working as a dog walker again.” She raised an arm to wave and shouted: “Hitch!” “Sunny,” Argyle said in what seemed to Sunset a more subdued voice than what he had been using. “Why don’t you take your break and go say hi?” “If you can manage, dad.” He nodded with a smile, and Sunny gave him a kiss on the cheek before exiting the cart and running over towards her friend and classmate. Argyle kept his eyes on her until she was out of earshot, then turned to stare at Sunset, all traces of his jovial nature suddenly gone. Suddenly, Sunset felt very self-conscious about her choice of exercise clothes as she was mustered by a parent of one of her students. “I must say, Ms. Shimmer, you either have a very good poker face or you really don’t recognize my name.” Stunned, Sunset took a moment and her mind subconsciously dug back into a piece of her past she didn’t like to think about too much. Her eyes widened at the realization. “New Evidence of Pre-Minoan Settlements and Burial Rituals on Crete,” she cited from memory. He nodded. “So you do know. Although that paper was never published. The editor literally laughed us out of his office.” “Well, I’ve got a friend who is a bit of a tech whiz,” Sunset explained. “She dug up a copy of the draft on the Canterlot U servers back then. You’re one of the three people who discovered the Horn of Sombra, aren’t you?” Argyle couldn’t help but shake his head and let a dry chuckle escape his throat. “Horn of Sombra. Certainly sounds more dramatic than Artifact 35-A.” Rainbow Dash looked between the two of them in confusion, then said: “This is starting to sound like an egghead conversation about something I thought I left behind. I think I’d rather continue my run if it’s all the same to you.” She gave Sunset a penetrating look. “You good here?” she asked while her eyes added: Is this something we need to be concerned about? Do you need backup? I’ll stay if you ask me to. “We’re good, Rainbow,” Sunset replied. “Text me those details for the Christmas tournament later. I’ll get the girls together, and we’ll come cheer you on.” Rainbow Dash gave Argyle another sideways glance, then nodded, punched Sunset in the shoulder and resumed her jog. There was a long silence before Sunset could think of something appropriate to say. “I’m sorry about Professor Discerning Eye. I was actually signed up to take one of his classes the next semester when it happened. Never got a chance to meet him.” Argyle rested his elbows on the counter and stared wistfully into the distance. “You would have liked him. Good teacher, firm with his students but also really invested in their future. I wish we’d never found this damn dig site. I might still have a career and he’d probably be alive.” “Did the police ever find out who did it?” Argyle gave her a look and sighed. “They’ve never arrested anyone, but if you ask them, nine out of ten would probably point at me. He didn’t have any family, and nobody outside the dig team knew about Artifact 35-A. So when someone broke into his home, killed him and the only thing missing was the artifact, I was the prime suspect. I don’t know how many times they questioned me about it.” Sunset took another drink from her smoothie. “I believe you’re innocent, for what it’s worth. I remember pulling you free from that Shadow Colossus back then, and there wasn’t a trace of dark magic on you. There definitely would have been if you’d activated the Horn of Sombra.” He laughed ruefully. “That’s what I should have said then. ‘Your Honor, a forensic search for dark magic residue will prove my innocence, or at least be the first step in my insanity defense.’ Also, Shadow Colossus?” “Well, that’s what we unofficially dubbed it back then. The big one that came from the harbor Shadow Colossus, the smaller ones rampaging in the streets Shadow Puppets. We never did figure out what exactly those entities were, only that they were released from the Horn.” Sunset closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. “I know you have questions, too. We weren’t able to follow up on everything as … other things preoccupied us in the aftermath of the Maretime Bay incident. There’s just so much we still don’t know. We were never able to track down the last name on that research paper for example. What was their name?” “Bright Hope,” Argyle supplied after a moment, “she was one of Professor Eye’s postgraduate students just like I was. I haven’t seen her since the incident. She all but vanished from the face of the Earth.” After a moment’s thought, Sunset asked delicately: “Do you think she could have …?” She left it hanging there, the implication speaking for itself. Argyle straightened, taken aback. “Kill the professor? … No.” He shook his head and repeated more resolutely: “No. She could be difficult to work with, ambitious to a fault, but she was my friend. And she loved the professor as much as I did. She could never hurt him.” “Don’t take this the wrong way,” Sunset replied carefully, “but I’ve seen what the presence of a powerful magical artifact can do to a person, how that … temptation can warp the mind, even felt it myself. There’s only a handful of people who would have known about the artifact. So if I were the police, even discounting what I know, the woman who vanished would look a lot more suspicious to me than the guy who stayed behind.” His response was somewhat clipped. “Ms. Shimmer, I’m grateful to you for saving my life, and my daughter tells me you’re a wonderful teacher. But I’d thank you not to pursue this train of thought any further in my presence. This is still my friend you’re talking about, and I can’t blame her for wanting to leave everything that happened behind and not look back, even if it’s not what I did.” Even without her magic, Sunset could see on his face that he’d probably contemplated this and other possibilities while lying awake in the small hours of the morning. “I apologize, Mr. Starshine. I meant no offense.” Argyle took a deep breath, relaxing his shoulders and shaking his head. “None taken. This is who we are, you and I. We’re both students of history, and when the past refuses to give up a satisfactory answer, we will keep picking at it until it does, for better or worse.” They both turned as they heard a bark in the distance and watched for a while. Hitch had let the dogs off their leashes, and, far from what could be expected, they all seemed to behave as they swarmed around him. Hitch himself was picking up pieces of litter from the grass while Sunny was petting one of the dogs and chatting away with her friend. A Great Dane came up towards Hitch with something held in its mouth and wagging its tail. Hitch gave the dog a pat on the head as he took the object, seemingly an empty plastic bottle, and threw it in the nearby trashcan along with the stuff he’d picked up. Sunset began to smile while watching her students. “Maybe you’re right. But our past is not today,” she said, not turning back to look at Argyle. He thought about that for a moment, then settled back into his comfortable position with his elbows on the counter as he looked over and also began watching his daughter and her friend play in the park. “Our past is not today,” he repeated softly. “I like that.” With that, they settled into a comfortable silence while Sunset finished her drink.