For the second day in a row Sunset was seriously considering murdering her alarm clock. It wouldn’t really be considered murder if it was an inanimate object only she could hear, would it? Perfectly legal and anything. The worse part was her phone was agreeing with the clock for once despite the day before taking her side on more or less the same subject matter.
“Miss, if you don’t get up you are going to be late.” Geeves said even louder while not stopping the migraine inducing beeping that was amped up from her powers.
“Dear, I know everything is a bit much right now but this is something I think you need.” Marigold said, her voice barely heard over the loud beeping as Sunset laid on her back and covered her face with a pillow. She had slept maybe an hour last night after experimenting with her powers after the shock wore off. It was easy to figure out how to detransform from the fairy girl though she had to admit it felt really good having this power. Almost as if she was missing something before and just didn’t realize it.
Throughout the night she had also experimented with her powers and learning that while detransformed she could call up energy and used it like lightning though its power was multiplied by at least ten while transformed. She was sure that she could do more, she could feel the potential right at the edge of her fingertips though she just couldn’t grasp it. The lightning like ability just became natural once she transformed as if she had done it all her life. Then again she was a prodigy when it came to magic so she might be blowing things out of proportions.
Still, she had a dilemma on her hands as she had most likely less than hour of sleep and just wanted to go back to sleep. She had made a promise though and since she reformed she took her promises seriously. The dilemma? The promise was made to Fluttershy to go with her to help a pet store that works with the shelter get ready fro the Christmas rush as she did every year. She didn’t think she could deal with Fluttershy on this little bit of sleep after what had happened this week.
“Baby girl, you just need to take small steps. You are stressing over too much at once and you need to start small. She will be the only one going besides you so it will give you both a chance to clear the air.” Marigold said making Sunset groan before giving in and getting up to feed Ray and once again rush through her morning routine.
It wasn’t fifteen minutes later once she finished up that she was walking across Fluttershy’s lawn to the drive where Posey was helping load the van with a few cages. The older woman gave a wary look toward Sunset which unnerved the girl as Posey had seemed the easiest out of the parents to accept Sunset after the Fall Formal.
“Good morning Sunset, how are you feeling?” Posey asked making Sunset wonder just how much the woman knew about Anon-A-Miss.
“Tired, I almost slept in.” Sunset admitted as she fought the urge to rub the sleep from her eyes.
“You don’t have to come, I can do this.” Fluttershy said as she tried her best to hide behind a curtain of hair while coming from around the van.
“I made a promise and you know how serious I try to take them.” Sunset explained crossing her arms, “Besides, I’m not about to punish innocent animals for something they had no part of.”
“Do you plan to punish us?” Fluttershy whimpered, “We deserve it after what we did to you. We haven’t even been able to say how sorry we are yet.”
“Don’t try right now, because if I’m being honest I really don’t want to hear it. You girls hurt me and broke my trust.” Sunset said, “I don’t hate you girls, but I need to process everything that has happened. It might take some time before I can trust you girls again, but I won’t turn my back on you if you need me.”
“You’re a good kid, Sunset. If you need someone to talk to I’m always here for you.” Posey offered.
“Thanks Ms. Shy, but I really just need to work through my problems for a few days myself.” Sunset explained.
“Thank you, Sunset.” Fluttershy said quietly, clearly fighting off jumping Sunset for a hug.
“Let’s just get through today and see what tomorrow holds.” Sunset said, “Now let’s finish loading up and get going.”
“Do you have the money for you girls to get something to eat at the Silver Dragon, Flutters?” Posey asked as she slid the last cage into the van where there was now two large cages and four smaller ones. From what Sunset could see there were two dogs and four cats which must have been the animals the pet shop was going to adopt out for the shelter.
“Yeah mom, and don’t worry we will wait for you there.” Fluttershy said reassuring her mom.
“First, you don’t have to pay for my food.” Sunset said though she knew she really couldn’t, “And why wait there, why not walk back or hop the bus?”
“Didn’t I tell you Sunset? The pet shop is forty minutes away in Heatherfield.” Fluttershy said making Sunset groan realizing they were leaving Canterlot’s city limits and county limits. It made Sunset a little nervous, but she did promise and she wasn’t going to back out now.
“It’s fine, I can take a nap on the way.” Sunset said with a tired smile, happy with at least the prospect of a nap. By the time she climbed into the backseat of the van Sunset had passed out and slept the whole trip not noticing the worried looks on the other twos’ faces as the kept glancing back.
“We’re here.” Fluttershy said waking Sunset up as she slipped out of the van, the sleepy girl slowly following.
“So what do we do?” Sunset asked as she stretched, looking around as she felt a wave of nostalgia for some reason looking at the back of a building.
“Mom and I can unload the van if you go around to the front and let Mr. Olsen know that we are here. The closed sign will be up but the door will be unlocked so just go in and let him know to let us in the back.” Fluttershy explained earning a nod from Sunset.
“Sure, I can do that.” Sunset said as she shoved her hands into her jacket’s pockets and walked around the building and pushed the door open. “Hello?”
“I’m sorry miss, I seem to be a little tied up at the moment.” An older man’s voice called out just as a parrot flew over Sunset barely missing her head. She hurried and closed the door behind her before anything could get out as she saw two dogs chasing each other around, a cat asleep on some boxes in the sun, two more cats chasing after the parrot and a large snake wrapped around an old man that seemed to keep him occupied while not really hurting him. With a roll of her eyes Sunset quickly got to work and easily hearded the animals back into the cages before going to gently help remove the snake from the old man and helped him return the creature to his terrarium.
“Really Mr. Olsen, how do they keep getting out?” Sunset asked as she rolled her eyes in amusement while not meaning anything bad.
“I’m sorry there young lady, do I know you?” The man asked as he adjusted is glasses, “Oh, and thanks by the way.”
“I’m sorry, I’m Sunset Shimmer. I’m here with Fluttershy, they are waiting to be let in the back door.” Sunset explained, squeezing her eyes shut a few moments and shaking her head as if to get rid of the grogginess that was threatening to overtake her. “And you’re welcome.”
“Oh dear, we shouldn’t leave the poor dear waiting for too long.” Mr. Olsen said as he led Sunset through the store and into the back room while she looked at everything unable to shake the feeling that the place was so familiar to her.
Once the back door was open it didn’t take long to get the shelter animals moved into the shop while Mr. Olsen overdramatically recounted Sunset’s supposed tale of heroism by helping him recage all the animals that had gotten lose much to the embarrassment of Sunset and the proud smiles of Fluttershy and Posey before the older woman hugged the two girls and left them to do what they needed.
It took a couple hours for the two girls, under the direction of Mr. Olsen, to set up the shelter animals in their temporary enclosures and get them all fed except for the last dog which they ran out of dishes and food.
“If you girls want to grab some more from the back, I’ll watch the front and call in some pizza for lunch.” Mr. Olsen said getting a relieved smile from Sunset as she needed a break from how tired she was. She silently swore to never stay up that late again experimenting with powers that could make you even more tired when she needed to be up early again.
“I don’t see it.” Fluttershy said as they got to the back where the cat food for the store pets was kept and couldn’t find any dog food.
“That’s because it’s over here since Mr. Olsen usually doesn’t have dogs here that often so he typically orders smaller bags he keeps in this storage container to keep it fresh longer.” Sunset explained as she walked down the aisle a little and opened an opaque plastic container and pulled out a small bag.
“How did you know that, Sunset? Have you been here before?” Fluttershy asked, curious about the other girl’s knack of finding her way around the shop as if it was second nature.
“I don’t really know.” Sunset said slowly after a few moments of thinking, “I’m just so tired my body is kind of running on auto pilot.”
“Do you think it could be magic related?” Fluttershy asked as she looked around quickly to make sure nobody was listening in while keeping her voice low.
“It’s nothing to worry about Fluttershy so let’s get this out to the hungry guy.” Sunset suggested carrying the bag while Fluttershy grabbed a bowl and filled it with water and another for food before following and almost ran into the back of Sunset as the girl was staring at the boy that was around their age.
“He is cute, isn’t he?” Fluttershy whispered to Sunset in a teasing tone. She noticed Sunset swallow a lump in her throat while nodding slowly and brushing a lock of hair behind an ear which surprised Fluttershy a little as the fire haired girl never really showed interest in anyone before. The boy was wearing beige cargo pants and a maroon jacket with wild black hair and had a kind smile though his eyes seemed to have a harder glint in them.
“Well, I think both of you are too.” The boy said wit a grin, “The names Matt Olsen, my grandpa runs the shop.”
Fluttershy’s mouth dropped open when Sunset actually blushed and giggled a little before regaining control and put up a wall over her emotions while the pink haired girl stuttered out a, “Th-thank you.”
“It was nice meeting you but we have work to do.” Sunset said as she hurried around the boy, looking back over her shoulder to get another look when Matt wasn’t looking.
“She has a point.” Fluttershy eeped out as she hurried after Sunset.
“Ah, Matty my boy, can you do me a favor and make a few pet food deliveries?” Mr. Olsen asked as he pointed over to a few paper bags with receipts stapled to them. They were for older people who were capable of taking care of their pets at home, but they couldn’t really risk going out when there were patches of ice about when they didn’t have any transportation.
“Sure thing gramps.” Matt said with a grin as he picked up the bags and left after giving Sunset another look.