Sunset had been hopeful, but still pleasantly surprised when Vinyl sat down next to her for a second day in a row. She looked up and noted Octavia sitting down on Vinyl’s other side. This wasn’t as surprising—if Vinyl was there, then sooner or later, Octavia would be as well. The two roommates were practically inseparable. Octavia’s attitude towards Sunset was also not a surprise.
Octavia was not normally considered the friendliest of individuals, and her clear dislike of Sunset wasn’t much of an abnormality from her normal demeanor.
Vinyl seemed to be deliberately ignoring Octavia’s behavior. Sunset’s friends were still in line picking up food, even though they all looked somewhat subdued--even Pinkie Pie, somehow.
She wanted to chat with Vinyl again. But with Octavia there, she decided to wait. Some of her old skills weren’t necessarily bad—she could tell that if she spoke up, it might make Octavia decide to say something bad. So she let Vinyl handle it.
Vinyl began packing away her lunch, without too much regard for table manners. Octavia made a disgusted sound. “Must you?” she asked, her posh accent lending the words their scorn.
Vinyl at least had the decency to swallow before talking. “Yes,” she said, then returned to consuming her light lunch as fast as possible.
Sunset snickered, trying very hard to hide it. Octavia glared at her, then sighed. “Okay, I believe she’s doing this just to get on my nerves because she’s mad at me, and…” She sighed again. “Fine, Scratch. You win.” She turned to fully look Sunset in the face. “I’m not sure how I feel about you yet, Sunset, I won’t lie. But I am willing to give you a chance, since you’re trying to turn over a new leaf.”
Vinyl swallowed again, then took a sip from a soda. With a loud belch, she set the can down.
Octavia turned her glare at her. “Must you?”
Even with the goggles, Vinyl made full eye contact with Octavia, saying, “Yes.”
Sunset burst out laughing, trying and failing to hide it. Even Octavia was forced to a light giggle, but eventually sighed and returned to her own food, shaking her head.
“Octavia, first, thank you,” Sunset said, recovering. Octavia looked up, seeming surprised. “It’s been...admittedly rough, both with everyone treating me...like I probably deserve, and even the whole ‘new leaf’ thing is difficult. I promise I’ll do my best with this chance. Second, I would like to wholeheartedly apologize for all the nasty things I did to you.”
“It’s all in the past,” Octavia said, waving it away.
Vinyl looked at her. “She never messed with us much, right? We stayed beneath her notice.”
Octavia didn’t answer directly. “I can handle myself, Vinyl.”
Sunset felt guilty immediately, figuring out what had happened without too much trouble. Truth be told, she didn’t remember ever messing with Vinyl, but she had bullied Octavia on several occasions.
Vinyl didn’t answer for a long time, then sighed, pushing her plate slightly away from herself. “You’re right,” she muttered. “Anyway, Sunset, I was wondering...even though you’ve gotten your schedule full for the next few days, maybe you have time for a coffee or something?”
“I was heading into town to get a few things tomorrow,” Sunset said, considering. “Alright, that would be great. We could meet up at Starbucks before I go do my shopping. Will you be fine if my driver joins us?”
“Your driver?” Vinyl asked, cocking her head in a confused manner.
“I, um, don’t have a car, and the possibility of getting one has always been...let's just say low. My friends volunteered to give me rides around town when I need them. Tomorrow was Rarity’s turn. I don’t see her as a Starbucks person, but I’m pretty sure it would be rude not to offer her, right?”
Vinyl considered. “I don’t mind,” she said. “Rarity’s a blast, though I admittedly find Rainbow Dash rough to talk to easily.”
Despite how quietly she said the last part, Rainbow Dash still shot a glare over at her direction. “I heard that,” she said.
“And you have to admit, you’re ‘best-of-the-best’ attitude can be quite infuriating at times,” Rarity countered, sitting down with her lunch.
“So, Rarity,” Sunset said slowly. “Do you think you could drop me off at Starbucks tomorrow, before I go shopping?”
“Of course, Sunset! Anything you need, I can give!” Turning slightly to Vinyl, she added, “Oh, were you wanting to hang out with your new friends?”
“Damn sure she was!” Vinyl answered, leaning over and throwing one arm around Sunset’s shoulders. “Talking about how much she liked cuddling and hugs aaaan-awaaah!”
Predictably, she fell off, dragging Sunset to the ground too.
“Oh, goodness, are you alright?” Fluttershy asked, somehow being the first to get over there.
“I’m fine,” Vinyl said with a shrug. She sat up slight, rubbing her elbows. “I landed on something soft.”
Sunset groaned. “Can I get up now?” she wined.
Fluttershy normally liked hanging out with her friends after school, but between Sunset’s discomfort and her vampire troubles, she was left with a lot of anxiety of her own.
Applejack seemed like the only one who had some level of calm.
“I brought snacks,” she said, nodding to the plastic bags in the backseat. “Chips and dip. A six pack of sodas.”
“Any apples?” Sunset asked with a wry smile. Her tension was still plainly visible, but she relaxed slightly when Applejack laughed.
“Yeah, how’d ya guess?” Applejack answered with a cheeky grin, turning down another street.
“It’s just one street over,” Sunset said, tensing back up slightly.
“I’m sure your house is lovely, Sunset,” Fluttershy said, trying to fix what she could. If Sunset’s house had really been that terrible, she wouldn’t have survived this long, right?
“There it is,” Sunset said, pointing.
Applejack eyed the small house, pulling into the driveway. A building scrunched between two other buildings, with minimal room for anything in the yard.
It was tiny, but it seemed to be in good condition. Couldn’t be that bad, right?
Sunset got out, but was unable to pick up the grocery bags before Applejack started carrying them. With a wry smile that showed she knew what she did, Applejack asked, “Get the door for me, sugar?”
Sunset nervously climbed the few steps up to her door, then began fiddling with the keys. Applejack said nothing as Sunset fumbled with them, suddenly snapping under her breath, “Tartarus.”
After a few more Equestrian swear words, Sunset popped the door open. “Well, make yourselves at home,” she said nervously, holding the door open.
Applejack had hardly stepped in when her jaw dropped in surprise. Fluttershy grew concerned, stepping in behind her, but the concern was short lived.
Sunset’s poker face was good, but not enough to completely hide her fear. “I know, it’s small, but I get by just fine,” she said quickly.
Applejack let out an appreciative whistle. “Sunset, this stuff all looks...uh, expensive as hell. How the...ahem, hay did you afford all this?”
“Um, I traded away some jewels I carried over from Equestria,” Sunset said slowly, hiding her surprise well. “Are...are you impressed by all this?”
“Sunset, I saw that fridge in a shopping catalogue a bit back, and I said it was too expensive for us to get at the farm. Wha—how in the--” She stopped, then slowly turned to look at a beautiful, exquisite portrait of a sunset over a woodland river, with a great stag raising its head to look right into the sun. “Fancy...shmancy…” Applejack wobbled a little, then set down the bags. She stumbled over to the sofa, sitting down.
“Well, it is small, but otherwise, it looks great, Sunset,” Fluttershy said. Over her years, she’d built up large amounts of money, and had a few mansions set up. The way Sunset’s place was furnished reminded her of those—small buildings, but loaded to the brim with the best luxuries to be afforded at the time.
“Sunset,” Applejack said, “you—you lived in a castle in Equestria, right?”
“Yessss?” Sunset dragged out slowly.
“So, this was your first...uh, low end house in...how long?”
Sunset considered. “Ever, really? My parents were on the lower end of nobility, but, uh, that was still pretty rich.”
Applejack’s head fell onto the back of the sofa. Fluttershy poked the sofa’s arm, feeling the soft, luxurious fabric.
She recognized it from some of her stints into sewing as very high quality. She giggled. “Well, Sunset, while I can’t speak for Applejack, I think your house is lovely. And her lack of speech is actually pretty vocal, too.”
“Sunset, this is—I can’t even--” She let out another whistle. “How many gems did you sell?”
“Er, a few? I just kind of filled my saddlebags and jumped through the portal."
Fluttershy giggled, bringing the grocery bags to the fridge. “So, a backpack full of priceless and rare gems?”
“I mean, they’re neither of those things in Equestria,” Sunset said slowly, running a hand through her hair. “Any determined pony with a shovel can get themselves a pail of small gems.”
Fluttershy opened the fridge, then stopped. The door had an ice maker installed, and the fridge itself had a few compartments more than she’d been expecting. She noticed multiple small boxes installed into the back of the fridge, but did note that the fridge was rather sparsely stocked otherwise. She made a note to ask Sunset about it, then paused before loading their snacks into the fridge. “Um, Sunset? What are any of these compartments? I don’t know where to put anything…”
“Uh, just wherever?” She shrugged unhelpfully, then turned to where the grocery bags had been sitting just a second ago. Two feet away from her, in between her and where Fluttershy had been standing. Sunset shook her head, obviously confused, but didn’t say anything about it. “Um, yeah. Aside from raw meat, I just shove things wherever.”
Fluttershy nodded, packing away the refrigerated snacks while making a mental note to stop using her vampire powers where people might notice—especially people who knew what magic was and might ask questions.
“Ah didn’t get any meat,” Applejack said, “’specially as ah’m pretty sure I’m the only one of the three of us who’d eat it.”
“I do eat meat,” Sunset said slowly, sitting down the sofa besides Applejack. “Just not pork or beef. Fish or fowl, but nothing I might have been related to.”
Applejack blinked, then turned to face Sunset. “Uh...sorry, sugar, I’ll try not to eat it around ya anymore. Okay?”
Sunset chuckled awkwardly as Fluttershy closed the door to the fridge. “Don’t worry about that, AJ, I just don’t eat it. Eat what you want around me, though I’m thankful you were considerate enough to do that.”
Applejack tipped her hat up slightly. “Well, alrighty, then. Whatcha wanna do? We could watch some movies, or play some games. Or...are you not into games? I don’t recall ever seein’ ya play ‘em before.”
“She’s from a world that I’m pretty sure doesn’t have electricity,” Fluttershy pointed out, sitting down besides Sunset.
Sunset jumped in her seat, looking from Fluttershy to the fridge.
“Somethin’ wrong, sugar?” Applejack asked.
“Uh...nothing, I guess. Just...got distracted…” She shook her head, and Applejack looked concerned. REALLY stop the teleporting now, Fluttershy admonished herself.
“Equestria has board games, but not video games. I have played video games before, mostly because I thought they were considered ‘cool’--” She grimaced. “—but I haven’t played in a bit.”
“Well, that’s fine. Do you have any favorites?”
“Well, um, this is kind of embarrassing…” Sunset ran a hand through her hair. “I’ve noticed that I’m something of a...’sore loser’. I get really angry when I’m not winning.”
Fluttershy cracked her knuckles.
Sunset looked at her in surprise as Applejack chuckled. “Well, I appreciate ya bein’ honest, Sunset. But Fluttershy knows how to handle a touchy temper.”
“So, what games do you play?” Fluttershy said, smiling confidently.
“Mostly stuff you probably wouldn’t be into anyway, so we could just--”
Fluttershy’s smile didn’t relent.
Sunset flicked on a wide-screen gaming console with a sigh. “This one is shorter, so when you inevitably don’t like playing—especially with me--” She hooked up two controllers, then sat down. “It’s a fighting game. Both players--”
“I know what a fighting game is,” Fluttershy said patiently. “They’re not normally my cup of tea, but I’ve played a few before.” She did raise an eyebrow at the characters. “But I didn’t think you played Thems Fighting Herds.”
“Because I thought it was funny,” Sunset said in a deadpan tone. “Fighting game, but all the characters are horses. Er, close enough, anyway,” she added, as Fluttershy locked in a cow.
“Do you...need a moment to figure out what your attacks are?” Sunset asked, selecting her own character.
“No, I play this one when Rainbow Dash makes me play with her,” Fluttershy said. “I used to play the lama, but this one suits me better, I think.”
Sunset’s eyes narrowed at the screen. “You know, I know enough about people to detect a trick coming. Just what are you planning on…” She blinked as Fluttershy pulled off an expert combo, then retreated just before Sunset could retaliate.
“Hrrm,” Sunset said, slowly. “Okay. I see. You plan on beating the crap out of me, then telling me how to be less angry about losing?”
“Hmm, more or less,” Fluttershy said with a shrug. “It’s what I did with Rainbow Dash, too.”
Sunset sighed. “Bring it.”
Some time later, Fluttershy decided to let the gaming stop. Applejack had been on the edge of her seat, watching them play. Truth be told, Fluttershy had actually had a lot of fun. Sunset was close to her own skill level, if rusty, and had made several victories quite narrow. However, as she’d warned, she’d gotten annoyed as the game stopped going in her favor, and her play had thus worsened. Which was how Fluttershy found herself sitting with a fuming Sunset Shimmer who was barely holding back, Fluttershy guessed, several mean comments.
“So,” Fluttershy said cheerily, “you want me to help you with that?”
Sunset took in a deep breath, then nodded.
“First, that right there was a good idea. Deep breaths whenever you get mad. Remember, it is just a game.”
Sunset considered, then took another deep breath, then released it.
“Second, rather than scream curses or about bugs or whatever--” She made a flippant gesture with one hand. “—think back to that very first combo I got off.”
“...Yeah. What about it?”
“How could you have stopped me from doing it?”
“Hmm...I guess I could have been paying a little more attention?” Sunset shrugged.
Fluttershy nodded. “It was a teensy bit mean of me, I admit, but it was more of a lesson than a play session, anyway. Now, when you lost this most recent match, what did you do wrong?”
Sunset stopped to think. “Hmm. I wasn’t paying attention to my health. I was going too aggressive when you had too much health. I was also letting my temper get the better of me.”
“Good. Now, any time something bad happens to you in a game, there’s a simple thing to do. Just ask what you could have done better. It both helps you improve, and keeps you from blaming the controller or something. Besides, taking a second to stop and think about it helps clear out all that anger.” One second of clear thought would have saved Celestia and Luna a loooooot of trouble back in the eighteen hundreds…
Sunset nodded. “That’s...good advice. Thanks, Fluttershy. And...sorry if I was--”
“Actually, I think you overexaggerated about how bad you were,” Fluttershy said. “You were definitely angry, but you held your tongue and didn’t even make any rude comments.”
“Even when she crouched up and down on you mid match,” Applejack said, elbowing Sunset Shimmer. “I’d have had some words with her o’er that one.”
“She stopped her combo for that,” Sunset hissed through her teeth.
Fluttershy giggled. “Again, that was kind of mean. But I hope it really got the point across, right?”
Sunset laughed. “Okay, okay, you got me there. How long did it take Rainbow Dash to get better about this all?”
“Better part of three months, while we were still living in Cloudsdale,” Fluttershy said. “You already have plenty of self control, so you’re not nearly as bad off as she was.”
Sunset laughed long and hard, leaning back on the sofa.
“Well, it is gettin' a mite late," Applejack said. "Should we pop open the snacks I brought?"
"Let's," Sunset said, rolling onto her feet. As she headed to the kitchen, she asked, "Fluttershy, do you...would you mind so much...if I asked you to keep helping me with my temper issues?"
"Oh, not at all," Fluttershy said. "In fact, that was actually fun. I can't wait to play again!" She even got me to stop thinking about all my other troubles...
It did strike her as odd, with her teaching Sunset how to manage her temper. Sunset's temper wasn't nearly as bad as what Fluttershy's used to be--the other vampires had tended to stay away from her, and she had earned the unofficial title of 'Flutterbitch'. Fluttershy had had to resort to using the dampener to keep herself from acting out, and it had worked. But without it, she was considerably concerned. After all, she now had to start feeding again. She used to not care so much whether or not she killed the person she drank from. She never really learned restraint in that area--no matter how much her teacher tried. Granted, his trying was only slightly less halfhearted than her own, given his own respect for human lives, but it was still what he saw as 'proper'.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden sweet smell. Ever so slightly metallic, with a faint bitter trace, but it got more tempting the longer she smelled it.
"Tartarus," Sunset cursed.
"You okay, Sugar?"
"Yeah, just cut my finger like a dumbass. Stupid apples."
"Hey, now, it ain't the apple's fault."
Fluttershy opened her eyes, peering at he reflection in the now dormant gaming console. Red eyes stared back at her. "Fuck," she whispered to herself. This was not the time for this. She did not need to drink Sunset's blood. She was better than that. They were making food right now. She'd deal with that.
You know that won't be what you need, a dark voice whispered.
She closed her eyes. Breathe in, breathe out. She opened her eyes again.
The ominous red glow had vanished. She listened to the inane, inevitably pointless chatter from Sunset and Applejack--something normal. Something to ground herself. Force her mind to think that she was a human, just like them.
I will not hunt Sunset, Fluttershy said to herself. I'm not killing my friends. I'm not killing anyone.
Never again.