"Yes, mom," Twilight Sparkle spoke into the phone, her tone growing ever more annoyed as the call continued to progress without a definite end. "I double -- no, triple -- checked my packing list. I'll be fine." Pause. "Yes, I'm absolutely sure. What's the worst that could happen anyway? It's not like I'll be out in the woods one night, and get mauled by a bear or-" Twilight's sentence was cut off by unidentifiable rambling from the other side of the line.
It would be an understatement to say that Twilight's mom was worried. It was the first time her daughter had gone away overnight, as she had never been to camp or invited to sleepovers as a child. And to the amusement of her friends -- which was, for the most part Rainbow Dash, had been calling her all morning to check in and assess her daughter's current situation.
"Hey.. hey Twilight," Rainbow Dash snickered, moving as close as she could to the phone's microphone. "Pass the stuff."
Rainbow Dash's arm met its fate as an orange hand swatted her away from Twilight's conversation. "Wow, so original, Dash." Sunset Shimmer said, slightly chuckling. "Twilight's mom is stressed out about the situation enough as it is, so leave her alone, please. Then Twilight might just be able to put that phone down for longer than twenty minutes at a time."
"Well darling, I don't think it is quite as bad as you make it out to be," Rarity interrupted, peering up from her hand mirror. "At least the girl knows that she's prepared for literally anything."
"Rarity, fer the record, that's not a valid excuse to bring along ten suitcases just to spend two weeks at a camp. Ah'm surprised you even got them to fit in the bus," Applejack commented, looking behind her at the teetering stack of purple luxury bags in the backseat of the bus.
"Fashion is, and can be, an emergency too, Applejack," Rarity said, flipping her curly purple hair over her shoulder. "Not like you would know anything about that." Rarity shut her hand mirror and stowed it away in her favorite purse, another item that she had brought along 'just in case of emergency'. The fashionista was prepared for anything that the camp threw at her. If it included and was about fashion, of course.
Sunset Shimmer chuckled at the endeavor. The two girls were constantly bickering, and to her, it was kind of hilarious how they argued so easily, and with no consequence in the end. Stirring her from her daze, someone tapped on her shoulder. She turned around to discover it was only Twilight, and to her pleasure, was handing her back her golden phone. "Oh Celestia, finally," Sunset said in relief, tossing the phone in the front pocket of her brown backpack.
"Oh, actually," Twilight lowered her voice and twiddled her thumbs, "my mom wanted to speak with you all." She caught the gaze of the girls. "Just to go over a few rules, and to make sure you aren't going to be bad influences on me?" She looked up hopefully at the group of five. There was only a still silence that followed.
Sunset wore a deadpan expression. Applejack's left eyebrow was raised so high that it almost lifted off of her face and flew away. Rarity just rolled her eyes. Fluttershy stayed quiet while Rainbow Dash started breaking out in laughter.
"C'mon, you've got to be kidding me! Your mom's a laugh, Twilight Sparkle." Rainbow Dash hit the seat of the bus, going a bit too wild at both Twilight and the other's reactions. Nobody else seemed to be budging from their current spots.
"Oh well... I guess I'll speak to her first if you want," Fluttershy proposed softly before Rainbow Dash cut in front of her yet again.
"No no Flutters, I got this," she wiped the remaining tears from her eyes, and confidently swiped the phone from Sunset's hand before exchanging a knowing look. She took a second to calm herself down from the burst of laughter, and spoke. "Hello? Is this Twilight Velvet? I'm Rainbow Dash.... I wanted to say......yes....yes, but-- yes." Rainbow lifted the phone away from her face. "Gosh, this lady just doesn't know when to stop." Twilight frowned at that statement.
Sunset caught Rainbow's glance again and motioned her hand at her, edging her on to continue what she was saying. Rainbow nodded.
"Yes... ok. Ma'am, I'm sure your daughter will be fine. With my awesomeness and the others... whatever they're good at," Rainbow received a few condescending looks. "We'll make sure nothing bad happens to Twilight, okay? No bear will be mauling or attacking her on our watch -- though we'd totally be able it kick its butt. So, thanks for the concern and bye." Rainbow quickly hung up from the call, not allowing Twilight's mom to respond.
Twilight Sparkle looked over at her rainbow haired friend, slack-jawed. She tried to search for words but found none that could describe her astonishment. She knew for sure that her mother would be furious the next time they talked! Though good intentioned, Rainbow had disrespected her mom. She looked around at the rest of the girls, yet none of them seemed to share her shock. 'Was this something that normally happened with them?' Twilight wondered. She really had so much left to learn.
Applejack waved her hand in front of the purple girl, breaking her silent stupor. "You okay, sugar cube? It looks like you've just seen a ghost or somethin'."
"I'm sorry Twilight," Sunset Shimmer sighed, reaching over the girl to take her phone back from Rainbow. "Somepony -- sorry, somebody -- had to do it sooner or later. We had to just rip the band-aid off, y'know?" She looked at Twilight and felt a twinge inside when all she received was a meek and fearful nod.
"I just didn't think it was going to be so brutal, but that should be expected from Rainbow now." Sunset gave Rainbow another look, frowning at how Rainbow had hurt Twilight.
"Hey, don't look at me!" Rainbow Dash said, raising her hands up in defense. "I just did what I thought you wanted me to do."
"No offense darling, but Sunset does have a point. You can tend to be, what's the word? Hm... a bit abrasive sometimes." Rarity said, once again picking up her hand mirror and lipstick. "Ugh, why must this keep coming off?"
Rainbow Dash was about to respond, but was quieted by a comforting hand on her shoulder, Fluttershy's. She took a meditating breath in and out, prompting Rainbow to follow her lead. She followed, and a few treasured moments of silence came before the delicate girl spoke again.
"Now I don't want anybody fighting on this trip, okay? This was supposed to be a fun bonding time for us, and I want it to continue to be." She took another pause of silence, contemplating whether to say the next part aloud or not. "Rainbow, while what Rarity said can be sort of true-"
"Great! Now someone else thinks I'm a bad friend too," Rainbow Dash said in defeat, crossing her arms.
"You didn't let me finish. Rainbow, why would we be friends with you if we thought you were a bad person? We all make mistakes sometimes, but we overcome them together and continue to support each other. That's what makes us friends." Fluttershy finished, smiling. Rainbow hesitated before smiling back, if only for a second.
"Fluttershy is right darling, you mustn't worry. We were just.. joking around. Now, to finish this look off," Rarity took one last swipe of pink lipstick right as the bus hit a bump on the road, causing everyone - and everything - to suddenly lurch forward, knocking the lipstick across her entire face. "Ugh!" Rarity screamed in disgust at the streak of pink extending to her ear.
"Karma got you good," Applejack added, chuckling at the girl's useless efforts to wipe the streak off of her face. "Fashion and camping do not mix." She watched more of Rarity's struggle to get the lipstick off of her face, before she decided to step in and help out with the situation.
Sensing that everything was clear, Sunset moved away from the conversation to sit back for a moment and just think. It was funny. Just a year ago, this trip never would have happened. Just a year ago, she was a queen bee ruling over the school and trying to break the relationship between the girls that she now cared so much for. And with the new addition of the human world's Twilight Sparkle, the group felt stronger and more inseparable than ever.
But yet, she still felt as if she didn't belong. Everyone and everything here was meant to be this way. But Sunset, she was just a visitor, she didn't truly belong in the human world. But she didn't belong in Equestria either, especially not after Celestia had kicked her out of the castle. It would be a shame to ever show her face to her again. And her friends, the ones that mattered the most to her, would be gone once she entered Equestria. Sure, she would have their counterparts, but they weren't the same. They hadn't shared the same experiences together as she's shared with the friends she has now.
But even though the girls insisted that the human realm was her new home and that they were her new family, she still felt forever on the run. It was a downwards spiral, and so frustrating. And to think of what might happen after graduation. Where would she go? Sunset had no legal documents that even allowed her existence in this dimension, it was all forged and sneaky. Celestia and Luna barely let her in the school. But she wouldn't be accepted back into Equestria either. What could she really do now?
Sunset peered out the window, deep in thought and concentration. She watched as the cities turned into towns, and the towns turned into forests and farmland. Every place they passed reminded her more and more of Equestria, and how similar the two dimensions really were.
Little did she know, a worried girl was looking over her shoulder, hesitant on whether to speak up or not. For Twilight too was confused about her place in the world, and her new place in the group. Of course, she was also worried about her mom, who she feared would be absolutely livid the next time she spoke to her.
The rest of the girls had settled down for the remaining few hours of the bus ride and had resorted to playing cards -- or beginning to read a large stash of books in Twilight's case. It was nice, it was quiet, and it gave Sunset some good time to think about a few things, and dream about the camp experience coming ahead.
But the more Sunset thought about it, the more it felt off. It was too nice, it was too quiet, and she had too much time to think over things. Looking back at the previous hour, it had all been strange. There was something that almost felt... missing. She almost had her finger on it, but couldn't quite figure out what it exactly was until it suddenly came to her.
Sunset jolted up, and quickly turned around, startling Twilight who had been quietly reading next to her. "Where. Is. Pinkie. Pie?!"
Everyone stopped what they were doing, and turned towards Sunset, all shocked and worried. The pink friend was missing, and only Celestia knew what she could be up to. The bus driver had almost stopped driving for a split second, acknowledging the strange situation just as the students had. Pinkie Pie was big business. His distraction once again caused the bus to run over another bump in the road.
To add to the situation, things had been knocked around by the bump, and people scrambled to catch falling items in the middle of an already big panic. Poor Rarity had once again been hit with falling makeup and Applejack and Rainbow Dash were going completely livid over the ironic situation.
Scanning around the room, Sunset's eyes caught what appeared to be a tuft of pink curly hair hidden under one of Rarity's fallen pile of suitcases. Then to her surprise, a pink hand emerged from the same pile, waggling around frantically. "I'M HEEERE!" the pile spoke, before the hand rested back down.
"Oh, classic Pinkie Pie," Sunset Shimmer said to herself.