It was Monday morning, and Sunset and Fluttershy had decided to walk to school together. It was cooler then the days prior, but that didn’t stop the two. It also helped that the area they were in never got cold enough to get snow. Sure, there would be a light snow one winter or another, but for the most part, it was just rain.
Sunday had been nice and quaint. They spent the day in the town botanical garden, and Fluttershy taught Sunset all she knew about the different plants. It surprised Sunset to learn Fluttershy knew about them. However, Fluttershy simply explained she needed to know about them to help her animal friends. They then went over to the park and ate lunch from a local deli. All in all, it was a very nice day, and even now, Sunset hasn’t had any hiccups or problems involving her emotions.
Well, Sunset though, it was nice while it lasted.
The two walked into school and began walking towards their lockers. Sunset had decided to walk with Fluttershy to her locker before going to her own. They had enough time, and thanks to Fluttershy’s mother, Sunset didn’t need to go to Celestia to give her the money.
As they walked down the hallway, Sunset got a reminder why she wanted to jump off that bridge. All eyes were on her, or at least, it seemed like it. She started to breathe heavily as even more eyes seemed to home in on her, surrounding her. They were all judging her, she knew; the way they were glaring at her told her as much. They were getting closer and closer. They just wanted her gone, so they closed in on her to suffocate her. She couldn’t breathe.
“Sunset!” A familiar voiced snapped her out of her thoughts. She blinked and found herself back in Canterlot High School. Everyone was just walking about, going to his or her lockers or to one class or another. Sunset felt herself breathing heavily. She looked to her right to see Fluttershy’s hand on her shoulder.
“Sunset, are you okay? I think you had a panic attack or something,” Fluttershy said, concern very apparent in her eyes. All Sunset could do, as she was still calming herself down, was shake her head ‘no’.
“Don’t worry Sunset. I’m here for you, and I’m sure our friends will be, too. Just try to be strong for us. I know you can do it,” Fluttershy hugged Sunset. Sunset blushed and looked around, almost going into another panic attack, but when she saw no one was really paying attention, she calmed down. That is, until she saw the rainbow-haired girl who was watching them.
“Shit,” Sunset exclaimed, backing away from Fluttershy. Fluttershy turned around just in time to see Rainbow turn away and punch a locker, leaving a dent in it.
“I should probably go talk to her, shouldn’t I?” Fluttershy asked, looking back at Sunset.
“Well, if I go, the next thing she'll punch won’t be a locker. I’m sorry Fluttershy.”
“There’s no need to apologize, Sunset. It’s my fault; I hugged you,” Fluttershy said as she started walking towards where Rainbow went to.
“Do you regret hugging me?”
Fluttershy turned around and smiled softly at Sunset. She said, “Not at all,” and she walked off.
Fluttershy knew where Rainbow went when she was mad at something: the back of the bleachers in the gym. They kept the equipment for the gym class there, so it had mats and bags for Rainbow to punch to take her anger out on. Sure enough, when Fluttershy walked into the gym, she heard mats being punched and made her way behind the stands.
“Rainbow, we need to talk,” she said as she saw the girl. Rainbow punched the mat in front of her a few more times before responding.
“Why don’t you talk to you’re new girlfriend. I’m sure she’d listen.”
“Rainbow, you know it isn’t like that at all.”
“And I was actually going to apologize to the two of you, as well as to everyone else. I know what I said was terrible, but then you go and start dating her and you call me the bad guy!”
“Rainbow Dash! Be quiet for one minute please and stop accusing me of something I did not do!” Taken aback by how loud Fluttershy was, Rainbow couldn’t help but stay quiet. “Thank you! Sunset and I are not dating. I don’t even know if she likes me. I was hugging her because she had just had a panic attack. I was being a good friend, unlike you!”
“What? All I’ve been doing is trying to look out for you, especially about her. She’s the reason we broke up. Don’t deny it.”
“Rainbow, I’ve told you before and I’ll tell you again: Sunset had nothing to do with that. I just wasn’t feeling the same way towards you. Sunset didn’t even know we used to date.”
“You’re lying to protect her,” Rainbow Dash said through clenched teeth. Breathing deeply, she sighed and calmed down a bit. "Listen, I’ll apologize to you about yelling earlier and even about Saturday, everything I said, even the stuff about Sunset. But, I still refuse to be friends with her, and I definitely don’t want to talk to or be near her.”
“That’s the thing, Rainbow. I’ll forgive you for what you said to me, but I can’t be the one to forgive for what you said to Sunset. That was completely out of line. She’s the one you need to apologize to.”
“Hell, no. I don’t want to be in the same room as Sunset, let alone talk to her.”
“Then you’re not going to be able to hang out with us for awhile. Sunset is part of our group now, Rainbow. You have to either be the bigger woman and apologize or find yourself a new group of friends.” With that, Fluttershy walked away, not even giving Rainbow time to process her words, let alone speak. Fluttershy didn’t need Rainbow to know that saying all of that both scared and saddened herself. She hoped Rainbow made the right choice, but only time would tell.
Meanwhile, Sunset started to walk to her locker, trying her best to get herself into a place where she didn’t feel like the walls were closing in on her. It was only slightly working. She was breathing more heavily than normal, but at least she was able to keep walking. She wasn’t prepared for someone to call out her name, however.
“Miss Shimmer?” She knew the voice, although she didn’t talk to the guy often. It was the voice of the school’s guidance counselor, Dr. Discord.
“Yes, Dr. Discord?”
“My dear, I haven’t seen anyone shaking that much since a certain pink-haired filly--oh, did I say 'filly'? I meant 'girl'--” It was nothing new. Sunset knew that Dr. Discord was the very same as the master of chaos in Equestria.
Sunset looked down at herself, noticing that she was indeed shaking. She didn’t know why. She thought she was fine, and it wasn’t cold or anything. She tried to play it cool, however.
“I’m fine, Discord, what do you want?”
“Sunset, I’m not going to beat around the bush with this one. You’re going to hurt yourself if you keep doing this. You might actually succeed in killing yourself.”
“H-how did you know about that?”
“I’m sorry, maybe we haven’t met. I’m Discord, Master of Chaos. Where there is chaos and discord and all around bad times, I’m aware of it.”
“That makes sense, I guess. But wait, why do you even care?”
“Because as both former villains, I think we should look out for each other,” he said smiling. “That and both Celestias told me to keep an eye on you, so I knew it was something serious.”
“How do you expect to help me, though?”
“Hmm… Do you want to talk about it? Talking about your emotions can help you greatly.”
“No, I don't think I want to talk with you. I don’t even know how to put it into words, really.”
“Well I suggest you talk to someone about it. You seem to want to talk to Fluttershy about it, and I have to say, you couldn’t have chosen a better person.”
“Yeah, and because of that, I probably ruined her friendship with Rainbow Dash,” Sunset said, sliding down to a sitting position. Discord remained standing, however.
“Well then, why don’t you just crawl back to Celestia. I’m sure she’d gladly accept you back. All you have to do is go through the portal and admit to her that you failed.” Sunset winced at this. “Oh, I see, that’s one of the problems is it? You think you failed, is that it?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. It’s something, I guess.”
“Here’s how I see it, Sunny: You’re going through some hard times right now, and instead of sticking through it, you want to give up and take the easy way out. But at the same time, you don’t want to admit to anyone that you failed at living your own life. Am I right, so far?” Sunset was about to shake her head, but she thought for a moment before slowly nodding.
“Interesting. Thank you for answering. Here’s a lollipop,” Discord said, pulling a lollipop seemingly out of thin air. He handed it to her and started to walk away, before she spoke up.
“Wait, is that it? You’re not going to help me or anything?” Sunset exclaimed, actually a bit angry at Discord.
“I could tell you the answer to you’re problem and what you need to do, but would you learn anything? Besides, you’re on the right track as it is. It would be a crime if I did anything more than tell you to be careful.”
“That’s all you can do?”
“Oh, I can do much more, but as I said, you wouldn’t learn anything. Now, off to class with you. I believe the bell’s about to ring.” Discord snapped his fingers, and the bells chimed to signal the start of school. He then walked off and snapped his fingers once more.
“Great, now I need to lug all my books to my morning classes,” Sunset groaned. She stood up and picked up her backpack and immediately paused. The backpack was a lot lighter than before. She brought her backpack around and opened it, revealing that all of her books except for the ones needed for her morning classes were gone, presumably in her locker. Sunset couldn’t help but smirk a bit as she opened the lollipop and put it into her mouth.
“Mmm, root beer. My favorite,” She continued to suck on the lollipop as she made her way towards her first class. She had a feeling that this would be a pretty nice day after all.
Sunset was partially right. Her morning classes were all okay. The only problem was that Rainbow was in a couple of them, and all she did throughout the periods was shoot Sunset angry glares. You must have had an amazing chat, Fluttershy, Sunset thought to herself, trying to hide from the glares.
Sunset couldn’t be happier when the bell rang for lunch. She was one of the first out of the room, certainly helped by sitting in the front of the class. She went to her locker, which was on the way to the lunchroom, and dropped off her books. Just like she had thought, the rest of her books were in the locker, and she packed those into her bag for her afternoon classes. She made her way over to Fluttershy’s locker and waited a couple of minutes for her to get there. She knew Fluttershy’s class was on the other side of the school, so it’d be a minute or two before she got there. She didn’t need to wait long before she saw Fluttershy round the corner. Sunset waved to her and smiled as she got a wave back.
“How were your morning classes?” Sunset asked the pink-haired girl as the latter opened her locker.
“They were good, but a bit boring? How about yours?”
“They were okay. How’d the talk with Rainbow go?” They started to make their way to Fluttershy’s spot in the cafeteria.
“It went… well, I guess. I gave her a choice: either let go of this jealousy and anger at you or say goodbye to our friendship. I just hope she makes the right choice.”
“Wow, Fluttershy, you really did that?”
“Yeah. I’m not really proud of it but it’s what I needed to do. I hope.” They walked out of the door next to the cafeteria and went down the steps to a small tree, where they sat down.
“This is a nice spot, Fluttershy. I’m surprised I haven’t been out here before.”
“I usually don’t come out here. Usually I sit with my friends inside, but we all thought that you shouldn’t be in the cafeteria until you feel better, especially now with Rainbow.”
“Wait, ‘we’?”
“Well, me. But I told the others we’d be out here, so they should be out here shortly. Actually, here they come now.”
Sunset looked over to the door to the cafeteria and saw the three others, carrying trays, walk out and over to Sunset and Fluttershy Rarity spoke first.
“Hello, darlings. How are you today?”
“Hello, Rarity. We’re good. We just got here, actually,” Fluttershy replied.
“Well, it’s a good thing we’re not in the cafeteria. Rainbow looked mighty frustrated this morning during class,” Applejack said.
“That’s my fault,” Fluttershy sighed. "I gave her a choice between giving up being angry about Sunset or not being in our group anymore.”
“Yes, that will do it. Her heart's in the right place, even if she’s a bit misguided about whom to be mad at,” Rarity said, taking a sip of her drink.
Her eyes widened and she choked on her drink. “Rainbow!”
Everyone turned to see Rainbow Dash standing in front of them. It surprised all of them how they didn’t notice their usually boisterous friend until she was that close.
Rainbow looked uncertain and rubbed her neck as she spoke, “Hey guys… Um, can you give me time to talk to Fluttershy and Sunset alone, please?”
“Why certainly, Rainbow,” Rarity said as she and the others started to get up. Applejack turned to the still-sitting Sunset and Fluttershy.
“We’ll be inside if you guys need us. Pinkie said she was going to buy me a cupcake from the food line anyway.”
“Yep! I got paid yesterday, so I can give you the money back,” Pinkie exclaimed, producing a wad of cash and handing it to Applejack.
“Thanks Pin-“ Applejack began, looking at the money, "Pinkie! This is Monopoly money! Who in their right mind would pay you in these?”
“Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake!”
Applejack just sighed and walked in with Rarity and Pinkie. Sunset and Fluttershy looked at Rainbow, waiting for her to start the conversation.
“So, uh, look. I’m sorry about Saturday and this morning, Sunset. It wasn’t cool of me. And Fluttershy, I’m sorry about everything that’s happened.”
“Apology accepted, Rainbow,” Fluttershy said, smiling a bit. She then looked to Sunset for her response.
“It’s okay, Rainbow. I caused a lot of trouble, and I can understand you being mad at me. I’m happy you’re willing to give me a chance. What do you say? Friends?” Sunset extended a hand to Rainbow.
“No,” Rainbow said, Fluttershy gasping. “I’ll play nice, sit and talk to you, but I can’t be friends with you.”
“It’s ok, I understand,” Sunset said. She was a bit disappointed, but she probably should have seen it coming.
“Here, I’ll go get the others so we can eat,” Rainbow said as she turned. She smiled as she walked, feeling relieved to be back in the group, even if she was still a bit wary of Sunset.
“You two have class together next period, right?” Fluttershy asked Sunset and Rainbow as they walked down the hall after eating, the others having already left to get their books. Sunset and Rainbow both gave an affirmative.
“Okay, well, I have to head to my class, so I’ll talk to both of you later.” She smiled at them and made her way down an adjacent hallway.
Rainbow glanced over her shoulder every now and again, making sure Fluttershy was out of sight. When she was sure Fluttershy was away, she turned and slammed Sunset into the nearest locker.
“Hey, what’s the big deal?” Sunset exclaimed. She tried to get free, but she was well and truly pinned.
“Shut up and listen. I don’t know why Fluttershy seems to like you, but she does. But you know what?”
“What?”
“You don’t deserve her or anything as nice and beautiful as Fluttershy. She’s way too good for you.”
“I-I know,” Sunset said looking down.
“You stay out of her emotions, and if you dare hurt her, I will end you, got it?”
“Yes…”
Rainbow shoved her one more time into the locker and let go, walking away towards class. Sunset picked herself up and walked behind her. As far as their other friends were concerned, that didn’t just happen.