//------------------------------//
// Party (Edited) 
// Story: Seeing the Sunset 
// by CoverArt 
//------------------------------//

	Sunset and Fluttershy talked as they walked down the street. Sunset did most of the talking, about her fears, anxiety, the rumor, her blowing up at Flash, and the dream. Throughout her explanation, Fluttershy spoke rarely, giving some words of comfort when Sunset started to get worked up and appropriate reactions for each story.
“Sunset, that all sounds horrible, and I’m sorry you had to go through that. I’m surprised you haven’t wanted to just leave this world and go back to your old one,” Fluttershy said once Sunset had finished, giving a small hug to the hurt girl.
“It’s because of Princess Celestia. I know she’d forgive me for going against her wishes, but what if she punishes me for going back. Like, what if she banishes me? Or locks me in a dungeon?”
“Sunset, from what you’ve told me, your Celestia is a lot like our Celestia. Tell me, does our Celestia seem like the kind of person to lock you up for doing something wrong?”
“Well… There is detention, but no, you're right. Celestia wouldn’t be mad, either of them. I think they’re beyond holding grudges of any kind. Doesn’t make me any less scared of talking to her.”
“You’re allowed to be Sunset, especially if your Celestia is an all-powerful goddess like you said. But she’s also your mentor and, from what you told me, basically your mother. After everything, I know she’ll still love you, and I bet she's been wanting to see you since you left.”
“Again, you’re probably right. Maybe I’ll go back next time the portal opens up, if the anxiety caused by thinking of it doesn’t kill me first.”
“That was another thing, Sunset. I think you should see someone to talk to.”
“But isn’t that what we’re doing now?”
“Well, yeah, but you need to talk to a professional, Sunset. To be honest, I don’t know how to handle stuff like this.”
“Oh… Well, I mean, if you think I really should.”
“Don’t worry, Sunset, my mom knows some really nice people, and if you want, I can come once or twice if it’d make you feel better.”
“Really?”
“Of course, Sunset.”
Fluttershy looked ahead a few houses and saw a few cars at Rainbow Dash’s house. “Oh, look. Rainbow must have won her soccer game. She usually has a celebratory party with her team and Pinkie when they win. Do you want to go?”
“You want to go to a party?” Sunset looked at Fluttershy skeptically.
“Well… No, but it might help you. And Rainbow and Pinkie are there, so it should be fun, even for me.”
“Hmm… I guess, and if you want to go, I don’t see why not. It’ll help me get my mind off things, at least. Come on.”
The two of them walked up to the house and rang the doorbell. It was a minute before they heard footsteps on the other side of the door and the door opened. Rainbow stood on the other side.
“Oh, hey, guys. What are you doing here?” Rainbow asked, looking a little confused.
“Hey, Rainbow,” Fluttershy said, “We were just taking a walk and saw you were having a party, so we decided to stop by, if that’s alright with you.”
“Of course it’s alright. Come in.” Rainbow led them into the house, closing the door behind them.
“So, we got some pizza out back, some music in the living room, and fun all around,” Rainbow explained, “Oh, Fluttershy I wanted to talk to you and Pinkie in private, if you can.”
Fluttershy glanced at Sunset, silently asking if she’ll be all right without her there. Sunset noticed nodded slightly.
“Okay, Rainbow. Where do you wanna talk?”
“In my room. Let me go grab Pinkie.”
“I’m going to go get some pizza while you three talk,” Sunset said, walking out the back door into the backyard.
Rainbow came back with Pinkie and they headed upstairs to Rainbow’s room, Rainbow closing the door.
“So what's up, Dashie?” Pinkie asked.
“Do... Do you guys think I’ve been too hard on Sunset?” Rainbow asked, rubbing the back of her head.
“Well, a bit, yes, especially since she doesn’t really deserve it,” Fluttershy said.
“Yeah Dash, like what happened at the mall. That was, like, really bad,” Pinkie added.
Rainbow sighed, “Yeah, I figured, and looking back at it, I don’t know why I was so hard on her. I had reasons, but they were very flimsy, and I’ve actually enjoyed hanging out with her and you girls.”
“Yeah, after the mall, you seemed to be at least a little okay with her.” Pinkie said.
“I kind of wasn’t, though. I still didn’t like her because I thought she broke me and Fluttershy up, and even when I gave up on being angry about that, I was angry that they seemed to like each other.”
“So you were jealous of us?” Fluttershy asked.
“I was not jealo--" Rainbow sighed, “Yes, I was jealous.”
“Oh, Rainbow, I’m sorry for making you feel that way.” Fluttershy got up and went over to hug Rainbow.
Rainbow accepted the hug. “You don’t need to be sorry; I shouldn’t have been jealous, and I just hope I didn’t hurt Sunset too badly.”
“She has been hurting a lot, lately, but I know it isn’t from you. A lot of the other students have been giving her a hard time.”
“Oh, is that about that rumor I heard about her?” Pinkie asked.
“While I want to say yes, I don’t know how many rumors there are, so which one?” Fluttershy said.
“The one about what she did to get money,” Pinkie answered, “Are there more of those mean rumors?”
“Yes, that one, and I don’t know. Sunset only told me about that rumor.”
“I heard one that she was changing back to her alpha bitch self,” Rainbow added, “What’s the one you two are talking about?”
“That’s probably because she yelled at Flash. The rumor we were talking about was that she, uh… sold herself for money,” Fluttershy explained, blushing.
“Sunset would never, though. She’d have to be extremely, extremely, extremely desperate to do that,” Pinkie exclaimed.
“Yeah, even I know she wouldn’t do something like that. Now, what happened with her and Flash?” Rainbow asked.
“Lightning Dust told her Flash started the rumor about her, and she got mad because she didn’t think he, of all people, would do that. She blew up at him, and apparently, he didn’t start it, so she blew up in front of an entire gym class just to look like she didn’t change.”
“Damn… And you said Lightning told her that?” Rainbow asked. Fluttershy nodded back.
“She probably told her that to get a laugh; she’s always been a bitch. Wait, she’s here now. We should go talk to her,” Rainbow said.
“Do you think that’s a good idea?” Fluttershy asked.
Rainbow was about to answer when Pinkie cut them off.
“Hey, guys, do you hear something?”
They all listened. There was a chant coming from outside, but due to the window, they couldn’t tell what they were saying. They all looked out the window and gasped at what they saw.
"Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!"
The chanting they were hearing was from most of the soccer team. They were surrounding one of the trees in Rainbow's yard, a fairly large oak tree. But it wasn’t the tree the crowd was watching. It was Sunset, being held against the tree by two of the team members and being punched by Lightning Dust.



Sunset walked into the backyard. She wasn’t regretting coming, yet, but now she was alone with people from school who hadn’t been the nicest to her the past few days, and that was putting it mildly. She would just ignore them or make small talk if she really needed to and, of course, eat a slice of pizza or two. She looked around the backyard. There were a few trees here and there, and to her right, there was the small patio that held a table. On the table were the food items promised, as well as some chips and soda. She walked over and grabbed herself a slice of pizza, taking a bite. Unsurprisingly, the pizza was from Tony Pepperoni; he had arguably the best pizza in town. Anyone who was anyone went to him for pizza.
She was able to finish the first slice before the other people really noticed she was there. Instantly, Sunset felt eyes on her, though she tried to ignore it; she knew Fluttershy was there to help her if she really needed it. She decided to just get a drink and try to ignore the looks until either her friends got back or the people chose to ignore her. In the end though, fate had other plans for her.
“Oh, hey, I didn’t know Rainbow hired a stripper for this party.”
That was Lightning Dust. Sunset tensed up, wanting to say something, but if she egged them on, it would only get worse for her. She almost crushed her soda can but managed to not reply to Lighting.
“I don’t know, Lightning. I’m pretty sure strippers are better looking, even the ugly ones.” This came from one of Lightning’s two friends. Sunset knew they liked Lightning, but she was only using the two like she herself used Snips and Snails. His insult didn’t nearly have the same impact Lightning’s did, though it still hurt. She ignored it still.
“Maybe you’re right,” Lighting said from right behind Sunset. She grabbed a handful of Sunset’s leather jacket. “I doubt any stripper would wear something as bad-looking as this.”
This was where Sunset couldn’t stop herself. As soon as Lightning grabbed her jacket and finished her sentence, Sunset felt her self turn, and before she could blink, she was bringing her fist across Lightning’s face.
“Don’t touch me,” Sunset warned. She hoped that would have been enough for Lightning to just go away. Unfortunately, though, Lightning wouldn’t back down from just one punch. Just as soon as Lightning recovered from the punch, which was pretty fast, considering how hard Sunset punched her, she threw her own punch. It connected with Sunset’s lower jaw and made her fall on her butt. Lightning’s punch was way harder than anything Sunset could have expected.
“You think you can stand up to us normal people? You need to learn your place, you worthless piece of garbage.” She looked to her two lackeys. “Hold her against the tree.”
Sunset tried to get up, but the two guys were on her before she could try to escape. They pulled her up and held her up against the closest tree, facing Lightning. Before Sunset could ask what Lightning was planning, she received a punch to the gut, knocking the wind out of her. She couldn’t even double over to react to it due to the two guys holding her. She didn’t even have time to do much else but jerk from the blow before she received more blows to her face.
The blows continued for what seemed like hours for Sunset. Whether it was to her face or her body, the blows kept coming, and Sunset was close to the point of passing out. She didn’t even know how bad she was; she just felt pain everywhere.
Eventually, for once since it started, the blows stopped coming. Curious, Sunset looked up, albeit weakly. She saw Lightning on the ground, apparently having been punched. She looked up a bit further to see that it was none other than Rainbow Dash who had punched Lightning. Sunset couldn’t help but smile.
“Alright, everyone, party’s over. Get the hell of my property now!” she screamed, and everyone started to disband from the crowd that was watching Sunset get beat to within an inch of her life. Rainbow then looked at the two still holding Sunset.
“Let her go and get out of here before I call the cops.” She looked down at Lightning. “That includes you, too. If I ever see you three bullying Sunset again, I will personally see to it that your life is a living nightmare, got it?”
“Got it...” Lightning replied with a growl, “Come on guys.”
The two guys dropped Sunset and quickly followed Lightning out of the yard. Sunset collapsed as soon as she was able to and curled up a bit. She was starting to drift out of consciousness by the time Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Pinkie had gone over to check on her, and anything they said drifted off with her.