Chapter 4: Water Over the Bridge
Bad behavior is like bad magic. Throw it around too much, and eventually it will backfire on you.
She couldn't help the strained smile as she realized how true that little chunk of caution from her old teacher had turned out to be.
Sunset leaned up against the nearest wall she could find once she thought she'd given Lapis enough space, eyes closed to try and suppress the rapidly spreading headache that had been bubbling up for the past hour or so as she had tried to parse out everything that had transpired. If she was being honest with herself she had no idea how any of this would play out. She didn't even know if she was making the right decision.
And, if the long string of text messages still lighting up her phone were any indicator, neither did her friends. Her fault for sending a group text, really.
Sunset hadn't bothered giving them all the details; apart from Twilight, who wasn't in town yet, and Rarity, whose knowledge was all second hand, none of her friends actually understood what Lapis was like she did. Hell, her own knowledge was just as second hand as Rarity, just from a more reliable source than local television fluff pieces.
But it still didn't make any sense to her.
Another Gem. Another Gem on this side of the portal. I knew there were a few in Beach City, but I thought they were the only ones.
It didn't help that, for the life of her, she could not remember even meeting Lapis before. Sunset made a mental checklist of everything Rarity had said about Lapis during their initial phonecall: that Applejack had found her, near dead, on a sidewalk, that she was trying to get to the ocean, and that she had reacted badly to being called a Crystal Gem, the group name of the Gems she knew lived in Beach City. Apart from the control over water that she had demonstrated, Sunset had nothing else to work with to help her remember.
The only time she had ever met another Gem was several years back when the tall purple one from Beach City had shown up with...with that boy. Sunset pictured him, the little chubby boy whose name she had long forgotten. She pictured him crying, screaming, as miserable as he could get without her inflicting physical violence on him. She felt her gut twist into a hundred knots as she remembered thinking that, if it weren't for the Gem and her lack of magic, she probably would have tried.
Yeah, you don't remember hurting her. Doesn't mean you didn't.
It kept coming back, didn't it? Every time she tried burying her old self she found fresh new ways to open up the wounds. If it wasn't from her school it was from her actions. If it wasn't from a pony it was from a Gem. And if nothing else worked, she always had good old fashioned regret to fall back on.
She did her best to let those feelings disappear on their own; bottling them up only ended in her lashing out at people. She couldn't get tangled up in what she'd done. What she had to do now was figure out where to go from here.
Sunset opened her eyes, letting the slowly descending sun filter onto her face. This was the time of day she loved best, when it was bright enough to be warm but not overwhelmingly hot either. Back in the old days, before all of this, this was when she would spend most of her pleasant moments with Celestia. No squabbling over ethics, no demanding more advanced lessons just...teacher and student, talking and laughing as if they weren't at each others throats most of the time.
A flurry of old questions and internal debates were quashed as quickly as they had arisen. She didn't have time to be mired in the old doubts on the best of days, let alone one where things had gone so completely off the rails as today had. If Lapis was going to show up tonight - even if it was to take another shot at her - she had to be ready.
And, as with most of her plans these days, the first step to getting ready was calling the girls.
***
If there was one thing Sunset could say for the gang, it's that they were enthusiastic. Well, that and a bunch of worrywarts.
To their credit, the dogpile of friendship had been streamlined over the past few months to a solid group hug; back in the day they literally jumped on top of her as a collective group if something momentous or terrible happened. Hell, it could be something as simple as a trophy for a Battle of the Bands contest. But it was still a long affair, each one asking a million questions a minute as they checked for signs of "water damage" before she finally managed to calm all of them down; she had gotten lucky that Pinkie Pie was off on another bit of business or it would have taken twice as long to do it. It had been the reason she picked such an out of the way cafe to have this meeting in the first place; so few people even knew this place existed that it was perfect for their specific brand of, for lack of a better term, pep rallies. That and it was the one pastry shop in town Pinkie hadn't tried to break into for supplies yet.
Fluttershy was probably the worst off, looking completely miserable until Sunset managed to get her to relax. She had no reason to feel guilty if Sunset had talked her into letting her go in the first place, a fact she affirmed as she brushed aside one of her errant tears.
"You beat yourself up way too much, Flutters. No offense."
The old nickname brought her some solace, as Fluttershy meekly smiled back. It was a bit underhanded, using her special skills like this, but sometimes saying what people wanted to hear was just what they needed from time to time.
As for the others, it was time for a bit more...honesty. Rainbow Dash sat stony faced across from her, as Applejack seemed unable to look her in the eye at all. Rarity had filled her in on everything that happened after she had run off, and even though they seemed to have gotten over their conflict with each other, there was still some explanations to be had. Especially for what was about to come next.
Rainbow was the first to break the new silence, having spent a bit of time reaffirming everything Sunset had said to Fluttershy before getting down to business...
"Would you mind explaining to me what the hell happened back there?"
...in her usual graceful style.
Rainbow did not once take her eyes off of Sunset, looking all over her expression for some kind of hint. The sad truth of the matter was, as crass as she was being about it, Sunset knew that Rainbow was right. She had always responded badly to being left in the dark on stuff like this, and running off to her almost certain death likely hadn't put Rainbow in much of a good mood to start with.
Sunset leaned forward, staring down at her coffee as she tried to think of a response. "What, why I went after her?"
Rainbow rolled her eyes, scoffing in spite of the annoyed stares she received from the others. "No, I know exactly why you did that. You're worse than Fluttershy with stray kittens, I swear to God..." Applejack cleared her throat with an audible edge, and Rainbow Dash returned to the point. "I'm talking about what that girl was. You were the only one who didn't completely flip out when you saw her, you knew exactly what to do with her...what gives? Is she from Equestria or something?"
Sunset could see Rarity start ramping up in her head for an explanation, but she shook her head to let herself speak first. "Well, no, she's not from Equestria. Technically speaking, based on what she said and how the portal works, she's probably lived on this planet a lot longer than Equestria has even existed. It's just we've had more recent experience with her people than this side has...relatively speaking."
Applejack nodded. "Yeah, she mentioned that she was a Gem or somethin' like that. Is that some kind of magical fairy stuff?"
"Aliens, actually. If I'm being honest we don't know a whole lot about them. The only ones who've even seen a live Gem in Equestria would be the Princesses; they technically haven't been seen in centuries back home."
Sunset smiled a little as Rainbow spat out her soda and Applejack put her hand in her head. It was always fun dropping bits of information like this to see their response.
"Aliens? Seriously, Sunset?"
Sunset shrugged at Rainbow's surprise. "Well, technically I'm more horse than human; why's the alien thing such a shock?"
Rarity nodded. "Is that why we weren't able to find any of the body parts you said fell off of her? Alien physiology?"
"Well, kind of. You were actually really close when you said what you did. That body wasn't actually her body, more of a...hologram."
Rarity took a moment to process this information, and managed it much faster than either Rainbow or Apple. "So when they called themselves Gems, they meant it literally. I always assumed that their gemstones were simply a power source. No wonder they keep wearing the same clothes."
Sunset nodded. They were taking it pretty well, all things told; although, again, they had seen a lot of various nonsense between her and Twilight. It took a lot to legitimately shock them. Lucky for her that she had just the thing to do that.
"That's why I need to talk to her again. And I'd like all of you to help me."
The look on all of their faces was priceless; if it weren't for how serious the situation was she might have snapped a photo. But she decided not to.
Not when the real insanity was just beginning.
Rainbow Dash, predictably, was the first to respond, and just as predictably in a fit of peak. "Ok, so this bitch tries to kill you. No no, she tries to kill you TWICE."
"Well, hot water can't really kill you when-"
"WHATEVER. Fact is, she TRIED. And when she starts puking water she ran off like a coward. And now you wanna set up a play date?"
Sunset shook her head, Rainbow's obstinance slowly taking its toll on her patience. "Look, I know this seems silly-"
"It's not silly, it's stupid! The second you walk in the door she's going to try and cut you in half, and who knows what she'll do to the rest of us! Sunset, I get it, helping people is what you do, but you have to draw a line somewhere! She's crazy! She's dangerous! She's-"
"She's scared. She's alone. She's angry. She made a mistake, and she's lashing out because of it. Sound familiar?"
Rainbow glanced up at Sunset, and a heavy blush fell on her face as she turned her head away. She didn't want to have to do that, but it was the only way to make her understand.
Applejack rested her hand on Rainbow's shoulder as she looked into Sunset's eyes. "Sunset, Ah can't say Ah'm too keen on this myself, but if you really think this is the best way to handle it Ah'll back your play. You're right about one thing, Lapis isn't in her right mind, and Ah don't think we should throw her under the bus cuz of somethin' like that."
Rarity nodded, standing up from her seat and setting her notepad down to look at the pair. "Agreed. The poor dear probably doesn't even have a place to stay if what you said is true, and goodness knows I can be a real witch if I don't have a proper bed and breakfast."
"It wasn't just anger, though." Fluttershy's quiet voice broke out, the softness of it drawing attention so that they could hear her better. It made her a surprisingly noticeable speaker, as Twilight had observed. "When she saw you, Sunset...the way she reacted...it's like she saw a monster. If she lashes out like that again..."
"Then I'll handle it. As she is right now she's really not a threat to anyone."
Rainbow Dash took a moment to consider the statement before replying. "Wait, didn't you say you healed her?"
Sunset shook her head; this was the root of the issue, so it was best to get it all out in the open. "No. Like I said, I couldn't heal her Gem, I just managed to stabilize her body. But it's like treating a cold, getting rid of the symptoms doesn't change anything. If her Gem is cracked that badly, it will only get worse, and whatever put her in the state she was in didn't do any favors."
Rarity nodded. "I see. So you want to find a more permanent solution."
"I think I've already found one. It's just an issue of timing. That's why I need you guys with me on this. It'll be hard enough getting her to stay in town, but she seems to like all of you. And maybe, if that magic worked..."
"Then she might be more obliged to listen to you," Applejack nodded.
"Maybe. It's no guarantee. But I have to try."
Sunset stood up, looking out at the clock across the street. She had about an hour to get to the meeting spot, if Lapis even showed up. It was coming down to it, and she only hoped that all of this would work.
But as she looked at the others, who stood up with her, she knew that no matter what...she wouldn't be alone.
Applejack looked around, seeming to put together a piece of the puzzle Sunset had forgotten. "Sugar, you keep talkin' about needing all of us, but Ah haven't seen Pinkie Pie all day. Has she called you at all?"
Rarity and Rainbow also looked surprised, each one shaking their heads until they noticed Sunset, a slightly mischievous smile crossing her face.
"Actually, she called me. I filled her in on what happened and she said she was already on her way to meet Lapis. So I asked Lapis to meet her at Sugarcube Corner in an hour."
"What? How is it that even..."
They all glanced at each other, realizing the answer before they even had to say it.
"Pinkie Pie."
Rarity shook her head. "Well, we can only hope she leaves a good impression. It'll definitely be a lasting one."
Of that there was no doubt.
---
For a species with precisely zero spectrum vision, humans certainly liked their colors.
Lapis Lazuli couldn't help but find a sense of familiarity staring at the bright pastel pinks and blues of the shop Sunset had directed her towards, all sorts of spiraling designs and balloons decorating the front, forming shapes she could vaguely identify as human pastries. She'd never had a chance to smell them, of course, and even from outside the shop the aroma was cloying and overpowering, but by no means unpleasant. The whole thing reminded her of the Nacre Houses where Pearls were raised and trained in the fine arts.
It occurred to her that this was the first nice thing that she had found all day, ignoring the nagging sensation in her subconscious that always reared its head when she lied. Bad enough when her regular mindset had no idea how to handle what had happened.
Lapis had been trying to piece together her memories over the past two days, but with the sheer amount of them it had been slow going. What she remembered, she remembered with extreme clarity, but it kept displacing other memories and making even the most important ones vague and dim. So she tended to focus on the most recent sets of years to keep her sanity in check, and it was that clarity that was the problem.
She healed me. I was on the verge of shattering...and she healed me.
The Sunset she remembered was evil. There was no doubt about that. She was a bully and a thug, and what she couldn't knock down by force she knocked down by humiliation. And it was only when she was free, knew what she did, that her hatred became tangible. When it became real, when she understood...it burned in her.
But the Sunset she had seen now had saved her. A part of Lapis wondered if it could be some kind of bluff, to get her to drop her guard, but she'd had the perfect opportunity to finish her then and there, no complications.
She was the same person, but displayed two completely different personalities. There was evolution, and then there was this. It didn't make any sense, and only one of them could be real. One Sunset had promised to help her, one Sunset would try and kill her. And one Sunset wouldn't hesitate to hurt Steven if given the chance. It was a risk she couldn't take.
So then why hadn't she run yet? Was it strategy? Curiosity? Despair?
Gratitude?
Lapis had no idea. But she knew one thing: with a cracked Gem and six different people looking for her, she wasn't exactly in a position to run or fight.The best approach was to accept the olive branch and figure out what was happening; for whatever reason, Sunset wanted to play this game off the battlefield, and Lapis was more than happy to play it that way.
It took Lapis a moment or two to remember how human doors worked; she had been so used to Gem Encoded Doors back home that she still had a tough time understanding door knobs. But a quick memory recollect gave her the information and, to her surprise, it was unlocked. Lapis tentatively stepped into the closed bakery, the bright colors outside belying how dark and gloomy the interior was at night. To her frustration, her low light vision was still on the fritz, making navigating the room somewhat treacherous. Her memory of Steven in the donut shop made things easier, though, and she could make out the vague shapes of chairs and tables, and a counter top where she guessed there would be a light switch.
"Hello? Sunset? Applejack?" Lapis wasn't sure why she thought anyone else would be here, but a familiar face would decrease the tension a little. She continued to look around, and was so focused on that she didn't hear the shutters click until it was too late.
In an instant, every window and door had been closed off, plunging the room into total darkness. On pure instinct, Lapis mentally reached out for any kind of water she could find, but there was no response. Even the pipes had been totally cleared out. A swell of panic rose in Lapis as she realized she was completely defenseless.
Lapis kept her ears open for any disruption, any way to observe her surroundings. But without being surrounded by water she was as blind as any other Gem in the dark. All she could hear was cars outside and the hum of refrigeration.
It was only as the last car in a string of traffic passed by that she heard a hand land on the glass countertop, a rustle disrupting the air as feet landed on the ground.
"Behind you."
Lapis responded immediately, swinging her arm to swat at her attacker, only to meet with air and the sound of her guest landing behind her again.
"Don't you know how to greet a new friend?"
Her voice was low, soft, unrecognizable, like it was being disguised somehow. A delicate hand landed on her shoulder, the arm Lapis had used to attack her before. Whatever was going on, she had the advantage here.
A creeping fear began to crawl up Lapis's spine. This was a different entity from Sunset altogether. She couldn't even begin to sense anything about her.
"Turn around. Slowly. And shake my hand."
The iron behind her words was palpable. Lapis knew that if she tried anything else, her Gem was completely exposed to an attack. If this was a trick of Sunset's, she had to play into it. She was no longer in control here.
Lapis turned slowly, as instructed, and in spite of the pitch darkness she could make out the dimmest of outlines of a human being, tall and with straight, long hair, illuminated from some unknown light source. Her hand, decorated with baubles, extended out to her.
She hesitated for a moment, and as she did the woman's hair began to lift in spite of itself. A catlike grin became visible and Lapis immediately realized it was now or never. She clasped tightly onto the outstretched hand...
A loud, long, and wet fart cut through the room as every light in the place went up.
Lapis stared at the hand of her attacker, straight hair replaced by a pile of pink cotton candy locks and wicked smile replaced by a genuinely happy one. A brightly colored t-shirt and balloon decorated miniskirt completed the mad ensemble as Lapis tried to process what she had just seen. It took a moment for her to recognize the girl as the tall, pink haired woman who had seemingly lead her to Applejack earlier in the day, a fact she barely processed on top of everything else as she tried to keep her cool.
Tried, and failed. Lapis clasped her hand onto her mouth to hold in the laughter, but the contrast of atmosphere and the obscene noises were just too much as she buckled down to her knees. Maybe it was the stress from the past few days or maybe it was just her weakness for blue comedy, but she had soon completely given up as she started to howl raucously.
"The old whoopee cushion in the hand during a creepy haunted house trick! Works every time!" The pink haired prankster waited for a moment or two for the laughter to subside before helping the Gem to her feet. Lapis was still chuckling as she wiped the tears from her eyes, but she did manage to turn to see her strange new companion.
"Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie! Full time party girl, part time baker, quarter time world saver, and I make a pretty mean chimichanga too! And you're Lapis Lazuli!"
In her subsiding laughter, it took her a minute to process what she had just said. The slight traces of a frown crossed her face. "You know my name? So did Sunset set all this up?"
Pinkie Pie shook her head. "No, not really! She didn't even know about it until Rainbow mentioned it to her. I mean, she told me your name and what went down between you two, that was it. I already had a party set up for you anyway when I saw you earlier, so I just moved it out here!" She leaned up to Lapis, whispering almost conspirationally. "Just don't tell Sunset about the whole spooky scary stuff. She called me and told me to be nice, but I couldn't resist."
Lapis looked down at her feet; once again, Sunset was full of surprises.
"And the water?"
It was Pinkie Pie's turn to frown, although it had vanished so quickly Lapis barely noticed. "You noticed, huh? That was me too, actually. Sorry about that. Rainbow Dash...kind of told me everything. Even the stuff with the water."
The frown returned, sticking around a bit, and Lapis could swear she saw Pinkie's hair deflate for a split second. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I deal with grumpies and meanies a lot! It's a trademark of mine! So I can see why you'd be jumpy if you felt scared; it's tough new in town AND injured, so you have all the reason in the world to be a grumpy jumpy meanie! And I know that you probably met Sunset before she turned around, back when she was a grumpy meanie too, even if she wasn't all that jumpy. But...well..."
Everything Pinkie said was at breakneck speed, but Lapis managed to get the gist of it until she slowed down with a sudden seriousness to her expression.
"Look, I can guess why you attacked her. Sunset was a real jerk for a real long time; there's no way you met her before she became a better person. But...well, it's too much to get into, but a lot of things changed since the last time you met. She's not the same girl you remember. Plus she did save your life...even after you were a jerk to her too. Just sit and listen for a while, cuz we all have a lot to talk about, and maybe we can find something we can agree on, even if it's whoopie cushions."
The words hit alarmingly close to home; all it had taken was a conversation with Rainbow Dash and five minutes looking at Lapis to decode her concerns completely. She crossed her arms and continued avoiding Pinkie Pie's gaze...until she lifted up her chin to face her.
"Hey, hey, hey! I said it wasn't the best first impression, not that it was your only chance! If we rejected everyone that tried to kill us then Sunset wouldn't even be involved right now! And if I can get you to laugh at the thirty-fifth oldest trick in the book then you can't be all bad!"
Lapis looked into Pinkie Pie's eyes directly; she was almost as unreadable as Sunset. But she had no reason not to trust her, not when she'd had the chance to kill her and passed it up. And for all of her silliness and random humor...she seemed to know just what words to say to calm her down.
Lapis smiled, and Pinkie Pie giggled happily before slapping her on the shoulder. Lapis couldn't help but notice that she avoided the Gem on her back completely when she did so. Did Sunset mention it to her? ...did Sunset know what she was? Or was Pinkie even stranger than she first thought?
A strange buzzing noise hummed in the air as Pinkie pulled out what looked like a fob watch, popping it open and holding it to her ear. "Well, we can chat and play beanbag therapist later. The gang's all here! Hang on, lemme pull the blinds so they won't think we're closed, that happens every time we meet up here..."
With a snap of her fingers- or maybe it was her pressing a button on the watch, Lapis wasn't paying attention -the blinds all spun upwards, and to her alarm the town car Sunset had arrived in earlier was parked right outside. She choked back the panic and bit down on her lip as two more vehicles rolled up to the front, a beaten down red pickup truck, half filled with apples and what looked like a cardboard horse half broken on the back bed...and a small dirtbike, straddled by a tall woman in a leather jacket that Lapis had come to recognize all too well.
We're just here to talk, Lapis repeated to herself quietly. No conflict, no monsters, just here to talk.
If only everything was that easy.