The classroom was filled with an awkward, and depressing silence. Given the recent events, no one in the classroom had any energy for conversation, not even Miss Cheerilee, who was usually one of the most energetic teachers in the school, had it in her to say anything.
Students sat quietly in their seats, waiting for first period to begin so they could leave, not making a sound. One of those sudents was Pinkie Pie, usually the most active, happy, peppy, hyperactive person in the entire school was sitting calmly in her chair, staring at the clock, waiting to leave.
Eventually the excruciating silence was broken by the sound of the school bell. As the bell continued to ring, each of the students began to proceed towards the classroom door to leave. As Pinkie was leaving the classroom, she took a look at some of the other students from the other rooms. It was probably safe to assume that her depressing start to the day had been shared throughout the school.
Suddenly, without any form of warning, she was knocked down onto the floor by someone running down the hallway. After a moment to process the quick event, she looked down the hall , and was just able to catch a glimpse of someone making turning a corner and leaving her sight.
Pinkie climbed to her feet and just as she did, two more people ran past her, almost bumping Pinkie back down to the ground, who were most likely chasing the first person. These ones she was able to recognize quite quickly, however. They were two of the sirens from the battle of band.
"What are they doing here?" she asked herself, "Shouldn't they be with Sun..." Pinkie felt a quick surge on energy, the first she had felt all day, and used it to start running down the hall to chase after the two sirens. "Sunset should be with them. What if that was her?" she muttered to herself, "Even if that wasn't her, they should know where she is, right?"
Pinkie wasn't running that long. The three that she was chasing had led her to the schools main entrance. The three of them had stopped and taken a seat on the small set of steps just outside the main door. Luckily for Pinkie, the main door was left wide open, allowing the cold air from outside into the building, but more importantly, it allowed Pinkie to spy on the sirens while she hid just inside the school crouched downagainst the wall, out of view.
She peeked her head out so she could see three of them, and just as she had suspected, the one the two sirens were chasing after was indeed Sunset Shimmer.
Pinkie's face initially lit up with joy. Sunset was ok! Pinkie was worried that the sirens would've done something to her, that they would've hurt her... Not that Pinkie was in an appropriate place to think that, given that she was partly the reason for ths whole mess...
But as Pinkie looked at Sunset, her smile began to fall. There was a look on Sunset's face that... sent a strangely familiar shiver down her spine. Pinkie didn't understand why this was bothering her so much. She looked not only really mad, but her eyes were raining tears. Of course Sunset would be both angry and upset, she had a right to be right now, but this felt like something else.
But on top of that, there was something else that was bugging her about the three of them. Something she couldn't quite place.
Pinkie shook the thought from her head, and began listening to what the three of them were saying.
"Why'd you run off like that?" one of them asked.
"Sorry... I just needed to... Get away from them before I... That's all," Sunset replied hesitantly.
"Well, we were leaving anyway. You didn't need to do that," the other one replied.
"Yeah I did!" Sunset replied quickly. "I felt like I was about to snap! Like if I was there for one more second... I don't know what I would've done to the three of them."
"The three of them?" Pinkie repeated, as she noticed that Sunset's hand had been turned into a clenched, trembling fist. "I guess she knows it was those three girls then." she whispered.
"Well it's alright now. They're in there, and you're out here. I say we go, and don't come back." The siren put her arm around Sunset, in an attempt to give her a hug, but Sunset didn't seem to acknowledge her.
Pinkie felt like running out there to give Sunset a hug herself, but she stopped herself on the knowledge that that probably wasn't in any way a good idea.
"I just hope they pay for it!" one of the sirens said bluntly.
"ARIA! THAT'S NOT HELPING!" the other replied loudly.
As she continued to watch them, Pinkie suddenly realised what was bugging her about them. She could swear that there three sirens... Right? So why were there only two of them here?
Pinkie felt four light taps on her shoulder, followed by a rather intimidating sounding voice.
"Can I help you??
Pinkie spun around quickly, and gazed upwards at the person looking down at her. It was the third siren. "Um..." The siren grabbed Pinkie's hair and forcefully dragged her up onto her feet. "OW OW OW THAT HURTS!" Pinkie yelled.
The two other sirens, along with Sunset looked behind them into the school.
"Who's that??" one of them asked.
"Pinkie?" Sunset asked, before wiping some tears from her eyes.
"Um... Hey Sunset," Pinkie replied.
"She was sitting just inside listening to you lot." The third siren yanked back on Pinkie's hair painfully. "Now I'll ask again. Can we help you?" she repeated.
"I just wanted to know if Sunset was ok with you, so I just kinda maybe followed them here!" Pinkie replied loudly, as the siren continued to pull her hair. "Can you please let go? PRETTY PLEASE?!?!"
She let go of Pinkie's hair, who quickly backed away. "Sunset will be fine with us or at least better of than with you. So don't think you need to follow us home now." she replied bluntly.
"Why are you even being friendly to her anyway? Shouldn't you... U'know, hate her?" Pinkie asked.
"Why?" the siren repeated. A small smile apeared on her face. "Well you see we've actually mind controlled Sunset Shimmer, and have brainwashed her into hating all of you, and hope to do this in a pitiful attempt at revenge on you all for taking away our magic and humiliating us. In fact, we even brainwashed those three children into doing this in the first place. Meaning that this whole thing is our fault.
"Um... Dagi, I think that's going a bit to far..." the two sirens outside the school looked at each other awkwardly, before glancing over at Sunset, who didn't seem to care.
"Is that what you want to hear, girl?" Adagio continued. "Some kind of explanation as for why this isn't your fault? An excuse for why you're not the bad girl right now." she laughed, "Well I'm sorry, but no."
"No..?" Pinkie repeated.
"No. We're taking care of her because, unlike you, we actually care about her!" Adagio stated.
"Hey! We do care about her!" Pinkie replied.
"Oh of course you do" Adagio replied sarcastically, "That's wh-"
"BULLSHIT!!!"
Sunset rose up to her feet, and marched over to Pinkie Pie, even giving Adagio a light push out of the way. "you don't care about me at all! None of you ever do! If you did then you would've been there for me, you would've listened to me instead of disregarding everything I said as a blatant lie!" Sunset grabbed Pinkie's shirt and pinned her up against the wall. "Even after I helped you all defeat these three monsters you still held it against me, didn't you!?"
Pinkie now understand why Sunset's face was confusing her earlier. Yes, she was upset and angry, but this rage was something else indeed. It felt as if all of Sunset's suppressed rage from before the Fall Formal had been let out all at once.
"Sunse-"
"You know, these three monsters have done more for me in one day than anypony at this school has done for me in the last week! They listened to me! That's all! But what have you done Pinkie Pie? Nothing! You probably never wanted to help me, did you? I bet the only reason you even..."
Sunset's rant came to a brief stop, and she let go of Pinkie's shirt.
Pinkie used this time to look at each of the sirens. Of the two outside the main doors, one was clearly worried, while the other using her as a human sheild. And the third siren, Adagio, had a stunned look of wonder on her face, and seemed to be completely speechless.
"Pinkie..." Sunset continued, "On the night of the Fall Formal, after everything had ended, Princess Twilight told you five to look after me. Right?"
"Y-yeah..." Pinkie stuttered nervously.
"If Twilight hadn't asked you to look out for me... Would you have still helped anyway? Or would you have not given me a chance, like everypony else?"
"I... Of co..." Pinkie began, but she couldn't finish her answer. For some reason, she just couldn't tell Sunset that she would've helped her. Pinkie was doubting herself. Would she have helped Sunset, or not? She didn't even know herself. "I don't know, Sunny..." Pinkie answered, as she gazed down at the floor in disappointment.
"Of course you wouldn't have." Sunset turned towards the school exit, but looked back at Pinkie almost immediately. "If you really care, then do me a favor."
"Yes, what is it, anything????" Pinkie replied.
"If I don't come back to school, then don't you ever let those three girls live this down."
"What?" Pinkie asked.
Sunset didn't say anything else to Pinkie. She walked out the school, followed by Adagio, who still had a look of shock on her face. She walked past the other two, and towards the large statue-portal. While she didn't go through it, she did rest up against one of the corner pillars. One by one, each of the sirens went over to join her.
Pinkie sighed, and walked into the school. There was nothing that she could say to Sunset, no reason for her to ever want to talk to Pinkie, or any of the others really, ever again.