//------------------------------// // Friends // Story: A Lost Crystal Gem - The Story of Sunset and how she became Spinel // by ratedoni //------------------------------// “Girls? Ah, you’re making me a little uncomfortable with the way you keep looking at me.” Sunset said still worried about how much her friends kept staring at her. The five humane girls were still a little bit of a mystery for the gem hybrid since even though they had very little in common they still found out reasons to keep hanging out and ways to build their friendship and make it stronger. She was also really surprised by how quickly the five allowed her in their small circle and made her one of them. “Ah think Ah speak for everybody for this question. What in tarnation are yah wearin’?” The stetson wearing girl said scratching her head while moving her eyes up and down across Sunset’s body. The redhead took a look at herself before she shrugged not really understanding what was going on. “What do you mean? This is my battle leotard.” She said trying to see if there was anything out of order or anything bizarre. “I think we can see that.” the raspy voice of Rainbow Dash made Sunset blink a couple of times, she also had to concentrate on understanding Rainbow since she was right now pinching her nose to stop the nosebleed while a very worried Fluttershy was trying to see if the sporty girl had injured herself. “Don’t take this in the wrong way darling but, don’t you think this… ‘battle leotard’, is a little too much?” “What do you mean?” “Well, the outfit is really nice and eye catching but I’m afraid you’ll get arrested for public indecency once we get out on the streets.” The fashionista said trying to fight back a full body blush. All the students of Canterlot High knew that Sunset was extremely fit, being capable of strength fits that always left Professor Iron Will in awe. She was capable of doing things that the male students could only dream about when it came to sports and thanks to her usual tight fitting clothing for PE she was the receiver of a lot of looks. Now watching Sunset wearing a full body leotard showing exactly how fit and… full, she was in certain areas, well, even Rarity was awestruck. Sunset then finally realized what the problem was and almost did a facepalm at what she had done. She had grown used to her clothes so fast that it surprised her. Seems that being away for three years for studying instead of gem hunting haven’t dull her battle senses, since apparently she took her battle leotard as natural again. “Oh right, sorry girls, I forgot about that.” She said before she began to live up to her name as she began to shimmer as the jacket, leotard and boots disappeared in a shower of light quickly transforming into blue leggings, a long red sweater with no neck with a yellow star in the middle and a pair of heeled sandals “ta-da! I call it the Universe Casual, what do you think?” she said smiling at her friends as Pinkie threw herself at Sunset in a welcoming hug. “Is so soft!” she said cuddling up to the gem while this one returned the hug with one arm as the other was still holding up the donut box “wish I could do that too, imagine all the costumes I could use for parties! Or what if I had to do a secret mission and I could change into stealth clothes, or what if I wanted to do a cheer or-” “We understand my dear, no need to get too overexcited already and also, nice outfit, been watching Flashdance again?” Rarity said trying to regain some control as Sunset and Twilight walked down from the secret warp pad that Sunset had rebuild from the ruins of the old one. A year ago she had found out the secret storage room underneath Canterlot High and she had also found out the remains of a warp pad much to her surprise. After a lot of work she had finally restored it, sadly it had no recall function and that’s why Twilight and Sunset had taken a bus to the temple at Beach City. Using the original warp pad she could not only reactivate the one in Canterlot but also gain a quick access back home. “Ah, welcome back Sunset.” the quietest of the girls told Sunset as she also engulfed the redhead in a warm hug full of love and care, one that Sunset was sure would make Rose Quartz proud. The gem was sure that she would have loved to meet her friends, especially Fluttershy since both had that same aura of peace, the same caring heart and the same love for creatures and animals. “Thank you Shy, is good to be back.” “So, how was your home?” A recovered Rainbow asked while they all sat down around a table that Sunset used sometimes while she was working on the warp pad. Around them there were a multitude of machines and working stations that filled most of the space in the storage room. Thankfully Sunset had shown the place to both Principal Celestia and her sister and quickly reached an agreement of making sure nothing wrong happened to the school. So far nothing had happened but now that the warp pad was working again and it was in direct contact with Beach City, well, Sunset was sure that the craziness will soon arrive at Canterlot. The seven girls chatted for a while Twilight Sparkled used most of that time watching the other girls and the way they interacted, showing how similar they were to their Equestrian counterparts, feeling at home and ease among them. With them she was just another teenager, just one that belonged to another dimension, but that was all. There was no awkwardness or pressure, with them she was perfectly normal and equal to them, no crown and no responsibilities, it felt… nice as Fluttershy would say. Sadly it soon came time for the girls to go their own ways, either with their families or back home in another dimension. Twilight sighed knowing that she was supposed to go back to her responsibilities, no matter how comfortable this Canterlot was. Thankfully the other girls saw the way her face dropped because she was soon at the center of a group hug. “Hey, no long faces sugarcube.” “Yeah, no way we will let you disappear you big nerd; that would be completely uncool.” “That’s right! I still haven’t done a ‘Welcome to Canterlot Twilight Party’!” “It would be nice if you could visit us again.” “Indeed, I would also love to see you again Twilight, maybe next time you come I will be able to do something about your wardrobe. Maybe bowties are in vogue but you could shine with some changes to your wardrobe.” “Well, I would love to come back but I don’t know if it would be possible.” “Is alright Twilight, with the changes that I did to the portal on this side it would be stable and open all the time. I also worked around the time dilation effect on both of our universes, now it would be on par with yours.” “Thank you to all of you, thank you for your friendship. This isn’t a goodbye; it’s just a goodbye until next time.” The princess said before stepping through the portal and disappearing for now. The rest of the girls turned to look at each other before Sunset stretched. “Well, I’ll be leaving now, gonna go and take a rest.” “Hey, not fair!” The pink menace said a little peeved “you didn’t tell us what happened at your home!” “I’ll tell you all tomorrow at school, now I really want to rest for a bit because if I know my family they will soon start calling me so I could go back and help them in some crazy adventure or another, I just know it. See ya girls.” The redhead finally said starting to walk in the direction of her apartment. Soon the others also separated with Fluttershy and Pinkie carpooling with Rarity while Rainbow went into Applejack’s pickup. “So, how much blood did yah lose this time?” The blonde girl said after starting the trek to Rainbow’s house; for all answer she was slugged on the arm by a completely red Rainbow. “Don’t start AJ, I saw you ogling Sunset like there was no tomorrow.” “Shut up.”