H2O: Just Add Friendship

by Burning Sunset

Out of Sight

Author's Note:

For those of you who hasn't seen it, my blog has a lot of information about the H2O side of things so read it, the power of Sunset compels you!

The oranges were delicious, the best Sunset could ever remember having with one minor drawback. They were extremely juicy and she ended up dribbling some of the juice down her chin leaving her in her current situation with a tail next to her tent. At first she was freaking out because of that, now she was freaking out because she heard voices coming her way.

Trying to crawl away wasn’t going very well when she felt a tingle of magic wash over her. Looking down hoping to see the tail gone, she found nothing. She couldn’t see anything of her body though she could still feel it. She had somehow used whatever magic that was doing this to her to turn invisible. And just in time.

“Is that our stuff?” A blonde haired girl gasped as she came into view of the tent before running over to the tent. The question really bothered Sunset as it meant that she had stolen a bunch of camping gear from kids her age that may not be able to easily replace it unless they had jobs or their parents didn’t mind just buying new ones. Before when it was somebody she didn’t see it didn’t bother her too much.

“It is! That’s my picnic basket!” The darker haired girl exclaimed dropping next to it and looking inside. “Most of the PB sandwiches, chips and cupcakes I put in here are still there.”

Of course they were still there, as hungry as Sunset was she wanted to make them last as long as she could out here. The bananas ad oranges would help, but she would need to find other food at some point as she knew she couldn’t just live off of that forever.

“I don’t think this is somebody who took this stuff just to be an asshole.” The redhead said, the boy stopping next to her as the two surveyed the small campsite.

“What do you mean, Rikki?” The darker haired girl asked, looking up from her place next to the basket.

“This is somebody trying to ration the food so it will last as long as it can.” Rikki replied, giving a sad yet contemplative look at the tent. “I’m betting they don’t have a place to stay, otherwise they would have just taken the food and left the tent.”

“And how would you know that?” The blonde asked, crossing her arms in a huff.

“I just do, okay?” Rikki huffed as she crossed her arms and turned her head away from looking at the blonde. From her position Sunset could make out a hurt expression on the girls face making her curious. It seemed like the group was friends, but there was some tension between this Rikki and the blonde girl.

“Emma, please don’t get mad like this. Our camping trip here was supposed to be a way to patch everything up.” The dark haired girl pleaded softly, climbing back to her feet.

“Look, we have the stuff back now, right girls? Let’s just pack it up and get out of here before whoever took it comes back.” The boy said making Sunset panic. If they messed with the campsite too much they would trip over her and she was afraid of losing whatever hold she had on the magic keeping her hidden from sight if she moved too much.

“No, I say we leave it. Your parents already replaced everything, right?” Rikki asked a little quietly which seemed somehow wrong for her.

“So what, this is still our stuff!” The girl Sunset guessed was named Emma snapped as she glared at Rikki.

“Maybe the person here needs it more than us since you all got new stuff.” Rikki sighed.

“I guess you are kind of right. I mean the insurance paid for the boat.” The boy said.

“If you want to leave that stuff then why don’t you pay us back for part of it, Rikki? After all didn’t you get the six grand last weekend after Zane and you tried to scam us into helping without pay?” Emma demanded.

“I told you I can’t use that money! It’s gone!” Rikki screamed at the girl, tearing up as she stomped off away from the group.

“Good going, Emma.” The dark haired girl snapped running off after Rikki leaving Emma and the boy.

“I guess it can’t hurt leaving the stuff behind for now, Lewis. Let’s go find Rikki and Cleo.” Emma sighed, walking off after the other two girls, the boy following close behind.

Rikki didn’t even bother waiting for the other as she just dove into the water and swam off as fast as she could just to avoid the others. In her mermaid form she was almost just as fast as Emma and much faster than Cleo. And since Lewis didn’t grow a tail when splashed with water he wouldn’t be able to follow her.

A part of her regretted what happened, especially the incident that nearly completely shattered their friendship. It still left a large crack in it since she had convinced the girls to help Zane and her find a sunken ship that went done just days before. They were going to put a reward out the next day for divers to locate a priceless artifact that was being transported to the museum. At first they were helping because they thought it was a good thing to do for the museum. Then Zane had to open his big mouth and let it slip about the reward and when Cleo and Emma were leaving Rikki tried begging them to stay and help. Instead they grew really pissed off when they found out Rikki already knew about the reward.

It was something Rikki still didn’t like thinking about because almost right after they left, she found the crate which was a little larger than they expected. She connected the cables to it though and as Zane stayed in the boat above raising the crate, the cables snapped when it was almost to the surface and dropped it back down where it hit Rikki in the head hard knocking her out. She wasn’t sure if she would have lived or not if Zane didn’t realize something was wrong and dived in to help her. She never told her friends, avoiding them for several days so they never saw the stitches as she found being a mermaid also increased the rate that they healed.

Arriving back on the mainland, she pulled herself up on land near her home and used her powers to quickly dry herself off. The heat making steam rise from her as the water evaporated without hurting her in the least. Once again on legs, Rikki stomped up the path to the trailer court and into her trailer. None of her friends knew she lived here and she intended to keep it a secret.

“I’m back dad.” Rikki said, stepping into the place to see her working on some piece off his motorcycle. Not that he would ever get the stupid thing running, they just didn’t have money to buy parts for it. It didn’t stop him from trying to take it apart and put it back together after tinkering with the stuff. At least it was a small part since he wasn’t supposed to be doing anything strenuous at the moment which was the whole reason he wasn’t working at the moment.

“Hey honey, what happened with your friends? I thought you were hanging out with them all day today.” Terry asked, putting the screwdriver down as he looked up from the table. There home was extremely small, but it was a roof over their heads even if they didn’t always have much money for anything else. With her dad injured and off from work they were going to be evicted until Rikki her share of the reward money from Zane and spent three quarters of it on paying the rent and bills up for the rest of the year with enough for groceries for awhile if careful. That also meant that she still really didn’t have money to do things with her friends that wasn’t free.

“I just felt tired and decided to come home early.” Rikki lied to her dad, feeling bad for the fib even if it was to protect her father. It seemed that was all she ever did anymore was lie to her father.

“I’m fine honey, you don’t have to keep coming to check up on me. I hurt my back, I didn’t break it.” Terry said.

“And you broke your leg, dad. I know you can take care of yourself still, and it isn’t why I came home. I just felt tired of dealing with Emma today, she’s being a total bitch.” Rikki said, ignoring the pointed look from her father at the use of that language. Instead she made her way to the fridge to see what they had in it and winced. She would have to go do some shopping soon which meant taking more out of what they had left. “I can make us a grilled cheese or a bologna sandwich, but that’s it. I’ll go get some more stuff later.”

“I feel really bad that you had to use your money like this.” Terry sighed, “I’m a horrible father.”

“You are a wonderful father that I love very much.” Rikki said as she moved over to kiss the top of her father’s head. “How about grilled bologna and cheese?”

Sunset was ecstatic to see her tail dissolve into light particles leaving her legs behind after the invisibility collapsed with her breathing heavily. It was extremely hard on her as she found herself struggling to keep it up when she started feeling it try to slip a few times when the others were there. As much as she freaked out the first time, it seemed that maybe when she got wet she changed and either when she dried or maybe spent so much time on land she changed back. She was still a little upset at being turned into a fish girl, but the more she concentrated the more she could feel the magic rushing through her. She may have been a little scared of the magic, not wanting to become some monster again, but she was happy to have some magic back. Even if it meant relearning how to use it, if she could.

Who was she kidding, she was Sunset Shimmer, the most powerful unicorn in Equestria and she would be the most powerful fish girl in this world. Only this time she would do it the right way. She wouldn’t let her ambitions drive her into making mistakes and hurting people.

Rarity felt like cursing as she walked away from her home, once again heading to the library. She was pissed that she had to go there just to get onto the internet after her parents had it turned off thanks to Sweetie Bell. To think that her own sister did something like this to begin with was unfathomable, yet the young girl did it. With her two friends, Sweetie Bell had effectively turned the entire school against Sunset Shimmer as well as each other.

As much as Rarity wanted to say her little sister deserved everything she got from that, she couldn’t. Hell, a part of her wanted to hate her sister for being manipulated into turning against a good friend who she was responsible for trying to help find the right path. She couldn’t hate Sweetie Bell though because the girl was her sister, plain and simple. Oh she was still pissed at her, but she could never hate her.

Earning a suspension that lasted the rest of the school year that guaranteed retaking the current year was a pretty stiff punishment. Then being grounded for three months at the least as well as losing her phone and internet added onto the severity of the punishment, as well as spilled over onto Rarity as she had to go outside the home to find internet access.

"I promise I’ll find you Sunset, even if I have to scour every newspaper in the area to find a trace of you.” Rarity swore to herself, though she knew it was a long shot. She just didn’t know what else to do right now.

Comments

[Dragonspirit996]

Yay! Cool new chapter
At first I was a bit confused on why she would have more powers than the others, but it kinda makes sense now because it is based on magic, and she is very magically inclined

[Burning Sunset]

6067688 Yeppers, Sunset inherited more power quicker than Cleo, Emma & Rikki because she's already extremely naturally inclined to magic. So she inherited a full set of powers like the mermaids in Mako Mermaids which is a spinoff.

[diablo4000]

Love the newest chapter. Like the tention between the girls and hope Emma learns the truth about rikki.
See how the crusaders are n so much trouble, hope they feel just as guilty as well.

Wonder how Sunset will react when she finds out they were the ones who ruined her life at Canterlot.

[Burning Sunset]

6068336 Thanks and no worries, the girls are close though the incident with the reward money and Rikki's fear of her friends rejecting her if they find out about where she lives and her home life is causing tension that has been causing arguments with them. It won't last very long though. The brats, I mean the girls of he CMC do feel guilty and are pretty much in a shitload of trouble with not only the school, but their parents as well. Sunset won't be too happy with the little brats, I mean girls when she finds out.

[Nighlocktheawesome00]

"I promise I’ll find you Sunset, even if I have to scour every newspaper in the area to find a trace of you.” Rarity swore to herself, though she knew it was a long shot. She just didn’t know what else to do right now.

*in Pirate accent*Don't bother, luv. Ya lost yer chance.