I stole your boyfriend, what are you gonna do about it?

by ultronquake

Chapter seven: A letter to a friend

For the last week or so things with 'Flash in the pan' were pretty touch and go. Ringo was being temperamental, Brawly tripped and knocked a hole in his bass drum and Flash showed up late for practice each time. Aria, for her part still couldn't sing for s*#@, whatever magic had stripped her of her powers had wreaked havoc on her once beautiful voice.

On the plus side however, with some gentle persuasion and persistence Aria managed to talk the group into renaming. The consensus being to re-brand the group as Flashdrive, a bit too tech-y for a rock group in Aria's opinion but a definite improvement. As far as schooling went the wild anger of the student body had cooled greatly, once a week had passed most students had returned to the normal daily grind as if nothing extra-ordinary magical had happened.

The other Sirens were keeping busy as well, Sonata and Pinkie were practically joined at the hip. Not in a sexy way either, more like a mad scientist taking two hyperactive caffeine fiends and surgically attaching them together. Sonata joined forces with Pinkie Pie to, as she put it "Radically alter the ratio of taco/non taco days on the lunch schedule." In reality that meant the both of them volunteering in the school cafeteria in return for getting some say so in the menu.

Adagio for her part had taken up debate club, a decision that puzzled most around her. To her it was a way of maintaining her favorite pastime, manipulating mortals into doing what she wanted. While much harder without the abilities granted by her siren song, she still gained no end of pleasure from convincing weak minded teenagers that getting a piercing on every square inch of your body was just what you needed to catch the eye of your beloved.

To her debate club was an extension of that hobby. The only difference being that she couldn't pick her own topics and the forum tended to react negatively to arguing in favor of abolishing all social structure in favor of a 'Road Warrior'-esk society. In one way or another all the sirens were beginning to ease there way into life at Canterlot High and it was Sunset Shimmer's job to report it all.

She was just settling into a comfy armchair in the school library, the final bell had been rung and the great hall of learning was being emptied. In her hands she held the magical tome gifted to her by Celestia on an occasion when she had to leave for a diplomatic conference. The magic was simple, write something on your book and it would appear in it's counterpart. A very swords and sorcery version of instant messaging.

While Celestia had only meant it as a way for Sunset to submit her test answers while she was away, the book embossed with her cutie mark now served a grander purpose. Serving as the only means of communication and guaranteeing passage between the two worlds anytime. It made her all the more glad she hadn't hawked it at the Flim Flam brothers pawn shop as soon as she'd arrived.

After reflecting on the week prior and mentally arranging her thoughts Sunset began writing down her friendship report.

Dear Princess Twilight,

This is your friend Sunset writing. It's been an interesting week here at Canterlot High since the battle of the bands. Your idea about trying to reform the sirens seems to be working out. Adagio and me are having fun watching movies together after school. We're doing a marathon of Hitchcock films and we're just getting to 'The Manxman.'

Sorry I totally forgot you wouldn't have any idea who I'm talking about. It's weird having to deal with this cultural disconnect between our worlds. I bet there's stuff on the Equestria side that I'd be completely oblivious too as well. Allot can change in five years. Anyway it's awesome getting to talk with Adagio about these kinds of things, not only is she witty but she was alive when these films were made. The only pony I know even remotely as old as her is Celestia! (Don't let her know I said that;)

Sonata and Pinkie Pie are hitting it off really well, but everybody saw that coming from the first moment they interacted. They've taken it upon themselves to plan out the upcoming Nightmare Nights dance. Maybe you could come by, if you're not too busy with royal duties that is. Fingers crossed there won't be any crazy magical occurrences this time!

Aria and Flash -

Sunset Shimmer set down her pen, this was the part she was dreading writing. She'd seen it, her friends had seen it, heck everyone at CHS had seen it. That look in Flash Sentry's eyes anytime he was in the same room as Aria, he was in love. Which presented quite the problem for Sunset, what to do about it?

While she and Flash were no longer dating, Sunset still liked to think of him as a friend with his best interests at heart. And that was the hard part, was he going headfirst into trouble? Even if she fully believed that the sirens were fully reformed and all the way good, the fact of the matter was nobody really knew them all to well.

"Alright Sunset this can't be too hard to figure out," she said to herself. "Twilight's your friend and Flash is your friend. Twilight is dating Flash so it's only right that you tell her what's going on." She went back to the journal that connected their worlds then paused again. There was something nagging at her, a primal angry little emotion that Sunset claimed to be beyond, jealousy. Even if she wasn't aware of it herself Sunset Shimmer had held onto some jealousy of her friend.

Twilight Sparkle had grown up in a very kush environment, a set of loving parents, being friends with Princess Cadence, and a strong brother always at her side. Sunset had none of that, she'd lived in the orphanage without an inkling of who her parents were. She had to study for years to get into the school for gifted unicorns, not to have her cutie mark conveniently appear just when she needed it most. Another point of contention was the fact that Twilight was the pony Celestia had replaced her with.

Rather than stay silent Sunset decided to work out her feelings aloud. "It's not like I ever wanted to stay here on Earth. I was just ... upset. And can you blame me?!" She asked to the thin air as a proxy for her former mentor. "I was thirteen for Christ's sake! I was going through puberty and I thought you were holding me back intentionally and... I was only gone a month and you replaced me. You never wrote to me or came through the mirror to try and find me, you just replaced me."

She'd never really tried working through these feelings before, only channeling them into bitterness that shaped her into the person she was before Twilight helped her. So even if Twilight had only ever been a true friend to her, on some level she would always hold that against her, regardless of fault. Now with resolve Sunset reached for the pen, she was startled to realize how much her hands were trembling. As she dried her eyes on her magenta blouse she finished writing the letter, her newly developed conscious stinging her with every lie printed.

With the last period placed the door to the room creaked open, Adagio was there, her great orange bouffant to greet her. "Hey girl, I've been looking all over for you. Why are you still in the library? There just about to lock the school up."

"*Sniff* Really? It's that late already?" She supposed it was well within the lines of reason. School security was shite and never checked in the library. Sunset had even gotten away with sleeping in the library for a whole month on a makeshift bed of books before this world's Celestia found out. She at least was kind enough to arrange housing for the teen. "Sorry, I was busy writing to Princess Twilight and I must have lost track of time."

"You alright Sunset? You look like you've been crying."

"Y-yeah I'm fine. Just feeling a bit raw, you know?" She quickly stuffed the journal into her bag and rose to her friendship protege, "You wanna get something to eat before we start the marathon?"

Adagio had to admit she was feeling a bit peckish. "Sure, why not? I don't know if I'm ready for 'The Manxman' on an empty stomach."

"Oh, so you've seen it before?" Sunset asked, her curiosity peaked.

"Yes, well not really. It was about eighty five years ago so I couldn't remember it if I tried."

"Oh come on now, I bet you could quote the film verbatim if you wanted to." That put a smile on Adagio's face. "How about we make this into a game. You tell me now what you remember the plot being and then we'll compare it once we're done?"

"Alright your on! Just keep in mind I may have been slightly intoxicated at the time so I want a bit of leeway with the judgement on it." Adagio placed her fingers to her temples as if to force concentration. "Um, it was about a love triangle between two friends and this dame they both liked. She promises to marry the one then he dies at sea or something like that. Then the other guy steps in and they start making whoopie-" Sunset couldn't help but laugh at her outdated terminology. "Oh sorry, I should have said they start f#@*ing."

"Sorry sorry, go on."

"Then the dead guy shows up and it turns out he didn't die. He comes in like nothings changed and he and the girl get married even though she loves the other guy. She's pregnant with other guy's baby, dead guy doesn't know it's not his. It's all like a big soap opera, I think nobody was happy in the end." She felt that was pretty good recollection for a film she'd only seen once nearly a century ago.

"So it was a tragedy?"

"Yeah, that describes it pretty well." With that done Adagio set aside thoughts of black and white silent stories for thoughts of greasy cheese and sardines on a fire baked crust. "Come on we'd better get out of here soon. I'd much rather leave via the front door than the window."

"Your right, let's get going." As Sunset rounded the empty hallways of CHS with Adagio by her side the twinges of guilt were now in association with fear. Fear that Adagio's vague retelling of tonight's film would somehow prove prophetic of her friend's lives. As she well knew, when magic was involved stranger things could happen. She could only hope and pray her actions wouldn't lead to that misery, only hope and pray.

Author's Note:

I hope no one thought I'd put Sunset in the main characters tab for nothing. She's among my favorite characters from MLP and her role is going to be pretty big as time goes on.

The film I had them talking about is pretty good (in my opinion) If your into Hitchcock or black and white films in general, maybe give it a watch.

Comments

[Raistlin]

While I understand Sunset´s resent, she should blame Celestia, not Twilight. Part of her previous character development was about Sunset growing up over her jealousy on Twilight for becoming a princess instead of her; no need of coming back on that.

Also, how exactly are Twilight and Flash "dating"? Besides the fact calling their relationship is "long distance" is an understandment, they have barely spent time together, as Aria herself pointed.

[ultronquake]

6769678 Yeah it's more like a super long distance relationship.

As far as her resenting Twilight, it's not that she hates her. Sunset still has some tough emotions to work out with the help of her friends.

[Eyeswirl the Weirded]

She had to study for years to get into the school for gifted unicorns, not to have her cutie mark conveniently appear just when she needed it most.

Hm. That's our heroes in a nutshell, isn't it? Not a lot of skill or hard work go into their victories, they usually just click their heels together (so to speak) and catch the Deus Ex Machina as it falls into their laps. Magic typically just does whatever they need it to whenever they need it to, no questions asked, but I'm not here to rant.

I liked this chapter! It's always nice to see Sunset aware that Celestia did what she always does instead of-[Rant Redacted]
...I enjoy Sunset not just gratefully eating up whatever she's given, no matter how messed up it might be. Last year's Xmas comic was kinda fucked.

Also hoping Adagio's summary doesn't turn out to be prophetic.

[ultronquake]

6769836

Also hoping Adagio's summary doesn't turn out to be prophetic.

Dramatic tension!!!

Glad you enjoyed the chapter, unfortunately I haven't had a chance to read many of the comics so I don't really know much about the cannon they've established in there.

[Eyeswirl the Weirded]

6769859
Within the last several months, neither have I!
Last I checked, you're not missing much.