Gunsmoke

by Wanderer D

Chapter 04: Confrontation

Gunsmoke

by Wanderer D

Chapter 4: Confrontation

The birds chirping were almost as annoying as the sunlight glaring through the curtains. Sunset mumbled something and covered herself with her bedsheets, but the damage was done. After forcing herself to keep her eyes shut for a few minutes, she eventually gave up and rolled herself to a sitting position on the bed.

As she rubbed the sleep off of her eyes, she recalled the events of the previous night and felt a pang in her chest. Glancing down at her plugged phone, she picked it up when she noticed the flashing light that indicated waiting messages.

Sighing, she opened the first of the messages.

Hey Sunset! Where were you? We waited for you all night! I hope everything is okay!

~Pinkie

Sunset stared at her phone, mouth open, before she scrolled down to the next message from Pinkie. It had been sent a few minutes after the first message.

Dashie told us you didn't want to hang out with us anymore, why?

Pressing back, she saw the next message was from Rarity.

Darling, I had no idea you didn't know. I'm so sorry! This was very rude, and I assure you most of us had no clue you had not been warned of the change of venue! ~RB

The messages from Applejack was also telling.

Sunset. I just got your message. I'm sorry about last night. I just heard from Rainbow Dash that she didn't tell you she changed dinner into a movie night. I thought you knew. I don't understand why you don't want to be part of the Rainbooms anymore sugarcube, but that doesn't mean we intentionally ignored you... (1/2)

(2/2) I hope to see you sometime at school, so we can talk about it. Don't worry about the Rainbooms. We'll miss you, but we don't want to force you to hang out with us if that's not what you want.

Sunset grimaced, fighting the growing despair inside of her and the anger at what was clearly sabotage from Rainbow Dash.

Fluttershy's text was painfully simple.

Sorry... you don't have to hang out with us if you don't want.

And finally...

You think the Rainbooms are silly? Fine. You don't have to hang out with us. Even if the girls are upset about how I did things, you and I both know you had every intention of walking away from us. Go to Crystal Prep. We don't need you.

Many a student had stopped to greet Sunset Shimmer as she walked into school, but one look at the girl had halted the effort and instead the smiles had turned into looks of dread and concern.

Their gazes followed her as she walked up to the lockers and made a beeline for Rainbow Dash, who was just closing her own locker.

"Rainbow Dash."

The way the words were said made the other teenager jump. She spun around and glared at Sunset. "Oh, it's you."

"What you did last night was low, even for a self-absorbed sorry excuse for a friend such as yourself!" Sunset snapped, making several students stop and stare. Applejack and Rarity shared concerned looks and started to move towards the group of students that had gathered around them.

Rainbow Dash snorted and raised her chin, resting her hands on her hips as she glared right back. "Says the girl that was just that morning telling Twilight she was quitting the band."

Sunset Shimmer narrowed her eyes and clenched her fists. "You snooped in on my conversation? Maybe where you were raised that's not considered inappropriate, but I have it on good authority that most people frown upon that!"

"Well, it's not like I'm the one that put her on speaker! And how else were we going to find out you didn't want to hang out with us? Huh?"

Sunset tilted her head down and closed her eyes. "I did want to hang out with you. I spent an hour alone, in a restaurant waiting for all of you girls to show up so I could tell you how I felt and to figure out a way to make it work. I had my phone right in front of me the whole time. I texted you all to figure out what had happened."

Rainbow Dash managed to look guilty at that and looked away. "Well," she muttered stubbornly. "It's not like it would matter, if you don't care about our group." She snorted and crossed her arms across her chest. "What are you going to do now? Make the girls choose between me and you?"

Sunset's fist slammed into Rainbow's locker door, denting and scorching it. Every student, Rainbow included, gaped and took a step back.

Gritting her teeth and making an obvious effort, the flames around her fist died away and Sunset looked up straight at Rainbow Dash. She didn't hide the tears, nor her anger. "I'm not the same as before!" she shouted, making Rainbow cringe. "I'm not going to destroy your friendships! But we? We are done!"

And with that, she spun around and stormed away through the throngs of students.

Rainbow Dash let out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. For all her reformation, Sunset Shimmer was Sunset Shimmer after all. She hadn't lost that presence that intimidated any student or teacher that crossed her path.

Before she knew what was happening, both her arms had been grabbed and she had been dragged into an empty classroom by Applejack and Rarity.

"Alright, Rainbow, you're goin' to explain exactly what the hay is goin' on and Ah'd better be convinced." Applejack growled, closing the door.

"Look, I really just had a very bad conversation wi—"

The door opened and Pinkie dragged Fluttershy, who was barely able to stay standing, inside. "See, Fluttershy? I toldja they'd be here!" she declared, kicking the door closed behind them.

"Well, we're all here now, darling, so please do explain why you told us that we were going to the movies and didn't tell poor Sunset."

"What?!" Pinkie gasped. "But I thought you said that Sunset just didn't want to hang out last night!"

"Oh my, is that why I got a late text message from her asking where we were?"

"She doesn't, okay!" Rainbow Dash shouted, silencing her friends. "She doesn't want to be part of the Rainbooms! I heard her say that to Twilight!"

The others exchanged glances.

"She said she didn't want to go to play with us, okay? She said that we were selfish and we didn't care about her and that all we did was what we wanted to do!"

Rainbow looked from one girl to the other. "She had already decided to walk away from the band. It was just a matter of telling us."

"Ah still think that you should have just let her tell us," Applejack said, looking dubious. "Even if you already knew. We could have dealt with it then."

"Yeah, but don't you think her betrayal sucks?" Rainbow asked. "We have been practicing to win this thing, and with all the effort we've put into it, her ditching us is not fair! I don't know about you, but I hate being betrayed."

The others were quiet, so she pushed.

"She said we didn't need her, and you know what, we don't! We can do the whole thing without her! We did before, and she said it herself, there's no sirens around to beat! We don't need her powers to win!"

Fluttershy tapped her fingertips together. "Maybe my song wasn't good enough?"

Pinkie's hair had lost its puffiness and she sat down. "She said she didn't want to hang out with us? But I want to be her friend!"

"Well, not exactly in those words but—"

"But she's right."

The others looked in shock at Rarity, who had walked to the window and was staring outside. She turned to look at the others.

"Um... what do you mean, Rarity?" Fluttershy asked.

"In this whole conversation, there has been one constant." Rarity walked back to the group and sat across from them. "Almost everyone here has said how they feel." She pointed at Applejack. "How you would understand if she didn't want to be your friend."

She pointed at Pinkie. "How you want to be her friend anyway."

Her finger strayed to Fluttershy, who cringed. "How you feel your song wasn't good enough."

She pointed at Rainbow Dash. "How you feel betrayed."

She put her hand down. "And just a moment ago, I was thinking it would be a shame not having her model my clothes."

Rarity sighed. "Has anyone here thought about what Sunset wants?" She looked at the group, who remained silent. "Since she reformed, Sunset has done everything we like to do. She's hung out with us in our respective domains, spending her time with us doing what we want, and no doubt enjoying herself, but, when did we ever stop to ask her what she wanted to do?"

Fluttershy gasped. "Oh my, but, that wasn't what we ever intended to do!"

Rainbow Dash shifted uncomfortably. "I-it doesn't mean she gets to betray our friendship."

"Rainbow." Rarity put her hand on her friend's shoulder. "I know you feel hurt and you lashed out. I'm not happy with how you involved us too. Even if I know that friendship and loyalty are very important to you. But, because that is so important, you can tell me... if she was going to betray us, would she have waited for an hour in that restaurant for us? And texted asking where we were?"

Rainbow Dash didn't answer.

"If she didn't care... would she had confronted you this morning?"

Rainbow Dash gulped and looked at Rarity and the others, eyes wide. "Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. What have I done?!"

The shot reverberated in the cavern, and a glowing line of energy cut through Desert Mirage's cheek, but she kept running straight at her opponents.

Red prediction lines lit in her vision, and she rolled forward, dodging most of the bullets, and plowing through the rest. Her HP dropped slowly, and each bullet burned like hay, but by the time her opponents needed to reload she was already in front of them.

The leader of the PKing party found himself staring down the muzzle of a Glock .45 ACP. Sunset's shot straight to the head disintegrated the leader in less than a second, and Desert Mirage grinned manically as she swung Twilight faster than the other remaining player could react and shot them straight in the chest, sending them hurling back to crash against the wall and disintegrating on the way down.

The Surgeon whistled in appreciation from behind cover. "So that's what a Desert Eagle .50 semi sounds like huh? Impressive!" he shouted before leaning out to take another opponent with a point blank shot from his ArmaLite AR17 shotgun. "Heh." He chuckled. "They always think that just because they see you do it, they can get up close and personal too, Mirage."

Sunset blew a hole into an opponent's shoulder, and immediately its custom effect triggered, setting his armor on fire and making him panic. He dropped his weapon and rolled on the floor, making himself completely vulnerable to a double tap courtesy of Twilight and Sunset together.

"And that's that."

The Surgeon shrugged and browsed through the items he had collected. "So wanna tell me what's eating you?"

Mirage snorted. "I just needed to blow off steam."

The Surgeon tilted his head but didn't reply immediately. "Say, if you still have steam left, there's something coming up in a week that might interest you. A competition, to be precise."

Desert Mirage looked at him in surprise. "I thought 'Bullet of Bullets' was still almost a year away."

"It is, but that's not the one I'm talking about. Did you check your email today?" He grinned. "I'll stand guard."

Mirage shook her head, sitting down and leaning against the wall before pulling up her menu. Seeing the official email, she immediately started reading. Her eyes widened. "Is... is this for real? They're going to do a cross-server team battle?"

The Surgeon grinned. "Yes they are. Interested?"

Mirage read the rules, hesitating for a second when she noticed the date coincided with the state fair, but the confrontation from earlier at Canterlot High came back to her and she shook it off. "You know what. Yes. I see the preliminaries start tonight?"

The Surgeon nodded. "They do. I already have some people in mind for our squad."

"It's not your usual gang, is it?" Desert Mirage asked, only half-teasing. "I mean, the Japanese server has very intense players. Do you remember the last BoB?"

"I wouldn't worry too much," The Surgeon replied. "We have some heavy hitters here, and neither of the two winners of the last BoB have been seen since."

Mirage grimaced. "Yeah, I've seen the footage."

"In any case, I have a seven-man team in mind. You and I are in it, of course. I figure you know the Lion well enough to get him in with us."

"If you want to dominate all fronts we'll need a sniper, and that kid from the other day won't make the cut."

Surgeon laughed. "He's been practicing a lot, but no, not him. I'm thinking Nightmare Moon."

Mirage began nodding, but stopped, staring at Surgeon in surprise. "Wait, what did you say his name is?"

"She," Surgeon clarified. "Nightmare Moon. She was inactive for a couple of months, but she's back in the game. A real pro sniper, that one an—why are you laughing?"

"Sorry, sorry." Desert Mirage snorted. "I just can't believe she's, oh man, this is priceless."

Surgeon frowned. "Whatever. I've sent her a message and she's in."

"We still need three more people. Are you thinking two snipers? We could control a lot of ground like that."

"Just leave the team-building to me," Surgeon replied, waving his hand dismissively. "But I'm thinking about maybe another sniper and two grunts."

"I'll leave the details to you, I'm just an infiltrator, not a team leader."

The Surgeon only grinned.

---

---

Comments

[Wanderer D]

6676417 6676473 No one said it was as simple as the others blindly going for it! But, as 6677205 pointed out, EqG crew is not exactly the same as the M6 crew.
6676449 Glad you're enjoying it!
6677077 Well, you'll find out this new chapter! There's also a few other SAO crossovers around, I've found.
6677874 But talking is so complicated!
6678715 Loyalty can also be pretty greedy, don't you think?
6679541 You'll thank me later.
6679583 I have to admit I am guilty of knowing full well that the planet in Trigun is called Gunsmoke. But no Vash, sorry.

[Ganondorf8]

Rainbow Dash allowed her ego to potentially destroy a friendship, yet Sunset isn't absolved of this either as her own words caused the same kind of emotional damage. Hmmm... Nightmare Moon, you say? I have a feeling I may know who that person is, but I'll wait and see for myself when that eventually comes up. Now that I've read this much, I'm understanding how this online game is supposed to work.

[dangerbrony]

That was even better than I thought it would be. Keep up the great work, D.

[G S tol Kriaal]

I choose to interpret this update as a birthday present, even though there is no way I could reasonably expect you to have known it was my birthday

[Wanderer D]

6681126 Happy B-day!

[Web of Hope]

Little Sunny's losing her cool around the muggles...yes they know she's magic, but marking the lockers like that can do things to a girl's (already shaky) image... Can't wait for VP Kickass to make her showing

[G S tol Kriaal]

6681141 Thanks D!

[Archmage Gaia]

Have you ever heard of Log Horizon, Wanderer D?

[Wanderer D]

6681525 Yes. I'm awaiting season 3.

[Archmage Gaia]

I don't think I've ever seen a Log Horizon/MLP crossover and considering just how many thing MLP has crossed over with,that's saying something. I'm not even sure how it would work.

[ShadowPony12]

And this right here, confirms my prediction. So RD did move it and not tell Sunset, that sounds right, feel free to ignore the previous comment.

Excellent chapter, my friend!

Ah, yes...I have seen this scenario happen before. Looking forward to the next chapter.

[lordelliott]

6680793 I had pretty much guessed that this is what RD did, I just didn't understand the motivation until reading this chapter. About halfway through I was like, "Oh, right. Duh! " In the little bit of unpublished writing I've done, I interpreted her as being somewhat vindictive and needy too, so I don't know why it didn't occur to me.

[Her] eyes widened. "Is... is this for real? They're going to do a cross-server team battle?"

My literal, honest to goodness reaction to the above: "WHAT?! Oh, ho ho! " *insert multiple "dis gon B gud" meme gifs*
---------------
I love that idea. Especially the part where you get the Japanese server involved. Whether those two unnamed characters show up or not, I like how you've compartmentalized the influence of the GGO universe. We can get a taste of it without it taking over the whole story. Good move, sir!

Also, it may be bad of me, but I really like when Sunset gets mad and uses moves like Flame Punch. It's super effective on me.

[nobody dreamer]

Yes, Log Horizon is awesome! Too bad it'll take years for there to be enough material to adapt for a season 3, but I'm pretty happy with the current material and anime as is. Though for a MLP crossover with that, it would probably be pretty complicated.

Ah, ouch, glad the Human Six have kind of... confronted each other directly, but it left everyone hurting. That was pretty low of Rainbow, but she's always been hotheaded. At least it helps make the rest of the group look better since they honestly didn't know. And apparently Sunset can still manifest fire, no wonder she's trying to be careful about channeling her frustration into something harmless.

Like how Rarity pointed out their errors, but it'll still take them a while to fix the underlying problem itself. Wonder if Sunset could enlist any of them into the game, as a way for them to make up, though they would be rookies (and most people can't adapt to a game as quickly as a certain swordsman). Though sounds like there's already at least one other person at the school who plays GGO. Hm, wonder if a school holiday could be arranged for that upcoming team battle.

[pahnazd]

Well wasn't that fun. Congrats, Rainbow. You dun goofed. There's no getting around it.

[Bugsydor]

6680793
No Trigun references? Not even RD logging in with the username "Dash the Stampede," or some mook wearing a red trench coat?

[Corejo]

And texted asking where we were?"

Rarity, please. If she really cared, she would have called.
>Nightmare Moon
Don't you fucking dare... I swear to god, if it's Luna...

[kris664]

6683660 Now that you say red trench coat I think of Alucard from Hellsing

[Csquared08]

Alright, alright. You got me.

You're doing good things here, D.

[M4Tiger4014]

6806266 Or a guy with a rocket launcher.

[djthomp]

Ahh, so that's what happened. Good thing for Rarity and the fact that Rainbow is apparently hot headed, but not stubborn when slapped with reality.

Nightmare Moon? Interesting.

[HeartfireFirebrand]

7476997
My bet it's Luna.

[The Scarlett Mare]

Rainbow Dash gulped and looked at Rarity and the others, eyes wide. "Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. What have I done?!"

where's the drama taaag
I'm joking obviously, minimal drama I guess

[The Scarlett Mare]

"I'll leave the details to you, I'm just an infiltrator, not a team leader."

oh boy he just grins after this and I can't help but think that Yes she is a great fucking team leader