The Truth About Girls (Vol. 1)

by TheMareWhoSaysNi

Wrong Number (part 2)

The Juvenile’s Squad building had nothing in common with the small police station where Twilight’s brother was working. Located in the suburban of Canterlot, it was a gloomy place, with gray stones and dark rooms.

The Detective’s office where she was questioned had no windows, and the old wooden and carpet chair on which Rainbow Dash sat was itchy against the back of her thighs. Even Green Haven’s psychiatrist’s office looked warmer. Yet it was the last place on earth where she wanted to go back, even for a courtesy call.

Here was what she was accused of. Via internet, she’d let a classified ad in a not very commendable site, along with sexy pictures of herself, alluring older man while promising them a moment of ecstasy. When these men were going to the rendezvous spot, a motel way out of the center, they were welcomed by a bunch of teenage girls who beat them and stole them their wallets.

It was absurd. She had no problem with money. Her father gave her a business debit card, limitless, each time he was out for business, which means almost all the time. As for beating middle-aged men… She unburdened herself enough aggressiveness at the roller derby, lacrosse and even at basketball. And, the sexy pictures of her were poor photomontages, as easy to spot as a castle in the middle of a wasteland.

“Since I’m telling I’m not the one who posted this ad! On the pictures, it’s easy to see my face had been added to another body. Since when do I have such shells instead of boobs? Did you check the IP address?”

“It comes from a cybercafé. Of course, you’re smart enough not to do this from home.”

“I’ve told you I’ve done nothing of that sort! Haven’t you heard about presumption of innocence?”

“We know you have some self-destructive penchants… According to what’s been reported to us, your father is never here. It might be difficult for you, so you’re trying to get his attention, maybe?”

“Am I dreaming?! Don’t you guys never hear what the others say? If you insist, I’ll call upon my right to stay silent.”

Rainbow Dash crossed her arms and looked away. It was clear she wasn’t the girl on the pictures, anyone could see. It seemed like they refused to look further, satisfying themselves with facts from her past as a good explanation. A past that was over, dated of something like five years ago, against which she regarded to have won most of the battles.

They had spoken about her father… For such a long time now, she had stopped hoping he would take some time to care about her. She had won trophies, had appeared inside the local newspaper for her athletic exploits, the number one channel about High School and University basketball had even blessed her with a short report, and nothing of this all had particularly made him proud of herself, or solicitous about her existence.

Arousing men, beating them and stealing them… It would be the best way to be directly going back to the Green Haven square. As if she could want such a thing…

One of the detectives kept on asking her questions to which she kept on refusing to answer, while a third one had knocked at the door in order to speak with his coworker. Rainbow Dash didn’t hear what they said but saw the tensed face of the second detective.

A man dressed in a gray suit, wearing glasses, then arrived into the office, and immediately, the detective questioning Rainbow Dash got up, his face as tensed as the one of his fellow policeman.

“Mr. Hasbod”, he cried between his teeth.

“The defendant’s father, Mr. Rainbow Blaze, CEO of Canterlot Airlines, had make me responsible for her defense. It happens that you have arrested my client without a warrant signed by a judge, which is mandatory when an ongoing investigation includes a minor. Consequently, you had no right to bring her here for a questioning, and this, without letting her call a lawyer, a parent, or a legal guardian. In retrospect of that, this questioning is over and my client will stop answering your questions. Follow me, Miss Dash.”

How did her father happen to know, Rainbow Dash ignored it, but what was sure was that those two detectives would surely think their instinct had been right, and she really wanted to draw her father’s attention with these attacks. The intervention saved her for now, but that wasn’t going to help her in the end.

Mr. Hasbod accompanied her speechlessly out of the building, and she then had the surprise to see that her friends all were here, and were waiting for her inside Pinkie Pie’s big pink candy.

They had to drop off Fluttershy in front of her house, since her parents had established a curfew for her during weeks of school, then they went to Rainbow Dash’s in order to think about this matter around cocktails made by Rarity, who thought it was the tonic they all needed – except Twilight, who only drank sodas.

To enliven their beverages, Rainbow Dash took crackers and diet peanut butter, the only sweet treat there was in her closets, loaded with cereal bars, and bags of rice and noodles. In her fridge, piled up fresh vegetables and fruits, as well as bottles of milk and energetic drinks in the shelves of the door.

“The person who did this can’t really master IT tools”, Twilight claimed after she had studied the photomontage, not without a certain amount of embarrassment.

“No matter, it looks believable for the cops.”

Lying spread-eagled on her couch, Rainbow Dash chewed on her cocktail’s straw, still upset because of her humiliating arrest in front of everyone in Sugarcube Corner.

One of the things that made her mad the most was that people thought she was able to do things so deceitful. When she attacked, it always was point-blank. Maybe this attitude lacked sobriety and wisdom, but that was how she was made.

And in her mind, it was more filled with dignity than taking the others for fools.

“You do know you’d never do such a thing, and we all know it too. You have to trust justice.”

Rarity meant no harm. Yet, her remark made Rainbow Dash become even more withdrawn. When her mother had died, there had been an inquiry… Irregularities had been detected, and yet the agents in charge of the investigation hadn’t gave rise to them, and everyone kept on saying it had been nothing but a terrible accident.

“What Rarity means, sugar cube, is dat ya have to tell yerself dat things ain’t goin’ to go downhill. Ya won’t go back there, Ah promise.”

That was the magic thing about Applejack. Rainbow Dash didn’t need to tell, her friend knew. After all, her and Twilight had been there already in her worst hardships and they both knew the hell she had to go through.

Maybe she couldn’t really trust justice, but she knew she could at least trust her friends. They always were here for her, as she always was there for them too, no matter the circumstances. In fact, Pinkie Pie came to try to cheer her up by making faces, and she had just received a message from Fluttershy telling her not to lose hope.

“Since we all know it isn’t you, we could try to search together who would have tried to frame you”, Twilight took part again. “There are plenty of persons who don’t like you because they think you’re arrogant or self-centered… Can’t you see someone more particularly?”

“I don’t. Got to be seriously hateful to make such a disgusting thing!”

“It could be an opponent you fought at sports and who’s mad at you for this reason.”

“One thing’s sure, it ain’t for a dude since ya never hit on anyone.”

“Or not on purpose”, Rainbow Dash said shrugging.

“Oh me, I know what to do”, Pinkie Pie cried.

She had put her arms in the air, as if no one could see her, half sitting on Rainbow Dash who was still lying on the couch, and sipped on her cocktail with the straw like it was a simple fizzy drink.

“What if we’d be the one to frame this person this time? Let’s pretend to answer the ad, go there and there you go! We discover who it is. After, all we’ll have to do is to bring this person to the policemen.”

“And how do we do dis, Shadow Spade?”

“Well, Twilight’s brother is a policeman…”

“Pinkie Pie, this is a wonderful idea. I personally always dreamed to be Shadow Spade. And to have her wardrobe.”

“But Shining Armor isn’t in charge of this investigation. I don’t think it’s going to be possible.”

“Can’t we call the detectives who had arrested me, and tell them we got a track?”

Twilight wasn’t completely convinced. Police had very precise rules to follow, and she didn’t like not to follow the rules. More than everything, she didn’t like to include her own brother in a clampdown that could be dangerous.

Nevertheless, Rainbow Dash was one of her best friends. Thanks to her and Applejack, who immediately had accepted her with them when she arrived in Middle School, she could have gone out of her shell, she had socialized, and had finally been able to feel more at ease around people, to love herself the way she was.

For her friends, Twilight was ready to do anything. Even the biggest concessions.

-------------------------------

Shining Armor hadn’t been happy to learn that a whole plan had been established around him without his express consent first. His little sister had apologized many and many times, asserting that it was one of the simplest, fastest solution they’ve found that more or less limited damages.

He knew yet that there were investigations that could take a lot of time before being solved, and that during this amount of time, the accused person could suffer from a few wrongs.

Rainbow Dash was one of Twilight’s best friends, a teenager who had been through a lot, and for whom he felt sympathy.

That was the reason why he had agreed to their plan, at the condition that he told about it to his hierarchical superiors. Evidences that were found in a particular way could be refused in case of a trial, and that was a risk he didn’t want to take.

Even him had been able to detect the coarseness of the photomontage when he had read the ad in order to get the number of the fraud. All the same, the finale result had been a bit disturbing. It really was the face of a teenage girl he knew well that had been stuck to this mature and half-naked body.

The voice answering on the phone when calling the number wasn’t at all Rainbow Dash’s. It wasn’t necessary to do a lot of research to understand that there were strange things about all this, a gap between reality and the first conclusions of the investigation.

Rendezvous at the motel The Enchanted Lot, room number twelve.

The place was in no way an enchantment. Located on a dark and almost desert parking lot, it consisted of a succession of wooden-copy bungalows, more looking like containers repainted to hide misery. The paint of the doors was cracked, and the floor in front of each door was layered with blackened fall leaves. To go in such a place without batting an eyelid or wanting to go back, according to the young policeman, it was to be cruelly missing feminine affection – or to be one hell of a pervert.

Shining Armor arrived alone at the room twelve. He had dressed in a man’s suit a little worn, and glasses borrowed from his fiancée Cadence, that made him look older than his twenty-nine years-old. In the few cars of the parking lot were Applejack, Twilight and Pinkie Pie in Shining Armor’s vehicle, along as one of the two detectives in charge of the matter.

He knocked two times at the door, waiting. Not to arouse suspicion, a bit of an act was necessary. The assailants had to think he was nothing but a harmless office worker looking for forbidden sensations. It wasn’t easy for him, former bright and serious student, faithful to the same woman since years, and whom quest for truth and justice had been one of the deepest aspirations.

After a few seconds, a teenager wearing a black sweatshirt, black jeans and sneakers opened the door, the face completely hidden by a hood and a surgical mask.

Without a word, she let him step into the room.

Brown carpet stained with wine, badly made double bed, an old TV set hanging at the wall, walls which white tapestry had turned into beige because of the smoke from cigarettes. On the side, could be distinguished, one barely wholesome bathroom, lit by a neon with rude and aggressive light.

“The girl from the ad was named Rainbow Dash… Where is she?”

“She’s coming”, a female voice answered, her face stuck to what was happening in the parking lot.

Shining Armor saw she was tapping her left foot nervously, hands in her pockets, and that she avoided his eyes. It was obvious that this was up to no good, but he needed to catch her in the act if he wanted to prove anything.

Yet, he was wondering how the aggressed men had not smelled the awful scent of this whole masquerade.

Sounds of feet resounded on the doorstep. Soon, he saw a shadow passing by the window, after what the young girl who had welcomed him quickly hid in the bathroom and locked her door.

Appeared then to Shining Armor three young girls dressed exactly like their fellow, who had in their hands baseball bats and wore knuckles.

“Give us your dough, fogey, or we beat the shit out of you!”

Elementary… Ignorant pigeons were lured here, then threatened and dispossessed. Undoubtedly, even in the case they willingly agreed to give their wallets, they had the right to be beaten anyway, in order to make sure they wouldn’t follow the culprits.

He hoped his recording would be a sufficient evidence to exonerate Rainbow Dash, who might be impatiently waiting for them in the Juvenile Squad’s building with her lawyer. To make sure it would be good enough, Shining Armor tried to push his act a little farther.

“Where’s the girl from the ad, Rainbow Dash?”

“This moron doesn’t exist, you old pervert! Tonight’s not the night you’re going to have a taste of teens in heat.”

“Come on, cough up!”, yelled another of the assailants.

Perfect. The evidence he needed was here. Now he could lead the rest of the operation like it had been decided. In no hurry, he plunged his hand inside his suit jacket’s inner pocket in order to grab his wallet. But instead of giving it to them, he opened it on his badge that he brandished high.

“I’m Detective Shining Armor. Another detective from Juvenile Squad is waiting for you outside, to arrest you. It would be better for anyone if you cooperate.”

The three girls looked at each other, their eyes restless. They quickly left their weapons… but instead of surrendering, they turned around and hurried outside, running.

Shining Armor’s first reflex was to try to run after them. Then he remembered one of them was locked inside the bathroom. If he ran after the others, he probably would let this accomplice go.

And indeed, quickly after, the door of the room was opened. The other teenage girl was about to flee as well. Shining Armor didn’t let her. He grabbed her hood, revealing red ribbed yellow hair… very uncommon.

“No, you won’t be going nowhere.”

It wasn’t his investigation, of course. He only was here as a backup. Yet, no other solution came to his mind. He took his handcuffs and tied the young girl struggling with all her might, one bracelet around her wrist and the other one around his own. This way, he was making sure she wouldn’t run off like the others.

When Shining Armor looked outside, he witnessed something he wouldn’t have thought about. Twilight was standing next to his car, hiding her eyes, while Applejack and Pinkie Pie, gone after two of the accomplices, pinned them against the wet and cold ground, like real rugby players after a scrum. As for the detective in charge of the investigation, he was holding the third one by the hood of her sweatshirt, bringing her back to the parking lot.

As amazing as it seemed, the scheme prepared by his little sister and her friends had worked, although it had been close. It was a crazy, a bit stupid and risky bet, but the stake had been won. It made him understand he still had quite a lot to learn about his job…

---------------------------------

A tall skinny girl with blue hair, another girl with mauve hair and the last one with puffy strawberry blonde hair, plus the bag stealer, known as Sunset Shimmer. Rainbow Dash couldn’t believe it… How hadn’t she think about them?

Usually, she wouldn’t be allowed to witness these questionings, even behind a one-way mirror. She had been granted it exceptionally because she’d been falsely accused, on her lawyer’s demand, as a ‘compensation’.

However, the three other girls refused to talk and she hadn’t learned anything about why they had done this to her.

She hoped that this time, she would win the case. After all, it was her right to know why these girls had decided to put her in such a delicate situation.

The young girl behind the mirror’s court-appointed lawyer wasn’t like Mr. Hasbod, a wolf used to wriggle out. His attitude of a rookie made him look unsecure and a little scared to have to defend so young a delinquent.

“I can give you a chance to get away with it”, the detective was saying to Sunset Shimmer. “You’re not heard on the recording as being one of the assailant, but as an accomplice, there’s a risk you directly go to the reformatory. This isn’t what you want, isn’t it?”

“Maybe that’s what I deserve”, she answered, her head low.

Her reply baffled the detective as well as Rainbow Dash. Of course, she had felt when she had met her at the canteen with her ‘friends’ that something was going wrong, yet the girl had an attitude a bit insolent, and a rebel-kind of look that didn’t match with the lowering head poor victim behind the mirror.

“Don’t talk nonsense… You’ve done nothing too serious. That would be stupid to pay for the others. If you tell me what I want to know, we’ll make a deal. You could do nothing but community services.”

“I can’t do that to my friends. I’m not a stitch.”

Deep down, Rainbow Dash could understand Sunset Shimmer’s reaction. She probably didn’t want to betray her bunch’s trust, because it would wipe out their bonds forever. On the other hand, what she didn’t understand was why these so-called friends had run away without the least care about what could have happened to her. At no moment did they seem to worry about her fate.

The teenage girl didn’t know what her friends could have said or done. They had been separated when they had arrived at the police station, and were forbid to communicate. It was a detail in the favor of the detectives. If this was necessary to save her, the one questioning her didn’t hesitate. In fact, it was a quite current technique.

“Well, too bad for you. Tomorrow morning, you’ll be presented to a judge with your dear friends. Your parents already know… To your file are linked testimonies, and let me tell you your friends didn’t have so many scruples. They’d laid all the responsibility on you. According to them, you’re the only one at the origins of the project, and you’ve bullied them so they would rip off middle-aged men…”

Something told Rainbow Dash, still hidden behind the mirror, that things hadn’t happened this way at all.

Sunset Shimmer looked completely puzzled. She was twisting her fingers between her thighs, eyes going everywhere. The young lawyer was as lost as she was, silent on his chair…

Quickly, tears emerged on the young girl’s blue eyes and her mouth became distorted against her will.

“No, it just can’t be… Why would they do that?”

“Maybe because they think more about saving their skin than they think about solidarity spirit.”

The detective’s lie was a bad thing, that was for sure… And at the same time, what had happened at the refectory, the way those girls had talked instead of her, how Sunset Shimmer was looking afraid, all the while apparently thinking that was nothing special to be treated this way, all this showed that if they started to talk, those words probably would be the first out of their mouth.

The young girl put her elbows against the table, and spoke while hiding her face. Her voice was shaking at each words she said, and that was enough to make everyone understand which state she was in.

“When I’ve arrived in High School, I did all kind of bad things. I hurt a lot of people… I only wanted the others to have respect for me, I only wanted to be admired and I thought the only way was to inspire fear. But in fact everybody just hated me. And then the girls have arrived. They took me as one of theirs without questions. At first, it was so fine… I was finally feeling accepted. Worth of being a friend.”

“When did things turn out differently?”, the detective asked, now a bit more lenient.

“A little after summer holidays, when they came back from a trip together. They started to say I wasn’t trustworthy, that I was a threat for the group, that they didn’t feel good when with me. First it was just innuendos and then it became insults. The more I was trying to be nice, to show them they could lean on me; the more they were cruel. I was thinking I was the blame, that I had to do more efforts. A few weeks ago, they’d started to ask me to do things in order to prove my loyalty… Like stealing in stores, or purses and bags of passersby.”

An event Rainbow Dash had forgotten since was reminded to her suddenly. That was why she remembered Sunset Shimmer’s face when she had tried to steal her gym backpack.

A student had been expelled for a month, after she had gone to disciplinary hearing and on advice of PTA, for repeated bullying on a bunch of girls. Everyone had talked about it then.

It probably was her. Once back, changed, she had tried to integrate the athletics team, in which Rainbow Dash also was, but she had been refused because of these antecedents, in fear she would ruin the team spirit.

Back then, she was nothing but a nine-grader, but if she had been in her current powerful position as the leader of the running sub-team, Rainbow Dash knew she would have given a chance to Sunset Shimmer. Just like her, she knew how difficult it was to leave behind a past made of hardships…

“I didn’t want to do all this, but I also didn’t want to lose my only friends and to end up alone. So I accepted everything they asked me. And, the other day, when they bet I wouldn’t be able to steal Rainbow Dash’s stuff, I got caught. So, to make it up to them, they told me I had to organize this scheme. They forced me to make the photomontage and to post the ad… Even if I didn’t want to do that, even if I wanted to tell them to go to hell, I did it anyway. Because I was scared.”

The thick layer of smoke around this story had just disappeared, like dissipated by a huge gust of wind. Rainbow Dash didn’t need to hear more. She asked to leave the room and met Twilight, Pinkie Pie and Applejack who she told everything to. Once back, she would send a message to Rarity and Fluttershy where she would explain them what she had discovered.

Although she had been exonerated definitely, she wasn’t feeling better. Sunset Shimmer’s story had moved her, though she never said it out loud. To her friends, she simply explained she thought that would be a good idea to give the student the second chance she never had, in order to show the example, to prove her that brighter days were in store, even for her.

She was interrupted in her conversation with her friends by the three accomplices, out of their questioning rooms. Now aware of the charges upon their shoulders and of the deal agreed to Sunset Shimmer, when they met their ‘friend’ who was able to go out free – to the condition that she would see the judge tomorrow in the morning – they doubled threats and insults, while moving about from rage.

In front of this pouring of hate, it was easy to see that she wasn’t sure about how to behave. Cheeks crimson, she was trying to avoid the eyes of the other policemen… and her eyes fell upon Rainbow Dash, standing with the girls.

Sunset Shimmer opened her eyes wide when she saw her waving in her direction. She looked to the left, then to the right, and slowly and shyly, her head low, walked to the small bunch.

“Are you going to insult me as well? You’d be right to but well…”

“No we won’t insult ya, whadya take us for?”

“As Applejack says, I didn’t ask you to come to insult you. I just wanted to say that… if you’re looking for a real bunch of friends to have fun with, don’t search no more. We’re here.”

Sunset Shimmer rose her head, skeptical. With what she had revealed, it was impossible that not only Rainbow Dash wouldn’t hold a grudge against her, but also that she gave her a hand and accepted her as a friend as well. She had put her into a very serious and delicate situation. In her shoes, she would have spit in her own face.

“Aren’t you mad at me?”

“It would be a lie to tell you that I’m not upset that I’ve been arrested and taken for a prostitute because of you, but I’m going to try my best to forget about this whole matter. See, I think anyone deserve a second chance. I’m sure if you’d be around the good persons, which means us, you’ll be able to show that you’re better than that.”

“And we’ll never tell ya bad things and will never force ya to do illegal things.”

“Or cool illegal things like drinking margaritas at the Bellehorse Bar.”

“Rainbow Dash, don’t give her such ideas!”

“You really need to be a little less uptight, Twilight Sparkle.”

“And she’s da one who says dat”, Applejack underlined with irony.

While her friends were bickering again about trifles, like often, Pinkie Pie wrapped an arm around Sunset Shimmer’s elbow.

“You know; you can trust them. I also did very bad things when I was younger, and they accepted me with no fuss. Look where I am now. I’m their favorite Pinkie… even if they say nasty things about my Pussy.”

“What?!”

The comment, clumsy, had what it takes to make Sunset Shimmer jump, but Pinkie Pie didn’t bother to explain her she talked about a car, and went instead to put in two bits in the conversation of her four friends.

Once the shock passed, yet, Sunset Shimmer let a smile appear on her face. What was under her eyes, no doubt, it was a real bunch of good friends, just like Rainbow Dash had said. Everything didn’t look perfect between them, but the evidence she needed was right in front of her… They all were here despite the fact it was late, in order to support one of theirs. After the small arguments, the next morning, they would meet each other with pleasure, and would spend all their moments together, to laugh and share, enjoying each other company.

Now and for the first time, Sunset Shimmer hoped she would find her place in a bunch like this one… and why not, even, like it had been said to her, her place in this bunch. Despite her mistakes. Despite her past.

Comments

[Dusk_Writer]

I like Sunset's character in this story, she has some actual depth unlike some other versions I've seen xD

[TheMareWhoSaysNi]

7856867 You don't know how I'm glad I can always count on you. Thanks, thanks, thanks

I've never read other fictions with Sunset Shimmer yet, so (like I basically do with all the other characters), this is my personal perception of her

[Dusk_Writer]

7857168 Haha, it's nothing ^_^ Your stories are great so, I naturally love them!

Some other stories have her as a 2D character with just 'pure evil' status xD