Repercussions

by shallow15

Vanishing Acts

Rarity, Pinkie, and Rainbow arrived at the hospital about twenty minutes later., meeting their friends in the lobby. Applejack raised an eyebrow at the fact that Rainbow was dressed in her pajamas, but decided not to comment.

“Where's Twilight? I thought you were gonna call her?” she asked.

“We tried,” Rainbow answered. “It just went to voice mail.”

“She did mention she was going out for dinner with her family tonight,” Rarity added.

“But that has to be hours from now,” said Fluttershy. “We just got out of school.”

The other three girls looked at Fluttershy and Applejack. Rainbow blinked.

“Uh... it's almost seven.”

“What?” Fluttershy and Applejack looked at their watches, then at each other.

“We lost almost four hours!” Fluttershy said.

“Four hours?” Rarity asked.

“Yeah, but to us it was only like a few minutes,” said Applejack. “It's weird.”

“What about the hospital staff? Didn't they come in at all?”

“I dunno. I guess not. They probably would have done somethin' if they had.”

“Well, whatever happened,” Rainbow began. “If it helps us get Sunset back, I say we go for it, freaky time skips or not.”

“But can we actually get Sunset back from wherever she is without Twilight?” Pinkie asked.

“I dunno,” Applejack said. “But I think we can do it. I'm pretty sure if whatever that thing was hadn't blasted us, me and Fluttershy could've pulled her out.”

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Rainbow began heading for the elevators. “Let's go get her back!”

The rest of the group smiled and followed her.

---

“Okay,” Fluttershy said. “Everyone have their geodes?”

Each of the girls produced their necklaces. Those who weren't already wearing them put them on. Rainbow looked out the door into the hallway, then closed it.

“All clear!”

“All right,” Fluttershy took a deep breath. “We need to do this fast. We don't know when the nurse will make her rounds to check on her. Everybody get around the bed.”

The girls circled the bed. They were silent for a moment, the only sound the beep of the EKG monitor measuring Sunset's heartbeat. They exchanged glances.

“Pony up, everyone.”

The girls grasped their geodes. A flash of multicolored light later, and the girls stood with pony ears and tails visible. They linked hands, with Applejack and Fluttershy standing at the ends on either side of Sunset.

“Everyone ready?” Applejack asked. The rest of the girls nodded. “All right, then. On three?”

Fluttershy nodded. “One.”

“Two.”

“Three!”

They each placed a hand on Sunset's geode and in a flash, all five girls found themselves back in the odd color changing landscape. All five were floating off the alleged ground and glowing in a different color. There was only one major difference from when Applejack and Fluttershy had been there earlier.

Sunset and her doppelganger were both missing.

Applejack frowned and held her hands to her mouth. “Sunset?! Sunset, where in the heck are you?”

“Let's keep moving,” Rarity said. “Maybe she's further along and we can't see her.”

The group began floating forward, calling out for Sunset. After a while, the shifting colors began hurting their eyes, and there had been no sign of Sunset.

“I don't get it,” Applejack said. “She should be right here!”

“Well, she's not,” said Rainbow. “And we've been here forever!”

“Almost,” said Pinkie. She gestured with her arm, where her watch was visible. “This says it's only been about half an hour, but AJ and Fluttershy were here for only a few minutes and they lost almost four hours!”

“So how long have we been – “

“WHAT IS GOING ON IN HERE?!”

A deafening voice boomed from everywhere, causing the group of friends to cover their ears. As soon as they did, there was another flash of light. When their vision cleared, they were back in the hospital room. Outside, night had fallen, the stars twinkling through the room's window.

There was also a visibly angry nurse standing in the doorway.

---

“Well, great, now they think we're part of a cult.” Rainbow flopped back onto the hood of Rarity's car.

“They do not,” said Rarity. “They just didn't know what on earth we were doing there so long after visiting hours”

“Seeing all of us standing in a circle with our eyes closed around Sunset probably didn't help, though,” said Pinkie. “If I saw a bunch of teenage girls doing that I'd certainly think there was something culty going on.”

“Um, I think we're missing the important thing here,” said Fluttershy. “What happened to Sunset?”

“That's what I'd like to know.” Applejack pushed her hat back on her head. “It's her own dad-blamed mind, right? So how can she vanish from it?”

“I don't know, Applejack,” Rarity answered. “But since the five of us weren't enough to find her, it would seem we still need Twilight to help her.”

“Well, let's get her down here then!” Rainbow sat up. She reached into the pocket of her pajama pants, fumbled around for a minute, then gave a sheepish grin. “I forgot my phone.”

“I've got this,” Rarity smiled. She reached for her own phone, but blinked when it started to ring. “Again?”

She swiped the screen to answer the phone. “Hello? Beachberry? What can I – Oh! Let me put you on speaker! I'm with the girls. They'll want to hear this.”

She tapped the speakerphone icon and Beachberry's voice came out.

“Okay, so I looked at that email you gave me,” she began. “The one without the headers.”

“What did you find?” Rainbow demanded.

“Oh, goody, you.” The sarcasm in Beachberry's voice was audible. “I hacked into the account, and found that it's linked to another account on the same site. I found something I wasn't expecting.”

“Well, don't keep us in suspense, darling. What did you find?

Beachberry was quiet for a moment, then sighed. “The linked account belongs to Gardenia Glow.”

The five girls exchanged a look of surprise. Rainbow frowned.

“Gardenia Glow? Didn't she graduate?”

“Yeah, she did,” answered Applejack. “But I think we all know why she might be involved in all this, don't we?”

“Yeah,” said Beachberry. “Anyway, that's all I got. I'd figure you'd want to know.”

“Thank you so much, Beachberry,” Rarity said. “You have no idea how helpful you've been.”

“Yeah, just remember our deal, okay?”

“Absolutely.”

Beachberry hung up. Rarity looked up, her expression grim. “We need to find Gardenia. Now.”

“Oh! Oh!” Pinkie bounced on the balls of her feet. “I know her sister. She told me Gardenia still lives in town!”

“Good. Call her and find out her address. I think we need to pay her a visit.”

Rarity went back to her phone and dialed Twilight's number.

“Hello?” came a sleepy voice.

“Twilight, it's Rarity. We have a new lead we're going to check out.”

“Now? It's almost ten-thirty.”

“This can't wait, Twilight. That email you found forgiving Sunset? It came from an account belonging to Gardenia Glow.”

There was a pause. “And Gardenia Glow is?” Twilight asked, her voice flat.

Rarity blushed and coughed slightly. “Ah, yes, you wouldn't know, would you?”

“No,” Twilight's irritation was packed into the single syllable. Rarity cleared her throat and regained her composure.

“Gardenia Glow was the last girl who challenged Sunset for Princess of the Spring Fling before Princess Twilight first came to Canterlot High.”

“Okay, still not following you on why this is important enough to visit her tonight.”

“Because, Twilight, darling, when Sunset Shimmer set out to force Gardenia to drop out of the race, she wound up causing Gardenia's parents to kick her out of the house.”

Comments

[Admiral Q Ponyform]

Dick parents.

[Paulon]

And, implied, an angry girlfriend.

[Crossbredorc]

Hate to break it to you but at the end of the first movie, it is revealed that Rarity was the one who Challenged Sunset at the spring fling. Rarity specifically states that she is still waiting for an apology for the last spring fling. It is very close to the end of the movie. A lot of people end up missing it as it isn't a major plot point or even announced loudly.

nevermind the last chapter explained what happened. It does kinda suck when some small thing is missed. I've done that way to many times myself.

[Csquared08]

A name!

Ha! Lyra and Bon Bon were a red herring!

[Snowdrifter]

9402560
No, this is!
pbs.twimg.com/media/D2EQyRsVYAEocfv?format=jpg&name=medium