Hard Work
Twilight, seated in the back of Rarity's car next to Pinkie Pie, stared at Rarity and Rainbow Dash in the rear view mirror mounted on the windshield.
“Sunset actually outed her?” Shock was evident in her voice. Up front, Rarity and Rainbow exchanged glances.
“She told us later she had no idea that Gardenia had those preferences,” Rarity answered. “She apparently only wanted to spread the pregnancy rumor.”
“But that's... that's horrible! She had to have considered that it could cause problems for her beyond the dance election!”
“Back then, Sunset didn't really consider anything besides herself,” Rainbow said. “She admits she was a grade-A bitch.”
“And you all knew about the things she did?”
“Everyone did,” Pinkie said. “No one wanted to get on her bad side, because she always knew where to hit you where it hurt the most. And she always did it in a way that kept her from being punished for it.”
Twilight sat back in her seat and looked out the window. After a moment, Rarity looked at her in the rear view mirror.
“Twilight? Are you all right, darling?”
Twilight muttered something that was inaudible. Rarity and Rainbow exchanged a glance.
“What'd you say, Twi?” Rainbow asked. Twilight swallowed and looked up.
“How can you all be friends with her knowing she did that?” Twilight's voice was quiet. “That's one of the most despicable things I've ever heard anybody do. I just – I don't know how to feel about this.
“Maybe... maybe we should reconsider whether we actually should bring Sunset back.”
“What?!” Pinkie shrieked. Rarity opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again. She and Rainbow looked at each other. Rainbow nodded, and grabbed Rarity's phone. She dialed a number, while Rarity looked down the road for somewhere to pull off. She spotted a drive-in fast food joint, and signaled her intention to turn.
“AJ? Change of plan,” Rainbow said. “We're stopping at the Twisty-Freeze. We all need to talk.”
“What?” asked Twilight. She began playing with her hair, nervousness creeping into her voice. “What about Gardenia Glow?”
Rarity glanced up into the mirror again. Her expression was oddly neutral. “If that is what you truly believe about Sunset, Twilight, then I think she can wait until we deal with this.”
Eleven PM on a Friday night was usually when things were busy at the Twisty-Freeze Drive-In. People looking for late night snacks, whether it was burgers or milkshakes, coupled with the restaurant's two AM closing time, always resulted in plenty of customers who came and went.
Seated at one of the outdoor tables surrounding the main building of the drive-in, six friends, fortified with the ice cream based confection of their choice, prepared to have an uncomfortable conversation.
“Twilight, darling,” Rarity began. “Let me be clear right now that we are not upset with you. Given what we told you in the car, your reaction is only natural.”
“But what you just said... majorly uncool,” added Rainbow. Twilight swallowed again, and looked down at her milkshake, idly swirling her straw through it.
“I didn't mean it,” she said quietly. “I just don't know how you all can be friends with her knowing what she did. I know Princess Twilight asked you to help her after the Fall Formal, but somehow, becoming a demon and trying to conquer Equestria with a zombie army somehow seems less awful than what happened to Gardenia.”
“And Sunset would agree with you,” said Applejack, pointing with her plastic spoon. Twilight looked up, her expression perplexed.
“It took us almost three weeks to get Sunset to a place where she didn't feel completely overwhelmed by guilt,” said Fluttershy. “She spent a lot of time beating herself up over everything she had done since coming to Canterlot High. And even then, it wasn't until the sirens came when she actually believed she deserved any sort of forgiveness.”
“She spent those three weeks apologizing and trying to make up for everything she did. But Gardenia had graduated by then, and after her parents kicked her out, she just kind of vanished off the radar,” Rainbow continued.
“I didn't even know she was still in town until a short while back when her sister started at school this year,” said Pinkie.
Rarity took Twilight's hand. “Don't think it was easy for us either, darling. It took us nearly as long to truly see that Sunset was making a legitimate effort to change. And there were fights. Oh lord, were there fights.”
“I almost knocked her block off once,” admitted Applejack. “She tended to keep insultin' people when things didn't go the way she wanted. Made the mistake of sayin' somethin' about Apple Bloom.”
“It took me, Pinkie, and Rarity to hold her back.” Rainbow grinned. “She still kept trying to get at Sunset. Picture this: Me on AJ's left arm, Rarity on her right, and Pinkie getting dragged on the ground while she's hanging onto her left leg.”
Twilight let out a short laugh, then cut it off and blushed in embarrassment. Applejack gave her a small grin.
“Naw, go ahead and laugh. It was a funny image. Point is, after I calmed down, me and Sunset had a talk and worked things through.”
“We all had talks with her over that time,” Rarity elaborated. “We all had issues with how she acted before the Formal, and we had to work through them. It was hard, but it was worth it in the end.”
“But, I don't know if I can get past this,” said Twilight. “I know, intellectually, that she's changed, but if she did things like... that, I'm just so appalled that I don't even know what to do!”
Fluttershy finished sipping her slushie, and looked up at Twilight. “You do what we did. You talk to her about it.”
“When she wakes up, of course,” added Pinkie. “Because it'd be a really awkward conversation to have right now.”
“And if you still think you can't be friends with her after talking to her, that doesn't mean we'll stop being your friends,” said Rainbow. “That's not how we roll.”
“No one expects you to be okay with Sunset's past, Twilight,” Rarity finished. “We only want you to give Sunset a chance to show you that Sunset is gone and she truly isn't that person anymore. Do you think you can do that when we get her back?”
Twilight considered for a moment, stirring her shake with the straw again. She looked up at her friends. “I think I can do that.”
Pinkie cheered and hurled herself off the table into a flying tackle hug. Twilight yelped as Pinkie crashed into her, causing both to fall off the bench Twilight had been sitting on. After the surprise wore off, the entire group began laughing. Pinkie got off Twilight and helped here back up onto the bench.
“All right, now that we know what we're doing when Sunset finally wakes up, what about talking to Gardenia?” Rainbow asked.
Rarity looked at her phone and grimaced at the time. “I know I insisted on seeing her tonight, but given how late it is, I think I may have been hasty in that decision.”
“We could talk to her tomorrow,” Applejack said. “I'm free in the afternoon.”
“Same here,” said Rainbow.
“I'm closing at the boutique tomorrow,” said Rarity. “I won't be available after two o'clock.”
“We could still go talk to her.” Applejack tossed her cup into a nearby trash can. “I think RD and I can restrain ourselves for one conversation.”
She exchanged smiles with Rarity and Rainbow. Twilight cleared her throat.
“Um, would it be okay if I went with you? Maybe if I can hear how she was able to forgive Sunset, it might be helpful.”
“Sounds like a good idea, sugarcube. We'll pick you up around three. Will that work?”
“I think I can swing that,” Twilight answered.
“Yay for emotional and investigatorial progress!” cried Pinkie. She gestured to what was left of her gargantuan banana split. “Now, could somebody please help me finish this thing?”
There was no shortage of volunteers.
Stats
Page generated in 0.019 seconds
Total duration
637 users online
835,236 hits today, 2,280,440 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
“Maybe... maybe we should reconsider whether we actually should bring Sunset back.”
suspension of disbelief is kinda failing me here
edit: eh i reread it and i'm more ok with it but still
Sighs....Evenif Sunset never meant to, it was still a terrible thing, no wonder that girl so furious, but it deosn;t excuse her current acts and what she done.
She still goen too far, she lashing out at everyone now, Moon Dancer may be next, and again she may attack hers parents as well, being thrown out, and abdaoned, she being consumed by rage and hate more and more.
Yeah can see her go after them as well.
her parents reactons and actiosn were the greatest betryal.
Another great chapter. Having sci-twi doubt her faith in sunset was a nice change of pace, also very realistic. Since you really don't know someone until you've walked a mile in their shoes after all. Twilight may have heard about a number of things from Sunset herself about her past. But some people, well most people really, never talk about everything. Especially if everything includes something that could very well shake the foundation of a friendship. We already know Sunset was keeping the emails secret from her friends so it's not hard to believe she failed to tell Sci-twi about Gardenia.
8500940
But wasn't the 'I Forgive You' email from Gardenia Glow?
8501989
That is true unless she was making her let her guard down ....Or....ooooh ooohOOOH OOOH! Plot twist!
Can't say anything if i'm right...... We have to wait and see.
8501989
it isn't Gardenia, it's her lover.
Gardenia walked into the pain she felt. yeah Sunset was a bitch but Gardenia ran headlong into the trap.
If Twilight really decided to end her friendship with Sunset, then how each one of them would have reacted?
Sunset avoiding Twilight like how she did with Applejack after "The Ride Home"?
Sunset avoiding everyone because of how she felt during "In The Days That Followed"?
Then, how Rainbow (if not the rest of the girls, as she said ["...That's not how we roll."...] ) would have reacted?
Switching her mind like this is something I noticed in many stories.
Ooooh, that's interesting. I like this angle with SciTwi.
I've been reading through the comments after each chapter. Thank you. Thank you for posting this chapter. Thank you for showing your readers why someone who's done the things Sunset did, deserves forgiveness.
Also, calling it now, it's the sister. Pinkie said Gardinia has a sister who started going to CHS this year, I say she's the attacker.
This part is so unrealistic it ruins the whole fic. 0/10
Lol
If i was sitting there instead of Twilight i would call you a liar based on past experience.
Who are you and what have you done with the real Pinkie Pie?
Ooh, I like this. I always felt like there's a huge disconnect where pre-fall formal Sunset and post-formal Sunset are completely different characters with no real continuity. Even when her past is mentioned it's glossed over like "she did vague unmentioned Bad Things but she's different now and we forgive her!" whereas you're going all "Sunset Shimmer did this very specific horrible awful thing and everyone is struggling to reconcile this with their current view of their friend" That really makes it real, y'know? Making it concrete and with present consequences gives her that crucial continuity that was missing, I love that! It just really grounds the character and ties the two disparate parts together, every Sunset fic needs this.