Night
Gardenia Glow had only been home for about twenty minutes when her doorbell rang. She sighed, considered putting her bra back on, then decided against it. If whoever it was wanted to bother her, they could just cope with it. She put her long pink hair in a pony tail and got up to answer the door, adjusting her oversized t-shirt as she did.
She opened the door and blinked at the sight of Twilight Sparkle standing there. Gardenia frowned.
“I thought I wasn't meeting you and your friends until tomorrow.”
“You are, and I'm sorry,” Twilight said, looking at her hands. “I... need to talk to you.”
Gardenia sighed. “Look, I already told you it's okay you and your friends broke in here. If you hadn't, who knows how long it would have been before anyone came looking for me. If you're still stressing out about it, go home, raid your parents liquor cabinet, smoke a joint, masturbate until your hand goes numb, or whatever you do to relax. It's fine. You and me are good. Okay?”
Twilight, her face bright red from Gardenia's masturbation comment, stammered. “It – I – No, it's not about that.”
“Then what?” Gardenia snapped, folding her arms. Twilight swallowed and looked down at her feet. Gardenia saw how uncomfortable she was and sighed.
“Sorry. Bad day at work for me,” she explained. “What's going on?”
“I have to ask you something,” Twilight answered. “It's about Sunset.”
Gardenia quirked an eyebrow. “Really.”
“I know you probably don't want to talk about her, but it's important.”
“Does she know you're here?”
Twilight shook her head. “I haven't talked to her since yesterday afternoon.”
Gardenia frowned and stepped aside. “All right. Come on in.”
Twilight walked into the apartment and sat down on the love seat in the living room. Gardenia followed her.
“You want a drink or anything?”
Twilight shook her head. “No, I'm okay. Thanks.”
Gardenia flopped down on the couch, grabbed a remote, and turned the TV off. “So, what do you want?”
Twilight was silent for a moment then took a deep breath. “Why did you forgive Sunset for what she did to you?”
Gardenia blinked. “What?”
“The other night, the girls told me what happened that started all this. And it just... offended me. On a deep, primal level. I was appalled and angry and I said some things that I regret, but I still kind of meant.”
“What did you say?” Gardenia's expression was neutral.
“I said that if that was what Sunset was like, maybe we should have reconsidered if we should actually bring her back.”
“Wow.” Gardenia got up from the couch and began walking to the kitchen. Twilight looked up, concerned, as the dark green girl disappeared into the kitchen. Gardenia reappeared with a bottle of rum and a couple of glasses. She put them on the table and poured a generous measure into each. She handed a glass to Twilight.
“Um, I don't drink,” Twilight said, confused.
“Trust me, you're gonna need it before I answer your question.” Gardenia clinked her glass against Twilight's and took a long drink. Twilight shifted uncomfortably in her seat, then took a reluctant sip. She gagged and started coughing as she felt the liquor burn the back of her throat.
Gardenia smiled. “Yeah, it can take you by surprise like that if you aren't used to it.”
Twilight put the glass back on the table as she finally stopped coughing. “I think... that's... enough for me,” she wheezed.
“Sure,” Gardenia said. She took another swig of her drink then looked at Twilight. “I forgave Sunset because I needed to.”
Twilight frowned. “I don't understand.”
“Sometimes, you don't forgive people because you want to make amends with them. Sometimes you forgive people who've hurt you so you can get on with your own life. I was so angry with everyone after Sunset outed me. Her, my parents, just about everybody. And it colored every aspect of my life. I don't think there was a single time where, underneath whatever I was feeling or showing on the surface, I wasn't still angry.
“But when I moved to Baltimare to start college, I made some new friends and a couple of them were the best kind of friends: ones who will call you out when you're being an asshole. They showed me that I was being confrontational with everybody, even my friends and professors. People who had no idea what had happened to me. I got some counseling and I realized I was going to have to do something to move on before my anger caused me to ruin my life in a permanent way.”
“So you forgave her? Just like that?” Twilight asked.
“No,” Gardenia answered. “Not 'just like that.' I came back here to see what had happened while I'd been gone. And while things didn't really get any better with my family, I did ask about Sunset. That's when I found out about the Fall Formal and the Battle of the Bands. I asked a few people I knew who still went to CHS, and with a couple of obvious exceptions, they all said the same thing: Sunset had changed.”
Gardenia let out a rueful laugh. “This'll sound really bad, but I even followed her one afternoon after school. I wanted to see how she interacted with other people. And yeah, she was kind and friendly to everyone. She had changed. And that actually made it easier. I was still angry with her, but I could see that she was making an effort to make up for who she was.
“Knowing that, it made me realize she probably wasn't ever going to do what she did to me to anyone else. So I forgave her. I didn't originally think she deserved knowing that I forgave her, but after a couple of weeks, I sent her the anonymous email you guys found.”
Gardenia finished her drink and poured another. “But I didn't forgive her because I suddenly wanted to be friends with her. I forgave her so I could move on. Like I told her the day she came here, I will never be friends with her. Ever. But I did forgive her for what she did to me. For my sake. Not hers.”
She sighed and leaned back against the cushions of the couch. She fixed Twilight with a look. “Does that answer your question?”
Twilight shifted in her seat. “It does, but...”
“It doesn't help you,” Gardenia finished. She sighed again. “All right. I'm going to ask you three questions and I want you to answer immediately. No thinking, no hesitation. Understand?”
Twilight nodded. “Yes.”
Gardenia held up one finger. “Do you still want to be friends with Sunset?”
“Yes.”
Another finger. “Do you believe she's the same heartless bitch she was back before you knew her?”
“No.”
A third finger. “Do you believe she deserves to be forgiven for what she's done in the past?”
“Yes!” Twilight blinked at how forcefully the word came out of her mouth. She stared at Gardenia in surprise.
“There's your answer.” Gardenia smirked and held out her glass in a toast. “Cheers.”
It was almost midnight when Luna finally arrived at the unmarked turn off the main road that led to her drop box. CacoPhonee had sent her a coded text about an hour beforehand indicating that he had dropped the information she wanted. Luna had left immediately.
She turned off the main road onto a bumpy dirt trail that disappeared into the woods lining the main road. After a few hundred yards, the trail ended at a clearing that had a fence running across the rest of the trail. A sign indicated the land beyond the fence was private property. Luna used the extra space to turn the car around and killed the engine.
She climbed out of her car, grabbing a large flashlight from the passenger seat. She locked the car and climbed through the gaps in the fence. She clicked the flashlight on and began making her way down the rest of the trail.
After about ten minutes, she made a hard right deeper into the forest. She counted six trees, then turned left. She walked for another five minutes before entering another clearing, the main feature of which was a large oddly-shaped boulder.
Luna went to the far side of the boulder, where a small alcove was located in the base. Luna knelt down and shone the flashlight into it. A small metal box was inside, with a combination lock securing it.
The vice principal pulled the box out and undid the lock. She opened the lid and smiled at the thick manila envelope inside. She opened the envelope and pulled out a sheaf of papers. She shone the flashlight on the first page and rifled through them. Several of the papers had the logos of government agencies at the top of them. As she quickly skimmed them, Luna's eyes widened and her eyebrows raised.
“What have you girls gotten yourselves into?” she whispered.
She returned the papers to the envelope, then locked the box and put it back in the alcove of the boulder. She placed the envelope under one arm and began making her way back to the car. She reached into her pocket, pulled out her phone, and called her sister.
“Tia? I have it. And it's worse than we thought.”
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I still want to know about gardenia parents
8786653
They're dead.
8786665
?
Must've missed that
8786668
Yeah it was kind of a throwaway line that didn't get much attention.
8787171
don't remember which one exactly, sorry.
8787261
8787171
"End Run," when Raroty tries to talk to the woman in black.
Oh shiiiiiiit
Oh Jeebus, this is gonna be good.
Here's the thing Sunset didn't out Gardenia. She outed herself. Sunset had no clue so while Sunset was being a jerk she didn't out you so ot's your fault. And Twilight get over it i am getting really annoyed at you.
8787710
I keep thinking that while Sunset was a jerk with Gardenia, the whole things is going in a way you still feel bad for her.
Being called out for being a jerk is one thing; being almost killed in an assault, suffering from guilt over all her past, not having goodnight sleeps, almost losing a friend because of that mistake even after all what she did to atone for everything, developing psychological issues, being unable to save someone who started everything because of that accident(even if that someone is pretty much the girl that almost kill her and was an all-around revenge driven asshole) and overall just destroying her emotional state vastly outweight what Sunset did.
Gardenia with the killer insight.