• Published 9th Jul 2018
  • 3,685 Views, 998 Comments

Consequences - shallow15



Things come to a head as recent events bring Sunset Shimmer and her friends in conflict with a government agent and something angry lurking in the woods outside Canterlot City

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Waiting, Worry, and Wondering

Rainbow Dash was not a thinker. When it came to things like nuance, details, and general common sense, she tended to ignore all of that and go with her gut. This usually did not work out well for her, as just about every aspect of her life outside of athletics could attest. When it came to the smart stuff, she tended to let Sunset or Twilight take the lead in that regard.

Which wasn't to say she was stupid. Far from it. She just wasn't built for prolonged introspection or deep research. Rainbow Dash was not a thinker, she was a doer. If you needed something done, she was your girl to ask what was needed and make sure it happened. She could present six different ways to get something done given a set of criteria (provided things like consequences could be ignored).

Which was why she was finding the following day at school particularly irksome. It was stubbornly insisting to be a regular day. Despite facing down a monster and Tempest Shadow the night before, nothing had happened. She woke up the next morning with her mom insisting she had to go to school. She showered, using up all the hot water, just like always. She wolfed down her breakfast with barely two minutes to spare before she had to leave for school, just like always. She arrived at the plinth at the front of the school to meet up with the girls, just like –

No, wait. That hadn't been just like always. Sunset had failed to appear, and that was causing all of them to worry.


“She hasn't responded to any of my calls or texts since we split up last night,” Twilight said, showing the chain of messages she had sent Sunset with no reply. “Have any of you heard from her?”

“Not since last night, I'm afraid,” Rarity said. Next to her, Fluttershy nodded.

“We even stopped by her place to check on her, but she didn't answer. We even asked Miss Bookbinder and she reported she hasn't seen her since yesterday either.”

“Well, she's gotta be somewhere!” Rainbow insisted. “We know she can't go back to Equestria, because the portal's closed!” She smacked her fist against the plinth to emphasize her point. “So, where is she?”

“Somewhere she probably don't wanna be found,” said Applejack. Her eyebrows came together in a worried frown. “The last couple of weeks have been hard on her and after last night, she probably wants some time alone to regroup.”

“Or,” Pinkie piped up. “She could have run into Agent Shadow when she stopped for her morning coffee and had her hauled off somewhere! She could be interrogating Sunset as we speak!”

“If that was the case, I should think Agent Shadow would have been waiting for us when we got here,” Rarity replied. “She only knows that the seven of us have some kind of strange power. I seriously doubt she even suspects Sunset is from another world entirely.”

“That's the other thing that worries me,” Twilight said. “She has hard evidence that we're the sort of thing STORM tries to contain. Why isn't she here right now trying to arrest us?”

“'Cause she knows she'll get her butt kicked,” Rainbow grinned. “Seven superpowered us's versus one Fed with a gun? Come on, even if she's as badass as her file says, she's gotta know she's totally outclassed. You should have seen the look on her face when I dropped her by her car last night.”

“I don't know,” Twilight murmured. “I don't like not knowing where either of them are.”

The bell rang, causing the group to let out a collective groan.

“Well, there's nothing we can do right now,” said Rarity. She was in her chair today, the night before proving to be too taxing for her to use her canes this morning. She turned toward the school. “We'll just have to hope that, wherever Sunset is, she'll get in touch when she's ready.”


Which was easy to say, but for Rainbow Dash, as the day wore on, the normal slog through the school day was ten times more unbearable than usual. Every five minutes she was looking at the clock, or sneaking glances at her phone, hoping that Sunset or somebody would text her to let her know what was going on. She hated waiting. She wanted to be doing something. Something to help. Something that could put a stop to all this.

When the final bell rang, she zoomed out of class and to her locker before racing outside to the plinth. She bounced on the balls of her feet, impatiently looking at the clock on her phone every few seconds. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Twilight and Applejack appeared.

“Finally!” Rainbow huffed. “So what's the plan? Do we split up? Cover the mall, her apartment, and all that? Or do we want to see if that bear thing is still at that den by the creek? Or both?”

“Slow down there, sugarcube,” said Applejack, her frown returning. “We haven't made any kind of plans yet. Me and Twilight have been talkin;' and we're not even sure if we should do anything right now.”

“Of course we should do something right now!” Rainbow yelped. “Sunset's out there somewhere, maybe in trouble. We've got that bear thing still roaming aroudn the woods, and we don't have a clue what that Fed is doing! There's plenty for us to do!”

“Oh, really?” Applejack folded her arms. “So what's your plan then? Wrangle the Ursa? Kick down every door in town until we find Sunset? Or do ya just wanna kidnap Agent Shadow before she reports back to her bosses, assumin' she hasn't already?”

Rainbow blinked. “Ooooh. I hadn't thought of that one. You think it would work?”

“No!” Twilight snapped. “We are not kidnapping a federal agent, no matter how much danger she poses to us!”

“We could keep her in AJ's barn,” Rainbow began.

“We ain't keepin' anyone in my barn,” AJ snapped. “What we're doin' is tryin' to lie low until we hear from Sunset or somethin' happens. We're in enough trouble that we don't need to go lookin' for more!”

“Oh, come ON!” Rainbow protested. “We need to go on the offensive while we still can. We find Sunset, take out the bear thing --”

“Ursa,” Twilight automatically supplied.

“Yeah, that. We take it out, show Agent Shadow how awesome we are, she decides to leave us alone and life goes back to normal! Easy!”

“And if she don't think we're all that awesome?” Applejack countered.

“Or worse, thinks we're an even bigger threat than the Ursa?” Twilight added.

“Pfft,” Rainbow pfft-ed, “That won't happen. We'll save the day like always and we might even get to be like government funded superheroes! Wouldn't that be awesome?!”

“We're not superheroes,” Twilight muttered.

“So let's go find Sunset and deal with all this crap! Who's with me?!” Rainbow cheered, lost in her own bravado.

“Really, Rainbow Dash,” came Rarity's voice as she wheeled up, followed by Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. “I could hear you from the side entrance! It's a wonder we didn't attract any official attention before all this happened with your mouth.”

“Hey!” Rainbow snapped.

“Everybody calm down!” Applejack said. “Rainbow, we ain't takin' any foolish chances until we got a better idea of what the heck's goin' on. Until then, we're just gonna go about our day like we always do!”

“While that thing wrecks more of town?” Rainbow now wore a frown of her own. “That's stupid!”

“What's stupid is taking silly chances on half-baked plans based on your dang hero complex!”

“What's stupid is not looking for our friend when she's been missing for an entire day!”

“Well, maybe if you were bein' a stubborn jackass --”

“Me?! I'm the one saying we should actually DO something and you want us to just sit at home with our thumbs up our asses!”

Rarity let out a scandalized gasp. “Really, girls!”

“Shut up!” Rainbow and Applejack snapped at her. Fluttershy eeped and tried to hide behind Pinkie. Twilight stepped forward, ready to physically separate the two if necessary, when all six of their phones chimed.

The fight was quickly forgotten when they looked at the notifications on their screens.

“It's from Sunset!” Pinkie said.

The message was brief and to the point.

I'm on the roof.

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