Super Awkward

by AugieDog

1 - Before

"Stupid mayor! Stupid city!" As much as Sunset didn't want the words to come out, they'd been running around in her head so much, she couldn't keep them from escaping. "Stupid saving the whole stupid world!" She smacked an open hand against the chair's armrest.

"Sunset..." Doc's gaze didn't stray from his book, but what Sunset saw through the window beside him tightened her stomach enough all on its own: slightly scruffy suburban backyards under the afternoon sun, the train slowing now that they were on the outskirts of Canterlot City.

"Well?" Sunset decided she liked the sound of smacking the armrest, so she did it again. "It's been five years! Why does the mayor want to give us the key to the city now?"

Without a sigh, Doc folded his book closed and looked over at her, his blue eyes as calm and gentle as the whole expanse of the sky. "Because the seven of you saved the world from that vile Grogar character," he said in the lilting accent that always made Sunset's heart do a little dance. "And some of us believe that to be a feat worth remembering."

Swallowing, she reached over and touched his face, her heart dancing even more when her powers didn't so much as twitch. Four-and-a-half years of marriage, after all: she knew every inch of him inside and out by now. "Y'know," she said, the last of her sour mood evaporating, "I'm starting to think I might be in love you."

"What a coincidence," he murmured, his hand coming up to slowly stroke the back of hers. "I've been thinking similar thoughts about you lately."

So the last twenty minutes of their three-and-a-half-hour ride, she had to admit, went pretty well, just letting herself lean against him and rest. As soon as the train pulled into the station, though, the scrum of obvious reporters, photographers, and camerapeople crowding the platform made her feel like she'd swallowed at least one bowling ball.

"I can't do it, Doc." Hating the whimper in her voice, she still didn't do anything to disguise it. "Not right off the train. Later, sure, with the mayor at an official press conference or whatever, but right now..." She turned toward him and let her eyes waver.

Doc's mouth went sideways. "Just this once," he said.

She grabbed his hand, kissed it, and let her powers flow out in ways she'd agreed she only ever would if he gave his permission. They'd increased, her powers had, in the years since she'd first laid hands on her geode, that little chunk of her former homeland. The stone itself had melted into Sunset's skin five years ago during the climactic battle as she'd struggled to wrap Grogar in nightmare visions of his past while the others, having absorbed their own shattered stones, took advantage of the distraction to—

Shaking her head to dispel the memories, she spread her power away from her like a mist till she could feel each individual mind on the train, on the platform, in the station, on the street surrounding the station. And gently, gently, ever so gently, she flipped several switches in every one of those minds except Doc's. Whoever looked at him now would see an older, heavyset gentleman with a goatee and glasses, and whoever looked at her would see nothing at all.

It took some effort to smile, but she did. He didn't exactly smile back, but he wasn't frowning, either, something she decided to take as a good sign. Standing, she reached his bag down from the rack above the seats, handed it to him, got her own, and gestured for him to precede her. He would have to go in front since people could actually register his presence.

He nodded—it wasn't like this was the first time they'd done this—squeezed past her, and started down the center aisle of the train carriage, Sunset falling in behind. None of their fellow passengers noticed anything odd as far as she could tell, nor did the conductors who smiled and thanked Doc for riding. Treading carefully down the steps, she located crews from all six of the city's TV stations, and it seemed just about everyone had a cell phone out and pointed at one of the train's exits.

Cell phones were easy, though, as easy as regular cameras and the human brain. Too easy, in fact: the slightest little massage tricked all the eyes and lenses currently turned toward her into seeing exactly what she wanted them to see. Which was why she and Doc lived out in the Alleghaynees. Someone like him who could fix anything mechanical could make a good living in a rural community. And the fewer people around to tempt her, the better Sunset liked it.

Doc pushed through the crowds into the station, and the folks wearing the dark suits and forced smiles of an official welcoming committee made Sunset's stomach clench like another bowling ball had slid down her throat. Touching his shoulder, she sent her words directly to his auditory nerves: Let's get a cab to city hall. I really don't wanna uncloak here.

Another nod was his only reply, and the crush thinned substantially with each step, the multitudes still waiting for her to exit the train. Down a ramp, out a door, and they were stepping onto the streets of Canterlot City. Despite everything churning inside her, Sunset puffed a little sigh, started to follow Doc toward the taxi stand—

"Good afternoon, Dr. Turner!" The voice, as clear and sharp as an icicle, stabbed straight through Sunset's ears and rammed into place behind her forehead like she'd chugged down multiple milkshakes. "How lovely to see you again!"

Not wanting to turn, Sunset still did, Rarity standing on the sidewalk like a sculpture of some ancient goddess. Five years had seen her grow taller, sleeker, her dress knee-length, white and form-fitting, the glasses perched on her pert little nose shining with the power of her shields. "And you as well, I suppose, Sunset," she said.

Sunset swallowed. She could feel every single mind within a two-block radius—even Doc's though she wasn't manipulating his at all. But the figure in front of her didn't cause the slightest blip.

Apparently Rarity's powers had increased over the past half-decade as well...

If she'd been there alone, Sunset was sure she would've just kept returning the glare of her former friend and teammate, but fortunately, she wasn't alone.

"Ms. Rarity." Again, all Doc had to do was speak, and the knots in Sunset's middle started loosening. "From what I've read, you've done exceedingly well for yourself and the city over the years."

Something that might have been a smile twitched Rarity's lips, and Sunset had to stop herself from taking a step forward to get a better look. It was as if everything about Rarity had become as hard and angular as the force shields she projected: was her porcelain skin now literally porcelain? "You are, as always, too kind, Doctor," Rarity was saying, and when she waved a hand down the road in the opposite direction from the taxi stand, Sunset was almost certain she could hear those fingers click. "But as we're all going to the same place..."

The town car Rarity led them to practically sprawled across the road, Sunset sure she could fit five or six copies of her motorcycle inside the thing. Still, she found herself huddling close to Doc in the back seat, Rarity somehow maneuvering the behemoth through the always-nightmarish traffic of downtown while continuing to be invisible to Sunset's mental senses. Disconcerting, sure—she could see Rarity, but she couldn't see her—but it was also kind of soothing. Sunset was so used to the mental effort of leaning into the buffeting breezes of other people's thoughts, a little spot of calm made for an oddly welcome change.

Doc and Rarity were exchanging pleasantries about the train ride and the local weather, but Sunset wasn't really paying attention, concentrating her senses and probing around for any trace of Rarity's mind. A sudden little poke in the middle of her forehead, though, made her start back, Rarity clearing her throat loudly at exactly that moment. "Really, darling," Rarity said, her voice even colder and drier than before, "it's quite the challenge navigating these roads without you figuratively licking me up and down that way."

Unable to stop a gasp, Sunset leaned forward. "You can feel me? 'Cause I can't feel you at all!" And she had to know. "Can you block anyone else this way? Maybe develop it as an area effect! Or could you stand next to me and keep me from reaching anyone? Maybe make me a pair of glasses like you have in order to inhibit my—"

"What?" Rarity craned herself halfway around in the driver's seat. "Are you serious? After everything—!"

"Truck!" Doc called with as much urgency as Sunset thought she'd ever heard from him.

Snapping her attention away from Rarity, Sunset stared out the movie-theater-screen-sized windshield to see that the mishmash of cars had parted somehow, the stainless steel grill of a gigantic moving van barreling through the gap directly toward them.

Air horns roared, the hair on the back of Sunset's neck standing up, and the whole car shifted sideways without Rarity actually turning the wheel as far as Sunset could tell. Of course everything was a blaring, blasted blur, her stomach stretching as the world spun around her, but two things blossomed as clear as the tone of a crystal bell in her head: first, that she wasn't hearing the crashing, tearing crush of metal she would've expected had the truck run into them; and second, that a presence had just popped over her mental senses, a presence she hadn't felt in—

"Dag nabbit, Rarity!" a familiar voice thundered through the honking and the shouting and the tires squealing. The windows showed nothing but brick walls—were they in an alley?—then the car stopped so suddenly, Sunset sloshed sideways into Doc, still in place because, as always, he was wearing his seat belt. Her midsection stretched again to the sensation of the car dropping, settling with a jolt, and becoming still.

A large shadowy figure rose up beside the car, squatted down, and became Applejack scowling in through the front driver's side window. "I got better things to do with my life than hauling you outta traffic jams all the live-long day!"

Sunset stared. Applejack's face and hat seemed to fill the whole window, and the shoulders below that face spread out and out and out under her brown duster coat before becoming upper arms that couldn't have been thicker than Sunset's waist no matter what her first impressions were insisting.

Everything about Rarity had suddenly become a good deal warmer. "And yet? Here you are as always right when I need you." Her smile still focused on Applejack, Rarity flicked a finger at the front passenger door, a tiny shard of silver and white flashing out to flip the door lock upward. "Perhaps we can give you a lift?"

"You?" Applejack's nose wrinkled. "I oughtta just pick this whole darn vehicle up again and walk it over to the citations department at city hall!"

Rarity giggled. "And you used to complain about my public displays of affection when we were dating."

Applejack went redder than her older brother.

The lightness in her chest made Sunset smile, and she couldn't stop a giggle of her own. "It's okay, Applejack. Your secret's safe with us."

Both Applejack and Rarity stiffened, Applejack's head swiveling to point her scowl toward the back seat. "Secret's safe, huh? Well, reckon there's a first time for everything..."

Heat flooded Sunset's face.

"Still," Applejack went on, breaking the jagged silence, "Sunset, Doc. Been awhile, ain't it?" She straightened, and Sunset couldn't help gaping at the sheer size of the woman, tall and broad and making Rarity's land yacht look like a compact as she stumped around the front, pulled the side door open, and squeezed herself inside. "Last time I saw the two of you, don't recollect if I was quite this, uhh...."

"Voluminous, perhaps?" Rarity shifted the car into reverse. That the engine was still running surprised Sunset, and it surprised her even more when Rarity barely glanced over her shoulder before gunning that engine and shooting the car backward out of the alleyway and into another spatter of car horns.

Sunset still had a grip on Doc's seat belt, and she watched Applejack clamp one massive hand around the closest part of the dashboard, her other hand digging into the door's arm rest. "Consarn it, Rarity! Ain't you ever gonna learn to drive?"

Flicking the shift lever, Rarity stomped the accelerator and spun the wheel. "We're superheroes, are we not? We're expected to display a certain amount of thrill-seekery when we're together!"

"Reckon that's why we ain't together no more?"

"Ha!" Rarity looked over to jab a finger into Applejack's upper arm, and all Sunset could think of was a pin poking a cannon ball. "Just because some of you decided you couldn't handle the—!"

"Red light!" Doc shouted, the first words he'd said, Sunset was sure, since the last time he'd alerted them to onrushing doom.

Rarity made a loud and fairly rude noise with her lips, everything flashed silver and white, and the front end of the car rose up as if they were ascending a bridge. "Do you forget—" Tendons stood out like geode shards under her skin, drops of sweat audibly crackling as they rolled down her face. "—with whom—" Out the window past Doc, frozen beside her, Sunset could look down on traffic speeding back and forth below the shimmering shield they were driving across. "—you're dealing?"

Her ears popping, Sunset swallowed and tightened her grip on Doc, the car tipping forward, sliding down, and jouncing back onto a flat surface with an impact that shook Sunset's teeth.

"I am not," Rarity was continuing, her jaw clenched and her hands like claws clutching the steering wheel, "some dilettante unable to function in both the stress-filled worlds of high fashion and high adventure! I am the leader of the Canterlot City Sentinels! I own and operate six very exclusive and extremely successful boutiques! And I—!" A shudder rattled her whole body, and without another sound, she slumped sideways onto the floor between the driver's seat and the front passenger seat.

"What the hay!" Applejack shouted.

But Sunset was already scrambling forward. "You take Rarity! I'll take the wheel!" A three-dimensional tapestry spun into her head, the strands made up of what everyone around her was seeing right now. Sliding into the driver's seat, she plucked those strands like guitar strings, nudged a few slightly to the left, a few slightly to the right, made a few associated feet tap their accelerators and a few tap their brakes, and a sudden path opened to their right.

A wrench of the wheel brought Rarity's car smartly up the ramp of the city hall parking lot, and a stomp on the brake pedal squealed them to a halt in front of the guard shack, the car's front bumper, Sunset estimated, almost exactly a hair's breadth from the wooden arm blocking the way.

The guard was blinking over the top of her sunglasses. Without even having to think about it, Sunset flicked the button to slide the driver's side window down, flashed her biggest smile, and said, "Hi! I understand there's a reception here for us today?"

That got another blink. Then the guard reached sideways to poke a button, and the gate slowly swung up.

Sunset touched a salute to the side of her head, eased the car forward, and asked, "I don't suppose the leader of the city's superhero team has her own parking space or anything?"

"Take a left," Applejack rumbled. Chancing a glance, Sunset almost blushed again to see Rarity cradled against Applejack's chest, those big arms curled protectively around her, Rarity's eyes closed and her smile beatific. "If I'm remembering right," Applejack was going on, not looking up from Rarity's face, "they hadta take two spaces and repaint 'em to fit this boat."

"Well?" Rarity asked, cuddling closer to Applejack. "I needed a vehicle capable of carrying my most valued operative, didn't I?" Her eyes came open, and when she reached up to touch Applejack's face, Sunset focused her attention strictly front and center, finding the double-wide space ahead where two walls of the parking garage met.

The conversation went on in low tones beside her, though, whether she wanted to hear it or not.

"I don't work for you no more, Rares."

"That could easily be fixed."

"No, it couldn't, and you know it."

"I know nothing of the sort."

"This city just ain't big enough for me."

"But you're still the same wonderful, glorious size you were when you left three-and-a-half years ago!"

"Three years, seven months, and thirteen days."

"It's been three years, seven months, and fourteen days, I'll have you know, since I last touched you, darling. But what's important is that our changes have stabilized! Surely we could work out some way for you to—"

"Okay!" Sunset let the car settle into the space and made a show of shifting into 'park' before shutting down the engine. "We're now free to move about the cabin." She turned with her phoniest grin and held the keys out to the two people filling the seat beside her. "Unless we've got more embarrassing revelations we want to get out of the way before he head in to city hall?"

One of Applejack's eyebrows arched. "Revelations, y'say?" She reached out a hand that probably could've engulfed Sunset's whole head and snatched the keys. "You're our expert in them, all right."

"Hey!" Sunset poked Applejack's arm; it was like jabbing a marble pillar, and she made a mental note not to do it again. "There was no way we could've kept our identities secret after what—" All these years later, she still had to swallow and force herself to say the name out loud. "—what Grogar did to us! And what you were just saying about having to get out of this city?" She crooked a thumb at herself. "That was me when everything in my head blew up and I stopped being able to tell who was me and who was somebody else! If I hadn't declared who we were and who I was, I would've gotten lost in the mental slurry slopping between us! And if Doc hadn't gotten me out of town when he did—"

Saying his name stung her as sharply as a snapped rubber band; she cranked around in the seat, her heart racing, and couldn't stop a little squeak of joy at seeing him still in the back seat with his safety belt fastened, his hands folded in his lap. "I'm beginning to see," he said, the slightest smile pulling at his lips, "what attracted you to the heroic lifestyle."

"No," Sunset said. "No, no, and no." Fumbling for the door latch, she managed to pull it, flung the door open, practically leaped out of the car, scrambled across the concrete, and pressed her back against the cool, rough wall of the parking garage a couple yards away. "Okay, yes, we had some good times: I'll never deny that."

"Oh, yeah," someone rasped into her right ear. "You can say that again," the same voice said into her left ear.

Startled, she looked left, right, left, and saw no one there.

The snicker told her for sure who it was, but she still asked, "Dash?"

"Who else?" Figures flickered into existence on each side of her, and—

They were both Dash, both dressed in the skin-tight, dark-blue Sentinel suit that covered her from head to toe except for her face, and both sporting more lean, streamlined muscle and coiled-spring sinew than when Sunset had last seen her.

The one on the left leaned against the wall, yawned, and stretched while the one on the right folded her arms and smirked at Sunset. "When you're quick enough," the one on the right said, "turns out you can be nowhere and in two places at once."

A snort from Rarity's car, and Applejack rose from within, pretty much her whole torso visible above the roof, Rarity still draped decoratively across her forearms. "Still showing off, huh, RD?"

Both versions of Dash gaped, then they flowed together into one standing between Sunset and the car. "Whoa, AJ! And they say I work fast!"

The soft expression on Rarity's face became much harder when she turned from Applejack to Dash. "May I remind you, Rainbow, who signs your paycheck every week?"

Dash folded her arms again, and even though Sunset was behind her, her grin rang clearly in every word she said. "I'm gonna guess it'll be 'Mrs. Applejack' from now on."

"Applejack's here?" came a squeaky shout from outside the garage. An explosion went off, then a storm of confetti swarmed in through every available opening. Gathering into a whirling tornado, the tiny particles congealed into a bouncing Pinkie Pie, her skintight suit matching Dash's except for the color, an unsurprising pink. "And Sunset, too! Oh, this is gonna be just like old times!"

"Exactly." Dash started counting off on her gloved fingers, her grinning attention still focused on Rarity and Applejack. "Something old, something new, something borrowed—"

Pinkie's squeal made Sunset miss the folding ears of her former equine body. "And something blue!" She grabbed Dash's arm. "That's you, Dashie! You'll hafta be maid of honor!"

Applejack cleared her throat. "She's made of something, all right, something I'm like to step in if I don't watch where I'm going out in the cow pasture." With the wavering way she looked down at Rarity, Sunset didn't need a single one of her powers to know exactly what was going on in the big woman's mind. "You gonna be okay to stand now, Rares?"

A similar mix of fear and desire radiated from Rarity. "As long as I know you're close by to catch me."

With a strangled sort of growl, Applejack leaned forward and set Rarity's fashionable shoes onto the garage floor. "Reckon it'd be too much to ask that something go easy for once?"

The raspberry Dash blew echoed, a blue flash whisking her to Applejack's other side. "Easy? Some of us don't know the meaning of the word!"

"Yes," Rarity said, her eyes half-closed. "The Canterlot Unified School District has much to answer for."

A chuckle beside her, and Sunset had to blink at Doc standing there. "Wait..." She looked from him to the car and back again. "How did you—"?

"Timey!" If Pinkie had stopped bouncing since reintegrating herself, Sunset hadn't noticed that, either. "Where'd you come from?" Her eyes went wide, and she put her hands on her hips. "I always thought you said you didn't have any superpowers?"

Doc held up one hand. "And I shall say it again. After all..." He swept the hand out to indicate the whole group. "When one is in such beautiful and vivacious company, one can surely be excused if one tends to be slightly overlooked."

"Hmmm." Pinkie tapped her chin. "One, maybe. But 'two' rhymes with 'you,' and you, I'm gonna keep on keeping an eye on." She made a circle with her thumb and forefinger and squinted through it before she began bouncing again. "Mostly 'cause you're just so gosh-darn cute!"

Sunset took his arm and pressed her shoulder to his. "This one's spoken for, Pinkie."

"I know." She seemed to deflate for a fraction of an instant, then she was back to her usual bouncing self. "But as long as I've got Dashie to keep me warm, I'm never gonna complain about a single thing." Her eyes shining, she nudged Sunset with an elbow. "Get it? Not a single thing 'cause we're a couple!"

That got Applejack perking, and she looked down at Dash. "You and Pinkie?"

"Oh, yeah." Dash moved from Applejack's side to dipping Pinkie backwards into a kiss and back to Applejack in less than a blink. "Who else is gonna be able to keep up with me?"

"Then..." Applejack turned about a quarter of a smile toward Rarity. "You don't got some policy against employee fraternization?"

Everything about Rarity pretty much began to glow. "Darling?" She reached up to rest several fingers on the biceps bulging to fill the sleeve of Applejack's duster. "In certain cases, I positively encourage it."

Dash had popped over to Pinkie's side again, and with Doc's arm around her shoulders, Sunset for just an instant couldn't remember why she'd been so adamant against coming to this celebration.

Then a throat cleared from the walkway leading toward city hall. Glancing over, Sunset saw Twilight standing there, her hands thrust into the pockets of her white lab coat, her mouth a tight, thin line.

And all Sunset's reasons for wanting to stay away flooded back.

Comments

[Shortmane]

This is a unique take on the future of EQG! Makes sense that they might one day absorb their geodes, but wow what side effects.
It wasn't until we saw Applejack that I realized things were very different in this, and all of those changes made it fun since i had no idea what was coming at any time. Interesting to see everyone paired up, although I can't tell if Rarijack here is actually working or not (hope so!).
I don't quite buy into the Sunset/Doc relationship, but then I can be really picking- working well enough.

[Lurks-no-More]

Now this is a fun take on the Equestria Girls, and where they might be going!

So, is Rarity the Nick Fury of this lot?

[AugieDog]

9823395
9824687

Thanks, folks!

I wanted Sunset to be in an unusual relationship--for her, I mean--and an EqG version of Time Turner seemed like the most fun. And now I'm wishing I'd given Rarity a fancy crystalline eye patch...

Mike

[PresentPerfect]

The Sentinels :D

What happened to Rarity, though? Why'd she just pass out?

[AugieDog]

9836467

Overstrained herself:

Creating a shield bridge strong enough to carry that large automobile over the stream of crosstraffic. That's what happens when we try to show off for Applejack, kids...

Mike

[PresentPerfect]

9837149
I thought so, I just wasn't sure.

[AugieDog]

9837452

I might pop:

Half a line into chapter two to make it clear. Thanks as always for reading and pointing stuff out!

Mike