Distance Over Time

by Nonchalant

Terminal Velocity

Part Four - Terminal Velocity

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Logged in as ShimmeringSplendid

Group Chat “Rainboom Rodeo”

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Chat created four years ago

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> [09:31] TacticalRainboom: sounds gr8 sunset! This song’s perfect to play w/ the Rainbooms
> [09:31] TacticalRainboom: 9/10
> [09:32] ShimmeringSplendid: it isn’t even done yet...
> [09:32] ShimmeringSplendid: besides, it doesn’t even have drums or bass or anything.
> [09:32] ShimmeringSplendid: more of a solo piece as it is
> [09:33] Diamond_Sparkles: Even better, darling! You could do it as an acoustic break in a show!
> [09:33] Diamond_Sparkles: If you haven’t noticed, Pinkie Pie gets rather… enthusiastic. From where I stand with the keyboard stand sometimes I need a little time to… dry off afterwards.
> [09:34] ShimmeringSplendid: riiiiiiiiight…
> [09:34] Diamond_Sparkles: Hey!
> [09:34] AppleJack: Break it up, now.
> [09:34] PrettyInPink: Hey AJ!
> [09:34] TacticalRainboom: sup
> [09:34] ShimmeringSplendid: Heya Applejack!
> [09:35] AppleJack: Hi all
> [09:35] AppleJack: What’d I miss
> [09:36] Diamond_Sparkles: Sunset here just sent us a quick doodle of a song she’s writing!
> [09:36] Diamond_Sparkles: It’s rather great, I think.
> [09:36] ShimmeringSplendid: you don’t have to listen if you don’t wanna, AJ. it’s not much anyways
> [09:37] PrettyInPink: Too late!
> [09:38] AppleJack: Shoot
> [09:38] AppleJack: it is pretty good
> [09:38] ShimmeringSplendid: oh… thanks!
> [09:38] Diamond_Sparkles: Told you sooooo~
> [09:38] AppleJack: I mean, I woulda used banjos more, but
> [09:38] TacticalRainboom: dammit aj
> [09:38] Diamond_Sparkles: sigh
> [09:39] ShimmeringSplendid: heh
> [09:39] AppleJack: gotcha, Dash!
> [09:39] TacticalRainboom: dammit aj… x2

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Incoming call from PrettyInPink

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“...hello?”

“Hiya Sunset! How’re you doing?”

Pinkie’s voice was bright as always, but to Sunset, something felt different. Not quite forced, but maybe apprehensive? Sunset rubbed her eyes with the other hand as she woke up from her stupor, noticing that she’d kept the line silent for what was just about to qualify as an awkward amount of time.

“Oh! Uhh… I’m good, I guess. Still kinda sleepy?” Sunset gave a rather vague answer on purpose, hoping that Pinkie might take the hint.

From the speaker, a light tapping sound was heard. Likely her pink friend bouncing a pencil on her desk. “That isn’t just a vague and noncommittal answer so that I take the hint and leave you alone in your broodiness, is it?” Pinkie asked.

Sunset sat up on her bed, pillows falling from where they’d previously made a protective cocoon of warmth and comfort around her. “You… what? No! Of course not!”

Pinkie chuckled softly. “I don’t know,” she said. “I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what it was.”

A beat of silence. Then Pinke spoke again. “But if it isn’t, then you don’t mind catching up? You’ve been kinda inactive in the Rodeo over the last week, aside from today.”

Of course Pinkie Pie would take it upon herself to check up on Sunset. Not that if she’d ignored Pinkie’s call she wouldn’t have received three more within the day from each of her friends, but still. Then again, that wasn’t the kind of reply one gave to a friend so clearly concerned with one’s wellbeing. “Sure, then. What was it you wanted to talk about?” Sunset asked in resignation. She flopped right back onto her bed, pulling the only pillow not on the floor into her arms.

“I dunno. Kinda figured you’d have hung up by now.” Pinkie was probably shrugging. “ It’s a good thing though. This means you aren’t as moody as I thought you might be! And that means you’re probably gonna make it through juuuust fine. Not that it’ll be a piece of cake. Though I can probably get you one if you really want it.”

Sunset absorbed the monologue. It was perilously close to becoming a soliloquy when she decided to interrupt. “It’s fine, Pinkie. I get it. I… I guess it’s my music that’s on my mind right now. Figure if I make it so you guys wanna hear the end result I’ll be more likely to get it out, right?” She explained. That didn’t mean that she was sure of anything, but after spending the first third of the summer already wallowing and going through the motions, pretty much anything sounded better.

“What about Fluttershy?”

‘...’

“What about her?” Sunset asked hollowly.

She barely really paid attention to what Pinkie said next. Her head was just full of static again. Reminiscent of a low, reverberating note played and held on a cello indefinitely, Sunset just couldn’t think of anything. ‘What about Fluttershy indeed?’ She thought. The mental image of their chat flashed in before leaving Sunset alone with her droning void. ‘Last Active over a week ago.’

“Sunset? Sunset, are you still there?” The voice was faint, and Sunset jerked her arm back up to her ear with a sheepish grimace no one could see. She didn’t even remember taking her phone away from her head.

“Sorry again, Pinkie. I’m just… really tired. I wish I was just using it to get you off my back, but I’ve got next to no energy for anything right now,” Sunset apologized, unsure of what else to do. Mentally, she braced for the coming comments on the benefits of a healthy sleep schedule and the spiritual good that it would do her to meet up with her friends more often.

Instead, she heard Pinkie sigh. “Seriously, Sunny. I’m worried for you. Not that I don’t think you’re super duper strong and responsible and all, but…” She trailed off.

Sunset had an inkling as to where that sentence was going to go. In no mood for being given the runaround, she replied tersely. “What, exactly? I can handle it.”

“You kinda don’t extend any of that to your own problems as much as everyone else’s. Sorry!”

“What kind of problem do I even have?” Sunset scoffed, but it was a sound born of the weight in her chest rather than genuine amusement.

Once again, the hesitation from the other end of the conversation was strong enough that Sunset could feel it. Listening more intently than ever, she thought she might have heard a second voice in the background. Rarity? Was this an intervention? Sunset dragged a hand through her hair in frustration. Couldn’t Pinkie Pie see that this wasn’t any of their business? As right as everyone was assuming that her seemingly random spike in productivity had something to do with Fluttershy, she didn’t want to alienate the girl from their friend group simply because Sunset was there to recount her side of the story and Fluttershy wasn’t.

‘Pinkie seems pretty determined, though… I guess I should at least not avoid the problem. Friends don’t hide things like this, right? Besides, Fluttershy’s probably been talking to them in some other chat more often anyways.’

This time, Sunset stood up. Phone still to her ear, she rummaged in her favourite jacket to find her earbuds. As she unravelled them, she turned her attention back to the call. Her internal digression had barely taken ten seconds, so she was just in time to cut off whatever Pinkie was about to summon up the nerves to say. “Pinkie, is there someone else there? Why don’t you just put me on speakerphone? If you guys really wanna talk it out, I’d rather just deal with it all at once actually.”

There was some shuffling and a few tapping sounds that felt like they were directly on the phone. Sunset used the opportunity to slip her earbuds in and lie down again, giving her arm a break. A soft chime notified her that the status of the call had changed, and so she ventured out a hesitant greeting. “Hello?” She ventured.

A slightly strained voice returned her greeting in its usual accent, causing Sunset to nod. “Hello, darling. I’m right here.”

“Me too! We’re the only three, I think.” A much more subdued voice was also present. If it wasn’t for the logistical impossibilities, she would have assumed it was Fluttershy. In this case, however, Twilight was a much more plausible option.

Pinkie Pie spoke up again. “Well, Sunny, we were just wondering. Cause Fluttershy hasn’t really stopped by to say anything in our group, and at least none of us three have gotten any messages either. If she isn’t talking to anyone much… we know it’d be hard for you, I guess? I know there was that time that Princess Twilight accidentally donated her journal that you assum--”

“Can we please not talk about that time?” Sunset groaned, remembering the time that she’d effectively spent a week as a high-functioning emotional husk as a result of being unable to convene with the Princess for their bi-weekly book discussions.

Rarity interjected just as Pinkie took a breath. “The point is, Sunset, that we want to know how you’re holding up,” she sighed. “Despite what you may think, we have noticed, and of course we care.”

“Well, in that case,” Sunset said, “yeah. I haven’t heard from her in like a week.”

“Oh.” Twilight was quiet, but Sunset at least caught it.

“That’s certainly unlike her, isn’t it?” Rarity tutted in sympathy.

Sunset exhaled sharply. “You’d think that, wouldn’t you?”

“I kinda did think that, yeah! How’d you know?” Pinkie butted right back in, but that same strained tone lay under her unreasonably naive response.

“Hey, Pinkie?” Sunset decided to play on a hunch. “Right now, it would probably be better to just be honest with me, and then cheer me up after. Sound good?”

There was some more quiet shuffling from the group in Sunset’s earbuds. She got up again and started pacing, taking a U-shaped course around her bed. Almost immediately, Pinkie spoke again. “Are you sure?” she asked.

“Of course. I trust you.”

“Then… are you honestly happy? With Fluttershy?” Pinkie’s reluctance in posing the question was incredibly, painfully clear.

“I… I should be, shouldn’t I?” Sunset was incredulous. “I thought you guys said you supported us. When we said we were dating you were all over the moon. Was that all a lie?” She was nearly shouting at the end of her accusation.

Rarity’s sharp sound of dissatisfaction cut through her anger. “Sunset! You know very well that was entirely uncalled for. We have always supported you, and we will continue to do so. That does not mean that we will stand by and let you self destruct for the sake of your relationship!” She sighed and picked up the phone, another soft sound telling Sunset that she was now speaking only to Rarity. “Please, apologize to Pinke? This is weighing far heavier on her than you might realize. Your absence has consequences too, you know? I’ll take Twilight and get out of your hair.”

The phone went back on some sort of hard surface with a dull thunk, and Sunset was treated to the sounds of Rarity stretching and standing up. ‘I had no idea one could sound so deliberately dignified working a kink out of their back…’

Then she heard the fashionista clear her throat. “I really think it’s best we leave Pinkie and Sunset to talk about this. Come, Twilight, dear. If it isn’t too much trouble, I would love to ask you a few questions about some books I found the other day that caught my eye…”

Another person got up and shuffled away. “Oh! Of course! Uhh… bye, Sunset! I hope you figure this all out soon… we all miss you,” Twilight half-yelled her farewells as she walked away. There was silence until Sunset heard the faint sound of a door closing, then the now-familiar crackles of the phone being scooped up from the table, the chime of being back to a one-on-one conversation, and then a rather different sound. What sounded like a sad sigh coupled with a full-bodied whooomp. For some reason, Sunset immediately knew this meant that Pinkie had just swan-dived onto her couch with the phone clutched against her chest.

“Sorry about that, Sunny. I was jus--”

“Swan-diving onto furniture? Please, I’ve known you for years at this point.”

Pinkie swallowed. “Uhh… right. Sorry.” She hummed softly for a few seconds. “Soooooo… about that question from earlier? It’s just us here. I promise it’ll stay between just the two of us! Unless you’re seriously in danger of getting hurt or thinking of major criminal activity, in which case I guess I’d hafta go to the police and all, but even then, I wouldn’t tell them about your relationship stuff. Pinkie promise!”

Sunset barely quieted the laughter that sprang right through the mass inside her chest. It didn’t break it up, but… she felt just a little better prepared to talk about it all.

“Thanks, Pinkie,” she said. “The thing is that I know at least that I love Fluttershy. That much I can’t argue with. I don’t know how to face this because I’ve never actually been a lovesick teenager before! I do miss her, and you know that I have a thing about communication. I’m not so sure it’s a healthy thing but I just can’t bear the thought of a relationship in which the participants don’t actually, y’know, keep up with each other! That isn’t to say I want to be controlling either, but I do wish that Fluttershy could tell me when she was gonna go off the grid like that so I could at least be prepared, and not left hanging on a broken promise that she’d make time for me!” She paused to take a breath, the pressure now in her throat as well. She stopped pacing and leaned against the wall, looking down and idly staring at the wavy cable of her earphones trailing into her hoodie’s large front pocket.

“The other thing is that I know I’m bad for her, right? I’m such a fucking toxic girlfriend! I mean, every time we talk about anything it turns into advice. I shouldn’t tell her how to live her life! I barely know what I’m doing half the time! And especially when it comes to someone who’s so damn different to me that I really can’t hope to relate unless she tells me more herself, which she never does cause of course I’d just throw it back in her face with stupid criticism masked as fucking advice again!” Sunset wasn’t quite sobbing, but she felt almost as bad as any of the times her own nightmares had led to a tearful awakening in the early hours of the morning to the faces of her other friends strewn about the room at a slumber party. She took a quivering breath and curled further into herself on her bedsheets. “It’s all my fault. I make her uncomfortable. She’s too nice to say anything cause sometimes we’ll have a nice time and all, and she probably thinks I need her help, too. Not necessarily a charity case I guess but damn fucking close to it. If I were in her shoes and with someone like me, I probably wouldn’t want to communicate either…”

‘Well that certainly was a soliloquy there.’

Pinkie had been making quiet sounds of affirmation the whole time, but now she sounded close to tears. “Sunset… I can’t tell you what to do, but that’s partly because it seems like your mind is made up already, isn’t it? Just… remember we all love you, okay?’

“Of course, Pinks.”

“In that case…” Pinkie sniffled slightly, a sad smile working its way into her voice. “Sounds like you have to have a chat with Fluttershy, doesn’t it?”

Sunset still wasn’t crying, but she was once more inside her nest of pillows. “I guess you’re right. Thanks for being here, Pinkie. You’re an amazing friend.”

“That’s the goal, heh. Good luck, Sunny.”

*Click*

Sunset sighed, and it was thick with understanding. It would be another two hours before she got up again.

Comments

[MidnightBlossom]

great chapter! :) and I love how Applejack's profile name is just Applejack

[Nonchalant]

9831938
fun little background detail I had in mind: The reason it's "AppleJack" rather than "Applejack" is because Pinkie Pie has a few extra accounts, and "Applejack" is one of them. It's being held for ransom, though for what has never been specified.

One chapter left!

[Ice Star]

9831967
I’d totally read a story about that.