Sunset's Wonderful Life

by sonicfan05

4. Falling Apart (Pt. 2)

It was almost time for the party and the festival to begin. The decorations were up and the snacks are set. The stage were still in the process of setting up, but close to ready for the music club. Fluttershy was almost done getting her animal friends ready for the adoptions, and the new toys for the kids were in the process of transferring to a storage until later event. Everything seemed to be okay and no one has any issues.

Except for one.

"What do you mean Trixie's fireworks are not allowed?" Trixie complained as she argued with Rainbow Dash in the middle of the gym. "The Great and Powerful Trixie can not complete her performance without them!"

Rainbow Dash let out an annoyed sigh as she pinched her nose. "Trixie… we were trying to put together a fun and safe party, not a potential fire hazard! Can't you just perform one of your other lame tricks?"

Trixie growled and clenched her fists in rage. "How dare you! Trixie's tricks are not lame! And if you're really concerned with my fireworks, Trixie can take it down a notch!"

"Even after you take it down a notch, it's still enough to potentially light up the stage in flames!" Rainbow argued. "My answer is still 'no'!"

Before they could argue further, Rainbow Dash noticed Sunset walking slowly passed them from the corner of her eye.

"Hey Sunset!" Rainbow Dash called her friend out. "Tell Trixie about the fireworks that she's been pushing to use for her show!"

Sunset looked over to her friend with a hum before responding in her halfhearted tone. "Oh, yeah... sure. Knock yourself out Trixie."

While Rainbow Dash stood there in disbelief Trixie let out a huge cheer!

"HA! The Great and Powerful Trixie triumphs again!" She then started walking away in her upbeat tone. "Now to get Trixie some good fireworks!"

Rainbow Dash watched Trixie walked off for a moment before she walked up to Sunset with a peeved expression.

"What the heck Sunset!?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "Why did you allowed her to use the fireworks? You know that she--" Rainbow Dash paused when she noticed that not only Sunset wasn't phased with her angry rant, but Sunset also appeared to be… distressed. Rainbow Dash's frustration melted away and replaced with a look of concern. "Hey… you alright, Sunset? You looked pretty upset?"

"You should ask Twilight! After all, she trusts you!" Sunset muttered quietly in her bitter tone.

Rainbow Dash blinked, barely understood Sunset's response. "Huh?"

Sunset sighed and shook her head to calm herself. "Nevermind! Where's Snips and Snails? They're supposed to be here to collect the tickets from our guests!"

"Oh. They just called in sick," Rainbow Dash responded uneasily. "Apparently they both caught a cold after spending too much time outside... without wearing their jackets!"

Sunset sighed and rubbed her temples in frustration. "For crying out loud..."

Even though these two boys were her old minions and they're no longer bad as her old self, they're still not the brightest bulbs in the Christmas tree. Not that she could blame them for getting themselves sick, but because there was a crowd of people currently waiting outside to get into the party, this was not a good time to happen at a time like this.

"Rainbow… can you run the ticket stand in their place?" said Sunset out of desperation.

Rainbow Dash's eyes widened and shook her head. "But Sunset, I can't do that on my own! There's tons of people out there!"

"Then bring the CMC's with you to help you out!" Sunset suggested. "Besides… they keep ruining the set-up in here."

CRASH

The two teens turned to the source of the crash, only to see the two young girls in question, cleaning up their mess, while the third one was busy putting on different sweaters for the now bald pup, Spike instead of working.

"Oops, dropped a plate!" Apple Bloom exclaimed.

"I spilled some drinks!" Scootaloo added.

"I got some more sweaters for Spike!" Sweetie chirped.

"Why me!" Spike moaned in distress.

"...good point," Rainbow conceded. "But what about--"

"Trixie? Don't worry about her!" said Sunset. "Just worry about the tickets! And if anybody needs me, I'm assisting Applejack with those musical instruments!"

Rainbow watched as Sunset quickly rushed towards the stage with that same concerned expression.

"...it wasn't Trixie I was worried about!" Rainbow said quietly to herself.

---

"Okay everyone, it's feeding time," Fluttershy said softly as she was given each of her animal friends their food.

Fluttershy was tasked to care and prep the animals at the back of the school's grounds before they are ready to be presented for any potential guests to adopt them as pets. She really was glad that Sunset got Principal Celestia's approval to have her shelter partnered up with the school and allowed to bring animals to the event. These sweet and loving creatures deserve to have homes of their own and to be cared for by their new owners.

Unknown to Fluttershy, someone was hiding from the bleachers, watching her with a sinister smile on their face. The person then took out what seemed to be a thin whistle of some kind and lightly blow into it. All of a sudden, the animals jolted and soon they began howling, yapping, hissing, screeching and roaring nonstop and started running around all over the place.

Fluttershy was immediately alerted from the commotion and started to feel panic as she watched animals acting very strangely.

"Wha- what's going on!?" Fluttershy exclaimed as she attempted to help the distressing animals. "Everyone please calm down! Just please calmly tell me what's going on so that I can--"

Unfortunately for Fluttershy, her plea fell on deaf ears as the two biggest animals threw themselves onto the fence with great force and parts of the fence collapsed to the ground. In the process, the animals fled from the area and charged to the back of the school, leading to the gym. Fluttershy watched the fleeing animals with a look of terror on her face.

"...oh dear."

---

Meanwhile, Twilight was tasked with storing the toys into the school's storage room along with some help from Rarity. They each just brought in the last boxes of toys and placed them on the shelves. Twilight wiped some sweat off of her forehead and turned to her friend with a grateful smile.

"Thanks for helping me storing the rest of the toys to the storage room Rarity! But you didn't have to spend on your break for me."

"Nonsense Darling!" Rarity insisted with a wave of her hand. "I'm always happy to help out a friend!" She then turned and headed out the door. "Now let's see how the preparations are going!"

Rarity and Twilight walked out of the storage room and closed the doors behind them. Some time later, the doors opened again. The three city staff peered into the room, specifically at the shelves where the toys were located. One of the staff person, who stood between the other two, let out their sinister smirk.

"Alright you two… you know what to do!" The person commanded.

The two nodded with smirks of their own and then went over to the shelves to begin taking boxes of toys out of the room. While that was happening, the third staff walked out of the room and headed towards the gym to proceed the final part of their operation.

---

"Alright be careful now!" Applejack instructed. "These items are very diligent! We don't want the owners of those instruments to be mad at us if anythin' happens!"

The students nodded as they were handling the equipment. Applejack selected a few volunteers to help out moving the musical instruments and equipment to the stage for later event. The few volunteers in question were Flash Sentry, Octavia, Vinyl Scratch (aka DJ Pon3), Lyra, Bon Bon, Bulk Biceps and Derpy. As Applejack continued to supervise the volunteers, Sunset walked up to Applejack with a tired by calm expression.

"How's the musical set-up coming AJ?" Sunset asked.

Applejack grinned. "Everythin' is A-ok Sunset! We're almost done here!"

While Sunset was please with the news, she couldn't help but nervously glance at the center of the stage.

"This stage is fixed, right?"

Applejack nodded. "Sure is! And Ah actually got it done a lot quicker with dat staff member you sent out earlier."

Sunset blinked with a confused expression. "Staff member? What are you talking about?"

While this was going on, the staff person was hiding behind the curtain at the back of the stage, who was eating a banana. As this person was finishing their snack, Derpy appeared around the corner, carrying a huge sound box towards the stage which obscures her vision. The staff member smirked as they hovered a now banana peel over to a certain part of the floor where Derpy might step on it.

And now… a distraction. The person thought mischievously as the banana peel was dropped on the floor.

The person hidden themselves behind the curtain again and watched with anticipation as Derpy reached the area and unknowingly stepped on a peel.

"WHOA!" Derpy shouted as she slipped across the room and headed towards the center stage.

Sunset and the others were suddenly startled from Derpy's shout and gasped as she fumbled towards the center area.

"DERPY! WATCH O--"

Unfortunately for Sunset, she couldn't warned or help her in time as Derpy finally loses her balance and fell onto the floor along with the sound box, which was now cracked into two. To make things worse, Derpy's force caused a domino effect as the boards from the center part of the stage cracked and she fell right into the hole. Then, the hole grew bigger and bigger to the point that other instruments were caught from the growing hole and fell into it as well, crashing towards the bottom and broke into many pieces. The volunteers as well as the guests saw the commotion and let out horrifying gasps.

"MY INSTRUMENT!" Octavia screamed.

"MY STAGE!" Sunset shouted in panic.

"MY GOODNESS!" Applejack gasped.

"My bad…" Derpy moaned from the bottom of the hole.

---

"This is humiliating!" Spike muttered. "First you all shaved my fur off, then you girls forced me to take a bath, and now you're making me wear this horrible looking holiday sweater!"

To demonstrate his point, he stood on his rear paws and showed off his sweater that Sweetie Belle made him wear. It was a green sweater with a face of a brown reindeer with a huge smile and a white background behind it. There was even a huge red ball in front of a reindeer, which was designed as its nose.

"But it looks so cute on you!" Sweetie Belle cooed.

"I'm not cute!"

The CMC's and Rainbow Dash was currently sitting outside on their tables, handling the tickets for any upcoming guests. Despite that they were overwhelmed by a huge crowd of people, they managed to handle them and let them in with procedure. After they let the last guest entered the building, they've been sitting outside for over twenty minutes as instructed by Sunset in case if the Mayor showed up. Sunset hoped that by giving the Mayor their warm welcome as their best impression, then everything will run smoothly.

However, Rainbow Dash and the CMC's were not pleased that they have to sit outside in the cold a little longer instead of going back inside and join the party. Most of them, except for Sweetie Belle, just leaned on their arms and stared at nothing. Some tapping their fingers on the table, others were randomly blowing into the air just to see their own breath out of boredom. After what it felt like an eternally, Scootaloo let out a loud groan.

"Man, this is sooo boring!" Scootaloo complained loudly. "We could've joined the fun in there!"

Rainbow Dash, while silently agreed with her protege, let out a long tired sigh. "I know Scoots and I don't like sitting here either! But because Snips and Snails got themselves sick, Sunset assigned us here in their place! That… and that you three won't make another mess in the gym."

Scootaloo threw her hands up and huffed. "We said we were sorry!"

Before Rainbow could retort, her cell phone rang.

"Hold that thought Scoots!" said Rainbow Dash as she accepted the call and placed the phone to her ear. "Sup Applejack?"

Rainbow Dash listened as she heard Applejack's distressed and frantic voice from the other line. Suddenly, Rainbow Dash widened her eyes in shock.

"What? Seriously!?" she exclaimed. She listened on her phone a little longer before replying, "Okay, I'll be there in a second!" Rainbow Dash hung up her phone and let out an exasperated sigh. "Of all the times she had to be so clumsy…"

Rainbow Dash then stood and glanced at the CMC's. "Excuse me girls, I'll be right back!" she shouted before she disappeared into the school with her super speed.

The girls and Spike looked at each other in confusion and curiosity.

"What do y'all suppose dat was all about?" Apple Bloom asked.

Everyone (and dog) shrugged in response. Scootaloo once again moaned and leaned onto the table.

"How long do we have to sit here? It's obliviously that no one else is coming!"

Apple Bloom huffed at her friend's attitude. "Ah know yer impatient Scoots, but we have to wait just a little bit long--"

Suddenly, they heard a loud 'clang', coming from the side of the school's building. The girls and Spike looked at each other for a moment before they got up from their seats and peeked around the corner of the building. From there, they spotted the three mysterious figures in uniform sneaked out of the building with big boxes, which was filled with toys for the festival. More specifically, two figures were carrying the boxes while the third was only barking orders in a hushed tone.

Scootaloo leaned into Sweetie Belle's ear. "Hey isn't that… the staff people who works for the town?"

Sweetie Belle nodded. "Yeah, but why are they bringing out the toys? Weren't those supposed to be for the festival?"

“The were!” Spike responded quietly. “But Twilight or Sunset never mentioned that they’re being moved to another location.

As the three city staff were heading to a loading truck, the CMC and Spike crept up further until they reached the bushes so they can continue to spy on them. The one staff member opened up the back of the truck so that the other two can start loading the boxes. As the girls and dog witnessed their deeds, Apple Bloom narrowed her eyes.

"Girls… is it just me, or is there somethin' fishy going on here?"

"Yeah, and the way these "staff" were acting is very... suspicious!" Scootaloo agreed.

"They also looked very familiar too,” Sweetie Belle added with a frown. “But my mind is drawing a... blank for some reason!"

Scootaloo gave Sweetie Belle her confused look. "What do you mean Sweetie Belle?"

Sweetie Belle furrowed her brows. "Well… it's hard to explain, but every time I'm trying to recall who they are as I'm looking at them… I felt there is some kind of force that's… prevented me from remembering them."

The four were quiet for a while before Apple Bloom spoke up. "You know what Sweetie Belle, Ah felt that too!"

"Yeah, me three!" added Scootaloo with a thoughtful frown. "But what does that mean?"

Their silent conversation was interrupted when they heard one of the staff member shouted.

"Hurry up you two!" the first staff barked. "Load the rest of them into this truck at post haste!"

The second staff member huffed. "We could've finished this faster if you helped out!"

"I have to distract these party goers for you two to sneak out!” The first staff argued. “We can't afford to get caught and made that old hag angry!"

"I don't see what the big deal is!" The third staff commented with an upbeat tone. "No one will recognize us thanks to these necklaces she gave us!"

The third staff immediately took off what appeared to be a necklace of some sort off of their neck and stared at it. The necklace themselves is a small rounded golden medallion with three small different colored stones on it; green, blue and pink.

"Pretty…" The third staffed droned while staring at their necklace.

Suddenly, multi-colored aura glowed briefly around the third staff member for a moment before the light evaporated. After that happened, the CMCs almost immediately gasped when the memories of that person finally came back to them almost instantly. The first staff noticed that too and let out furious growl.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? PUT THAT BACK ON YOU IDIOT!" the first staff shouted.

The third staff yelped from that angry tone and immediately put the necklace back on their neck. Once again the multi-colored glow surrounded the person but this time submerged into the person. And just like that, the familiarity of that person disappeared from the girls’ minds as if someone just covered themselves with a blanket. Despite that, they still remember who that was before that necklace was put back on. They watched as the first staff walked over to the third staff and then whacked the third staff at the back of the head.

"Are you mad!?” The first staff scolded. “If anyone saw that as you took it off, our disguise spell would've been broken and then we’ll get caught! You’re lucky that no one was around! If anyone saw you took that off, the spell won’t work the second time! Now do NOT take that off again until we're back to base! Am I clear?"

"...crystal," the third staff squeaked.

The first staff growled again before heading to the front of the truck. "Now finish the job and get in the truck!"

The third staff whimpered as that person did as instructed while the second one rolled their eyes and muttered how much of an idiot their partner was. Meanwhile, the CMCs stared at them with shocked faces, not expecting to see these particular people in their lives again.

“Girls,” Apple Bloom muttered in awe. “Are ya seeing… wat Ah’m seeing?”

Sweetie Belle nodded while in a shocked state. "I...I don't believe it… it's them!"

Scootaloo gulped. "Yeah... it's only was only for a split second, but I recognize them as clear as day!"

Apple Bloom frowned. "But wat are they doing here? We haven't seen them since--"

"Um, excuse me?" Spike spoke up. "But who are ‘they’?"

Scootaloo widened her eyes and turned to Spike. "Oh yeah, that's right! It happens with the other you around! You see, those three were actually--"

"They're on da move girls!" Apple Bloom interrupted.

They turned and watched as the other two staff entered the truck before it came to life. As the truck slowly pulling out from the parking lot, Apple Bloom stared at the truck with determination on her face.

"We should follow 'em y'all!" Apple Bloom spoke up.

The two girls and a dog looked at their farmer friend with stunned expressions.

"But shouldn't we report this to Sunset and the others?" said Spike in his worried tone.

"No time!" Apple Bloom exclaimed. "If they get away with the toys… then there ain't gonna be any festival or a party!"

She immediately ran to her bike near the biking lot so she can ride after the truck. "Let's go!" she shouted as she pedaled off.

Sweetie Belle and Scootloo looked at each other, nodded before doing the same to follow their friend. Spike's eyes widened as he watched the girls ran towards their bikes.

"Wait girls!" Spike cried, hoping to stop them in their tracks.

Unfortunately his cries fell to deaf ears as he watched the two girls started pedaling away towards the street. Spike knew that what their doing is both stupid and a dangerous move. He should run back to the school and alert Twilight that the CMCs are chasing after toy thieves right away so they can alert the authorities. On the other paw, he was worried that something is going to happen to these girls during the chase and they may run into trouble with no help at all. For a split second as Sweetie Belle left the parking lot, Spike made his decision.

"I'm so going to regret this," he muttered as he gave chase behind Scootaloo. "Hey, wait for me!"

As soon as the truck, three girls and a dog disappeared out of site, Rainbow Dash finally returned to the table with her super speed and let out a tired sigh.

"Okay, I'm back!" Rainbow Dash announced. "Sorry about that. There was a situation at the stage. Hope I didn’t take too--"

Rainbow Dash paused when she noticed that she was the only one around and that the three girls and a dog were nowhere in sight.

"Uh… Girls? Spike... where did you go?!" Rainbow Dash cried out with dread.

Author's Note:

Originally, there was only one chapter today, but due to how long this is, I'm spitting it into two!

So the next chapter will come out shortly!

Comments

[SuperPinkBrony12]

Good on the CMC for catching the sabotagers in the act.

[diablo4000]

Sighs!! They should reported them but NOOOO Let's follow them...And Spike you idiot!

[Comickook]

Once more, excellent job on this chapter. The exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up are all well done in all the right places. REALLY good reason for the Dazzlings to NOT be instantly recognized as well as the details of the preparations (even if they were being sabotaged). And, while I can say the Crusaders and Spike are in for A LOT more trouble than they bargained for by going after the Dazzlings without telling somebody, I CAN kind of understand why they did it. In addition to feeling like there was no time, the Crusaders might have figured nobody would believe them without hard evidence (given their role in the Anon-A-Miss incident). As for Spike, well, he's a dog and dogs are known for a sense of loyalty that trumps common sense.

On to the next chapter.

[Rictor Yagami]

I read this chapter again and man I honestly can't help but feel sad for Sunset as her heart is not into the party right now considering with what happen in the last chapter. Plus even I have to agree with Rainbow Dash on this and it's hard for me to agree with her on some things considering how she acts at times, but Trixie honestly doesn't need fireworks for the show as accidents can happen. She could use smoke bombs or something else but leave out the fireworks for once.

There were a couple a things that I thought were miss spelled or had words that didn't make sense with them like this one with Fluttershy and her animal friends.

Unknown to Fluttershy, someone was hiding from the bleachers, watching her with a sinister smile on their face. The person then took out what seemed to be a thin whistle of some kind and lightly blow into it. All of the sudden, the animals jolted and soon they began howling, yapping, hissing, screeching and roaring nonstop and started running around all over the place.

I think you meant to say All of a sudden, the animals jolted. Around that part, I could be wrong though. Then there was this scene.

While Sunset was pleased with the news, but she couldn't help but nervous as she glanced at the center of the stage.

I think you meant to have it say While Sunset was please with the news, she couldn't help but nervously glance at the center of the stage.

If I missed anything else I'll look over it again when I can. Now back to the story and it's about the CMC. Honestly what the hell are they thinking? Apple Bloom or any of them could have called their sisters to let them know what was going on instead of being reckless like that. They could have even had Spike tell the principals what was going on. Plus I feel bad for Spike as he has to wear that sweater after getting shaved. I just hope he can keep those three out of trouble and from doing anything stupid.

This is getting good and I'll read the next chapter when I can. Before I forget I hope you are doing all right considering with what's going on with the COVID-19 thing that's happening.

Good Luck Sonic05.

[sonicfan05]

10210286
Yeah, despite how RD acts at times, even she wised up when it counts. As you said, Sunset's heart and mind wasn't into the party at that moment when she decided to let Trixie use the fireworks, especially after she overheard what Twilight said to Rarity from the previous chapter.

As for Trixie, yeah she could've use the smoke bombs as you said, but the main issue with her was that she often gets over her head about wanting to make her 'grand performance' that she doesn't think about any possible setbacks or dangers when performing them. She wasn't exactly... wise when it comes to her decisions.

Once again, I appreciate you pointing them out. I'll fix those mistakes.

Yeah, what the CMCs did was a foolish and reckless move and they could've alerted their sisters or the adults of what was happening, but they felt that by the time they alerted everyone, the sirens will already be long gone, along with the stolen toys.

Plus, they're young kids, so of course they don't know any better.

Spike could've also alerted Twilight or the Principals of what's happening too, but he knew that if he did, the CMCs would end up endangering themselves without anyone to help them, which was why he struggled at first. In the end, his duty to protect the CMCs won over alerting the theft to the adults.

A dog's gotta do what a dog's gotta do!

Don't worry, I'm A-OK! And I'm hope you're doing alright too! Stay safe!

[Skyshy]

"First you all shaved my fur off,

What did I miss something is it ever explained why spike is shaved

[sonicfan05]

11035716
It happened from the previous chapter when the CMCs accidentally spilled a can of paint all over Spike as they were painting the banner for the party. So they shaved Spike's fur off as a result.