The Shattered Rollercoaster Of Friendship

by FourShadow

Chapter 8: Everything Falls Apart

Amethyst still ran around the park, desperate to try and find the Princess. But there was still no sign of her, and she grew more frustrated and angry. She just wanted to have a fun day, hang with her friends, not do anything chaotic, and here she was, trying to look for a foreign dignitary in a huge amusement park with no means of contacting or finding her. Worse, Adagio and the others still had no clue, and she wasn't in any mood to talk to them, too cranky. Besides, she could find her on her own, no point to upset the others.

She threw herself on a bench, groaning some more from her continued failure.

"Why can't I be dizzy from riding a thrill-ride? This is not how I want to spend my day!"

Amethyst's eyes looked at the surrounding vendors behind her, still serving food the patrons nearby. She was getting exhausted, but she had to keep looking for her. What if she was lost and had no idea where to go? Or what if she was taken? Now Canterlot was safe for the most part, but with questionable figures like Sunset Shimmer and entitled rich kids from Cloudsdale, she could never be too sure.

Pushing herself up, and dusting off her dress.

"Okay... I can't stop. I need to find her, I can't sit still. Ugh," she walked further through the park, grumbling to herself. "Take an ambassador to an amusement park, what was I thinking...?"

---

Vignette walked with Sonata further through the park, exploring more fun places to stop at. More vendor booths, more rigged prizes and stalls for candy, this place had it all. As Vignette continued to walk with her new friend, she couldn't help but think. Here was the most down-to-earth, somehow innocent, and sweetest girl she had ever met. Somehow in a world where everyone had a cellular phone and captured every memory and trend, to display on the world wide web, there was a girl who didn't care about any of those things and was just happy with her life.

She had to contact this girl again when she left the park. But wait, she didn't know what her number was; and it didn't help this girl didn't seem to carry a phone around her. Wait... she had spare phones in her bag for emergencies!

Vignette reached into her bag, stopping during their walk.

"Ooh, why we stopping?" Sonata asked.

"I don't suppose you have a phone on your person?" Vignette asked.

"Uhhh... no," Sonata bashfully shrugged.

"Well I was wondering if maybe, if you were okay with it, perhaps if we get separated in this park, maybe I could call you?"

In Vignette's hand was a nice, teal, cellular phone. Not the most recent model, but it was up to date, and it did it's job.

"F-For me?" Sonata squeaked. "Aww, Vignette, you didn't have to!"

"I insist," Vignette nodded with a soft-spoken tone.

"Well.. okay. Only if you insist," Sonata accepted. "But, wait, I don't know how to open these things."

"I can teach you. Also, it would help if I gave you the password for it," Vignette handed her a small slip of paper with the combination to unlock it.

"Oh, thanks!"

"Anyways, should you ever need to contact me, just look into your list of contacts and--"

Just then, a new notification popped up on her phone. Vignette's eyes squinted at the text, but what she read made her stop talking. Her hand started to shake and she grit her teeth, a soft growl escaping her lips. The notification was from one of her employees, one who had finally got through to Vignette and let her know about the situation regarding tonight's parade. And now, she had just learned of Rarity's termination.

Her pace moved faster as she made her way to one of the hangars where the floats were assembled. Sonata said nothing but just followed suit, worried about the lack of words coming from her.

"Wait outside, I have to have a few words with a soon-to-be-fired employee of mine," Vignette asked before setting inside the building.

"Okay, hope it goes well!" Sonata said, trying to remain hopeful for her friend.

The door slammed open as Vignette speed-walked inside with the most frustrated expression on her face. She charged straight for Click Bait, who looked as if she couldn't given another care in the world.

"Where is Rarity?"

"Boss, I'm--"

"Where. Is. Rarity?" Vignette emphasized, gritting her teeth.

"I let her go,"

Vignette froze in place; everyone's eyes locked onto her, and the PR director was getting dangerously quiet. "... You. Did. What?"

"I let her go, she was annoying. She's way too melodramatic, she's insane with detail to the point where she's overly perfectionist, and she gets upset if you so much as make one teeny mistake. Seriously, why did you even get her?" Click just continued to go off on her phone.

"I... wa... okay. Everyone! Take a break!" Vignette ordered.

Everyone stopped what they were doing, immediately leaving to go take a break per order. Vignette slowly breathed in and out, glaring intensely at Click who clearly did not care what her boss felt. Unbeknownst to her, Vignette had flipped her finger onto her phone, doing something she couldn't see, nor pay attention to.

"Let me see if I got this straight; you just fired the lead fashion designer on the spot, without telling or even going to see me? What did she even do to warrant this?"

"I just told you," Click said passively. "Besides, I can pitch better stuff than her."

"Click... I have tried really hard to be patient with you. But you have pushed me too far," Vignette said, rather low and calm. Dangerously calm. "I'm afraid your services are no longer required. I expect you to clear out your locker by the end of the day."

"Wha.. you can't fire me!" Click protested, slapping her sides.

"I just did," Vignette glared, turning around.

"Oh, well, how about I tell you this then? You know what I did to Rarity when I told her she was let go?"

"Insult her, spite her, harass her?"

"No. Well, yes. But I also did THIS!"

Vignette looked back, only to be met with a bright flash of light before she vanished from the room hangar entirely. Click softly smirked before looking back to her phone. "Sorry boss, I need this job more than you," she said before grabbing a nearby megaphone, "Alright everyone, you can come back now! We've got a parade float to get ready in a few hours, let's get this show on the road! Let's move it move it move it!"

--

Sonata still continued to wait outside, humming to herself as she idled by. She didn't know how long it was, felt like an eternity, but she didn't mind. Vignette had a big job running this park, she probably had some more responsibilities here. Just then, the door opened up Sonata almost about to squee to see her friend, only to have it all come crashing down. Just another park employee walking out to take a break.

But then the door opened up again, revealing a smug Click Bait walking with intrepidity. Her eyes were locked to her phone, but then looked up to see an annoyed Sonata Dusk.

"Oh. The stupid one," Click deadpanned.

"I am not stupid!" Sonata defended.

"Debatable," Click dryly rolled her eyes. "Look, if you're here for Vignette, you should just run off. She's too busy for morons who don't have any brain-cells upstairs," she made a notion to gesture to her head.

"Vignette said she would be back soon, and I will wait for her because she can trust me!" Sonata folded her arms, turning her back on her.

"Trust you? Now why would she trust you, you are the exact opposite of her," Click paced, putting a hand on her hip. "You're easily distracted, you know nothing about social media, you're not even as pretty as her. Why would she want to hang out with a complete loser from Canterlot High?"

Sonata gave her a harsh glare. "You can insult me all you want, I'm still waiting."

"You cannot be this naive, GO. AWAY!" Click snapped. "She doesn't want you! If she wanted you, why didn't she ask you for help?"

Sonata wanted to reply, but didn't. For once, Click raised a semi-good point.

"If she really liked you, she would have asked you for help. She's a busy woman who doesn't have time for braindead teenagers who clearly don't have any interest in social media of any kind!"

Sonata tried to keep herself strong. Click was a bully, she taunted her before, she wasn't going to let her break her.

"You're a teenager as well you know," Sonata pointed out, trying to stay strong.

"Just get out of here! We've got a job to do, and unlike you, she actually has something important going on!"

Sonata couldn't stand it any longer. She wanted to yell, scream, argue back with this mean bully. But she didn't. All she could think about was the possibility that Vignette didn't want her. She tried desperately to think of any other means or scenarios where this wasn't true, that she was just self-deprecating again. But Vignette hadn't come out of that building in a long time. And she never once stepped out to check on her. She didn't even get any phone calls or texts that she had learned.

Realizing she wasn't going to come out she slowly walked away, leaving a glaring Click Bait behind to watch her leave. Sonata felt like a failure, once again.

---

Vignette screamed as she dropped out of the hangar and into a large void beyond her comprehension. She looked around, seeing nothing but white blank space around her, no life, no sound, not a sensation to be felt. Vignette kept turning around, hoping she wasn't in complete isolation--

"Vignette?"

The manager turned around to see Rarity standing there in complete shock.

"Rarity! You're okay! Wait, where are... oh no. I died!" Vignette feared. "Are we in the afterlife!? Is this what the afterlife feels like!?

"Vignette, wait--"

"Agh! You died too, Click Bait killed us! Why didn't I listen... I... I didn't..." Vignette's breath started to hyperventilate.

Her back slammed against a wall as she slid down and collapsed to the floor. Her heart started racing and she heard ringing in her ears. Rarity tried to talk to her, but her voice just wound up becoming distorted and muffled, as Vignette's irises shrunk as she stared up at the blank space above her, heart feeling like it was ready to explode. Rarity didn't know what to do or how to talk to her; frankly she wasn't prepared for a situation like this, nor anything for that particular day!

Just then, the princess who had been sitting in quiet for the past few hours walked over to Vignette and moved down to her knees. She carefully pulled Vignette to her and held her in an embracing hug. Vignette's heart was still racing until she finally felt the embrace of another person in the vicinity. She slowly wrapped her arms around Trixie's back, her heart rate slowing down as the panic was slowly subsiding. She slowly rubbed Trixie's back, and she could finally hear herself think again.

After a few minutes of her embracing Trixie, her hyperventilating ceased and she breathed calmly once again, finally getting words out nice and calmly.

"T-Thank you..." Vignette stammered.

The princess could only smile softly before giving her another needed hug. Once Vignette collected herself together she looked at the two girls in the room with her.

"O-Okay... so we're stuck here in this... wherever we are. I can still feel my heart calming down, so we aren't dead," Vignette theorized, trying to rationalize and come up with a plan. "Rarity, I know that's you and you... wait a minute. Didn't I see you with that Adagio girl?"

The Princess was confused. "Eh? ... Oh, wait! Sorry, um, I'm Trixie's twin sister, I uhh... I just came out here to visit for a few days."

"Princess, you can just tell her the truth, she's already been zapped here by Equestrian magic, there's no point in dancing around it," Rarity rolled her eyes.

"See when you say it like that it sounds really crazy," the Princess sassed.

"I don't know what you are talking about," Vignette raised a finger as she stood up. "But okay; zapped here by magic, I can believe that. There's no logical reason otherwise. So how do we get out?"

"That's the other thing," the princess noted. She walked over to another blank wall and pressed her hand against it. For a brief second, Vignette could see part of the wall push down, as if it wasn't entirely solid. "I think I found a door. I tried getting it open, but I think we need all of us to bust it down."

"I'm not sure that's the wisest idea, do you even have any core strength?" Rarity folded her arms.

The princess gave another sassy smirk before moving her hands to the jacket she had on, letting it drop to the ground. Rarity and Vignette were shocked to see the muscle that was present on the princess's arms.

"In the few years I've had in being a princess, I have had to go against a giant gargoyle who manipulated a wizard, convince a former friend to come back to the light after mastering a spell to go back in time, help bring down a pony who turned into a shadow monster, and fight several giant monsters who stormed, invaded, and tried to kill me, my friends, and conquer Equestria and turn it into a perpetual storm nightmare. This? This is a heavily padlocked door, and I know we can break it down, but it needs all of us combined to break it."

"It's risky, but I'm willing to try anything," Vignette agreed. She threw her coat off just to prepare herself. "Let's break it!"

All three girls lined up to do a charging run, focusing on the loose piece of wall in front of them.

"Okay, everyone ready?"

"Ready!"

"Three... two... one!"

All at once the trio charged at the wall and threw themselves against the loose piece, snapping the restraints on the outside of the containment. They backed off from the intense pain of the slam, but they could see their effort was working. Several loud snaps and bolts were breaking from the outside of their containment, until a square piece of the wall was free from the joints and it fell to the ground with an intense slam.

Seeing their chance, the trio stepped out to take a closer look at what surrounded them. The containment was much smaller on the outside when they got a good look, but they hadn't escaped just yet. A massive hangar surrounded by crates made of metal and wood, with buzzing light fixtures hanging above the ceiling.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me... WE WERE STUCK IN A WAREHOUSE THE ENTIRE TIME!?" Rarity shrieked.

The princess walked towards the massive steel door that barricaded the warehouse. She felt the sides, trying to get a feeling of the material. "Hmm. I don't think we can kick the door down, this is solid steel."

"But how do we get out of here?" Rarity whined. "WE CAN'T BE STUCK IN HEREREEREREEEEEEE!!!"

"Girls!" Vignette interrupted. "I still have my phone," she casually remarked.

"... oh," Rarity sighed. "Please tell me it isn't low on battery."

"I have 85% of power. It should be enough to call for help," Vignette typed. "But who do I... wait! Sonata! I gave her a spare phone, she can find us!"

She didn't hesitate to type in the number, and began to hit dial...

---

As everyone continued to wander around and enjoy the rides and food around, Sonata had parked herself on a curb outside of one of the restaurants, sitting on the ground as opposed to the benches that were available. The ground that she was on was designed to look like land from the 1950s, in a sorta vintage restaurant area of the park. However, revisiting a 50s themed area did not make her feel any better or happy. Nor did the amount of milkshakes that were sitting on the ground help either. Her chin rested on her arms which wrapped around her knees, sitting there in silence while everyone else continued to have fun around her.

“Fourteen milkshakes. Never a good sign, where do you even put those?”

“Hey Amy,” Sonata whimpered.

Amethyst frowned as she sat on the curb with her. “What are you doing here by yourself? The girls didn’t abandon you, did they?”

“No. But my new friend has,” Sonata whimpered. “I thought we were hitting it off and then she just runs away without even telling me!”

Amethyst sighed as she pulled Sonata close to her and held her in a hug. “I know how that feels. I brought an intergalactic ambassador here in this world and in five minutes she went missing. And I still haven’t found her.”

Sonata whimpered and buried her head into Amethyst’s shoulder, catching her by surprise. But Amethyst knew what to do and she wrapped her arms around her.

“What is wrong with me? Am I too dumb? Am I just a stupidhead?”

“No, no, you are not stupid,” Amethyst said, rubbing her back.

“… Is that a new dress?” Sonata muffled into her shoulder. “It looks nice!”

“… It was a new dress. Until I got pelted in ketchup and bird… things,” Amethyst cringed.

Sonata pulled her head out, showing her reddened cheeks and bloodshot eyes. “I’m a stupidhead. Vignette would never want to hang out with someone like me. I don’t know the internet or modern trends, I'm not up to date on everything the teens are into, I’m just… nothing.”

“Sonata, do not say that. You are not a stupidhead, you are the best friend anyone can need. You have more innocence than any of us, which is scary considering everything you’ve told me you and your sisters have gone through, but still! If she left you, then shame on her. She doesn’t know what she’s missing.”

Sonata sniffled a bit, wiping her tears away. She couldn’t help but smile, Amethyst always knew how to make a friend smile whenever they were down. “T-Thank you.”

Amethyst patted her shoulder. “Come on, let’s go do something.”

“Like what?”

“Like help me track down a foreign dignitary in a giant amusement park,” Amethyst said with a straight face, giving a single pat on her shoulder. “Come on!”

Sonata was still confused. “I don’t understand, what… wait. Why am I feeling something buzzing in my pants pocket?”

Amethyst blinked. “Did you take something with you?”

Sonata reached into her pants pocket and her hands felt something hard and metallic. “Wait, the phone! Vignette gave me her phone!” She pulled it out, showing Vignette’s name and picture as the source of the caller. “W-What do I do, should I answer it?”

“If you want to. If she left you for whatever, I wouldn’t say a thing.”

“Now hold on, I want to hear what she has to say,” Sonata said with a determined face. “… How do I answer it?”

“Move your finger down on the screen, swipe it to the green,” Amethyst instructed.

“Hey, that rhymes!” Sonata giggled. She did just that, and she held it up to her ear. “Vignette?”

“Sonata, thank goodness, I’ve been trying to get ahold of you for the past two hours!”

Sonata yanked the phone away from her ear from how loud she was starting to sound. “Two hours, Vignette where are you? And why did you just leave me, am I nothing to you!?”

Amethyst almost jumped at her response. Sonata definitely went in a complete 180, and that honestly scared her. Especially since she couldn’t predict her next move.

“Sonata, listen to me. You are my friend, honestly you are my only friend. What happened was not supposed to be that long, but I… I don’t know how to explain it.”

Sonata didn’t know how to handle this department. Hear her out, listen to her, try to figure out if she was just making excuses or in serious trouble, or completely block her from her life? Well she didn’t know what to really make of it… but she chose to hear her out.

“Explain it then, what happened?”

Vignette sighed on the other line. “Your older sister Adagio said that Click Bait was evil, right?”

“Yeah, she is! She picks on me, she sent some mean girls and boys to pick a fight with Aria, she blackmailed me, she corrupted the school, she—”

“—She’s trapped me in a warehouse!!!”

Sonata pulled the phone away from her ear. “Wait, what? What are you talking about?”

“Slide it to that button,” Amethyst pointed.

Sonata did just that, hitting the loudspeaker button.

“Click Bait trapped me in a warehouse! I don’t understand, I swear I must be losing my mind, because it looked like she used some weird magic to take me from my office straight to this place! I thought I was trapped in some void, until I found out I still had some cell reception… and now I’m stuck in a warehouse that looks like the perfect place to do nefarious deeds!”

Sonata and Amethyst shared scared faces, clearly worried by her words.

Oh no… Amethyst mouthed.

“Vignette, wait, are you alone, is there anyone with you?”

“Yes, I’m not alone!”

“GET US OUT OF HERE!”

“How do we get out of here!?”

Amethyst and Sonata blinked and looked at each other again.

“That sounds like Rarity!”

“And Princess Trixie! Wait a minute… Princess vanished a long time ago earlier today …” Her face drooped to fear when she finally put the pieces together. “Vignette, listen to me. How much energy is left on that phone?”

“I still have plenty of juice left, why?”

“Stay where you are. Sonata and I are going to try and find you,” Amethyst said. “Come on, let’s go!”

Comments

[Scholarly-Cimmerian]

I knew it was coming, but I still got a kick out of the moment where Rarity and company all realized that they were just in a room and not in some mirror dimension or what.

Sonata continues to remain adorable. Her relationship with Vignette (and her cluelessness about technology) is a highlight of this story.

As always, glad I read this, Four. ^_^

[sonicfan05]

Once again, great chapter, Four! You never disappoint!

Grrr... that Click Bait! She even trapped Vignette, her boss (well, ex-boss now) while acting high and mighty. She even tricked Sonata into believing that Vignette ditched her!

Thankfully, Vignette managed to call her and Amy after she arrived in the white room with the others (and Rarity's reaction after finding out they're in the warehouse the whole time was pretty funny), and they're searching for their friends.

I hope Click Bait gets karma once the girls stopped her! ...if they can stop her!