The Trick to Growing Up

by Hakuno

13- Defiance

Chapter 13: Defiance

Another crimson feather fell gracefully.

Sunset watched it carefully make its way down, moving as if it was being cradled by the air. It glittered with the light of the chandeliers as if it had been sprayed with morning dew. Somehow, the feather itself seemed to shine with its own light, which gradually faded as it finally reached the ground. The whole thing was beautiful, like a shooting star in slow motion.

If only it weren’t so boring.

In her pursuit of alicornification, Sunset had managed to find several theories in obscure tomes in the restricted wing of the Royal Library on the subject. Most of them spent great lengths in describing alicorn physiology but barely spared a paragraph into the possible causes or methods. Some did try to dive into the intricacies of the arcane magicks required for such a transformation. These Sunset found the most interesting, and so she had begun following the leads.

She had tried asking Princess Celestia about it, but she had only replied that alicornhood had to be earned and refused to explain further. Sunset could understand the princess trying to conceal the information from prying ears, but it didn’t make it any less frustrating.

So, Sunset had no choice but to find the answers on her own.

A particularly dusty tome drew a relation between the princess’ immortality to her pet phoenix Philomena, and it implied that a bond with a magical, powerful creature was needed. Unfortunately, this assumption was proven wrong by Cadenza herself, as she had no pets or bonds with magical creatures, as far as Sunset knew. Even so, the tome made very valid points on phoenix’s own revival process, and Sunset just had to know more.

That was the reason why she was currently at the Royal Phoenix Nursery. A funny name, on account of Philomena being the only phoenix seen in the palace in two hundred years.

She had spent the past four hours observing the regal creature. It could have been boring had it been any other animal, but even when losing a feather, Philomena managed to make it look breathtaking. Sunset only wished this time had told her anything useful. The phoenix had done nothing but drink some water and chirp a couple of times.

“There you are!” said an infuriatingly chirpy voice.

Sunset sighed and turned her head towards the Nursery’s entrance. Mi Amore Cadenza was standing there, wearing nothing but a pink bow to hold her mane into a ponytail. Why didn’t she wear her crown? Sunset would never take her crown off if she was a princess!

“I’ve been looking for you all over the palace,” Cadenza said as she walked inside.

“Why?”

Cadenza stopped only a few hooves away and smiled. “Well, Princess Celestia said we should try to get along, maybe be friends!”

“Just call her ‘aunt’,” Sunset said as she scribbled another note on Philomena’s shining tail. “No need to be so formal with her.”

Cadenza giggled. “Well, it’s a bit embarrassing, you know? She’s always been my princess. To suddenly call her ‘auntie’ like she wants me to… Well, it’s a bit weird.”

Sunset growled quietly. Why did it annoy her so that Princess Celestia was pushing informality on Cadenza? She had adopted her, so it was expected, but...

“Anyway,” Cadenza said, waving a hoof. “I’d like to get to know you. Would you like to come for dinner? I’ll treat you.”

Sunset was about to refuse. She did not want to have dinner with Cadenza, or with anypony for that matter. She always ate alone, as it proved to be 34% more efficient than eating with somepony that would undoubtedly try to have a conversation, and Sunset had no time for idle chit chat.

But Sunset was hungry, and Cadenza said she’d treat her. And Sunset had been meaning to go to that new griffon-owned restaurant at Trotfield and SaddleSour corner. She had heard the maids say it served an exquisite daffodil and butter bread.

“Fine,” Sunset said and began taking her stuff into her saddlebags.

Cadenza, on her part, tiphooved in place. “Oh, I’m glad you accepted! I’ve been meaning to get to know you. Everypony talks about you, you know? I heard Sargeant Copper Tail mention you’re going to be the next Archmage. That’s supposed to be really difficult, isn’t it?”

Despite herself, Sunset smiled. Cadenza wasn’t so bad if she could recognize Sunset’s bright future. It was almost amusing, now that Sunset had an even bigger goal in life. Sunset wondered how Cadenza would react when she ascended.

~~~~~~~~

Sunset woke up and immediately noticed something was different. She was comfortable, more than she’d been since coming to the human world. Her back was a lot warmer than usual, too. It wasn’t a bad warmth, it actually was quite soothing, almost sending her back to sleep.

She opened her eyes. Oh, right, she thought. She was in Trixie’s room. It looked really different in the dark, but she spotted the T.V., the video game console, and Mr. Squibbles’ cage.

The events of yesterday replayed in her mind. She and Trixie had played video games well into the night. At some point, Trixie had fallen asleep, which Sunset barely registered as she kept playing. Hours later, Sunset had started to feel so tired she could barely keep her eyes open. But she had been at the final boss, and she refused to let it win.

In the end, she wasn’t sure she had completed the fight because she was now waking up after passing out.

She looked down and discovered she had a blanket on. She could only guess Dandy had come at some point and tucked them in. A sweet thing to do, if Sunset was honest. Dandy could have simply woken her up so she could go to her own room. Sunset rolled to her other side and found Trixie’s sleeping form there.

So that was the warmth in her back.

Trixie looked so peaceful in her sleep. Gone were the always fidgeting eyes, the slightly furrowed brow, and the quivering lips. Half her face was covered by her silver mane, which looked so unfairly good.

The alarm went off. Sunset groaned and rolled over to turn it off. She cocked her head as her hand laid on the clock. It had only been a minute since she had woken up. For some reason, she found it amusing that she had beaten the alarm by such a short amount of time.

There was a gasp behind her, so Sunset, once again, rolled over. Trixie’s face had turned red.

“You alright?” she asked. “You look like you have a fever.” She then leaned in to touch their foreheads together. Trixie didn’t feel particularly hot. Sunset hummed as she leaned back. “Weird, I could’ve sworn you weren’t this red a minute ago.”

And yet, Trixie’s face had just heated up more. “W-Why are you here?”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Uhm, you invited me to play video games, remember?”

“I-I mean, I… uhm… W-Why were you sleeping here?”

Sunset shrugged. “Guess we passed out without realizing.” She then sat up and cocked her head. “Wait… Is this another human taboo? Sleeping together, I mean.”

Trixie grabbed the blanket and covered herself up to the chin. “Uhm… I d-don’t think so… I’m sorry, I just… I was surprised…”

“I see,” Sunset said. “Well, anyway, we gotta get ready for school.” She intertwined her fingers and stretched her arms, feeling a good series of pops here and there. She sighed and got off the bed. “I’ll wait for you.”

“For me?” Trixie asked.

Sunset nodded. “Yeah. The thing of wanting to be a completely foreign variable is already out the window. So I think it’ll be cool to walk together. Besides, I want to make sure you do your part with English’ Halloween project.”

Trixie blinked in silence for a moment. “Alright.”

~~~~~~~~

The cold air bit Sunset’s skin as she stepped onto the street. If it was already this cold, she shuddered at the thought of how it’d get in winter. She had never cared much for the cold, and being furless had already been unbearable that first night she had arrived.

Trixie stepped beside her as they made their way to school. It was an odd feeling, walking with someone else. Back in Equestria, Sunset had always been on her own, mostly by her own volition. Ponies always wanted something from her, so having someone that didn’t was comforting.

“So,” Sunset said as they approached a corner, “I know you said you don’t want to talk about it, but I think I deserve to know why a whole school of mindless brats is going to isolate and alienate me.” She saw Trixie’s lips purse. “Why does it happen to you? And what does Diamond Rush have to do with it?”

They crossed the street in silence. Sunset was about to keep pressing when Trixie decided to reply.

“I guess you do deserve to know…” Trixie said, keeping her eyes down to the floor. “I… accidentally ruined her birthday.” Sunset cocked an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. Trixie only sighed defeatedly. “It was her seventh birthday. We were neighbors back then, so I was invited. I… Kind of wanted to try a magic trick my... “ She paused and her face darkened for a moment. “A trick I had learned… Uhm… Let’s just say I tripped, I hit something, and next thing I know, Diamond’s presents are on fire.”

“Ouch,” was all Sunset could say.

Trixie nodded. “There was a panic, and everyone left before the fire was put out. Since then, Diamond… Well, she’s hated me ever since.”

“I see,” Sunset said. “So she made it so you couldn’t make any friends. How, though?”

Trixie shrugged. “Well, she’s rich. She started throwing parties and only inviting those that didn’t talk to me, and making up stories... Now I guess she just bullies everyone into it.”

Sunset hummed thoughtfully as they walked in yet more silence. So it was a vendetta over an accident. Honestly, Sunset couldn’t really hold it against Diamond Rush, as she was sure she’d have reacted pretty much the same, if only just once. Sunset was all about getting even, but this specific incident was several years old. That Diamond was still bullying her, well, it was pathetic.

“Why do you put up with it, though?” Sunset asked. “I mean, she made you cry the other day. I think that deserved you at least slapping her face.” There was no response, so Sunset frowned. “She was saying all that stuff…” she trailed off, only then remembering Diamond’s words.

Where’s your dad, Trixie? Diamond had said. He didn’t want you. You disgusted him so, so much, he just had to go.

Back when she had just arrived in this world, she had asked Trixie if there was someone other than her mom. She hadn’t questioned anything when Trixie had simply shook her head. Not that Sunset particularly cared, but she thought she had been quite negligent for completely ignoring that bit of information.

She turned to look at Trixie and found the girl with a vacant expression. Something stirred inside Sunset, a sort of… knot… or something, in her stomach.

“Do you…” she tried, “want to talk about it?”

Trixie shook her head.

Sunset wanted to ask again, to pry the girl for information. But she didn’t. She wasn’t sure why, but this simple shake of her head was a stronger denial than anything else Trixie could’ve said. Sunset looked away and pursed her lips. She supposed it was a really touchy subject. In any case, if Diamond knew about it and used it to torment Trixie, then she was an even more pathetic brat than Sunset originally thought.

She would not throw the first stone, but she’d have to come up with something to get back at Diamond in case the bully decided to pick on Trixie again.

As they reached the bus stop, Sunset was pulled from her thoughts by the familiar sight of pale yellow skin and brown hair. She couldn’t avoid frowning as Sunflower turned her head and looked at her. Sunset looked away and kept her eyes forward, feeling a strange emptiness in her stomach.

“Wait,” Sunflower said when Sunset passed by her. “Sunset.” Sunset kept walking. “Please, wait!”

Sunset stopped and took a deep breath before turning to look at Sunflower. “What do you want?” She snapped. Odd, she hadn’t meant to sound so angry. Why did she explode so easily? With Rainbow Dash and her smug grin she could understand, but…

Sunflower gave a hesitant step forward, holding her hands to her chest. “Sunset, I…” She bit her lower lip, her body swaying. “Uhm… You see…”

“Out with it,” Sunset said. “I don’t have all day.”

Puffing out her chest, Sunflower looked up and held Sunset’s glare with a small frown of her own. “I… I still got your back!” She yelled. “I’m sorry for giving you the cold shoulder.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. “I…” She closed her mouth. What could she say to that? She was angry at Sunflower, but… was she, really? Sunflower had simply fallen in line with the rest of students, following a status quo. It had stung nonetheless. She didn’t want to admit it, but she had been enjoying hanging out with Sunflower. The girl genuinely wanted to learn for the sake of knowledge.

Even so, Sunset wasn’t one to simply forget and forgive. Anyone weak enough to succumb to something as stupid as peer pressure did not deserve a second chance. Who was to say they wouldn’t break under more intimidating situations? Then again, Sunflower seemed sorry…

Maybe she could put her on probation.

“Look,” Sunset said. “You’re saying that now, but you were too quick on turning your flank on me.”

“Flank?”

“I said back,” Sunset corrected, raising a finger in front of Sunflower. She cleared her throat. “In any case, you should know I’m going to hang out with Trixie. I don’t care that a bunch of idiots decide to alienate me because of it. I’m not here to make friends, I’m here to study.” She paused and regarded Sunflower for a moment. She had a point she wanted to reach, but she wasn’t sure how.

Fortunately, Sunflower seemed to take her pause as her chance to speak.

“I already thought about it,” Sunflower said as she wrung her hands. “I didn’t really have that many friends anyway.” Her expression darkened as she looked down. “Turns out Zephyr and Rainy Days weren’t really my friends… I told them we should stop listening to Diamond Rush, and they said if I talked to you again, they’d stop hanging out with me...” She looked up back at Sunset, her expression pleading. “But I really wanna be friends with you! I like it when we teach things to each other! I…” She tilted her body to look at Trixie. “I’d also like to be friends with you, Trixie.”

Sunset turned to see Trixie giving Sunflower a distrustful stare. When Trixie didn’t reply, Sunset looked back at Sunflower. “Well… I have no issues,” she said. “But, are you sure? Last I checked, you were very concerned about things like popularity.”

Sunflower nodded energicaly, then stepped over and towards Trixie, extending a hand. “I’m sorry for treating you like everyone else. Would you give me a chance and be my friend?”

Trixie eyed the hand like it was about to shoot around her neck and strangle her. Her eyes darted from the open hand to Sunflower’s eyes and back for several seconds before she simply nodded. “Sure…”

There was a pregnant pause as Sunflower awkwardly retrieved her hand, forcing out a laugh.

“Well… Uhm…” Sunflower swayed nervously. “So, do we, uhm, go to school?”

Sunset nodded. “Yes. I don’t want to be late.” She turned around and began walking, with Trixie to her left.

Sunflower stepped to her right. “Thank you… For… Y’know, giving me a second chance.”

“There won’t be a third,” Sunset warned, her eyes forward.

“You know, I’ve been wondering,” Sunflower said. “Did you have many friends back in Vanhoover? I mean, you don’t strike me as a party girl, but…”

Sunset shrugged. “Not really. I don’t like ponies trying to befriend me just so I help them with their grades, so I’ve always been on my own.”

Sunflower cocked her head. “Did you just say ‘ponies’?”

Her heart skipped a beat, and Sunset used every drop of willpower she had not to slam her head on the wall. She really needed to mind her word choice if she wanted to keep her identity as an illegal immigrant a secret.

“No,” she said, trying to sound calm. “I said ‘phonies’.”

To her relief, Sunflower simply shrugged.

The rest of the way to school was spent in relative silence, which suited Sunset just fine. She needed to mind what came out of her mouth. There were a lot of expressions that, in hindsight, sounded too Equestrian to pass off as simple regional idioms.

~~~~~~~~

The news of Sunset publicly choosing to work with Trixie had already spread throughout the school. The day before, Sunset had seen many hesitant faces and heard many hushed conversations. But now, no one even looked her way, and they didn’t lower their voices. It was like a perfectly normal day. Except she knew it wasn’t.

Sunflower’s attitude did a 180 as she noticed the deliberate space she was given as they made their way through the hallways. Not that Sunset particularly cared, but it was an interesting shift. She supposed she could add a bullet point to her checklist on her human socialization paper.

Trixie, for her part, seemed to fidget and sway more than usual, like a fish out of the water. Was she always like that while at school? Sunset realized she had only ever interacted with her at home. Maybe walking with people instead of alone was a sort of paradigm shift for her? Sunset would have to ask later.

Classes didn’t feel much different. Sunset would answer a question when addressed and ask follow up questions when needed. She would write notes and add undertext when needed. It was at the start of lunch period when things began to change.

“Are you going to the cafeteria?” Sunflower asked, eyeing the hallways as if expecting a monster to pop up.

“Yes,” Sunset replied slowly. “I’m hungry.”

Sunflower intertwined her fingers. “B-But, uhm, we can’t…” She darted her eyes to Trixie and back a few times. “We won’t even be able to sit…”

Sunset arched an eyebrow. “You’ve got to be kidding me. I’m not missing lunch.” She spun on her heels and walked up to the cafeteria.

“Wait!” Sunflower said, placing a hand on her shoulder and making her stop. “They’re not gonna let you. I brought my own lunch, I can share it with you.”

“No,” Sunset said simply. “I don’t care if they ignore me, but I’m not letting them push me around. If I want to eat at the cafeteria, I will.” And with that, she hastened her pace. Seriously, why did she hang out with such pushovers?

With a huff, she opened the cafeteria doors and made her way to the food queue, grabbing a tray on her way there. Except, there was a group of students right where the queue started. Sunset tried to go around them, but they were so engrossed in whatever banal chatter they were having that they were moving and stepping that way or the other, and one blocked her path.

“Hey, move it,” Sunset said, or tried to because the group began laughing quite loudly and her words weren’t heard. She waited for a pause, then tried again, but their laughter returned.

It didn’t take her any more than that to realize they were doing it on purpose. She was about to yell at them, but she figured it would be pointless. They didn’t care if she got angry, they only wanted her to miss lunch… Or something. She gritted her teeth, finding herself with the only solution to her problem: Getting physical.

Using the back of her food tray to protect herself as much as possible, she shoved her shoulder in between brats as she forcefully made her way through. They cried in surprise but otherwise didn’t do much more to impede her. It only took her a couple of seconds to reach the queue. She dusted herself off, feeling quite disgusted. No unicorn should ever have to resort to physical contact like some mere mudpony.

Well, that dealt with, she focused her attention to the food being offered. There were still many foods she still had to try, but she had already figured there wouldn’t be much variety in a school cafeteria.

They’re taking a while, she thought. She looked up and saw that the students before her were taking an unusual amount of time to make their pick. She frowned. Were they doing this on purpose as well?

One of them, a boy she didn’t recognize, briefly glanced at her, then struck an overly theatrical pose as he leaned in to the displayed food and muttered a loud hum.

They were doing it on purpose! How petty could they get?

But before Sunset could begin to think of a way to make them hurry, the serving lady, a very old woman of pink skin and gray hair with a disgruntled expression, grabbed the ladle that was submerged in what Sunset could only describe as sickly vomit, and practically smashed it on the boy’s food tray, splashing some on his shirt.

“Now move along,” the lady said with a dry yet surprisingly loud voice. “Yer not the only one here!”

The boy looked about to contribute to his tray contents with some of his own, but he managed to keep it down as he scurried away. The rest of the students in the queue took the hint and chose quickly. Sunset shrugged and asked for some mac n’ cheese and an apple juice box.

That taken care of, Sunset turned to find a seat. She should honestly not have been so surprised to find every single seat taken. Now, she could have simply gotten outside and to the classroom next door, but this was a challenge, and it was personal.

She calmly walked through the perimeter of the cafeteria, observing as much as she could. A normal pony, or person in this case, would have had trouble keeping up with so many people doing so many different things at the same time just to find the perfect opportunity for a seat. But Sunset was anything but normal. She was the highest-ranked student at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, which meant she had not only met, but completely destroyed the past record on the Advanced Disenchantment optional test, set by late Archmage Purity Skybound.

Disenchantment was one of the most complex magical fields, if only because it required an outstanding ability to calculate ever-changing formulas to produce both the correct ‘key’ to unlocking an enchantment, and the appropriate mirrored signature to disable it.

It had only taken Sunset six hours, forty-seven minutes and eight seconds to disenchant the Band of Everlasting Stars, against the eight hours and six minutes of the prior record.

So, keeping track of a bunch of kids was such an easy task that it almost felt like cheating. She was easily able to detect kids standing up as soon as she passed their seats. There weren’t many, probably because they only sat down to annoy her and wanted to be on their merry way. It was with this simple fact in mind that, when Sunset had given a whole lap around the cafeteria, getting near the entrance, she gave a deliberate step towards the exit.

Properly fooled, two students that were right behind her stood up, with their trays and everything, and walked away. Sunset immediately spun on her heels, gave two strides and placed her food tray on the table before anyone could think of stopping her.

She sat down and looked up.

The students that had been sitting at the table a second ago were now going somewhere else, some of them after sending her smug grins. Sunset blinked in surprise at this. So, if she managed to secure a seat, the need to not be associated with her would propel kids to leave her alone?

With a whole table for herself?

This was amazing!

She stabbed her mac n’ cheese with her fork and took a big bite. It was greasy and rather tasteless, but she was just so happy to be eating alone that she couldn’t bring herself to care. She really couldn’t understand why Sunflower made such a big deal out of this. Not being bothered every second by two-faced hypocrites was a blessing.

But, where would they be? She knew Trixie usually spend lunch period… somewhere else, but so far, Sunflower had been with her at the cafeteria. Would she give Trixie company or simply find a place to eat?

For a reason she did not understand, Sunset felt the need to look behind her back and to the cafeteria’s entrance door. It was slightly open, with a pair of bright green eyes sneaking from the side. Sunset raised an eyebrow. What on Tartarus was Sunflower doing there? She couldn’t have eaten all her lunch in the short minutes it took Sunset to find a seat.

Then she saw a tuft of silver hair behind Sunflower, and Sunset got the impression that they had wanted to do the exact same thing she had done. Ignore everyone and do whatever you want.

Sunset allowed herself to chuckle softly and shook her head. She really needed to teach these girls to have some guts. Looking straight to Sunflower, Sunset waved her hand, signaling the girl to come to her.

Sunflower turned her head around, then to Sunset and back. She repeated this motion several times, then disappeared for a couple of seconds before striding into the cafeteria with her lunch box in one hand and Trixie in the other. Trixie looked like she’d rather be anywhere else, but Sunflower’s grip on her hand was too strong.

“Come on,” Sunflower said as she pulled Trixie until they were next to Sunset. Trixie, looking defeated, sat to Sunset’s right. Sunflower sat to her left. “You see now why we didn’t want to come?”

Sunset stared at Sunflower. “No.”

Rolling her eyes, Sunflower moved her arm in a wide arc to point out the rest of the cafeteria. Everyone was looking at them with various expressions that ranged from mild surprise to disgust. “They don’t want us here,” she whispered. “That’s why they left the table when you sat down.”

“Yeah, I noticed,” Sunset replied, eating more of her mac n’ cheese. “But what they think is insulting or humiliating, is actually good for me. Us. We have a whole table for ourselves, with no one to bother us. This isn’t negative, this is positive.”

“If you say so…” Sunflower said, looking around. She eventually opened her lunch box.

Trixie, too, had brought a bright blue lunch box with an image of Elementian’s protagonists. Sunset had to admit it was a very good-looking lunch box. But Trixie was too quiet, like a cat, and kept her eyes down, glued to her own hands.

That was quite strange, even for her.

“Are you always this silent at school?” Sunset asked.

Trixie flinched and looked at her with a bewildered expression. She briefly looked around and immediately shot her eyes down again, then, turning back to her lunch box, she simply nodded.

“She is,” Sunflower replied, taking a sandwich out of her lunch box. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard her voice, now that I think about it.”

Sunset was about to inquire about it, but she was interrupted by the annoying, nasal voice of Diamond Rush.

“You have some nerve, don’t you?” Diamond asked as she stepped right in front of Sunset.

She seemed to be angry, but Sunset had never been able to completely guess emotions out of voice tones. Sure, she could look up and see her face, but Sunset figured that if she was going to be ignored by everyone because of this brat, then she could very well ignore the brat back. So, it was with a bored look that she grabbed another mouthful of her mac n’ cheese. Still very greasy.

“You think you can just come here acting like you own the place?” Diamond continued.

Sunset saw through her peripheral vision that Diamond’s friends were standing at her sides. Were they trying to intimidate her with numbers? That was pretty pathetic. Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Sunset turned to her left and pointed to Sunflower’s sandwich.

“Is that peanut butter?” She asked.

Sunflower flinched, and it took her almost five whole seconds of darting her eyes from Diamond, to Sunset, to her own lunch, to reply. “Uhm… It’s hazelnut spread.”

Hazelnut? Now that got Sunset’s attention. Hazelnut was a very rare nut in Equestria, found only on exotic traveling merchant wares or commissioned by the Royal Courier Office directly from Zebrania. It was very expensive, and Sunset had only managed to get a sample once, when she had snuck into the kitchens the morning of Cadenza’s coronation. She had regretted not attending the after party on account of having missed many rare foods.

Why had they neglected getting more hazelnuts was beyond Sunset’s reasoning. Fortunately, it appeared that it was far more common in the human world. She decided not to leave it to luck, though.

“Do you want to trade?” She asked. “Half your sandwich for half my bowl.”

Sunflower looked at Sunset’s tray, as if realizing it was there for the first time. “Uhm…”

Diamond Rush slammed her hands on the table, making Sunflower jump a little. Sunset looked up at her with a frown. “You think you can ignore me? You’re really full of yourself, aren’t you?”

“The pot calling the kettle?” Sunset asked, and before Diamond could reply, she continued. “What do you want, Diamond? Isn’t talking to me kind of defeating the point?”

Diamond’s left eye twitched and her cheeks turned a soft shade of pink. Sunset thought she looked better with some color on her pale face. “You’re not allowed to show your ugly face here. No one wants you here.”

Sunset chuckled. “My ugly face? Wow, Diamond, I didn’t think you had it in you to throw petty, playground insults. Next time you’re gonna say my hair is not very well brushed?” She gave a loud laugh and brought her fork to her mac n’ cheese. “Also, yes, I am allowed to use the school’s facilities. You have no say in this.” She lifted her fork and held it right outside her mouth. “Unless, of course, you want me to take it to the principal?” With that, she took another mouthful.

She definitely liked watching Diamond fume and turn red with anger. Sadly, the image lasted all but ten seconds before Diamond smiled broadly. “You think you’re so smart,” she said with such a low voice it was almost a whisper. “But if you keep defying me, you’ll regret it.”

Feeling already tired from the interaction, Sunset looked down at her bowl and gave a long sigh. “Trim your own frogs.”

“I… What?”

Sunset resisted the urge to facepalm. She really needed to study human idioms. “Look, Diamond. I want nothing to do with you, and despite your actions saying otherwise, you want nothing to do with me. So let’s just stay away from each other’s way before you end up regretting it.”

Diamond snorted. “If you think you’re in any position to threaten me, you’re having another thing coming. Let’s see if you have this same attitude tomorrow.” With that, she snapped her fingers and walked away with her group of friends.

When Diamond returned to her own table, Sunflower nudged Sunset on the arm. “Hey, are you sure it’s a good idea to antagonize Diamond?”

Shrugging, Sunset held a hand towards Sunflower. “Trade.” Sunflower nodded and gave her half her sandwich. Sunset used her fork to divide her bowl of mac n’ cheese so she’d give half of it to Sunflower after she finished. “The thing with bullies, Sunflower, is that they rely on everyone doing what they want. As soon as someone falls away from the line, they immediately try to beat them into returning to it.”

“Yeah,” Sunflower said. “That’s exactly what she’s doing to you.”

Sunset smiled. “Well, it normally works, because no one wants to face the bully. But, tell me, what happens when more and more people fall away from the bully’s control?”

Sunflower cocked her head. “They get angrier?”

“Yes,” Sunset admitted. “But they also lose said control. Think of it like a machine. If a piece starts acting up, you have to fix it. But what happens when many or all pieces don’t behave as expected?”

“The machine stops working,” Sunflower replied.

Sunset nodded. “Me challenging my assigned role as the newest social pariah is the loose bolt on Diamond’s machine. She tries to threaten me, to fix me, but I don’t give in, so she doesn’t know what to do except falling back and trying to come up with a different approach.”

Sunflower nodded as she took a bite of her sandwich.

“She’ll undoubtedly try to make my life miserable. It’s going to be difficult because I don’t care about being ostracized, which is Diamond’s specialty. She could resort to violence, but I have proved I will fight back, so that won’t be easy either.” Sunset regarded her half sandwich for a moment. “Although, I must admit I’ve never been in this situation before. I’ve always tried to keep myself apart from bullies… Maybe…” An idea occurred to her, and she pursed her lips. It was feasible, but she really didn’t want to use her only card in this school. Still, she had to admit she needed the help. She sighed defeatedly. “I think I know how to protect ourselves from Diamond’s retaliations.”

“Really?” Sunflower asked excitedly. “How?”

Sunset didn’t reply right away. She still needed to consider this option a great deal more. Still, there wasn’t much she could do without her magic. One had to work with what they had at hoof. The mark of a great leader was making use of all available tools at her disposal, even if said tools were complete wild cards.

She took a bite from the sandwich and savored the hazelnut. It was delicious.

Comments

[BlackOpsElf]

Rainbow time?

Really enjoying this so far.

[THERDSTORYWHISPERER]

Great chapter!

[Josiador]

Sunset better beat that bitch good, or I will be very disappointed in you.

Also, I wonder when Trixie is going to start speaking in third person and acting like, well, Trixie.

[Prince Leviathan]

Diamond Rush & Lackeys vs Sunset and Friends.

Battle of the Year.
Next time on Trick to Growing Up!

[KingSombraTheTyrantRuler]

I'm loving this so far! I can't wait for the next chapter!

[Yubella]

I found this story to be very intresting