Allies and Opposition
Rainbow Dash rushed through town, paying little mind to the people she had to swerve past and avoid on her way. Ever since she had found out about her friend ‘VesperPrincess’ earlier, she knew she had to get out of the house and find her. Initially, she’d planned to have her mother drive her around, and had only turned Street Fighter on to pass the time.
Funny how life had a way of dropping bombshells on her. That was five within a week, if her count was correct. She couldn’t just sit down after that.
Unfortunately, finding her would-be friend was easier said than done, as not a single person in the high school actually KNEW where Sunset Shimmer lived. Even Flash Sentry had been a bust, as they always hung out at his place, rather than hers.
Already, she’d been at this for an hour, and every single person she’d asked from school either looked at her with confusion or disdain. Usually though, it was confusion then disdain, as they realized Rainbow’s end goal. Suddenly, she went from hero to enemy as they demanded to know why she wanted to find Sunset.
But Rainbow Dash had neither the time nor inclinations to explain her reasoning. She had a mission, and that mission took precedent.
Even as the athlete’s body kept screaming at her to stop, to take a moment to catch her breath, there was no drop in speed from her. Stopping meant wasting precious time, time that could be used searching for a clue.
As she turned a corner, her momentum was stopped dead by the feeling of slamming into another person. Letting out a groan of irritation, the girl underneath her tried to push Rainbow Dash off.
“Watch where you’re going!” she exclaimed, using her significant strength to get the other girl off of her.
“Sorry!” Rainbow told her, getting back to a sitting position. “I was in a hur-… Wait a minute. Indigo Zap?”
Sure enough, when the girl opened her eyes, she came face-to-face with the star athlete of Crystal Prep. The other girl ran a hand through her blue hair, before opening her own eyes and meeting Rainbow Dash’s gaze. She said nothing for a bit, but slowly her expression broke into a smug grin.
“Well, if it isn’t the only girl in Canterlot who can even hope to keep up with me,” she taunted, though Rainbow knew it was in a good-natured way; contrary to popular belief, the two of them actually got along pretty well.
“Watch out,” Rainbow Dash retorted, standing back up. “Next time, Indigo the Invincible is gonna be left in the dust!”
“I’ll believe it when I see it. Now, what’s got you in such a hurry anyway?”
Her eyes widened as Indigo reminded her exactly of why she was here. “I’m looking for someone, actually. Have you seen a girl named Sunset Shimmer? She’s abo-”
“About yay high?” Indigo asked, making a gesture to Sunset’s approximate height. “Leather jacket? Hair kinda looks like bacon?”
“Yeah actually, that’s dead on!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “So, you’ve seen her?”
“No, but you’re the fifth girl today to ask me if I have.”
To that, Rainbow sighed. Still though, she could guess who the other four were, and it was good to hear they were as dedicated to it as she was.
“What happened anyway?” Indigo asked. “Did this Sunset girl run away from home or something?”
“No, I don’t think so. I was playing Street Fighter with her earlier. But…”
For a second, CHS’ star athlete struggled to find the words. She knew she had to keep it secret what went down last night, but she also wanted to convey what was going on properly.
“Sunset made a big mistake last night,” she eventually answered. “And now she’s feeling horrible about it. Like everything’s crashing down around her. Me and the girls, we… we wanna find her, so we can help her through it. So that she knows she’s not alone.”
In her mind, Rainbow Dash also silently tacked on ‘So that she knows we’re being genuine.’
Indigo stared for a moment, seemingly awestruck. After a bit, she regained her composure, and pulled out her phone.
“Rainbow, can I see your phone for a bit? And could you unlock it for me?”
“Uh, sure?” Rainbow said, pulling out her device and doing so. Immediately, it was snatched by Indigo, who began typing away on both with incredible fervor.
Soon enough, she pushed a button on her own phone, and a ringing noise came from Rainbow Dash’s, confirming she’d just got a call.
“There,” the Crystal Prep athlete told her. “Now you have my number. If I find her, I’ll shoot you a text.”
Rainbow Dash blinked, before taking back her phone. “Oh, thanks Indigo.”
“No problem. Just do me a favor?”
“Sure, what’s up?”
“Shoot me a text if you find Sunset, please,” Indigo asked her, her usual bravado fading for just a bit. “Now I’m worried about her, and I don’t even know this chick.”
With an assured nod and a fist bump between them, Rainbow Dash set back out on her way. With a new ally on her side, her resolve was doubled, and especially knowing that now they had six people searching.
They’d find Sunset. She was sure of it.
She was feeling a little less sure of it after her trip to the mall.
Two hours of this was all that Dash could take. Two hours of going around, asking random people from her school (and occasionally Crystal Prep students whenever she ran into them) if they’d seen Sunset Shimmer, and getting not a single clue as to the girl’s whereabouts.
Seems her idea to check the busiest place she could think of was a bust as well.
Sneaking into a secluded part of the mall, she checked her phone to see if she’d gotten any updates from anyone. Much to her chagrin, it seemed the girls were just as empty-handed as Rainbow Dash had been.
“Dang it, Sunset,” she grumbled. “Why’d you have to be so good at hiding?”
“So, it’s true then?”
A familiar voice rang in the exhausted girl’s ears. Footsteps could be heard behind her, and it was easy to tell it was from two different sets of feet.
Turning around to offer a cursory glance at the source of the noise, Rainbow Dash found two different girls approaching. Lyra Heartstrings and Bon-Bon, two of her classmates, the latter of whom looked like she was ready to throw hands at any second.
“Oh, hey you two,” Rainbow said casually. “What’s up?”
“Don’t give me that, Dash,” Bon-Bon said. “Word on the street is you’ve been asking everyone who’d listen if they’ve seen the She-Demon.”
Rainbow deadpanned at the mention of this name; it was unsurprising that they've already come up with something. “Yeah, I have. Why, do you know where she is?”
“No one does, you’re wasting your time! Stop looking for her!”
“Afraid I can’t do that, Bon-Bon.”
Rainbow Dash could swear she saw a vein bulging in Bon-Bon’s neck upon hearing that, but she didn’t comment on it. She wasn’t here to make the other girl angry, but that seemed unavoidable at this point.
“Have you ever considered that maybe she doesn’t wanna be found? That maybe she knows everyone’s pissed at her?”
“Not everyone.”
The baker girl rolled her eyes. “You don’t count, Dash.”
Those words caused a sudden surge of… something, in Rainbow Dash’s stomach. Anger? Maybe, but it felt more controlled than usual. Whatever it was, she tried to beat it back. Snapping at the couple would do no good.
“And why don’t I count?” she asked, honestly curious.
“You’re all buddy-buddy with Princess Twilight!” Bon-Bon answered, crossing her arms. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for what she did, but giving that bitch a second chance was a stupid call!”
“She was wronged by Sunset too, you know,” Rainbow Dash retorted. “How she chooses to react to that is her call.”
“Yeah, but she didn’t have to deal with her since freshman year, now did she? Don’t you get it, Dash!? NO ONE here wants you to find her!”
“Well, I wanna find her, and that’s good enough for me. Now I’m sorry, but I gotta get going.”
Rainbow Dash stepped around the two and was about to continue her search. She had been expecting something like this, so she’d prepared for it a bit. She wasn’t about to stoop to fighting someone else, especially someone who has every right to be angry.
“Oh, that is SO like you!”
Or at least, that was the plan.
Once again, that feeling within her bubbled up, this time coming closer to the surface, as she felt herself inching toward snapping back. She knew it wasn’t fair to them, but that last comment got under her skin for various reasons. Clenching her fists unconsciously, she turned back and watched as Lyra placed a hand on Bon-Bon’s shoulder.
“Okay, listen, I’m mad at Sunset too,” the green girl said. “But there’s no need to take it out on Dash. Maybe we should just calm do-”
“No!” Bon-Bon stopped her dead in her tracks. “Don’t give me that, Lyra! I’m not gonna calm down! This is exactly the kind of thing Rainbow Dash would pull!”
“And what do you mean by that, Bon-Bon?” she asked, trying to tame the growing something inside her. “Go on, enlighten me.”
“You’re putting what YOU want over what everyone else wants! Just deciding that your way is right!”
“Excuse me? I’m not the one who came over here demanding that someone else do what I want. You’re the one lecturing me about how I should handle the situation.”
Bon-Bon was seeing red at this point, and Rainbow Dash could feel it in her veins that she was close to her breaking point too.
And then the baker girl said it.
“You don’t get it, Rainbow Dash! You don’t know what it’s like to be mind-controlled!”
She felt a crack.
“And you don’t know what it’s like to grow wings!”
And another. And another…
“Oh, what does that have to do with anything!?”
Until finally, the dam burst, and the something building up inside of her finally let itself free. In an instant, she felt a surging heat throughout her body, burning, almost on the verge of explosion. Rainbow Dash took a step forward, leveling a glare at Bon-Bon that could have cut through diamond.
“Tell me… do you know what it’s like to feel magic coursing through your veins?”
Another step forward, as the poor girl’s glare weakened under the star athlete’s scrutinizing gaze.
“Do you have a clue what it feels like to grow wings on your back?” she continued. “To be able to fly? To turn a demon back into a human? Do you know what it’s like to have the knowledge that something as simple as friendship did all of that? Did a bunch of stuff I would have called nerdy fantasy junk before I saw it happen right in front of me?”
One more step, and Rainbow Dash was within inches of Bon-Bon’s face. Her fists were clenched tight, something akin to white hot rage running through her. Yet despite how it burned within, she couldn’t bring herself to lash out. She honestly wasn't sure how to describe this. Tranquil fury, maybe? It sounded contradictory as all hell, but it was all she had. Which was good, as she had no desire to hurt Bon-Bon anymore than she knew she already was.
But while she might not raise her voice, or throw out insults, there was no way in hell she would back down now. The baker girl tried taking a step back, but Rainbow took another step forward.
She was not getting out of this.
“Answer me,” Rainbow demanded. “Do you have any idea how that feels? Any idea at all?”
“W-well,” Bon-Bon shrunk, avoiding the taller girl’s gaze. “I guess not, bu-”
The athlete cut her off. “Exactly. You don’t know. You can’t know. Just like I can’t know what it’s like to be turned into someone’s zombie minion. And yet you wanna sit there and call me selfish for acting on experiences you don’t get? I didn’t do that to you, so what makes you think it’s okay to pull that crap with me?”
“Rainbow Dash, it ain’t like that!” Lyra stepped in. “Look, I’m sorry if we offended you, w-”
“Don’t.”
One little word, and Lyra’s whole train of thought was cut off.
“Don’t apologize for anything,” Rainbow Dash told her, her glare having softened only slightly. “I don’t want your apologies. Just don’t try to talk me out of this, because there’s nothing you can say or do that’ll convince me.”
“But… you’ve dealt with her the whole time she's been here, just like us,” Bon-Bon said, still trying to keep some footing in this argument. “You've seen and felt every bit of it! Doesn’t that mean anything? Doesn’t that bother you at all, everything she’s done?”
“… Do you honestly think that hasn’t crossed my mind?”
The two girls went silent at that, looking to Rainbow Dash, as if begging her to continue.
“I don’t know if you were able to see this, but Sunset tried to incinerate me and my friends last night,” she said slowly, letting the words hang on the air a bit. “While she was a demon, she was ready to march you all to your deaths. But what she did to me and my friends was direct.
“I was up until the sun rose, just thinking about that, replaying last night in my head. I didn’t get any sleep at all, because I was reconciling the fact that despite living through that – that despite adding that to the ocean of bullshit she’s put everyone through – that I still want to give her a chance. To reach out and try to help her.”
Taking a deep breath, Rainbow Dash shook her head, and looked to the girls, the tiredness in her eyes starting to show.
“I’ll ask one more time,” she said, the finality in her tone clear. “Can you imagine what that must feel like?”
Neither girl answered. They couldn’t even meet Rainbow Dash’s eyes anymore.
“Listen, if you don’t want to forgive Sunset, I respect that. You have your reasons, and they’re completely justified. But I have my own reasons for why I want to give her a chance. My own reasons for why when I find her, I’m GOING to give her a chance.”
Not even sparing the two a second glance, the star athlete turned her back, and ended with “And if you can’t respect that the same way I respect your reasons… then I don’t know what to tell you.”
With nothing more to say, Rainbow Dash walked away, leaving the other two in a stunned silence. She didn’t know where she would search next, but her resolve was stronger than ever now. It didn’t matter how long it took. If she kept searching, eventually, she’d find a clue.
“That was quite the rousing speech, Miss Dash. I had no idea you could be so articulate.”
… Or she could find her vice-principal. That worked too.
Luna stepped forward, with a surprisingly warm smile on her face, and many bags on her arms. It didn’t take a genius to figure out the implications.
“That makes two of us. How much did you hear?”
“Everything up to and including Miss Bon-Bon saying no one wanted to find my niece.”
“Yeah, well I disagree wit-… Wait, did you say ‘niece’?”
Luna nodded. “Well, in truth, Celestia hasn’t adopted Sunset yet, though I’d still like to think of her as such.”
Rainbow Dash snapped her fingers, as if a realization had hit her. “Ah. So that’s why you didn’t just expel her on the spot.”
“Well, that, and no one would believe the reason for her expulsion anyway. Though obviously, I couldn’t just let her deed go completely unpunished.”
“Of course. But if you’re family, then you gotta know where she lives, right?”
“I do, as a matter of fact,” Luna said, her expression hardening slightly. “However, if I tell you, the information is to remain strictly confidential. The last thing myself or my sister needs is a group of disgruntled students or parents at our doorstep. Can you promise me that?”
“Scout’s honor!”
The vice-principal smiled softly, placing a hand on Rainbow Dash’s shoulder. “Then follow me. I’ll take you to Sunset.”
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Great chapter, was kinda hoping to see dash and bon bon coming to blows
Pretty good chapter!
WOW. RD's speech gave me goosebumps! Awesome!