Afterparty

by FlutteringLillies

Chapter 2: Sunset

Sunset Shimmer meandered through Canterlot City on her motorcycle. The machine looked relatively new and sleek, but only because Sunset had spent a long time fixing it up after she’d found it in a dump. Even with the few scratches and dings though, it was still Sunset’s most prized possession. So she was treating it well, even with her emotions flaring and mind spinning, even with the desire to rip through town like a rampaging, wounded dragon simmering in the back of her mind.

Herself on the other hand… well at least the wind whipping through her hair and brushing against her arms felt nice. Not that Sunset had forgone the helmet and leather jacket to court danger, she’d just… hadn’t had the time. Or really, she hadn’t spared the time in her rush to get out of Pinkie’s house as fast as possible. She just couldn’t face any of her friends watching her go, couldn’t see their disappointment or anger or blame. She couldn’t have stayed either, not with the buzzing wasp nest of thoughts inside her head, stinging her, poisoning her mood.

She turned a corner, moving at the speed limit on a winding backroad as she tried to sort those rumbling thoughts now that she was alone.

Rainbow was a good friend. A great one at that. A good person. So what, if anything, did she see in Sunset Shimmer? She was the girl who had nearly ripped the world to pieces, the girl who had almost killed her, the monster. Sunset told herself and was told by others that she wasn’t that girl anymore. That she was different, better, nicer. She believed it in rare happy moments, surrounded by her friends, laughing, joking, smiling. Most of the time though, it was like this, her past sins a constant dragging weight and her present a flawed mirror, cracked in a million different little ways.

Sunset was supposed to learn from her mistakes. She was supposed to look at the lives she almost ruined, the people she terrorized, remember the realm she nearly destroyed and be better. Still, the Friendship Games were only eleven months ago, and she could remember cutting Twilight down so vividly. How righteous and correct she felt, all while leading an innocent girl toward painful, monstrous magic. She remembered how proud she felt getting that lead yearbook editor position at the beginning of this year. How good it felt to win. To beat Trixie and… and… and she couldn’t even remember who else was on the ballot! Someone she didn’t care enough about to pay attention to apparently. And now. Now she was riding around Canterlot with no helmet, no pads, no jacket berating herself into anger and sadness. Right after running away from her best friends.

She yelled, the sound rising as her speed did, as she got more and more upset and cared less and less about the bike. Less about herself.

Someone honked at her as she wove around them, she ran a red light. She didn’t care. She just wanted to just drive away from here, as far away as possible. She escaped all her mistakes before maybe she could escape Rainbow-

Sunset squealed her bike to a stop, turning enough so her front wheel just barely managed to not bump into the couple that had been crossing the street in front of her. They were staring, jaws slack, or Sunset could assume they both were, even if the glasses covered whatever Vinyl Scratch happened to be looking at.

“Sunset Shimmer?” Octavia Melody asked, still staring.

“That’s me.” Was all she could reply with. It sounded hollow and lifeless.

“Are you quite alright? You were… well that seems a little fast for a thirty. And well… your eyes.”

Sunset put a hand up to her face. Her fingers came away wet with tears. She breathed in deep, ignoring the way the breath hitched. Then she shook herself. “I’m fine. Thanks.” She wove around her two classmates and took off again, this time back at her reasonable meandering speed.

She swallowed, then gritted her teeth. Who was she kidding? She couldn’t run away from her friends. Not from Rainbow or any of the rest of them. She’d only been apart from them for fifteen minutes and had almost committed vehicular manslaughter. She was crying too. She was a total mess.

Sunset had to figure out what to do, had to solve this Rainbow Dash dilemma, had to fix things. She took another deep breath, it stumbled and hitched before steadying out into something calming. She was smart, she could do this.

Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash was… what to her? An infatuation? A crush? A close friend. A friend that understood her need to keep moving, to chase impossibilities, to push herself to limits. Sunset could see herself with someone like that, could see herself chasing Rainbow, catching her, touching her. She swallowed, shook the memory away.

Maybe it didn’t matter what she saw in her mind. She didn’t know how Rainbow felt after all. More than that, Sunset couldn’t trust herself with that kind of vulnerability from another person. She didn’t really trust herself now, when they weren’t anything more than friends. Romance was out of the question. It was too dangerous, she was too dangerous. She definitely wasn’t going to let Rainbow be another Flash Sentry. Which, ugh talk about people who she’d really wronged.

Then what did she do? Let Rainbow down easy? Then again Rainbow had seemed pretty vehement about them not being a thing. Which meant, she didn’t have to do anything. Right? They’d slept together and she was just going to… what? Go back to how things were before? No changes, no words, no discussion?

She grumbled and this time turned on a dime. Her cracked, weed-invested driveway was right there, and her emotions were welling up too much again. The bike seemed to screech in pain as she stopped, but Sunset just dismounted and stormed toward the door. Off of the motorcycle and not a real danger to herself or anyone else now, Sunset didn’t hold back, slamming her door and screaming when she was finally sealed inside her humble home. How could she have been so stupid? How could she have jeopardized the one good thing she had? How in all the fiery, tortuous pits of tartarus was she going to fix it?

“Fuck.” She swore vehemently, intensely, loudly, and the venom dripping down from that word at least felt good. “Fuck!” She yelled again. It gave her enough relief from her internal storm to start pacing, to start thinking up a plan.

Turning her down and going back to the way things were before was a no go. So… dating her? Absolutely not the right answer. Either Rainbow wouldn’t be interested and things would get awkward, or Rainbow would be interested and somehow, someway, Sunset would end up hurting her.

Talk with her about it? Just… talk. It was the most likely, the most sensible idea, but whenever Sunset tried to imagine how that conversation would go, each fiery disaster was worse than the last. She’d ruin it, someway, somehow.

They could… be friends but with added sexual benefits? Change the dynamic enough that last night wasn’t a weird fluke they’d have to talk over, but not so much so as to make Rainbow vulnerable to getting her heart crushed. Only… what if more serious feelings developed? Then it was basically dating and Sunset had already thrown that option away.

It was impossible. At least from where Sunset was standing. Maybe she really would just ride off into nowhere, never to be seen again.

Or… she could always stop running. She could return to Equestria to be tried for her crimes. Be put in a cell forever somewhere. Or maybe she’d return to Equestria and go by a fake name. Dusk… Dusk something…

Sunset shook her head, waved her hands in front of her, chasing the way those over the top thoughts. They weren’t solutions, not really. It’d just be running in a different direction. She didn’t really want to leave this world, more importantly, she didn’t want to leave her friends.

She needed other solutions, other eyes, another mind. She needed– Her eyes flicked to her bedroom door… advice.

Sunset rushed to her room and saw it. The journal, resting on her nightstand. She practically dove for it, and tore it open. The pen saving her last place was a salvation.

Princess Twilight,

I need emergency friendship advice. S.O.S.

She stared at the page. She knew that it wasn’t helpful, that it wouldn't make Twilight write back faster, but the thought of putting down the journal made the pancakes she had that morning rush back up into her throat. She swallowed. The pancakes!

She reached for her phone in her pocket. Most of her friends had texted of course. Applejack suggested she faced the music sooner rather than later, Rarity asked if she needed anything, Fluttershy sent... cat pictures. Yeah that was Fluttershy. Only Rainbow Dash was absent in her recent texts. Their last shared messages were from the amusement park.

Where'd you go?

br be there for boarding dw

Sunset tried not to dwell on that. On how they'd spent half the day on ride after ride, coaster after coaster. Sunset and Rainbow were the thrill seekers, the daring ones. They'd connected back with their friends at lunch and spent a good amount of time after that as a big group. Playing games, seeing shows, but... Sunset scrolled up a message. It was a picture of her and Rainbow, both beaming as they waited in line for a ride. Rainbow had taken it and Sunset had asked her to send it.

Another ping came in. It was a punchline to one of the two or so dozen jokes Pinkie had sent her. And then another. Are u okay?

Pinkie had been the reason she picked up her phone. So she scrolled back and typed up a response. I'm fine. Sorry I ditched on the cleaning. I owe you a favor for that one. Name when and where and I'll be there okay?

She sent that, paused, then added. Just needed some time alone.

Pinkie’s reply was near immediate. Awwww don't worry SunShim! You feel better! That's all I need, kay?

She wasn't going to let Pinkie get away with that, but arguing about it over text wouldn't get her anywhere. So she flipped her phone closed, and saw that Princess Twilight had written back.

Oh Stars! Is everything okay Sunset? What happened?

Then as Sunset looked at the book, another message scrawled itself on the pages.

Sunset? Are you there?

Whoops. Now she had left Twilight waiting. She gripped the pen firmly in her hand, and sighed as she tried to think of exactly what to write.

I'm okay physically.

She hovered over the paper with her pen. Ugh, what would Twilight even say. She had a Rainbow Dash of her own. Would that be weird? What if... did Twilight have anything... more with her friends?

Well I'm glad for that at least. You said you needed friendship advice though, so I kind of figured. Did you have an argument or something?

Twilight's neat swirly script appeared again.

No, nothing like that.

Her thoughts went back to the texts, to how her friends would advise her.

Applejack would just tell me to rip it off like a band-aid, and just say it right out. But Celestia, that is scary.

Part of me doesn't even want to acknowledge it happened.

If she wrote it out that would make it even more real. That would make one of the scattered outcomes she thought of actually come true.

Twilight's script came again, fast this time, and a little messier.

Well Applejack does give solid advice, and honestly the more you talk about this, the more worried I get. It might be best to just be open and honest. I promise I won't be mad? Does that help?

Sunset was surprised to find that it sort of did. She didn’t know what Princess Twilight had with her friends and that assurance felt like a safety net. No matter how she saw Dash. Still.

Can't I just... ask you to come through the portal and tell you in person?

She doubted that would make it easier, but it bought time at least.

I mean if that's what you really want, I can probably find the time, but be honest about this at least. Is this just to stall?

Sunset sighed. Even a world away, Twilight was good at seeing right through her.

Maybe.

Then it's probably best if you just say it here. If you need to talk more in depth then I can come to your realm, but let's start here alright?

It was still hard. She pressed her pen into the pages of the journal for a good thirty seconds, sending just a dot across dimensions. She breathed in deep and on the exhale, scribbled.

I slept with Rainbow Dash last night.

Sunset waited an agonizing full minute for a response. Then finally, a question.

You mean... I assume you didn't just sleep in the same bed, correct?

No. We- Ugh! They were adults for Celestia's sake! -had sex.

Right. Twilight responded, then after a pause, continued.

I'll be over in twenty minutes. Meet me at CHS.

Author's Note:

Here's chapter 2! My original plan was to post every part of this story weekly, but I started a new five days a week job and wednesday is a terrible day for reading over chapters to check for mistakes/make edits! Because holy hell I am tired. So I'm switching update day to Sunday and posting two chapters this week.

Hope you all enjoy and thanks to everyone who commented for their thoughts and encouragement.

Comments

[Moproblems Moharmoney]

I like how HorseTwi is very much "Oh you dont need me silly!" And then as soon as the truth hits she's "Be there in ten"

[xbox432]

Whelp, at least she's talking about it. Even asking for advice. Hopefully Twilight will be able to calm Sunset down and get her to stop panicking. Also, oof, Lyra and BonBon nearly ate it... Yeah, this is why you never drive angry.

[zachary12]

nice work