Let's try again

by Bru-swan-sen

First published 7th of October, 2016

Ever since their trip to camp Everfree, Sunset Shimmer and Flash Sentry has rekindled their friendship. All seems well and good but when the two begin to realize something about themselves.

Ever since their trip to camp Everfree, Sunset Shimmer and Flash Sentry has rekindled their friendship. All seems well and good but when the two begin to realize something about themselves. The two will work on the issues from their past and also in the present. You know what they say, there's always room for second chances.

This takes place after the Equestria Girls: Legend of Camp Everfree.

Chapter 1

It’s been about a week since the fiasco at camp Everfree and so far everyone is a bit tired with all the magical events happening throughout the school year. Many of the students are hoping for a nice simple last few months at Canterlot high till summer break.

It was eighth period and a few minutes till school was officially over. Most of the students were busy staring at the clock. Nearly all of them were ready to jump out of their seats and make a mad dash for the exit.

Tick...tock...tick..tock.

Thirty more seconds. Just like the countdown for new year's students began to count down the last ten seconds.

“Ten.”

Book bags were packed and slung over shoulders.

“Nine, eight, seven.”

Many of the teachers made sure to stay away from the door so that they wouldn’t be trampled by the incoming stampede.

“Six, five, four.”

All eyes were on the clock now.

“Three, two.” It was as if time stopped for everyone, but then it happened.

“ONE!”

The final bell of the year rang and everyone jumped out of their seats and ran out of their respective classes. Cheers and cries erupt in the halls as students and a few teachers let out the excitement. Some students threw their old homework in the air and some just dropped their school supplies and ran off in celebration.

A group of friends were walking through the halls past their fellow schoolmates. Each of them had a different look of excitement on their faces.

“Watch out summer break, here comes Rainbow Dash!”

“Ooh wee, this summer break is sure going to be a fun one,” Applejack started to have a giddy look on her face. “Granny Smith put me in charge of this year's Apple family reunion, then there's the town fair after that ah can just smell all them pies.”

“OOOOH don’t forget about the cakes, cupcakes, pancakes, lava cakes and oh oh oh don’t forget cheesecake.” Pinkie’s mouth began to water as the list of different cakes began to form in her mind.

Rarity cringed as a pool of saliva begins to form next to her.

“Yes that all sounds fun, but I personally can’t wait for some R&R, a few nights of brainstorming new ideas. My my with it being senior year next year we’re all going to think of prom dress designs.” She goes off on the different materials and colors to use and this and that. Most of the girls just roll their eyes at their fashionista friend.

“I can’t wait to go on my nature tour to all the cute fuzzy animals,” Fluttershy said. “All the little critters coming up to eat snacks from your hand and then you sometimes pet them and then read them bedtime stories.”

“I think you're the only one who can actually do that Fluttershy.” Rainbow Dash says. She turns to the last two members of the group. “What about you two? Got any plans for this year's summer break?”

“Get a job, hang out, relax, meh.” Sunset said. “Nothing I’m really too excited about, what about you Twilight?”

“Oh you know just your normal girl stuff, college studying, preparing for college, and maybe even a few college visits here and there you know all the fun stuff.” She had a wide smile on her face.

Everyone else stared at the girl with a blank expression.

“Really?”

Twilight gave them a confused look.

“What? I thought we were all sharing all the fun stuff we were going to do this summer?”

Rarity places a hand on her shoulder giving her exceptionally academic friend a look.

“Darling it’s just that most of the things you said were just um...” She was trying to figure out the right words to say.

“Boring?” Rainbow said.

“A big snoresville?” Pinkie said.

Rarity gives the two of them a glare.

“I think what they mean is that why worry about things like college now?” Sunset says. “You should be relaxing at least a little bit, you know spending time with your friends and maybe spending time with a certain someone?” Sunset waggles her brows at the last point. This got the other girls to giggle causing Twilight to blush a deep red.

“Well I..I...we...um.” Twilight began to stutter her words. Her phone began to ring, catching everyone’s attention. “Hello?”

Everyone else watches as Twilight's expression changes as a small smile grows on her face. Within seconds she began to twirl her fingers in her hair as she was talking into the phone.

“Looks like someone's got a call from a certain green haired gentleman.” Rarity teases as she watches Twilight grow a shade of crimson.

“Ok I’ll see you at five then,” She covers her mouth with a hand in hopes to muffle her next four words. “I love you too.” Hanging up her call, Twilight looks back up at her friends, all of them giving a cheeky look.

“Adorable.” Rarity coos.

“Ohohoho looks like someone's got themselves a date.” Rainbow says poking at Twilight's stomach.

“What no...maybe...yes.” Twilight said in defeat.

The rest of the girls giggle at the news of their friend. They sent her a barrage of questions, mainly Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash.

Before anything got too out of hand Sunset pulls her away from her three friends' interrogation.

“Alright girls, let's give her some room.” The two start to make their way towards the school entrance with their friends close behind.

Sunset turns to look at the girl who looks as if she was about to jump out of her feet.

“Looks like you’re excited about that date of yours?”

Twilight gave a meek smile as a tint of pink can be seen on her cheeks.

“Is it really that obvious?”

Sunset lightly pats her on her back.

“Don’t worry about it too much,” she says. “Besides, things seem to be going well with you and Timber ever since camp Everfree.”

Going great would be an understatement to Twilight ever since they left camp she’s been keeping contact with Timber. The two would make plans occasionally seeing that he lives outside of town; it wasn't that hard for them to see each other. Twilight would admit that Timber being the first ever boy she’s ever dated made her a nervous wreck when their first date came. Luckily with her friends being able to calm her down she was able to go through it.

“Yeah, since today was the last day of school he wants to take me out for dinner and then a visit to the science museum of astronomy.” Twilight began to go off on all the different things that were going to occur later today and then changed the subject to astrology which caught her attention.

Sunset only rolls her eyes as she watches her friend going on and off about science this and Timber that. She was happy for her, after the Friendship games concerning Midnight Sparkle and then the whole fiasco with camp Everfree it was nice to see her friend finally relax and enjoy herself.

Finally the doors of Canterlot high burst open revealing a swarm of students running out and onto the schoolyard and street.

The seven friends head towards the school parking lot.

“So meet up at Sugarcube corners later?” Rainbow asks as she clicks the unlock button to her car. Fluttershy walks over to the passenger seat of the car.

“Sorry darlings, but I’ve got a few projects that are due by the end of this week,” Rarity says walking over to her own car. “Maybe during the weekend.”

“Yeah same, ah got some harvesting to do back at the farm and with Applebloom gone I’m one hand short.” Applejack lets out a small sigh.

Rainbow Dash looks over at Sunset who stood next to her motorcycle.

“Sorry tonight I was planning on just relaxing and sleeping early.” Sunset gives her an apologetic smile.

“Shrugging her shoulders she and Fluttershy said their goodbyes and drove off home as did the others. This left only Sunset and Twilight in the parking lot.

“Need a ride?” Sunset offers.

“No I’m good, my brother said he would pick me up today.”

“Alright then, I’ll see you later then.”

Sunset waves her off and rides off into town. It doesn’t take her long to get home being that it was in town about ten minutes away from school. She lived in one of the many different apartments in town. Luckily for Sunet, she was able to find a decently cheap one bedroom apartment for a decent rent price. Parking her bike in the lower garages she walks over to stairs leading to her apartment.

Opening the door, Sunset flips the light switch on. Kicking off her shoes and dropping her bag on the ground Sunset walks over to her kitchen. She looks into her fridge and lets out a sigh seeing that there is nothing in it. She pulls out her cell phone and calls for takeout. After changing into some more comfortable clothes and receiving her takeout Sunset sat in her living room...alone. She switches through channels after channel while eating her meal. Letting out a sigh, Sunset turns off the TV and sits quietly on her couch. She pulls out her phone going through different social media apps. A certain image caught her attention as she stared into her phone.

It was a picture of Timber and behind was Twilight who was busy looking at something. He was smiling giving a thumbs up to the camera with Twilight completely oblivious. The text under the picture read ‘someone should learn to lock their phone.’

Sunset smiles at the picture, but then lets out a sigh as she closes her phone and slumps in her seat on the couch. She looks at the vacant spot on the couch next to her. It would be nice if there was someone to spend some time with. Ever since Twilight began to be in a serious relationship with Timber, Sunset began to feel a little lonely. Not really in the sense of being someone with no friends or anything friends was something she had an abundance of, no this was totally a different sort of loneliness.

Don’t get her wrong, she loves her friends with all her being they are probably one of the best things to ever happen to her. It’s just that she sort of wishes there was that one person who she could be...intimate with. Someone she could spend some alone time with.

Pulling herself out of her seat she grabs what's left of her meal and throws it away. With her shoulders slumped she slowly saunters over to the bathroom. With a quick shower and then brushing her teeth Sunset walks over to her bed. Laying on her bed and pulling the sheets over her Sunset stares up at the ceiling.

Author's Notes:

Hi guys! I hope you like this story. What do you think did you like it? Or nah? Let me know what you think and hopefully, if people are enjoying or at least a tab bit interested in it I'll keep on going and stuff.
Thanks for reading!

Chapter 2

Sunset stood in front of Sugarcube corners waiting for her friends. The warm summer breeze blew through her hair as she let out a relaxing sigh. Pulling out her phone from her pocket, she checks on her messages from the group chat she and her friends were in.

“I wonder what's taking them so long?” She walks over to a nearby bench. Tapping on her phone a few times, she brought it up to her ear. A few rings went off before a familiar voice spoke up.

“Sunset?” Twilight’s voice was heard on the other end.

“Yeah it’s me,” Sunset answers. “Where are you guys? I’m already here at Sugarcube corners.” She then heard a familiar voice shouting in the background.

“Come on, move it will ya!”

“Rainbow Dash?” Sunset asks. She then heard a few more shouts and some other words coming from another person. “Twilight, where are you guys right now?”

“Sorry Sunset, we’re a little held up in traffic right now I’m sure we’ll…Hey!”

“Sunset is that you?”

“AppleJack?”

“Yea, sorry sugarcube we might be a little late...Dang flabbit! Rainbow, would you please stop yelling?” Sunset pulls her ear away from her phone as her apple farming friend starts to yell. “Sunset, are you still there?”

“Yeah.” Sunset says put her phone on her other ear.

“Okay, well ah think we’ll be there in about thirty minutes this traffic jam here is thicker than we thought.” A few more muffled voices came when Sunset heard Twilight’s voice through the phone.

“Try giving Pinkie a call she should be with Rarity and Fluttershy.” A loud honk was heard. “Sorry Sunset, but I need to stop Applejack from taking the steering wheel away from Rainbow, see you soon.”

The call ends leaving Sunset once again alone.

“Sunset Shimmer?”

Standing next to the bench she was sitting on was Flash Sentry, he held his guitar case to his side.

“Hey Flash,” Sunset greets. “Heading somewhere?”

“Yeah, I was planning on meeting the band for practice,” he notices that Sunset was sitting all by herself. “What are you doing here alone? Where’s the rest of your friends?”

“Well, Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash are on their way here; they're a little stuck in traffic at the moment.” She brings up her phone waggling it next to her. “I was about to call Pinkie and the rest of the girls.”

Flash nods his head, the two of them stay silent not really knowing what to say at the moment.

“So...how’ve you been?” he finally asks to break the silence.

“Oh, um...I’ve been good,” Sunset gives him a small smile. “How have you been?”

“Same,” Flash lets out a small laugh. “My dad is making me work at his restaurant this summer.”

“Are you going to be a busser again?” Sunset asks.

“Luckily no, I’ll be working as a server this time,” He gave her a small smile. “You know I still remember all the jokes you made back when we dated.”

A light laugh escapes Sunset lips.

“Yeah I remember,” though she felt a little guilty since back then half of the ‘jokes’ weren’t really jokes. “What was the title I gave you again?” She thought for a minute.

“There’s no one like Sentry to clean your plates,” Flash says as he waves his hand in the air to emphasize his words. “He’ll get your dishes clean in a flash.” There was a short pause between them until they broke into a fit of laughter.

Sunset looks up at Flash who was still laughing at the memory. It’s been awhile since the two of them laughed together like this. She probably couldn’t even remember the last time they had a normal conversation. Even after she redeemed herself they were still on just ‘hey’ and simple compliments.

In all honesty, she’s quite happy that they were up to this point now. Even when they were dating it wasn’t any better, she was probably the worst person he could’ve ever been in a relationship with. Being who she was before it was safe to say that anything they did or in their case anything that Flash did was looked down upon by her. She can remember all the times he tried to be in her favor, always trying to make her happy. Sadly, Sunset's response to almost everything he’s ever done was usually the same. It wasn’t until the day he decided to break up with her that she gave him a new response.

Her being angry was probably an understatement. It wasn’t that she was heartbroken because he was breaking up with her, oh no, it was that she thought it was unbelievable. Flash Sentry, breaking up with The Sunset Shimmer, the girl who ruled the school with an iron, the girl who could probably get anything she wanted with a flick of a finger.

After the two had argued, he finally told her that he couldn’t do it anymore. He went on how being in a relationship needs both parties to cooperate and that if nothing was going to change then it would be better for them to see different people.

So it happened, just like that they were over, Flash seemed quite down even after a few days of the breakup while Sunset didn’t feel all too different.

A phone rang from Flash’s pocket, forcing him to calm himself down, he clears his throat and picks up the call.

“Sup this is Flash,” he answers. Sunset couldn’t really hear who it was on the other end of the phone, but she could hear someone yelling. “Dude, chill I’m on my, it’s only like…” Flash looks at Sunset and points at his wrist. She pulls out her phone and shows him the time. “It’s only....AW CRAP! Sorry dude I’m heading over now...alright alright I’ll see you when I get there.” Hanging up his phone, Flash gave Sunset a sheepish smile. “Sorry to cut our conversation short, but it looks like I lost track of time.”

“It’s alright,” she says waving at him. “Sorry for holding you up.”

Just as Flash was about to leave, he does a double take and looks back at Sunset.

“Hey if you don’t mind, let's do this again,” he sounds a little nervous. “We can hang out like we used to just relaxing and having small talk.”

Sunset was a little taken back by his request. A slight blush rose on her cheeks though quickly she brushes it off to smile back at him.

“Not really sure relaxing and small talk are the right wording.” She says. “But sure, you're free tomorrow?”

She notices his shoulders relaxing from her answer.

“Yeah, tomorrow is good for me.” Looking at his own phone again Flash’s eyes grow wide. “Well I gotta go, I’ll see you tomorrow then.” He waves her goodbye as he walks away.

Sunset waves back as a small smile rests on her face. She couldn’t help but feel a little excited for tomorrow, her giddiness would have to be cut short when she notices a puffy pinky haired teen bouncing her way towards her.

“SUNSET SHIMMER!” yelled Pinkie Pie. Behind her were both Rarity and Fluttershy who were also waving at her though not as loud and exuberant as their friend.

Sunset rose from her seat and walked over to her friends.

“Hey girls, it’s good to see you all.” Sunset says as she hugs each of them.

“Sorry for making you wait darling, we got caught up at Fluttershy’s animal shelter when someone decided to let all of the parrot’s loose.” Rarity frowns at Pinkie Pie who only shrugs her shoulders.

“What? They said they needed to spread their wings.” She said, flapping her arms in the air like a bird. It was no surprise that she was able to stay afloat for a few minutes.

“One of those flying vandals landed on my shoulder and…”

“And pooped on your shoulder!” Pinkie finishes letting out a loud laugh.

This only made Rarity glare at her party craze friend. As the two went on about the whole incident back at the shelter, Fluttershy and Sunset were off at the side talking amongst themselves.

“I hope we didn’t make you wait too long.”

“It’s okay, it wasn’t so bad and besides I think Twilight, Applejack and Rainbow should be here any minute now.” The three of them agreed to wait inside for the rest of their friends. Once they got their drinks and snacks, the four girls sat at a table next to the window saving three seats for their soon to arrive friends.

“And then he was all like wachoo and then he was like wachaa,” Pinkie Swung her arms in a downward chop onto the table with enough force to shake it. “And that’s how Gummy helped me find my phone.”

The three other girls stare at their pink hair party expert with confusion.

“Wait, how does a baby alligator karate chop a boat in half?” Sunset asks.

The three girls look at Pinkie only to shake their heads as they know not to question any of her strange stories. As Pinkie went on with her story, Sunset saw the rest of her friends walking into view through the window. Rarity goes to receive three more chairs while Pinkie runs up to the window and plants her face onto the glass.

The three girls outside of Sugarcube corners stop in their tracks as they notice Pinkie smiling back at them, her face being smudged on the window. Her breath fogging up the glass, Rainbow gives her a look and then stares back at Applejack and Twilight. Shrugging their shoulders they make their way inside.

Sunset waves them over just as Rarity places down their chairs.

Rainbow lands on her chair causing it to slide back a little.

“Man you won’t believe the traffic we were in.” She groans as she slumps back into her chair.

“You won’t believe what caused it too,” Applejack adds. “Some idiot left a boat in the middle of the road and the weird thing is that it was broken in half.” She lets out a small laugh, but was cut short when she saw some of her friends staring at Pinkie Pie. Applejack gives her a stoic look and then turns to Sunset. “It has something to do with Pinkie doesn’t it?”

“Well it would make sense if you heard the whole story.” Pinkie says she was about to retell her previous story only to be stopped by Applejack.

“Nope.” Applejack interrupted.

“But it’s going to explain why…”

“Nn’ope,” Applejack got up from her chair. “Don’t need to hear, ah just wanna get my drink and enjoy my time with you girls, no crazy stories, nn’ope.”

“Hey AJ, can you spot me a drink too?” Rainbow asks as she pulls out her pockets inside out. “I’m kind of broke this week.”

Applejack gives her a look.

“Yah still owe me money.”

“Then you can put it on my tab.” Rainbow says nonchalantly. Applejack just walks over to the cashier saying a few words under her breath.

Sunset turns to Twilight who was busy tapping away at her phone a small blush showing on her face. It was quite obvious who she was talking to judging by the way she was smiling and staring at the screen of her phone with dreamy eyes. It was at this time, Sunset’s feelings from last night came back to her as she stared at Twilight.

“Sunset are you okay?” Twilight asks as she stares at her with a raised brow.

Doing a double take, Sunset pulls herself out of her thoughts and stares back at Twilight. She quickly pushes her feelings off to the side as she waves her hands in front of her.

“Yeah I’m fine,” Sunset says with a forced smile. “I was just thinking about stuff.”

Their attention was drawn by the sound of Applejack returning with her and Rainbows drinks.

The seven friends sat, drank and talked about their plans for the summer and other various activities. After spending the day together the girls went on their separate ways home.

Saying her goodbyes, Sunset was on her way home, but not before stopping by a convenient store to pick up some microwaveable dinners. When she finally made it back home she made herself comfortable. With her dinner in the microwave and already in her pajamas Sunset sat down on her couch and switched on the TV.

“Well Sunset, looks like another night on your own.” she says letting out a small sigh. A ding came from the microwave signaling her that dinner is ready. With her dinner in hand, Sunset sits back down on her couch. As unappetizing as the meal looks she stabs at it picking a piece of what seems like boiled carrots. As she ate her meal the sound of her phone’s notifications ringtone went off. Picking up her phone she taps the screen to see who was messaging her at this hour. Her eyes grow wide as she stares at the name above the message box.

Author's Notes:

Welp folks here's the next chapter! I hope you enjoy it and also thanks to everyone who actually favorite and follow this story I appreciate you taking an interest to it.

Chapter 3

Author's Notes:

Sorry this chapter took so long school has been crazy!?!?! Thankfully with summer break around the corner I can put some more time into the story. I hope you all like and enjoy the chapter!

Sunset stood outside of Sugarcube Corners with hands in her pocket. Being that today was a rather hot day she wore a simple t-shirt and shorts. She was sitting at the same bench she was on yesterday waiting patiently. She pulls out her phone to read the text chat she had last night. It’s been awhile since she got any sort of message from Flash Sentry.

She’s quite surprised that they were up so late at night texting each other. To be completely honest though, it was just a conversation over what they are going to be doing today.

First, they go to Donut Joe’s place to get a snack. Then they’re going to the Rec Center, apparently something is going on there.

It’s just going to be him and her...just the two of them. Alone...with no one else with them.

Sunset quickly shook her head to get rid of any unwanted thoughts. They’re just two friends grabbing lunch and nothing else to it. Besides, it's not uncommon for people to do it...right?

“Sunset.” Calls out someone to her right.

Flash was making his way towards her with one hand waving at her and another in his pockets. He wasn’t wearing his typical black jacket, instead he was wearing brown khaki shorts with a blue t-shirt with the symbol of his band on its center.

Sunset waves at him as she stands up from her seat and walks over to meet him halfway.

“Hey sorry for taking too long, my dad and I were discussing my work schedule.” Flash says.

“It’s alright, I wasn’t waiting that long anyway,” Sunset says. “So, I got your message last night.” She pulls out her phone and rereads the message. “Lunch at Donut Joe’s then to the recreational center?” Sunset asks.

“Yeah that sounds about right,” Flash says. “Oh…unless you had something else in mind?” He gives her a nervous look as if worried that he might’ve done something wrong. Thankfully Sunset wasn’t looking at him now and only shrugged her shoulders.

“No, I think going to the rec-center will be fun.” She says to Flash’s relief. His expression lightens up just before she looks back at him.

Letting out a mental sigh of relief, Flash leads Sunset to their first destination of the day. Donut Joe’s, the town's number one donut house owned by none other than Donut Joe.

Sunset and Flash were standing in front of the case that contained all the donuts. There were ones with chocolate frosting, chocolate frosting with rainbow sprinkles, there were even ones that were swirled and covered in glaze topped with vanilla frosting and brown chocolate sprinkles. Both teens' mouths watered just by looking at the goods.

A tall man wearing an apron walks out from the kitchen carrying a tray of freshly fried and glazed donuts.

“Hey there,” he says, placing down the tray and walking over behind the counter. “What can I get you two?”

The two teens look down at the display windows eyeing every donut that there was.

“I’ll have a jelly filled glazed donut.” Sunset tells Joe.

“And I’ll have the vanilla long john.” Flash says after.

Nodding his head, Donut Joe pulls out a tong and picks out the named donuts and places them on a tray.

“Drinks?” He asks.

“Coffee?” Flash asks, turning his head to Sunset. “Can we have two coffees one black and one with two sugars and one cream.” He turns to her. “That's still your regular right?”

A little surprised, Sunset nods her head.

Donut Joe walks over to the coffee maker to prepare their ordered drinks.

Sunset pulls it from her wallet to pay for her order, but was stopped by Flash. She gives him a confused look.

“Don’t worry I got this.” He says. Though before he could do anything Sunset walks past him with her wallet in hand and waits for Joe.

“I don’t think so,” she says. “I’ll take this one.”

Flash gently pulls her aside and waits with his wallet in hand.

“Come on, I insist.”

The two teens went back and forth debating who would pay for their food. Neither of them notice Donut Joe watching them bicker holding their drinks and donuts on a tray. He didn’t really care who paid as long as someone was going to pay, money is money.

“Fine,” Flash says. “We’ll settle this like we used to.”

Sunset gives him a confused look as he shoves a hand in his pocket and pulls out a rather old coin. At first the coin just seems like an ordinary old dirty coin, but she gives it a closer look. She gets a better view of the coin when Flash pulls it in front of her.

“Wait, that looks like a…bit?”

“It’s the coin you gave me for our first anniversary.” Flash says. In his hand was a golden coin with the letters F etched on one side and an S on the other. The coin was useless in this world, but back in Equestria the coin was probably equivalent to one human dollar.

“You still have that?” Sunset asks, sounding a little surprised.

“Well yeah it's the first actual gift you got me back when we…you know…dated.” Flash says. “Kept it all this time.”

“Would’ve thought you'd thrown it away by now.” Sunset half joked.

“Why would I?” Flash asks, sounding a little shocked by her question.

Sunset was caught off guard by his response.

“Well it’s just that you know, we broke up,” Sunset starts. “And well our relationship wasn’t all that great…you know?”

Flash shrugs his shoulders and looks back down at the coin.

“Well it has sentimental value.” Flash says placing the coin above his thumb. “Same rules F I win, S you win.”

Pushing any awkward thoughts from her head, Sunset nods her head.

With a quick flip of the bit, both teens stare at the golden coin as it flips in the air and falls back down in his hand.

Slowly, Flash opens his hand revealing the letter F.

“Guess I win this time.” Flash says, turning towards Joe with his wallet in hand.

Sunset watches as he pays for their food and drinks. She couldn’t believe that all these years he kept the bit she gave him. It baffles her that even though their past relationship was…terrible because of obvious reasons, he still kept and remembers all the little things.

“Alright where do you want to sit?” Flash asks, pulling Sunset out of her thoughts.

“Oh, um yeah that's good.” She answers him completely unaware of his question.

Flash gives her a confused look.

“Uh, alright I guess we can just sit here.” Flash walks over to a table near the window.

Taking their seats, Flash hands her cup to which she gladly took. The two began to talk about some of the stuff that happened in their latest school year.

“Man, you still got those sweet moves when you’re on a bike.”

“Yeah, I guess so, but the school bikes for friendship games kind of suck,” Sunset replies. “Now if I was able to use my baby back at home I’m pretty sure I would’ve wrecked the race.” She smiles back at Flash as he did her. She was nearly done with her drink and her donut was long gone.

This was a good sign for them to leave and move on to their next activity. Giving a quick thanks to Joe, both teens headed towards the recreational center.

The walk wasn’t long seeing that it was only a block away. Sunset turns to Flash with a confused look, the recreational center was fun and all, but there wasn’t much to do other than the playground and basketball court around the back of the building. She then notices that he has a confused look on his face as well. He pulls out a small brochure and looks up at the building.

“Something wrong?” Sunset asks.

Flash takes a few double takes from the pamphlet and to the building.

Sunset looks over his shoulder to see that he was looking at a brochure for a carnival that was supposed to be at the recreational center…in a month. She covers her mouth with her hands as she tries to suppress a laugh as she stares at the date on the corner of the page.

Flash’s face begins to redden with embarrassment as he shoves the brochure into his jacket.

“Well that plan is a bust.” Flash says in defeat.

“Well seeing that we don’t have any gym wear,” Sunset starts. “There's still a playground.” She gives him a small smile.

Flash raises a brow, but before he could say anything Sunset grabs his hand and pulls him towards the playground.

“Sunset, come on, what are we supposed to do here?”

Without saying a word, Sunset walks over to the swing set and sits down on one of the two swings. She pats on the seat of the second swing silently telling him to sit down.

Flash walks over and sits down next to her causing the swing to move back from his fall on the seat. He turns to Sunset and is surprised to see her beginning to swing using her legs to give a nice push backwards. He watches as she begins to build up and swing back and forth at a decent speed. Her orange yellow hair began to sway each time she would swing forward and it would reveal her smiling. He didn’t notice that he was staring at her the whole time until she came to a halt with her feet skidding on the wood chip ground to stop herself.

“Hey, want to have a contest?” She asks.

Flash quickly shakes his head and nods his head.

“Alright, whoever jumps the farthest wins.”

“And what does the winner get?” He asks.

“Bragging rights.” She begins to swing with Flash following not long after.

It doesn’t take long for the two of them to be swinging as high as the swings would allow. Flash was the first to jump and with a loud thump landed on the ground. He turns around to see Sunset still swinging back and forth on her swing.

“Anytime now Sunset?” He teases with a smug look.

In return Sunset grins and flies out of her seat over his head and past the boundary of the wood chip ground and onto the grass. Landing on her feet, Sunset turns around to see Flash staring at her with wide eyes. Seeing as that she won their little contest she steps forward to bow, but instead feels a random pain on her left leg. She felt herself falling onto the grass as her leg couldn’t support her body because of the pain.

Flash quickly rushes over to her and picks her up making sure to keep her from putting any weight on her leg.

“That was amazing, but ouch.” Flash says.

“Hey, no pain no gain.” Sunset responds with a small laugh. “Though I am the winner, suck it loser.”

Flash lets out a small laugh and helps her walk over to a nearby bench. Neither of them says anything as they watch the sky change in color. The sunset was bright orange now as the day would be over in an hour or two.

“I think we had enough excitement for one day.” Flash says.

“Alright then,” Sunset tries to get up from the bench, but her wounded leg says otherwise.

Seeing this, Flash stands up and moves in front of her and crouches before.

Sunset gives him a confused look at his actions until she realizes why.

“Flash no, come on.” Sunset says.

“Hey, with your leg hurting like that it’s going to suck heading back to your place.” He says turning his head over his shoulder and gives her a reassuring smile.

Red to the face, Sunset didn’t want to walk on a messed-up leg, but at the same time she doesn’t want to be piggybacked all the way to her apartment. After a few minutes of thinking, she lets out a sigh and scooches over and slowly gets on Flash’s back.

In one sweep motion Flash got up on his feet with Sunset holding onto him with her arms wrapped around his neck and her legs were held up by his arms.

“Alright, let’s get going.” Flash began to make his way all the way back to Sunset’s apartment.

Sunset kept quiet as her face was slowly growing red. Her head was running with thoughts of what they look like to anyone who sees them. Thankfully most people were back home, but still Sunset still had the thoughts running through her head. At the same time, Sunset felt a warm fuzzy feeling in her from being this close to Flash. Even back when they were a “couple” they never really were this “touchy touchy” usually it was just holding hands and a quick kiss on the cheek, but that was all for show. This was different, there was no ulterior motive behind her being this close to him. Without thinking she gently tightens her hold around him and rests her head on one of his shoulders.

It was about half an hour before they finally arrived at Sunset’s apartment. He brought to her front door and carefully put her on the ground making sure to let her right leg drop first.

Pulling out her keys from her pocket, Sunset looks up at Flash who was looking back at her.

“Today was fun…other than me hurting my leg everything else was great.” Sunset says.

Flash let out a small laugh and scratched his head.

“Well that’s good,” he says. “I was a little worried that today was going to a snore fest.”

Sunset shakes her head and smiles.

Both stand there, neither of them saying a word. They both have an awkward look on their face, but unbeknownst to both teens they were thinking the same thing.

“So want to do this again?” They ask at the same time. Their eyes went wide as they realized what they just did.

“How about we get dinner next time?” Sunset says.

“Yeah…that sounds nice,” Flash answers. “Next week?”

“How about this weekend? I start working next week.”

Flash nods his head, he gives Sunset a quick goodbye and heads off home.

Unlocking her door, Sunset limps over to her couch and with a small thump falls back. Her face was red as her hair and using her hand she covered her face.

Chapter 4

The sound of an alarm clock erupts in Sunset’s room, her hands waves around above her searching the accursed contraption. Her hand finally finds her clock relieving her of the early morning torment. Bringing it over her head, she pops one eye open and looks to see the time.

11:30am

Sunset lets out a groan as she places her clock on the nightstand and sits herself up. Letting out a yawn, she scratches her stomach while stretching her other arm.

With no other choice, she pushes herself out of bed and makes her way towards the bathroom. Finishing her morning routine, Sunset sat in her living room with a bowl of cereal in her hand and the TV switched on.

“Hmm looks like it’ll be pretty hot today.” Sunset says with a bored expression. She finishes her cereal and walks over to the kitchen sink dropping it off and filling the empty bowl with water.

Cracking her back, Sunset walks back into her bedroom and begins to dress into something more suitable for the weather.

Walking back out into the living, she holds a black coat hanger cover over her shoulder. Moving over to her dining room table she picks up her keys and walks out of the door. She grabs her helmet on the way out and stops at the entrance. Sunset was going through a checklist in her head making sure she had everything that she needed for the day. Nodding her head, she walks out of her apartment locking the door.

The warm summer breeze blows into her face, she sucks in a deep breath of air and walks over to her parked bike. Folding the cover in half, Sunset puts in the side compartment of her bike. The former equine gets on her bike and starts its engine.

The ride to town didn’t take that long, many of the stores were beginning to open and people were getting ready for their early morning jobs.

Sunset arrives at a café in town that was known for its breakfast menu, The SunnySide, better known for its egg related dishes.

She spots a blue haired teen standing next to the entrance of the café with one hand in his pocket and the other covering his mouth as he yawns. He wore his typical jacket and lightning bolt t-shirt, his expression grew as he spotted Sunset arriving on her bike, its engine roaring as it got closer to him.

Flash Sentry, waves a hand to her as he walks over to where she’s parking her bike.

It’s been two weeks since their little get together and so far on every other day they would meet up for breakfast or lunch. This was their way of starting over, it was a chance for the two friends to get to know each other and forget about their interactions in their past, mostly Sunset. Usually they’d just talk about what goes on and occasionally talk about their friends.

“Morning Sunset,” Flash greets with another yawn. “I already got us a seat inside.”

“Nice, I could go for some coffee right now.” She says.

The two teens walk into the café and get into their seats.

To Sunset’s surprise, there were already a good handful of people in the café talking or eating their morning meals.

Taking their seats, Flash orders the two of them coffee and some breakfast muffins. He makes himself comfortable in his chair and looks up at Sunset.

She had her phone in front of her face using it as a mirror as she was doing her hair.

“Never took you for the type to worry about your hair?” Flash says.

“Ugh, I don’t, but this new job of mind requires me to do my hair in a certain way.” Sunset responds with a small frown growing on her face as her hair becomes difficult. Letting out a grunt, Sunset unlocks her phone and taps on the screen to find an image of the hair style she needs.

Flash leans forward to see what she was looking at, to his surprise, Sunset’s phone showed images of foreign girls with their hairs made into a bun with two thin sticks.

“Is that some new trendy style?” He asks.

“No, but it is a mandatory hairstyle at the place I’m working at.” Sunset answers him putting her phone down, using both of her hands, she goes at her hair with both hands in hopes to do the style.

Flash watches in confusion as he watches the bacon haired girl do her hair with her eyes staring at her phone screen.

“How is it that you girls can do your hair without even looking at it like that?” He asks.

“It takes skills and mental strength.” Sunset says with a strained voice as she uses one hand to hold the Semi-bun hair and with her other pulls out a pair of black chopsticks from her pocket and pins them in her bun. Dear sweet Celestia, she has no idea what she’s doing, she picks up her phone again and turns her head to see the back of her head through the reflection of the screen.

A few strands of hair were sticking out at certain points and the chopsticks were tilted in different angles, Sunset lets out a sigh in defeat and just leaves her hair as it is. This was honestly the best she could do, hopefully her boss won’t be that bothered by it.

“Don’t look so down,” Flash says. “I think it looks…all right?” He says, tilting his head slightly.

“Shut up.” Sunset responds though she sounded more defeated than angry.

Letting out a small laugh, Flash pulls out a small jar of what seems like hair wax. Using his finger, he lifts a small glob and rubs it in his hands, once the substance was nicely spread out through his hands he pulls his hair back causing his original spikey do to be pushed down and pulled back to the back of his head.

“At least you don’t have to look like this when you go to work.” He says making Sunset look up to face only to have her trying to hold back a laugh.

“Oh my sweet Celestia, I completely forgot you had to do your hair like that when you work at your dad’s place.” Sunset says as she finally lets her laughs escape her mouth.

“Yeah yeah, laugh it all up,” Flash says he then gives her a smirk. “At least I don’t have a dead jellyfish that’s been stabbed on the back of my head.”

Sunset immediately stopped laughing and smirks back, lightly clapping her hands.

“Touché, well played Mr. Sentry.” She says with a snooty voice making her voice deep.

“I learned from the best madam Shimmer.” He says with a slight bow of his head.

The two held their posture for a bit before they both began to laugh.

Some of the other patrons of the café stare at the two teens who were making a ruckus so early in the morning, but they quickly went back to whatever they were doing ignoring the two.

As they both started to calm down, a server came and placed their order on their table. It only took them a few minutes to finish the muffins, leaving only empty crumbs and the cups of coffee in their hand. As time went by, both teens began to realize that they had to leave for work.

Leaving the café, Flash walks Sunset to her bike, walking behind her he sees that the bun on her head is bobbing up and down as she walks.

Getting on her bike, Sunset looks up at Flash who is standing next to her.

“I’ll see you later then?” She asks.

“Yeah, let’s meet up at donut Joe’s again tomorrow.”

“Sounds good,” Sunset says, starting her engine. “All right, see you tomorrow then.”

Flash nods his head as he watches the fiery hair girl ride off in her bike a loud roar erupts as her bike drives away him. Putting his hands in his pockets, he began his walk to work. He notices a pair of girls snickering at him, at first he wasn’t sure why, but a quick look at a reflection from a window answers his question, a frown forming on his face.

“Stupid hair.”

Sunset arrives at her new job twenty minutes after she left Flash. Its exterior design was simple and on its window were some foreign letters and symbols. The words “grand opening” were painted on a large white flag that hung on the door. She pulls out her hanger cover from her bike's side pouch and walks into the building.

A small bell jingles as she opens the door and walks in. The inside of the building was small, with a few tables arranged around the room and a bar sat at the right. Pictures of fish littered the walls and a few paper lanterns hung on the ceiling.

“Welcome!” Says a man who walks out of the kitchen connected to the bar. His accent was heavy and rough.

He was a man in his mid-forties, he wore a red and blue sushi cloth, he wore a black headband with some foreign words written on it. A large smile was on his face as he greets the former pony girl.

“It is so nice to meet you, Sunset Shiner.”

“Hi, it’s actually Shimmer.” Sunset corrects him politely.

“Ah, I sorry, I hope you ready for your first day?” He asks in a bit of broken english.

Sunset nods her head and shows him her hanger cover.

“Oh, let me see your uniform.”

Listening to his words, Sunset unzips the cover to reveal a blue white sushi cloth with a white shirt and shorts hung inside.

He looks from top to bottom and nods his head.

“Very nice, I see you ironed it too, good, you keep uniform clean is always good sign of worker.” He says as he nods head.

“Thank you, sir.” Sunset looks back at him with a smile.

“No sir,” He says, waving his hands. “You can call me, Silver Fin.”

She nods her head again as she takes back the uniform and zips the cover back up.

“Okay you change in back,” he says pointing at a room in the back. “I wait for you next to cash register and teach you, okay?”

“Sure, no problem.” Sunset walks past him and heads over to the room he spoke of. It didn’t take her long to change into her uniform, luckily there was a mirror in the room and she checked her look. She wasn’t going to lie, but she kind of liked the look.

She walks out of the room to see Silver Fin standing next to the cash register waiting for her. Walking over to him, he began to teach her how to use the machine and others. It was a little difficult to understand him at times, but she got the basic understanding of what he was saying.

She did a double check on all the equipment and where everything was making sure she knew where all the spares were.

Silver Fin then takes her to the kitchen which was next to the bar. Inside she saw various cuts of fish sitting on the cutting boards and other ingredients.

“You like sushi?” he asks.

“Uh I don’t think I’ve ever had it.” Sunset answers.

Nodding his head, Silver Fin walks over to the spot behind what Sunset learned was the sushi bar and began to cut up fish. His hands felt the fish before he brought a long sharp knife and began to slice the meat. He places three thin slices of red fish meat on the cutting board and reaches behind him and sticks his hand in a round container and pulls something that was clenched around his hand. He was now using both hands to morph whatever it was in his hand and place the slices of fish meat over it. Grabbing a plate from the shelf behind him, he places the piece onto it and repeats the process with the other two pieces of meat.

He brings the plate up to her and offers her the three pieces.

At first Sunset was a little nervous to try raw fish. Even before this when she first came to the human world it took years for her to try meat. She shrugs her shoulders and picks up a piece eating it whole. It takes her a few bites before her eyes grow wide and swallows the content in her mouth.

“Wow, this is pretty good.” She says taking another piece and putting it in her mouth.

“Good, I come to Canterlot to let people experience sushi,” Silver Fin says. “It is very popular in big city, so I open first one here.”

Silver Fin starts to give a small history of career and some about sushi. As they talk some of the other workers start to arrive most of them were the kitchen crew and one was a busser. Sunset greets them all and in return they her.

Sunset was in the back where the register was waiting for the first customer to arrive, but so far it was quiet. Sunset looks at her phone seeing that there was nothing else to do.

She taps on the app Flash Chat, it is a social media app that allows people to capture videos and pictures. Looking through her screen she sees images of her friends and what they were doing. Half of them were at their respective jobs while the other half were taking photos, some objects and occasionally food.

A small jingle catches her attention signaling her that a customer had arrived.

She grabs a few menus and looks at the small mirror next to the register making sure she looks presentable, she lets out a satisfied grunt and walks to the front.

“Hello, welcome to The Fly Tune!” She greets with a big smile.

Author's Notes:

Hiya folks hope you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 5

“Sayonara, See you tomorrow Sunset.” Silver Fin shouts waving goodbye to Sunset Shimmer.

Sunset waves back before she walks over to her parked motorcycle. She lets out a big sigh as she looks at the envelope in her hand. Sunset was caught a little off guard when she saw the amount of money in it.

“That’s…that’s a lot of tips.” Sunset says. Reaching her bike, Sunset stuffs the envelope in her purse and picks up her helmet. She pulls out her phone to see that it was almost eleven and that she has two messages.

One is from Twilight, Sunset looks down at her screen to see what her friend has sent her.

Hey Sunset, have you started on your reading and paper for AP Literature?

Sunset shakes her head as she reads the message.

It has literally only been a month since summer break started. If Sunset didn’t know any better, Twilight was probably already done with all her summer papers and projects.

Sunset laughs as she taps at her phone to respond to her studious friend. After responding to her, Sunset looks at the second message which was from Flash. She taps on her phone and opens the message.

Hey, I wanted to let you know that my dad’s having a special event tomorrow at the restaurant, if your friends want to come by and get some food it’ll be on me.

Hmm, the idea of getting free food sounds really nice right now. Speaking of food, Sunset got on her bike and drove off to the nearest late night convenience store.

Upon arriving, Sunset parks her bike next to its door and walks inside. The door let out a small beep as she entered the brightly lit store.

A man sat behind the counter with sleepy eyes as he read a magazine.

Sunset makes her way towards the microwave instant meal section of the store. Looks like she has two options for tonight, either frozen chicken tenders or frozen hamburgers. She let out a sigh as she was very disappointed with her options.

“Sunset?”

Turning around, Sunset was greeted by Flash who wore a white dress shirt and black dress pants, his tie was tucked in his pocket, a strand of it popping out. His hair was still in the same condition when they left this morning.

“Oh, hey Flash,” Sunset waves at him.

Flash looks at Sunset from top to bottom and raises an eyebrow.

“You know, Halloween isn’t for another few months.” He says with a smile.

Looking down, Sunset realizes that she was still in her work uniform. She completely forgot to change out of her uniform back at work. Letting out a sigh, Sunset just shrugged her shoulders and turned back to pick which meal she wanted.

Flash walks up next to her and stares at the instant meals with her. Judging from what he can see on her face she didn’t like her options. He then heard a loud growl come from her stomach causing her to grab onto it. Shaking his head, Flash grabs Sunset’s arm and pulls her out of the store.

“Hey! Flash what the heck?” Sunset questions as she is pulled by the blue haired rocker. He brings her over to his car which was parked across the street.

Once the two were next to Flash’s car, the teen boy pulls out his keys and clicks a button unlocking its doors. Opening the door, Flash leans forward into the open car door. The sound of plastic bags came from inside and followed when Flash popped back out of the car with a large plastic bag in his hand. He places the bag on top of his car and pulls out two large to-go boxes, one small one, and a cylinder shaped to-go cup. He opens the boxes to inspect the content inside this causes Sunset to intake the smell of freshly cooked food.

“Wow…that smells amazing.” Was all Sunset said, her stomach groaning again this one louder than the last.

When Flash finished looking in all the to-go bins, he nodded his head, repackaged them and put them back in the plastic bag.

“Hear this should be enough for two nights.” Flash says handing Sunset the large plastic bag.

This caught Sunset off guard as she stared at the bag full of cooked food and the rocker. She shakes her head and waves her hand as she pushes the bag towards him.

“No, Flash I couldn’t, but thanks anyway.” She says with a smile, but her stomach betrays her as it roars.

“Sunset come on,” Flash pushes the bag right back at her. “I know you don’t like asking for favors like this, but come on I know you don’t enjoy eating those microwave dinners every night.”

Sunset stares at him once more, but slowly she reaches out for the bag and grabs it out his hand. She gave him a nervous look, but not before she pulled out her wallet.

“At least let me pay for it.” She opens her wallet to pull out a few bills.

Flash quickly closes her wallet and shakes his head.

“It’s my treat.”

Sunset lets out a sigh in defeat and puts away her wallet and brings the bag to her side.

“Thanks.”

Before Flash could say anything, his phone began to ring. Reaching into his pocket he pulls out his cellphone and answers.

Sunset notices his face beginning to frown as he listens to whoever it was on the other side.

After a few minutes, Flash hangs up the phone and opens the driver’s seat door.

“Sorry, my dad wants me to head back to the restaurant, he needs me to check the inventory for tomorrow.” Flash waves her goodbye as he gets in his car and drives off.

Sunset watches his car leave and disappear in the distance with the bags of to-go in her hands.

It doesn’t take her long to get back to her apartment. Parking her bike, Sunset walks up the stairs to her door. Walking over to her living room table, Sunset places down the bag Flash gave her and walks over to her room. After a quick shower and a fresh change of clothes, Sunset moves back to the living room and begins to open the to-go boxes.

“Oh…wow.” Is all what Sunset said as she opens each of the boxes.

There were four containers in total, the first box had a steamed lobster with mashed potatoes and asparagus on the side. The next box had grilled salmon with broccoli and two small baked potatoes. The smaller box was nothing but salad and the cylinder container had soup and from the looks of it was clam chowder.

The smell filled the room causing Sunset’s stomach to growl as it couldn’t wait to eat the feast in front of it. She decided that she would eat the lobster and half of the salad and veggies tonight and save the rest for other nights. The food was still relatively warm so Sunset just began to eat it as it is.

Taking the first bite of lobster, Sunset let out a small moan, finally, she was eating good food. The tail was already cut open so she just stuck her fork in there and ripped off another piece of meat. She would scoop up some mash potatoes and then asparagus. Without even realizing, she already finished more than half of the meal before her.

Sunset lets out a sigh as she leans back on her couch with food still in her mouth. She closes her eyes as she smiles as the food in her belly satisfies her hunger.

Come on Sunset, just try a little bit I promise that it’s good.

Sunset sat up from the couch swallowing the food in her mouth. What did she just hear? She looks around to see if there was anything or anyone around her.

“Maybe…” Sunset closes her eyes one more and lets out a breath.

Hey, I thought you said only one bite?

Her eyes pop open once again as she stares at her ceiling.

What was that? It felt so familiar to Sunset, yet she couldn’t figure out what or where it was coming from. It must’ve been something far in her past that she can’t remember that well.

Getting sick and tired of these “voices” Sunset got up from the couch and made her way towards her bedroom. Next to her bed was a small box and inside she kept her geode. With this she can read the minds of others with touch of her hands. She and her friends made their geodes into necklaces, allowing them to wear them and keep them close when needed.

Picking up the geode, Sunset held the small gem in her hand and let out a sigh. She has never done this to herself, usually it was others that she would use her powers on.

She moves back to the couch and sits back down.

“Well I guess there’s only one way to find out if this works or not.” Sunset says, shrugging her shoulders and placing her empty hand on her forehead. A flash of light fills her sight and then images of the past begin to spin like film.

Finally, she stops on a scene where it was her and a certain blue-haired teen sitting in a restaurant. Sunset’s eyes grew wide as she was witnessing a scene from her past…a past before she got her friends and when all she wanted was power. It seems that this was one of the few dates that she and Flash had in the past. Usually, Flash would be the one to ask her for these dates of theirs, she would only say yes to keep their relationship in check along with her status in school.

The scene before her brought back feelings of regret and anger towards herself.

Sunset’s past self was on her phone with a bored expression on her face. Her other hand was tapping on the table showing that she was becoming impatient.

Meanwhile, past Flash was staring at her with a nervous smile. He opens his mouth to say something, but closes it and looks down at his hands. He looks up and stares at the other hand that was tapping on the table. He slowly brings up one of his hands and tries to reach for it. With his hand only an inch away it would seem that he’d be able to make contact, but to both his and future Sunset’s disappointment past Sunset brings her hand in using it to tap at her phone.

Sunset felt a frown growing on her face as she watched her past self completely. The way she carelessly ignores Flash, no doubt that she was planning her next scheme for domination.

The only time that past Sunset would even stare away from her phone was when the waiter came with a tray of food.

The memory fasts forward a bit to where the two were in the middle of their meal.

Her past self-had ordered a salad while Flash had ordered a chicken alfredo pasta. He looks up to past Sunset, another nervous smile on face to see that she was casually eating her meal with her eyes closed. Flash takes a breath and brings up a fork full of pasta with a piece of chicken at the end of the fork.

“Hey you wan-“

“I don’t eat meat, I already told you this before.” Past Sunset interrupts him before he could even finish.

Removing the chicken, Flash brings up the fork again.

“Come on Sunset, just try a little bit I promise that it tastes good.” Flash says a hint of nervousness in voice.

A small smile forms on Sunset’s lips as she watches his kind gesture. She silently curses herself for ignoring something that some people wish they could experience.

“Fine, but only just one bite.” Past Sunset says with a sigh. She looks up to face him with an annoyed expression on her face.

It took Flash a few seconds to realize that she was waiting for him to move towards her. He quickly leans forwards with the fork in hand and brings it up to Sunset’s face.

Past Sunset reluctantly opens her mouth and takes a half a bite of the pasta. This causes Flash to smile and sit back in his seat. As soon as she swallowed the food, she went back to her salad. The smile stays on Flash's face as he goes back to his meal as well. As he was eating his meal, he noticed a fork going into his bowl.

“Hey, I thought you said only one bite?” Flash says with a laugh.

With that the memory ends bringing Sunset back to the future. She drops her arms to her side with the geode falling to the ground. Seeing that memory caused a flood of emotions to fill her as she sat silently on the couch.

She couldn’t believe how one sided the relationship was between her and Flash. She knew that she treated him poorly, but she didn’t think it was so bad that she was forcing him to do anything just so she would talk to him or even look at him. The feeling of anger followed soon after as she began to ridicule herself for acting in such a way.

After the anger, Sunset began to feel something she hasn’t felt in a long time. The image of Flash trying to feed her and how he tries to hold hand got stuck in her head. Her face starts to warm up, she brings her knees to her chest allowing her arms to wrap around them. She buries her face in her knees with the images of Flash still in her head.

Chapter 6

It was the next day, Sunset and some of her friends stood in front of a large restaurant that was named Sentry Diner.

Out of the seven friends only two could make it today with Sunset. Behind her stood Rainbow Dash and Twilight, sadly, everyone else is too busy with either work or family.

The three teens enter the restaurant only to be greeted by a large group of other customers who were waiting to be seated. It seems that the special offer was not ignored by the rest of the town.

“Well give it to the most popular restaurant in town to be backed up on a day like this.” Rainbow says.

“Is it really that good?” Twilight asks.

“Wait, are you telling me you haven't been here?” Rainbow shouts causing other patrons of the restaurant to stare at the girls. Sunset gives them an apologetic look allowing them to go back to their own business.

“Well, I’m usually home…studying, I don’t really have that much time to spend eating out that much.”

Rainbow gave her a smug look.

“Not unless a certain green haired boy asks you to come out and “play” hmmm?” Rainbow teases her. This causes the purple hair teen to blush and turn her attention somewhere else. The rainbow hair teen turns to look at Sunset who still looked as bad as she did earlier. “Sunset you okay?”

“Wha?” Sunset shakes her head as she turns to look at Rainbow Dash who gave her a worried look.

Hearing this, Twilight turns to look at Sunset as well a similar worried expression on her face.

Ever since last night’s memory show, Sunset couldn’t get a good amount of sleep. She woke up with puffy eyes and an aching back since she fell asleep in an awkward position. She didn’t even do any of her morning routine. It wasn’t until her friend came to her apartment later in the afternoon to walk over to the restaurant that she casually cleaned herself enough to look presentable.

“Yeah fine…I’m just tired that’s all.” Sunset waves at her while giving them a cheerful smile.

Both girls gave her a worried look as they stared at her.

Before either of them could say anymore, a familiar looking server came up to them.

“Hey girls.”

“Wow Flash way to rock the *snicker* do.” Rainbow says, trying her best to hold back her laughter. After a minute of trying, the rainbow haired girl couldn’t hold it in any longer. She began to laugh with her hands on her stomach bending over at the sight of the blue hair rocker.

Her laughter makes some of the customers look her way with annoying stares.

Flash rolls his eyes and turns his attention to the other two girls.

Twilight waves a silent hello at him in which he returns with a smile.

Sunset on the other hand keeps her eyes on the ground making sure not to make any eye contact with him.

Flash was going to say something, but was interrupted by Rainbow who finally stops her laughing fit.

“Man, I’m starving. Are you finally going to seat us?” Rainbow Dash asks.

Flash looks at Sunset once more before turning to Rainbow.

“Yeah just follow me I can get you guys a seat,” Flash says, picking up a few menus. “Booth or chairs?”

“Chairs.” Rainbow says without looking at the other two.

Flash turns to twilight and Sunset, Twilight just shrugs and Sunset keeps her eyes on the floor. Turning around Flash guides the three to their seats, he made sure they couldn’t see his worried expression. He sits them down by a table near the window and places down three menus for them.

“Alright, I’ll be back with some water and bread.” Flash walks away to get them some bread and water.

Rainbow leans back on her chair with her arms resting behind it.

“Man, I’m starving!” Rainbow says. “This new endurance workout has been running me dry.”

Twilight pushes her glasses up as she turns to look at her.

“If you’re doing a workout shouldn’t you be on a strict diet?” Twilight asks. All she got was Rainbow just waving her off who just looked down to her menu trying to decide on what to choose. Twilight rolls her eyes and turns to Sunset who has a nervous look, her eyes scanning the room as if scared that something might pop out at her. “Sunset, are you alright?”

Sunset seemed to not have her hear her and kept on watch.

Twilight was going to say something again, but her phone began to ring. Looking down, she sees that it was Timber Spruce and a picture of his smiling face appears on her phone screen.

Rainbow leans forward and see’s the face on the screen. A sly grin forms on her face as she watches Twilight accept the call. Before the young egghead could say hello, cyan hands snatch the phone away from her.

“Hey!” Twilight tries to grab her phone but she is too slow as the sports enthusiast teen sits back on her seat. She reaches over to take back her phone, but seeing the big smirk on Rainbow’s face already tells that she is too late.

Rainbow’s smirk only lasted for a few seconds before she began to laugh causing everyone to turn to her direction once again. She seemed to not care at all as she kept on laughing leaning back enough to almost fall off out of her chair.

“Jeez Twilight, who would’ve thought you were a sweet talker.” Rainbow says, wagging her eyebrows as her eyes continue reading her phone. “Oh! Maybe you’d like it if I called you…”

Before Rainbow could finish her sentence, a scrunched-up napkin hits her face causing her to stop her speech. She blinks her eyes confused on what just made contact on her face.

And with the speed that no one would have ever suspected, Twilight swipes her phone out of her hands. This even got Sunset’s attention, making the redhead stare at her with wide eyes.

Both Sunset and Rainbow stare at her completely shocked by her sudden speed. They turn to stare at each other and then back to her.

“Jeez, if you always move like that you’d make half of Canterlot High’s soccer players look bad.” Rainbow says. “Ay…Twinkles.” A wide grin forms on the rainbow hair teen’s face as she watches her friend’s face turn a bright red.

Flash returns with a small notebook in one hand and a tray with glasses of water and a basket of bread in the other.

“Alright, are you ready to…what’s going here?” Flash asks. Twilight was red as a tomato; Rainbow Dash is trying her best to hold in her laughter and Sunset seems to be taking a note out of Fluttershy’s book and is trying her best to cover her face with her hair. “Um should I come back in a few minutes?”

“Nah, I think we’re ready to order, right girls?” Rainbow says. Twilight shakes her head hoping to shake away her blush, though no response came from Sunset Shimmer. “So, I’ll have the chicken alfredo extra chicken.”

“I’ll have the Lasagna please.” Twilight answers by placing her menu in front of Flash.

He turns to Sunset who seems to be keeping her gaze away from his.

“Lobster lunch combo." Sunset quickly says with her facing the ground.
He felt a little worried, but kept a calm expression on his face and smiled at the girls.

“Alright, I’ll put in the orders if you girls need anything else just ask for me.” Nodding his head, Flash walks away to put in the order.

When the blue-haired teen is out of sight, both Twilight and Rainbow turn to face Sunset who still has a sullen look on her face.

“Okay, what’s up? You’ve been like this since we came to your place today.” Rainbow asks.

“I’m also curious as to why you’re acting like this.” Twilight says. “Did something happen?”

Sunset still didn’t respond to either of the girls. This makes a frown grow on Rainbow’s face.

“Alright that’s it,” Rainbow jumps out of her seat and steps up on the table with one foot on her chair and the other on the table. “Sunset shimmer…what is the problem that is causing you such dismay?” She half shouts with a finger pointing directly at Sunset.

“Wow ‘dismay’ not bad Rainbow.” Twilight says mockingly.

Rainbow Dash turns her head and glares at the purple egg-head, but she quickly turns her attention back to Sunset.

Sunset’s seems to have snapped out of her gloomy expression. She was a little surprised by the rainbow hair teen’s sudden action. She blinks a few times and finally looks up to stare at both of her friends. The bags under her eyes are now in clear view causing both to flinch.

“Jee, maybe you should keep your eyes back on the ground.” Rainbow jokes which got her a well-earned flicked to the forehead. Causing her to fall back down on her chair and rub the red mark on her head.

Twilight glares at her before turning her attention to Sunset, her expression softening.

“You know you can tell us if something is bothering you.” Twilight says as she leans forward to place a hand on her shoulder. “Because seeing you like this worries us.”

Finishing with tending her sore forehead, Rainbow nods her head and smiles at Sunset.

With tired eyes, Sunset looks back at her friends and gives them a smile.

“Thanks, that means a lot to me girls,” Sunset takes a deep breath. “But to be completely honest, there isn’t much I want to say right now, it's just something that I have to solve myself.”

Both girls have a worried look on their face, but nod their heads.

“Alright, we won’t pry for you to tell us something that you don’t want us to know yet.” Twilight says. “But when you are, we'll be here to listen.”

A warm smile grows on Sunset’s face as she feels the comforting aura coming from her friends. With her inner struggle somewhat solved, Sunset is finally able to let herself breathe a little.

The three friends began to have a conversation about some of their upcoming summer plans.

A bit later, Flash walks up to their table with a tray of food.

All three girls can smell the aroma of their dishes as he stands next to their table.

“Alright, here are your entrees.” He places the dishes in front of each of their respective owners. “Enjoy your meals if you need anything else just let me know.”

Having received their meals, the girls spent most of their time eating and talk.

With her plate almost empty, Sunset got up from her seat to find the bathroom. She walks over to the back of the restaurant and if memory serves her right the bathroom should be just.

“Sunset, what are you doing back here?”

Sunset flinches as she hears the person behind her. Slowly turning around, she sees Flash standing in front of her with a tray to his side and a confused look on his face.

“I uh…uh.”

Flash walks up to her causing her to take a step back unintentionally. A worried frown forms on his face making him stop his approach.

“Hey are you alright?” He asks.

Her words were all stuck in her throat as her lips won’t open.

“If there’s something bothering you I’m here to listen.” Flash starts to walk up to her again.

The thoughts and memories from last night came rushing into Sunset’s head. A terrible pain feeling starts to grow in her chest as she stares at him.

“I’m…sorry.” She says under her breath, but Flash could hear what she said.

“What? Sorry for what?”

Panicking, Sunset didn’t know what to do and without even thinking she ran past him and began to sprint out of the restaurant without saying a single word to him.

Flash was too surprised to do anything as he watched her leave the restaurant. Shaking his head, he quickly runs over to the door to see that she was gone.

“WHAT DID YOU DO?” Roared a voice behind him.

Turning around all Flash could see was a furious looking rainbow running up to him.

Sunset ran home not making a single stop to catch her breath. When she finally reaches her apartment, she enters her home out of breath and slumps on the ground.

She couldn’t do it, she couldn’t look at him face to face. The pans from last night are still too fresh in her head. She sits in front of her door for what seems like hours with her hands covering her face.

A knock on the door causes her to jump from her spot. After a few minutes another follows, Sunset slowly walks over to the door to check the peephole to find out who it was knocking on her door. As she saw who it was on the other side of the door Sunset could almost feel the wind knocked out of her.

Flash stood in front of Sunset’s door with a small bag over his right eye and another on his left side.

“Sunset…are you in there?” He asks. “I want to talk.” After a few minutes of no response, Flash lets out a sigh turning around to leave. Just as he takes his first step, he hears the door creak open. He quickly turns around to see Sunset’s face and just like before he eyes were facing away from him. “Hey.” He says nervously.

“Hey.” She returns.

“Can we talk?” He asks.

Sunset takes a bit to think about it, but slowly she disappears behind the door and slowly opens it enough for Flash to walk in.

Author's Notes:

Hey guys here's the next chapter! Hope you enjoy chow!

Chapter 7

The room was silent with exception for the clock above the couch, two teens were sitting a seat away from each.

Flash shifted the bag of ice around his eye making him wince a bit. His sudden noise causes Sunset to look up to see some water trickling down his hand as most of the ice in his bag was just about all melted. Seeing as his fiery haired companion wasn’t going to say anything anytime soon, Flash thought it was a good idea to speak first.

“Man, Rainbow’s got one hell of a right hook.” He says with a half-smile. Unfortunately, he gets no response from Sunset causing him to let out a sigh. Her hands were on her lap as she kept her eyes away from his. “Sunset, will you please look at me?” His tone slightly rises as he begins to get annoyed with her distant attitude.

This causes her to flinch and slide even farther away from him. But before she could even make her distance Flash grabs her arm preventing her from moving.

“That’s it! Sunset I’m really sick and tired of this dumb act.” Flash almost shouts but he did his best to contain his volume.

Sunset tries even harder to pull her arm away but with her being in the state that she is she just couldn’t find the energy to rip herself free from his grasp.

Seeing her distress causes Flash to quickly let go of her hand. The scared and painful look on her face causes him to drop his head.

“Sunset…please I…” he pauses, keeping his eyes on the ground. “I can’t stand to see you like this…it’s just not like you.” He brings his head up to look at her to which he sees that she was returning his gaze. “Whatever is bothering you I want to be able to help you.” This time he slowly places a hand on hers and to his relief she didn’t pull away.

Sunset stares into his caring eyes which brought back the flashbacks from last night. Tears began to swell up in her eyes and still being exhausted she couldn’t stop the flood gates from opening.

In one swift motion she lunges towards Flash wrapping her arms around his neck and sobbing into his shoulder.

Being that this was the first time he’s ever seen Sunset let out tears like this he became more worried as to what was bothering her. He responds the only way he sees fit for the situation, he wraps his arms around her and holds her tight.

The two teens were now in a soggy hug with Sunset crying herself to no tomorrow and Flash comforting her in his arms.

Time seems to have stopped for the two of them as they sat on the couch. The room stays silent with the only exception of a few sniffles from Sunset.

However, Flash feels that enough time has passed, so he gently pushes Sunset away allowing him to see her face. Her cheeks are puffy and her eyes almost bloodshot, Flash lets out a sigh and wipes away at her face with the sleeve of his shirt.

“You know you shouldn’t cry too much makes your whole punk girl look fade a little.” Flash teases a small smile forming on his lips.

A smile slowly forms on Sunset’s face followed by a giggle.

“Shut up.” She jokes punching him lightly on the arm.

Happy to see a smile on her face again, Flash laughs at her somewhat normal behavior.

“Hey if you hit any Harder I’ll get another bruise…it’s nice to see you getting a little better.” Flash says. “Oh, wait I almost forgot.” He gets up from his spot on the couch and walks over to the door where a single white bag sat. He grabs the bag and quickly makes his way back to Sunset. “You left before you could have your lunch.”

Having now gotten a tissue, Sunset blew her nose trying her best to get rid of any unwanted substance in her nose.

“Flash you didn’t have too.” Sunset said sound a little guilty of his actions.

“Hey what are friends for I couldn’t just let you run off without your meal.” Flash places the bag on top of her living room table and reaches in, pulling out a large black box. The smell coming from the box indicates that the food inside was still warm.

Upon opening the box, Sunset could smell the stench of seafood with a hint of butter. From just the smell alone, Sunset could barely keep her mouth from drooling like an opened flood gate.

“Well what are you waiting for? Dig in.”

Without the need to be told twice, Sunset began to dig into her late lunch. She first started with the lobster tail, its juices seeping out as she stabbed her fork into it. Then she went for the mash potatoes and then the broccoli. In the end she kept on just stuffing her mouth.

Flash lets out a laugh as he watches her eat.

“You know if you were that hungry I would've brought more food.”

Sunset looks up at him as her stuff cheeks begin to redden. She swallows what’s left in her mouth wiping away any crumbs from her lips with the back of her hand.

“I guess I was a lot hungrier than I thought.” Sunset notices the large black eye on his eye. “I’m so sorry that Rainbow...couldn't control herself.”

It took Flash a minute to realize what she was talking about but then the memory of how he received the black came back as fast as how a certain rainbow haired girl swung.

“Oh yea...hey it's no problem, she's one of your closest friends and besides if i saw you running away crying because of someone id probably do the same.” Flash says with a shrug he then grabs onto her hands and gives Sunset his full attention. Sunset felt her heart pace a little faster than normal from the look he was giving her. “There's no way I’d ever let that happen to one of my closest friends.”

A big smile grows on her face as she hears these words from him. But deep down somewhere within her a small prick of pain poked at her.

Before Sunset could say anything, a ringing noise came from Flash’s pocket.

Looking down he gave her an apologetic look and mouth the word ‘sorry’.

“Hello...yeah dad don't worry ill be back soon...yeah I’m literally halfway there...i know just take it off my pay...alright I get it...fine...I’ll see you in fifthteen.” Flash hangs up the phone and lets out an annoyed sigh. He looks up to Sunset with a small smile. “ Hey sorry but I gotta get going, my dad is being a big drag right now.” He gets up from his seat with Sunset following his actions.

The two teens walk to the door.

Putting his shoes back on, Flash turns to see Sunset staring at him and he could tell that she was trying to hide a frown growing on her face.

“Hey you want to do something tomorrow night? I heard the arcade got a new two player action game.” Flash offers to try to cheer up his fiery haired friend.

Sunset nods her head.

“After nine? I get off work around eightish?”

“Yeah that sounds fine.” Flash says standing up and tapping his foot on the ground adjusting his work shoes.

Without any warning, Sunset wraps her arms around him. She buries her face into his chest and squeezes tight.

Flash was caught off guard but he quickly wrapped his arms around her.

“I’m....I'm so sorry.”
“For what?” Flash asks, giving her a confused look.

Sunset stayed quiet for a bit before answering him.

“When we were together...I was...terrible to you.” She tightens her grip on his shirt. “You would always try so hard for us...for me, but I just waved you off like you were nothing.”

A small frown grew on Flash’s face as he knew exactly what she was talking about.

“You're right,” he says, making Sunset hold her breath worrying for the worst. “But that's not you anymore.” Slowly the frown morphed into a smile. “Ever since you found your friends you've become a completely different person than who you used to be.”

His words caused her heart to calm down and let her breathe.

“Though there was one thing I liked about your old self.”

“Ha and what was that?” Sunset asks.

“Your determination.” This made Sunset think what he meant. “When you wanted something you never gave up on reaching for it… yeah some of your methods were a bit...sinister, but you never gave up.

There was no answer, but he did feel her shift in his arms. It only took a few minutes for her to answer him.

“Thanks Flash...for everything.” Sunset says her head is still in his chest. Her cheeks are bright red but thankfully are hidden.

Flash smiles knowing full well that she was hiding her face on purpose.

“Hey like i said it's what friends are for.”

The two teens said their farewell with the blue haired teen leaving and Sunset standing at her doorway watching runoff into the distance in hope to be not too late for work.

Closing the door, Sunset walks back to her couch and takes a seat. She let out a sigh and the guilt in her head began to fade away, but she could still feel something in the back of mind.

I can't believe you punched him in the face!” Twilight scowls the rainbow haired teen next to her.

“Oh, come on! You saw what he did to Sunset.” Rainbow Dash says trying to defend herself.

Twilight gave her an annoyed look.

“We both saw he didn't do anything,” Twilight says, correcting the memory. “Sunset just ran out of the restaurant.”

Rainbow pouted, crossing her arms as the two of them were making their way to Sunset's apartment complex.

“Well if he does something then I’ll make sure he gets another bruise on his other eye.” Rainbow threatens.

Twilight rolls her eyes at the teen’s violent attitude.

“Let’s find out what's wrong first before you start swinging your fist again”

When the two arrive at the apartment complex they search for the door to Sunset's housing. Once they find it, Twilight walks in front of Rainbow Dash and knocks on the door a couple of times.

No answer.

Twilight was about to knock on the door again but was beaten to the chase by Rainbow Dash who literally slams on the door.

“Hey Sunset are you in there?” The rainbow haired teen shouts.

Twilight was about to scowl at her, but the opening of the door stopped her.

Sunset pops her head out a towel draped over her shoulders and her hair still wet.

“Oh, hey guys…I was just about to call you.”

Both Twilight and Rainbow gave her a confused look. Just a few hours ago I saw the fiery haired girl run away crying and now here she was calm as a whistle.

“Sunset are you…” Twilight starts though she was interrupted by her companion next to her.

“What the heck happened to you? Did Flash do anything to you because if he did then i’ll make sure to make him mmmffgfg!” She was finally silenced by Twilight who covered the rainbow haired girl's mouth with her hands.

“What Rainbow Dash is trying to say is that are you okay? You gave us a big scare when you just ran out like that.” Twilight says with a worried look, but her expression morphed into something of disfigured as she felt a warm slimy feeling running over her hands. She immediately pulls her hands away from Rainbow's mouth with a line of saliva connecting her hand to her mouth. Twilight's eye twitched as she stared at her hand to the teen nexts to her. “Rainbow! Ew ew ew ew!”

A small laugh came out of sunset as she watched her friends interact with each other. Quickly, she invites them in and also offers Twilight a cleaning cloth for her hands.

They gave her a few minutes to finish drying herself up before the three of them sat on her couch.

It didn't take long for Sunset to tell them what went on in her apartment an hour ago. The talk she and Flash had and also a quick apology for leaving them out of the blue, but of course the two of them understood. And yes she did leave some details out though not out of trust, but mainly because she wanted to keep of few of those moments a secret.

“Wow, so are you guys like dating again?” Rainbow asks bluntly.

“What? No, we're just good friends.” Sunset says a small blush coming on her face.

Rainbow caught signs of this, a sly grin forming on her face, but before she could utter a single word, Twilight pushed her face to the side.

“Ignore Rainbow.” Twilight says with an annoyed look.

“Hey!”

Instead of giving a response, Twilight wraps her arms around Sunset embracing her in a warm hug.

It was a tad bit random but Sunset didn't mind so she just hugs back. A second later Rainbow Dash joins on the hug wrapping both teens in a big bear hug.

“You know you didn't have to give Flash a black eye.” Sunset says still being embraced by both girls.

“Shhhh detail details.” was the athlete's only response as she hugged the two tighter. “So...you guys want to get something to eat?” Rainbow asks, pulling away from the hug.

“Seriously? We just ate like an hour n half ago.” Twilight answers.

“Well I got some leftovers in the fridge if you're really that hungry.” Sunset offers.

“Sweet! Sunset you're a lifesaver.”

Sunset just gave a two finger salute and got up from her couch.

The three spent the rest of the day just staying in Sunset's apartment.

When the day came to an end and her friends left, Sunset was left alone in her living staring blankly off in the distance. Thoughts of her talk with Flash snuck its way back into her mind followed by the intimate moment they both shared. She felt that her heart began to beat a few speeds too high. Calming her head, Sunset lets out a small breath and closes her eyes to calm herself.

Opening her eyes back up a smile grows on her lips as she begins to feel the guilt and pain of her past memories begin to seep out of her memories and begin to be replaced by her newer ones.

Author's Notes:

Hey guys I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!

Chapter 8

Seven colorful teens sat in a train one early afternoon, each of them excited.

Pinkie was jumping in her seat with a giant smile plastered on her face.

“OOOOOH are you girls as excited as I am?” She turns to Fluttershy who was sitting next to her, making the shy girl jump a little and letting a small squeak. “I heard they put in a new ride in Discordia.”

“The Ghastly gorge, it’s over five hundred feet tall and you also do a triple loop and a reverse drop.” Rainbow Dash says. “I’m itching to give it a try.”

“Well ah’m more excited to do some of them games.” Applejack leans forward to look past Rainbow. “this year that giant apple doll is mine.”

“Really?” Rainbow turns to face the farm girl. “Out of all the prizes you want a giant apple plushie?”

“That apple has always kept on slippin through ma hands like worms in the rain.”

“Why must you put such a disturbing image in my head?” Rarity asks with disgust sticking out her tongue as if she ate something fowl. Shaking her head, Rarity looks over at Fluttershy who was watching her pink haired seat buddy with a smile. “Fluttershy, doesn’t one of your friends from your weekly animal tea parties work at Discordia?”

“Oh yes,” The shy girl nods her head. “He actually owns it.” Just then she really wished she hadn’t said that because immediately her friends surrounded her, each of them giving her a bewildered look.

“Wait! Are you telling me that you know the person who owns Discordia?” Rainbow Dash almost yells. “Why haven’t you told us about this before?”

“Well…I thought that it wasn’t that big of a deal and I didn’t want to bother anyone about as small as this.” Fluttershy says as she covers her face with her hair.

Sunset watches as the rest of her friends begin to interrogate the poor animal enthusiast. She turns to look at Twilight who is sitting next to her eyes on her phone. Sunset playfully rolls her eyes as she could exactly guess who she was talking to.

The trip to the Discordia amusement park was planned out by Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash about a week ago. Luckily, everyone was free on the date chosen so they all agreed to go on the train all together and spend some time talking before they’d arrive.

Sunset heard a small ring come from her phone. Pulling it out of her pocket, she taps the screen to see a picture of Flash. Unlocking her phone, Sunset reads the message he sent her.

Hey, you guys here yet?

No not yet, but we’ll be there in about twenty minutes. The train is almost there.

Alright, the rest of us are here, we'll wait for you guys at the entrance.

“GUYS GUYS GUYS I see it!” Pinkie shouts.

Sunset taps out of her phone and looks up to see what the commotion was all about.

Everyone looks out the window to see a giant amusement park with a few large roller coasters poking out from the distance. Though the one ride that popped out the most was a tall tower that stood in the middle of the park.

“The Chaos drop is one of the tallest rides in the whole park,” Pinkie begins to speak in a serious tone. “People say that it’s so tall that when you reach the top you can see above the clouds.”

Every other girl looks at their usually happy go lucky friend, each of them confused by her sudden mood change.

“Okay…So Rarity Applebloom told me that she and the others will be meeting us at the park too?” Applejacks turns to the fashionista.

“Yes, Sweetiebelle told me the same thing I believe she said that she would be coming with Scootaloo.” Rarity says.

With the train coming to a stop, everyone walks out, each of them excited in their own way for what is to come. It took them some time to reach the ticket booths, but in no time, they were standing before a giant line of people waiting for their turn to get in.

“I can’t wait to ride every…single…thing here!” Rainbow almost cheers but, before she can go off in a sprint she is stopped by Sunset who grabs her arm.

“Wow there, we still need to wait for the others before we go in.” Sunset points back at the other girls who were waiting by a rather small statue.

Walking over to the rest of the group, Sunset couldn’t help but notice how similar this statue was to the one in Canterlot. Though, she can barely remember how it was shaped. And for a split second she swears that the eyes blinked. Sunset takes a moment to rub her eyes and stares at the statue for a few seconds to make sure that what she saw was real.

“Sunset!”

Hearing her name, Sunset turns around to see Flash along with the Applebloom and her friends walking over to her group.

“Sup Flash it’s about time you showed up.” Rainbow says.

“Rainbow Dash Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo shouts jumping up and down to grab the rainbow haired teen’s attention.

“Hey Scoots,” Rainbow rubs the younger girl's head. “How’s my number one fan doing?”

As the younger girl went off, Flash walked over to Sunset.

“I hope you guys didn’t wait too long.” Sunset says.

“Meh it wasn’t a big deal,” Flash shrugs his shoulders. “Scootaloo and her friends were having a nice time.”

“Well that’s good, I guess we should get going, no need to wait any longer to go in.” Sunset says, nodding her head towards her friends. “So how was the drive all the way here? Since it was just you and the three rascals?”

Flash lets out a small sigh and then laughs.

“I guess you can say that it wasn’t…boring,” he says. “Hey when you get one the other two are not far behind.”

Sunset laughs and lightly punches his arm.

“Come on, you're the lead guitar in a loud rock band. I'm sure you can handle a few loud teens.” Sunset teases.

“Ha ha ha, very funny.” Flash says with a blank expression.

The two of them stare at each other for a bit before they both begin to laugh. The teens walk over to the rest of the girls, but unknown to them a certain fashionista was watching the two of them very closely. They grouped up around the statue and began to discuss.

“Well then since we’re all here why don’t we head on in.” Twilight says.

“Now now my dear no need to rush, don't you want to take a picture with a living statue?” Says a voice behind Twilight while placing a hand on her shoulder.

Immediately, Twilight lets out a small yelp and jumps away from the statue. Everyone else follows her leads and jumps away from the statue…everyone, but Fluttershy. The “statue” hops onto the ground and with the sound of the tip tap of his shoes he walks over to Fluttershy.

“Now that wasn’t very nice sneaking up on my friend like that.” The animal lover kindly scolds with her usual soft voice.

“Why my dear Fluttershy it was only a small tease.” The statue man says. He turns to face the others while lifting his top hat he bows and greets the others. “Why hello there Discord is my name and chaos is my game.”

“Wait…you’re Discord…as in the guy who owns Discordia?” Rainbow almost shouts but she is soon silenced by Discord himself who ran up to her and covered her mouth with his hands.

“Now now let’s not share it to the whole world now.”

Fluttershy walks over to the two and a small smile on her face.

“I wasn’t expecting to see you until we entered the park.”

Discord turns around and gives her a hurt look. It was almost exaggerated by the way he places his hand on his chest and the other over his mouth.

Seeing this Pinkie nudges Rarity and whispers ‘he does it better than you’ which got her a dramatic gasp from her as she places a hand on her chest.

“Why would I wait inside when I could wait out here?” Discord walks over to a worn-out door and opens it. “If you all would kindly come this way then we can start this day off.”

Fluttershy was the first to walk over to the door while the rest of the group just stares in confusion. She turns around and just smiles at the rest of them as if this was a very normal occurrence.

“So, we’re all just going to walk into a random door with a man who was pretending to be a statue for who knows how long?” Sunset asks. Everyone else just shrugs their shoulders seeing that the shyest person in the group seems comfortable with it.

One by one, everyone follows behind Flutter and walks into the opened door.

Discord gave every single person a smile as they passed him.

Upon entering the group was greeted by a room filled with…pink cotton candy?

“What in tarnation?” Applejack scans the room more confused than amazed. “There is no way this is what I think it is.”

Not to everyone’s surprise Pinkie Pie was the first to take a bite on the fluffy pink walls of sweetness.

Twilight walks over to her with a disgusted look.

“Pinkie there is no way that is sanitary.” The bookworm questions.

“On the contrary my dear Twilight most of the sweets here are quite up to the standard food safety protocol…well perhaps not the ones on the floor.” Discord rips off a piece of cotton from the walls and throws it in his mouth. He then walks over through the candy room and towards another door. “If you all would so kindly follow me through the exit.”

While the older CHS students followed Discord the younger students all began to jump around the room as the sweets on the ground were quite bouncy.

“Sweetie hurry up darling, it's time for us to go.” Rarity calls to her sister.

“Aww can’t we stay for a little longer?” Sweetie asks.

“Don’t you want to go to the park?”

As if never even seeing the cotton candy room, the fashionista’s younger sister stops her bouncing and walks over.

“You too Applebloom.”

The younger farm girl walks over to her sister leaving only Scootaloo.
“Hey Scootaloo, come on don’t want to wait too long in lines.” Flash says.

“But it’s so fun here.” Scootaloo says.

“Yea but…” Flash tries to finish, but to his misfortune he loses interest.

“Come on Scoots,” Rainbow Dash calls from the exit. “The rides are waiting!”

Immediately, the young purple hair teen ran out the exit leaving Flash.
“Coming Rainbow Dash!”

Flash watches as she sprints out leaving him with her dust. He lets out a sigh and slowly follows her. Sunset gives him a little shove on the arm and gives him a sympathetic smile.

“Still having a hard time with her?” She asks. “I guess it happens when your younger cousin’s biggest hero is Rainbow Dash.”

“We used to be so close,” Flash says with a small frown, but then comes a smile. “Guess I need to be “20% cooler” hmm?” he says quoting Rainbow.

“Hey if it makes you feel any better I think you’re decently cool.” Sunset says, patting his shoulders. “But then again it’s hard to be cooler than someone like Rainbow.”

“I…uh…” Flash just goes quiet and takes the defeat.

Sunset laughs at him and guides him outside where the rest of the group was. Just as they came out the two noticed Discord giving everyone a gold colored card.

“And if you need anything else just show a worker this card and it should happen.”

Rainbow’s eyes were about the size of saucers; it was as if she just received a gift from god.

“Oh, Discord, you didn’t have to go and do this for us.” Fluttershy says.

As soon as she said that Rainbow shoots her gaze towards her and grasps the gold card like it was her life.

“Now now my dear Fluttershy what are friends for and besides our little animal tea parties are just the highlight of my week.” Discord says. “Now I hope you all enjoy your day ta ta.” Bowing his head, Discord walks away.

Everyone waves the park owner goodbye thankful for the gift that he left them.

“Well now that we’re inside,” Twilight says, pulling out a notebook. “I have a nice schedule for us to follow to have the maximum amount of fun.” Twilight clears her throat. “First we can do some rides then play some games and then go back on some rides and…”

“Uh Twilight darling,” Rarity places a hand on the notebook and pushes it down. “As much as we all cherish your…advanced organizational skills I believe we all have our own plans for the day.”

Twilight looks up to see her friends all grouped up, each of them planning on doing what interests them most.

“Oh…of course.” A blush grows on Twilight’s face as she puts the notebook away.

“Well if you'll excuse me I’m going to make my way to the game stands.” Applejack says.

“Oh, that sounds fun. I wouldn't mind winning a fluffy teddy bear.” Fluttershy says following the farm girl.

Rainbow and Pinkie along with younger kids all made their way towards the rides.

“Well guess it’s just the four of us.” Sunset says.

“Twilight darling, why don’t we go to the fun house?” Rarity says pulling the egg head away from Sunset and Flash. She meets Sunset’s gaze and gives her a secret wink before walking away with Twilight. Leaving the bacon haired girl confused and lost at what she was trying to do.

“Oh…uh okay,” Twilight says. “Sunset are you…” Before she could finish the fashionista had already dragged her too far away to be heard.

“Hmm, guess it’s just the two of us then.” Flash says. “Want to just walk around and find something interesting?”

“Sure,” Sunset says, leading the way. “It’s an amusement park. I'm sure we’ll find something interesting.”

The two teens walk off unaware of the two pairs of eyes watching them.

“Rarity I thought we were going to the fun house?” Twilight asks, sounding a little disappointed.

“Hush darling, I think I just discovered something much more interesting than a fun house,” Rarity makes sure that her two friends were far enough to begin her advance. “Come on!” Hn��!'

Chapter 9

The sound of rumbling rollercoasters passed by Sunset and Flash as the two of them walked around the rides. People were screaming and cheering as they went up and down on the snake-like ride.

The two teens look up at the monster of a ride and walk over to it. Using the gold pass given to them by Discord they were able to get on the ride without waiting.

“Please keep your hands and feet in the cart at all times.”

The two of them sat in their cart waiting for the ride to start, but when nothing happened for the next few minutes they thought that the ride was broken.

“I guess our luck isn’t with us todAAAHHHHHHH!” Sunset was interrupted by the moving cart.

Suddenly the ride darts off and they are hit with a loop and drops. Both teens were screaming and yelling as their cart twisted and turned.

When they finally came to a stop they both walked off with shaky legs. Their hairs are a mess as if they both just went through a hurricane. Looking up to see each other they let out a snort and at the same time begin to laugh at each other’s new “hairstyle.”

From a distance, Rarity was watching them with an excited look. Her companion on the other hand was less than excited.

“Why are we spying on them again?” Twilight asks.

“For…educational purposes.”

Next, Sunset and Flash went around the carnival games to find something to both their liking. Nothing really pops out for either of them other than seeing the funny sight of Applejack trying her best to win in a game of ring toss. She had three buckets of red rings in front of her with Fluttershy standing behind with a teddy bear five times her size.

Twilight had a bored expression on her face while Rarity was watching Sunset and Flash walk around the park with each other.

“Rarity can we…”

“Hush darling I’m observing.”

Letting out a sigh, Twilight sees a carnival game that gains her interest. Though, before she could even get a chance to play her arm was grabbed by her friend and was dragged away.

About twenty minutes passed and Sunset and Flash found themselves sitting at the food area of the park. Sunset was drinking a large soft drink while Flash had some cheese fries.

Flash notices her interest in his snack and lets out a small laugh as he pushes it towards her.

Without any complaint, Sunset digs in happily and she decides it was only fair that she offers him some of her drink. Flash shakes his head and pushes the drink away.

“So, what now?” Flash asks Sunset watching her finish half of the fries.

“Meh…I don’t know, maybe we'll just sit here for a while.” She says swallowing the fries.

Both teens are at a loss as to what they should do next.

A loud explosion rang from a building not far from them and Sunset knew all too well what that sound meant. Grabbing a hold of Flash’s hand as he was about to eat a fry, she pulled him towards the noise causing him to drop the rest of his fries.

“Wow what’s with the hurry all of a sudden?” Flash jokingly asks, but he got no answers as the fiery haired girl was too focused on the sound. Within a few minutes he sees an arcade coming into view and from it comes the source of the noise that has caught Sunset’s attention.

Upon entering, they finally skid to a stop with Sunset facing a large screen displaying some kind of gameplay. The screen was covered in virtual magic and fire and in the background, was a low laugh who belonged to someone demonic.

Flash looks up to see what the name of this extremely graphic game is.

“The Rise of Tirek VR edition.” Flash says out loud. “Uh Sunset what’s VR?” He gets no answer turning to her and notices that she was nowhere to be found. “Sunset?” Looking around Flash sees that Sunset is already in the line for the game. She was nearly bouncing up and down in excitement. She waves him over to join her in line. Laughing, Flash walks over to her and stands next to her.

“I can’t believe it’s here? I mean I’ve seen the videos, but actually get to play it?” Sunset says to herself.

“Huh…never thought you were the gaming type?”

Sunset turns to him and blushes a little.

“Well it was a recent hobby of mine since I’ve stopped…you know…scheming of taking over the school and stuff.” Sunset says. “And seeing that I had so much time on my hands I kind of got bored and well just started playing to pass the time.”

Flash just nods his head.

“If you don’t want to do this we can just go and find something else!” Sunset quickly says seeing that she just dragged him in here. “I just got so excited and…”

“Sunset relax,” Flash interrupts her. “I’m fine with this and besides this looks fun um…V…R?”

“Virtual Reality,” Sunset tells him. “Think of it like a movie but instead of just sitting there and watching you can be part of it as if you were in it.”

“Next.”

The people in front of the two walk up and enter a black room. Seeing that they are next in line, Sunset begins to bounce in excitement again.

Holding back a laugh, Flash looks back at the screen displaying the game. One of the players just blasted a creature with some sort of laser. He turns back to Sunset, her eyes glued towards the black room.

“So…what are you supposed to do?”

Sliding her hair back, Sunset takes a big breath.

“Well first off you have three-character choices: the magical power house of a wizard, the extremely fast flier and the extreme power of guardian.” Each character was posed out by sunset judging by their main attribute. “After you choose your class you must travel across the land to gather six magical items in order to defeat the Evil lord Tirek and stop his magical conquest to steal all magic in the world.”

“Huh that sounds interesting…”

“Interesting? That’s not the best part, usually the game can be either played in third person or first person with a controller, but with his VR system you can play the game as if you were actually there in real life.”

“Next.”

Sunset quickly turns around as the employee calls them over. She grabs Flash’s hand and pulls him into the black room.

Upon entering they’re met by a man wearing what seem to be snorkeling goggles and a glowing vest and some gloves.

“Hey there, you two I hope you’re excited because it's time to…”

“Wreck Tirek!” Sunset finishes by shouting.

Flash turns to her with a surprised look at her sudden outburst.

She blushes lightly as she realizes what she just did.

“Wow ho looks like we got a veteran here.” The game instructor cheers. “Alright you two I want you both to gear up.” He pulls in a rack with two pairs of goggles, vests and gloves.

The teens grab the gear, Sunset had hers on within seconds while Flash was having a hard time figuring out what clips goes with what.

Sunset smiles and walks over to him and helps with his head set. Making sure he was all set she stood next him shaking with excitement.

“Alright before we begin I want you both to choose your character.”

A small screen appears before them with three images of human silhouettes posing in a similar way Sunset did earlier when she was explaining the game to Flash. It only took Sunset a second to figure out who she wanted to play. Flash was a little lost, but he chose a random image and shrugs his shoulders.

“Oh, nice suits you perfectly.” Sunset compliments his choice.

“Alright since your girlfriend is a veteran of the game she can give you your mission object, but don’t worry I’ll be guiding you through the game through your microphone headset.

The look of excitement disappears from Sunset’s face.

“Girlfriend?” but before she could say anything else her head gear activated and the two of them began to be immersed in the game.

The blush on Sunset’s face disappears as the view of the game takes her breath away. Just like in the game back at her apartment she found herself in a forest that was all too similar to the Everfree forest back in Equestria. A white screen appears in front of her and she taps the ready box.

When she receives a ‘go’ sign the screen goes away. Looking down she sees the robes she was wearing with a spell book latched to her side. She runs over to a stream and looks into the water to see her reflection.

“Wow.” Was all she could say.

“Uh Sunset where are you?”

Turning around, Sunset runs back to where she spawned and sees that Flash was walking around aimlessly with a blank white screen on his face.

“I can’t see a thing.” Flash says waving his arms in front of him.

“Just tap the ‘go’ box and you should be good.” Sunset says.

Raising a hand and poking the box the white screen closes, and Flash is finally able to see around him.

“WOW.” Flash says with wide eyes. He looks around the world amazed at how everything looks and then looks down and notices his apparel. “Oh…that’s…awesome.” His fit was that similar to that of an ancient roman centurion. He turns his head and notices a pair of metal wings on his back.

“Yeah it’s pretty awesome.”

Flash looks up to Sunset and smiles.

“Alright so what do we do?”

Sunset was about to answer him, but a caution window opened up signaling the arrival of their first wave of enemies. From the distance a pack of wooden wolves’ spring out of the bushes, their eyes glowing green and the wooden fangs and claws as sharp as knives.

“Pony feathers, Timber Wolves,” Sunset curses in equestrian. “Watch out, these guys are pretty tough to beat.”

“Uh…Sunset what do I do?” Flash asks, sounding nervous.

A battle menu pops up in front of Sunset and an option of spells are given to her.

“Choose your battle option and just do what the direction tells you.” Finishing, Sunset fires a light blue magical bolt at one of the wolves causing it to break into bits and pieces of wood.

The same screen appears in front of Flash and with no experience Flash just chooses the first thing he sees. Within seconds he was in the air unexpecting this he falls back in real life and onto the ground.

“Wow you ok Flash?” Sunset says looking up into the sky to see him lying down in the sky.

Picking himself off the floor, Flash looks back at Sunset.

“Yeah I’m okay, just got a little spooked.” He says getting a grip of the virtual world and his actual self.

“Remember you’re a flier, you're all about speed and hitting from above.” Sunset says blasting another wolf.

“Ok I got this,” Flash’s battle menu pops up once more and Flash studies the option and thinks he found the proper action. This time his iron wings made a slicing noise signaling that they were ready for use.

Selecting his target, Flash targets the closest wolf and swoops in and flies right past a wolf with his left wing slicing it in half. He flies back up into the air and smiles.

“Alright this I can get used to.” He does the same action again and again, joining Sunset in the fight against the Timberwolves.

After what felt like hours the two of the teens stood next to each other surrounded by the wooden remains of their enemies.

“Man, that was pretty fun.” Flash says.

“Oh, that’s not the best part.” Sunset says kicking a twig. This leads to all the wooden pieces and branches to shake and slowly gravitate towards each other and bit by bit they begin to assemble with each other.

“Uh…Sunset what’s going on?” Flash asks.

“Well…remember when I said these are tough to beat?”

Within minutes the twigs became a giant version of a timber wolf letting out a horrifying roar.

“Oh…uh…ok.” Flash gives Sunset a nervous but was gone when he saw the look of excitement on her face. This causes a smile to grow on his face.

“Oh, this is going to be fun.” Sunset says, cracking her knuckles.

Chapter 10

“Flash watch out!”

A giant ball of fire came crashing down on him and thus the rest of his health bar went down to zero.

Sunset was left alone to face Tirek himself; the four legged demon laughs at her friend’s demise. Pulling up the battle menu, Sunset cast the strongest spell she had, and it landed with a direct hit. Sunset lets out a silent cheer, but before she could celebrate or react a bright beam of fiery orange light came straight at her and engulfed her, diminishing the rest of her health bar.

Game over.

Sunset pulls off the VR head gear and shakes her head to help air her hair out. Wearing the gear for almost an hour caused some sweat to form on her. She turns to find Flash doing the same and he pulls off his VR gear.

“Man, that was just…wow.” Sunset says out loud.

“Yeah you can say that again.” Flash says walking over to her. “That was fun while it lasted.”

The two of them walk out of the game room only to be met with a long line of people waiting for their turn in the room.

Leaving the arcade building, both teens were airing out their shirts.

“Man, that last boss was pretty tough,” Flash says. “Tirek right?”

“Yeah he’s the main boss you got to beat.” Sunset answers. “I remember my first time fighting him I lost all of my lives and potions…phew…fighting him in VR is way tougher, it’s definitely more fun.”

The two of them find themselves a bench to relax on.

“So, you have this game?” Flash asks.

“Yeah but I only have the regular game on the console.” Sunset says. “If you want you can come over sometimes to play it is a two-player game.”

“Sure, that sounds fun,” Flash says smiling. “I wouldn’t mind getting better at my character. Flash leans back with his head against the bench while Sunset just had her back against the bench.

Not far from them was a younger couple enjoying their time in the park. They held hands and laughed as they walked side by side.

Sunset watches them as they walk off and then turns to look at Flash who had his eyes closed as he was resting on the bench. She can see his chest rising and falling then. Maybe if she could scooch a little closer then maybe she could. Wait? What is she thinking? Her face begins to blush as her imagination begins to wander off.

While Sunset was having her inner problems going on and about with each other, Flash suddenly felt a chill run down his back. He looks up around the crowd walking only to find someone within the crowd looking back at him.

It was a girl in red her black hair was draped over her left eye as she stared at Flash. This girl brings up her hands and draws in her finger towards herself as if signaling him to follow her. She then says something but is too far for Flash to hear what.

Suddenly Flash’s body begins to move on its own.

Slowly, he got up from the bench and started to make his way towards the girl. It was as if something was pulling him towards her.

A light red mist begins to crawl towards Flash slithering up his leg and then to his chest. Once it reached his face it felt as if someone blew powder in face causing a bit of an itch.

Wiping his face with the back of his hand he looks around to find himself.

“Why hello there.” Someone whispers in his ear.

Sunset was still sitting on the bench, her head feeling a few degrees warmer. A buzzing sound came from her pocket causing her to jump slightly. She shakes her head in hopes to cool down and pulls out her phone, Sunset reads the message.

Where are you guys? We’re going to get lunch.

It was a message from Rainbow.

Just got out of an arcade and we'll meet you at the food area.

The only response she got was a thumb up emoji. Sunset puts away her phone and turns to tell Flash what was going on…only when she did he wasn’t there.

“Flash?”

Sunset looks around to see where the rocker could’ve run off to. He was literally sitting right next to her. How could she have not noticed him getting up and walking away. She gets up from the bench and looks around, he couldn’t have gone too far.

“Flash?” Sunset calls out hoping that he responds. She gets nothing which causes her to worry a little. She thinks she sees him and makes her over to him. “Hey Flash, come on, the others are…waiting…um hello?” Sunset indeed found Flash, but when she did she found him with someone.

“Oh, hey Sunset,” Flash says, turning around. “I’d like for you to meet a friend of mine, Somna.” He moves to the side to reveal a girl in red, her short black hair covering one of her eyes as she smiles at Sunset. Something shiny came from her hair causing Sunset to squint her eyes. A large crystal hairpin stuck out of her hair is shining the sunlight from above.

“Why hello there.” Somna greets her and brings up her hand and smiles. “Flash has told me so much about you.”

“Uh…I’m sorry, but how do you know Flash?” Sunset asks.

“Don’t you remember her?” Flash says. “She was one of my closest friends when we used to date.”

“She is? I don’t…” Sunset couldn’t finish what she was about to say because a sudden ping in her head as if something was trying to pry itself into her brain. She shakes her head to help and once the feeling left her the image of Somna appears in her mind. “Oh…yeah…I remember, I think.”

Somna wraps an arm around Flash’s waist and begins to laugh.

Sunset could feel her eye twitch at the sudden close contact.

“Remember the time when I would try to third wheel you guys whenever you went out?” Somna says with a laugh. “How have you been by the way?”

“I’ve been okay.” Sunset says, sounding a little confused.

“No more “evil” Sunset stuff no more?” Somna lightly teases.

“No, I’m…”

“She isn’t like that anymore, she's completely changed.” Flash interrupts her.

“Oh, I must have been gone longer than expected.” Somna says.
Sunset nods her head then the message from Rainbow pops back in her head.

“I almost forgot the rest of the group is at the food area and are waiting for us.” Sunset says. “Let’s not keep them waiting…it was nice seeing you…uh again.” Sunset was about to grab Flash’s hand; he pulled it out of reach and grabbed Somna’s.

“Hey, why don’t you join us?” He asks Somna. “I’m sure everyone will be happy to see you.”

“Oh, I would, but I actually have to leave soon,” Somna sadly says. “Maybe next time…it was nice seeing you again Flash.” She places her hand on his and squeezes it.

Flash freezes for a bit before smiling at her and waves bye.

Somna turns to Sunset and waves goodbye to which Sunset returns. And with that she left walking off amongst the crowd.

With her finally gone, Sunset turns to Flash to see him standing still with his eyes blank.

“Flash?” Sunset places a hand on his shoulder and gives him a light shake.

“Huh?” Flash shakes his head and looks at Sunset with a confused look.

“You okay there?” Sunset gives him a worried look.

“Yeah yeah I’m fine.”

Sunset gives him a few minutes to clear his head before telling him about the message she got from Rainbow Dash. Seeing that the hour-long game they played gave them a workout he thought that getting lunch was a good idea.

As the two of them made their way towards the food area Sunset noticed that Flash was walking a bit behind her.

“Hey, you slowing down there skipper?” Sunset asks jokingly.

“Yeah, I’m good, just a little tired,” Flash says with a smile. “Guess that game took out more from me than expected.”

It didn’t take long for the two teens to arrive and it took even less time for one of their friends to spot them.

“Sunset Shimmer! Over here!” Yells a certain pink haired girl.

Both teens smile as they are greeted by the party enthusiast and make their way over to her. When they get close enough the two teens see that the rest of the group is already here and eating.
“Hey, you two y'all having a good time?” Applejack asks.

Sunset notices the lack of a certain red apple doll.

“Okay I guess we just spent some time in the arcade.” Sunset answers taking a seat next to Twilight. “What about you Twilight? You and Rarity have a fun time in the fun house?”

The bookworm looks up confused as she pulls away from a large fluff of cotton candy.

“Fun house? What are you…OW!” Twilight was hit on the shoulder by Rarity who kept her attention elsewhere. “Oh yeah the fun house um yeah it was really…fun? She turns her head to Rarity for approval which got her a big smile from the fashionista.

“Okay…” Sunset just shrugs her shoulders and looks at the rest of her friends.

Both Rainbow and Pinkie were stuffing their faces with corn dogs in what seems like an eating competition

Flash sat next to Scootaloo who was cheering on her honorary big sister. All Flash could do was listen and agree with the young girl as she explains why Rainbow is going to win and how she is so awesome.

Sunset smiles at his second attempt to interact with her.

Somna…

Her face pops into Sunset’s head, who was she? She tried her best to see her in memoires, but no matter what she just couldn’t see her face in anything. Well she did say it was during her time when she was…well evil. Still Sunset just couldn’t remember her in any situation.

“Maybe I’m just overthinking this?” Sunset says to herself. The image of Flash and Somna laughing with each other appears in her head. Which causes Sunset to clench her fist, but quickly release her hold. “Wait I’m not…no…”

“Sunset are you alright?” Twilight asks as she notices her friends having a frown on her face. “You look like you're struggling with something.”

“Huh? Oh no I’m fine just thinking about something that’s all.” Sunset says. “Boy I’m getting pretty hungry I’ll be right back just going to go get something to eat.” She quickly gets up and makes her over to one of the food stands.

“Oh, let me join you darling I too am quite famished,” Rarity says getting up from her seat. Before she could go too far she turns around to her younger sister. “Sweetiebelle would you like something?”

Her sister shakes her head no and goes back to watching the corn dog eating competition with her friends.

The two teens wait in line to order something which was all part of Rarity’s plan.

“So Sunset,” Rarity starts. “How was your day?”

“Oh, it’s alright I guess.” Sunset says, staring at the menu board above the cashier.

“Did you do anything…fun?” Rarity asks, emphasizing the last word. “It was just you and Flash…alone…together.”

Sunset turns and gives her a confused look. It felt as if she was playing a game of 21 questions. She notices the look of extreme curiosity in her eyes.

“Um well we...uh...played this new game system in the arcade room.”

Rarity gives her a disappointed look.

“Come now darling, certainly you two did something a bit more…entertaining?”

“Wait wait wait,” Sunset waves her hands in front of her. “Are you trying to say what I think you’re trying to say?”

Suddenly, the fashionista gave her the most innocent look she could muster.

“Why I have no idea what you’re trying to say?”

Sunset lets out a sigh.

“Rarity whatever you’re thinking just don’t even bother Flash and I aren’t a thing…whatsoever.” Sunset says with a sigh. “And no there isn’t any sort of spark between us either.” Even though that spark may be one sided says a small voice in the back of Sunset’s head.

Rarity lets out a disappointed huff and just nods her head.

“Alright darling if that’s what you say then I won’t pry.”
Sunset smiles at her and turns back around to the menu to figure out what she wants.

“But.”

Sunset rolls her eyes.

“If there is some sort of itty bitty tiny spark of some kind,” Rarity says with an innocent smile. “then I’d be happy to listen and help with anything darling.”
Sunset lets out a small sigh and only raises a thumb up to her and continues to read the menu.

A few minutes pass by and the image of Somna pops up again followed by her close interaction with Flash and the way they laughed with each other. This causes Sunset to let out a low grumble and turns around to face her purple haired friend.

“Actually…” Sunset starts but was unable to finish as she was dragged away by Rarity into a more secluded area where they could talk in private.

“One moment darling we need to find a more appropriate area to speak of this.”

Author's Notes:

Uh oh who is this? I'll explain who this new character is in the future after a few chapter to explain who and where she came from...idea wise.

I hope you guys been enjoying this story and i hope this chapter was nice.

As always Thanks for reading and liking the story!

Chapter 11

“I can’t believe I’m doing this.” Sunset says as she stands around a beauty store in the mall completely lost on what to do.

After the event at the amusement park with Sunset asking Rarity for “help” the two agreed to meet each other at the mall.

Sunset felt very…very out of place as she is surrounded by extreme feminine products. Almost everything was pink with sashes and ribbons and about every single item was covered in sparkles. Looking in a mirror, Sunset looks like an elephant trying to hide in a group of swans.

To be honest Sunset would never ever find herself here even if her life depended on it.

She picks up a random perfume bottle that says the words try me. Giving the top a squeeze, it sprays out an air of flower scented mist though she accidently sprayed a bit too much causing herself to go into a coughing fit.

“Uh miss, are you alright?” A store clerk asks her.

“No, I’m ~cough~ okay I’m just ~cough~ waiting for a friend.” She says as her eyes get a little watery.

The clerk gives her a confused look, but still nods her head and walks away.

Finally taking in some clean air, Sunset moves away from the perfume counter and moves onto a different area. Her face scrunches up when she walks in front of a dress with colors brighter than the sun.

“Ugh why does everything have to be so…froofy.” Sunset groans as she picks up one of the dresses from the rack.

“Well darling everyone has their own taste and style.” Sunset turns around to see Rarity standing behind her with a small notebook in hand. A rather large purse is hanging at her side with more notebooks protruding from the opening. “Some of us prefer the more elegant looks while some such as yourself prefer the more...rambunctious look.”

It's been a few days since Sunset asked Rarity for her help and to say that the young fashionista is excited would be an understatement.

Walking through the mall the two teens begin to discuss Sunset’s situation. Starting from the first day Flash and she made up and all the rest that followed.

“Hmm I see,” Rarity says with a thoughtful look. “It seems this Somna character seems to be a negative factor.”

“Well the way you say it like that makes it sound like she’s some evil villain from a book.”

“Oh please,” Rarity waves her hands. “I’d call her more so like a love rival.”

“Love rival?” Sunset raises a brow at her. “I’m not in love with him…I just have this.”

“Extremely fast heart rate, reddening cheeks when you see him, your mind going blank as you speak with him?” Rarity crosses her arms. “I can go on, darling I have many more.”

Seeing herself at a loss, Sunset just lets out a sigh and just continues walking.

“Now we’re going to need to spruce you up so that when you and Flash go on your date he’ll be left slacked jawed.”

Sunset stops in her tracks and stares at Rarity.

“Wow wow wow hold on there,” She says waving her hands. “There were never any plans for a date!”

“How else are you supposed to grab his attention?” Rarity asks with a raised brow. “ watching him from the side lines like some background character?.” Rarity waves off the idea with a disturbed look. “Now we don’t have all of the time dearie come along.”

Already Sunset is beginning to regret telling her fashion craze friend.

The first store they visit is a hair salon, all around the room are pictures of overly artistic hairstyles, each one more creative than the last.

“Uh weren’t we going to look for clothes?” Sunset asks. “Why are we in a hair salon?” the teen next to her lets out a laugh.

“Don’t sound so surprised darling, first we need to get you a nice new hairstyle before we can find you a new outfit

Before Sunset can say anything to that she’s pulled over to an empty chair.

“Rarity sweetheart!”

Through the mirror Sunset can see a tall woman with an excessively puffy hairstyle.

“Pixie Sheers, it's so nice to see you.”

The two give each other a small hug as they greet one another.

“What brings you here?” Pixie Sheers asks. “Your next appointment isn’t until next week.”

Rarity turns Sunset around in her chair causing her salon friend to gasp.

“My word!” Pixie Sheers rushes over to Sunset and begins to inspect her hair. “How have you been living like this?”

Sunset raises a brow confused on what she’s implying.

“Excuse me?” her words fell on deaf ears as the two behind her began to talk and…strategize. Before she even knows what is happening the hair stylist begins to go at her hair.

With a single motion Pixie Sheers wraps Sunset in a stylist cape covering her front. She then spins her around to face the mirror once more.

First, she starts to spray water into her hair making sure every single strand of hair is doused in water. She then starts to take snips of hair here and there, cutting away any spot she sees unfit.

Sunset closes her eyes as strands of hair fall over her face.

“Uh Rarity…I’m pretty sure I don’t need…”

“Nonsense!” Rarity cuts her off. “Now hush up and let the master do her work.”

Pixie smiles and nods and returns to working on Sunset’s hair.

Seeing that she’s already too deep into this Sunset just lets out a sigh.

Thirty minutes past and finally it’s over, looking back at the mirror Sunset couldn’t help but stare with a confused look.

“Uh Rarity?”

“Yes darling?”

“I look the same…” Sunset turns to look at her fashionista friend and gives her a confused look.

“Sunset,” Rarity laughs and looks at her reflection in the mirror. “Subtly is the key.” She says, raising her hand in front of her and looks off into the distance.

Not really understanding her, Sunset just shrugs her shoulders.

After the salon Rarity begins to pull her along towards the clothing sector of the mall. Sunset saw the usual store she tends to shop at which was the store that gave out the most sales and discounts throughout the year.

Rarity knowing full well what her typical shopping store is she quickly drags her past it.

“Now now darling, we need to give you a little upgrade.” She says with a wink.

The day went on with Rarity and Sunset spending most of their time in the mall with Rarity “improving” Sunset’s attire. The ends with the two at Sugarcube corners with at least half a dozen shopping bags around them.

“Now for the finishing touches.” Rarity says. “Your phone please darling.”

Handing her phone to her Sunset watches as Rarity begins to tap away at it.

“And just like that we are ready to go!” the young fashionista cheers.

“Uh…what exactly are we ‘ready to go for?’ exactly.” Sunset asks.

Rarity looks up and gives her friend a big smile.

“Why for your little date with Flash of course.”

Sunset’s eyes grow wide at what she just said.

“You what?” She almost jumps out of her seat causing some of the other patrons to look at the two. She swipes her phone bringing it up to her face to see the message she had just sent.

“Oh, don’t worry darling it won’t be an actual date.” Rarity says waving at her. “I just set up a little get together for the two of you. Besides, I’m sure with your new look you two will be dating in no time.”

“But I don’t…we just…I mean…” Sunset drags her hands on her face and drops her head on the table followed by her hitting her head against its surface.

“Now now darling, no need to worry, all of this will be just fine, trust me.”

Instead of saying anything, Sunset just lets out a loud grumble

Just then a notification from Sunset’s phone caught both of their attention.

Rarity went for the steal, but luckily this time Sunset knew better and pulled it away and brought it up to her to read the message.

“It’s Flash…” Sunset says looking up to glare at rarity who only waves her hands at her to respond to the message. Looking back down at her phone Sunset is deciding how she should explain the situation to him on how all this was just one big misunderstanding. There are so many things wrong with the situation she’s in right now. She’s starting to regret asking Rarity for help, but then again, she really didn’t have a choice now.

“Well? What did he say?”

Opening the message Sunset reads over it and is caught off guard by what the message says.

“He says he needs to talk about something with me…he wants to meet up later today.” She says looking up at Rarity.

“Oooohoooh it seems a certain someone is perhap is feeling the same thing!”

Sunset gives her a strange look knowing well that her friend is overreacting, but she would be lying if she wasn’t feeling a small sense of hope.

“Well say something, don't keep him waiting.” Rarity says with a pushing motion of her hands.

Sunset taps away at her phone and shows it to Rarity.

“How’s this?” She asks as she watches her friend skim the screen.

“Darling please, you can do better than that.” Rarity takes the phone and deletes whatever it was that Sunset wrote and begins to type. “Now this will be a much better scene and mood to get you two going.”

“Um...what did you say exactly?”

“Nothing to worry about dear, just get yourself ready by seven and make sure you wear something nice.”

Later that day around six fifty, Sunset is waiting outside a rather fancy restaurant near the outskirts of town. It’s supposed to be one of the best...and one of the most expensive, but of course rarity has it all under control. How? Sunset has no idea, but she has to admit that she’s feeling rather excited.

She wore her typical leather jacket but instead of her normal attire underneath she wore a red button down shirt with orange trousers. For her shoes she’s wearing a nice pair of ruby heels along with some black leggings.

Lightly tapping on the floor, she waits patiently for Flash to arrive. Luckily it doesn’t take long as she sees his car approaching and parking. She makes her way to him unaware of the small skips to her step as she gets close.

She gets a good look at him as he closes the distance between them.

It's a rather semi casual attire: a normal dress shirt with a dark blue thin jacket and some jeans.

"Hey Sunset you're a bit more...uh...different tonight?" Flash says, giving her a bit of a confused look.

Sunset places a hand on her face and lets out a small grown.

"I swear it wasn't my idea." Feeling a hand on her shoulder she looks up to see Flash giving her a small smile. A little part of her felt a little giddy from his smile but her brain quickly told her to shake it off.

"So this place is pretty pricey," flash says, turning to the restaurant. "How'd you get us seats doesn't it usually take like a month in advance just to get seats?"

"Guess it's nice to have people with good connections." Sunset shrugs her shoulders nodding towards the entrance.

“Yeah, guess so.” He says following her inside.

They were given a table next to the window with a pair of menus and glasses of water.

Pulling up the menu Sunset uses it as a make wall so that she could hide her face. Currently her face was a light crimson from embarrassment, but maybe just maybe she’s a little nervous.

“Come on Shimmer you’ve gone on dinners with Flash multiple times already.” Sunset whispers to herself. “Just treat this just like those and everything should be fine.”

Taking a deep breath, Sunset places the menu down and smiles at Flash.

“So what do you think of the day out weather?”

“Dear sweet Celestia Sunset!”

Author's Notes:

Wow been quite a while since I updated this thing...crazy. Not sure if anyone still reads this, but just rewatched EQG stuff and the new mlp movie and that got my juices for this flowing again.

We'll see how this goes.

To anyone still reading this...sorry for the rather late update. Hopefully I'll have enough juice to actually finish this thing. :D