"Sunset."
Pinkie flicked another folded-up paper football at Sunset's shoulder, the target hit its mark spectacularly, flipping through the air and landing on her hand.
"Sunset." Pinkie whispered again, only this time louder.
Sunset remained oblivious to everything that wasn't in her over-driven selective perception. The things that remained outside of her current focus in mind was Pinkie Pie, high-pitched sing-songy voices, touch, most emotions, and stress.
"Sunset, I've been trying to talk to you for twenty minutes! is there anything wrong? Sunset are you even paying attention?" Pinkie asked, prodding Sunset in the small of her back with the eraser of her pencil.
"I think the question is, are you paying attention, Ms. Pinkamina Pie?" The biology teacher asked, Pinkie looked up as she was caught in the act and replied with equal parts energy and honesty.
"Kinda!"
Mr. Labrat's already stern expression hardened into a deep scowl, "I'd like to see you after class. As for you, Miss Sunset?"
Her head twitched upwards in acknowledgement. "Care to tell the rest of the class what we were discussing?"
"Cell reproduction cycle, first the cell aligns itself by pooling at opposite ends of the cell, a seam forms and starts to split, finally-" Standing, the monotonous tone in her voice was only matched by her glazed eyes.
"No need, Ms. Sunset. Glad to see that you were paying attention, unlike someone who simply couldn't wait until the end of lecture to have a conversation. Try to look more alive, Sunset, you have a thousand yard stare and I don't want any students drifting off. Now if there are no more interruptions..."
Pinkie returned to 'kinda' paying attention to Mr. Labrat, and 'kinda' trying to get Sunset's attention.
"Sunset,"
"Sunset,"
"Sunset!" All five of them cried at once. Each of them held their own lunch bought from the food line in the cafeteria, but Sunset's measly peanut butter and jelly sandwich was all there was to show for her lunch, and she hadn't even taken a bite.
Rarity gripped Sunset Shimmer's arm and shook. She blinked twice, finally coming to.
"Oh, hey everyone." Life sparked into her eyes for each word, but then slowly withdrew.
"Sunset, ya wanna explain what happened to ya?" Applejack asked.
"Yah! You used to be loud and angry, then timid and scared, but now you're all mellow and calm, like all the time."
"Like your sister, Maud, right?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, Applejack launched her elbow into Rainbow's kidney, causing her to tip sideways and gasp out a short "Ow!"
"You know I have more than one sister, but yeah! Like Maud?"
"Everyone, I want to thank you for your concern, but the thing is, I'm just tired." Sunset's hands dropped to the table with a thud. Rarity quickly glanced to everyone for reassurance, but Applejack spoke first.
"Tired how?" she asked, Rainbow quickly flicked the brim to upset her hat. Sunset swept her head from side to side.
"Hit by a train doesn't describe it. Crushed by an elephant doesn't describe it, getting winded, soldiering on comes close."
"Are you all right, Sunset?" Fluttershy asked, her voice quivering.
"Yes, Fluttershy, I'm all right."
"When was the last time you slept?" she asked.
Sunset smiled, suddenly laughing before puttering out almost instantly. "It's not that kind of tired."
"How many types of tired are there?" Rainbow asked, "My muscles get tired after a long game, I get tired if there's too much stuff going on in class and it's boring, and all that goes away with a little sleep."
"Still not the same." Sunset replied.
"Girls, I believe Sunset here is fatigued." Rarity said, slowly placing her hand on Sunset's shoulder. A poignant nod was Sunset's approval in response.
"I know a way to get rid of the sleepies! I'll just need to run to my locker to grab the extra balloons, air horn, and warm up the espresso maker!"
"I don't need any coffee Pinkie, and I'm not surprised you have one in your locker either. Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, thank you for your concern, but I just..." Sunset trailed off, allowing the girls to lean in and wait for her to finish, but it was like all the lights slowly clicked off in her head. Rainbow expectantly rolled her hand to let Sunset finish, but nothing seemed to break her stare.
"Sunset?" They all asked,
"Sunset?" Pinkie experimented by poking her with a spoon which was slapped away by Rarity. Rainbow grabbed the spoon and poked Sunset harder. Rarity slapped Rainbow on the hand right as Applejack grabbed ahold of her shoulder and shook.
"Hey! This is just like my laptop when it froze!" Pinkied said, reaching over to the nearest table and grabbing another utensil.
"Pinkie Pie, I think she's having a mental breakdown." Fluttershy said, sliding over next to Sunset. Fluttershy grabbed a hold of her hand, holding it tight. "Rainbow, could you please run and grab the nurse?" Rainbow nodded and bolted for the cafeteria door, leaving the five of them alone. Fluttershy shivered, looking to her friends before leaning in to whisper into Sunset's ear.
"Oh, snap! Fluttershy's doing the voice!" Pinkie squealed, her pitch reaching the height of her capabilities.
"Pinkie, stuff a cupcake in it fer about five minutes so that Fluttershy doesn't break her concentration." Applejack replied curtly, Pinkie nodded and gorged herself on another confection as Fluttershy managed to get Sunset to start nodding.
Slowly, Sunset stood up from the table, latching onto Fluttershy as she guided them to the door. Rarity and Applejack cleared a path as Pinkie penned a note saying 'back in five' and left it on the table.
"She said she was tired and then just stopped talking!" Rainbow said, "I say she's broken but, Fluttershy thinks she's having a breakdown." Nurse Redheart nodded, spotting the group of teens walking towards them with Fluttershy still whispering to her the whole time. Tears were visibly streaking down Sunset's cheeks, but no other facial expression gave a hint as to the reason why.
"Ms. Sunset are you all right?" Nurse Red Heart asked. Sunset turned from Nurse Red Heart to Fluttershy and shook her head, unwrapping her grip from around Fluttershy's arm and giving her a hug. Everyone was equally surprised, especially Fluttershy as she shied away for a moment before returning the gesture. Parting, the nurse lead Sunset away, leaving everyone standing there in the hall.
"So that just happened." Rainbow Dash said, still watching Sunset and nurse Red Heart disappear down a turn in the corridor. "What'd you say to her? How'd you do that, Fluttershy?"
"I said what she needed to hear, I guess." she said, looking down at the spot on her jacket where a teardrop sank into the fibers.
"Is she gonna be all right?" Applejack asked, worry clearly visible on her face.
"Well, it's about time she had one-" Pinkie said,
"Pinkie!" They all shouted back.
"I mean! Just imagine! You came from another world were everyone is a pony where unicorns cast magic, Pegasus fly, and earth ones are really tough and good at non-visible magicy things. Then after holding a grudge-ish for three-ish years, you go back and cement in the fact that you're not to be trusted in your former universe, and the princess of that universe herself comes out, tells us that there are exact copies of us in pony form, ruins her popularity, then the whole demon thing and the elements of harmony blasting her into a crater! Yeah, like that's going to come out in the wash! Now she has to put up with her sworn frenemy's friends because she told us to watch out for her, even though she must think we absolutely hate her for how she treated us the past three years! Not only that, but we've actually been kind and nice to her, so that entire time, she must be waiting for us to slap her or make her do something menial as a way of making that up to us!"
The entire group stared at Pinkie in disbelief, Rainbow Dash mouthed "Wow," as she watched similar faces of bewilderment form on her friend's faces.
"Talk about your 20/20 hindsight there, Pinkie. So...she expects us to punish her?" Applejack asked, "I know when Mac or me screwed up on the farm, there was always the cane to rear us, back when Grandpa Jazz Apple was still around, we always knew it was coming too. Especially if we were acting bratty, one good smack would make sure any of that would stop right then and there."
"I think we're becoming a touch strung tight without Twilight, she was the catalyst for reuniting our friendship, but now, without her, the air does seem a bit thick with anticipation of her return." Rarity offered, the round of nodding heads were cut short by Rainbow Dash's observation.
"Wait, so you think she wants to be punished?" Rainbow Dash asked, "Didn't she like, have to rebuild the front of the school?"
"Well, partially, the builders did most of the work, she wasn’t officially working but it was a form of community service. From what Applejack and Fluttershy have said, Sunset's mental state must certainly be reeling in shock from the expectations she's put up in her head versus reality." Rarity put on a weak smile, trying to rationalize the reasoning behind Sunset's behavior.
"So, what, do we gotta push her down some stairs to make her feel better? Cause I can get behind that." Rainbow said, cackling at the thought.
"No, Rainbow, that is not what Sunset needs, I'm sure that if we did that, it would only confirm her fears and make everything we've done for her in the past month disappear in an instant." Rarity shot back.
"What about blue hair dye in her shampoo? I mean, that's gotta be in the running, right? And- slow your boat Rarity- and if it doesn't work, you can just make it into a fashion statement."
"Rainbow Dash! Bullying her is not the type of punishment she needs right now!" Rarity growled, trying to dispel the entire list of plausible punishments from Rainbow's head.
"Like she doesn't deserve at least some gum in her hair!" Rainbow complained, "She does deserve it Dash, but that is not what we are going to do! We are going to rise above the social deviancy of petty pranks and do better than that to show Sunset she’s always welcome within our group."
"Forgiveness is always the greatest form of punishment." Fluttershy quipped, Rainbow's lips parted in a sneer.
"For what!? For reuniting our friendship? No! For telling us about the zillion other alternate universes and that the statue out front is proof? No! For making friends with Twilight who, without, would've turned us into zombies? No! Do we really need to apologize for turning her back into a human after she decided to become a demon? I'll give you a hint, it starts with short "N" and ends with a long "O"! What exactly do we need to apologize to her for? I would'a sent her off to juvey and be done with the witch." Rarity and Fluttershy gasped at Rainbow's outburst, Applejack was quick to retaliate.
"Rainbow, just a dern minute! You are being way inconsiderate of how she feels! You heard her, worse than being hit by a train. Remember the crater she crawled out of? Yeah, dirt don't just disappear like that without some kinda boom! She's been wracking her brains on how to cope after the fact, and we don't need you to make anything worse by putting gum in her hair or a whoopie cushion on her seat."
"Are you SERIOUS!? That's it! I'm outta here! It's not like she would've been sent to juvey anyway. No, you'd have to do something crazy like draw on the walls, or replace the schools water supply with chocolate milk!" Rainbow stormed off, a scowl dominating most of her face as she clenched her teeth together, uttering curses as Applejack reeled Fluttershy back in before she could go after her. Pinkie quietly made a mental note to try that someday after calculating how much milk she would actually need to have it be in the pipes for a solid amount of time.
"Hold up now, Fluttershy. Rainbow needs to blow off some steam by herself. She'll come around eventually.”
“The heck do you gotta do to send someone to juvey anyway? She totally deserves it.” Rainbow grunted to herself, kicking a soccer ball at the side of the school and running up to it before it could bounce all the way back.
“I mean, we are looking out for her, not like anyone else would at this point.” The soccer ball slammed into the side of the building again without an arc, shuddering the window panes and shades on that particular wall. A few students inside heard the repeating thumps and glanced at the origin of the noise, wondering what could possibly be making that sound.
“And you don’t want to break away from your friends do you?” A voice called out, Rainbow turned to the bleachers where a shaggy haired teen strode down from skipping over every second step while adorned in a bathrobe and brown shredded pants. Coughing twice, smoke slipped through his lips each time as he shed the bathrobe and let Rainbow Dash see his army jacket sewn with dozens of different patches, a poorly drawn pentagram, several animals, and grey t-shirt that read “I do bad all by myself”. Rainbow noticed the lucky rabbit foot necklace, and white feathers tucked into his bandana tied around his ears, the left ear showed severe signs of abuse and the beginning stages of cauliflower ear, the other was pierced with a diamond earring. Flexing his hands through black finger-less gloves, the teenage wore a look of mischief, extending each leg to its fullest as he kept his upper body as straight as possible.
Rainbow caught herself from grimacing away from the smell of bitter oil that hung on his clothes. “I can put Sunset in juvey for you for like seven dollars.” He chuckled.
“And who are you?”
“Man of mystery! A man of wealth and taste! Someone who can make the walls of the establishment come crashing down all for like seven dollars. I can break your mind down and rebuild it, show you things that the Twilight girl spoke about and countless more visions- all for like seven dollars.”
Rainbow cast a wary eye at this newcomer, “Do you even go here? How’d you know about what Twilight said? And what’s with adding ‘like’ instead of just saying ‘seven dollars’?”
“My good gracious! Where are my manners? I am terribly sorry. Discord is my name, spreading anarchy is my game.”
“Do you even go here?” Rainbow asked again, spotting the smoke rising out of the bathrobe. “Your bathrobe’s on fire.” Discord quickly threw It to the ground and stamped it out with his excessively loose, well worn sneakers that look like they were pulled from a trashcan.
“Were you smoking? You know smoking’s not allowed on campus.”
“That’s why I was under the bleachers just moments ago, my good lady. Then after a carefree stroll to the top, I placed myself accordingly to dramatically make your acquaintance-you were shouting to yourself for quite a while there."
"And should I even guess what you were even doing, watching me from over there?" Rainbow Dash rolled the soccer ball to the top of her foot, and kicked it up yo hold in her arms.
"Out of sight from Celestia’s gaze and in the modus operendai of selling small quantities of all-natural stress releasing stimulants for a mere thirty dollars, and pleasant times for after school at the low price of seven dollars.”
Rainbow Dash shook her head, this guy was not making a lick of sense. “Yeah, I’m not really in the mood to play your little game, I just really want to work out my anger.”
“I can sell you a small amount of anti-anger for five.” Discord said, patting his coat pockets.
“I really don’t have five, or seven, or thirty dollars, and I really don’t want to talk to you.”
Discord raised his hands. “Alright! I concede. I know when a sales pitch does reach the intended audience. However, should you ever need me, you can find me in metal, glass design, the library serving detention on Saturday, or my office here beneath the bleachers during lunch. But, please give me the professional curtesy of not telling Celestia or Luna about my offers, hmmm? I’m trying to turn over a new leaf.”
“Uh…no to the first thing, and ‘what?’ to the second.”
“Very good! Now, I must see to my customers, I suggest you leave now to keep high opinions of the people- you thought you knew- around you.” Discord said, waving Rainbow Dash off.
The break in Rainbow's concentration by Discord hadn't lifted her sour mood, he only extended it. Normally getting outside would clear her head, but right now she felt like punching something that really deserves it. Ever since pony-turned-human Twilight left, there's been a weird funk hanging around the school; everyone couldn't believe they were brainwashed zombies. Now they were waiting for Twilight to show up and tell them it was real, or let that night dissolve into an urban legend about an exorcism that happened after a gas leak blew a hole in the front of the school.
"What's it take, huh!?" Rainbow shouted, letting her words echo around the empty field as she walked back towards the school. Like seven dollars. "Yeah, no. That creep sounds like he's got enough cans of worms." Rainbow muttered, trying to push Discord from her mind. "And what the hell can you buy for...oh." She said, looking over her shoulders to the bleachers again. Two people were walking that way, quickly looking around before disappearing into Discord's personal lair.
The route Rainbow took back inside was an attempt to delay the inevitable of confronting her friends inside as long as possible. When she rounded the corner to the front side, the statue Twilight had jumped into was dull and grey as ever. Rainbow sneered, "Come on out," she pressed on hand against it, leaning in with force, but the supposed gateway refused to open. "Come on out, pony Twilight, or let me in." Banging her head against the smooth rock, she pushed herself back and kicked it for good measure. "Stupid statue, stupid other dimension and different universes, stupid ponies-" Her rant finally closed off at the last word, she was letting this go on for too long and wasn't getting anywhere with finding pony Twilight, or even snapping Sunset out of her broken state.
"Aw...shoot. Pony Twilight said something about..." The thought lingered, only a half formed realization that Rainbow didn't want to lose. Her subconscious pushed her back through the doors of the school and down the halls, stopping at the doors to the library. "All right, human Twilight, where are you?" Pony Twilight did spend most of her time here, they even found her bed made of books on the second floor. So what's to say she's not here right now? Pushing through the doors, a few kids were wrapping up last minute projects on computers, some were trying to take cat naps, a dozen or so people were crammed around one table, studying the questions to a test someone grabbed from an earlier period, but over all, there wasn't a whole lot of reading going on. "You brought me here, now what?" She couldn't see her purple haired friend anywhere, even after roaming past all the shelves in hopes of finding her. Checking her phone, Rainbow remembered Twilight hadn't even left them a number, she didn't even have a phone, and she didn't even know what one was, but human Twilight did.
The realization finally surged through like a water breaking through a dam. Half formed ideas on how to track Twilight down gave Rainbow the inspiration to follow through with every one of them until something finally panned out. Fast walking towards the librarians desk, the librarian smiled and asked if there was anything she could help Rainbow with. "Got a phonebook?" Rainbow asked.
The librarian reached under her desk and pulled out a thick book still encased in shrink wrap. Pulling it away and discarding it, she handed it to Rainbow. "We still get quite a few, and you're probably the first student who asked for one all year." The librarian jabbed a bony thumb towards the recycle bin where six more phonebooks, minus the shrink wrap, were sitting.
The rush of finding this world's Twilight was ground to a screeching halt when the fifth period bell finally rang. Gritting her teeth and growling, she shoved the phonebook into her bag before asking "Oh, do I have to check this out?" The librarian shook her head, pointing back to the recycle bin.
Passing through the hall towards fifth period, she passed Applejack who was about to voice a complaint about her attitude, obviously, when Rainbow showed her the phonebook and drummed her fingers over it, wiggling her eyebrows in excitement and quickly running off with out saying a word.
"Darn it, Rainbow, what are you doin' with a phone book anyway? Ya know you gotta apologize to everyone for stormin' off like that!" Applejack called after her. The feeling of glee and knowing something everyone else didn't made her giggle, all she had to do was find that one name and blow their minds away. Rainbow was feeling pretty confident that finding this Twilight would make up everything. Her fifth period passed with a highlighter in her hand, illuminating everything with a 'Twilight' or a 'Sparkle', but not once did she find the name 'Twilight Sparkle' on the same line.
As Rainbow scanned through the S and T sections of the phone book she didn't once see 'Twilight Sparkle on the same line. 'Figures teens aren't listed', but on the bright side with only 23 Twilight's and 15 Sparkle's, her parents might share a same first or last name. Her hand hovered over the dial key for the remainder of the period, begging to be called during passing when a shortcut suddenly popped into her head. "Wait...Princess Celestia, Principal Celestia, Princess Luna, VP Luna, Princess Twilight, human Twilight the student? Everyone who was a princess knew pony Twilight really well, and who was that other one? Princess Katie? Carol? Cathy, Cadance, Carmine, Cassidy, and something about her having a brother? She could practically remember Twilight rattling off every little detail about her life, and herself at the time ignoring most of it. Practically anyone but her would remember what Twilight said about things on the other side of the portal, now to ask the right person without them realizing until after she had found the family members first.
"Fluttershy." She nearly choked at the sound of her own name, but instantly relaxed when she saw Rainbow Dash. "What do you remember pony Twilight saying anything about her family, and the princesses?"
"Oh, and you don't? Twilight went into fabulous detail about her mentor to student relationship with Princess Celebstia, and how we...the other us...brought back Princess Luna after she was changed into Nightmare Moon. Then there was how we fought Discord by reuniting our friendship after he-"
"Stop! Discord? You mean the guy who tried selling me drugs during lunch? The guy I swear I've never seen before, like, ever?"
"Oh dear, selling drugs? I thought we were making a lot of progress after he started attending social reformation classes after school."
"You know the guy?"
"Well, we kinda...sorta...saw... a movie together."
"You're dating him?!"
"And why not Rainbow Dash? Twilight told us that Discord and I were very good friends in her universe, so after she left, I found him in detention and started talking with him."
"Just because something happens in one universe, doesn't mean it has to happen in another. That's like, the whole point of having a different universe! There are differences!"
"Rainbow Dash, your behavior is out of control today, what if I were to say that if your theory is true, then why should we be friends?" There was no use in arguing now, Fluttershy just played a make-it or break-it card in the terms of friendship, and even if it was a bluff, it was a really good one Rainbow didn't want to call.
"Alright, you're right, you can date Discord, just make sure he doesn't offer you anything."
"Rainbow, I am going to fully discuss the sale and use of illegal narcotics on campus with Discord and how bad it could get for him if he doesn't stop." Fluttershy looked away for a moment, already planning what to say to Discord before turning back to Rainbow Dash. "Is there anything else you wanted to know about before sixth period started?"
"Twilight's family, the brother is married to the other princess?"
"Oh you mean Shining armor and Princess Cadanza Mi Amoure? Twilight wasn't able to go into full detail how we helped her-the little pony us- stopped the Changeling Queen from taking over Canterlot after kidnapping Princess Cadanza and brainwashing Shining Armor into making him believe it was her." Fluttershy said.
Never would've guessed that.
"Twilight kept calling her Cadence."
Nailed it. The number of students in the hall rapidly dwindled as their five minute passing period came to a close. "Tell me more about this later, okay Fluttershy? I gotta get going."