Acciaccatura
About two seconds.
That’s how long it would take me to fall from the top of Canterlot High School.
That’s how long it would take me to cease this unfounded guilt that’s been forced upon me ever since the Battle of the Bands. About how long until I’m finally free of forgetting what day or year it is, the epochs blurring together in my mind until it transforms into a slurry of doubt—of fear.
For the first time in my life, I was legitimately afraid.
We were supposed to be able to go home after we absorbed the Equestrian magic. That’s what Adagio promised. Instead, she painted a target on us by attacking those girls. I followed to back her up, and Sonata followed because... she’s Sonata. Sometimes I think she believes two plus two is potato.
Well, there’s no point in assigning blame now. Our amulets were overloaded and shattered. Now we had no way to go home. Now we’re stuck in this dimension. I wiped a tear from my eye as I looked down from the roof of Canterlot High School.
That’s a big drop.
I hugged myself tightly as the frigid wind pierced my core. It apparently gets cooler the higher you go up. I definitely felt the burn as I plummeted down to…
No. This isn’t normal. Normal people were happy. They had lives and friends and hobbies. We had a goal. The implements to achieve said goal were lost to us now. And now I had nothing. Less than nothing.
I had two roommates that are at each others’ throats as they hurled accusations of who was to blame at each other while I sat in the corner, burdened by this oppressive weight, this feeling that I did something fundamentally wrong and there’s no way to fix it. No way to fix me.
I crept towards the edge of the roof. It wasn’t supposed to end up this way. Right about now, Adagio, Sonata and I were supposed to be back in Equestria feeding off of boundless negative energy. Looking upon the neighborhood, I saw lights in houses shut off. I wondered if Equestria had similarly changed.
Not that it mattered, stuck here without my primary mode of interaction. Appropriately enough, I felt like a fish with its fins cut off. It’s time to put me out my misery. I lifted up a foot—
"Aria, what they hay are you doing‽”
I put my foot back on the roof and heard the hum of an engine. Looking down, Sunset Shimmer stood outside of Flash’s car. I couldn’t make out her facial expressions, but she sounded upset.
I had no idea why, though.
“What does it look like I’m doing?” I yelled back down.
Sunset ran towards the school. “Hold on for just a minute!”
I blinked the tears out of my eyes. I could do that. What’s a minute compared to a thousand years? After a few minutes—I gave her extra time because nobody actually means a minute when they say a minute—I heard the door to the roof open as well as stumbling footsteps accompanied with ragged breathing.
“Don’t… don’t… kill yourself,” Sunset forced out.
My face screwed up. “Why not? All I’ve done since I’ve come here is make everyone’s life worse. For centuries my sole purpose was to make people miserable, and the weight of that hit me at the Battle of the Bands.”
Footsteps approached me. “You don’t have to—”
“Don’t come any closer!” I turned to Sunset, her face contorted. “And why do you care what happens to me?”
Sunset held her arms out and slowly approached me like the wild animal I was. I bared my teeth at her. Somehow it wasn’t really effective in this form because she kept closing, inch by inch.
“Because I know that guilt,” she said as she took a deep breath, her chest heaving in and out like a bellows. “You don’t have to do this.”
I shook my head. “I do.” I grimaced. “And how did you know I was even here?”
Sunset looked like she was about to be sick. “Pinkie… Pinkie had a thing.”
I glared at Sunset. “A thing?”
“It’s hard to explain—the point is, you don’t have to go through with this.”
“Try and stop me.” With that, I closed my eyes and stepped off the roof. Sunset’s screams quickly tapered off as I fell for just under two seconds as the wind whistled around my body.
Just under, because I didn’t hit the ground. My body was overtaken by an acute jolt of pain as I was caught in a pair of strong arms. Confused, I looked up and saw Flash Sentry, his eyes as wide as saucers. His arms felt like they were nearly buckling from the force of catching me.
I pushed myself out of his grasp and scrambled to my feet, horrified. “What did you do?” I yelled at Flash, my breaths shallow.
Flash rubbed his arms, obviously sore, and offered a weak grin. “I just saved your life. Duh.”
“What’s wrong with you!” I swung at him. He caught my wrists easily. My range of motion compromised, I did what came to me reflexively and screamed at him. It didn’t do what it used to, but it helped to alleviate the pressure, so I kept it up. Tears flowed out of my eyes as I continued screeching. I fell to my knees, growing weak from… from something.
The shrieking ceased when my throat gave out. My eyes were blurry and my lungs raw as I looked around and spotted Sunset Shimmer standing over me, clutching her side.
“Do you feel better?” she asked, wheezing.
I sniffed as I shook my head. “Maybe. No… I don’t know. All I know is that I feel disgusting and I want it to stop.”
“Well.” Sunset clucked her tongue. “As I was saying before you jumped, I can relate to getting… cleansed.” Sunset shuddered when she uttered that last word.
“Is this something that’s going to get awkward?” Flash asked.
Sunset shook her head. “No, but I think you can let go of her wrists.”
“Um, okay.” Flash let go of my wrists. I wrung them to soothe the burn—he had grabbed them rather hard.
I squeezed my eyes shut. “How did you make it stop? All the guilt and torture over what you’ve done?”
“I’ll tell you I didn’t do it all at once,” she said. I looked over to her to see her hand offered out. “But I can show you how to get started. You can stay with me for the night.”
She sounded confident in her words. That’s a limb I was willing to grab onto. I clasped her hand; She helped me up.
We got into Flash’s car and drove off into the night. I looked out the window into the starry night. I’m not sure what just happened, but I’m in a car with two people who cared that I lived. That’s a step up from where I was a few minutes ago.
