Autumn was Sunset Shimmer’s favorite season. The myriad of different colors in nature was enough to get any creative type’s inspiration flowing. Of course, autumn also signaled every teenager’s greatest dread; the start of the next school term. The first few days back, everyone would be excited to see their friends again but that excitement would be almost completely gone by the end of the first school day.
As Sunset walked down the rapidly emptying school corridors, she could see plenty of examples demonstrating the draining effect just being there seemed to have on some students. She saw plenty of people who appeared to still have some energy left but she chalked that up to excitement at the thought of the school day finally ending. Sunset herself didn’t really mind being back. She wasn’t quite as academically enthusiastic as Twilight at the prospect of learning new things. Just enough that she didn’t find the whole experience quite as draining as most people did. The fact that she was secretly an adult pony who had already long since finished school in her own world also helped matters just a little bit.
What she really enjoyed the most about school was the chance to spend time with her friends, which is exactly what she was going to do right now. Well, she was going to spend some time with one of them, to be exact. While it had started as just a joke, Pinkie Pie had really latched onto the idea of Sunset Shimmer painting her and had pestered her to promise she’d do so. Sunset didn’t mind. She did enjoy painting, after all, and the idea of contrasting Pinkie’s bright color scheme and personality with the slightly melancholic feel of autumn colors would be an interesting exercise! Granted, the leaves were still plenty green but that’s the beauty of art; just because something has a certain color in real life doesn’t mean the canvas needs to reflect that.
Opening her locker, she smiled a bit at how neat and orderly everything was organized. She made a mental bet with herself, wagering that it would be an absolute mess within a month. She reached in and pulled out her bag of paints and other arts supplies, knocking over a few textbooks and notebooks in the process. Okay, maybe half a month.
As Sunset started walking in the direction of the art classroom, she opened her bag to make sure she had everything she needed. The hallways were almost completely empty by now, with only a few stragglers heading off to various after-school activities. She did spot a lone figure lurking outside one of the classrooms though. Sunset didn’t recognize her but there was something strangely familiar about her.
If she had to use a cliche to describe the girl, it would be “Shades of gray”. She wore frayed jeans, a black T-shirt and a dark denim jacket, and her greenish gray hair was side-swept and cut in an artistic, asymmetric manner that looked a little rebellious. Sunset was almost willing to bet that she cut it herself.
She wore a rather aggressive expression, almost as if she was actively trying to scare people out of talking to her. Despite that, she did have a pretty cute face. The girl was looking around, as if searching for something. Maybe she was lost?
Part of Sunset wanted to just walk past her. Somehow the stranger reminded her of herself, of how she used to keep everyone at arm’s length. Another part of her, however, chided her for judging a complete stranger by her appearance. Maybe she just looked like that? Maybe she was a really nice girl who just happened to have a perpetual “Buzz off” look in her eye?
“Excuse me?” Sunset spoke up as she stopped next to the girl, her philanthropic side winning out in the end as she offered her a friendly smile, “You’re looking a little lost. Can I help you with something?”
The girl’s amber gaze bored into Sunset’s eyes like a power drill and she almost immediately regretted her decision. The gray girl just glared at her for several long, agonizing seconds, making Sunset strain to keep her smile on her face. Suddenly, the stranger broke eye contact and glared off to the side as she stuffed her hands in her pockets and spoke up in a gruff, almost gravelly voice, “I’m looking for a girl named Pinkie Pie. Know where she is?” she glanced back at Sunset.
“Oh. You’re in luck!” Sunset responded with a small forced chuckle, happy to finally get a reply, “She’s actually a close friend of mine and I’m heading over to meet her right now.” she could have sworn that the girl’s left eye just twitched but chalked it up to her imagination, “Just follow me!” she gave another forced chuckle as she started walking, looking over her shoulder to make sure the girl was following her. She was.
Sunset expected the girl would fall in step beside her but she just kept walking behind her, keeping a comfortable three foot distance between the two. She could practically feel those amber eyes boring into the back of her skull.
After several minutes of walking in silence, Sunset was looking for any excuse to break it. She swallowed hard and put on her friendliest smile and looked over her shoulder, and she could swear the girl was glaring harder than before, “Uhm...I’m Sunset Shimmer.” No response. She tried again, “Err....and you?” she could feel a single drop of sweat slide down her forehead.
After a few more seconds of intense glaring, the girl finally glanced off to the side and spoke up through partially gritted teeth, “My name’s Limestone Pie.”
Now her strangely familiar appearance finally made sense. She looked a lot like Pinkie if you were to deflate her hair and look at her through a black and white filter. Sunset immediately latched onto the conversation piece, “Oh, so you’re Pinkie’s...?”
Limestone looked like she wanted to do absolutely anything other than answer the question, but answer it she did, “I’m her big sister.”
“I can see the resemblance!” Sunset commented as she looked forward again. With the lack of pink, she realized that Limestone had more in common with Pinkie’s other sister, Maud, at least appearance-wise, from what she could remember about Maud’s appearance when she ran into her at Pinkie’s place in the middle of the night, “So, do you live together with Maud and Pinkie or wh-?”
When she turned back around to look at Limestone again, the other girl had suddenly closed the distance between them and was now less than a foot away and staring her straight in the eye, “You ask a lot of questions.” she commented bluntly.
“S-Sorry!” Sunset apologized with a sheepish smile as she stumbled away from Limestone, “I didn’t mean to be rude, I was just curious.” she promptly shut up, allowing another short silence to settle. She mentally kicked herself for prying, as she had obviously stepped on a metaphorical landmine. She wanted to be on good terms with her friend’s family but so far it seemed she was blowing it spectacularly.
The silence was broken again, surprisingly, by Limestone this time.
“So,” she began in that gruff voice of hers, “- you said you and Pinkie are close?” there was a weird, low tone to her voice that Sunset couldn’t quite place the meaning of. Suspicion? Curiosity? It was hard to tell because Limestone seemed to come off as angry and grumpy no matter what she said.
“Oh, yeah! Very close.” she thought back on how her former enemies welcomed her with... well, maybe not with open arms, but at least a hand extended in friendship, “Oh, here we are!”
They had arrived at the art room and Sunset put her hand on the doorknob.
“Hey, Sunset! You’re late!” Pinkie yelled playfully as Sunset opened the door for her and Limestone.
“Sorry Pinkie, I-” Sunset’s words died in her throat as she bit down on her tongue in surprise and abject horror at the scene before her.
Pinkie had gone above and beyond in setting the scene for the painting, and it was the complete opposite of the somber autumn piece Sunset had in mind. Pinkie had somehow gotten her hands on a veritable hoard of cakes, muffins, cupcakes and other sweet treats and arranged them on a platform in the middle of the classroom, and placed herself smack dab in the middle.
Wearing nothing but a bright pink silk sheet.
Upon spotting her big sister behind Sunset, Pinkie’s eyes grew wide and she sat up with a bright grin on her face, “Limestone! What’re you doing here?”
Sunset sputtered incoherently for several seconds before she managed to remaster the use of her tongue, “Pinkie! What the heck are you wearing?!”
Pinkie’s big, bright eyes blinked innocently before she giggled and batted a hand playfully, “Silly, I’m gonna model for a painting, right? This is what painting models look like!” She scrunched up her face in thought and rubbed her chin, “...isn’t it?”
“No, it isn’t! Well, I mean, sometimes but...ugh.” Sunset massaged her temples as she felt a headache coming on rapidly, “Pinkie, this isn’t exactly what I had in mind when-”
“’Very close’, huuuhhh?” she was interrupted from behind by a voice that was dripping with sarcasm and forced cheer, made all the more ominous by the sound of gnashing teeth. She turned around, slowly, and felt the terror rise in her stomach when she saw how Limestone struggled to keep a forced, full-toothed smile on her face. Her eyes were full of fiery rage and her left eyelid was twitching up a storm. Sunset was briefly distracted for a whole second when she noticed that Limestone had a bit of a snaggletooth. For some reason, that tiny little detail made her obviously enraged appearance seem almost... cute.
She quickly tried to regain her composure, forcing a strained smile of her own as her brain made loops around her head trying to come up with a way to defuse the situation, while at the same time she felt her prospect of befriending Pinkie’s older sister slip further and further away, “Uh, well...you see-”
Once again, she was interrupted, this time by Pinkie as she shot to her feet, “Oh yeah, totally! Sunset’s on my list of six best friends forever!” the bright silk sheet, held in place with only one hand, looked like it was dangerously close to ruining her modesty, “Well, I mean, I guess she used to be a big ol’ bully, but it’s alright! We’re cool now!”
Sunset Shimmer desperately wanted to tell Pinkie to stop helping as she felt like Limestone was trying her hardest to kill her with her death stare, “Uhm, Pinkie-”
She was interrupted again, “It’s kinda like we went from being this close-” Pinkie spread her arms as wide apart as she physically could... and in the process she let go of her makeshift silk toga, causing it to slip.
“PINKIE!” Both Sunset Shimmer and Limestone yelled in unison as they both immediately tried to rush forward to prevent the unfortunate wardrobe malfunction, but in their eagerness their feet got tangled up and they both ended up falling in a heap on the floor in front of Pinkie. They both looked up in horror as the sheet slid to the floor.
“-to this close!” Pinkie stood there in front of them with the palms of her hands practically touching. She was wearing a bikini. She blinked down at them and giggled, “Why are you gals on the floor?”
Limestone and Sunset Shimmer both blushed and let out a long sigh in unison before looking at each other... and then Limestone pushed away from the other girl and got up in a huff.
“Ohhhhh, you actually thought I was nude!” Pinkie Pie chortled and leaned down to help Sunset to her feet, “Sheesh, get your mind out of the gutter.” She joked.
“That. Is. IT!” Limestone growled out through clenched teeth, emphasizing the last word with a stomp of her foot, “Pinkamena Diane Pie! I’m pulling you out of school!” She started looking around for Pinkie’s clothes, finding them in an unceremonious pile on a chair next to the platform.
Sunset turned to look at the older girl in surprise and horror but Pinkie Pie just laughed cheerfully, “You can’t do that, silly!”
“Watch me!” the older of the Pie sisters retorted as she started dressing Pinkie who helpfully raised her arms in the air as she pulled her shirt down over them, “You’re coming back to the farm with me! Today!”
Pinkie just giggled as Limestone placed her skirt on the floor in front of her and then lifted her up before placing her down again inside the confines of the skirt. She ducked down to pull it up, settling the garment comfortably around her little sister’s waist, “No I’m noooot~!” Pinkie replied in a sing-song voice.
“Yes you are!” Her sister practically shouted as she carefully lifted Pinkie one more time and placed her feet inside her shoes, leaning down to tie the laces in record time, “I’m not letting you spend even another second in a place filled with PERVERTS like her!”
Sunset had been staring open-mouthed as Limestone expertly dressed her sister and she could only blink dumbly as the girl stood back up to point angrily at her, looking as if she was about to shoot fire from her eyes, “Uh... excuse me?”
“Pffft! Sunset isn’t a pervert, silly-sis!” before Pinkie had even finished that sentence, Limestone had picked her up, slung her over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes and marched up to the door.
She turned around, ignoring Pinkie’s amused protests, and pointed once more at Sunset Shimmer with a stern look of fury on her face, “Stay away from my little sister!” before she slammed the door shut behind her and left.
Sunset was left alone with only a massive pile of sweets and baked goods for company. She stared at the door in utter confusion, eyes wide and her hair a mess from having survived the tornado disguised as the Pie sisters, “What... just happened?”
The following day, Sunset and Pinkie were both eating lunch in the cafeteria together with the rest of the group as if nothing had happened. Sunset had been worried sick most of the day prior after Pinkie had been carried off by her sister. Fortunately, Pinkie sent her a text later in the evening telling her not to worry and that what happened was completely “normal”.
“So lemme get this straight,” Rainbow Dash began, playing with a tooth pick, “your sister keeps trying to get you to quit school?”
“Yubh!” Pinkie replied through a third helping of pancake sandwiches (brought with her from home, obviously).
When she failed to elaborate further, Dash rolled her eyes and waved her hand impatiently to prompt her to continue, “Because...?”
Pinkie Pie swallowed a huge mouthful of sugary, syrupy goodness, “Because she’s a little overprotective. Duh!”
“A little?!” Sunset repeated incredulously, “She looked like she wanted to kill me!” she shuddered as she recalled the look of murder in Limestone’s eyes.
“Oh, I’m sure it wasn’t quite as bad as it seemed at the time, darling,” Rarity commented as she idly poked at the leftovers of her salad, “Us big sisters can sometimes have a habit of overreacting a tad.”
Applejack, who was seated right next to her, gave a short guffaw, “I’ll say! I remember that one time when Applebloom and Sweetie Belle got into a scuffle and you came a-calling, roaring about mud stains on Sweetie’s dress!” she shock her head with a look of fondness at the memory.
Rarity was inspecting her nails when she dryly replied, “I seem to recall that you were ‘roaring’ quite a bit yourself.” She tapped a finger against her chin in thought, “I also recall the time you forced your sister to wear full football protection when she was learning to ride a bike. The poor dear kept falling over because of the weight.”
Applejack had the good graces to look sheepish as she rubbed at the back of her neck, “I uh... I guess I was a bit of a mother hen, huh?” she perked up almost immediately when she thought of a counter, “Hey, how ‘bout that time when you-”
“The point is-” Rarity interrupted gracefully and expertly, drawing a look of borderline incredulity from Applejack, “-that it is perfectly normal for older siblings to be a little bit overzealous when it comes to their younger siblings from time to time.”
Rainbow Dash, the only sibling-free child apart from Sunset at the table, leaned towards Fluttershy and asked, “Is that really how it is?”
“Oh.” Fluttershy jumped in surprise at having her opinion asked, pausing in her endeavor to discretely gather up a few pieces of salad in a tupperware lunchbox, most likely intending to feed it to her bunny later, “I don’t know. I can't even keep track of all the things my little brother does or even who his friends are so I tend to just leave him to his own business.”
Dash gave a slight grimace when she suddenly recalled several repressed, cringe-worthy memories involving Zephyr Breeze, "Probably for the better."
Twilight briefly took her eyes off of her homework to look at Pinkie, “Still, trying to make you drop out of school over something so trivial sounds a little extreme, doesn’t it?” the idea of being forced out of school must have been absolutely terrifying to her.
Pinkie chortled, putting her plate down after she’d finished removing every last drop of syrup with her tongue, “Oh, she’s been trying to get me out of school ever since I moved here!” she said it with complete, cheerful nonchalance.
“Why?” Twilight looked utterly horrified at the idea.
“Well, she doesn’t think it’s necessary.” Pinkie shrugged, “We were all home schooled. There’s not that much you need to know if you wanna work at a farm.” Applejack looked mildly offended at that statement, “It gets really, really, really, really boring out there in the middle of nowhere though.” she leaned back in her chair and patted her recently filled tummy with a look of pure bliss, “But when Maud decided she wanted to move here to become a geologist, I asked my parents if I could come with her so I could go to school, and here I am now!”
“I take it Limestone didn’t approve?” Sunset asked with a slight hint of sarcasm in her voice, having already guessed the answer.
“Not. At. All!” Pinkie giggled as she put her backpack in her lap, opened it, and pulled out a handful of candy. Sunset felt her stomach turn in sympathy, wondering how on earth Pinkie could find room for even more sweets, “Whenever she thought me and Maud couldn’t hear her, she’d be grumbling about how she never needed some fancy degree or diploma to do farm work!” She popped several gummy candies in her mouth and started happily chewing away, “She’s way too nice to tell us outright that she doesn’t like it though, so she keeps trying to use every little thing as an excuse to try and make me move back home.”
“What about Maud?” Sunset raised her eyebrows but furrowed them immediately after when Pinkie just laughed at the question.
“Limestone stopped trying to change Maud’s mind about anything a looooong time ago!” She stopped talking briefly in order to wash the gummies down with some chocolate milk, “If Maud wants to do something, then Maud will do that something! Yesterday, when Limestone barged in with me and tried to start packing my bags for me so she could take me home, Maud just staaaaaared at her. Limestone argued with her for a solid half hour but Maud managed to convince her to let me stay without saying a single word!”
“That’s... impressive.” Twilight said, blinking rapidly, and Sunset had to agree with her.
“So... is that why she was here yesterday? Just... looking for an excuse to try and bring you home?” Sunset asked tentatively, hoping that it wasn’t really her actions that cause the elder Pie sister to freak out and that she wasn’t really angry with her.
“Kind of!” Pinkie said after she finished slurping down her drink, “She actually only came to drop some stuff off that I forgot on my last trip home and she said she decided to check out the school to see if it lived up to her ‘standards’.” She leaned in and brought a hand up in order to stage whisper, “Except, I don’t think even an Ivy league school would have been up to her ‘standards’.”
Sunset let out a sigh of relief, glad that Limestone’s reaction wasn’t because of her. Then Pinkie decided to destroy that assumption, “She was really angry though!” she looked oddly excited about this fact, “Like, really, really for reals angry! I mean, I guess it’s kinda hard to tell if you don’t know her and she always looks like she’s angry, even when she’s happy. She’s the kinda person who’s hard as granite on the outside, but softer than the fluffiest marshmallow on the inside!” she tapped her chin in thought, “I think there’s a word for it...”
“Tsundere?” Fluttershy offered helpfully.
“You speak Canadian?!” Pinkie leaned over the table towards Fluttershy in excitement.
“Uhm, n-no, it’s-”
Sunset sighed and tuned out the following explanation of foreign media tropes, trying to think of a way to mend the rift between herself and Limestone Pie. Pinkie didn’t seem to be making a big deal out of it but Sunset still remembered all too well what it was like to be utterly hated by someone, and the thought of any of her friends’ closest family disliking her because of a silly misunderstanding didn’t sit well with her. Limestone had most likely gone back home to the farm by now, meaning there would be no opportunity for reconciliation anytime soon.
She rested her cheek against her knuckles and took a deep sip of her soda, gazing out the window at the green trees. She couldn’t wait for them to start changing color. Her throat clamped shut in surprise when she spotted a figure outside of the window, staring straight at her with intense amber eyes. She spat out a mouthful of soda in shock, showering the table in sticky liquid.
“Whoa!”
“What in tarnation?!”
“I say, whatever is the matter, dear?” As Rarity gently patted her on the back to try and help soothe the violent coughs that were wracking her body. Sunset Shimmer stared out the window and somehow managed to, through teary eyes, make out Limestone Pie lurking on the other side of the window. The elder Pie sister glared at her and held up two fingers, making an ‘I am watching you’ motion.
Sunset weakly tried to point out the window in response to everyone’s concerned questions but as soon as she did, Limestone ducked out of view before anyone else could spot her.
“What’s wrong?” Twilight asked in alarm and confusion, looking from the window to Sunset and back again while holding her books above her head, having thankfully managed to spare them from the sugary tsunami.
Sunset was still coughing violently, trying to regain control of her lungs while at the same time trying to formulate proper words, “I...! cough! I thought I saw... cough!”
“Saw what?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in annoyance as she gingerly held up what was left of her now soda-soaked sandwich.
Sunset clammed up. All of a sudden she was afraid she’d end up looking paranoid, like she was jumping at ghosts. Surprisingly, Pinkie spoke up instead, “Probably Limestone trying to be all scary and intimidating.” She casually grabbed a soda-soaked french fry from Applejack’s food tray, inspected it, then popped it into her mouth with an ‘mmmmh!’ of approval.
As everyone at the table stared at Pinkie, Sunset finally found her voice again, “How’d you know?”
“Just a hunch!” was the cheerful reply, “She told me to stop hanging out with Sunset Shimmer and I told her I didn’t wanna, so now she’s probably gonna try and scare Sunset into not hanging out with me!” she said it so casually.
“Okaaaay, I admit, that sounds like a bit more than a simple overreaction.” Rarity commented as she warily glanced out the window.
“Ya think?” Applejack said with just a hint of sarcasm as she too stared out the window.
“Didn’t she go home?!” Sunset whispered loudly as she pulled at her hair, mildly freaked out at the prospect of Limestone, an already intimidating person, going out of her way to scare her.
“Well, she was gunna, but for some reason she said she’d spend the week.” Pinkie grinned sheepishly, “I thought she just wanted to have a week-long Pie sisters (minus Marble) sleepover party, but thinking back on it, I guess this was her plan all along. Uhm...sorry?” when Sunset let her head drop down onto the surface of the table with a ‘thud’, Pinkie actually sat up straight and looked just a little bit serious for once, “I’ll try to talk to her, I promise! She’s really, really stubborn but she’s a good girl, honest!”
Sunset just chuckled and turned her head to rest her cheek against the table as Rarity gingerly patted her on the back. She felt really tired all of a sudden, “It’s okay, Pinkie. I’m sure it’ll work out somehow.” Perhaps she was merely desperate to find a silver lining to the situation, but a small part of her was glad that Limestone hadn’t gone home yet. After all, now she had a chance to set the record straight! A chance to explain to her that it was all just a misunderstanding and she hadn’t talked Pinkie into posing almost nude for her. All she needed was a few minutes alone with the elder sister.
Piece of cake, right?
“Piece of crud.”
Sunset Shimmer was exhausted. She had bags under her eyes, her hair was positively frazzled and she found herself walking with a slightly hunched over posture, looking every bit as tired, if not more so, than her less academically inclined school mates. Reaching her locker, she opened the padlock and stopped to take a deep breath before she roughly pulled it open with a loud bang, jumping back to drop into a defensive posture. All that greeted her was a messy locker (it took less than a week) and a few sympathetic murmurs from the people walking past her. As well as a note taped to the back of the locker which said, in big black sharpied letters, “Stay away from my sister!!!!”
She relaxed a little and gave another loud sigh as she deposited her text books unceremoniously inside the locker, ripped out the offending note and slammed the door shut, putting the lock back in place.
The last few days had been more stressful than finals at Celestia’s School for gifted unicorns. Whenever she said ‘hi’ to Pinkie, Limestone would appear in the distance to give her the stink eye. Whenever she ate lunch with Pinkie, Limestone would be in her peripheral vision to glare daggers at her. Whenever she’d say ‘bye’ to Pinkie, Limestone would be there, cracking her knuckles from a distance.
Celestia forbid if Pinkie happened to give her a friendly hug! The last time she did that, Sunset had opened her locker only to be greeted by a scowling Limestone Pie packed in like a sardine who threateningly whispered “Stay away from-!” before Sunset had slammed the locker shut again in surprise. When she opened it again, carefully and armed with a mop, her locker had been miraculously empty, even though she hadn’t taken her eye off it. It seemed like Pinkie’s reality-defying abilities ran in the family.
She had hoped to get an opportunity to explain herself to Limestone, to explain that she wasn’t some deviant who was trying to lead her little sister astray, but she was literally unable to get a word in during any of their brief interactions.
The stalking didn’t even stop at the end of school. At one point Sunset had grabbed a box of cereal off the shelf at the supermarket and promptly thrown it into the air when she found Limestone’s glaring face hiding between the boxes behind it. She had given her a once-over, huffed loudly, before disappearing once again, leaving Sunset to nurse her racing heart.
The strangest part of the whole situation was that she wasn’t really afraid of Limestone Pie, despite her threatening behavior. Perhaps it was the fact that Sunset had dealt with powers far more threatening than an overprotective sister. Or perhaps it was the factor of diminishing returns; the more Limestone tried to scare her, the less intimidating she became. She still had the Pie-patented surprise factor though, and it was taking several years off of Sunset’s expected lifespan.
Most of all, she was annoying.
At this point, Sunset was just about ready to give up on the whole idea of reconciling with Pinkie’s sister. She was just counting down the minutes... no, seconds until the blasted stalker would just go back home to whatever quarry that spawned her!
Sunset groaned and stomped her foot in an uncharacteristically childish manner when she realized she had forgotten her phone in the classroom and turned on her heel to march right back there to pick it up. It was surprisingly nostalgic to see how her fellow students would open a path for her out of fear as she stomped her way angrily through the school.
Arriving at the history classroom on the third floor, Sunset made a beeline for her usual desk next to the window and shoved her hand into it. She sighed in relief as she felt the unmistakable shape of a phone and pulled it out, immediately recognizing it as her own. She frowned for a second and immediately went about inspecting it, both outwardly and in the software to make sure Limestone hadn’t gotten her hands on it. A few minutes later, she sighed in relief and just slid down into the chair next to the desk.
Autumn wasn’t supposed to be this stressful. It was supposed to be about silently taking in the sights, watching the leaves gradually change colors from green to a myriad of brown, orange and red shades. She pouted and leaned her head against the window, glaring out at the trees lining the parking lot, leaves still a dull green in color.
Sunset’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when she, by complete and utter chance, spotted a familiar gray-haired figure sitting in a beaten old pickup truck, staring intently at the main school entrance through a pair of binoculars. She dropped down and pulled her leather jacket up over her head to cover her conspicuously red and yellow hair before she carefully peaked out the window again. No mistake, that was Limestone, likely keeping her eye out for her.
Now, two options presented themselves to Sunset Shimmer. She could either wait here and keep watch until Limestone Pie grew bored and left, allowing her to then walk home in peace without fear of being stalked. Or, she could use this opportunity to confront Limestone in order to ask her “What the hay?!”
Confronting her in her own car meant it was less likely that she was going to run away. Sunset made her decision quickly, hoping Limestone wouldn’t leave her car to go search for her while she made her way downstairs.
She made sure to duck beneath every single window she passed as she snuck downstairs, practically slithering like a snake along the ground once she hit the bottom floor and made her way to the emergency exit that would put her in the perfect blind spot to approach Limestone’s car.
Pressing her back to the outer wall of the school building, Sunset peaked around the corner to make sure that Limestone was looking the other way before darting towards the closest piece of cover, in this case the principal’s car. From there, she moved to a tree, a bush, another car and so forth until she finally reached the rusty old pickup. She took a moment to write down the plate number, just in case, before she crept around it and opened the passenger seat door and jumped in. She plastered the friendliest smile she could muster on her face, which looked rather plastic due to her high stress levels, and turned to look at her quarry who looked positively shocked by her sudden appearance. The stalker had become the stalked! “Hello! Got a moment?” She asked with forced cheer.
Limestone stared at her dumbly for a few long moments, still holding her binoculars in front of her, before her amber eyes narrowed in annoyance as she grumbled to herself, “Note to self; three ear twitches and a butt clench signifies an approaching creep.”
Sunset just stared, her plastic smile frozen in place, her left eyebrow twitching a couple of times before stopping... only to then start twitching up a storm before she practically exploded in anger, “You know what?! YOU’RE the creep!” She shouted, flailing her arms in the tight confines of the truck as Limestone just continued to glare at her, “You know what I’ve been doing lately?! I’ve been going to school! I’ve been hanging out with my really accepting group of friends! A group that, yes, PINKIE is a part of!” she ran her fingers through her hair as she gathered her thoughts for a nanosecond before continuing, “I am NOT a deviant who is out for your oh so innocent sister’s chastity! I am a REFORMED BITCH who was finally accepted by a group of people who accepts me for who I am! What Pinkie Pie and I have is completely normal and healthy gosh diddily dang FRIENDSHIP!” she ground her teeth and pointed a finger straight at Limestone, but due to the tight confines of the truck, she was practically poking the other girl’s nose, causing her to go cross-eyed for a second.
“YOU! Limestone Pie, have taken the concept of being overprotective and raised it to the friggin’ MOON! You’re paranoid, overbearing, aggressive and an utter control freak!” Sunset emphasized each and every word with a sharp poke against the older girl’s chest, “The way you act like Pinkie can’t look after herself is bordering on a friggin’ sister complex! And just to be clear, she’s not even my TYPE! Grow up and let your sister leave the friggin’ NEST!”
Sunset stopped in order to take a deep breath... and then she took a few more, breathing in and out several times before she crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back against the car seat in a huff. She stayed like that for several moments, wearing an angry scowl and a matching pout, before she glanced over at Limestone to check her reaction. Surprisingly, the other girl was wearing the exact same angry scowl as she had been the moment Sunset started her rant. Her expression hadn’t changed at all.
And then her eyes started watering. Rapidly. Sunset blinked and sat up in surprise as tears started streaming down Limestone’s face, “Oh.” she uttered stupidly, panicking slightly. It was a little bizarre seeing tears stream down that stony but pretty face, “I... I’m sorry, I... went too far. I didn’t mean to make you cr-”
“I’MNOTCRYING!” Limestone roared, causing Sunset to jump. She was still wearing that stony, angry expression, even as her amber eyes overflowed with salty tears.
“Uhm... okay, you’re not cr-” Sunset was interrupted again.
“I’m NOT -hic- CR-CRYING!” Limestone’s nose was starting to drip with snot and her lower lip was shaking.
“Alright, alright!” She tried to calm the other girl down as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a handkerchief. She reached out and made to wipe Limestone’s nose, “Here, blo-”
“I’M NOT CRYING!” Limestone starting flailing her arms wildly and angrily, like a child having a tantrum.
“Hey! Whoah!” Sunset instinctively grabbed one of those flailing arms by the wrist as it was dangerously close to smack her over the nose, and in a flash, her powers activated.
She saw two older people. A man and a woman. The man had a stony face but warm, kind eyes. The woman looked stern but she could feel a loving warmth radiating from her. Her parents. She had to live up to their expectations. She had to make them happy.
She looked out over a practically barren field under a gray sky, a plain farmhouse in the distance. Her farm. It was a hard life. Life was tough and she had to be just as tough.
Three younger girls. Each wearing identical doll-like smiles. Her sisters. So adorable. So innocent. They didn’t know how cruel the world could be. She had to protect them.
She saw both her parents and her sisters standing outside of their humble house, each wearing a small smile. She had to protect those smiles. Had to keep them close.
All of a sudden, the world seemed like it was turned upside down. She saw her three sisters sitting next to each other. There was a flash. The distance between them had grown, and they looked different now. Only one of them was smiling as brightly as before.
Another flash. Two of the sisters were gone. Panic! She looked around and saw them off in the distance by themselves, waving lazily at her. She tried running toward them, but remembered her last sister. She turned around, seeing her youngest sister smile shyly up at her. She was also slipping away slowly. When she turned back around, she saw that the distance between her and the other two sisters had grown even bigger.
Her family was growing apart. From where she stood, she could still see each and every one of her family members, but not at the same time. If she looked at her youngest sister, she could just make out her parents behind her but her other sisters were nowhere in sight. If she turned around, she could see the two sisters, sitting slightly apart, but her parents and youngest sister were nowhere to be seen.
Despair. Desperation. Sadness.
She could see the stained fabric of a moth-eaten pillow as she tried in vain to keep the tears away at night.
She felt so alone.
Another flash and Sunset was back in her own mind as if no time had passed at all. Limestone was still flailing violently in front of her, tears and snot streaming down her face.
Sunset clenched her teeth hard and pulled the older girl into a tight hug, feeling tears of empathy fill her own eyes. Limestone wasn’t much of a hugger though, it seemed, as she immediately started pushing and punching at Sunset in order to get free, causing her to flinch in pain, “Listen-urkh!”
Limestone had managed to get a solid hit in on her pancreas, prompting Sunset to pull her in closer, “Listen!” she repeated loudly, “I know you feel like she’s drifting further and further away from you, but Pinkie Pie loves you, and I’m sure Maud does too!”
Limestone kept struggling, punching and pushing to get loose from the offending embrace, but Sunset didn’t let go, “I know it’s frustrating but you don’t have to try so hard, because you’ll always be family, no matter what! You’ll just end up hurting yourself even more if you refuse to accept that she’s her own person!”
The punches started dropping in severity until the older girl in her arms was just weakly brushing her fists against her. Soon she was shaking and crying loudly, trying in vain to hide her wet sobs by pressing her face against Sunset’s shoulder.
She didn’t know for how long she sat there, silently hugging Limestone and gently rubbing her back in an effort to comfort her. Eventually, the sobs degraded into quiet weeping until Limestone finally stopped crying. Sunset gingerly let her go and the older girl’s arms immediately flew up in order to violently rub her face free of snot and tear stains. Sunset was sure there had to be a massive wet spot on her leather jacket from Limestone’s watery assault but she didn’t care.
They sat in silence for several more minutes as Sunset tried think of something to say, but it was Limestone who finally broke the silence, “I get it, alright?” she slumped back in her seat, staring angrily at the steering wheel with her arms crossed.
“Huh?”
“I know I’m overprotective, and I get that I shouldn’t try to interfere in Pinkie’s life.” she let out a long sigh before continuing, “I’ve always known that I was gonna take over the farm one day. Hell, I basically already run things around there.” she gave a quick little chuckle, a look of slightly cocky smile gracing her cute face before she went back into somber mode, “I just thought... I always kind of had this idea in my head that we’d always be in it together, y’know? All four of us, looking after the farm for ma and pa.”
She leaned her head back and stared at the ceiling as she placed her hand on the steering wheel, idly tapping her fingers against it as she seemed to be trying to think of the right words, “When I realized that my sisters all had their own plans for the future, I didn’t wanna accept it, because it meant accepting that one of these days I’d be all alone.” she sighed loudly and reached behind her to roughly rub at her neck, a small blush of embarrassment on her cheeks, “I know it’s silly, but-”
“It’s not silly.” Sunset interrupted with a light shake of her head. She reached out to grasp Limestone’s hand with both of hers, giving it a little squeeze. Her hand was rough and calloused from years of hard labor, “And you won’t be alone. Ever.” she offered a gentle, reassuring smile, “Just because you all might not always be together doesn’t make you any less of a family. They’ll always be with you, in a way.”
Limestone’s blush only seemed to deepen at the gesture and she cleared her throat as she gave Sunset’s hands a quick squeeze in return before casually pulling free, “Sorry about... punching you all over, back there.”
Sunset simply chuckled, even as she winced as the pain from the various bruises around her mid-section finally started to set in, “It’s okay. I’ve been through worse.”
“And uhm...” Limestone ran her fingers awkwardly through her asymmetrical hair and tried her hardest to avoid looking at Sunset, “...sorry for... y’know... stalking and... threatening you and... stuff.”
Sunset in turn just smiled. All that stress she had to endure during the last few days didn’t seem so terrible all of a sudden, “It’s fine. I have it on good authority that being a little overprotective is perfectly normal big sister behavior.” she joked, but still added with a nervous laugh, “Just... try not to overdo it, okay?”
Limestone actually laughed at that. It was a short and rough little affair, but it somehow made Sunset’s heart skip a beat, “I’ll try. Oh, and uh...” she finally turned to face her, though their eyes didn’t quite meet as she smiled nervously, “...could you please not mention any of this to Pinkie? Both about me pouring my heart out and... that other thing...” she let the statement hang in the air and gave an awkward little cough, and Sunset knew immediately that she was referring to how she practically bawled her eyes out.
“Got it.” she nodded.
Limestone gave her a sideways glance, chewing her lower lip for a moment before asking in a small voice that made her seem almost adorably child-like, “Promise?”
Sunset chuckled and started making a series of hand motions, “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” finishing by miming poking her own eye.
The older girl simply stared at her with a raised brow for a few seconds before she let out a quick bark of laughter, “You’ve been hanging around Pinkie way too much!” she paused before adding, somewhat sheepishly, “...and I don’t mean that in an overprotective way.”
The two shared a quick laugh as Sunset nodded. Afterwards, Limestone had another awkward expression on her face as she asked, “Uh... seriously though, are you sure you and Pinkie aren’t...?” she left the question unfinished but Sunset definitely knew where it was going.
“Oh, yeah, don’t worry, we’re not. She just wanted me to paint her picture and she kinda went a little overboard with the setup.” She chuckled and gave a light shrug as she added, “And like I said, not my type.” She realized her mistake when Limestone narrowed her eyes ever so slightly, as if taking that last part of her statement as a personal insult, so Sunset quickly tried to back peddle, “I-I mean she’s cute! But err... I’d kind prefer someone older than me.” she laughed nervously as she gauged the older girl for her reaction.
Limestone still had the same slightly miffed expression for several agonizingly long seconds before her cheeks suddenly reddened, “Oh.” was all she had to say.
The interior of the old pickup truck was quiet as the two teenagers stared at each other for several moments before Sunset’s own cheeks started to heat up as she realized why Limestone was blushing. Rather than attempt to back peddle again, she instead beat a hasty retreat, “So uh... yeah, bye!”
Another awkward laugh escaped her lips as she exited the car and walked quickly across the parking lot, convinced that that intense amber gaze followed her every step of the way until she was out of sight.
Come Monday, Sunset Shimmer was feeling incredibly well rested. Thanks to her little chat with Limestone, her entire weekend had been completely free of stalking. It was with renewed energy that she practically skipped to CHS that morning, watching happily how the leaves were starting to look a little less green than they did the week prior. She was feeling so refreshed that she actually took some time to clean up her locker before morning classes!
Her suddenly cheerful demeanor wasn’t lost on her friends.
“So, I take it you managed to clear things up with Limestone Pie then?” Twilight asked with a small smile during lunch.
“Yeah, and thank goodness for that!” Sunset laughed slightly, “I’d have hated to see her go back home stewing in her dislike for me.” she happily scarfed down another mouthful of sweet potatoes. She could have sworn that absolutely everything tasted better than she remembered, “Luckily, everything worked out!”
“Well, I’m happy for y'all.” Applejack put a friendly hand on Sunset’s shoulder and smiled, “It ain’t ever fun to leave things on a sour note for too long.”
“She’s still in town, ya know.” Pinkie commented nonchalantly as she happily wolfed down an enormous dessert cupcake.
“Hah?” Sunset turned to look at her with a smile frozen on her face, absolutely certain that she’d heard wrong.
“Mmm-hmm!” Pinkie nodded and swallowed her mouthful of concentrated diabetes, “She was supposed to go home on Friday night but she changed her mind for some reason. She’s never really taken a break from working the farm so mom and dad were totally down with her taking a prolonged vacation. Oh! That reminds me!” She dove under the table, completely oblivious to the way Sunset’s eye had started to twitch. When she popped back up she placed a large, neatly wrapped box with a colorful bow attached to the lid, “She spent the entire weekend making these!”
Sunset could only stare as the box was slid over to her. Eye still twitching, she slowly lifted the lid, revealing a large assortment of what looked like brightly colored stones, “What are...?”
“Rock Candies!” Pinkie yelled happily, standing with her arms spread dramatically, “It’s funny, she never used to bake and all of a sudden she said she accidentally baked way too many and told me to give you these!” She furrowed her brow and tapped her chin in thought, “It’s kinda funny how these are the only ones I saw though. Maybe she hid the rest for later.”
“M-Maybe they’re meant as an apology?” Fluttershy offered quietly, leaning over to look at the shiny treats.
“I’m... not so sure.” Rarity said with a barely restrained smile as she gestured with her eyes towards the window. Sunset barely had time to look over before she saw a shape duck out of view with lightning speed. Moments later, an asymmetrical bob of gray hair with a few twigs and a single yellow leaf slowly rose up from beneath the edge of the window, followed by a pair of intense amber eyes and just the hint of a pair of brightly blushing cheeks.
“Oh.” Sunset managed to squeak, her own cheeks rapidly heating up.
Author's Note
I'm embarrassed to say that I completely forgot that Fluttershy doesn't have an older brother, but a younger brother. I also confess that I couldn't even remember his name. This has been fixed. Cudos to the people in the comments who drew attention to this error!
