Life at Canterlot High

"So...how's the gardening coming?"

Wallflower, looking up from her tea, put on a small smile, for Juniper's sake if nothing else. "Oh, it's been going well. I've been putting in some new roses and they've taken pretty easily." There was silence afterwards, as well as the usual awkwardness that usually got felt when nobody knew what to say. They gathered here as often as they could, these few ladies with one rather particular point in common. Wallflower, Juniper, Gloriosa, and of course the one who hadn't actually turned up yet. Yet every gathering was the same. Lots of silence, lots of discomfort, and most importantly, lots of feeling sorry for themselves. But thankfully, on today at least, Wallflower was able to think of something to say. "So when's she getting here?"

Gloriosa, having just dunked in a biscuit into her own tea, looked up to her. "Oh, you know how she gets. Fashionably late and all that."

Juniper rolled her eyes. "Honestly, it was fine the first couple of times, but now?"

Wallflower nodded. "She doesn't mean to upset us, Juniper. If you told her it bothered you..."

"Then she'd just come up with some justification for doing it anyway," Juniper finished for her.

To that, Wallflower frowned. "The whole reason we're here is because we want to be better. If there's something she's doing that others wish she wouldn't..." She left her words open-ended, much to Juniper's chagrin. But before Wallflower could say anything further, the bell of the cafe's door rang, causing all of them to turn in its direction. "Oh, here she is."

Sure enough, Wallflower was right. Vignette Valencia, looking as confident as ever, sauntered into the cafe like she owned the place. With a smirk, she gestured to the waitress at the front counter, who silently nodded back, and as Vignette made her way over to their usual table, she chuckled a little. "I've been in here enough. They know what I like."

Folding her arms, Juniper looked to her with slight annoyance. "So...this is kind of a weird 'ten in the morning', wouldn't you say?"

Vignette, getting herself comfortable in her side of the booth, gave a single shrug. "Oh, you know how it is when you're a massively popular social media star. Fans just can't stop sending you Bleets."

Juniper gave a smirk that rivalled anything Vignette could do. "Define massively popular."

Gloriosa, seeing the angry look Vignette was developing, cleared her throat, getting the attention of all the others. "So...now that we're all here, how's everyone been doing?"

Juniper, to that at least, gave a genuine smile. "It's been going good, actually. My Uncle invited me to join him and my Aunt for a fishing trip next week. I usually hate those things, but this is the first time he's invited me on one since...since I... you know..."

The other nodded, understanding, with Wallflower placing her hand upon her shoulder. "Well, guess this means he's started to soften to you again."

Juniper held herself. "I kinda wanted to turn down the offer. Not because I don't like fishing, but...but because I don't think I deserve to be treated like the old days."

Gloriosa looked to hear, seeing the clear self-loathing at play there, and offered her a smile. "You may not think so...but your uncle seems to. So...maybe take some comfort in that?"

Juniper smiled to her older friend, grateful at the chance she was giving to be cheered up. In this moment, she took a few breaths, trying to get herself out of her funk, and so took a big swig of her tea. With that finished, she looked around to her fellow ex-evildoers. "So, word on the grapevine is that we might be getting a couple of extra members here at some point."

Wallflower looked to her with confusion. "Oh? Who?"

Vignette gave a knowing smile. "Why, none other than the delightful duo of Post-Crush, my dear."

Both Wallflower and Gloriosa looked to one another, stunned with that announcement. "Wait, the band? The super-famous singers?" the latter asked.

Juniper nodded firmly. "Yep, those are the ones."

Again, Gloriosa and Wallflower gave each other a look, but this time it was the younger of the two who spoke up next. "But...what did they do? I don't recall hearing anything bad during their concert."

Vignette glanced to her. "Oh yeah, I forgot you were there too. Well, long-story-short, turns out their need for a good comeback performance led to some pretty questionable use of Equestrian magic. And not just any magic, we're talking time travel here!"

There was a stunned silence, after which Gloriosa became understandably concerned. "T...time travel? You mean those two have been messing around with history?!"

Vignette paused, considering her own past words. "Well...okay, maybe not time travel exactly, but they were looping around a lot. You know, trying to get their song right?"

Wallflower breathed a sigh of relief. "So...less Terminator and more Groundhog Day?"

Juniper giggled. "Okay, now I'm totally picturing those two going around with sunglasses and trying to put on Austrian accents."

The group all laughed together, and when that died down, with the nearby waitress having taken some of their now-empty tea cups in the meantime, Gloriosa put on another small smile as she looked to Vignette. "And I'm guessing it was a certain redhead and her friends who finally stopped them?"

Vignette nodded in confirmation. "Yep. Well, more Sunset than anyone else. Turns out she was the only one who knew what was going on." She turned to Wallflower. "Kind of like when you were doing your whole magical stuff."

To that, Wallflower started to look predictably dejected. "Yeah...I guess it is just like that."

Vignette suddenly noticed the look of "why did you do that" that Gloriosa and Juniper were giving her, and so quickly decided to backtrack on her actions, clearing her throat and speaking to Wallflower in a softer tone than before. "Hey now, you don't need to worry. It's all in the past now, right?"

She watched as Wallflower looked to her with some incredulity. "Were you just trying to squeeze in a time travel pun?"

Vignette, blinking a couple pf times, suddenly looked very uncomfortable when looking her in the eye. "...Maybe?"

Everyone shook their heads to this, but before anyone could really grate her on the matter, Juniper started to look more than a little curious. "Do you ever wonder how things might have turned out if they weren't there at the time? You know, Sunset and her friends? How would things have played if those girls hadn't stopped us?"

Gloriosa, upon hearing that, instinctively shuddered. "I don't want to think about it. We hurt enough people as it is. If they hadn't been there...there's no telling how far we'd have gone." There was a morose moment between the girls, and they all looked down to their cups, the only sounds being that of the waitress going around the rest of the cafe. Then, after all that, Gloriosa took a deep breath, putting on another smile, if only to appear more cheered up than she actually was. "Still...we were stopped. And that's what matters."

Wallflower smiled to her. "You know, you gotta hand it to Sunset and her friends. We had magic for only a short time and it drove us to all do terrible things. They've had power for who knows how much longer and they're all just as good as they've always been."

Leaning back into her side of the booth, Juniper folded her arms. "Well, that's what you get when you're dealing with a bunch of goody two-shoes. I mean, I'm grateful to them for giving us all second chances and all, but still, it can get pretty annoying to think of how we don't really compare to, you know, a bunch of girl-scouts like that."

Vignette gave her a sly look. "Maybe not as good as you suspect. From what Wallflower told me, our dear Sunset had a few dark moments of her own."

Juniper, raising an eyebrow, turned her attention to the most quiet of their group. "Oh? That right?"

Though hesitant, Wallflower nodded. "Um, yeah. It's what prompted me to do what I did, sort of. Sunset used to be the terror of our school, so it kinda bugged me that so many people treated her like she's this great person now." She suddenly started looking ashamed of herself, burying her face in her hands. "And she is a great person now. I just couldn't see it." The others looked to her with sympathy, knowing full well the guilt she was feeling right now. But they gave her the space they knew she needed, and as she finally lowered her hands, wiping away the pre-tear that was threatening to form in her eye, she resumed her smile. "I guess...it's why she suggested we all get together like this. She knows what we went though better than any of us. Maybe..." She chuckled, if only a little. "Maybe, one day...we can hope to be as good a person as she turned out to be."

Gloriosa turned, looking out of the window beside her. "Think we should invite her over for one of these meetings? She's pretty much ground zero for girls who go bad with magic around here after all."

Wallflower's smile grew. "I'd like that. It'd be good to hear all the ways she got out of all the bad she went through herself."

"I think a lot of that was her friends helping her. Being good to her. Do we have that?" Juniper asked.

There was a moment of quiet for a time, during which there was some uncertainty as to whether they did indeed have the same support Sunset had. Then, at the end of it, it was none other than Vignette who finally answered. "We have each other. Here, now, right?"

All of the others looked to one another, then smiled, giving her an accepting nod. Vignette smiled, taking the moment to take a quick selfie, much to Juniper's chagrin, and thus allowing Gloriosa another thoughtful moment. She stared out at the passers-by on the street. Men, women and children who had no idea she was looking to them. After a while, Wallflower noticed this about her, looking to her with curiosity, and Gloriosa in turn saw her looking to her this way, offering a smile. "I was just thinking." Again, she looked out of the window. "All of us here. We did what we did because magic came into our world. Magic from a place we never knew existed, and may never see with our own eyes. And from what Sunset told me, that magic has just kept on coming." She turned away from the window, holding onto her now-cold cup. "Timber and I talked about it a while back. How many more times will this happen? People like us, taking power they shouldn't and doing bad things with it? How much craziness will the world go through because of magic?"

As had happened several times now, the other girls didn't quite know how to respond, and even looked just as concerned as Gloriosa was. Then Juniper perked up slightly, reaching over and giving Gloriosa a quick pat on the hand to gain her attention. "Maybe it won't happen again. Maybe it'll happen a lot. Who knows? But even when it does happen, at least we know we've got people who know how to deal with it."

In response, Gloriosa smiled. "Yeah...guess it is comforting to know that there's a bunch of heroes who can face all that. They stopped all of us, so...I guess we don't have anything to worry about."

Vignette nodded. "Yes...unless something comes along that's even stronger than the girls." Instantly, the others looked to her with frowns, prompting some worry on her part. "Well, sorry for being the one to have to say it, but we're all thinking it, right?"

Juniper shook her head. "Can't you just leave it on an optimistic note for once?"

Vignette looked to her, gesturing to her phone. "I could just go back to talking about how many followers I have, if you like?"

Juniper grimaced. "On second thoughts...never mind."