Chair-bound

The lines between the cliques had been drawn, Gabby Gums and its copycat sites had been the chalk. Cozy Glow could practically see the lines of tension, she could practically touch them. Teenagers are so easy to convince them to turn on one another. A juicy article here, a heavily edited picture there, sprinkle a modified video on top and today's best friends would be at each other's throats tomorrow. If there was only a way to weaponize that and someone could take over the world.

As much as Cozy Glow would have liked to further whip wild teenage emotions into a frenzy, like a conductor of a symphony of chaos, until the school broke out in a riot, she had a statue to investigate. Approaching the plinth that held the school's mascot, Trotting Jumper the Wonder Colt, she pulled out a silvery metal tube that contained sensitive EM sensors. She twisted the top to switch on the sensitive instruments within, slowly walked around the statue's plinth and waved the tube up and down slowly.

"What'chu doin'?", came the bubbly voice of Pinkie Pie.

Cozy Glow turned to face the hyperactive party girl as she hid the metal tube containing EM sensors behind her back and twisted the top to switch the instruments off. She twisted the toe of her shoe on the pavement and twisted her body back and forth as she said, "I wasn't doin' nuthin'! Promise! I was just pretending to be a scientist from the Allied Stars Republic." Hopefully that would be enough for the pink menace and leave her alone to do her job.

"Oooohhhh! I love Star Tracker!", Pinkie exclaimed as she clapped her hands and jumped up and down. "I have my own scanner!" She pulled a silver-painted plastic tube from seemingly nowhere. "Mind if I play with you? You can be Spork and I'll be Placard!"

Cozy Glow had to fight her own reaction to raise an eyebrow at the pink menace that was able to pull a toy prop from seemingly nowhere. Does she dabble in sleight of hand? She mentally sighed and resigned herself to pretending to play pretend that she was reenacting a character from a hokey science fiction TV show that was nearly sixty years old to keep her work disguised as the actions of a harmless middle school-aged girl. "Yes, it'll be fun to pretend to be a member of the crew of the Allied Star Ship Consolation with someone." Cozy had to struggle to keep the irritated and annoyed inflections out of her voice, as well as to not clench her teeth.

Pinkie squealed with delight as she began waving her silver-painted plastic replica of a scanner around the base of the statue as she made various warbling noises with her mouth. Cozy Glow waited until Pinkie was on the opposite side of the statue's plinth from her to twist the top of the metal tube to turn the scanning instruments back on.

"Captain Placard...", Cozy said, staying in character as a middle school-aged girl pretending to be a grown man playing an alien from an old science fiction TV show. "...could you assist me with reaching the top of the monument's plinth so I can continue scanning the area from a higher altitude?"

"Yes, Mister, Spork, I, will help, you, get, the, data, you, need.", Pinkie replied in a near perfect imitation of the hammy inflections of the actor who played Placard. She knelt down, meshed her fingers together, forming her hands into a platform, so that Cozy Glow could step into them and get boosted up.

As Cozy righted herself atop the plinth, she mentally remarked how deceptively strong Pinkie was. The girl wasn't part of any sports teams, didn't work on a farm or at any other job that required a lot of heavy lifting. All she ever seen this girl do was skip around, hang out with her friends and have a seemingly endless supply of candy, baked goods and other sugary sweets. "Wow-ee! You sure are strong!"

"My family owns a rock farm, so I've spent a looooooot of time turning big rocks into gravel. And with Mrs. Cake being six-and-a-half months pregnant with twins, the doctor has ordered her on bed rest until after she gives birth, so I've had to help Mr. Cake bring big bags of flour and sugar up from the basement storeroom."

Luna pulled up into the school parking lot and saw Pinkie boosting Cozy up onto the plinth of the statue of the school's mascot. Getting out of the car, she retrieved Sunset's wheelchair from the back seat, unfolded it and helped her foster daughter into it. "Go to the cafeteria and get yourself a milk or a juice or something, I've got something to take care of real quick and I'll catch up.", she said, shoving a wad of bills into the girl's hand.

Sunset, whom had seen what was going on, nodded. "Yeah, I'll see ya in a little bit." Stuffing the bills into her pocket, she grasped the rims of the wheels on her chair and rolled to the school entrance.

From her vantage point atop the statue plinth Cozy Glow spotted Luna pulling up. She shimmied around to the front of the statue and made it look like she was having an awkward time of it. If the students and faculty of the school knew that she had extensive training in both free climbing and urban exploration as part of her Specter training, they'd be less inclined to believe she was in any real threat being a little more than six feet up, because they didn't know that, she had a cover to keep. While making it look like she was having trouble moving around the statue and getting scared, she slipped the metal tube into the horse statue's mouth, then clung onto its neck to make it look like she was having trouble and was scared and hanging on for dear life.

Luna hurried up to the state. "What do you two think you're doing?!" Though it was in the inflection of a question, it was more of a statement that they were in trouble and she was laying it out as a question in the hopes they'd at least tell the truth and save themselves further trouble by lying, something that rarely happened with teenagers who were caught with their hand in the proverbial cookie jar.

Pinkie, not hearing the vice-principal walking up, nearly jumped out of her skin at the question. "Oh! Vice-principal Luna, you scared me!", she said in a fright. "We were--"

"Climbing on the statue when you know it's against the rules?", Luna interrupted. "Pinkamena Dianne Pie, you know the rules about climbing on the statue and how dangerous it can be. Or did you forget about when Rainbow Dash climbed up there on a dare, fell off and broke her arm?"

Pinkie hung her head. She flexed her hands into fists as she remembered the way Rainbow cried out after hitting the pavement. Tears shimmered in her eyes and her messy curls started to flatten out. "I-I'm sorry, Miss Luna. We-we were just pl--" A panicked squeal interrupted her sorrowful apology.

Cozy Glow heard and saw what was going on. She wasn't sure if Pinkie would throw her under the bus, but she knew that she'd do the same to the pink menace if the tables were turned. For a quick second, the corners of her mouth turned up in a devious grin. Kicking her feet out from under her, she let them hang in the open air while hanging onto the neck of the horse statue. "AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!", she shrieked in mock fright. "I don't wanna die! I don't wanna die! Dear Baby Jesus, please don't let me die!"

Luna rushed over to the dangling Cozy and wrapped the girl's thighs in a bear hug. "I gotcha! You can let go. I promise you won't fall."

"I don't wanna die! I don't wanna die! I don't wanna die!"

"Cozy! You won't die! I promise! Just let go!"

A dozen students gathered around the scene to watch what was going on. A few had pulled their phones to film what was happening.

Celestia, who had been alerted to something happening by the commotion and gathering students, came out the front door of the school to see Cozy Glow dangling off the neck of the horse statue with Luna holding her by the thighs and telling her to let go. Several students had gathered around, and a few had their phones out, there would clearly be more students on their way if she didn't get control of the situation quickly. "Don't you all have somewhere else to be?", she chided with a scowl on her face.

Several students jerked in surprise.

"Then I suggest you all get there, on the quick.", Celestia further chided. Once the students scattered to other places to be, she walked over to Luna. "Alright Vice-principal Luna, you get her by one side of her waist, I'll get her by the other side and we'll get her down."

Once both women were on either side of Cozy Glow, their hands gripping her waist, Celestia said,"Alright Cozy Glow, we've got you. Just let go."

"I don't wanna die! I don't wanna die!"

"I promise you, Miss Glow, that you won't die. Just let go and we'll put you on the ground nice and safe."

After another round of Cozy begging that she didn't want to die, Celestia grunted in frustration and let the girl's waist go. "Alright Luna, just let her go for the moment while I get someone here who is more qualified to get her down."

"But what if she slips and falls?"

"Luna, it's a little over five feet. I promise you she won't be seriously hurt."

"But Rainbow Dash--"

"Rainbow Dash was trying to do, in her words, 'A sick gainer and totally boffed it.' That's why she got detention once she got back from the hospital. Unless Cozy Glow is secretly a ninja, a super spy or a gymnast, I don't think she's going to be doing any crazy flips. She's just a girl who was climbing on the statue, lost her footing and got scared.", Celestia interrupted. "Just stay right here to catch her in case she slips so you can catch her. I'm going to call the janitor and be right back."

Celestia briskly walked to the front office and stopped at the secretary's desk. "Raven, would you please call Push Broom? We've got a student who climbed up onto the statue, slipped, panicked and is now hanging off its neck."

Raven Inkwell gave a quick nod, picked up the phone's receiver and punched in the number for the head janitor's office as Celestia turned to walk back out of the office.

A few minutes after Celestia had returned to the situation at the statue, Push Broom, the head janitor, walked out of the front door of the school with a pair of stepladders slung over his shoulders. Stepping up to the statues plinth, he set down both ladders and said, "Little lady, you got yourself in a bit of a doozy there, yah?"

Cozy Glow once again went on another tirade begging not to die. It was a ridiculous situation and she knew, but she needed the distraction so no one would notice the metal tube holding the various sensors she hid in the statue's mouth.

Push Broom set up the two step ladders. "Miss Celestia, wouldja help me get her down, yah? I'll hold the little lady by her midsection while you get her fingers loose. Please and thank you."

***

After the incident was over, Pinkie Pie sat in Vice-principal Luna's office while Cozy Glow sat in Principal Celestia's office.

Luna drummed her fingers together as she stared across her desk at the pink girl, who was nervously fidgeting in her seat. "Pinkie Pie, why don't you tell me your side of things?"

While Pinkie was giving her account, Principal Celestia sat behind her desk studying Cozy Glow's face and posture. "Cozy, why don't you tell me your account of things."

Cozy Glow smiled internally. She had extensive training on how to both passively and actively resist all forms of interrogation. Compared to what various government, and more than a few private "contractor" agencies would use to get information, being questioned by a principal of a public school would be a cakewalk. "Well you see, I was playing make believe by myself over by the statue when Pinkie came over and asked if she could join in." That's right, give just enough truth in your account to make it believable. "She said she wanted to play Star Tracker, so I played along and we pretended to be members of the Alliance ship, Consolation. And well...gee golly, I don't wanna do nuthin' to get somebody in trouble!"

Celestia leaned back in her chair in a more relaxed position and interlaced her fingers in her lap. So far everything Cozy was saying seemed to match up with a middle school-aged girl, the way she talked, the way she shifted her weight, the nervous wiggles. But something seemed to be...off. Her youthful mannerisms seemed to be almost...forced, almost like she was someone older who was good at acting. Then there were her eyes, nothing immediately out of the ordinary, she just lacked that naive sparkle that most children her age had, instead they seemed more observant, almost as if this girl was studying her surroundings. Then there was her voice, usually it had that vibrant, sometimes insecure squeak about it, then there were moments when she seemed to shed that squeak and use inflections of someone much more older...and much more manipulative. "Go on, Cozy. No one was hurt, so I doubt anybody will be in trouble. I just want to hear your side of things."

Cozy Glow pressed the tips of her index fingers together as she looked down at her lap and kicked her feet. She darted her eyes about, giving the physical impressions of a much younger and nervous girl. In reality she was studying her surroundings, and observing the principal's posture and facial expressions. "Well...uh, well you see while we were playing make believe, and Pinkie said I should climb upon the statue. She said that all the kids do it. At first I didn't want to, but she kept insisting and I kept saying I wasn't a very good climber. Then she finally convinced me to climb up. And--and after I got up, Vice-principal Luna had walked up, and she scared me."

"And that's when you slipped?"

"Uh-huh." Cozy Glow put a tremble in her lips and squeezed a few tears as she clasped her hands in front of her chest. "Oh please please please please! I don't want to get in no trouble! If I get in trouble, daddy will be mad and I won't get no dessert for a week! Mamma will yell at me and I won't be able to see my friends for a long time, just sit in my room and do nuthin'! Please please please! I don't wanna be in trouble! I promise I won't go near the statue no more!"

"It's okay, Cozy. You're not in trouble. At least here at school. I'll still have to inform your parents. But because nobody was hurt, there won't be any incidents. It's almost time for the bell. I'll write you a hall pass so you can get past the hall monitors without any incident. You've got first period pre-algebra with..." Celestia taped a few buttons on her computer. "...Miss Count. Is that correct?" There was something about Cozy Glow's story that didn't sit right with her, but she had nothing to corroborate her suspicions. She would have to talk with Luna to match up with Pinkie's story.

Cozy nodded her head. "Yes Ma'am."

Celestia pulled a hall pass out of the drawer on her desk and quickly scribbled down the date time and Cozy's class on the piece of paper. "Here you go. Now hurry on so you won't be too late."

Celestia sat at her desk, drumming her fingers on the top watching Pinkie and Cozy leave while Luna leaned on the door frame of her office. "So Luna, what did Pinkie tell you?"

Luna stepped into Celestia's office, sat down in the chair on the opposite side of the desk, rolled her pant leg up, popped off her prosthetic, adjusted the stocking on her stump, slipped the prosthetic back on and rolled the pant leg back down. "Ah! That's much better. The seam had shifted and was putting pressure on the scars.", she said with a sigh. "Anyways, back to your question. Pinkie said she and Cozy were playing make believe that they were Spork and Placard from The Consolation."

Celestia pressed her fingers together to stretch her hand."Cozy said the same thing. She also said that Pinkie talked her into getting up on the statue."

"That's where their stories differ. Pinkie said Cozy asked to be boosted up onto the plinth so she could 'scan' the statue."

"Scan?"

"Yes. Pinkie said she and Cozy had replicas of the mark-III scanner from Star Tracker. She even showed me hers, and it was a dead ringer for the ones on the show, other than it being made of plastic, having no blinking lights and not making any warbling sci-fi sounds."

Celestia pursed her lips as she pressed her steepled index fingers to them. "Did you see Cozy with one?"

Luna taped a knuckle to her chin as she thought. "You know, I don't recall seeing her with one. She could have dropped it when she slipped and it rolled into the bushes, or maybe someone kicked by accident when the crowd gathered up. Maybe one of them pocketed it?"

Celestia mulled over what Luna had said and compared it to what Cozy had told her. "Luna, have you noticed something odd about Cozy Glow?"

"Odd? What do you mean?"

"Nothing I can definitively put my finger on. Most of the time when I see her, she acts like a normal young girl, but sometimes she acts..." Celestia rocked her hand back and forth. "I don't know, weird. Like she's older than she puts on and is simply going through the paces of being a kid."

Luna clicked her tongue in thought. "I've seen her act like that before too. I've also seen other kids her age act like that, especially if they're trying to impress one of the adults by trying to be 'more mature.' If you think there's something going on in her home life that's not on the up-and-up, I can keep a closer eye on her and see if she says something."

Celestia sighed. "No, that won't be necessary. She's probably just a kid going through--WHAT THE?!"

Cheerilee burst into the office, disrupting the conversation and startling the two principals. "We've got a fight in the breezeway! Three boys jumped one boy!"

As Celestia, Luna and Cheerilee rushed into the breezeway, the teachers had just finished breaking up the fight and were in the process of clearing out the crowd. Hoops, Score and Dumbbell had jumped Bulk Biceps. Though the muscular boy had bruises and marks on his face, along with a small trickle of blood from his lip, it was clear that he had trounced the three boys, considering they looked much more banged up. All four boys shrunk under the gaze of Principal Celestia and the glare of Vice-principal Luna.

Once the four boys had been checked out by Nurse Redheart and had been cleared as none of them were seriously hurt, they were sent to the principal's office to get to the bottom of the fight. The incident had started when Bulk, after reading an article on Gabby Gums accusing the boy who was the head of the AV club, Micro Chips, saying he had made lewd gestures and comments at the muscular boy's girlfriend accompanied by a clearly doctored photo. He said he just wanted to talk to the boy and had caught up with him in the breezeway. That's when Hoops, Score and Dumbbell showed up looking for trouble. Once the confrontation was over and the two had started to walk away, that's when Hoops shoved Micro Chips into Bulk Biceps.

Celestia and Luna didn't need to hear the rest. Bulk wasn't known to be a bully and had a reputation for standing up for students smaller than him. The fight broke out in earnest when Bulk stepped up to Hoops to confront him, that's when Score and Dumbbell jumped on him, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Celestia blew out a frustrated sigh. "Mister Biceps, I'm sorry, but the school has a zero-tolerance policy on fighting. I know you were defending yourself, and that's why I'm going to go light on you. You get three days of after school detention where you'll be helping Mister Push Broom scrape gum off of the benches, sweep the floors, changing light bulbs, and taking trash to the dumpsters. I also have to contact your parents. Don't worry, I'll tell them that you were defending yourself."

Bulk swallowed and gave a quick nod."Yes ma'am."

Celestia then turned her attention to Hoops, Score and Dumbbell. "You three get two weeks of in school suspension. You'll be spending your time here at school in the detention room, your teachers will bring you your work. While you're at school, you'll spend all your time in the detention room, with the exception of breakfast and lunch, where you'll be eating at the teacher's table, and for restroom breaks. Hoops, Score, you're also suspended from the basketball team for the next five games. Dumbbell, you're suspended from the football team for the next five games, and your privileges for use of the weight room are revoked for the rest of the year. Consider yourselves lucky I don't slap you three into the washouts program for the rest of the semester. Now get out of my sight and report to the detention room immediately!"

Once the incident was with the four boys had been resolved, Celestia leaned back in her chair and blew out a frustrated sigh. She put the stuff with Cozy Glow on the back burner, for now. "This Gabby Gums site is getting out of hand.", she grumbled. "If it keeps up, I'm going to have to call in a favor to someone I prefer not to." Opening the bottom drawer of her desk, she pulled out a bottle of acetaminophen. It wasn't even ten o'clock yet and she was getting a headache.

Luna snapped her fingers."Aw shoot! I promised Sunset that I'd catch up with her in the cafeteria. With all the crud that's happened this morning, it slipped my mind."

Celestia chuckled. "Who would've thought the tough and strong Luna would develop such a soft spot for a girl?" She waved her sister off before she could retort. "I'm just busting your balls, Na-Na. It's heartwarming to see you take Sunset in and give her a home. I know it hasn't been easy helping her. Just cut out on the PG-safe swears. We're not in a for kids' cartoon. Jesus wouldn't hold an occasional cuss word against you, and I would know, I have a personal line to his office."

The two women shared a hearty chuckle at the last statement.

***

As the bell for lunch rang, Luna made her way to the cafeteria. Along the way she ran across Sunset being pushed in her wheelchair by Fluttershy as Applejack walked beside. They didn't notice her as she walked up, catching the tail end of their conversation. Celestia had opted to not go to the cafeteria.

"Fluttershy, I told you that you don't have to push me.", Sunset said with a slightly annoyed tone in her voice.

"But you were having so much trouble with your wheelchair. Your arms must be getting tired.", Fluttershy replied.

"My arms weren't getting tired, 'Shy.", Sunset said. "I had forgotten to unlock the brake on my left wheel. And besides, I've been working out, building up their strength and endurance." She flexed her right arm in demonstration, showing off the increase in muscle definition.

A blush glowed on Fluttershy's cheeks and she moved one hand from the handles on the wheelchair to fan her face.

"Jus' give her this one, sugarcube.", Applejack said. "Ya ain't gonna talk her outa this. When 'Shy gets it in her head that she's gonna help someone, by God she'll do it, even if'n they're the most lowdown, meanest rattlesnake there is."

"Rattlesnakes aren't mean. They just act aggressive when scared and shake their rattles to scare away whatever is scaring them.", Fluttershy said.

"Fluttershy, Ah live on a farm. Ah know how snakes act and Ah know that rattlesnakes aren't th' mean'uns, it's th' moccasins.", Applejack retorted. "Ah'd know 'cause me an' Mac have had to shoot more'n a few of'em with daddy's ol' twenty-two when they get too close to th' house or get up in th' barn. Callin' someone a rattlesnake is jus' a country-ism for callin' someone mean. Ah've tol' ya this b'fore"

"And what is this about Sunset having trouble with her wheelchair?", Luna asked as she walked up, making the three girls jerk in surprise.

"Oh! Vice-principal Luna, I didn't see you there.", Sunset said in surprise and mild shock.

Luna smirked. She always had the ability to not be noticed if she so chose to and she used that ability more than once to catch many a student with their proverbial hand in the cookie jar.

"Fluttershy and I have three classes together.", Sunset continued. "In second period lit I had only locked my left wheel. When class was over, I had forgotten to unlock my brake."

"And why didn't you lock both wheels?"

"If the floor is level, I only lock one wheel so if someone has to walk behind me and bumps into the chair, I don't go rolling. If I'm in the back of the class, I don't lock the wheels as no one will be walking behind my chair."

Luna hummed in thought. "I can see the logic in that. But what happened that you wound up not unlocking your brake?"

"Lit class today was extremely boring as Miss Off Script was talking on and on and on aaaaaaaannnnnnnndddddd on about her love for The Divine Comedy, and everyone was struggling to not fall asleep. I had to pee really bad, so when the bell rang, I stuffed my books into my backpack and went to go to the bathroom as quickly as possible...only to realize I had forgotten to unlock my left brake. I spun around in a half-circle and knocked over three desks. That's when Fluttershy rushed over, grabbed the handles and unlocked my brake while saying, 'Oh you poor dear! Your arms must be getting tired!'" Sunset pulled her hair into a style similar to Fluttershy's as she imitated the shy, socially awkward and introverted animal lover. With a quick flip of her hair and a shake of her head, her hair went back to its usual style.

Luna silently noted Sunset's pantomiming Fluttershy's mannerisms and the way she quickly flipped her hair to match the animal lover's hairstyle, then flipped her coiffure back to its normal laying. Must be a pony thing. I'll have to ask Sunset about this later. She snapped her head to a student who was rushing through the halls and pointed a finger. "Hey! Does this look like a racetrack?! No running in the halls!" She smirked as the student froze like a deer in a headlight before resuming at a brisk walk. "Well now that the mystery of why Fluttershy was pushing you is solved, I can push you to the cafeteria myself. You know, foster mother privileges and whatnot. Now scooch!", she said turning her attention back to Sunset and waving Fluttershy away from Sunset's wheelchair's handles. The animal lover quickly relinquished her spot from behind the wheelchair.

"I was also pushing her because I like the way her hair smells and she looks pretty.", Fluttershy mumble-whispered.

Only barely noticing the animal lover's voice above the din of students in the hallway, the three looked over at her.

"Did you say something, Fluttershy?", Luna asked.

Fluttershy's face felt hot as her cheeks turned rosy pink. "Eep! Oh...uh...uuuuummmmmm...er...I was just saying...it's a pretty day today."

"Why, yes it is. Not too cold for this time of year and the sun's all bright and shiny.", Luna replied, acting like she hadn't what the shy girl said.

Applejack raised an eyebrow at the shy animal lover and gave a hum as her internal lie detector went off.

The corners of Luna's mouth curled up as she restrained a chuckle. "You know what? I forgot something in my office. Fluttershy, could you push Sunset to the cafeteria? I'll catch up in a few."

Fluttershy nearly jumped for joy. "Oh! Um, yes! Yes. I can do that."

In the line leading away from the hot bar holding trays food and towards the cash register, Sunset felt self-conscious as Fluttershy pushed her and carried their trays. "Fluttershy, you don't have to do this. I can carry my food and wheel myself."

"I don't mind one bit.", Fluttershy said.

At the register Granny Smith rang up the cost of the trays and Sunset quickly shoved the wadded up bills covering the cost of her lunch into the elderly lunch lady's hand before Fluttershy had the chance to pay for both.

At what had quickly become their usual table, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Applejack were waiting on them.

"So Fluttershy, did you tell Sunset that you like-like her yet?", Rainbow blurted out.

Sunset froze in place in shock, her fork halfway to her face, the strands of spaghetti clinging to the tinee dripping sauce onto the tray and table. Her fingers twitched and the fork fell from her grasp, clattering on the table and down onto the floor. I've been an idiot. Her hovering over me like a mother hen and insisting on pushing me everywhere. How could I not notice it? I need to let her down gently. How to do that?

Fluttershy quailed, she shrunk back in her seat and hid behind her long locks, a single eye peering out, darting about in a mix of fear, social anxiety and embarrassment.

The other three girls simply glared at the rainbow-haired athlete.

"What?", Rainbow asked cluelessly. "No, seriously, what?"

Applejack facepalmed. "Dear sweet Baby Jesus, give me th' strength ta not bounce her head off the table.", Applejack muttered. "RD, that's somethin'...ya jus' dun drop inta someone's lap like a live grenade, ya friggin' idjit."

"Allow me, darling.", Rarity interjected. She waggled a finger at Rainbow. "Rainbow Dash! A lady doesn't blurt out to someone if they have told them they like them in that manner. Especially in front of their crushee!"

"Yeah. Totally uncool, Dashie!", Pinkie scolded. "I know that Fluttershy crushing on Sunset has been as clear as sugar syrup, but you just don't blurt out if someone like-likes them for everyone to see. Right, Maud?"

"Yes, Pinkie.", the eldest Pie sister said, seemingly to appear out of thin air. "It took Boulder five years to tell pebble he liked her. And when she rejected him, I helped him get over the heartache."

The other five girls nearly jumped out of their skin.

Rarity held a hand to her chest, feeling her heart beating like a heavy metal drummer during a solo. "How long have you been there, darling?"

"Only about thirty seconds. I usually come to talk to Pinkie and see how her day is going when you all are talking with each other. I don't interject or interrupt as it would be rude."

After a moment, the girl's heart rates finally got back down to a more normal level.

Rainbow sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. "Heh. Uh...sorry about that, Flutters."

"Fluttershy..." Sunset paused, unsure how to word it so as to not hurt the feelings of the animal lover. "Uh...Ah...um..." She picked at one of the armrests on her wheelchair. How to word it? How to word it? Maybe I should...no, that'll hurt her feelings too much.

After what felt like an eternity in her head of trying how to word it, Sunset finally decided on what to say. "Fluttershy, I'm very flattered that you like...uh...like-like me in that way, and know that any girl who dates you will be the luckiest girl in the world. You're one of my best friends in the world, but..." She swallowed hard, there was nothing she could say to keep Fluttershy from crying and it made her feel like an asshole. "I'm not into girls that way. Sorry." The last word came out in a squeaky tone.

Fluttershy visibly wilted and shrank back in her chair, trying to look as small as possible. She hung her head, pink locks cascading down and obscuring her face completely. What those locks couldn't hide were the small sniffles.

Sunset felt terrible. It wasn't her intention to make Fluttershy cry, but she was letting out soft sniffles. She reached out across the table to take her friend's hand. "Fluttershy, it wasn't my inten--"

Fluttershy quickly stood up from the table and bolted from the cafeteria.

Sunset propped her forehead on her hand. She felt like a capital B-I, lowercase itch. Tear stung her eyes as the image of Fluttershy bawling her eyes out danced in her head.

A dark blue hand came to rest on Sunset's shoulder. "Sunset? Is everything okay?"

"No!", Sunset croaked out. It was taking everything in her to not break down into a sobbing fit. "Fluttershy said she liked me and I rejected her. I told her I wasn't into girls." Her lips quivered and weird dimpled crinkles spread on her chin as tears rolled down her cheeks. It was taking everything she had to not break down into an ugly crying fit. "Should I have told her different so she would cry?"

Luna gently turned Sunset's wheelchair around and wrapped her foster daughter in a hug. "No. It would have made it much worse down the line. Rejection always hurts. What you did was better, get it over quickly, like snatching off a band-aid. It may hurt a lot now, but it will also let the pain fade quickly."

Sunset reached up and wrapped her hands around Luna's back to hug her foster mother back, and poured her pain into the woman's shoulder.

Tears shimmered in the other four girls' eyes and they sniffled at the sight of what was going on...except for Rainbow, who gave a few loud coughs to cover up her sniffles and turned away so no one could see her dragging a knuckle across her eye, wiping a few tears away.

***

Tears blurred Fluttershy's eyes as she hurried through the breezeways, ducking and weaving past the other students. If she was capable of thinking clearly, she would've been appreciative that Sunset chose to attempt tolet her down easy, but right now all she could focus on was the sting of rejection, and she just wanted to be alone so no one would see her cry.

Near the back of the school, just past the faculty parking lot, was a patch of oak, pine, poplar and ash trees. Fluttershy walked down a well beaten path and sat on a fallen log. She placed her face in her hands and began to bawl her eyes out.

Wallflower Blush was on her hands and knees in a clearing in the trees, digging up a hole with a trowel to plant a small flowering shrub. She occasionally took a bite from a bologna sandwich that was in her lunch box and took a sip of the fruit punch in her thermos. During lunch period, this was where she took refuge. The sounds of nature help to soothe her nerves. Working with plants also helped her deal with the unwanted mental images of the fire-haired girl being shot and laying on the floor, her life's blood forming a crimson pool on the waxed linoleum tiles. True, there was a lot Sunset deserved for her years of bullying and tormenting her, but nobody deserved to be gunned down like an animal.

The images of that day played out in Wallflower's mind's eye. The gleam of the gun. Sunset standing there, frozen in place like a deer in headlights. Wallflower wanted to shout, wanted to run, wanted to do something...but suddenly her body felt like it was suddenly turned to stone. Then she remembered her ears ringing from the thunder of the pistol and seeing spots before her eyes as the muzzle flash had blinded her. Sunset slumped to the floor as if her legs were suddenly made of string.

Everything had screamed inside of Wallflower to run, to get away, but her body refused to move. She remembered the boy standing over Sunset as the fire-haired asked one question with faltering words, "Why?" She then remembered a yellow blur that went by, Fluttershy, the quiet, introverted and socially awkward girl had thrown herself into the shooter, and all Wallflower could do was stand transfixed, like some witch had cast a freezing spell on her. She remembered the boy running outside, followed by another girl, a minute later there was a loud pop and someone screaming.

Wallflower clenched the loamy soil in one hand tightly and knocked herself on the temple with the heel of her other hand in a vain attempt to knock the unwanted images out of her head. "You're a fucking coward!", she cursed to herself. From the day Sunset was shot, and every day since, she was filled with loathing and self-hate.

Wallflower froze. Over the sounds of the breeze through the boughs, the chirps of birds and the skitter-scatter of small critters was the sounds of crying. Someone was in the wooded patch, her wooded patch, crying. Curiosity getting the better of her, she closed her lunchbox, stood up and snuck through the underbrush, careful to not crush her plants underfoot, step on any twigs, or generally make any noise louder than a rabbit. Sitting on a log crying was the girl she had a secret crush on, the most beautiful girl she had ever known, practically an angel given flesh, Fluttershy.

Wallflower stood behind the tree on the edge of the clearing watching Fluttershy cry. She waffled. She wanted to walk up to the girl, the most beautiful creature she had ever seen, and ask her what was the matter. She wanted to proclaim how she felt to her secret crush how she really felt. That thought made it feel like butterflies were dancing in her belly and made her face feel hot. Simultaneously the thought filled her with dread, as it was extremely difficult for her to talk to anybody.

Wallflower finally decided to leave and save herself any further dread. Preparing to turn away, but daring to take one last long look at the most beautiful creature, she took a single step backwards.

*snap*

Wallflower silently cursed herself. She had been so careful to not step on any twigs, only to step backwards on one.

Fluttershy stopped crying and lifted her head. "Hello? Is...um...is someone there?" She looked in the direction of the snapping twig. As her eyes searched for someone, she noticed vines growing on trellises and evenly spaced flowers. "I'm sorry if I'm in the middle of your garden. It's a very nice garden." She paused to see if somebody responded. "Uh...I'll just go."

Wallflower's legs seemed to move with a life of their own. "No!", she said sharply. "I mean, uh...no. Please stay." What was she doing?! She never talked this much to anyone before, just kept her head down and kept quiet.

Fluttershy smiled at the green-skinned girl that was moving into the clearing. The freckles on her cheeks made her look cute. Her messy dark green hair was perfectly offset by her brown eyes. Her sweater was a bit frumpy, but it fit her well.

Wallflower swallowed her as she stood face-to-face with Fluttershy. Her eyes traced up her secret crush's form, the way the jeans clung to her legs, the way her winter shirt seemed to be perfectly made for her, and those turquoise eyes. She felt simultaneously terrified and exuberant.

"Um...hi.", Fluttershy said softly.

OH MY GOD! She's talking to me! "Um...hi.", Wallflower said back softly.

***

A thin and homely man sat in a darkened room as the images on his three computer monitors danced in his eyes. The long, thin fingers danced across the keyboard and he clicked his mouth. He let out a chuckle as he rerouted the latest attempt by Specter to find out who he was, they'd give anything to find out the real name of mastermind who uploaded the chaos virus to their mainframe . He was only known to most only by his screenname, D15k0rd. He switched back to his original task, assisting Interpol in finding what happened to one of the most wanted and dangerous spies that had escaped prison weeks ago.

On the desk near his keyboard, his cell phone rang. The thin and homely man picked it up. Reading who was calling, a smile spread across his thin lips. Smoothing out his white goatee, he pressed the green icon on the screen and held the phone up to his ear. "Celly, you old cake-eater! Long time, no speak! So how ya been?"