Washed Out and Charged Up
Slamming and locking the door behind her, Sunset huffed and growled in rage inside the Royal Canterlot Laboratory. “You don’t control me, you stupid bitch,” She snarled to herself as the conversation with her untrusting mentor that cared only for her studies played through her head again and again, making her fume even more while she kept a hoof placed firmly on the door. Taking a moment to look up and across the the large lab tables placed carefully around the room, with a different experimental bleeding-edge piece of magi-tech sitting out in the open on each one, though with some parts and other magi-tech accessories on the tables as well.
“If you won’t help me get there, then I’ll take this into my own hooves,” She muttered to herself as she pushed off the door and stomped forward towards one of the tables in particular, atop which sat an odd cage-looking device that was meant to clamp around one’s horn to amplify its magical castings. Picking it up with her magic as she went towards the table, she recognized the dim gems that lined the bottom-most edge of the cage as being out of power, making her growl in annoyance again before looking around the table, over the other pieces of wire, gems, and circuit boards to see a electro-thaum-charger resting on the other edge of the table.
Grinning, Sunset swiftly trotted around the large table and saw the cord of the charger was unplugged, and simply slammed into one of the ports on the walls of the table, then placed the magic-amplifier atop the charger and waited. Seeing one of the gems on the charger itself light up, she could tell the amplifier was indeed charging, but...
“Grrr... why do these damn things need to take so long?!” She shouted out in anger, and only then saw the gems on the amplifier start to light up, though very dimly. Knowing it was going to take a lot longer to fully charge, she continued to wait.
And wait.
And wait.
And--”Fuck it.” She grabbed the device off the charger with a hoof while it was at about twenty-percent charge, and quickly slid it onto her horn. “If this thing is actually as good as they say, this ought to be enough to get me to Sydneigh in time for that Washouts show...” Her mind wandered a little at even the mention of that group, with their incredible acrobatic and magic skills capturing her adoration the first moment she saw them, but there was one of the creatures amongst them that truly got her screaming like a fanfilly...
Sunset bit her lip subconsciously as she recalled that scruffy violet coat and the many rough scars across her large body, that deep, thick, rich voice and that lovely Aussie accent, and the flirty, heart-throbbing way she interacted with her fans, both during the shows and the autograph signings afterward...
Shaking herself with a strong blush plastering her face, she pushed away from the table and trodded over to a slightly more open section in the center of the room without a table directly next to her, and took a deep breath to calm herself before closing her eyes. Quickly pulling up the spellwork for teleportation in her mind’s eye, she felt the additional power from the device atop her horn flooding into her, and she took a deep breath, filling the spell with all the magic she could get her horn on while aiming it towards her destination, taking a few extra seconds to calibrate and verify it wasn’t going to explode in her face, and then ZZZAPP!
“Ow...”
Sunset blinked repeatedly, trying to get the white out of her vision so she could actually see something, taking several seconds until she finally saw a blurry smattering of colours vade into view. Trying to focus on them while ignoring the weird lack of feeling the rest of her body was giving her, her eyes slowly tuned back to the real world, and soon found herself looking at a sea of neon lights, all arranged in thin lines and flashing rectangles, with the centerpiece of them all being a large thing made of sharp curves all placed over each other, and wrapped in neon trimming...
“Wait...”
Her eyes widened as she realized; “That’s the Opera House!”
She swiftly started laughing as she realized she made it! All the way to Sydneigh from Canterlot in a single teleport, and without that annoying mentor of hers being any the wiser!
Now, if she could just figure out how to get to the National Park...
Wait, where even was she in the city?
If the Opera House was that small, that meant she was pretty far, but usually a bunch of buildings would cover it up from that distance. Of course, that meant she must’ve been out at the sea or...
As her body’s feeling slowly started to return to her, she could start to feel a very strong wind pushing across her body.
...In the air.
Falling. From the sky.
“Oh FUCK!” Sunset screamed out as she finally realized what was happening, and the surge of adrenaline swiftly returned feeling to her body, and the roaring wind came into clear focus as she continued to plummet.
“Ow ow ow!” She suddenly yelped out in pain as she felt her horn burning, with the device still there searing into it. Quickly reaching up with her hooves and yelping again at the heat of the device against her hooves, she grabbed it and wrenched it off her horn, unable to hold onto it for any longer than it took to just throw it away from her.
Of course, now Sunset was just left falling through the air at presumably terminal velocity, without anything to stop her descent. Opening her mouth to take a deep breath, she was blindsided and almost choked on the amount of air that immediately flew into her maw, forcing her close it and cough some of it back out. Shaking it off and muttering to herself in anger and regret, she decided to throw any further caution to the wind and try and make a magic parachute, lighting up her horn--
“GAAHHHH!!” She screamed out in pain as she was abruptly reminded of how burnt-out her horn was in the most painful way imaginable. Even just trying to send a flicker through her horn made if feel like it was dipped in lava, scorching and searing away at her horn, and she quickly realized there was no chance she was going to be able to do anything with that.
Blinking out some stars from her eyes from that sharp pain and huffing from the exhaustion it just put her through, her eyes started to wildly flit around, looking for something--anything to stop her descent. However, there was nothing. Nothing to stop herself from...
Breathing faster, she couldn’t stop herself from freaking out, unable to do anything but close her eyes so she didn’t have to see the ground come up and up and--
WHAMP!
“Gah-ck!” Sunset coughed out of her mouth as the wind was forced out of her, and she looked around frantically see what just hit her, eventually lifting her gaze upward to see...
“‘Ey, lassie.”
She gasped, and shouted out breathlessly, “R-Rolling Thunder?!”
“Yeh, tha’s me!” The violet-furred mare retorted with wide grin as she held Sunset from under her withers and hind legs, leaving the unicorn to look up at her with an awed expression. “Wat’cha doin’ fallin’ from the sky like ah lunatic?”
Sunset didn’t register the question immediately, leaving her to gape for a couple seconds longer before her brain finally caught up from the overwhelming shock of falling through the sky and into her ~~crush~~ idol’s muscular and firm grasp. Blinking a few times, she tried to gulp down some her hesitance, and said, “W-well, I, u-um... the a-amplifier, and teleport, a-and, um, too much power.”
“...Mind runnin’ that by meh again, mate?”
Gulping and shuddering from the feeling of the scruffy and suave mare holding her, Sunset took a moment to organize her words before saying, “I-I wanted to teleport here to y-your show with, um, experimental tech, but it b-burnt out my horn, a-and......” Unable to figure out how to elaborate further on it, she trailed off.
Thankfully, though, Thunder didn’t leave her in silence, as she looked up at the unicorn’s scorched horn, her expression turning into one of sympathy. “Crikey, well I see why ya ain’t usin’ it, then.” Turning her eyes back to the other mare, she added with her trademark smirk, “Maybeh ya shoulda been screamin’ more with tha’ so I coulda gotcha soonah. Barely heard ya as is!”
Nodding as she blushed slightly from embarrassment, she took a second to tear her eyes away from Rolling Thunder’s electric blue eyes so she could look out at the sky around them, mostly a cool indigo shade above, but lit up like a rave far below. Very, very far below...
“...Tells ya wot,” Thunder eventually spoke, startling Sunset out of her thoughts and dragging her attention back to the other pony, noticing that she had gone rather pale and was a tad light-headed, “Imma set yeh down near the park; showtime’s in a few hours yet.”
“W-well..!” Sunset quickly tried to interject, knowing that if she was set down, she wouldn’t have been held by the beautiful purple pegasus any more, but another glance around them reminded her that she was still high up in the sky above a fall she nearly had to her end, so she stopped herself from finishing that thought, and instead muttered, “Um, s-sure.”
“Aight,” The pegasus replied, and released one of her forelegs on Sunset for just a moment so she could wrap both of them around the other mare’s barrel, and said, “Hold onta ya plotcheeks fer a sec, mate; this ‘bout ta get crazy.” Grinning at her for a second, Thunder let her wings, which until that point were flapping regularly to keep the both of them in the air, flap down hard, sending them up for just a moment before she tilted her wings so they went shooting downward.
Sunset’s breath hitched as she saw the ground below coming back up to meet her, even faster than when she was just falling alone, and her forelegs instinctually wrapped around the pegasus propelling them downward. Even with the confident and incredibly self-assured grin of the very pretty and talented mare holding her, Sunset couldn’t stop herself from panicking as the neon-lit landscape kept growing and growing in her vision, making her force her eyes closed to keep herself from seeing it while she whimpered quietly and leaned her head into Rolling Thunder’s scruffy chest.
Trying to keep her breathing calm as she kept shaking, the scared unicorn could feel the wind racing across much of her body, rolling through her fur and forcing her mane and tail to fly out behind her, dragged along by the rest of her body. However, the direct descent downward soon changed, and the sensation of falling became less pronounced as she was whisked off by the pegasus holding onto her across the sky, taking only a few seconds before they were flying mostly just laterally, presumably towards the Park the Washouts were going to show off in.
Eventually, though, they angled back down towards the ground, and Sunset felt her breath pick up again as she knew she was getting closer to the ground, her forelegs tightening around Thunder, who kept making them go lower and lower and lower...
Sunset then gasped as she felt them swiftly level out for just a second, then fling back up into the air, little pegasus magic guiding them as they fell back down to earth, with a short few flaps stopping them from hitting the ground.
“We here, lassie,” Rolling Thunder then spoke, her voice uncharacteristically calm, making Sunset slowly open her eyes to see the other mare’s piercing blue eyes looking back at her with a hint of worry and guilt. “Just tryin’ ta get us here right quick, yeah?”
“W...what?” Sunset muttered in confusion, still taking a minute to catch up with the fact that they weren’t flying through the air any more.
Eyes turning somewhat deadpan, Thunder explained, “Ya lookin’ like ya ‘bout ta piss yerself, and a’ grippin’ me like ya wan’ ta choke me through ma chest.”
Sharply gasping, Sunset pulled her forelegs away from the pegasus’s barrel and quickly sputtered, “S-sor--Ah!” Her words turning into a short scream as her newly-released grasp on the other mare let her fall down onto the ground below, but only for a moment before her rump thwumped against the grass. Startled frozen for just a moment at the fall, she then turned her attention upward at the sound of laughter, and saw Thunder still floating just above the ground, smirking and chuckling at her.
“Nice landin’, mate,” The pegasus ribbed good-naturedly, watching the unicorn pout with a huff and look away. Snorting at her reaction, she let herself fall down onto the ground as well, landing on her hooves before commenting to the sitting pony, “Well, like I said; we here, lassie.”
Looking up for a moment from her pout to see Thunder turning her gaze to behind the unicorn, Sunset turned around and gasped again as she saw the sprawling National Park with its many trees and trails, but in the center was a smattering of large structures. They varied from simple loop-de-loops, to magnetic metal crushers, to floating rings of fire, but they were all large enough for a fully-extended set of wings to fit within, and were all laid out in an almost haphazard manner, but she had seen enough like them to know it was far more than that.
“Oh my gosh, this is so cool…” The unicorn muttered to herself excitedly, a large grin growing on her face as she looked around at all the machines, knowing full well Thunder and the rest of the Washouts were going to be flying through them all, ducking and diving through the air with not a scratch to show for it one of the most incredible displays she’d ever seen!
A quiet chuckling came from behind her, and she quickly turned around to see Rolling Thunder smirking at her, clearly enjoying her reaction. “Pretty cool, innit?” She remarked with pride.
Sunset nodded her head rapidly in excited agreement, and took a second to push herself up to her hooves, stumbling a bit in her eagerness. “I-I haven’t seen too many in-person, just streaming them, because…” She trailed off for a moment, her energy turning into a dour frown, but before Thunder could get too concerned about it, her big smile came back and she continued, “W-well, I really love actually being here to see these!”
“‘Course, yer always like that at the autographs, mate.”
Sunset smile gained a hint of embarrassment at the comment, but only for a second before she gasped and blushed, sputtering out, “Y-you remember me?”
Rolling her eyes and laughing at the excited, yet embarrassed response, Thunder replied somewhat fondly, “Hells if I ain’t rememberin’ the gals that luv askin’ me to sign every thing on their body.”
Biting her lip in yet further embarrassment, Sunset glanced away and paused again, then looked back and asked hesitantly, “G-gals?”
“Yeah, mate,” The pegasus replied causally, and in her typical heart-throbbing smirk, added, “Ya really think you’re the only gal gettin’ all rosey-cheeked at the signins’, babe?”
“U-u-uh…” The now very heavily blushing unicorn stuttered in embarrassment at that word, her face far too hot to look at the smoldering gaze of the other mare and turned her eyes downward, only to see her hooves were shaking.
The rough, lovely laughter of the Washout brought her attention back up to her as she spoke, “Ya know, cute li’l lassie, I gots a bit of a thing goin’ on with some otha’ fanfillies, where we kinda’… fuck aroun’ when we in the same area, if ya gets wot I’m sayin’.”
Struggling hard to keep her gaze on the other mare’s entrancing face and intriguing words, Sunset took multiple seconds before muttering out, “W-what, like friends with b-benefits, or…”
Thunder shrugged, replying as causal as ever, “Guess so. Don’t really care for namin’ it, though.” Pausing and thinking for a second, she then added, “Well, I guess ya could call it a ‘personal cheerin’ section’ a’ sorts.”
Squinting at the terminology, Sunset wasn’t really sure what to make of the idea. She knew relationships were often rather open, with more than two ponies or other creatures being together with the possibility of adding even more, but it had always felt... odd to her. It was possible she just didn’t want to have to share Rolling Thunder in any relationship they could possibly be in, but with very little experience there, she didn’t really know; however, she was pretty sure that she was influenced by the ponies she lived near, with their snobbish and traditionalist ways rubbing off on her, no matter how much she tried to prevent it.
“HEY, THUNDER!” A voice suddenly shouted, startling Sunset out of her thoughts and making her panic for a moment as she looked over towards the place the Washouts were setting up, and saw a gryphon a decent ways away, looking towards her and Thunder. “GET THE HECK OVER HERE ALREADY!”
“GIMME A FOOKIN’ MINUTE, WILL YA!?” The pegasus called back, then turned her attention back to Sunset, who looked back at her, still a bit startled. “I gots ta help ‘em set up, so I’ll give ya ‘til the show’s over ‘fore I ask ya ‘bout that stuff again, yeah?”
Sunset nodded quickly in assent, letting the other mare grin and turn back to her colleague before flapping her wings to swiftly fly off towards them letting the unicorn think to herself for some more time before the show begun. But, instead of continuing to think on the offer she was just given, the sudden lack of company allowed her mind to drift towards a slow, dreadful realization of the mess she had managed to get herself into.
She had used experimental technology she wasn’t even authorized to touch, burning out her horn (she flinched as she remembered that, the faint, but very real pain coming back to her as she recalled it), sending her falling almost to her death, landing on an entire separate continent, and now was presented with the choice of deepening herself further into her adoration of a group of daredevils (well, mostly just one of them).
Closing her eyes, Sunset took a deep breath to try and calm her quickly-fraying nerves, only really resolving on the fact that she had made it to the Washouts show on time despite it all, and could watch it in full without her overbearing mentor stopping her.
Author's Note
Rolling Thunder’s awesome.
She needs a lot more love.
