On Your Own

I inhaled and leaned against the door of my car, a black Mustang as I let out my breath slowly, watching the steady trickle of classmates walking inside the school. We had gotten the week off after the battle of the bands, so I didn’t necessarily know how this was gonna go.

Knowing my luck, everything is gonna back to how it used to be. Just the same old she demon everyone loves to hate as Flash elegantly put it last week.

I jumped slightly at a loud honking sound as Vinyls car stopped in the spot next to me with a green looking Octavia, Bon Bon and Lyra inside. Or well, a greener Lyra I suppose is more accurate. She’s always been sorta green to begin with.

“Sweet ground!” Bon Bon cried as she shoved herself out and kissed the ground repeatedly. “Sweet, sweet ground!”

“I’m not that bad of a driver,” Vinyl scoffed as she got out.

I quietly opened my car door to go park somewhere else and they all noticed me again as my entire right side of my body was halfway in.

Vinyl grabbed my wrist and I jumped, glancing back at her concerned red eyes as the other three stood anxiously behind Vinyls car.

“You good?” Vinyl asked quietly so the others didn’t hear her.

“I don’t know,” I answered honestly and my eyes nervously made eye contact with Octavia before I quickly looked away. “They might still hate me. I broke you guys apart. It’s justified.”

“One way to find out,” Vinyl yanked me out of my car, ignoring my protests and kicked my door shut, dragging me in front of the three girls and flung her arm around my shoulder. “This is Sunset Shimmer. She’s my friend and a damn good one at that. If you have a problem with her, ya got one with me, ya feel me?”

“Vinyl dear, you’re terrifying the girl. Let her breath,” Octavia ordered sternly and pulled Vinyl off me. “There you go.”

I nodded silently as Bon Bon kicked some rocks with her shoes and looked everywhere but my eyes as we all stood silently.

“I’m sorry,” Bon Bon said finally and glanced at me. “For uh heckling you during the battle of the bands and hating you after the Fall Formal.”

“Meh, I deserved it,” I commented and Bon Bon closed the gap between us surprisingly fast as I recoiled in fear as she grabbed my hand and squeezed it.

“No. Nobody deserves to be as hated as you were. Especially with the things people said about you or did to you,” Bon Bon looked away in shame as Lyra exhaled. “Lyra has something to apologize for too.”

“For stealing your books to make your fail classes. And your personal books. I’m uh a huge mythology nerd. I was gonna return them after, honest!” Lyra clasped her hands in front of her and rocked back and forth in front of me as Bon Bon stepped back.

“I suppose I’m next,” Octavia sighed and opened her mouth.

“Hey!” Rainbow shouted and I jumped back to look at an angry looking Rainbow walking up with Applejack and Rarity behind her. “Back off.”

I raised an eyebrow as Rainbow stood between the three other girls and myself as she shifted her weight to spread her legs slightly and balled her fists with Applejack and Rarity standing next to me, each shooting the three dirty looks.

“If you wanna mess with her, you mess with all of us,” Rainbow sneered and gestured to Pinkie and Fluttershy standing next to a pink minivan with cup cake stickers all over it. “Leave Sunset alone.”

“Easy Dash,” I rested a hand on her shoulder. “They were apologizing.”

“Oh,” Rainbow rubbed the back of her head sheepishly and stepped back as she relaxed her fists. “Gotcha.”

Octavia shot her a dirty look as Vinyl watched with an unreadable expression.

“As I was saying before being interrupted by a ruffian, I am sorry as well dear. It was uncouth behavior on my part,” Octavia handed me a card in fancy writing.

“Uh, what?” I stared at it before I took it carefully. It had my name on with Octavias full name on the bottom right hand corner.

“It is an invite to my estate for tea. You will need that to get in at the gate if you so choose to attend,” Octavia explained and Rarity squealed softly. I didn’t really see the big deal. I mean, sure Octavia’s family name carried a shit load of weight but still.

“Uhm, thanks?” I tucked it into my pocket and Octavia’s expression changed slightly. Almost disappointed in a way, oddly enough.

“Bitching ride,” Rainbow whistled as she stepped back to examine my car. “I never took you for a car person.”

“Well, I needed to learn how to use fingers after all,” I answered and glanced back. “So I played video games as Vinyl knows, practiced driving or playing my guitar for money.”

More like the guitar I took as mine. It belonged to Celestia knows who. I found it in my shack I appropriated to live in. The only thing I really took pride in was my guitar and car.

“Class starts soon. We should hurry,” Applejack spoke for the first time as she leaned against the hood.

“Joy,” I grumbled dryly with an eye roll. “Yet another day of being hated. What a fun time.”

“Ah don’t know about that one Sugarcube,” Applejack winked and Vinyl smirked slightly.

I left out a hmph and unamused snort as I forced myself to walk with the others behind me. Rainbow stepped in front of me and held open the door, gesturing with her head to have me walk inside.

“I hate this place,” I muttered and Rarity shared a look with Lyra.

“That opinion might change, you never know,” Lyra suggested with a grin and smoothed down her mint green skirt. “I used to hate this place too. It’s pretty cool now though.”

I rolled my eyes at the girl. Lyra always was shockingly optimistic. Even with everything people said about her being weird for her mythology obsession, she never let it affect her. Or if it did, she was damn good at hiding it.

“Here you go,” Scootaloo handed me my book that vibrated and had started to fall out of my bag with Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom flanking her. “You almost dropped that.”

“Uhm thanks?” I shot her a questioning look and Sweetie smiled faintly.

“No problem.”

“That was weird,” I whispered to Rarity as the three middle schoolers walked in the back of the group with Applejack.

“Was it?” Rarity asked innocently and I eyed her suspiciously.

“Yeah. Normally they stayed far, far away from me.”

“Hey Sunset,” Roseluck waved as she, Daisy and Lily stood at their lockers.

“Hi?”

That was weird too. Those three were terrified of me. But then again, they were afraid of their own shadow on a good day. You don’t want to see what a bad day looked like, trust me. I still have ptsd from one such day. Hell, I think half the school did. Who knew three girls could be so scared of bunnies?

A couple people from the football team paused to say hi and I awkwardly returned the gesture, dodging Sweet Leaves and Sandalwood.

“Oh Sunset.” I glanced back at Lavender Lace standing sheepishly behind us, rubbing her head with a hand. “Sorry for trapping you and your friends. Oh, and being a jerk when the completion started. You should go to the gym.”

I gave her a wary look as Octavia steered me to the gym, resisting the urge to dig my heels into the carpet and fight back. If it wasn’t for the encouraging nod Vinyl and Applejack gave me, I would have.

“Why are we in a dark ass room?” I grumbled and flailed around for the light switch.

“Hi,” Pinkie jumped in front of me and I screamed as she turned the light on.

“Pinkie, don’t ever fucking scare me like that again. You know I have a tendency to hit things when startled,” I growled and lowered my fist. “Why am I here and-?”

My question died in my throat as I glanced behind her at a bunch of our classmates watching along with the principals. Spitfire and the soccer team, Baton Switch and the band kids. Watermelody and her whole drama club people.

“What is this?” I asked finally as Pinkie beamed widely.

“A party, duh. Vinyl, Rainbow and I came up with the idea. And now you have even more friends,” Pinkie answered and Rainbow nodded smugly.

“I just needed to distract you long enough to get this set up. I didn’t expect them to be apologizing though. But they did know about it,” Rainbow placed her hands on her hips. “Don’t say it, I know I’m the coolest.”

“But why?” I asked and Trixie snorted a laugh, turning to avoid Derpy’s scowl the gray girl shot her.

“Why not?” Flash countered as he raised an eyebrow. “Sorry for being a cunt by the way.” I chewed my lip as I looked around at them all waiting for my response.

“Forgiven,” I answered finally and brushed a hand through my hair. “All of you, I suppose.”

“And you were saying everyone would hate you,” Vinyl and Rainbow both burst out laughing as the blue haired girl elbowed me. “Sheesh.”

I blushed before giving a genuine smile.

Occasionally, I could be wrong.