On a sunny afternoon in Canterlot, the Equestria Girls were all gathered at Sunset Shimmer's apartment for a special meal! Six of the seven sat patiently in Sunset's living room, while the hostess was preparing everything in the kitchen, insisting that everyone relaxed.

The girls talked amongst themselves as they waited, but they couldn't help but get a whiff of what Sunset was cooking up, making them even more excited.

Rarity hummed pleasantly. "My, whatever Sunset's preparing in there, it smells divine!"

"Mah mouth's already waterin'" Applejack added. "Think one of us should check up on her, see how things are goin'."

"I'll go," Fluttershy volunteered, putting her hand up. "I'll see if she needs a hand with anything." With that, Fluttershy went towards the kitchen door, opening it to a wave of steam escaping through even the slightest crack.

The meek girl was ready to call for her friend, until she heard what seemed to be snivelling. It didn't seem like she was noticed opening the door, so she kept herself discreet by keeping the door opened only slightly. Putting her ear closer to the door, Fluttershy swore she could hear whimpering. Was Sunset... crying? Fluttershy tried to get as close as she could without causing a disturbance, and she could hear shaky breaths and light sobs. She was!

Fluttershy immediately retreated and went back to the other Rainbooms, who looked at her with stoked expressions that quickly turned to concern as they saw how happy Fluttershy didn't seem.

"What's up, Fluttershy?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"The food almost ready?" Pinkie Pie obliviously added.

Fluttershy held onto her hair as she spoke, "It's Sunset. She's crying in the kitchen." Then at once, everyone jolted into an upright position on their seats.

"My gosh... Is she okay?" Twilight Sparkle asked.

"I-I don't know. I came back here as soon as I figured it out. Oh, I hope nothing bad has happened."

"She's been in such high spirits all week leading up to today," Rarity said. "I wouldn't imagine anything going wrong unless someone did something that upset her."

Applejack seemed to scoff at the thought, shocking the fashionista with her rudeness. "Puh-lease, Sunset's a tough gal. She'd never let some words get her down." As confident as she was with her answer, there was another possibility she suddenly pondered. "...unless it came from someone real close to her maybe."

"Are you suggesting one of us could have done something?" Twilight questioned.

Applejack shrugged. "Kinda blankin' on anyone else it could've been," she answered shamefully.

Then, in a brief moment of silence, everyone's sights turned towards Rainbow Dash, who took a second to realise all the pairs of eyes targeted her. Her face fell into a scowl as she spoke in retaliation, "Are you all serious right now? You guys are blaming me?!"

"Not 'blaming' you, per se. Just out of anyone here, the most frequently insensitive one would probably be, well, you." Rarity struggled to make her point without coming off as harsh.

Rainbow was sent into a maniacal fit of laughter as she realised how she alone was the Element of Loyalty, the way everyone was quick to throw her under the bus. "Oh, that is rich coming from you! While you're at it, Miss Perfect, care to spare a glance at someone who's talking to you instead of painting your nails like your whole life's lead to this moment?"

Rarity dramatic gasped as she held a hand close to her chest. "Well, at least I have a little more decency to talk about anything other than myself, Rainbow Dash! Should I stroke your ego by saying your name again?"

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie stepped between the arguing pair. "Woah, woah! Chill with the hostility, girls. We're not gonna get anywhere being silly like this."

"Like you knew there was something going on until two seconds ago, Pinkie," Rainbow Dash turned her sights towards her now. "Something's clearly wrong and your head's still set on when the food is gonna be ready."

Pinkie stood still for a moment, her eyebrow ends slowly raising high in the air as the insult settled in. "Okay, that is just straight up rude! Sorry if it takes me just one second to get a reading!"

"Alright! Alright! That's about enough 'uh that," Applejack interjected bluntly. "How d'ya think Sunset's gonna feel if she hears y'all bickering like children? If we're gonna get to the bottom of anything, then you'd best can it where y'all are."

That seemed to shut everyone up, but now the angry trio had sinister eyes set on her. Applejack quickly realised the mess she got herself into.

"Maybe you're the one to blame, AJ," Dash suggested. "There's such a thing called 'brutal honesty,' and in your case it's more of a slaughter!"

"For once I agree with Rainbow Dash. You're unbridled (pardon the pun) truth isn't nearly as frequently warranted as you think it is, darling," Rarity added.

"Pardon yerselves, but Ah ain't just gonna stand around and lie 'cus it makes someone feel better. Kinda the whole reason why ya shouldn't in the first place! But Ah guess that's just somethin' an Element of Honesty would know." Applejack gave a doo-doo eating grin.

Rarity just laughed at her. "In all fairness, no one was telling you to lie. Sometimes you may find it would be better if you keep your big mouth shut! Could do you some good right now, in fact."

It was then that the situation hit the fan for the worst, as yelling and insults were thrown around willy-nilly. Fluttershy stood idly by, horrified by how each of her friends were acting. She moved over to the only friend left who wasn't tainted by this bug, Twilight, who just looked annoyed as she typed away at her phone.

Fluttershy sat down beside her. "How did this devolve so quickly?" she quietly asked Twilight.

"Who knows. I'm more shocked it started at all. If any of them used their heads for a second, they might have found an easier solution to all this," Twilight answered, rubbing her forehead due to an oncoming headache.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Fluttershy asked concerningly.

"Well, everyone was so quick to jump to the conclusion that someone made Sunset sad. Meanwhile no one asked about you, even though you checked on her."

Fluttershy breathed through her teeth. "'Checked' is a little bit of a strong word..."

It was then that Twilight raised an eyebrow as it seemed more than she thought weren't thinking fully. "You... didn't check on her? But how did you know she was crying?"

"I may have only listened to her as I opened the door just a crack," Fluttershy said sheepishly.

Twilight gave a long, drawn out sigh as she pinched the bridge of her nose, causing the shy girl to feel ashamed. "Why was asking her not the first idea?" she harshly questioned.

"I just didn't want to intrude on anything. If anything, you all should have known better to send me out of any of us."

"You volunteered yourself!"

It was true. Fluttershy had no leg to stand on. Her face became flushed, which she tried to hide with her hands. "W-Well, I'm sorry!" she accidentally yelled. "What if I go check now? Will that fix things?"

"Maybe everything except the problem you started in here. What were you thinking?!"

"I don't know!" Fluttershy nearly felt like crying. "I just got scared, okay?! I thought we'd be able to work things out together, but then it all took a turn for the worse! Sorry for thinking you would all take this rationally!

"But I guess while we're pointing fingers, you're not so innocent yourself, Twilight! You just sit on your phone while things are happening around you. If you'd look away for a second, you might have noticed how you were making Sunset feel before it got this bad!"

Twilight knew she wasn't going to just take that. "Oh yeah? Well you-" she began as she pointed an accusatory finger. She tried to think of something to come back at Fluttershy with, but she had no dirt on her. "Darn it! You're so kind, I can't even think of a reason to blame you!" Twilight yelled angrily regardless.

The storm raged on without a sign of ending. The six girls barked constant back and forths with eachother, occasionally switching things up to yell at someone else. Whatever the plan was initially, it was long forgotten about. And here they were now, not even a step closer to figuring out why Sunset was crying.

Speaking of, the kitchen door opened and out came Sunset Shimmer smiling happily. However, it was short lived as she came out to see her friends verbally tearing eachother apart! They didn't notice her arriving.

She ran towards the crowd. "Stop! Stop! What are you guys doing?" she asked.

Then at once, the Rainbooms became as silent as a mouse. They glanced at eachother awkwardly before turning back to Sunset. It appeared that she just narrowly stopped them before a brawl broke loose, judging by Rainbow Dash and Applejack gripping eachothers' shirts with one hand and reeling back a fist with the other. Then there was Pinkie Pie sneaking up behind an unsuspecting Dash, holding up a comically oversized wooden mallet.

"You're... okay, Sunset?" Rarity broke the silence.

"Yeah? Why wouldn't I be?"

Fluttershy stepped forward, fidgeting with her hands. "Umm... Well, in the kitchen, I heard you crying. Then one thing lead to another and then we started arguing and I'm so sorry, Sunset."

Sunset appeared dumbfounded. The long haired girl's words took a moment to finally settle in. "Wai-wait. So you guys started fighting because I was crying?"

"Well, we couldn't exactly start the fighting section yet..." Pinkie pointed out, leaning over her hammer like a cane.

"We were tryna figure out what could have caused it, sugarcube. Then we... started blamin' eachother, heh..." Applejack explained.

"Instead of coming to you ourselves which would have been the easiest thing to do," Twilight added on.

Sunset couldn't believe a word of what she was hearing. She steps out for a moment and her friends nearly tear her house down. Getting a camera for her house was a genuine thing she pondered getting for when everyone was over again.

"You girls are all really something. You know that?" Sunset said with a disappointed sigh.

Every person in the room, minus the victim, began feeling embarrassed one by one. None of them had anything more to say. No reasons, no defence, nada. Sunset was in disbelief by what she heard, but she couldn't stay too annoyed. After all, they were just looking out for her in their... unique way. She massaged her brow with her finger and thumb and looked back to her friends.

"Since none of you, thankfully, managed to kill eachother, the food is ready. Would anyone care for a plate?"

And then spirits were restored. The girls each got their plates of food with a side of an important lesson: if anyone is caught crying in their kitchen, don't kill eachother over it.

However, with all being said and done, there was still one mystery on each of their minds. "So, why were you crying, Sunset?" Rainbow Dash finally asked.

Sunset looked up as she pondered when she would have been shedding tears. One point came to mind. "I think what's happened is that you found me while I was cutting onions."

Author's Note

This is one of those things that I started writing purely for the ending joke. Kinda mindlessly blasted through this, but sometimes all we need is some dumb fun, y'know?

I think this will be my last post of 2024, so Merry Christmas! Imma go back to taking my stuff seriously again.