My Life Sucks

Twinkleshine propped her head up with her hoof, watching Lyra tossing another donut into her mouth. How Lyra wasn’t sick yet was beyond her. She was easily on her tenth donut at this point as Twilight, Moondancer, Lemon Hearts and Minuette watched.

“You know how bad all that sugar is for your teeth?” Minuette asked as she took a sip of her tea. “You’re gonna die early or something.”

“We are not having another teeth lecture,” Twinkleshine cut in before Lyra could say anything. A good half of the time what Lyra said was either wildly offensive or just stuff that nopony but her understood. “The last time we had one, we were up all night as Twilight gave a college level lecture with you.”

Twilight gave a nervous laugh as she teleported her white board away as Twinkleshine gave her a flat look and Lemon Hearts coughed into her hoof.

“So I’m surprised Lyra isn’t having the lead role in this years play or any role for that matter,” Lemon Hearts brushed her mane aside and everypony at the table had to strain to hear the soft spoken unicorn.

“Hey, after last year when my parents refused to show up because they were too busy at some stupid rich pony party,” Lyra scoffed and rolled a hoof in the air. “I’m not going through that ever again. And besides, Twinkleshine is the one who wants to be an actor here, not me.”

Twinkleshine shrugged in response. She had a fair point there. Lyra had mostly only really contributed music to the plays the school had shown in the rare case they needed a lyre, harp, cello or violin played.

“So I heard somepony got partnered with Sunset Shimmer,” Moondancer looked at Twinkleshine and the white unicorn nodded. “I’ll be praying for you.”

“And the new pony, Silver Spanner. And Ivory Melody,” Twinkleshine added and everypony at the table gave a collective groan, even Minuette surprisingly.

Twinkleshine wasn’t entirely too fond of the idea of working with him and Sunset clearly hadn’t been on based on the scowl on her face when it had been announced.

“I’m going over to Silver Spanners after this. She lives right down the street from me, ironically enough. She and her family moved into that one house. The blue one,” Twinkleshine clarified at the confused looks and the others made an oh sound.

“Sunset kinda scares me. Her magic is unpredictable as all hell,” Lyra shuddered and she eyed Twilight and Moondancer, grinning slowly. “Who do you think would win in a magic duel, Sunset, Twilight or Moondancer?”

“Sunset.”

“Sunset, easily.”

“Without a doubt Sunset.”

Moondancer and Twilight shot the other three unicorns a glare as they chuckled, Twinkleshine taking a slow sip of her milkshake.

“At least give us a little credit. We’d hold our for about five minutes until she blew us to kingdom come and we’d be scorch marks on the ground,” Moondancer grumbled and Twilight nodded her agreement.

The two may not be as powerful as Sunset. Only Celestia outshined Sunset, but the two unicorns liked to think they could survive for at least a few minutes against Sunset.

“Alright, I gotta go back to work,” Lemon Hearts stood up, pushing her chair out as Minuette tilted her head.

“Lemon, you don’t even have a job,” Minuette reminded her pointedly.

“Yeah well when your parents run Donut Joe’s, you kinda have a job regardless. At least I get an allowance from them,” Lemon Hearts shrugged as she trotted behind the counter. “See you girls around.”

Twinkleshine took another sip of her vanilla milkshake. Lyra and Moondancer said it made her the most basic mare in all of Canterlot, but Twinkleshine personally didn’t give a damn.

“Alright, I should probably get going myself if I wanna get any headway on this project. At least it wasn’t any school work from Miss Cinch,” Twinkleshine gave a brief shudder. The old mare was probably the most annoying pony on the school grounds. Or second, depending on who you asked.

There was various nicknames around the school about her, none really stuck out to Twinkleshine. Most were just lame jokes about her name. Moondancer may or may not have been the one to come up with most of them.

“Hey, Moonie? Wanna have a milkshake drinking race?” Lyra asked with a grin and Moondancer shook her head. “Come on.”

“No. You enjoy the brain freeze, I will not. Thanks for the offer though,” Moondancer frowned slightly at her green friend and she watched Twinkleshines pink tail disappearing around the corner.

“Damn,” Lyra muttered as she stuck the tongue out at Moondancer and the other unicorn used her magic to push up her glasses. “Let’s get out of here. Uno at my place.”

Twinkleshine examined the house in front of her curiously before she gently knocked on the front door.

“Uh hi,” Twinkleshine crossed her forelegs after a mare opened the door. “I’m Twinkleshine. I’m working with Silver Spanner on a class project, we agreed to meet today along with the rest of our group?”

“Oh,” Sweetie Charm glanced at the clock before opening the door. “Come inside. I’m her mom, Sweetie Charm. Silver Spanner is out back in her shed working on a personal project at the moment.”

Twinkleshine didn’t necessarily know what to make of that as she followed the taller earth pony inside.

“She just loves to work on her random mechanical projects, ya know?” Sweetie Charm gave a soft laugh. Twinkleshine didn’t know that. She didn’t really know anything about her, after all. “Would you like something to eat? She asked me to make snacks for everypony.”

“Sure, why not? Thank you,” Twinkleshine bowed her head. “I can carry something for you if you wish.”

“You’re sweet, but I got it. Is lemonade okay with you?”

“Yeah that works,” Twinkleshine smiled up at her and used her magic to close the lid on the lemonade jar, levitating some cups in the air. “Sorry, but I insist.”

“It’s nice to see my daughter is friends with such a nice mare like yourself. Her dad and I are a bit worried about her. She had to leave her friends behind to move here. Celestia knows it’s been difficult on her,” Sweetie scuffed a hoof against the wood floor softly.

Twinkleshine didn’t entirely know what to make of that. Silver Spanner had briefly mentioned she wasn’t from here, which did check out considering Twinkleshine had never seen her around before till this week.

Twinkleshine personally had no issue with making friends with new ponies. Silver Spanner was fairly nice the few times they’ve spoken to each other.

Twinkleshine used her magic to open the door, following Sweetie Charm out as two royal guards and Sunset approached them.

“Hello?” Sweetie sounded a bit nervous and Twinkleshine couldn’t fault her for that. Most ponies tended to get a bit nervous when any armed royal guard came to their house, let alone two of them.

“Hello,” Sunset knelt down and bowed as Twinkleshine raised an eyebrow. “Princess Sunset Shimmer. I’m uh, doing a school project with your daughter.”

Oh shit, Sweetie Charm thought to herself and she tried to force herself to bow. Why a princess was bowing to her of all ponies, she had no clue.

“I’m Sweetie Charms. I had no idea my daughter knew you. Can I get your guards anything to eat or drink?”

“No ma’am,” Comet shook her head and smiled slightly. “We’re fine. But thank you. I’m Comet Chaser, that’s Cobalt Blue. It’s nice to make your acquaintance.”

“Normally Thunder is my other guard but I insisted he take a day off with his family. Tomorrow is Comets turn,” Sunset explained and shook hooves with the stunned older mare. “You can just point us in Silver Spanners direction and we will be out of your mane. Lovely house, by the way. I love the blue.”

“Thank you, my husband did it,” Sweetie Charm shifted her weight. “Anyway, Silver Spanner is in the shed, working on something.”

That was weird, Twinkleshine thought as Sunset and Sweetie Charm trotted to the bright yellow shed with a blue smiley face on the side.

“What in Equestria was that about?” Twinkleshine wondered aloud.

“She’s trying out Cobalt’s suggestion of giving out compliments like it’s Nightmare Night,” Comet rolled her eyes and glanced back at Twinkleshine. “Or like a mare giving it out on the street corner in Las Pegasus after midnight.”

“I don’t get that last one?”

“Sorry, inside joke. You’ll get it when you’re older,” Comet chuckled and paused. “Not that uh Sunset gives out anything like what I said. She doesn’t even know about that stuff. So keep quiet, kid.”

Twinkleshine gave a confused nod and tilted her head as Comets sword occasionally bumped against her flanchards. She only even really knew the term for royal guard armor from Twilight.

“What in Equestria is that?”

Twinkleshine gawked at random sheets of metal laying in piles in the shed, Silver Spanner using her magic to tighten some bolts on the metal thing in the room, a hammer held in her mouth as the other mare was covered in grease and oil in random spots on her body, mostly her head and hooves, a few spots on her flanks.

Sunset and Cobalt were trotting around it slowly, Sunset looking surprisingly curious about whatever it was they were all looking at.

“What is this?” Sunset asked and Silver Spanner levitated the tool onto a bench, her mane sticking to her face from sweat and grease.

“It’s a generator,” Silver Spanner answered and tapped a dirty hoof against some sheets of paper. “It’s supposed to provide power to houses if we ever move past using controlled lightning strikes to power houses. But I haven’t really found a good fuel yet for it. I’ve experimented a bit, but nothing works well. It’s also not going to power anything for too long, unfortunately.”

Twinkleshine didn’t have a single clue what just came out her mouth, but she did know Twilight and Moondancer would have a field day if they were here right now.

“This bolt is loose,” Sunset commented as Silver Spanner joined her, the amber unicorn tapping a hoof against the generator as Silver Spanner called it. “You should also put some legs, so to speak here and here. It’ll provide some extra stability in case the other ones fail.”

Now it makes sense why she has a tool for a cutie mark, Twinkleshine mused as she set down the cups on a table in the corner.

“You’re right. Huh, not bad. I’m stupid for missing that,” Silver Spanner mutted and she levitated some metal over. “Damn, I’m running out of materials.”

“Not stupid. Sometimes you just need another pair of eyes,” Sunset shrugged as the pair shared a quick smile. Twinkleshine faintly made out the two guards grinning at each other quickly.

“Silver Spanner, don’t curse in front of the Princess please,” Sweetie Charm rubbed a wash cloth against her daughters head. “You’re filthy, by the way. You need a bath and then a shower to make sure it’s all off you.”

“What princess?” Silver Spanner asked in confusion and groaned as her mom kept washing her face and white mane off, looking around as her eyes fell on Sunset and pieces fell together. “You?”

Sunset gave a sheepish nod and a uncomfortable smile as Twinkleshine watched.

“I knew I recognized you somewhere!” Silver Spanner exclaimed as she pointed a hoof. “You were in the newspaper in Neigh Jersey after that one city got hit by a tornado because you and Princess Celestia were helping clean up the town.”

Sunset nodded and shifted on her hooves. She had spent most of her time with the royal guards during that incident, either keeping the lists of missing ponies separate from the ones found to playing with some random foals she had found to offering food to some ponies.

The newspaper had ran wild with that image of Sunset sitting with a sleeping foal on her lap. Sunset believed she still had that newspaper clipping on her wall back at the castle. Sunset faintly remembered passing out with the foal right after.

“Yeah, that’s me,” Sunset confessed and shrugged.

“Why can’t I go in my own shed?” A stallion demanded as Comet and Cobalt blocked his path with their wings. “I live here, this is my property. You don’t get to tell me I’m not allowed entry. Leave now.”

“Sir, calm down. Your wife is inside right now with somepony we’re assigned to protect is all. We didn’t know who you were. Why don’t the four of us go inside and discuss things over some tea?” Cobalt suggested smoothly with a warm smile. “I’m Cobalt Blue, a specialist in the royal guard and this is my sergeant. She can explain everything, alright?”

Sweetie Charm trotted around the two, the pegasus dropping their wings back to their sides as the mare whispered something in his ear.

“Let’s go inside. This is my husband, Oil Canvas,” Sweetie Charm explained and the guards nodded.

“Sorry.”

“You’re all good,” Comet answered and pushed her helmet up. “Sunset, don’t leave without us. We’ll be back in five minutes, tops.”

Sunset nodded even though she knew she could easily protect herself. But it was a bit easier having the two guards as back up.

“Ponies fall into four categories around me,” Sunset started explaining and flicked her tail. “One, they fear me because of who I’m related to. Two, they try to use me to make their lives either better or use me for popularity. Which doesn’t work, by the way. I ignore those ponies. Three, they worship the ground I walk on for some ungodly reason. And finally, four being the very small category of ponies who don’t care who I am or who I’m related to. The real question is what category will you fall into? I’m gonna be watching closely to find out.”

Twinkleshine poured herself a glass of lemonade as she sat down in the cleanest spot of the shed she could find. She didn’t really think about Sunset that often, but now that she really thought about, Twinkleshine herself fell into the fourth category. She always kinda viewed Sunset as another student she supposed. Just one that harbored a lot of authority and power that she respected greatly.

She didn’t really consider Sunset a friend, strictly because she didn’t get the opportunity to interact with Sunset often. She did occasionally have conversations with her, but those were fairly short lived because Sunset admittedly wasn’t the best at short conversations. She wouldn’t really be opposed to being her friend, she supposed.

“I don’t know,” Silver Spanner admitted and bit into a cucumber sandwich she swiped on her past the table. “But I’m definitely not afraid of you so.”

“Well, that’s a plus.”

“Your mom is so nice,” Twinkleshine commented and Sunset nodded. “We should probably start talking about what we’re doing for our project. There’s a literal million of of flowers and other plants in Equestria. This is gonna be a breeze.”

“I hope so.”

“First, go take a shower though,” Twinkleshine sniffed the air and gagged. “You reek of sweat, oil, grease and other random smells.” Silver Spanner sniffed and blushed a faint pink before nodding.

“You two can wait downstairs. It’ll take me only twenty minutes. Grease is an absolute bitch to get out of my mane and coat. Don’t even get me started on the oil.”

Neither of the two other mares could relate, but based on the scene in front of them, they could easily believe that.