Applejack didn't want to wake the others. Not if she didn't have to.

And so she was pacing downstairs, calling Sunset's phone every few minutes, each one going to voicemail.

"Hey, this is Sunset Shimmer. I can't pick up your call right now, but leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks, bye!"

Applejack growled as she put the phone down again. She should have held her back. Physically stopped her from leaving.
It was far too dangerous for someone out there right now. Below freezing, pitch black, and heavens knew Sunset wasn't in the right frame of mind for it.

She grabbed the coffee she'd made, and again debated going after the amber girl in her pickup.

But she'd be too far now. She just had to wait for Sunset to pick up. Applejack took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. She was worried.

Maybe she should wake up Rarity, just for a little comfort and companionship. She called Sunset's phone again, not expecting much. To her surprise, she picked up.

"Sunset? Hun? Did ya make it home alright? Ya should've just let me take ya! I've been worried sick!"

Sunset's voice came back to her, but AJ could tell, instantly, something was off. Very off.

"AJ- I-"

Her words were slurred, uncertain. Even if she was still a little drunk, Sunset didn't slur her words. Fuck, she'd watched Sunset chug 4 shots of vodka straight on a dare without much issue.

AJ grabbed the phone off the counter and held it up, too worried to care how loud she was.

"Sunset?! Are ya alright?"

"I- I need. Help-"

"Sunset! Honey, talk to me, where are ya? What's happened?"

Applejack grabbed her pickups keys from the counter.

There was no response.

"SUNSET!"

AJ heard footsteps, both behind her and through the phone.

"AJ? What's wr-"

Applejack held a hand up to Twilight, who had come down the stairs, Rarity trailing slightly behind her.
She could hear faint voices through the phone.

"Call a fucking-!"

"Shit- Phone's in the car!"

"Use hers! Fucking hurry!"

She heard the phone being grabbed and lifted.

"Sunset, what the fucks happened?!"

The response chilled AJ to the core.

"Clear the line! I need an ambulance!"

"Wha- Sunset?!"

The call went dead.

"Applejack, what the fuck is going on!?" Demanded Rarity.

"Where's Sunset?"

Applejack felt shock coursing through her system. She'd known it was dangerous, but, she'd never thought...

"S- She woke up about 20 minutes ago. Wanted to go home. Wouldn't listen to me, wouldn't let me drive her."

Twilight's eyes widened at Applejack's words. She swallowed before continuing, but couldn't manage more than a whisper.

"I think she's crashed."

Twilight felt her heart shatter into a million pieces.

"No.. no you're wrong. She- she wouldn't do that."

She looked around for support, but Rarity hung her head in shame as the others began filtering downstairs.

"Would she?"

Her own voice was barely a whisper.
Pinkie Pie, who was guiding both her and Applejack to the sofa with firm shoulder grips, spoke quietly.

"Sunset got caught smoking outside by Rarity because she was like suuuper stressed out. Normally, Sunset wouldn't come if she was like that, which means something or, rather, someone convinced her to come anyway."

"Who?!"

"You, Twilight. Sunset has a pretty big crush on you. She'd do anything to make you happy."

What.

They were words confirming what she'd hoped beyond hope could be true for the longest time. But now-

Pinkie held up a finger, forcing Twilight to let her continue.

"So Rarity forced Sunset to give up her smokes so she wasn't constantly leaving the party for a hit, but this caused Sunset's stress to build a lot faster, especially with you being so close to her."

The girl's bright pink hair deflated as she continued.

"So when she went outside for a hit, she wasn't relieving enough stress, fast enough. Then when Rainbow Dash asked that stupid fucking question about the Fall Formal, it tipped Sunset over the edge."

Pinkie sighed.

"Sunset has two types of implosion. Either an angry shouting match, or a massive panic attack. No matter which, she can never think straight afterwards and is prone to making stupid decisions that no one can talk her down from."

Twilight looked at the pink party planner, who was usually so full of life, smiling sadly at her.

"Pinkie sense. Fat load of help it was calming down Sunset. I should have noticed earlier-"

"No, Pinkie."

AJ cut in, voice soft but firm.

"We all shoulda been more aware. It's no one here's fault."

She nodded to herself, as if she was trying to convince herself more than the others.

"No ones fault." She repeated.

Twilight felt her already shattered heart break even further, and despite her best efforts, tears began rolling down her cheeks, quickly converting into a sob. She felt her friends sit on the couch alongside her, all wrapping themselves into a massive group hug. Minus one, missing individual.

They must have sat there for hours, as Twilight woke with a start to find the sun out and her phone vibrating.

She picked it up to find an unknown ID.

"Hello?"

"Miss Sparkle? My name is Bleeding Heart, from the Canterlot City Hospital."

The voice paused.

"You're listed as one of the primary emergency contacts for Sunset Shimmer. I'm- I'm afraid there's been an accident."

Twilight felt herself begin to cry again, worst fears confirmed, trying her best not to sob through the phone.

"Is- is she okay?"

"I can tell you that her condition is stable. However, she isn't responding to external stimuli, and- and may be in a coma. If you could come to visit, we will have a more complete picture for you, and you may have to make a few decisions on her behalf."

The ride to the hospital was wordless, no one really daring to breathe louder than a whisper. Twilight walked to the front desk, with Applejack next to her, the others behind.

"H-hello? I'm Twilight Sparkle, I'm here for Sunset Shimmer? Me and my friends are her emergency contacts."

The receptionist blinked and nodded.

"Of course, dear. I'm Bleeding Heart. I'm sorry I couldn't give you a complete picture over the phone."

Bleeding Heart was slightly on the pink side, with a full red head of hair. The woman span around, pulling a folder from the rack behind her.

"From what I can see here, her right leg is broken in 3 places and she suffered blunt force trauma to the back of her head, likely due to hitting the road without a helmet."

The woman paused.

"She also suffered internal bleeding, which combined with the head hit has, in fact, put her into a coma. She should wake up, but we don't know the timeframe of when, likely not until most of her body has healed, which could be anywhere from a few days to a few weeks."

She let out a hefty sigh.

"She was lucky not to die."

The folder was passed to Twilight, who tried her best not to cry again.

"Sunset has given you permission to take care of her belongings and pet, as well as to make any decisions regarding her care jointly with her mother."

Bleeding Heart hesitated before speaking in an even softer voice.

"She has also given you and her mother permission to decide whether or not to keep her on life support should she stay in a coma past four weeks."

She looked up from the computer screen, where she'd been looking up Sunset's records and permissions, established many months earlier.

"If it's any consolation, it's clear she trusted you all with her life."

Twilight began to cry as she nodded, turning to Applejack to bury her head into her chest. Applejack petted her, and Twilight could tell the farm girl was trying hard not to cry herself.

"She's in room 502, her mother is already there."

Twilight barely registered the words as she was led back to her friends, folder clutched to her chest.

Author's Note

[Copied from Archive]

19th Dec-
Made some changes to this chapter to facilitate some new ideas and also making writing easier for me. This does also mean you'll be getting another prequel at some point, but tbh at this point I've got half the series planned out lmaooo
-~-
Previous End Note:
RAHH Dying Rays!!
I think this is probably going to come out as one of my longest writing projects ever but you know what?
So totally worth it.
I do have to warn you now, chapters may be far between, especially with some real-life things coming up in the next month or so, and I've already put this project on a bit of a backburner in order to work on its prequel, which currently doesn't have a title.
However!! There is still more to come. I'm going to post the first few chapters of my other project, Storm in a Bottle (probably tomorrow) which is based in the Friendship is Magic (FIM) world rather than Equestria Girls (EQG)
That one is on even more of a backburner though, so I can't promise that will get updated very much.
In terms of things, this is going to be the main world I'm writing in for EQG, so expect relationships and characters you see here to last.
As said already, working on a prequel, but i'll probably do a prequel or two alongside that one for more juicy juicy backstory/ lore which'll have a few things in it inspired by the amazing shallow15's Repercussions Trilogy. GO READ IT!!
(I'm not straight up stealing plot or anything from it, just using it to base some ideas around. I'll be doing my own interpretations of characters and locales.)
As well as that, I do have a few ideas for a sequel based around some notes I wrote a while ago, but that won't come until after I finish Dying Rays and maybe Storm in a Bottle.
ANYWAY thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed, and if you liked this and haven't read it yet, go look at Bleeding Sunsets, written by me.
LOVE YOU ALL MAKE SURE YOU SLEEP AND HYDRATE <3