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Fractured Sunlight

by Oroboro

Chapter 9: 9: Bonds

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9: Bonds

Dear Diary,

Today Sunset got to come over and play at my house!

Mom and Dad were out of town this weekend, looking at colleges with my big brother. My absolute favorite babysitter, Cadance, was watching over me, and when I asked her if my friend Sunset could come over and play, she said yes and that she’d love to meet her.

I called Sunset up right away and invited her over, and told her to bring her swimsuit.

She came over after an hour or so when her dad dropped her off. Cadance was really nice to her, and Sunset was really quiet for a while, but she eventually warmed up. Then we all got changed and went to go play in the pool. It was nice and warm out.

Cadance looked really pretty. I think my brother has a crush on her. Wouldn’t it be awesome if they ended up getting married or something? Then I could have my best brother and best babysitter all the time! I whispered all of this to Sunset when Cadance wasn’t paying attention, but Sunset said she didn’t really care, and that it wasn’t any of my business.

I guess she hasn’t met my brother yet, so she can’t really see the appeal, but it’s still a great idea. After we swam a bunch and got all pruney, we stopped for lunch and Cadance made us sandwiches. She makes great food too.

After that we played a bunch in my room, I showed Sunset my books and all my toys, and eventually it was time for her to go home again. I asked if she could spend the night, but Cadance said no.

Oh well. It was still a lot of fun.

Twilight Sparkle


A soft knock came at Twilight’s door. “I brought lunch,” Cadance said.

“Door’s open,” Twilight called out, staring at her laptop.

Cadance opened the door and made her way over to Twilight, setting a plate of crustless sandwiches and iced tea on the desk before leaning down to peer over her shoulder.

“I have no idea what any of this means,” Cadance said, her eyes flicking over the various spreadsheets and charts Twilight had scattered across the screen.

“Ugh, this would be so much easier to work with if I had more monitors,” Twilight said, leaning back and stretching.

Cadance shrugged, then grabbed one of the sandwiches and bit into it, leaning against the wall. “You’re the one with a budget, don’t look at me.”

“I should have brought more of my setup from home,” Twilight mumbled, shaking her head. “Maybe I can convince Dad to pack some of it up with him the next time he decides to visit.”

“So, how was it last night?” Cadance asked, changing the subject.

Twilight locked her hands together and stretched them forward, cracking her knuckles. “Pretty fun, I guess. You were right, it was just the seven of us. We played some games, watched some movies, talked a bunch, I made some important self-discoveries about my attitude and how I want to approach the world. You know, typical party stuff.”

Cadance let out a sigh, rubbing at her forehead with her palm. “I can never tell if you’re taking yourself seriously when you say stuff like that or if you’re just messing with me.”

“Can’t it be both?” Twilight asked, grinning. “But seriously, I dunno. I’ve been keeping people at arm’s length for a long time now—admittedly, for a good reason—but these six have been pretty persistent about wanting to be my friend, and it doesn’t hurt that they’re genuinely fun to be around. It’s come to the point where I have to stop and ask myself why I’m being so stubborn about it, what I have to lose, and what I’m really afraid of. I can’t come up with a good answer.”

“You always take the most complicated routes to reach the simplest answers,” Cadance said with a smile, reaching over to ruffle her hair. “So you’ve got friends now. Sweet deal. What comes next?”

Twilight turned back to her computer and pulled up a calendar. “Well, friends do stuff together, right? I’ll be helping Fluttershy out at the animal shelter tonight, Rarity wants me to model some dresses for her on Wednesday, I’ve got a grudge match with Rainbow Dash on Friday, and on Saturday we’ll be spending the night at Sunset’s house. The rest of my time I plan to spend working on my research. Unless something else comes up.”

Cadance pursed her lips, tapping her nails against the back of Twilight’s chair. “Certainly going all out right off the bat, I see. I don’t mean to be patronizing or anything, but are you sure you’re okay with Sunset?”

Twilight grew still, then slumped backwards into her chair. “It’s complicated. She’s not really triggering me anymore, if that’s what you mean. She’s a different person, and my brain recognizes that now. It’s not much more different than if Sunset turned out to have a long lost twin sister, right? And she’s… a good person.

“I just...” Twilight stammered, looking away. “Is it wrong, somehow? Am I just replacing the old Sunset with a new one?”

“Oh, honey,” Cadance said, leaning down and wrapping Twilight in a hug. “I think the old Sunset would be happy to see you happy. I could even imagine her being a little bit jealous, to tell you the truth, but she cared for you just as much as you cared for her. If you were dead, and Sunset was making friends with an alternate Twilight, would you resent her for it?”

Twilight raised a finger into the air and opened her mouth, then hesitated, frowning. “I dunno. Maybe a little? But I guess I’d rather see her happy.”

“Well there you go,” Cadance said, pulling out of the hug and clapping Twilight on the shoulder. “External validation for your complicated moral dilemma. Take my blessing and go forth!”

Twilight turned to her and raised an eyebrow.

“What?” Cadance said defensively. “I finished college, you know. I can say smart things too.”

They both stared at each other for several seconds before bursting into a fit of giggles.

“So,” Cadance said, waiting until Twilight was in the middle of taking a long drink, “which of those girls do you think is the hottest?”


“So. Animals, huh?”

Fluttershy shifted slightly as she bent over and dug through the cabinet for supplies. “Huh? What was that, Twilight?”

“Animals. They’re, uh, your thing, right?”

“Um, I guess?” Fluttershy pulled herself out, a box of rabbit food in hand, and stood back up, brushing her hair out of her eyes. “I’m hoping to someday become a veterinarian.”

Twilight nodded, frowning. It was hard to get a good read on Fluttershy. When they were together as a group, she tended to have so little presence that it was easy to forget she was even there. Twilight was no stranger to introversion, but this girl took it to extremes that made her feel like a social butterfly by comparison.

“How did you meet the others, anyway?” Twilight asked, holding open the back door as Fluttershy walked through.

“Oh, um. I mean, we all sort of knew each other and became friends with each other individually one way or another. At some point we all started hanging out in a group.”

Fluttershy knelt down, opened the box, and cooed, “Hello, little angels. And you too, Angel. Feeding time!” Turning to Twilight, she added, “I’ve been friends with Rainbow Dash since grade school, though.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “You and Rainbow Dash? That’s an odd pairing.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Fluttershy said, eyes softening. “When I was little, I didn’t really have any friends. One day, some girls were picking on me, when Rainbow Dash showed up out of nowhere to protect me and drove them all off. She’s, um, been looking out for me ever since.”

“That… sounds familiar,” Twilight mumbled, sitting down on the bench. She took a moment to survey the outdoor area of the animal shelter, where the various cages were carefully organized in the open air.

Fluttershy finished feeding the rabbits, then came and sat down next to Twilight. “She doesn’t really hate you, you know.”

“What’s that?”

“Rainbow Dash. She just made up her mind about you early on, and she’s too stubborn to admit that she was wrong. But she’ll come around eventually.”

Twilight let out a sigh, staring down at her shoes. “She’s right though. Out of all of you, I think she’s the only one who read me properly.”

Fluttershy pursed her lips, but shook her head. “No, I don’t think so, Twilight. Um, maybe I shouldn’t be saying this, but I don’t think you know yourself as well as you think you do.”

Twilight turned to give Fluttershy a withering look. “My analysis is spot on, even when it’s directed inwards.”

Fluttershy met her gaze. “Really?”

Twilight turned away, and they sat in silence for a time.

“...Sunset Shimmer, the one I used to know, protected me from bullies too.”

Fluttershy lowered her eyes. “When I first met Sunset Shimmer, I thought she was just another bully, but she was worse. I could have handled the teasing, the name-calling, even the threats. What’s another lunch period spent crying in the girls’ bathroom, right? But she manipulated us, and lied to us, and it got to the point where we lost all trust for each other. We started to hate each other. That was far worse than any name-calling.”

“That’s not..." Twilight growled, a sudden flare of anger rising up in her chest. “Sunset would never do something like that!”

“She did, Twilight,” Fluttershy said, a sad look in her eyes. “She’s changed, and I’ve forgiven her, but that doesn’t erase the person she used to be.”

Twilight squeezed her eyes shut and dug her knuckles into her jeans. Sunset had told Twilight herself what kind of person she had been, and all the things she had done, but Twilight had never fully believed her; surely she had been exaggerating?

“So what, she just magically became good when you shot her with a rainbow laser?” Twilight grumbled, crossing her arms across her chest.

Fluttershy shrugged. “I’m not sure I understand everything that happened. If you want to know more, ask her yourself, but she’s made a sincere effort to be a better person since then, and we all respect that.” Fluttershy took a breath. “She’s not the Sunset you knew, Twilight.”

Staring up at the sky, Twilight sighed. “I know that,” she said. “All too well.”

“Come on,” Fluttershy said, standing up and stretching. “We still have to take some of the dogs out for a walk.”


“Hmm. Interesting. You can put your arms down now.”

Twilight lowered her arms as Rarity unwrapped the measuring tape from around her chest. She pushed any thoughts of her conversation with Cadance away and tried not to blush. “What’s interesting?”

“Your measurements. They’re actually slightly different from Princess Twilight’s. Might be something you can note down for your research.”

“Really?” Twilight asked, frowning. “That is interesting. Perhaps there’s a difference in our levels of diet and exercise? But that just raises more questions about how the portal works. If it spontaneously generates a human body when a pony comes through, where does the extra mass come from? What does it use as a template for body creation? Where do the clothes come from? If an overweight human passed through the portal, would they be an overweight pony? And vice versa?”

Rarity giggled and stepped back to sift through her rack of fabrics, barely accessible between the various mannequins and work benches crammed into her bedroom. “Look at you go. If anyone can find the answers to those questions, I bet it’ll be you. I take it your research is going well?”

“Ugh,” Twilight grunted. “I’ve gotten results, but not enough. There’s definitely some sort of additive in your blood that reacts to certain experiments in ways that ordinary blood doesn’t. I haven’t been able to isolate it yet, but this additive also seems to be storing an incredibly large amount of potential energy.”

“Is that so?” Rarity pursed her lips and scrunched up her brow. “I think I’m almost following you, darling, but could you perhaps dumb it down just a little?”

Twilight thought for a moment as Rarity held up a dark blue swatch of cloth in front of Twilight, then nodded. “A pint of your blood has enough energy to power an SUV.”

Rarity paled. “That’s, um. Disconcerting. Please, don’t tell Fluttershy that; it’ll only give her nightmares.”

“It’s not like you’d be an efficient fuel source,” Twilight said, rolling her eyes. “Still, whatever sort of power is inside of you has proven difficult to measure, and I’ve used up most of the samples already. Additionally, Sunset’s tests are radically different, even from you guys. Her blood type is K, which is, well, horse blood. The tests they did at the hospital had to be re-done like 20 times, and they were positive their machine was just broken.”

“Hmm.” Rarity scratched her chin. “That actually makes some sense. The school did a blood drive a while back, and they kept having problems with Sunset to the point where they had to turn her away.”

Rarity moved closer, held a pale yellow cloth in front of Twilight, and her eyes lit up. “Hold this,” she said, then went and dug out a large floppy hat of the same color and put it on Twilight’s head. “Oh, that looks perfect on you.”

Twilight moved the brim out of her eyes. “I’m really not much of a hat person.”

“Are you sure? No matter.” Rarity took the hat off, then returned to her contemplation of her fabrics. “Moving beyond science talk, what are your plans for spring break?”

“Spring break? That’s, what, two, three weeks away?” Twilight shook her head. “Wow. Time flies when you’re not attending school.”

Rarity removed a sleek, little black dress from a separate rack, a grin slowly spreading across her face. “Three weeks away for us, yes.” She held up the dress in front of Twilight, and instructed her to hold it up, taking a step back.

Twilight felt herself blushing again as Rarity sized her up. “It’s, um. When it was something I cared about, my family spent our spring break at the beaches in Baltimare. I’ve got a cousin who owns an amazing summer home out there. It’s the kind of place tourists would kill for.”

“Hmm. I think... this style, in a midnight blue. Maybe just a bit of sparkle. You would turn every head out on the dance floor.” Rarity took the dress back and returned it to its rack. “It does sound lovely, though. Sadly, out here in the Midwest there isn’t much in the way of beaches.”

“Dances? Just where do you think I’d be going where I’d need something like… that?”

Rarity shrugged. “There will be a senior prom right before graduation. It’s several months away, of course, but you never know what could happen between now and then, right?”

Twilight sighed, shaking her head. “I think you might be getting a little ahead of yourself. Although I’ll admit, I don’t exactly have much in the way of formal wear. For what it’s worth, I’ve always liked suits.”

Rarity laughed and fell backwards onto her bed, spreading her arms. “I’m afraid suits are beyond what I’m capable of at the moment. I’ve been saving up all my money in hopes of getting a place of my own to work out of, but for now it’s just me and my bedroom.”

“Is that so?” Twilight opened her mouth again, but hesitated. Rarity was a friend now, and friends helped each other, but Twilight knew enough about social mores to realize that simply offering money was a bit of a faux pas. Were the roles reversed, Twilight would probably feel insulted.

“Moving beyond fancy dresses,” Twilight finally said, “what do you have in the way of casual wear?”

Rarity sat up straight, her eyes sparkling once more. “Hmm, blouse, yes, jacket, no. The shoes could… yes, I have some ideas.”


“You serious about this, Sparkle? I’m pretty sure you made the wrong call.”

Rainbow Dash casually tossed a baseball up into the air over and over from atop the pitcher's mound. “Seriously, literally any other sport would have been a better choice for you. I was kind of expecting something stupid like cricket, or curling. Of course, I would’ve creamed you at those too.”

Twilight adjusted her hat, picked up her bat, and stepped up to plate. “Bring it on.”

“Are you freaking kidding me?” Rainbow Dash said, giving an exaggerated facepalm for effect. “You’re supposed to be on the other side of the plate, egghead!”

Applejack snorted, then raised the visor of her facemask to stare at Rainbow Dash incredulously. “Are you kidding me Rainbow? You telling me all this time you ain’t noticed that Twilight’s a lefty?”

Twilight took her left hand off the bat, waggled it in the air, and stuck her tongue out.

Rainbow Dash turned a shade of scarlet. “Yeah, well... d-don’t think it’ll give you an advantage! Rules are simple: I’m gonna throw them straight down the center of the plate. No tricks. All you’ve gotta do is hit one and you win. Three strikes, you’re out.”

Twilight tightened her grip on the bat and assumed a batter's stance, just like her brother had taught her.

“Go Twilight! You can do it!” Sunset cheered from the sidelines.

It couldn’t be that hard. Baseball was just applied physics. Of course, she wasn’t a professional by any means; they had honed instincts, advanced muscle memory, and thousands upon thousands of hours of practice. Not that that would be a problem. WIth a few small calculations and the right timing, even Twilight could hit one measly—

There was a brief flash of color, then a rush of wind, whipping right past her head.

“Ow! Son of a… consarnit, Rainbow, that freaking hurt!”

Twilight turned to stare at Applejack as she clutched at her hand, the ball resting inside the catcher’s mitt.

It had to just be a trick of the light, but she almost swore that it was smoking.

“Oh, don’t be such a baby,” Rainbow Dash said, catching the ball as Applejack threw it back. “You’re only going to have to catch it two more times. Just be ready for it next time.” Seeing the look on Twilight’s face, she grinned widely. “You like that? That’s my special Sonic Dash-ball.”

“Sonic Dash-ball?” Sunset said, raising an eyebrow.

“It’s a working title!”

Twilight took a deep breath and focused all of her attention on Rainbow Dash’s movements. Speed like that seemed almost inhuman—but then again, it was hard to say if Rainbow really even was anymore. She watched as Rainbow Dash wound back, leaned forward, and…

There. For just a brief instant, there was a flash of light, and a faint afterimage of pony ears.

The ball whizzed past her without any resistance. Applejack grunted with the effort of catching it.

“Come on, Sparkle. At least swing the bat. I wanna believe you’re trying over there.”

It was a fascinating phenomenon. Whatever power within them had the ability to manifest in ways other than the vagaries of friendship or the harmony of musical resonance. Potential energy indeed.

She met Rainbow Dash’s eyes across the field and shook away some of her stupor. Fascinating science, but that wasn’t the reason she was here. It wouldn’t do for Twilight Sparkle to be all talk and no action.

Rainbow Dash wound back for a third time. The timing had to be perfect. Right down the center. If nothing else, all she had to do was swing the bat!

There was a resounding crack, and the impact reverberated through the bat straight into her hands, causing her to drop it with a cry of pain.

Twilight shook her hands out, then looked up to see where the ball went.

“Foul,” Applejack called a few seconds later.

All that just for a foul ball?

“Eh, close enough,” Rainbow Dash said, taking off her glove as she walked across the field. “I did say that all you had to do was hit it, after all. You alright?”

“I think so,” Twilight said, looking over her hands. They would be a bit stiff for awhile, but it wasn’t like she sprained anything. At least, she didn’t think so. “So that’s it, then? I win?”

Rainbow Dash shrugged. “A match is a match, right? Congratulations.”

“Phew,” Applejack said, taking off her facemask. “I dunno about y’all, but I could go for a cold drink right about now.”

“I second that,” Sunset said, joining the rest of them. “There’s some vending machines not far from here; we could go get some drinks and bring them back.”

“Sounds good t’me,” Applejack said, standing up and taking off the rest of her gear. “I can drop this stuff back in the equipment shed while we’re at it.”

Sunset and Applejack walked off, leaving Twilight and Rainbow Dash alone.

“So, what then?” Twilight asked, making her way over to the bleachers and sitting down. “Are we ‘cool’ now?”

Rainbow Dash sat next to her, then leaned back, spreading her arms wide against the seat behind her. “I dunno. Do you want us to be ‘cool’?”

“If I’m going to make friends with you girls, I’m not going to half-ass it.”

Rainbow Dash snickered, but said nothing.

Twilight let out a sigh. “You’ve been on my case from the start, I guess, but you were right about a lot of things. I guess I can come off as a bit of a bitch sometimes. I’m not really good at… empathizing with and considering the positions of other people.”

“You sound like a shrink,” Rainbow Dash said, rolling her eyes.

“Well, when you spend as many years in therapy as I have, you’re bound to pick up a few things,” Twilight said, grinning. “Seriously, though. We may have gotten off to a bad start, but I’d like to give it another shot.”

Rainbow Dash sighed. “It wasn’t just that you came off as bitchy. It was… it was like you just didn’t care about us, or about anything other than yourself and your research. Not to mention the way you kept making Sunset deal with your problems. It really pissed me off. When it comes down to it, I guess I kind of was comparing you to the other Twilight a bit, because even though she was a goofy dork like you, at least she was sincere about it, y’know? It makes a huge difference.”

Twilight bit her lip and looked away.

“But, you’re trying now, and you put up a pretty good fight back there,” Rainbow Dash said, grinning. “And I’m sorry for holding you up to the other Twilight’s standard; I know how much you hate that. So yeah.

“Friends?”

Twilight looked up, smiling, then clasped hands with Rainbow Dash and squeezed tightly.

“So,” Twilight said, pulling out of the grip and looking up at the sky. “That’s a pretty insane pitch. I’m no expert, but it’s probably close to breaking a world record, assuming it hasn’t already. Why are you playing soccer, again?”

Rainbow Dash snorted. “Are you kidding me? Baseball is totally lame. Sure, pitching is fun, but all you do is stand around waiting for other people to do stuff. I like to move around and be active.”

“I guess I can’t argue with that,” Twilight said, nodding.

“What about you?” Rainbow asked. “For an egghead, you know enough about how to swing.”

“I…” Twilight trailed off, biting her lip. Her chest tightened up at the thought, but she had already been spilling her heart to her new friends all week. She might as well keep going.

“After Sunset died… I thought that if I was stronger, I could have prevented it somehow, so I joined a baseball team.”

Rainbow Dash turned to give her her full attention, but said nothing.

“I wasn’t very good, and I didn’t last very long. I was in a really bad place at the time. One of the girls said something to set me off, I don’t even remember what anymore, and I ended up hitting her with a bat. Thus ended my short-lived sports career, and the start of my adventures in the mental health care system.”

“Yikes,” Rainbow Dash mumbled, slumping forward and staring down at the ground. “That’s some heavy stuff.”

“Eeyup,” Twilight said, leaning backwards and stretching out on the bleachers.

They sat there in silence for several minutes before Rainbow Dash spoke up. “I used to get in fights like that a lot. I had a short temper, and I would fly off on people at the drop of a hat. Not hard to picture, I’m sure.”

Twilight raised a hand to shield her eyes from the sun as she tracked the clouds in the sky, listening.

“In the end, I got in a bad enough fight for me to get kicked off the baseball team. They’d never let me play again, blah blah. Big scary threats, and all that. It didn’t even sink in. I was just mad at them, blaming everyone else for what I saw as a terrible injustice. You wanna know what made me realize I was the idiot?”

“Hmm?”

“When Fluttershy found out that I couldn’t play baseball anymore, she just started bawling. Wouldn’t stop. It was super awkward, and the more I tried to tell her it was fine and that I didn’t really even care, the harder she cried. She said that she was crying for me because even though I was hurting, I wouldn’t cry for myself.”

Rainbow Dash stood up, scratching the back of her head and looking away. “I dunno, it sounds kind of cheesy, I guess. But Fluttershy has enough reasons to cry already—she doesn’t need any help from me.”

Twilight sat up, smiling. “It sounds like Fluttershy is lucky to have a friend like you, and vice versa.”

“Well, duh,” Rainbow Dash said, turning back with a grin, “I am totally awesome. Looks like you’re lucky now too.”

“I guess I am.” Twilight turned to see Sunset and Applejack making their way back across the field, arms full of refreshments. “Looking forward to the sleepover tomorrow?”

Rainbow Dash frowned. “Actually, something’s come up…”


Author's Note

You have to swing the bat, Ta-kun

Entered a story into this weekends original fiction writeoff. It's the first time I've written anything original since my college creative writing class, which was probably over 5 years ago now.

Also been toying with a crossover fic between two fandoms very few of y'all are probably familiar with. More on that later.

Probably a good time to re-iterate that the pictures are the artists interpretation of the scene description, and may not literally reflect the events in the story. I can't see a logical reason why Rainbow and Twilight would've put on full baseball uniforms, but artists gonna art.

Next Chapter: 10: Stars Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 54 Minutes
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