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Gunsmoke

by Wanderer D

Chapter 7: Chapter 07: Anxiety

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Gunsmoke

by Wanderer D

Chapter 7: Anxiety

Sunset had expected Rarity to do something or say something at the end of her math class, so she had stood by the door while the other students walked out. But, Rarity had surprised her by smiling gently and giving Sunset's arm a light and quick squeeze before walking out of the room.

Sunset didn't know why, but for some reason, she had to fight the impulse to run out and hug Rarity for that simple act.

Lunch however, was going to be tricky. As she stood in line to get her food, she couldn't help but glance at her usual table, where Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were just being joined by Applejack.

Thankfully, both Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were facing away from the line, so with some luck, she should be able to go sit down somewhere else. She looked at the food options, grimacing. Veggies here were not the same as in Equestria. Arguably, her diet had changed to omnivorous from the mostly-vegetarian food of her foalhood easily enough, but as much as she liked meat now, it would never live up to just how tasty Equestrian vegetables were in comparison to the sorry excuse earth had for them. It was like night and day.

She turned to face forward and had to fight the urge to scream when she found herself face to face with the smiling visage of Pinkie Pie.

"Hi, Sunny!"

"Pinkie Pie!" She growled, shaking her head. "How many times have I told you not to surprise me when I have food in my tray?"

"One hundred and thirty eight!" Pinkie sang out as she moved to stand next to Sunset.

"And almost once daily for six months isn't quite enough for you?"

"Nope!" Pinkie responded, bouncing along Sunset as she moved further up in line. "I love surprising people! Especially my friends!"

Sunset shook her head, paying for her meal and starting to walk away from the line.

Pinkie bounced next to her. "Hey, where are you going? Our table's that way!"

Sunset stopped and looked at Pinkie. "Pinkie, I know you want us all to be happy—"

Pinkie nodded really fast.

"But I don't want to sit at your table today," Sunset finished, making Pinkie stop dead and gasp.

"What? B-but..."

"It's just not comfortable right now, with what happened."

"Oh, don't be silly! Rainbow Dash forgives you! All you need to do is forgive her and we can all go back to being best buddies!"

"We're not!" Sunset snapped, then grimaced at the sudden silence and looks from the other students. Cringing she dragged Pinkie to a table, where she placed tray before turning to look at the other girl. "Look, we're friends Pinkie, but you need to back off a little. I've been through a few recent epiphanies an—"

"Ooh! What are those?! Are they like cooking lessons?! Why don't you come over to our table and you can tell us aaaall about those Tiffanies of yours!"

"Pinkie..."

"Sunset Shimmer," Luna's voice cut through, making both teens turn to look at the Vice Principal, who was looking at them. "Ah, good. I see you got your lunch, perhaps you can eat it while you help me with that project?"

"Ooh~ a project?" Pinkie grinned. "What type of project? Can I help? I'm very good at projects!"

Luna shook her head. "That's very kind of you, Miss Pie, but this is not party related. If it becomes party related, we will certainly give you a call."

"Bu—"

"Come 'ere, Pinkie," Applejack interrupted, looping her arm around Pinkie Pie's. "Ah think Vice Principal Luna means that she just needs Sunset's help, for now."

"Bu—"

Whatever Applejack responded, Sunset didn't hear. Luna had gently guided her out of the mess hall, and walked with her in silence to her office, opening the door and letting Sunset walk in, lunch tray and all.

Luna quietly pulled out a collapsible table and set it out for Sunset to lay her tray on. It was then that she noticed that the plastic had melted slightly at her touch.

Luna didn't say anything about it, walking around behind her desk and pulling out something from a small fridge. She returned with a sub sandwich which she set across Sunset's meal, and sat down, motioning for Sunset to do the same. "Better?" she finally asked.

Letting out a long sigh, Sunset almost felt deflated, but eventually nodded. "I'm sorry, thank you for saving me, Vice Principal."

Luna shook her head, a smile crossing her face. "That's what friends are for, and call me Luna for now, I'm on break too." She popped open her soda and took a sip. "Do you want to talk about it? We can eat and talk, I assure you it's not a lost art."

Sunset chuckled, opening her bottle of lime soda and looking down at the hotdog and fries. "I guess that's true. I knew that Pinkie could be very insistent but, wow, she wouldn't let me be."

Luna's eyes narrowed. "That kind of harassment—" she cut off when Sunset shook her head.

"It's not malicious," Sunset said in a slightly defeated tone. "She wasn't trying to make me angry, just the opposite. She wants me to be happy, and to be friends with everyone." She chuckled. "I guess that's what makes it worse if I get angry. It's snapping at someone that just wants the best she can imagine for you."

Luna nodded, watching Sunset eat while she pondered her words. "While this is true, and it is indeed a very noble wish of Pinkie's, it doesn't necessarily mean it truly is the best for you."

Sunset saluted Luna with her soda.

"Perhaps a discussion with Pinkie is in order," Luna mulled after a few good bites into her subway. "It would be appropriate to bring this to her attention, lest she destroy or endanger future friendships through sheer enthusiasm."

"Good luck with that one, she can be... exuberant."

Luna chuckled, but didn't argue the point. The pair ate in companionable silence until it was time for Sunset to return to class.

"Thank you, Luna," Sunset said, picking up her tray. "I really appreciate you going out of your way to help me get some space."

Luna chuckled, also rising and picking up the wrap. "I'm sorry we cannot do this more often, Sunset. It would draw some attention."

Sunset nodded. "See you tonight?"

Luna grinned. "Wouldn't miss it."

When the bell rang, Sunset was the first out of the door, earning herself a glare from the teacher. She winced, but did not want to wait. She walked through the halls as quickly as she could without breaking into a run, dodging emerging students, and keeping her ears open for any approaching Rainboom.

She heard Pinkie by the time she had reached the doors, and once she was outside the building, she broke into a run around it to the parking lot. Faster than ever before, she had her helmet on, and was revving her motorcycle. She was a afraid she's catch a glimpse of pink on the periphery of her vision, but soon the school was left behind as she merged into traffic and sped away.

Sunset concentrated on the road, each passing car seemingly taking away some of the worries of being caught by her friends. She grit her teeth when she realized just how much she dreaded their contact, but what was she to do?

By the time she arrived at Crystal Prep, she had at least gotten rid of the fear of Pinkie jumping onto the road from a passing car in a desperate attempt to force her friendship. Sunset shook her head and walked quickly into to building, up the stairs, down the hallway and onto the lab.

Twilight Sparkle was tweaking something on her computer, but she looked up with a smile when Sunset walked in. "Hi, Sunset! How did your battle last night go?"

Sunset chuckled. "Why don't you tell me?" She grinned and pointed at the computer, where The Gun Gale Gazette was displayed in all its glory.

Twilight cleared her throat. "Well, it's one thing to read it, but any scientist can tell you that you can't beat empirical evidence, and you, Sunset are empirical enough for me to get a better understanding of it."

"Even if everything I tell you is by definition anecdotal?"

Twilight gave her a flat look. "You know what I mean. Shoot."

"I will."

"I mean, tell me!"

Sunset grinned. "It went fantastic. We completely decimated the enemy."

Twilight nodded. "Technically "decimate" is the wrong word to use here, but I'm willing to ignore that attempt at bringing such a base semantic change into a scientific environment given the celebratory nature of my feelings right now. So, have you seen this?" she dragged Sunset to the computer, which was listing the winners of the previous night.

"Huh, I haven't had a chance to check on them," Sunset admitted.

"What?" Twilight turned to look at her in surprise, hand motioning to the screen. "But, why not? It didn't end that late."

Sunset shook her head, not answering as she scrolled down. Then she stopped, staring. "You've got to be kidding me."

"What?" Twilight asked, looking at the screen. "What is it?"

"Look at the team build for this squad," Sunset said, then brought up the roster for her own. "Now look at mine."

"Hm, team Daybreak." It took a second for Twilight to notice the problem. "Wow. It's basically the same team as yours, just... different names and players. Same skillset, even similar names and styles."

"Different player level of skill too, and obviously not the same equipment exactly but generally close enough." She massaged her brow. "This could be complicated."

"At least you don't have to fight them tonight," Twilight said, bringing up the roster. She smirked. "I don't think you'll have to worry. They're going against team X-COM."

"Huh, I thought those guys were defunct," Sunset said, glancing at the spreadsheet. "Butcher and Wallflower are the only two originals there. Don't really know the rest. Would you look at that. No Avalon."

Twilight punched her in the shoulder. "Har. Har. You guys are running against The Kings, do you know them?"

"Not really, I think I've seen a couple of names pop up in the charts before, but they might be mostly PvMs..."

"Will that make it easier for your team, you think?" Twilight asked.

"I'm... not sure. On the one hoof, they could be easier to deal with, since the strategies are different... but, at the same time, if they're used to working together and hunting high-level Mobs, they are probably really tight and know how to take advantage of each other's abilities to maximize damage and obtain bonuses."

Twilight giggled.

"What?" Sunset asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You said hoof!" Twilight giggled again. "It's adorable!"

"I did not!"

"Did too!"

Grumbling, Sunset looked away. "Well, whatever, my point still stands."

"Well, we'll figure out what happens when it happens, I guess," Twilight said, watching Sunset jump onto the bed in the lab. "How about we do a book-immersion again for now? I have modified the receptors to take a lot less magic, and we still have a couple of hours before your squad fight."

Sunset closed her eyes.

Fire. Power. Control. Destroy. Burn them.

She opened them. "I don't know... I just..."

"Sunset," Twilight pleaded. "Please, I promise that the flow will be a lot less than before."

Sunset sighed. "It has to be a trickle, Twilight. I know part of this is to help me control my magic, but... that thing channeled my full unicorn magic last time, and freezing things is the least of what I could do."

Twilight nodded. "I understand, and I promise you that it won't happen. Try some magic as soon as you can, but not in combat. I'll be monitoring you, so you can tell me if it's too much for you to be comfortable, and I'll lower the input, how does that sound?"

Sunset pondered for a moment before nodding. "I need to learn to better control my magic... I melted something today when I got upset."

Twilight blinked. "Oh."

Sunset took a deep breath. "Let's do this."

Earlier...

"I see her! I see her!" Pinkie Pie squealed the moment she looked out of the classroom door. Before Fluttershy could stop her, she was already halfway down to the exit, but she was suddenly stopped by Vice Principal Luna, who had somehow managed to step in front of Pinkie.

"Hey!"

Luna raised an eyebrow, and Pinkie flinched. "Sorry, Vice Principal." Pinkie tried to go around her, but Luna raised her hand, stopping her.

"You shouldn't follow Sunset, Pinkie," Luna said, making the teen stop and look at her in surprise.

"Why not? All I want is for her to be our friend again!"

Luna sighed, noticing that several students were giving the pair of them looks. "Come, Pinkie Pie, and you too, Fluttershy."

The pair followed Luna into the classroom they had vacated and Luna motioned for them to sit down. "Listen to me, Pinkie," she said, drawing the bubbly girl's attention to her. "The reason I don't want you to chase her is because she doesn't want to be chased. She practically ran out of the school for that reason."

"B-but, she's my friend!" Pinkie stammered, hair flattening down. "Why doesn't she want to hang out with us?"

Luna sighed. "She does, but she wants to do it in her own time, at her own rhythm," she explained, placing a hand on Pinkie's shoulder. "Right now she's dealing with a lot of changes when it comes to friendship, and it's not something you should push."

"But, how can I let her know that I love partying with her?" Pinkie asked Luna, but this time it was Fluttershy who answered.

"I think she knows," Fluttershy said quietly. She cringed a little when the other two looked at her, but an encouraging nod from Luna gave her strength to speak. "If she really didn't like doing things with us, she wouldn't have, even when she was trying her best to fit in."

"I guess," Pinkie grumbled."But how can someone not like parties? Why would they run away from me if they're my friends?"

"Because some people need a different rhythm than your own," Luna explained. "Sunset knows that you're trying to cheer her up and for her to be happy with everyone else, but that's not what Sunset is looking for. That's what you want."

"Oh." Pinkie Pie looked down, until Luna lifted her chin up.

"She needs time, but she's still your friend, and you know that, right?"

Pinkie nodded, albeit a little sadly.

"Then that's all you need," Luna said. "Give her some space, and let her come to terms with where she wants to be. She considers you a friend already, so I really doubt that it will be an issue for her to hang out with you again."

Pinkie nodded as Luna stepped back.

"Good, now you two can go."

"Um," Fluttershy spoke up. "Don't you need to talk to me as well?"

Luna smiled at the gentle girl. "You listened, and that's all I needed, you can tell your friends as well to take it slow, right?"

Fluttershy nodded hesitantly. "I'll try."

Luna watched the pair go and sighed, sitting down on the desk.

"I see you're taking a lot of interest in this situation, sister," a voice said from the doorway.

Luna eyed her the interloper. "Perhaps, but I see a lot of myself in Sunset's situation."

Celestia smiled. "Oh? Because you were also at one point a unicorn filly of great power?"

Luna shook her head. "Hilarious, Celestia. But no. What I mean is her struggles with friendship and identity."

Celestia's grin dimmed a bit. "I see. Do you want me to—"

"No, thank you, sister." Luna stood up and smiled. "I believe I have this under control."

Celestia chuckled. "Well, I'm glad you're taking her under your wing," she said, embracing her sister. "She's in good hands."

Luna rested her forehead on her sister's shoulder. "I hope so."



Author's Notes:

Squad encounters next chapter!

Next Chapter: Chapter 08: Jungle Estimated time remaining: 5 Hours, 37 Minutes
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