Monday, March 21, 2016

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Early Morning

I'm getting my stuff together for my shower when Twilight walks in. "You need to tell everyone at breakfast," she says.

I swallow heavily and nod. "Right," I say. "I mean...at this point, Applejack, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle are the only ones who don't even know what that bitch did to me, but...yeah..."

Twilight grimaces. "I'll...I'll get Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle away from the dining room before you tell the others about...about this whole pregnancy thing."

I shake my head. "I need you there with me. We'll get Fluttershy to do it."

Twilight frowns. "I don't know..."

"I think we can trust her to do this much." I grab my phone and message Fluttershy. Thirty seconds pass before I get a response. "She'll do it."

Twilight hugs me. I kiss her on top of the head, then go take my shower.

At breakfast, once everybody has their plates, I clear my throat and give Fluttershy a nod.

Fluttershy stands up. "Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle? I need you to pick up your plates and come upstairs with me."

The younger girls blink. "Huh? But...why?" Sweetie Belle asks.

"No arguing now," Fluttershy says. "I'm sorry, but you really need to leave the table right now." She smiles half-heartedly. "After we eat, I'll let you brush Angel, okay?"

Rarity gives me a piercing look. I nod. "Sweetie Belle, you should go upstairs with Fluttershy now," she says.

Applejack frowns. "Yeah...Ah dunno whut's goin' on, but Ah got a feelin' you better scoot too, Apple Bloom."

The younger girls look at each other, shrug, and pick up their plates, following Fluttershy out of the room.

We watch until they're at the top of the stairs.

Once we hear a door close upstairs, Rarity looks questioningly at me. "Alright, what's this all about?"

"Are y'all finally gonna be straight with me about all th' sneakin' around an' stuff that's been goin' on around here?" Applejack asks.

We glance at each other. "Well..." Twilight says. "There is something we haven't told you about."

"Ah kinda figgered that out, sugarcube."

I cough. "Okay...first of all...Applejack, you're the only one in this room who wasn't already aware of this, but...back in February, Sunset Shimmer snuck into the dorm one night and, well..."

"Raped Flash," Pinkie says, scowling.

Applejack stares at me. "Say whut?"

"You heard," I say. "I woke up in the middle of the night and that bitch was on top of me."

Applejack's eyes widen. "Holy hell." She shakes her head. "Uhh...what'd you do about it? Ah'm guessin' you didn't go t' th' cops."

"Even though we all told him he's an idiot for not reporting it," Twilight says.

"Anyway," I say, "there's...a new problem related to that."

The other girls look around at each other uncertainly. "Okay, it's gotta be pretty bad if you're gettin' Applejack involved when we've been..." Rainbow trails off. "Uhh...not bothering her with all of this because she has enough drama?"

"Sunset Shimmer is about to start telling everybody she's pregnant," I say. "I got a tip from...someone reliable...the other night."

"Y'mean Fluttershy?" Applejack asks. "Ah know she's..." She frowns. "Kinda maybe friends with Sunset Shimmer? Except they don't always look none too friendly when Ah seen 'em together."

We all stare at Applejack. "WHAT?!" Rainbow screeches.

Applejack blinks at her. "Y'all didn't know?"

Rarity frowns. "Evidently, we all should have been more observant all this time," she says.

"Anyway, Ah figgered it musta been Fluttershy 'cuz you sent her outta th' room," Applejack says. "Which probably means she already knew."

"That makes sense," Pinkie says.

"Okay, can we back this up a bit?" Rainbow asks. "The Baconator raped you and now she's pregnant?"

"No, she's not," I say. "But she's about to start saying she is."

Okay, that's really sick. Who DOES something like that?

Those of us in the know give Sonata a look.

Oh...right...nevermind.

Applejack frowns. "So...why's she pullin' this shit?"

"She's trying to ruin our lives," Twilight says. "Mine and Flash's. Probably anybody associated with us as well."

"Principal Celestia, Vice-Principal Luna, and Nurse Cadance already know about this," I say. "Cadance is going to force Sunset to submit to a monitored pregnancy test that she's going to administer herself. With any luck, all of us working together can kill this before it gets ugly."

"It already sounds pretty damn ugly to me," Rainbow says.

"Me too," Applejack agrees.

"Anyway...I just wanted...no, needed...to let everybody know what's about to happen at school today," I say. I sigh. "No matter how this plays out, I'm in for a bad week."

"We'll be right there beside you," Twilight says.

"Yeah, we got your back, dude," Rainbow agrees.

100%!

We all finish eating breakfast. Twilight and I walk Spike, then get ready to head to school.

Halfway there, our phones start going nuts with Canterbook notifications. We pull out our phones, look at them, then look at each other.

"Looks like it's already started," I say.

Twilight sighs. "Yeah..."

Morning

As soon as I arrive on campus, other students are staring at me, whispering. I do my best to ignore it and push through to my homeroom class.

Mr. Turner is already at his desk. When I walk in, he looks up and frowns. "Flash, I believe perhaps you should...go to the principal's office. I won't mark you absent."

I sigh and nod. "It's not true, by the way," I say.

I head directly to Principal Celestia's office. Sunset Shimmer is sitting outside; she isn't wearing any makeup today, and her eyes are red and puffy from crying. She's clutching onto a tissue from a box sitting in her lap. The school secretary is sitting beside her, a consoling, supportive look on her face. As soon as I approach, the secretary glares at me, a deep scowl on her face.

"How dare you," she hisses.

"I see Principal Celestia didn't tell you the truth," I say. "She's lying. This whole thing is a hoax."

"A likely story," the secretary says with a snort.

"That will be enough of that, Mrs. Mare," Celestia says from the door to her office. "You two, in my office, now."

Sunset sniffles and stands up, trudging into Celestia's office. I follow behind her. Mrs. Mare gives me a vicious, triumphant smirk as I walk past.

Sunset sits down in front of Celestia's desk. I lean against the wall in front of the big calendar board, crossing my arms.

Celestia sits down, folding her hands in front of her. "Sunset Shimmer," she says in a sad tone, "you owe Flash Sentry an apology for doing this to him. At the very least."

Sunset gasps. "ME? Owe HIM an apo—! Principal Celestia, he forced himself on me, got me pregnant! I—"

"Sunset Shimmer!" Celestia snaps fiercely. "DO NOT lie to me! I know the whole truth. All of it. I know you broke into Applewood Dorm on the night of—" She checks a notepad on her desk. "—February ninth. I know you raped Flash Sentry. I know he chose not to press charges against you, which is the only reason you are still in this school. And I know you are not pregnant. Nurse Cadance has already spoken with the staff at the gynecology clinic and been sent a copy of your file. She's also prepared to administer a pregnancy test, which she will monitor personally." Celestia stands up, leaning forward. "There is no truth to any of what you posted on Canterbook this morning."

Sunset recoils. "It's...it's all lies!" she says. "Of COURSE Twilight Sparkle's sister-in-law would protect him! He's Twilight's boyfriend! I don't know what she even sees in this creep! After what he did to me..."

Celestia pinches the bridge of her nose. "Young lady," she says, "I am tired of this. All of it. My sister was there the night of the assault. She phoned me directly as soon as she learned what happened. And your alleged pregnancy is a complete lie, which has been verified already, which means I will never believe a word you say, ever."

Sunset sniffles. "Then...then fine," she says. "I'll just have to go to the police, and—"

"You do and I'll expose you," I say. "Everything. I don't even care anymore. Just because I can't prove any of it, doesn't mean I can't do exactly what you just did to me. You'll never be able to show your face in this school again."

Sunset glares at me. "Yeah? What exactly do you think you have on me?"

"Let's see...there's what you did to me, for starters," I say. "That'll be the toughest one to get anybody to believe, but I have plenty of witnesses. Then there's what happened with Pinkie Pie's family. We know that was you. And we know Snails got himself expelled because he was afraid of what'd happen if he ratted you out. And you killed Snips. I can't prove it, but I know you had something to do with it."

Celestia's eyes widen and her head snaps up. "What?" she gasps.

Sunset starts laughing. "Oh my GOD, you're pathetic," she says. "How could I possibly have anything to do with that? I was at home doing laundry that day, and my dad was right there with me!"

"Alright, we'll do it that way," I say. "Even without Snips' murder, I've still got enough on you to convince at least half the school you're a total sociopath." I walk over and lean down close to Sunset. "I'm not afraid of you, you sick little bitch. I'm sick of you, I'm sick of your shit. Stop fucking with me and my friends. Leave us alone. If you don't, I will make your life even more of a living hell than you've made mine."

"Flash," Celestia says in a warning tone.

Sunset pushes back her chair and stands up. "We're done here," she says in an arrogant, superior tone.

"We are NOT finished here, young lady!" Celestia says.

Sunset shrugs. "You've made your point," she says. "You're right. I lied. I'm not pregnant. It doesn't matter. I didn't do any of the things Flash Sentry accused me of, and he can't prove I did. Once I post a retraction saying I read my pregnancy test wrong and panicked, there's nothing you can punish me for." Even as she says this, she pulls out her phone and starts typing. "And it's done," she says. She tosses her hair, then leaves the office.

With a scream of rage and frustration, Celestia picks up her coffee mug and hurls it out of the office with the force of a fastball pitch. It explodes into a million shards of porcelain. "That arrogant little WHORE!" Celestia screeches, her chest heaving as she leans against the desk.

Mrs. Mare peeks in, eyes wide behind her glasses. "Umm...is everything alright?"

Celestia doesn't answer. With a worried frown, Mrs. Mare retreats.

I walk over and close the door, then sit down in the chair Sunset Shimmer vacated.

"I'm expelling her," Celestia says. "I don't need a reason. I will not have her in this school."

"You can't," I say. "As much as I'd love to see that happen, she's got you." I take a deep breath. "Anything she's done on Canterbook...you won't be able to use it as evidence against her, because she'll erase it. She has complete control of Canterbook."

Celestia blinks at me. "What?"

I snort. "Her dad owns it. You really think she doesn't have Tier 5 access?"

Celestia sits down heavily, pale and shaking. "I...I only have Tier 4..."

"Her dad probably doesn't know she's given herself total access," I say. "But you'll never prove it. It doesn't matter what we know about her, what matters is proving it. And we can't. We can't prove anything. I can't even prove she raped me."

Celestia slumps forward on her desk.

I lean forward. "Look...for whatever reason, Sunset Shimmer has it in for me and my friends. Everybody at Applewood Dorm. It might be because Twilight is smarter than her, it might be something else. We don't really know for sure. But..." I take a deep breath. "We need to be the ones to bring her down, to expose her for what she really is. Me, Twilight, all our friends. Just us, nobody else. No police, no teachers, no parents...I'm sorry, but not even you and Vice-Principal Luna." I sigh. "I know that's asking a lot, but—"

"Do it," Celestia says. She looks up at me. "Whatever it takes, as long as you don't get yourself arrested. Whatever she's done, whoever she's hurt...I'm leaving it up to you. She's hurt you more than anybody else. You deserve justice...and I get the feeling you're right. I can't get your justice for you." She takes a deep breath. "Just...just one question." She looks me in the eyes. "Is...is Sunset Shimmer responsible for...for everything that's gone on this year?"

"Yes," I say without hesitation. "Either directly or indirectly, Sunset Shimmer is behind everything."

Celestia nods. "Thank you," she says. She sighs. "I can't believe...I'm powerless to do anything about this..."

"That's the thing about bullying," I say. "All those PSAs on TV about telling a teacher? They're bullshit. Every kid who's ever been bullied knows it. The only way to deal with a bully is to push back." I stand up. "I'd...better get to class," I say. "I've got a history test tomorrow, I need to study."

Celestia nods. "Alright. Flash? I...I'm sorry."

I walk past Mrs. Mare, who's sweeping up the remains of the coffee cup, and head back to class. When I arrive, every eye is on me. I take my seat, not looking at anybody. After a full minute, Mr. Turner awkwardly continues reviewing for the test.

Lunch

Even though Sunset posted a retraction and the whole school's seen it by now, it hasn't stopped the gossip. I'm getting lots of dirty looks from people who believe I cheated on Twilight, as well as leers from guys who think I'm some kind of rock star for having had sex with Sunset Shimmer. Sunset herself is also getting some dirty looks.

Octavia, Vinyl, Coco, and Trixie all join me and my friends for lunch. Chrysalis' daughters are also sitting with us. "Okay, Flash-man, out with it," Vinyl says. "The hell's goin' on here?"

"Sunset Shimmer's a psycho and she's trying to hurt me and Twilight," I say. "End of story."

"Did you really...y'know...with that girl?" Papillon asks.

I sigh. "One night back in February, I woke up with her on top of me. We don't even know how she got in the dorm. That's the truth."

"Whoa. Dude. That's messed up."

"I've always felt that Sunset Shimmer was nothing but trouble," Octavia says with a frown. "But this..."

"Why isn't Principal Celestia doing anything about this?" Coco asks.

"Because there's nothing she can do," I say. "Even though we all know what a creep Sunset is now, there's just...nothing to punish her for. Nothing anybody can prove, anyway." I shrug.

"That's messed up," Vinyl says.

"The important thing," Twilight says, "is that Flash's real friends all know that he would never do anything remotely like what Sunset Shimmer accused him of."

"Quite right!" Rarity agrees.

"Yeah, Flash may be a pervert, but he's not a jerk," Rainbow says.

Vinyl raises an eyebrow. "A pervert, huh?"

"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight cries.

He did Twilight in the shower. The shower. That we all have to share.

"Oh my," Coco whispers, turning pink.

"And that's not even getting into your freaky threesomes with Pinkie Pie," Rainbow says with a teasing grin, warming to the subject.

Octavia's eyes go wide.

"O-KAY!" Pinkie says loudly, a huge, forced grin on her face. "How about we NOT talk about that while we're all eating lunch! In front of people who really don't need to know about that kind of thing?"

"Oh, I need to know!" Katydid says with a huge grin.

"Me too!" Cricket agrees, nodding rapidly.

Twilight facepalms.

The rest of lunch is really embarrassing...

After School

I can't get away from CHS fast enough when the last bell rings. I practically sprint back to the dorm and up to my room. There's no homework this week, so I grab my guitar, crank my amp, and pour all my anger and frustration into the loudest, crunchiest metal riffs I can play until my ears are ringing and my head is pounding. I flop back on my bed, feeling drained and empty. My head hurts, my fingers hurt, my stomach hurts...

Evening

I must've dozed off, because the next thing I know, Twilight, Pinkie, and Rainbow are all sitting around me on the bed. "You okay?" Rainbow asks.

I sit up. My head is killing me. "No," I say. "Not really."

Twilight hugs me. "Flash..." She looks like she's been crying. "I'm so sorry..."

I sigh. "What time is it?"

"It's almost dinnertime," Twilight says. "Cadance and Luna went to pick up sandwiches for everybody. None of us really feel like cooking tonight."

I nod and stand up. "I need some aspirin or something," I say. "My head's killing me."

"I'll get it," Pinkie says. She rushes out; a minute later, she returns with a bottle of medicine. She shakes out two pills, then hands them to me. I snag a soda out of the fridge, pop the top, and down the pills. "Thanks."

Luna leans into the open door. "We're back with the food," she says. "Girls, would you mind letting me speak with Flash for a moment? Alone?"

The girls head downstairs. Luna steps in and sits down. "How are you holding up?"

I shrug. "Today sucked ass. I feel...well..." I shake my head. "Sick. Tired, mostly."

Luna nods. "I truly am sorry," she says. "My sister and I talked at length today." She sighs. "All my worst suspicions about Sunset Shimmer have come to pass..." She shakes her head. "If our school were not so inextricably bound to Canterbook, Celestia and I could more easily deal with the little bitch."

I shake my head. "Like I told Principal Celestia...the only way to deal with a bully is to push back. And that's what she is. A sick, depraved, sociopathic bully."

"I believe it's worse than that," Luna says. "That girl is evil. A bully, I could handle. I...don't honestly know what she is, and it scares me." She frowns. "Even when I was at my worst, all those years ago...even the most sociopathic of the 'friends' I surrounded myself with were not as twisted as Sunset Shimmer." She looks at me. "One interesting thing my sister said. You seem to think Sunset Shimmer is responsible for the death of Snips."

I shrug. "I wouldn't put it past her. Even if she wasn't there, even if she has an alibi, she has something to do with it. I just can't prove it."

"Hmm." Luna sighs. "Well, I disagree with how Celestia is handling this situation, and the fact that she's leaving everything to you and your friends instead of doing her job and dealing with it truly bothers me." She places a hand on my shoulder. "Be careful," she says. "Promise me. If Sunset Shimmer is too much for you and your friends to handle, go to the police. Come to me, to Celestia. We'll deal with it."

I nod. "When we can actually pin anything on her and make it stick, that's exactly what we're going to do. But right now, she's holding all the cards..." I sigh.

Luna shakes her head. "I almost wish the two of you were running around with switchblades trying to knife each other. THAT, at least, I could deal with. This whole social shaming thing...it's worse than anything I grew up with." She sighs again. "Come downstairs. Eat dinner."

We head down to the dining room and join the others. Dinner is silent and awkward. After I eat, I go back to my room. I have tests to study for...