Sunday, July 10, 2016
Sunday, July 10, 2016
Today's Horoscope (Virgo): Jealousy and anger can sour even the strongest friendship. Be careful of what you say and do today.
Morning
Everyone's tense this morning. Everyone, that is, except Sunset Shimmer.
"Mornin' guys!" she says as she walks up to a group of us. "Wow, you all look awful this morning."
"Really?" Rarity says snidely. "Do we look dreadful? I wonder whyever that could possibly be." Rainbow and Fluttershy settle for giving her hostile glares.
Sunset blinks and backs away from us, her cheerful smile turning into a puzzled frown. "Uhh...whatever you're all upset about, I didn't do it. Really, I just got up. I mean, I didn't even polish the pearl or anything last night, I just went to bed and slept..."
"Just go away, alright?" Twilight says quietly.
Sunset visibly wilts, but slinks away, glancing over her shoulder at us with a hurt expression.
Once she's gone, Rarity lets out a sigh of relief. "I can't believe she'd be so tacky as to rub it in our faces like that."
"I can," Rainbow says. "It's Sunset."
Pinkie frowns. "I...dunno," she says softly. "I don't think..."
"Don't think she can act that well?" Fluttershy says. "Believe me, she can."
Pinkie shakes her head. "No, I...I think we really hurt her feelings just now. I can just...tell."
"Yeah? Well tough titty," Applejack says. "Ah don't rightly give a flyin' fig newton about her feelins."
"Uhh..." Sonata rasps. "You guys? Am I the only one who noticed—" She coughs, grimaces, then pulls out her tablet.
You know how the Shadows always have those creepy eyes?
We all look around at each other, then back at Sonata. She makes sure we're all paying attention, then:
The Sunset we saw last night had those same eyes.
Twilight and Rarity blink. I frown. "That's true..."
"So...you think that might not have been her at all? It was...her Shadow?" Rainbow suggests.
Sonata shrugs.
Twilight's brow furrows. "Come to think of it, Cadance gets really strange readings from Sunset whenever we run into her in Zodiac. If...if what we saw last night wasn't the real Sunset Shimmer..."
Rainbow grimaces. "If it wasn't, then we just chewed her out for no good reason. I mean, this time."
"Yer point?" Applejack asks.
"Well, I don't—" Rainbow shakes her head. "I mean, if we just—"
"We acted like jerks to her just for saying hi," Pinkie says quietly. "I mean, yeah, it's Sunset, but after everything we've been through this past week—"
Pinkie is interrupted mid-sentence by:
Rainbow pulls her phone out of her pocket. We all stare at her. She blushes. "What?"
The sound is coming from her phone. Good grief...
She glances at the screen. "It's Dad. Gotta take this." She walks out of the room. We all stare after her.
"A-anyway..." Pinkie sighs. "I think we owe Sunset an apology. Just in case."
Most of the girls don't look especially happy with that idea, but with Pinkie, Sonata, and even Twilight visibly regretting what just happened, we decide to find Sunset and apologize.
We find her upstairs, gathering up her laundry. She looks up and frowns. "Hey," she says. "Come to yell at me some more?"
"Actually, we came to say we're sorry," Pinkie says. "We shouldn't have jumped on you like that. We're all just a little pissy this morning."
Sunset shakes her head. "It's okay," she says. "I guess. So what's wrong? Or is it none of my business."
"It's...just a bad mood that's going around," I say.
"Yeah, we're just mad at Flash," Twilight says. "We shouldn't take it out on you."
"We are?" Sonata asks curiously.
"Some of us are," Twilight says. Pinkie lets out a heavy sigh.
I stare at Twilight. "Seriously?"
Twilight ignores me. "Anyway...sorry, Sunset. I...sorry." She walks off without another word.
Sunset sighs. "Well, thanks," she says. "I was wondering why you were all mad at me today. I guess you're all just mad and I happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time." She picks up her laundry basket and walks past us, headed for the stairs.
Once she's gone, Applejack scratches her head. "Okay, whut burr got in Twilight's bra?"
"Don't get involved," Rarity says. "Trust me. Do not get involved."
Applejack shrugs. "If'n you say so." She pauses, then adds, "Flash, you sleepin' around on her again?"
"No," I say tersely. "I'm not." I head back to my room.
Daytime
Most of the girls are doing their own thing today. Since it's empty and quiet, I decide to practice my guitar in the lounge. I've been playing for about half an hour when Twilight walks in. The agitation on her face and the way she keeps crossing and uncrossing her arms is not a good sign.
I set my guitar down and lean back. "What's wrong?"
Twilight frowns. "You know what's wrong."
I give her a hard look. "No, Twilight. I really don't."
Her nostrils flare. "Alright. Fine. You hanging out by a pool with a bunch of other girls all day yesterday."
I groan. "Twilight..."
"No, Flash," Twilight says. "We need to talk about this."
"What's there to talk about?" I ask. "I spent the day hanging out with friends from school."
"Girl friends!"
"Yes! Girl friends! Not girlfriends. That's you and Pinkie."
"Oh really? Because Rarity was there, and I know you ogle her every chance you get."
"Oh, for..." I shake my head. "What's this really about, Twi?"
"I already told you!" Twilight snaps. "I don't like it when you spend too much time around a bunch of other girls without me. Or at least Pinkie."
"You mean you don't trust me," I say quietly.
Twilight looks away.
I stand up. "Twilight, you're going down a dangerous road here," I say. "You can't dictate who I can be friends with and who I can spend time hanging out with."
Twilight blows on her bangs. "It just seems you spend too much time with too many girls."
I shake my head and sigh. "Right, because all my friends are girls."
"You don't have a single male friend?" Twilight asks skeptically.
I run my hands through my hair. "Look, Twi...the only guys I'm friends with are Shining Armor and Big Mac. Maybe a couple guys on the tennis team, but I don't really know them that well. Most of the guys at school, I can't stand."
Twilight raises an eyebrow. "Because they're not cute girls you can ogle and maybe have sex with?"
"Because they're either boring guys I have nothing in common with or they're pigs who just want me to hook them up with somebody from this dorm."
"Funny, I'd think you'd be all for that," Twilight says, folding her arms. "Or do you just want us all for yourself? Nice little harem?"
"Oh fuck you!" I snarl. "Where do you get off? Whose idea was it for me to fuck half the dorm in the first place?"
"You sure didn't object!" Twilight retorts, raising her voice. "And don't blame this all on me! You practically pant like a dog over every girl you see! I bet being that close to Silver Spoon in a swimsuit yesterday, you wanted to bend her over and—"
"Oh, for fuck's sake—"
"No, Flash! I know you! You're incorrigible!" Twilight is pacing now, flailing her hands around. "Dammit, I've even seen you ogling Luna and Celestia when they were here! Especially Luna!"
"Well, she'll be happy to know she can still turn heads."
Twilight and I both freeze and turn around.
Celestia is standing at the entrance to the lounge, wearing tight, knee-length khaki shorts, a beige tank top, a light, unbuttoned sky blue blouse, and low-heeled sandals. Sunglasses with red plastic frames are perched on her forehead, and her hair is tied back in a loose ponytail.
Twilight's face turns red, her eyes wide and mortified. "P-Principal Celestia..."
Celestia looks at the two of us impassively for a long moment. "For some reason, I had a dream about the kids in this dorm last night," she says. "I decided to take a quick trip back up from Canterlittle to drop in and say hi. It...looks like I picked a bad time."
"No, not at all," I say. "Twilight's just being stupid."
Twilight rounds on me, her expression changing from mortified to incredulous. "What?!"
I fold my arms. "Look, Twilight. I have other friends outside of this dorm, alright? And yes, they're all girls. I can't help that. I'd think you'd trust me enough by now."
Twilight frowns. "Flash, I just..." She shakes her head. "If you'd just told me where you were and who you were with. I mean...I found out from Lyra. I should've heard it from you."
I facepalm. "I don't remember anything about always having to tell you what I'm doing and where I'm doing it."
"I never said—!" Twilight groans in frustration. "You know why I'm upset about this!"
I clench my jaw. "I'm not Cadance, Twilight."
Twilight stops cold, staring at me in disbelief. Which slowly turns to anger. She turns around and walks stiffly away, marching up the stairs. Her door slams.
Celestia regards me with a mild frown.
I wince. "Wrong thing to say?"
"Wrong thing to say," Celestia agrees calmly.
I sit down and sigh.
"Not that I want to get involved in this, but..."
I shake my head. "Twilight and I...we don't fight like this. I mean, we haven't had a serious fight in months." I groan, covering my head in my hands. "This is stupid. She's freaking out because I went to a pool party I didn't even know was happening until the last minute."
"I see," Celestia says. "And who was at this pool party?"
I shrug. "Octavia, Vinyl, Lyra, Bon Bon. I ran into Rarity and Silver Spoon in town and took them with."
Celestia raises an eyebrow. "So. You were the only boy at a party with six girls. I assume completely unsupervised?"
I wince. "Yeah, that does sound bad. Well, except for the part where four of those girls are lesbians."
Both of Celestia's eyebrows climb higher. "Flash...that actually makes it worse. At least, from Twilight's perspective. Especially if some of what I've heard about you kids', ahem...private affairs is true."
I give her a half-lidded stare. "Oh, don't pretend Twilight and Pinkie never woke you up when you were living here."
Celestia rolls her eyes. "Honestly, this dorm has the most oversexed bunch of kids living in it I've ever known," she says. She sits down. "And honestly, I can understand Twilight's frustration."
I shake my head. "I can't. She's acting like I'm going off and cheating on her with every girl in Canterlot. She's ignoring the fact that I've never slept with anybody she hasn't given me permission to sleep with, and aside from Fluttershy, all of that was during Spring Break and was her idea in the first place!"
Celestia gives me an amused smirk. "Is there anyone in this dorm you haven't slept with? Other than Luna and myself, I mean."
I flinch. "Just Applejack," I admit. "Well, and Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, obviously."
"Applejack's not interested, huh?"
"It's mutual," I say with a shrug.
"Not your type?"
I nod.
"The rest are?"
I nod.
"So basically you've got a harem here."
I shake my head. "I'm honestly getting sick of people saying that. And Twilight knows it."
"And it never occurred to you that if you had some male friends, and spent time with them, Twilight might not get upset about things like this?"
I snort. "The guys at CHS are either only interested in banging my friends or just aren't...I just can't relate to them."
"Really? Out of all the other male students at CHS, there's nobody you can relate to?"
"Well...there's a couple guys who talked to me about maybe starting a band, but I just haven't had time. Besides, I'm pretty sure one of them just wants to try to get close to Rarity."
"And that's a bad thing why?" Celestia gives me a pointed look. "It's not your job to protect the girls in this dorm from boys who are interested in them. Even if that interest is purely sexual, I believe the girls can handle that on their own."
I sigh. "You're right."
"But I think the problem with you and Twilight goes deeper than that, does it not?" Celestia idly swings one foot in the air. "She was very upset when you said—"
"I'm not Cadance," I finish, hanging my head. "Yeah...that was a low blow." I shake my head. "I guess around this time last summer, Cadance and Shining Armor were probably fighting..."
"I know more about that situation than I wish I knew," Celestia says with a grimace.
"But...it's not the same thing at all," I say. "I'm not going around cheating on Twilight, and I wasn't angry at her about anything until she freaked out over that pool party yesterday."
Celestia shrugs. "It may well be that Twilight is inventing her own problem because she's insecure, or because she still has painful memories of what happened last summer." She frowns. "Or fresh memories of her brother's recent stupidity."
I stare at her.
"Oh, I know about Shining Armor and Sunset Shimmer," Celestia says darkly. "He's lucky I'm not firing him." She sighs. "Flash...Twilight's been through a lot with her brother and her sister-in-law, and even though she seems...unusually comfortable with casual sex, don't think for a minute she's forgotten about all the cheating. Especially what her asshole brother did." She stands up and stretches. "And, frankly, you need to stop thinking with your dick. I understand how...interesting living here can get, especially after having witnessed some of what goes on here first-hand. But if you spent less time ogling and fantasizing about other girls besides Twilight—well, and Pinkie—maybe she wouldn't fly off the handle about you going to a pool party."
I sigh. "It really hasn't been an issue for a while now," I say. "Twilight's just overreacting."
"Be that as it may, that's not how she sees it. If you don't want to lose her, you need to see things her way until she figures out she's worrying over nothing." She shakes her head. "Anyway, I'm going up to say hi to Rainbow Dash now. Think about what I've said, alright?"
I nod. "I will."
"Good. Oh, and I'm pretty sure Luna's going to start coming over to play video games with the girls before long." She smirks. "Do try not to ogle her. She is your vice-principal."
I duck my head, feeling my cheeks heat up. Celestia laughs. "Oh, don't be embarrassed. You have no idea how much women our age need to know boys your age think we're sexy. But under the circumstances, you really need to—"
"Keep it in my pants and keep my eyes to myself, I know, I know."
"Good boy," Celestia says before turning and heading upstairs.
I sigh, pick my guitar back up, and strum listlessly.
Twilight's being an unreasonable little shrew about the pool party thing, and I'm the one who ends up feeling like a jerk...something about that doesn't sit well with me. But I really don't want to lose the best thing that ever happened to me.
Still, something about the whole thing is gnawing at me.
Evening
For the rest of the day, I'm too tense to really do anything. By evening, I feel like I'm climbing the walls, so I decide to leave the dorm and get some fresh air, maybe grab dinner in town. Pinkie tags along with. We don't talk much.
We wind up at Hinny's. As I'm picking at a club sandwich, Pinkie looks up at me with sad eyes.
"You know I'm not mad at you, right?" she says quietly. "About yesterday."
I glance at her across the table. "You sure seemed mad."
She laughs mirthlessly. "I was just pouting because I missed a pool party. I honestly don't care who you were with." She sighs, shifting things around on her skillet with her fork. "I think Twilight's blowing this way out of proportion, but..." She looks straight at me, a serious expression on her face. "Some of what you said to her today wasn't very nice. You know that, right?"
I sigh. "Yeah, I know. It's just..." I shrug. "She started bitching me out when I didn't do anything wrong, and I just—"
"I understand. But I know you, Flash. If you don't fix this, if you hurt her and drive her away..." She shakes her head. "I mean, she's pretty much your main reason for fighting so hard to stay here, right?"
"Yeah."
"Don't get me wrong, she's being stupid too. You both are. And I really don't get why she's so insanely jealous of Silver Spoon. I mean, that's like...her biggest, hugest problem with the whole pool party thing, and that's crazy." Pinkie shakes her head. "I mean, I'd get it if she thought you went there to fuck Octavia, but..." She sighs and shrugs. "Just...please don't be any more stupid, okay? And maybe when she calms down, you can try to get at why she's so hung up on Sil."
It's late when we get back to the dorm. Twilight's waiting by the stairs for us in her pajamas. She looks up at me, then looks away. "Sorry," she says.
I shift awkwardly. "Yeah...me too. Sorry."
Pinkie heads to her room while Twilight follows me to mine. I change for bed; in a few minutes, Pinkie joins us, turning off the lights. We all spoon in my bed; I wrap my arms around Twilight and bury my face in her hair.
