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          "Sunset! Get over here!"
          Sunset slipped her phone into her pocket and joined her five friends, who were casually lounging in front of the school statue. She then noticed that there was in fact a sixth girl standing among her group, a girl she didn't recognise at all.
Applejack was the first to laugh at Sunset's confused face. "Sunset, meet Rainbow Dash. Dash, meet Sunset Shimmer."
Sunset smiled. She was all for meeting and welcoming new people. Rainbow Dash stepped forward with her hand outstretched. She was wearing a red printed t-shirt and denim shorts. The shorts which Sunset couldn't help but notice were especially short. What was most suprising however was the girl's startling mass of hair, which was depicted all the colours of the rainbow. Sunset took her hand and shook it. "Nice to meet you."

"You too," Rainbow replied. Sunset picked up on the new girl's squeaky voice. It had quite a harsh tone to it. The pair took a very small moment to look at each other properly, before the school bell rang.

"Ah was gonna show Dash around the school now, but since y'all have the next class together I'll leave you to it Sunset," Applejack started before rushing off into the crowd, the other five girls following her. Rainbow Dash and Sunset were left together.

Rainbow fiddled on her phone, and Sunset cleared her throat. "Uhm, do you wanna—   What's your locker number?" Sunset stuttered. She had no idea why; she didn't usually stutter.

      Rainbow Dash then started scrolling on her phone. "42," she said. Sunset nodded and beckoned Dash to follow her through the school.
She doesn't talk much... Sunset thought, as the pair walked in silence to the lockers. They found Rainbow's, which only two numbers away from Sunset's, so they both gathered their books and headed to chemistry class.

         As the pair of them started walking, once again in silence, Sunset let her mind wonder. She couldn't help but stare at Rainbow Dash. She was so... shy, and so Sunset didn't really know what to do or say. Just then however, that changed.

      "So, tell me a bit about this school." Rainbow spoke, tucking a loose strand of red hair behind her ear. "I mean, is it a typical boring high school or...?"

       Sunset chuckled, "I'm pretty sure all high schools are boring, so if you came here for excitement, bad luck." This lightened the mood as the pair laughed together. Sunset continued, "What was your old school like?"

      "Ok... let's just not go there right now..." Rainbow Dash laughed nervously. Sunset pulled a questioning look, but didn't say anything about it.

      "Well, welcome to S8, the greatest chemistry class you will ever attend," Sunset said, trying to be as serious as she could. Rainbow Dash couldn't help but laugh and so Sunset had to join her.

      "Way to advertise it. It better be as good as you say..." Rainbow chuckled. The girls walked into the classroom together, only to be surprised by a bubbly, pink, Pinkie Pie.

      "Hey Sunset! Hey Rainbow Dash!" Pinkie squealed, not with any less energy than usual.

      "Pinkie? I didn't realise you were in this class," Sunset glanced at her, confused. She looked over at Rainbow Dash, who should have been standing right next to her, but had instead rushed to the back of the classroom to grab a seat. Strange. Sunset and Pinkie followed her to the back at took a seat as near as possible. Sunset was a desk away, and Pinkie sat in front. Rainbow Dash fiddled with her pencil, then her pen, then started poking holes in the eraser next to her. Sunset observed, smiled, but didn't comment.

     The profesor, Mr Doodle, walked in. "Good morning everyone," he spoke in his usual dull tone, and went to take the register. When Rainbow Dash's name was called, there was no answer, and so Sunset had to kick her in the shin for her to pay attention.

       "Oh... uh.... Here! I'm here!" Rainbow stuttered. She wasn't focused on that class, at all. And when Sunset would try to talk to her, or ask her for help on a question, the rainbow-haired girl would be occupied in her own thoughts. It was a shame too, as Sunset really wanted to get to know her.
      Unfortunately, they didn't have any more classes together that morning, and when chemistry was over, Rainbow Dash somehow managed to find her own way to her next class.

       In third period math, Sunset sat with Twilight and explained her thoughts.
      "I dunno if she's just shy, or doesn't like me, or maybe she just hates people. Like maybe, she's one of those kids who only wants to study and doesn't want any friends as distractions..." Sunset blabbered on, much to Twilight's amusement.

      "Sunset, I was 'one of those studying kids', back in Crystal Prep. I'm sure she's just finding her way around. She knows Applejack quite well anyway, so she'll sit with us and lunch, and maybe we can all talk with her," Twilight suggested.
      Sunset then laughed at herself for letting her mind wonder like that. Yeah, lunch was after maths anyway, so she didn't have to wait that long to at least get a conversation with the new girl.
        However, math class did last longer than it should have done, and when it was finally over, Sunset and Twilight practically burst out of the classroom and sprinted to the cafeteria, mostly because Sunset was hungry, and Twi couldn't deal with much more of her complaining.

        The two girls observed their friends who were sat at their usual table in the busy hall, and smiled at Rainbow Dash who had taken her spot on the end. The late arrivals got their food and joined the others.

         "Where have you girls been?" Rarity asked, while casually wiping the end of her fork with a tissue.
        "Math. We were let out late..." Sunset rolled her eyes, and perched next to Dash. "Hey," she greeted her.

         Applejack cleared her throat, which quietened the girls. "Guys, for Rainbow Dash's sake I want y'all to introduce yerselves."
         "Ok, but first, how do you guys know each other?" Sunset pondered, pointing at the two girls in question with her plate.
        "Well ya see—" Applejack started, only to be cut off.

       "Childhood friends. Our parents knew each other," Rainbow said hastily. The girls nodded, but Applejack very subtly rolled her eyes, only noticed by a few. 

         "Ok, cool." Sunset said, "I'll go first... Uh.... I'm Sunset— Sunset Shimmer, and I live in my own apartment, not a long walk, from here... I like music, and art... oh and I'm a boss at video games," she added with a smug grin.

       Rainbow Dash smirked, "Oh yeah? We haven't met yet, but honestly I know that you're nothing compared to me."

      Sunset crossed her arms, and Rainbow copied her, and the two stared at each other intensely, before losing all seriousness and falling into heaps of laughter. The surrounding girls laughed too.

       "Ok, ok, my turn..." Pinkie yelled, causing the girls to immediately stop their giggling. "I'm Pinkie Pie. I have three sisters, and my parents who I live with. I love parties... Well, I'm actually gonna try and start my own party planning business soon enough!"
       "Really? That's awesome!" Rainbow grinned. Fluttershy went next, then Rarity, then Twilight.

      "Ok Dash, your turn!" Applejack grinned.

   "But, you haven't been yet..." Rainbow Dash laughed, hinting a little nervousness.

   "You know who ah am..." AJ sighed and shook her head. "Just go."

   "Ok ok." Rainbow rolled her eyes, somewhat playfully. "My name's Rainbow Dash, or Dash, or Rainbow, or whatever.... I.. um... I just moved here from Everton High... and I'm also a pro at video games, like Sunset. Oh, and I'm an only child, but I live with my parents..." she mumbled at the end and rolled her eyes, this time with seriousness.
    The girls however all smiled, and happily welcomed Rainbow Dash to the group.

      Lunch break was over soon enough and the girls split up for the day. For once, they actually didn't meet at the end of the day, but it was mostly because everyone had places to be. Sunset walked home, but wasn't paying attention to where she was walking, or how long it took her. Instead her mind was fixed on Rainbow Dash.

     She arrived at the block and entered the lift. As she approached her room, she fiddled for the key in her pocket, and cursed when she found nothing. Panic swept her.
'Fuck! Where did I put it?!" Sunset mumbled under her breath. She aggressively threw her bag to the floor and started rummaging through it.
      Books and papers were flying out, until she breathed a final sigh of relief to find not only her key at the bottom of her bag, but her earplugs, which she had spent hours searching for the other day. She then entered her home and happily closed the door behind her.

It was always a strange feeling whenever Sunset would walk into her apartment. Even though she had been living there for almost three years now, it still didn't feel like her own. She had moved there when she was fourteen, with her mom. However, when she turned fifteen, her mom left her to study for higher education, and so Sunset was left to take care of herself. It wasn't too bad, but it got lonely from time to time.
Sunset dumped her bag into her bed and went to lounge on the sofa. She searched through Netflix, but she wasn't really in the mood to watch anything, so instead, she found herself staring at a blank tv, daydreaming about the days events.

Rainbow Dash.

It was almost like she had been with the group forever. She just fitted in so well. It was so easy to fall into a conversation with Dash, and she was so easy going and sincere, and had a good sense of humour. Sunset couldn't help but smile at the mere thought of her. She shook her head and pulled out her phone, opening up Instagram. She typed in 'Rainbow Dash' in hope of finding her account popping up straight away, but she had no luck. She then typed in 'Rainbow', then 'Dash', then 'RD', and numerous usernames in order to find her account, but still found nothing. Sunset sighed. What was she doing? She had literally just met Rainbow Dash.

After a good thirty minutes of distracting herself via Instagram, Sunset began to feel hungry and so she cooked up a quick meal. Another thing she had learnt from staying home alone over the years was cooking. Surprisingly, home ec class at school didn't help in the slightest, so she was self taught, which also meant she hadn't had a proper decent meal in over a year. She was no chef.

With her half decent spag bol finished and her stomach satisfied, she cleared up and headed into her bedroom. For the majority of the evening she did nothing but video games, and after much frustration and shouting, decided to shower, before slipping into bed. In that small amount of time she had left her phone unattended, she had received 6 notifications. She opened them. They were from the group chat that the six girls shared.

APPLEJACK: So what did y'all think of RD?
PINKIE: Sooooooooooo awesome! I like her!
FLUTTERSHY: I agree, she was very nice :)
RARITY: So you two were childhood friends, Applejack?
APPLEJACK: In a way....
PINKIE: SPILL!
Sunset laughed as she read them. She got comfortable in bed before replying and joining in on the conversation, which could very well last all night...

SUNSET: I like her too. She's cool :)
APPLEJACK: Mhm
PINKIE: AJ???? Is there something you wanna tell us? Hm? Hm?
APPLEJACK: No, like you said, she's nice. I'm glad you like her.
SUNSET: 👍
SUNSET: Where's Twi?
FLUTTERSHY: 🤷‍♀️
RARITY: Probably catching up on her work... As usual.
SUNSET: Probably XD

Sunset couldn't help but laugh. She was lucky to have a good group of friends. She was also glad that they all thought the same about Rainbow Dash.

       The texting went on for what felt like a few minutes more, but it could have been hours. They weren't keeping track. All Sunset knew was that she did not get enough sleep that night. Even after she put her phone down she lay awake daydreaming. Eventually though, she drifted off.

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Also, I have a habit of writing quiittteee long chapters.... :)