Rising And Sunshine
IC date: Spring 28
OOC date: April 21
Location: Outskirts of Town
PCs: Sunshine, Rising-Chaos
NPCs: N/A
GM: N/A

Turn back the clock to that week before Sunshine-Stormcloud rejoined into her current state…

It was a bright, sunny day. Perfect for a little filly named Sunshine to be out and about, living up the whole 'I'm an adorable filly' moment. Scampering about the patch of land between Farmville and the Harbor proper. Otherwise known as the out-of-town residential district! There she is, just…rolling around in the grass, giggling at butterflies, and enjoying the occasional nap~
Oh dear, this is what morthers tell their fillies not to get in to danger.

That makes it seem more intimidating than it is, really. Because the outskirts are actually a pretty safe place, quiet and peaceful. Rising Chaos hasn't had much chance to experience this, so relishes the chance when she can, as she does now. The mare is on her daily stroll, and is walking along when, wait, hold on.

That's the target. The unicorn changes her path to take her closer to the filly, and since she's friendly, and has helped Sunshine before, and is friends with ruby, why should Sunshine be afraid?

Indeed! Why should Sunshine be afraid? There's nothing to fear from /helpful/ ponies! So Rising's approach is met with a wave and a smile from the little white filly, bouncing about in the grass. She doesn't remember the pony's /name/ of course, but she does remember the helpful disguise!
Rising-Chaos finally gets close to the bouncing filly. Maintaining that smile is hard, fillies are ridiculous, how can they just keep bouncing like that? there's not much to fear, though, Rising is still going to be helpful to Mad Mare (which part of her, remains to be seen). "Hello Sunshine, are you having fun?"

Indeed! How /can/ fillies bounce so much? It's like they're made out of rubber or something. Sunshine naturally keeps right on bouncing. Sunny days seem to just energize her or something! "Hello!" she says when Rising gets close enough.

Rising-Chaos tries to follow the filly's progress, becoming increasingly annoyed. eventually, a cruel smile makes it's way on her face, and she sits down. "I have some terrible news for you, Sunshine. You are in a lot of danger right now, as we speak." In fact, BECAUSE they speak, but not important right now. "It seems your other half is catching up."

That stops the filly's bouncing pretty much right away. "W..what? D-d-danger?" Her eyes get absolutey huge, and she crouches in the grass, as though it would somehow help hide her. "Ohno…! What do I do? I s-should run h-h-home!"

Finally, the silly filly stopped MOVING. Rising Chaos stays sitting, her grin still present. "No, that wouldn't do any good. Stormcloud's associates could outrun you almost at once, there's no way to run." She idly cleans a hoof, while conjuring (fake) bars around Sunshine. "You see, I have had the fortune to have made a deal with Stormcloud, I told her I would keep you out of the way. Do come along with me, my house isn't far." Finally, she stands up, not bringing out the shackles, or her weapons, because come on, sunshine is a filly, and ADORABLE. "I am asking for you trust me, I seek to serve your better half." Which, in fact, is Sunshine, so if she pays attention, that may be a clue as to what's coming.

"What..?" Sunshine blinks as bars form around her! Whoa! The filly looks outright terrified now, whimpering throughout Rising's description of what's going on. She's just a filly and what is this!? "I g-guess I hafta go with you..?" she squeaks out.

Perfect, yes, finally something works! "Yes, please, come this way. I would say again, do NOT try and run. I can become a lot meaner, if you are unco-operative" Her grin is well and truly gone now, replaced by one of those neutrasl, unreadable expressions. Inside Rising is suddenly not so happy, scaring Fillies that she actually kind of likes and sympathizes with isn't fun. Who knew? The bars around Sunshine fall, and Rising Chaos motions for the filly to follow her the short distance back Rising's house.

There is, of course, a brief moment when Sunshine actually does consider running. Because OMG EVIL PONY AHHHHH! But…the threat of something bad happening is difficult to ignore. So Sunshine, reluctantly, follows Rising towards her house when the bars fall down. Hiccuping and crying the whole way. Awwwwwww…

Once they reach the house, Sunshine is quickly, almost furitively pushed through. The door is locked magically, and Sunshine is ushered quickly and forcefully to the lab, which is also locked and sealed. It really breaks Rising Chaos' heart to do this, if only Sunshine was a twerp or something.

What needs to be done needs to be done though, and Rising quickly sits Sunshine down on a chair down in the lab. It's a big, underground room, with tables and scary lab equipment, and piles on chains on the floor, and it looks intimidating. That's not intentional, Rising just considers this atmosphere calming.

Still not giving Sunshine much time to react, she steps back, finally relaxing a bit, and frowning. "Are you afraid?"

The entire time she's being ushered around, Sunshine has a look like she's walking through a huge house of horrors. Wide eyes, cringing expression, tears just /streaming/ down her face. When she's set down, and asked if she's /scared/? Those teary, filly eyes just look up at Rising, blink twice, and…then Sunny just explodes into loud bawling. "I want my friends! Ahhhhhhhh!" Cue the teary waterfalls.

Rising-Chaos doesn't REALLY react to the crying. thankfully the lab is soundproofed, so no ponies are going to be rushing to Sunshines 'aid'. Even if they tired, the door is locked ntight, and the front door is just as secure. For a long moment she watches sunshine cry, frowning and looking awkward.

eventually she speaks up. "It's really scary, isn't it? Being split up and having your other parts hunting you? It's scary and confusing, I know." She edges a little bit closer. "So that's why I'm not going to let it happen, okay? I made a deal with Stormcloud to get you out of her way, but I'm not going to let her hurt you. you don't have to be afraid of her any more."

it takes a full couple of minutes for anything Rising's saying to make the filly finally stop her continual bawling. Even then she's extremely sniffley and whimpery and trying /so hard/ to make herself a tiny little fillyball in the chair Rising put her in. It's still very scary! She does manage to nod a little, between sniffles and little tiny scared hiccups.

Rising-Chaos inches forwards again. "Right now, between her and you are two magical locks, a pirate Queen, and me. If you thought I was scary, imagine what I would do if I was actually mad." She looks down, looking really sincere. "I'm sorry I had to scare you like that, but I had to make a show of it. Just in case Stormcloud came by. I really am going to help. Not for Ruby, or for anypony else, but because you deserve to be together, and not have to be afraid of yourself." She puts a hoof on the side of the chair. "Being afraid of yourself sucks, I tried it, there's no future in it." Hopeful grin, forgiveness?

Sunshine doesn't seem to know what to think. Still very sniffly, at least she isn't crying anymore! She's just…looking up at Rising with confused filly eyes, and a somewhat..concerned expression. "B..but.. She's.. S-so mean and s-s-scary! A-a-and she t-t-t-tried to make you do mean things too?" This is so confusing! If she's not a bad pony why is a cute little filly in a dungeon!?

That's fair, confusion is fair here. Rising Chaos nods. "I offered to help her, by taking you out of the picture. I thought that, if she trusted me to take you away, once I got you, she wouldnt hunt you any more. Then, once you are safe, and hidden, we can all work together to fix this." Rising forces a chuckle, and needs to, because this situation isn't funny. "She may be mean and scary, but I can be oh so much meaner. She doesn't frighten me."

Feeling like perhaps that wasn't enough, Rising tries for traditional comfort. "Would you like some cookies?"

At this point Sunshine hesitates between sniffles. Cookies. …Evil ponies don't usually offer cookies. Do they? "U..um yes…please…" Sunshine says, sniffling. "C-cookies would be good."

Rising-Chaos looks visibly relieved by the downturn of sobbing and tensions. She quickly gets to her hooves and trots up the stairs, coming down quickly with a plate of chocolate schip cookies. she sets them down within Sunshines reach, and sits a ways off again. "

But Sunshine is no longer in the chair when Rising comes down! In fact, she's nowhere to be seen. Until a small rustle of chain links is heard. The little white filly pokes her head up from the pile of chains, blinking at Rising and her plate of cookies. "Um…Boo?" she says, with a sniffle.

Ordinarily that would be met with a scowl. Rising Chaos knows about times and places though, so she has the good grace to jump, and then force another chuckle. "I really should clean up those chains. They're from way back when I was split in to four ponies. I keep them around to remember, I guess, but not much to remember." She mvoes the cookies to be closer to Sunshines new place, and joins her.

It's not like the cookies are good, they're pretty bland, and she managed to make chocolate flavourless, but she tried at least.

Ack! Sunshine leaps out of the chains like they'd suddenly turned red hot! She skids to a stop, huffing at the chain piles, then blinking up at Rising. Still confused! "Y-you split into different ponies too..?" she asks, cautiously trotting up to sniff at the plate of cookies. Bland or not, a cookie is a cookie and perfectly nommable by little fillies! Thus she promptly sits down, grasps a cookie in two hooves, and nibbles around the edges of it.

Rising-Chaos nods. "I did. It was a bit less extreme than your case, but I did. But all sorts of bad stuff happened, and I don't want it to happen to you." Hear that? That's sincerity and good will, treasure that, it doesn't happen much with Rising. "One of the copies still lives in my head, you know. turns out even half of a pony, is still a pony."

"In your head..?" Sunshine says, putting the cookie in her mouth to hold onto. That way she can get up on her hind legs, reach up to steady herself with her front hooves on Rising's shoulder, and staaaaaare. As if she could see into the head of the other pony! Which she can't, but hey it was worth a shot. At least the filly's starting to relax. Or accept her fate. Or, y'know, forgot she was 'in danger' in the first place.

Rising-Chaos doesn't move so Sunshine can try to look in to her head. "Yup, she kept some of her individuality when I took her back. So she is like a little voice in my head these days. We were all scared, I think, but it turned out fine in the end." Her ear flicks, unused to so much attention.

Sunshine sets back down, taking the cookie out of her mouth again. Munch munch! "Wow…" she says after a moment, looking around at all the scary lab equipment. "I guess..if I'm fixed.." she murmurs, her brow creasing at the thought. Sometimes, for a filly, she has surprisingly adult thoughts! "…I might end up the voice in my own head. Telling me to not do stupid bad things." Her ears droop. "I don't wanna go back…"

Rising-Chaos reaches out and puts hoof on Sunshine's shoulder. "I won't let that happen. You're a strong little filly, and you are a very important half. Trust me, just stay strong, confident and happy, and nothing can make you just a voice. You'll be a part of a pony again, an equal part, and nopony will be able to take that away." Rising gives Sunshine a super serious look. "I promise, okay? It's better to go back, you have to."

Sunshine blushes at Rising's super-serious look, but she doesn't argue the point. She just nods, with her cookie in her mouth, ears tipped back. She may not be exactly very keen on the idea, but she can't deny everyone thinks it's important. "Okay…" she mumbles around the cookie, going as far as to throw her arms around Rising's neck because nothing seals a promise quite like a hug. Then: "…Can I go home now?"

Rising-Chaos seems to be completely taken aback and in shock at the hug, but does eventually return it. "Just trying to look out for you, you come here any time you're scared and need somewhere to hide." She pats the filly vaguely, feeling distinctly uncomfortable. "Yeah, I'll unlock the doors, get on home, be safe. Take as many cookies as you like." It's not like they're exactly a crowd favourite.

Sunshine smiles at the patting, turns to leave and gets as far as the door. She pauses, dips her head..and turns around to scamper back for another cookie, scooping it up in her mouth! "Fankf for coo'ief!" she chimes, spinning about again and trotting right back out the door! Maybe not a crowd favorite, but when you're a filly, a cookie is good no matter how bad it is. Almost.