The Princesses Of Equestria

Chapter 8: Jealousy?

The table was now fully set, and the plates were piled high with food, so Sunset Shimmer chose a chair and sat down. She waited for everyone else to sit down too before eating. That was only the polite thing to do, and since she was a princess now, she would always have to be polite. The purple unicorn - Twilight Sparkle's student - selected the seat next to her with a friendly smile.

"Hi," she greeted, "my name's Starlight Glimmer."

"I'm Sunset Shi-" Sunset began to say, but Starlight interrupted her. "Oh, I know who you are. In fact, all of Equestria knows who you are. Well . . . maybe not yet. But they know there's going to be another alicorn princess, so you'd better hide those wings if you want to go outside. The ponyrazzi are relentless. I should know, since I'm the student of a princess."

Sunset nodded her head, deciding to take Starlight's advice. She did seem to know what she was saying, after all. Suddenly, Twilight and her mysterious special somepony returned. Sunset gasped in shock when she saw him. She knew immediately who he was - she recognized his face, even if he was a pony now. Twilight's coltfriend was none other than . . . Flash Sentry.

Sunset, in a whirl of mixed emotions, watched in complete silence as he pulled out a chair for Twilight and she sat down. "Thank you, Flash," she murmured politely, as a good princess should always use her manners, like Sunset was thinking only moments earlier. Flash smiled fondly at her before taking the seat beside her. Sunset continued to watch them, and didn't say anything, but when Flash caught her eyes, she quickly looked away.

Flash Sentry. Twilight was dating Flash Sentry. She didn't know what to think, or feel. In the other world, she had dated Flash's human counterpart, but they'd broken up. Sunset had never told anyone this, but the truth was . . . she still had feelings for him.

"You two are the cutest couple ever," Starlight gushed. But Sunset didn't agree. She still didn't comment, though.

The last one to sit down was Spike. Then they all started to eat heartily. But Sunset lost her appetite and felt uncomfortable when she caught sight of Twilight's hoof on top of Flash's. She blushed in annoyance, and took a sip of wine. However, it only grew worse when she realized that Twilight and Flash were sharing a plate. Why was she feeling this way? It didn't make sense! Sunset was raging inside and was trying as hard as she could not to let it show. Starlight could tell that something was wrong and kept throwing her curious looks, all of which Sunset ignored. She decided to keep her eyes on her plate, refusing to look at anyone or anything else, especially Twilight and Flash. She silently poked at her food with her fork, which she held with her magic.

Starlight wanted to know what was going on. So, she finally decided to speak up, "Are you okay, Sunset? You've been quiet for a while."

"Oh, I'm great," Sunset replied, with accidental heavy sarcasm. She looked up and noticed that everyone was now staring at her. She blushed and immediately looked back down. "I'm just trying to get used to everything," she lied, back to avoiding eye-contact with everyone as she took a few bites of her food. It was delicious. She ate her meal in silence and continued to ignore Twilight and Flash. Then, when dinner was over, Starlight was the first pony to stand up to put her plate away. Twilight and Flash suddenly shared a long, passionate kiss with each other at the table. Sunset saw it happen, but she didn't cringe or feel disgusted like she probably would have if it was another couple. Instead, she felt furious and suddenly wanted to slap both of them with her hard hoof. Quickly leaving the dining-room before she could let her urges of pure rage take over, she disappeared back inside her bedroom.

Was this . . . Jealousy???