Escape

Sunset found herself in front of Canterlot high, the school in ruins and the portal-statue now a pile of rubble.

"What happened here?" she asked herself, about to receive that very answer.

"You know we really must thank you Sunset Shimmer." a somewhat familiar voice told her.

Sunset turned around to see the three Dazzlings behind her, each with a dark grin on their faces, and three shinny necklaces.

She slowly backed away, "Wh... what do you mean, thank me?" she asked nervously.

Adagio closed the gap Sunset was trying to make "Thanks to you, we had more negative energy to feed on than we ever have before in such a small place, it's amazing really."

"What did I do?" she asked again, not sure if she wanted to know.

Aria laughed "All those secrets you were spreading around, everyone hates you for it."

"I didn't do that!"

"Doesn't even matter any more, the hate is real, and a certain five gave us all the Equestrian energy we could ever need to rule this pathetic world." Adagio told her her, pointing behind her.

She turned around to see her five friends staring at her.

"Why'd you do it sugarcube?" Applejack asked

"I didn't do anything, I swear!"

"You were never our friend!" Pinkie told her with an iron stare.

She broke down onto the ground, with her hands on her head, "I'm not a bad pony! I'm not a bad pony! I'm not a bad pony!" she told herself over and over.

"I'm done trying to help you Sunset, you deserve to be alone!" Rainbow declared as they all slowly started to disappear.

"Why Sunset... I thought we were friends." She looked up to see Twilight looking at her, with sadness in her eyes, as she too, began to disappear.

"No, Twilight! Please don't leave!" she reached a hand out to grab her, but she was already gone.

"I don't want to be alone."

"ENOUGH!!!" a voice shouted, as Sunset was enveloped in light.

When she could see again, she was a pony once more, outside Twilight's castle, as a dark blue alicorn flew down to her.

"Prncess Luna?!" she said as she pulled herself together and stood up.

"Sunset Shimmer I presume?" Luna asked as she got to the ground. "My sister wanted me to see you tonight, and from the looks of things, I could have got here earlier."

"I, uh, yeah, thats me, and thanks for that." she eventually answered.

"So what was all that about."

"Just something from my past," she sighed, "something I'm trying to let go of."

"Ah concerning the crown? Twilight did fill us in with what happened with you all those months ago."

"Not that, this is a lot more recent, and the reason I'm back in Equestria." she sighed again, before sitting back down.

"We've all done things we regret, but ask yourself this, would you be here if you hadn't taken that crown?"

"Celestia told me that yesterday, and I think she was right." she answered.

Luna began to fly up in the air, "About these nightmares, I can't come to you every night, so you may want to talk to somepony about them, maybe they can help." and then in a blink, she was gone.

Sunset woke up the next morning feeling better than she ever had during this whole ordeal, as she slowly got up and made her way around the castle.

she eventually found the raher large main room and was met by a friendly smile sitting at a table.

"Sleep well?" Twilight asked her, "Oh, Spike made pancakes for breakfast."

Could have been better. "Yeah, beter than I have in a long time."

"You know what you said to me in one of your letters, about how you feel so alone?" Twi asked, her smile starting to fade.

"Yeah, you said you had no idea what that could feel like." Sunset replied, fairly intrigued.

"Actually last night I remembered something." Twi started "When Discord broke free, he ended up turning all my friends against me, I was about to leave Ponyville when-"

She was cut off by a knock at the door, one that didn't sound like it would stop until answered.

"Oh that's Pinkie, she's early."

"Wait what time is it," Sunset asked, "and how long was I asleep?"

"Well it's half twelve now, and we got back to the castle at about ten to nine." Twi responded as she opened the door.

"Hey Twi, is Sunny ready to go?" Pinkie asked as she darted up to the table. "Oh, hi Sunny, so has Twilight told you that I'm going to give you a tour of Ponyvile?" she asked her, pulling her in for a hug.

"Yeah, she told me last night." she replied, trying not to lose air from the tight hug.

When Pinkie let her go she turned back to Twilight "What were you saying Twi?"

"Oh that can wait, you two go and enjoy yourselves now." Twi replied as the two of them left. "I'll see you two later." she said with a smile and a wave as Pinkie and Sunset left and closed the door behind them.

"Wait, Twilight's not coming?" Sunset asked.

"Nope, she has boring princess work to do, so she asked me to show you around Ponyville instead."

"Oh, alright, so where to first?" she asked

"Sugercube Corner." Pinkie replied excitedly.

"But wasn't I there yesterday?"

"Yep, but Twi wanted me and the others to get to know you, so we decided to do just that today!" she answered, smiling and bouncing along side her.

"Oh... ok, lead the way." she smiled and followed the hyperactive pony.

The two mares entered the corner to find the others waiting for them already seated at a table.

"About time you two got here, I was starting to get hungry." Dash said as she saw them enter and approach the table.

"You know we never said you couldn't get something before they got here." Rarity replied with a rather smug look.

Applejack was the first to address Sunset herself, "howdy Sunset, how's Twilight doing? She told us she couldn't join us today." she asked with a smile.

Sunset however wasn't about to let her guard down around them, given past experience. "She's ok, apparently she has some princess business to take care of, at least that's what Pinkie told me." she replied as she took her seat.

"It's nice to finally meet you." Fluttershy told her with the same welcoming smile Aj had.

"Yeah, Twilight's told us all about you." Pinkie began, bringing a slightly worried look to Sunset's face.

"All... about me?"

"Yep, like how this one time-"

"Um... Pinkie." Dash muttered, noticing it was making their guest uncomfortable.

"-you apparently tackled Rainbow Dash off of a stage while she was performing a song, hey did that actually happen? Cuz that sounds like it might of been funny to see,-"

"Pinkie." she muttered again, a bit more agitated this time.

"and also about a time when you helped blast three all powerful sirens out of the sky and saved EVERYPONY!"

"Pinkie!" Dash grabbed her.

"Whaaaat?"

"I think she gets it."

"No, she's alright," Sunset said, knowing they all wanted to avoid the elephant in the room, "what else has she told you?"

"Oh... ur, well she told us that right before the whole siren save the day thing, we all got into a fight over there, and it was you that calmed us all down." Pinkie answered, knowing what she wanted to hear.

"Anything else?"

"Well uh, there was that time you uh, apparently it was pretty funny at the time, it had something to do with whipped cream..." Pinkie said with an uneasy look.

"We know what you want to hear, we decided we wouldn't bring that up but, we know." Dash said, pulling Pinkie back into her seat.

"That really doesn't bother you at all?" she asked, beginning to let her guard down.

"Of course not dear," Rarity told her, "why we've..." she looked over at Fluttershy for a second, "befriended the lord of chaos, so what if you tried something like that once."

Sunset couldn't believe what she just heard, "Wait, lord of chaos? You don't mean Discord?"

They nodded, "Well it's more like Fluttershy did, the rest of us don't trust him all that much, especially after that last stunt he pulled with Tirek." Dash replied.

"He's not that bad when you get to know him," Fluttershy told them, "but I will admit I have been a lot more careful around him since then."

"Oh that reminds me!" Pinkie said as she bounced out of her seat and landed next to Sunset, "Did you talk to Trixie yet? Cuz if not, she's right over there." She pointed a hoof excitedly at a blue unicorn with a box of cupcakes at the table next to the window, who had heard her, and was now looking at them.

Slowly she made her way over to the her, who still looking at back at Sunset. "Um, hi." she started with a rather forced smile, "I'm Sunset Shimmer, apparently Pinkie wanted me to talk to you for some reason."

"I heard, take a seat." the blue unicorn replied, using her magic to move a seat for her to sit on, "Cupcake?" she offered.

This is Trixie right? "Sure.. why not." she said as she took her seat.

"Trixie Lulamoon, nice to meet you."

This is wierd. "Apparently Pinkie thinks we have something in common with each other, any idea what she means?"

Trixie shrugged, "No idea, I wonder what that crazy pony's up to now?" she laughed.

Okay what is wrong with her? "Yesterday she called you the great and powerful Trixie, what was that about?"

Her smile fell, "I use to be quite the...smug, selfish arrogant pony, I'm not exactly proud of it. I would even talk in third person," she laughed slightly, "if you can believe that."

"Third person, what does that mean?" she asked, still wondering if this really was the pony version of the Trixie she knew from the human world.

"You don't want to hear it, it sounds stupid anyway." she replied, taking a bite from one of her cakes.

"Oh come on, I can take it." she said with a reasuring smile.

"Fine." she muttered, before taking a deep breath, "The great And Powerful Trixie doesn't need to prove or explain anything to a lowly unicorn like yourself, now get out Trixie's way!"

Alright, that's her.

She slouched down onto the table "That's what I use to be like, to everypony around me, I was terrible."

"So what made you change?" Shimmer asked, curious as to what could ever change Trixie.

"I, might have tried to... take over Ponyville with an ancient magical artifact."

Sunset realized what Pinkie had ment.

"I'm amazed they still talked to me, let alone forgive me. I swear you could try to take over all of Equestria, and they'll still forgive you as long as you're truly sorry for what you did."

Sunset couldn't help but laugh "Funny you should say that actually, because that's almost exactly what I did."

"Yeah right, you're funny." Trixie replied, sounding rather annoyed.

"No really, I did, but is was with Twilight's magic crown." she said as she was slowly calming down.

Trixie just looked at her "You... You're serious aren't you?" then she too started laughing.

Suddenly Pinkie's head popped up next to them "What's so funny you two?"

Sunset realized that all five of them had approached them, each trying not to laugh.

She looked over to Applejack, as a sudden realization hit her.

No Sunset, you don't belong here anymore.

"You were right Applejack, I don't."

"Hm, what did I say?" she asked puzzled.

Sunset quickly got up and started heading for the exit, "I'll talk to you girls later, I gotta go talk to Twilight." she said as she left for the castle, leaving the other six rather confused.