Escape

As Twilight came back through the portal, she telepoted the hoodie off of her, and made her way into the main castle hall to see Spike sitting down reading one of his comics.

"See Spike, I told you I'd be back befor-" she was cut off by the front door to the castle flying open, as Sunset ran in.

"Just barley." Spike laughed to himself.

"Twilight!... I need.... to talk..... to you." she said, clearly out of breath.

Same here, "Oh, are you alright? Did something happen? What's wrong?" she asked as she walked over to her.

Sunset took a few deep breaths to regain all her lost energy. "Ok, you're probably going to think I'm crazy for saying this, but I need to go back to the human world! Can you open the portal for me, like now?"

Well thats convenient. "Wait, why do you want to back all of a sudden?" she asked, quite puzzled.

"I just need to talk to them one more time, that's all." Sunset replied.

Same to them. "But what about-"

Sunset quickly interrupted."And no, I don't care whether they want to see me or not, or even if they just ignore me again, they need to know something."

"Well okay, if you're sure," Twilight then remembered that school was canceled for the day, "we'll have to go tomorrow, I've got some stuff I need to do today, and I don't want you to go over there alone."

"Why can't we go now? It won't take long." she asked, tilting her head slightly.

"Because... I'm really behind on some of this stuff, It's why I couldn't join you today. Sorry about that." was the only quick response she could think of.

"Well, alright, sorry for bothering you then." Sunset sighed, as Rainbow came flying in through the still open door.

"Hey, what was all that about? You just up and bolted out. Did we say something?" Dash asked concerned.

Sunset laughed to herself, "No, it's fine, just had to ask Twi something, I'll explain later. Sorry about all that,"

Dash looked at Twilight, who just looked back with a smile "She's fine, no need to worry. You girls go and enjoy yourself." Sunset and Dash made their way back out the door.

Rainbow turned back at Twilight "Is... she really okay?"

"She's fine Dash, don't worry about it." she answered as Dash closed the door

The next day.

The mood was dead in the music room, as it was yesterday, when Pinkie walked in after her first two lessons that day. she looked around to see her friends, and two of the three crusaders.

Fluttershy was again, sitting in the corner, although she wasn't crying today.

Rarity and Sweetie Belle were sitting at a table, both looking at each other rather worried.

Scootaloo was looking out the back window, quickly looking around to acknowledge Pinkies presence in the room, before turning back to the window.

Applejack was sitting opposite Rarity and Sweetie, with her hat covering most of her face, but from what Pinkie could see, she looked either angry, or annoyed.

Rainbow was standing up against a wall, arms folded, with bruises on her right hand, Pinkie noticed some red stains on the wall she was resting on.

Finally, Pinkie herself was wearing a clearly fake wig of her normal ‘poofy’ hair. Her actual hair was clearly visible, in the same style it was yesterday, sitting straight down her neck and her back.

"Come on girls," Pinkie said, with the most forced smile she had ever pulled, "you don't want to be all sad and mopey when Sunset gets here." everyone looked at her "Right?"

"She's not coming." Dash replied, "She's not coming and you know it, we all do."

"Of course she is! I bet she's already here, about to walk through that door any minute now." they all looked away, "Come on girls... Girls?"

"Just drop the act Pinkie, it's not working, and Dash is right, she's not coming." Fluttershy muttered.

"She is coming! S-so cheer up, we wanta greet her with smiles and open arms, not this, right?"

""Cheer up"?" Applejack said, looking up at Pinkie "How can I cheer up knowing my little sister is out there, all by herself, with literally the whole school after her?" she continued, with anger growing in her voice.

"It-it'll be okay," Applejack got up and walked over to Pinkie, gaining the attention of the others in the room, "j-just as soon as Sunset ge-" she replied.

"SHE'S NOT COMING PINKIE!!!" AJ yelled as she pulled Pinkie's wig off, "And even if she was, how would that help my sister? Heck, she'd probably just join in wouldn't she." Pinkie had no response to that, "What was she thinking, doing this without me? “I'll be fine on my own,” “you don't need to worry about me," of course I'm gonna worry about you."

"I know how you feel." Rarity muttered as she put an arm around Sweetie.

Pinkie's smile fell quickly, "Sorry AJ, you're all right, she's never coming back."

Scootaloo was still looking out the window, "Wait, isn't that..." her eyes widened when she realized she was right, "SHE'S HERE!" Everyone gathered around and looked where Scoots was pointing. Sure enough, they all saw Sunset and Twilight among the crowd of people outside, walking towards the school entrance.

"Well I'll be... You were right after all." Applejack said, "Sorry I ever doubted you Pinkie." she turned to see Pinkie already standing in the doorway.

"Save the apologies for the one who needs it. Now are you coming, or am I going alone?" she joked, bringing a smile to their faces as they all walked over to her.

"Wait, hold on a sec," Sweetie pulled out her phone, "you go on ahead, I'll call Applebloom." they all nodded and left.

Twilight and Sunset emerged from the portal, they looked around to see a large group of people just ahead of them.

"Must be break time, they should be in the music room right now." Sunset said to herself.

"I swear I get a little headache everytime i come here." Twilight mumbled.

Sunset just laughed."Well you coming, or you just gonna sit there?" she helped Twilight up and they made their way to the schools entrance.

about halfway there, Sunset heard someone, "Hey, there she is." she looked around to see everyone looking at them, as they just kept walking, Sunset was listening to the passing comments.

"Didn't think we'd see her again."

"I can't believe she actually came back."

"I wanna know why she even bothered coming back."

As they entered the school Sunset turned to Twilight, "Apparently my disappearance yesterday didn't go unnoticed."

You don't know the half of it. "I guess not."

"Come on, the music room's thi-" she was suddenly tackled by Pinkie, "Wha... Get off Pinkie"

"I'm so so sooo sorry Sunny, you see what happened was-"

"Pinkie! get off her!" Dash said as she and Applejack pulled Pinkie off of the now, rather confused Sunset.

"Wait, sorry? That's not what I expected to hear."

"Well why not? didn't-" AJ looked to Twilight, "You did tell her, right?"

The other six of them looked at her aswell. "Tell me what?" Sunset asked, just as confused as the others.

"I thought it would be best if you heard it from them instead of me." Twi said as she nodded to the others.

"What do you mean?" Sunset got up off the floor and turned towards the six Twi's nod was directed at, "What is she talking about?"

"When you came to us two days ago," Rainbow began, "as soon as you ran off, Anon-A-Miss told us who she was. I was about to chase after you but, you were already gone."

"So then, who is she?" Sunset asked.

"Then we decded to right you an apology," Fluttershy continued, "but I guss you didn't get that."

"Yesterday she even admitted it to the whole school." Rarity said, "It was, quite... unexpected to say the least."

"So who is she?" Sunset asked again.

"That was also when Twilight came here to talk to us, and well, here we are." Pinkie said.

"Who. Is. Anon-A-Miss?" she asked a third time.

"That's the part you're not gonna like." Scootaloo replied.

"Why no-" Sunset saw behind them were the other two crusaders, slowly approaching, one in particular caught her attention. "Is that... Applebloom? What happened to her?" she ran over to her, joined first by Applejack, and then the others. "What happened to you?"

Bloom was covered in bruises along her arms, had a rather shiny black eye, and was also cluching her stomach. "Howdy Sunset, yall hear the good news?" she said with a cough. Applejack was paralysed at the sight.

"What are yo-" Sunset began.

"You want to know who Anon-A-Miss is?" Scootaloo asked, "You're looking at her."

"Wait, you mean..." Sunset turned back to Bloom as she thought about what Scoots was saying. "No, that can't be right, it doesn't make sense."

"Course it does," Applebloom replied, "why else was I the only one who listened to you?" Sunset couldn't believe what she was hearing, that the only person she could turn to here was the one who caused her all the pain in the first place. "And why'd you think I look like this?"

"Y-you did all this?" Bloom nodded, "Over the last two weeks, everything I went through, it was all, because of you?" she nodded again.

Sunset walked closer to Applebloom, her eyes filling with anger, causing Applejack to run over and stand between her sister. "Oh no you don't! I don't care what she's done, you're not gonna lay a finger on her Shimmer!" she declared. She knew first hand that when Sunset was angry, no one ever messed with her, and if anything could bring the old Sunset back, it was this. She couldn't just let this happen to her sister.

"Applejack, it's alright, move out the way." Bloom said as she tried, and failed to move AJ out of the way, still clutching her stomach. "If I can take a kick in the stomach from Lightning Dust, I can take a punch in the face from Sunset."

"Twilight, would yall talk some sense into her!" AJ asked desperately.

"Applejack... Move out the way." everyone, bar Sunset and Applebloom, turned to Twilight with the exact same reaction of 'WHAT!?!?' "I said... Move out the way. Trust me." Twilight smiled, and AJ begrudgingly moved back towards the others.

Sunset finally closed the gap between her and Applebloom, who just closed her eyes and prepared for the worst, Applejack did the same. Sunset grabbed Bloom's shirt and pulled her closer with one hand, as the other clenched itself into a fist.

Sweetie was standing behind Applebloom, she had backed away at Sunset's approach, but was close enough to see the rage in her eyes. This is bad, she's gonna do it. Sunset slowly lifted her arm and pulled it back, ready to bring her fist forward into Bloom's face. "TWILIGHT YOU'VE GOT TO STOP HER!!!" Sweetie shouted, Twilight just continued smiling, not saying a word.

After what felt like forever, Sunset lowered her arm. "It's not worth it." she sighed as she let go of Bloom's shirt. "I guess I should thank you really." she said as she wiped newly formed tears from her eyes.

"W-what?" Bloom replied, confused out of her mind.

"It's why she came here," Twilight began, still smiling, "if I didn't tell her what you all told me yesterday, why would she want to come here?" she looked at the others, all just as confused as Bloom was, "She has, or maybe had something to tell you." they all looked back at Sunset.

"I remembered something yesterday, something you told me Applejack." she began, ""You don't belong here Sunset.""

Applejack's face fell when she heard that, and she almost immediately knew where she was going with this. "I know I said that, but I didn't know any better, you gotta understa-" she said.

"But you were right," Sunset interrupted, "I don't belong here. I never did."

"So why are you thanking her exactly?" Dash asked.

"Because I've been welcomed back there, by Twilight, Princess Celestia, and even all of town, but none of that would of happened if it wasn't for Applebloom. Now I finally have a place I can call home." she said as tears started to form in her eyes.

"Wait, so you're saying that everything we put you through... was a good thing?" Pinkie asked.

"I... I guess I am." she replied, wiping her eyes.

"Please don't leave, we can sort this out, you don't have to leave!" Fluttershy cried as she ran up and hugged her.

"There's nothing to sort out Shy."

"Of course there is!" she replied, as her grasp on Sunset got tighter. "We know what we did was wrong, and we're really sorry. Just please give us a chance!"

"Shy's right, you can't just up and leave now," Dash began, "we can sort this mess out."

"I know it might not mean anything anymore," AJ sighed, "but I'm really sorry for everything sugercube."

"Fluttershy, let her go." Rarity said, placeing a hand on her shoulder and lightly pulling her off. "I know I can't ask you to stay, so I won't, but know that... know that we're really gonna miss you dear." she pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket and wiped her tears from her eyes.

"Take care of yourself," Pinkie said, "and be happy, you've got you're old life back now, you don't need us anymore." Sunset looked around at all of them, not sure what to do.

Just then the school bell went off, "We should be going now, don't want to draw anymore attention to us." Twilight said.

"Yeah, I guess." she replied as she and Twilight left out of the front doors, and walked over to the portal. When they reached it, they were about to walk through it, back to Equestria, when Sunset took a glance back at the front of the school, the others were watching them from inside. "Um... Twil-"

"You don't have to come back if you don't want to." Twilight interrupted, "You can stay here if you want."

"But what about-"

"I'll always be here if you need me, and so will Equestria." Twilight looked over at the girls in the school entrance, "But right now, I think they need you more than we do." she said.

"You're really ok with me staying here?" Sunset asked, still looking towards the school.

"I'll explain everything to everypony back home, don't worry about that." Twilight said as she started to walk through the portal.

A thought came to Sunset's mind, "Wait! I need to go back and get my book."

Twilight giggled, "Check your bag." she said as she walked through the portal. Sunset opened her bag and saw her book was there. She grinned, closed it back up and walked back over to the school, and the only eight people not making their way to class.

"Come on Fluttershy, we're late for class." she said weakly, as she walked past them.

"Sunset? You're staying?" Pinkie asked, to which Sunset gave a nod.

"I don't get it, why?" Dash asked, "Why would you want to stay here now?"

Sunset stopped, and turned around. "When I had done something unforgivable, you were all willing to forgive me, and give me a chance to prove I'd changed." she smiled, "I think it's only fair that I give you the same chance."

"Thank you!" Fluttershy said as she hugged her again, though not as tightly this time, "We promise we won't let this happen again!"

Sunset hugged her back, "Don't mention it, we can talk more about it later, we're late enough as it is." she said as Fluttershy let her go, and everyone all made there way to their respective class.

AJ and Dash, now separated from the others, turned to each other. "This isn't gonna be easy, is it?" Dash asked.

"Nope, we've got to prove to her she can trust us," she stopped walking and her eyes fell to the floor, "and I'm not even sure I can trust myself right now."

"I know how you feel. Sorry I brought it up." Dash mumbled under her breath, as AJ looked up at her, and they continued walking, knowing they had a long way to go.