Escape

It had been one week since Sunsets return, and the five others had been trying all week to make up for what they did. They had never left her side all week, having a week long sleepover session, changing houses each day. Tonight was a sleepover at Applejacks, and things were going nicely.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me!" Rainbow frowned at the big 'You Lose' plastered on one half of the screen. She looked over at Sunset next to her, who had a rather large grin.

"That's three defeats in a row Dash, I thought you were good at this." Sunset giggled.

"I swear this controller's busted, it's not me." Dash replied.

"It was fine last I used it sugercube. So if it's broken, you're buying me a new one." Applejack said, trying not to laugh at the look on Dashs face.

"You know, you'll soon run out of excuses if you keep losing like this dear." Rarity added as she looked up from her phone.

"Oh come on, I don't make excuses, I just... Give reasons why you all had some kind of unfair advantage over me." Dash replied back, "Besides who's keeping track?"

"I am!" Pinkie pulled a small USB out of her hair, plugged it into her laptop, and opened up a list. "You've lost three times due to controller failures, four times because you were too hungry to properly concentrate, another four because of faulty audio apparently hurting your ears, once because of distorted graphics preventing you from properly seeing what was happening, five times because you made the game crash when you hit the console cus you saw a fly on it riiight before you were about to lose anyway-"

"Alright Pinkie, I get it! I need to get my stuff fixed."

"Your stuff? this all happened at Fluttershy's, all the excuses you made at your place starts on page twenty-one." the whole room erupted with laughter.

"You... You've got twenty-one pages of excuses from her?" Sunset asked as she started laughing harder at her own question.

"Thirty-five actually." Pinkie answered as she put the USB back in her hair.

"Oh don't worry Dash. We can only hope that one day we'll beat you fair and square." Fluttershy told her jokingly.

Sunset looked over at an empty pile of bottles in the corner, as the laughter slowly stopped. "I'm gonna go get us another bunch of drinks, you want anything specific?" she asked as she got up, received an answer off each of them, and then left the room.

"How do you think we're doing?" Fluttershy asked quietly.

"I think we're doing ok," Rarity began, "at least some of her smiles and laughs don't seem forced anymore."

"Yeah..." Pinkie turned to Dash, "You do know that if you keep losing on purpose, she's gonna realize eventually."

She just shrugged in response, "Yeah I know."

After about a minute Big Mac walked in with a bag of bottles, and Applebloom poked her head around the doorway. "Uh, Sunset asked us to bring these up to you, she said she was going outside for some fresh air. She ok?" she asked them, as all of their smiles fell.

"Yeah, she seemed fine to us." AJ answered as she took the bag from Mac, "Did she say why she went out?"

"Nope." Mac moved out the way as Dash ran past him and down the stairs.

AJ was about to run out also. "Hold on AJ!" Shy called out, "Maybe we're trying to hard, I mean we've barely given her enough room to breath lately. Maybe she just needs a bit of space."

Dash ran down stairs, grabbed her coat that was hanging on the wall, put her shoes on as quickly as she could, and ran out the open front door. She saw Sunset sitting on the ground with her back against the wall.

"What are you doing out here? It's freezing!" she asked as she sat down next to her.

Sunset looked up at her, "Dash? I just wanted some fresh air is all." she turned her gaze back to the ground, "You should head back inside, I'll be there in a minute."

"What's wrong?" Rainbow asked.

"I'm fine Dash." Sunset replied.

"Is it about me letting you beat me over and over?" she joked, hoping it would lighten the mood, or at least make her smile.

"I'm fine Dash, really." she answered.

Rainbow sighed, "Look, I know it's been hard, but you have to believe me when I say that, I wanna help you," Sunset looked back up at her, "but I can't do that if you don't tell me what's wrong."

"I'm just..." she looked right in Rainbows eyes, she saw Dash was greatly concerned for her, and that she wasn't going back in alone. She took a deep breath, and finally replied "I'm scared Dash."

Dash put her arm around her, "We know, you don't want to be abandoned again, but we're not gonna leave you alone ever again." she told her reassuringly.

"I know." she replied, "But, it's not you I'm really worried about.."

"Then who is it?" Dash asked.

"It's everyone really. The way everyone at school just, they just all seem to flip so easily." she replied.

"What do you mean, "flip"?"

"Well, first they all hate me, then they all like me, and then after the first two days of this, they're all against me again. Sure, they're all gonna be friendly to me again I guess, but how long until they flip again?"

"They won't, I'm sure they know now that you've really changed." she replied.

"But so did you." Dash didn't reply. "You all really believed I had changed, but in the end, you still turned. So why should I trust you? How long before I'm left alone again?"

"Look," Dash thought about what she was about to say, and if she should say it in the first place. "I'm gonna tell you something I really shouldn't say, but you need to hear it anyway. And don't tell the others I said this!" Sunset looked at her as she took a deep breath. "You have absolutely no reason to trust any of us right now, but know that we are never gonna leave you alone like that every again."

"So how long until I should trust you?" Sunset asked.

"That's for you to decide, not us." Dash answered as she got up, and reached out a hand to Sunset, "Now can we go back inside now? It really is freezing out here."

"Sure, the others are probably worried about me." she grabbed her hand and pulled herself up, only for Dash to pull her into a hug.

"Yeah, we were. Now promise me you won't go doing this again!"

"I promise Dash, I won't do this again." Sunset told her as she broke the hug.

"You can trust us, you shouldn't right now, but you can." Dash said as they both went inside and back upstairs.

You're right Dash, I told you girls I was gonna give you a chance, and that's what I'm gonna do.