In a time of need

by Small Muffin

Rating: teen
Tags: Slice of Life, Dazzlings, Human, Sad, Other, Equestria Girls, Sunset Shimmer, Main 7 (EqG)
Length: 32020

After being abandoned by her friends, Sunset Shimmer wanders the steets alone, with no hope left, she gives up, only to be saved at the last second. Meanwhile her friends are trying to find her, and apologize for what they've done.

After being abandoned by her friends during christmas, Sunset Shimmer wanders the cold streets of town, alone, and with nowhere to go. After walking for hours, she eventually gives into the elements around her, only to be saved at the last second by the last ones she ever thought would help her.

Meanwhile, the truth about Anon-A-Miss has come out, and her five friends are desperately trying to find her so they can apologize for what they have done.

Published 2015-07-31 17:20:01 UTC
Last updated 2017-04-10 14:49:55 UTC

Unlikely saviors

The streets of Canterlot were filled with a cold air, as snow fell down onto the sidewalk. People were rushing through with some of their christmas shopping, trying to get out of the freezing streets as quickly as they could. All except for one person. One person who had lost everything she had in a few simple days.

Sunset walked alone through the cold streets. Wearing her thickest coat, gloves and pants. Knowing how cold it had been the last few days she had worn as much as she could, but it wasn't helping her much.

After being abandoned by those she trusted the most, those who said they would always be there for her, she had given up with her life at CHS, and simply wanted to get as far away from it as possible. She had written a letter to Twilight explaining her problem, and asked for any advice she could give, but she hadn't responded. Just like the others, she had left her.

As she continued through town, as she had done for the last few hours, she turned into an alleyway, rested her back onto the icy brick wall, and slumped down onto the ground. She wrapped her arms around her legs, in an attempt to keep herself warm, as the freezing air surrounded her.

Despite her hours of walking, she didn't have any idea where she was going to go, and it had only just dawned on her that she had nowhere to go, and no one to turn to.

As she tried to get up, she felt her legs give out from the freezing air, and fell forward, leaving her laying helplessly in the snow. "I give up," she muttered as she stopped trying, and accepted her death. She would freeze to death out here, in a part of town she didn't even know, and in the end, no one would miss her. She closed her eyes, and waited for it to all end.

"Hey, aren't you...?" Sunset opened her eyes slightly as she heard a familiar voice, but all she could see from where she was were the legs of the one in front of her. Her head fell back down into the snow below her, and she felt everything around her fade away.

"SUNSET! OPEN UP! WE NEED TO TALK TO YOU!!!" Rainbow banged on Sunset's apartment door, shivering in her coat, as she tried to get her attention.

Only a few hours ago, the three crusaders of their school, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, had come out and admitted that they were Anon-A-Miss. Naturally, everyone was rather angry at them to say to least, but Rainbow and the five girls behind her needed to see Sunset.

"COME ON SHIMMER, OPEN UP! IT'S FREEZING OUT HERE!" she yelled as she continued to bash as loudly as she could on the door in front of her.

"Dear, we're so sorry for what we've done, and we just want to explain ourselves," Rarity said in a much lighter tone. "So could you please open up?!"

"No offence but, I don't even think she heard that," Pinkie said. She was on her mobile, calling Sunset's apartment phone, with no results. "Come on, pick up already!"

"Try her mobile again," Applejack replied, "Maybe she's turned it back on."

Pinkie rolled her eyes in annoyance, "I was trying that less than ten minutes ago, and I've been trying since before Twilight got here!" she pointed to the girl in question, who was shivering in one of Rarity's thick coats, as the mirror-portal didn't give her one when she arrived.

Twilight walked up to Dash and the front door. "Sunset? It's me Twilight. I told you I was coming as soon as I could, I want to help sort this mess out. So could you open the door and let us in?" she said to no avail.

Rainbow gave ot a sigh, "That's it, we're coming in." She unziped and reached into one of her coat pockets, and pulled out a long, thin piece of metal. She leaned forward, and inserted the metal piece into the lock.

"Um, Rainbow, what are you doing?" Fluttershy asked as Dash continued to mess about with the lock.

"I'm getting us in, what does it look like?"

"Uh. Dash, I know our worlds have some rather... significant differences, but I'm pretty sure this is illegal," Twilight said.

"Rainbow, I'm afraid to ask this but, why do you know how to do this?" Rarity asked dryly.

"Because I've been locked outside my own house too many times, besides, it's not that hard to learn." There was a click, as the door opened, and Rainbow stood back upstraight. "We're in."

The six of them walked into the the small apartment. The place was a mess, papers and books scattered around the floor by her desk. A small radio, laptop, and a tv were sitting on a chest of drawers opposite her bed, which looked like it hadn't been properly made in weeks, her school bag was open, sitting in the corner of the room, an overflowing bin, and two doors to other sections of the apartment.

"This is where Sunset's been staying all this time?" Fluttershy asked.

"How could she live in this?" Rarity asked.

"I guess this is why we never had a sleep-over at her place, this place is tiny," Pinkie said.

"Sunset?" Applejack called out, "Yall are here, r-right?"

"Yeah, come out will you," Rainbow added. Neither of them got an answer, and Rainbow rushed into the kitchen, "Come on! This isn't funny!" She yelled desperately. Still no answer. "She's... She's not here," Dash said worriedly.

Twilight heard a light ringing sound, "Wait, do you girls hear that?" The six of them listened closely, and quickly pinpointed that the sound was coming from the pile or books.

"I think we found her phone..." Pinkie said weakly, as Twilight walked over to the pile and moved some of the papers away.

"No... This is..." Twilight picked up the source of the sound. It was her magic book, ringing and vibrating in Twilight's hands, implying Sunset had a new, unread message from Twilight. "It's her book," she told the others as she opened it to the page with the new message.

Twilight saw it was the same message she had sent to Sunset earlier, about coming to help sort this out. Slowly, she pieced together what this must have meant. "If this is new, then she was already gone before I sent it..." her face twisted into one of pure horror. "So, she's been gone for at least three hours!"

"In this weather!" Applejack said, "We've gotta go find her, right now!"

"Are you insane!" Rarity replied, "You did see the weather report earlier right? This is only going to get worse!"

"Well, we can't just leave her out there!" Rainbow yelled, "She'll freeze to de-"

"Don't even think about that!" Twilight interrupted, "Rarity's right, if this weather is going to get worse, then we'd be insane to try and find her right now."

"But... Fine," Dash said reluctantly, "So what do we do now?" she asked.

"Who lives the closest to where we are right now?" Twilight asked.

"Me," Fluttershy replied, "My house is about five minutes away. I never knew I lived so close to her."

"Then we'll stay there for the night, and tomorrow, we're going to find her." The six of them walked out of the apartment, and Pinkie closed the door behind her, being the last one out. "We have to believe that she'll be alright, that she'll make it through this."

Sunset felt herself wake up. She was lying in a rather comfortable bed, as she opened her eyes slightly to see the ceiling above her. Just a dream, she thought with a sigh of relief. She saw her clothes were folded up at the end of the bed, and she was now wearing a dark blue shirt and black pajama pants under the large duvet.

She closed her eyes, still feeling incredibly tired, but they shot open quickly when she realized, she didn't own these clothes. She then heard a nice sounding hum coming from next to her, and quickly leaned up, pushing the bed duvet off her, and looked towards the source of the sound.

Sonata Dusk, one of the three sirens from a few months ago, was sat, leaned up against a wall, wearing the same things Sunset was, reading a comic, when she realised Sunset was awake now. "Sunset! You're awake?!" she said with a smile, as she bounced to her feet.

Sunset recognized her almost immediately. "You... aren't you one of the..?" she asked, wide eyed.

"SHE'S AWAKE!" Sonata shouted, interrupting Sunset.

The door on the other side of the room from where the two of them was opened, and the two other sirens walked in, also wearing more or less the same things, with a few colour differences. Aria gave a relieved sigh, "Thank Celestia."

Sunset felt a chill rush down her spine, as the two of them came closer and closer. "W-what do you want?!" she asked, unable to hide the clear fear in her voice, as she jolted off the bed, and backed away as much as she could, eventually reaching a closed window.

"Easy now. We're not going to hurt you Sunset," Adagio began calmly, "If we wanted to... you wouldn't be here right now."

"What do you mean?" she asked nervously.

"You really don't remember?" Aria asked, "You were freezing to death in the streets. You're lucky we found you when we did."

"That was... That was you?" Sunset asked.

"Yeah, you've been out for hours now, and you've got about five million calls and messages," Sonata replied. She climbed her way over and off the other side of the bed, and walked over to Sunset. "Are you okay?" she asked.

Sunset was surprised to see the look of genuine concern in the siren's eyes. "I'm... I'm fine." She looked over to the other two, who looked just as concerned, "So, you three... saved me? You three?! Why?" she asked, not about to let her guard down right now.

"We can talk about that in the morning, right now, you need to get some sleep," Aria replied.

"No thanks, I think I'll just leave now," Sunset said, just wanting to get out of here.

"No can do." Sonata walked over to Sunset, and pulled one of the window curtains aside, revealing a huge snowstorm outside. "That storm has only been getting worse and worse, and you're lucky to still be alive right now. There's no way you'd make it home!"

"Sonata's right, you are not going out there, especially in the state you're in," Adagio said.

"What state? I'm fine," Sunset asked, walking slowly back over to the bed.

"No you're not," Adagio replied. Sunset looked at her, and Adagio saw something in her eyes. It was more than just fear of the three around her, there was something else. "You're really not..." she said as she tried to make out what it was.

The constant stare was very quickly making Sunset uncomfortable. "Um... Dagi, what is it?" Sonata asked.

Adagio shook her head, snapping her back to reality. "S-sorry, I was... Sorry about that." She walked over to Sunset at the other side of the bed, and put her hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "I know how this must look to you, the last time we met we almost killed you and your friends. But we really aren't going to hurt you," she said calmly.

"Yeah, my friends," Sunset mumbled.

"Just stay the night, you can leave in the morning if you want, we won't do anything," Aria added.

As much as she didn't want to, Sunset was still unbelievably tired, she could lay on that bed and be out like a light. Although, it wasn't like she had much of a choice in the matter, as the storm outside basically meant she was stuck here. But the way they were talking to her, and the looks of concern they all had, it was clear the three of them were worried about her, but why?

"Alright, you win," Sunset said reluctantly, with no other real choice, "I'll stay the night."

The three of them gave a sigh of relief. "Thanks Sunset," Sonata said, "Oh, you've probably noticed by now, but I leant you a pair of my pj's for the night, and your other clothes are nice and clean for the morning."

"Yeah I uh... I noticed," Sunset replied slowly, sitting back, and then laying down on the bed.

"We'll see you in the morning Shimmer," Aria said as she and Adagio walked to the door, and out the room.

Sonata followed behind them, but stopped and spun around right before she was about to leave. "Do you want anything? Water? Comic book? An extra pillow?"

"No, I'm... I'll be fine," Sunset replied nicely.

Sonata nodded, "Oki-doki. Good night Sunset," she replied back as she turned off the light switch, before leaving the room and closing the door behind her. "Sweet dreams."

Sunset gave a weak smile, before pulling the large duvet back over her, resting her head on the soft pillow, and almost immediately drifted off to sleep.

Author's Note

Any and all criticism and comments are appreciated.

The next morning

Sunset woke up after a good night's sleep, the first in quite a while. After a quick look around the room, now illuminated by the daylight outside, she didn't recognize where she was, but the events of last night quickly came back to remind her. She was with the sirens, after they found her last night.

She was about to get herself up, but the door opened slightly, gaining her attention, and Aria poked her head through into the room. "Oh, you're up," she said, opening the door fully. She made her way over to Sunset, who was watching her very closely. "Sleep well?"

"Fine," she replied, pushing the duvet off her and swinging her legs off the side of the bed, and sitting up. "Better than I have in a while..."

"Why's that?" Aria asked.

"Dunno..." Sunset replied dryly.

"Well, alright then." she picked up Sunset's clothes, still at the end of the bed, and handed them to her, "Here, they're all ready."

Sunset took the clothes from her, "So I can leave now?"

Aria nodded, "We told you, we're not gonna try anything, you can go now." She sat down next to Sunset, "Although, if you wanna stay y-" she said halfheartedly.

"N-no, it's fine, I should probably..." Sunset sighed.

"You don't trust us do you?" Aria asked dimly.

"It's not that, it's something else," Sunset replied.

"You think we're gonna pull something, don't you?" Sunset didn't reply, "Can't say I blame you," Aria said, a strange uncertainty in her voice.

"Are you alright?" Sunset asked.

"Yeah, just still a bit tired I guess." Aria stood back up and walked back over to the door and closed it as she left.

Sunset got dressed rather quickly, walked over to the bedroom door, and was about to open it when voices on the other side caught her attention.

"This isn't gonna work you know."

"Of course it will, just trust me a minute will ya."

"What makes you think she will?"

"What makes you think she won't?"

"Well, the fact that we enslaved her school classmates and then tried to kill her are two reasons right there."

The door suddenly opened, and Sunset was greeted to a bright smile. "Morning sleepy head," Sonata said, as Adagio just shook her head, "You alright?"

"Fine."

"Great! Now I know Ari just told you that you could go, but..."

"She is going!" Adagio groaned.

"...you wanna stay for breakfast?" Sonata asked, still smiling.

"W-what? Breakfast?" Sunset asked, confused.

"Yeah, breakfast. I'm making pancakes," she replied energetically.

"Ignore her. You can go Sunset," Adagio said, "The door's this way."

"Right..." Sunset replied uneasily, following Adagio out of the hallway and into the large main room.

Adagio pointed to the door, "There you go," she said as she sat down at the large table near the back of the room.

"Aw come on, you sure you don't wanna stay?" Sonata asked as Sunset walked over to the door, "It's the pancakes isn't it? We can have something different if you want!"

"Sonata, let her go, alright..."

When Sunset got to the door, she stopped and listened to the two behind her for a moment. "But, I thought we were gonna talk abo-"

"Well we're not, alright!?" Adagio interrupted.

"But why not?" Sonata asked.

Sunset put her hand on the door knob, and was about to turn it to open the door. "She doesn't want to be here alright! She has better places to be than here, and she's better off with her friends anyway, so just drop it," she said.

Sunset's hand froze. "You're right... Her friends are probably worried about her right now anyway..." Sonata said, "Sorry for wasting your time Sunset."

Sunset let go of the door knob, "Alright," she said, "I guess I can stay for a little bit." She turned back around.

"What? No, you don't have to stay here Sunset," Adagio said politely, "Unlike someone here I can tell you don't want to be here, so..."

"No, it's fine," she replied weakly, "I mean, I am pretty hungry, and I don't exactly have anywhere to go so..."

"Don't have anywhere to go?" Adagio repeated.

"I mean, I don't exactly have any plans today, so, I guess I could stay for a bit, if you don't mind that is," Sunset replied weakly.

Adagio saw it again, that same look Sunset had last night, the one she couldn't read, "Alright."

Sonata beamed at her, "Really?!?!"

"Sure," Adagio said with a fake, but fairly convincing smile, "Sonata, you better get in the kitchen already." She looked over at Sunset, "I'll be back in a sec, take a seat."

The two of them walked into the kitchen, as Sunset took a seat at the table, "What friends?" she muttered to herself.

In the kitchen Aria was washing some plates. "Hey Ari, guess who's staying for breakfast?" Sonata asked.

"Don't tell me she actually said yes?!" Aria asked in amazement.

"Look you two," Adagio began, "There's something's not right with her."

"Really?" Aria asked blandly, "She almost died last night, and she woke up here, of course she's gonna be a bit on edge."

"No, it's something else, I saw it last night, and just saw it again now."

"Well, what do you think it is?" Sonata asked.

"I dunno, just watch her closely, and you'll see what I mean," Adagio said as she walked out the kitchen.

Twilight and the others made their way to CHS. Pinkie apparently thought it would be a good idea to go there first, they all thought it was because she hoped that Sunset would be there, safe and sound.

They had been completely silent since they left Fluttershy's house, no one knew what to say. With every step they took, they could hear the crunching of the snow below them. Eventually, the school came into view as they turned a corner.

There was a group of people outside the school waiting for them, consisting of the Wonderbolts, Trixie, Flash Sentry, Octavia, Vinyl, Lyra, Bon-Bon and the three crusaders, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. "What are you all doing here?" Twilight asked as she and the other five approached them.

"Why, we're here to help search for Shimmer of course," Trixie replied, "Why else?"

"Wait, how do yall know she's missing?" Applejack asked.

Flash pointed at Pinkie, "Pinkie sent a text to pretty much everyone about it, the rest of the school is out looking for her now."

"So why aren't you as well?" Rainbow asked.

"She wanted to meet some of us here," Lyra replied.

"Alright, listen up!" Pinkie shouted, "Our friends in trouble and we gotta find her as soon as we can, even if we have to flip this whole city upside-down! Wonderbolts, I want you all to go downtown and search every single shop, restaurant and alleyway. Trixie, you and Rainbow can handle the Ponyville apartment complex, and every place in that area."

"You want Trixie to go with her?" Trixie asked.

"Hey!"

"Alright, then you and Fluttershy can handle the Everfree Slums instead," Pinkie replied.

"The slums?... No thanks, I'll go with Rainbow..." she said unamused.

"Good. Now where was I... Ah, yeah, Flash, take your car, and have a drive around the whole city, or as much as you can, and keep an eye out for her. Vinyl, you and Bon-Bon can take your car and do the same."

"She's really thought this all out hasn't she," Rarity said.

"I'll say," Twilight replied.

"Rares, you and Twi head to the richer, classier part of town. You've got a few well respected clients up there who might be able to help. Applejack, you can go with Fluttershy to the slums, specifically that homeless shelter Shy helps out at," Pinkie said,

"Will do," Applejack replied.

"And finally, Lyra, you and Octavia can check out the Iron Will Gym, and all the surrounding area. Between us, we'll find her in no time. Now, everyone MOVE OUT!" Pinkie yelled enthusiastically.

"What about us?" Pinkie turned her attention to the crusaders, "What do you want us to do?" Sweetie asked.

"Oh, uh..." Pinkie said, "You three can... stay around this area, you never know, she might just come around here," she replied.

"Wait, you just want us to... stay here?" Scootaloo asked.

"More or less, yeah," Pinkie replied uneasily.

"Well, there's gotta be something we can do," Applebloom replied.

"Allow Trixie to tell you straight, you three are staying here, because you've already caused enough damage, and we don't want any more," Trixie replied harshly.

"...We said we were sorry," Applebloom said.

"Tell that to Sunset when we find her," Trixie said.

"Last time I checked, you owe her an apology as well, Trixie," Dash said.

"Trixie is aware of that, but it's not like I actually caused th-"

"That's enough Trixie," Rainbow interrupted, "Let's just go."

The group of people split off in their own directions, as Twilight ran over to Pinkie, "So where are you going?"

"I've got another group of people waiting down at Sugercube Corner, so I'm headed down there now," Pinkie replied.

"How did you put all this together so quickly?" Twilight asked.

"Oh Twilight, isn't there a me where you live? Surely you know I'm the best party planner ever right?" she asked jokingly, "Well that includes search parties!"

"Hm, I guess that does kind of make sense," Twilight said.

"Don't worry Twilight, we'll find her in no time," Pinkie said before turning around and running down the street.

"I hope you're right."

Author's Note

Any and all comments and criticism is appreciated.

In the middle of nowhere

Adagio walked back into the main living room of her apartment. She stood next to the doorway for a few moments, and watched Sunset. She was sitting at the table, her stare seemingly fixed down on the table, with that same, unreadable face.

Without taking her eyes off Sunset, Adagio began to walk towards a large cabinet. "So... you alright?" she asked.

"Fine..." Sunset replied weakly, still staring at the table.

No you're not, she thought, now next to the cabinet, "You want a drink, or something?" Adagio asked, opening a section of the cabinet and pulling out a bottle of alcohol and a glass next to it.

"No thanks... I'm not thirsty..." Sunset replied just as weakly.

Adagio rolled her eyes, "Oh come on, it's not poisonous," she said jokingly as she poured herself a drink.

"I don't drink..." Sunset sighed.

"Oh, alright," Adagio replied, "Do you want a drink that's not alcoholic?" she asked, to which Sunset simply shook her head. Not in the mood for a joke I see. Adagio walked over to the table and sat opposite Sunset. "So, how have you been?" she asked, setting the bottle and the glass down next to her.

"I've been fine..." Sunset replied.

"You sure about that Shimmer?" she asked. Sunset didn't bother to reply. "You know, I'm old Sunset." Sunset looked up at Adagio, a tad surprised at the sudden change of subject. "I've been around here for a long time, I've seen all sorts of people, and I know a liar when I see one."

"...Your point?"

Adagio took a sip of her drink, "Do I really need to tell you?" again, Sunset didn't bother to reply. "You don't have to tell me, but it's as clear as Celestia's sun that you're not alright."

"Look can we change the subject?" Sunset asked.

"Alright," Adagio replied calmly, "What were you doing out there last night?"

"Huh?" Sunset lifted her head off the table.

"When we found you last night, what were you doing?" Adagio asked. She saw a glint of pain in Sunset's eye,

"Why do you ask?" Sunset asked, as she started looking around the room.

"Because..." Adagio gave a soft sigh, "Because we're worried about you, Sunset," she replied gently.

Sunset looked back at her with a very questionable look. "Worried?" she repeated.

"You don't have to believe me, but we are," Adagio replied, her voice calm and somewhat soothing, it only made her words sound more and more convincing. "So I'll ask one more time. Are you alright, Sunset?"

Sunset looked Adagio in the eye for only a quick moment, and what she saw was sincerity, and worry. Maybe she could trust them, after all, if they wanted to do something to get rid of her, they would have just left her to freeze last night. On the other had, these three had taken over CHS with little to no effort. Manipulation and mind control was their thing, but they didn't have their magic anymore, and even if they did, Sunset was immune to it anyway. Could it be that she really was worried about her?

Either way, regardless as to whether this was a trap or not, the person, or siren in front of her was willing to listen to her, which was more than her friends had done recently.

"You first," Sunset finally said.

"Me first for what?" Adagio asked, confused.

"How did you find me, and why did you bring me here?" Sunset asked. "You just tell me that, and I'll tell you what I was doing," she continued.

"There's not really much to tell but," Adagio shrugged, "Alright," she replied, as she recollected the events of last night.

Adagio stood at the front of the counter of the cafe, next to be served. It was the same cafe the three of them would come to all the time for a quick snack, though they hardly ever had to pay for it. She glanced over at her table in the corner, where both Aria and Sonata were sat. One looked rather bored, the other was doing something on a piece of paper.

"...Uh, Miss?" Adagio snapped her attention back to the counter. "What can I get you?" the man asked.

"Two hot chocolates, and a large milkshake, consisting of five different flavours." she said.

"DAGGGIIII!!!" Sonata yelled.

Adagio didn't bother to look over to her, but just shook her head and sighed. "And a taco..." she reluctantly glanced at Sonata out of the corner of her eye, "Make that two."

"Um... alright, that'll be-"

Adagio handed the man a fifty dollars note, "Keep the change."

Meanwhile, over at the table, Sonata was stood up, looking over at Adagio. "You think she heard me?" she asked.

Aria had her head on the table, "I'm sure she did..." she said bluntly. Aria noticed the front door open, and someone in a blue coat walk in. She was about to stop paying them anymore attention, but when the person took their hood down, Aria recognized her, though, she couldn't think up a name.

Adagio walked over to the table, and put her newly acquired trey of drinks down. "Before you ask Sonata, yes, I've got them, and yes, this is your chocolate-banana-strawberry-mint-raspberry flavoured milkshake," she said quickly.

"Adagio," Aria began. She pointed to the girl, who was showing a picture to the man at the counter, "You recognize her?" she asked.

Adagio turned around and looked at the girl, "She's... from that school, isn't she?" she replied, "So what?"

"I thought so. What's she doing all the way out here?" Aria asked.

"Why does it matter?" Adagio asked, "We've got what we came for now come on." She picked up her chocolate, as did Aria, while Sonata grabbed her milkshake and her two wrapped up tacos, and put them in her bag.

"Excuse me," one of the staff asked, "have you seen this gi-"

"Sorry, but we're going now," Aria interrupted.

"Have a nice night!" Sonata added.

The three of them got to the door when Adagio heard a familiar voice, "Hey, aren't you..." She turned her head to see the girl staring at her. Adagio walked out, shaking her head, "You..."

"Sorry Miss, but nobody seems to recognize her, sorry," the man said, passing back the picture he was given.

Outside, the three sirens calmly walked down the snow covered street. "You know girls, I think someone recognized us in there," Adagio said smugly, taking a glance behind herself.

"What do you think she wanted?" Sonata asked, taking a large sip from her milkshake.

"Dunno, don't care," Adagio replied.

"You do know s-" Sonata whispered.

"Of course," Adagio replied, glancing behind herself again just enough to see the girl from the cafe not far behind. The three of them continued walking around town, and their pursuer was never far behind, and as she tailed them, Adagio soon noticed this girl was constantly looking around for someone else, as if she herself was worried she was being followed.

After a good twenty minutes of aimless wandering, hoping that she would attack them, or at least say hi, Adagio decided they should strike first. So when they turned the next street corner, they waited for a moment for her to catch up. Aria and Adagio grinned at each other, and both rolled their eyes.

"Although, I do have one question about her..." Sonata began. Adagio quickly turned back around the corner, fist raised, swinging it right in to the girl's face, the force of the hit sent her straight to the ground. "Why is she following us?" Sonata asked.

"I thought it was you three!" she said, climbing to her feet.

"Hello," Adagio said, "And you are?"

"Trixie doesn't see why she should answer to the likes of you!"

"Oh, Trixie," Aria said, "I knew I recognized you from somewhere... Wait who were you?"

"You three have some nerve still being around here! Trixie thought for sure you three had disappeared back to wherever you came from," Trixie said.

"That doesn't answer my question," Sonata replied, "Why are you following us?"

"Trixie was simply curious as to what you were up to is all," Trixie replied, glancing over towards Sonata, who was now paying more attention to something behind her. "Uh, hello?"

"Hey, is that who I..." Sonata mumbled.

"So is that why you came all the way out here? To spy on us?" Aria asked, "Because if it was, then you've wasted your time."

"Hey, I'll be back in a sec, alright." Sonata ran past Trixie, who paid her absolutely no attention.

"Oh no, Trixie is here for far more important reasons."

"Really?" Adagio asked, "What kind of reasons Trucky?"

"It's Trixie, and I'm afraid they're reasons that creatures like you could never understand," she replied smugly.

As a cold gust of wind blew past them, Adagio saw that Trixie was clearly shivering, "Oh, what's wrong, to cold for you?" she laughed.

"Oh please, like you're not feeling it!" Trixie snapped back.

"Pfft, this is nothing compared to the frozen ice plains in Equestria. Now why don't you run on home before you freeze, like a good girl."

"HEY GIRLS!!! OVER HERE!!!" Sonata yelled.

"Ugh, what has she found now?" Aria asked.

"I've wasted enough time here, Trixie needs to be going!" Trixie ran around Aria and Adagio, and down the street.

"Good riddance."

"YOU TWO REALLY NEED TO GET OVER HERE! I CAN'T CARRY HER ON MY OWN!!!" Sonata yelled again.

Adagio and Aria ran over to a small alleyway, "What the hell are you on ab-" Aria's words froze when she saw an unconscious girl in Sonata's arms, "Isn't... That..."

"Sunset?" Adagio finished, "What the hell happened to her?"

"She just fainted. Come on Sunset, your eyes were open like, ten seconds ago!" Sonata said.

Adagio quickly removed her coat, and threw it at Sonata, "Put that on her, I'm gonna get us a ride." Adagio ran out the alley, and into the middle of the road, almost getting hit by a car.

The driver popped his head out of the window, "Hey! What's wrong with you?!"

"Sorry about that, but can you give me and my friends a lift?" Adagio asked.

"I beg your pardon?" he asked, rudely.

"Please sir!" Sonata yelled. Her and Aria were carrying Sunset out of the alley. "It's not far, I promise!"

"Wh- Is she alright?" he asked.

"Look, can you give us a ride or not!!!" Adagio shouted.

"Oh, of course I can." Aria and Sonata were able to get Sunset in the car safely first, before any of them got in themselves. "Where to ladies?"

"The Ponyville apartments," Adagio said, and the car quickly began moving. Adagio looked down at the unconscious Sunset, whos head was resting on her shoulder. "You're gonna be alright, Sunset." After all, we still owe you one.

Author's Note

Wow it's been a while, but hey better late than never, I guess.
Any and all comments and criticism is appreciated.

Thankful

"...And that's pretty much it," Adagio said, "We got a ride here, got you into bed and waited for you to wake up." She shrugged, "Like I said, there really wasn't much to tell."

Sitting quietly at the other side of the table, Sunset had been completely silent during Adagio's story, filling in the blanks for herself. "So Trixie was following you and was also looking for someone?" Sunset asked.

"That's right," Adagio replied, "She tailed us for about twenty minutes, and when she never tried anything, we got bored and struck first," Adagio laughed lightly, "You know, she was probably paying more attention to her surroundings than she was us."

"Yeah..." Sunset already knew who she was looking for. So now they're all out looking for me are they? Sunset thought. She glanced over at the wall, currently debating her situation. On one hand, she could tell Adagio what had happened, about this whole Anon-A-Miss mess and hope that that kindness she seemed to be showing was real. On the other hand, she could simply play dumb and keep it to herself. But, if they are looking for me, maybe they realized I wasn't doing it. Maybe they... Her thought stopped dead in it's tracks. Oh who am I kidding? That place wants me dead, who knows what Trixie would have done if she had-

"Sunset?"

"Huh, Wha?" Sunset was snapped out of her thoughts, and looked over at the now empty chair across the table. Adagio was now standing next to her, with a napkin in her hand, and a very confused look on her face, though, Sunset was just as confused right now. "What's that for?" Sunset asked, looking at the napkin Adagio held.

"Because you're crying," Adagio replied bluntly, "You can't tell?" Sunset wiped her eye with her finger, leaving it wet with her newly formed tears. She quickly took the napkin from Adagio and wiped her eyes clear. "You were staring at the wall and then, out of nowhere, you just started crying." Adagio gently put her hand on Sunset's shoulder, "You gonna be alright?"

I don't know, Sunset thought.

Adagio removed her hand from Sunset's shoulder and walked back over to her chair. "Remember, you don't have to stay here, you can leave whenever you want."

"Actually... I..."

"Whooooo's hungry?" Sonata and Aria walked back into the room, both carrying two plates of pancakes, which were then set down on the table. "Eat up you tw..." Sonata began, "Wow. Is she ok?" she asked.

Adagio ignored her, "So, you gonna tell us what's wrong now?" she asked Sunset.

"Well, I did say I'd tell you..." Sunset replied, "But... one more thing. can you just tell me one more thing?" she asked.

"Sure, go ahead. Ask away," Adagio replied.

"Why?" Sunset asked.

"Hm?" the three of them replied.

"Why did you save me out there? I mean, I was the one who defeated you, I was responsible for you all losing your magic, right? Why would you wanna save the one who took that away from you? You should want to kill me, not save me."

The three sirens looked at each other and smiled, "We were waiting for you to ask that," Aria said.

"We woulda told you earlier but, we didn't think you'd believe us if we brought it up," Sonata continued, "And, we knew you'd ask that eventually sooo..."

"The truth is, Sunset," Adagio went on, "We want to say thanks for what you did that day."

"You..." Sunset wasn't quite sure what to say, "You... you're thankful?"

Adagio simply nodded, "Yeah, it's hard to explain but, when we lost to you and your friends that day, you took away our dark magic, and with that, the three of us could feel something was missing..."

Aria sat down to Sunset's right, "Of course we knew that that something was our magic, but over time it grew into something more than that, it wasn't just our magic that we'd lost..."

Sonata took her seat opposite Aria, "Yeah, it drove us crazy just thinking about it, we just couldn't figure out what it was, and it didn't help that we were uh... kinda... really... mad at you the whole time."

Sunset gave Sonata a puzzled look, "I thought you just said you were glad I took away your magic?"

"Well, we weren't originally," Adagio replied, "We had just obtained Equestrian magic, we could feel it flowing through us, and we had just overwhelmed the only obstacles in our way that could possibly stop us, that Princess and her group of friends..."

"Yeah, friends..." Sunset muttered.

"...And then you picked up that microphone and, well you took us out without breaking a sweat, so naturally, we directed all of our blame for our defeat, all of our anger, all of our everything, really, at you."

"To the point where," Aria continued, "Well, let me put it this way, if we had found you out there, like you were last night, barely alive on your final breath, we would have finished the job of whatever it was that put you there in the firs-"

Sonata quickly reached over and covered Aria's mouth. "Uh, I uh, I think what Ari is trying to say is that, we wouldn't really be having this conversation right now... because, you know, you wouldn't really be here to have it..." she said nervously.

"I get it, you would have killed me right there, you don't have to sugarcoat your words," Sunset replied bluntly. "So what changed?"

"Well, over time, as our anger slowly started to fade, we eventually realized what it was that was missing," Adagio replied, "Our hunger."

"What hunger?" Sunset asked.

"We would feed off the negativity of those around us, you could say it was the cost that came with our magic," Adagio continued, "It was fine back in Equestria, the magical energy we got there was enough, but when we were banished here, I'm sure you know magic doesn't exactly work the same here as it does back home, and that was the same for us."

"It's something you'll never quite understand, Sunset," Aria continued, "The energy here just wasn't enough to settle it, it was always there. That lust, that desire, that need to feed... It was horrific... And it would drive us crazy sometimes." Aria looked down at the floor.

"And now it's gone," Sonata said, a huge smile beaming on her face, "We didn't realize it because we were so angry at you, but the one thing we wanted to get rid of, that we would give anything to get rid of, was finally gone." Sonata seemingly lunged out of her chair and hugged Sunset, "Thank you so much!!!"

"Don't choke her to death now, will you," Aria said.

"Sonata!" Adagio called out. Sonata looked back at her and Adagio pointed at Sonata's now empty seat. Slowly, Sonata let Sunset go and eventually sat back down. "Sunset, I'm gonna say this as simply as I can. The three of us are deeply sorry for what we did to you and your school, and we are forever thankful for what you've done for us. We owe you our lives, and if there's ever anything we can do for you, then just ask."

"Did you just say you, owe me your life? You really mean that?" Sunset asked. The three sirens simply nodded. Sunset thought about this to herself. If they really were telling the truth, and right now there was no evidence she could think that would point to them lying about this, then chances are she understood what they were probably going through. They wanted to reach out to someone, someone who they thought would forgive them for what they had done. Just like she had.

"So, whatdya say?" Sonata began, "Can we uhh, can we be friends?" she asked, "Pretty-please?"

"Friends?" Sunset asked. "Why would you want to be friends?" she asked harshly.

The three sirens stared at her in confusion, "Uh, Sunset?" Aria asked.

"Uh, well I didn't expect that kind of reply," Sonata replied nervously.

"Friends aren't worth it! In the end they'd only hurt you more than they help you!" She cried, as tears began to form in her eyes.

"Sunset, what are you on about?" Aria asked, "Didn't getting friends help you out?"

"I don't have any friends, and besides, they'd only turn on you when it's convenient!" Sunset burst out crying,

"Don't have any?" Adagio asked, "But what about those other girls and that Prin-" It all suddenly clicked into place in Adagio's head, "-cess..." Her eyes remained fixed on Sunset, who was now crying into her hands. "They didn't..." Adagio muttered under her breath.

"What is it Dagi?" Sonata asked.

"Sunset, please tell us what's wrong!" Aria said.

Adagio had pieced it all together, every time she had brought up Sunset's friends, she had seen the pain Sunset had been trying to conceal. "They really didn't..." Adagio said angrily. She was still looking at Sunset, she was looking for a sign that she might be wrong, but there just wasn't one.

"What is it Adagio!?" Aria asked.

"Yeah, if you've figured something out then tell us already!" Sonata replied.

Adagio didn't reply, instead she focused on the final few pieces that would unfortunately confirm her suspicion. She was the one Trixie was looking for last night, and she had just said that your friends would eventually turn on you, and earlier, when she was about to leave, she had said she had 'nowhere to go', and you don't just say something like that. It all seemed to point to that one conclusion. "Sunset," Adagio began. Sunset finally moved her hands away from her face, and looked at Adagio. "Please, tell us what happened." And I hope to Celestia that I'm wrong about this.

Author's Note

I have no idea why this came out so quickly.

Any and all criticism and comments are appreciated.

New friends

The only sound that could be heard was that of Sunset crying into her arms. She had just told the three sirens the story about what had happened to her in the last few weeks. The story of how she was abandoned by those she trusted, those who said they would always be by her side. And now she was slumped over the table, crying herself dry.

"So let me get this straight," Adagio began, "On the simple assumption, that you might, maybe, possibly, be this Anon-A-Miss person, they all just left you like that!?" she asked.

"That's horrible!" Sonata said, "And I'm a siren who tried to take over the world!" She moved over to the crying mess of a girl and gave her a hug, "Hey, d-don't cry. It's okay, they can't hurt you anymore," she said, trying to comfort the poor girl.

"I think they've done enough as it is..." Aria mumbled.

"Ari, that's not helping," Sonata replied. Aria stood up, and walked away from the table, and towards the door, "Where you going?"

Aria opened the front door, "I'm going for a walk, I'll be back later," she replied as she walked out, and slammed the door shut behind her.

"Gee, you're a great help..." Sonata mumbled.

"I've... I've got nowhere to go..." Sunset cried, "No one wants me around..."

"Hey, that's not true," Sonata continued, "We're right here,"

"You shouldn't have even bothered saving me out there..."

"Don't say that!" Adagio snapped, "Sunset," she said. Sunset's head shifted slightly, just enough so that she could see Adagio, "Like we said earlier, we all owe you for what you did for us, so if you really have nowhere else to go, then..." she looked over at Sonata, who gave a nod. She turned back to Sunset, "...You can stay here with us if you want to."

"Stay here?" Sunset asked, "With you?"

"Yeah," Sonata replied, "There's enough space here for one more person, so why not?"

"But, what about money, how would you be able to afford all that?" Sunset asked.

"Why wouldn't we?" Adagio asked.

"Yeah, we're kinda loaded rich," Sonata said, shrugging off Sunset's question.

"Really?" Sunset asked. From the size of their apartment she thought they didn't really have that much money. "How did you get it?"

"Oh that's easy," Sonata said, "You just go up to someone, put them under your mind control magic, and say 'gimme all your money'. Simple really."

"So... you're, you're really ok with me staying here?" Sunset asked, "For as long as I need to?"

"Of course!" Sonata replied. "So, what do you say?" she asked with a beaming smile.

"Sure, I gue-"

"YYAAAAYY" Sonata effectively tackle-hugged Sunset, sending both of them, as well as the chair Sunset was sitting on, to the ground.

Adagio gave a relieved sigh, "Let the girl breath Sonata."

Sonata quickly got off of Sunset, stood up, and backed off a few steps, "Sorry."

"It's fine, but where did uh... she go?" Sunset asked, pointing to the door.

"She?" Sonata asked, "You're gonna have to be a bit more specific when you say 'she'."

"The one who just left," Sunset said, climbing back to her feet.

"Oh yeah," Adagio said, "We never did introduce ourselves, did we? My names Adagio Dazzle, she's Sonata Dusk, and the one who just left was Aria Blaze."

"So, I guess if you're staying with us, then we're friends now, right?" Sonata asked.

"Sonata, touchy subject," Adagio mumbled.

"Oh, uh, forget what I just said," Sonata said.

"Friends? I guess it does," Sunset replied, bringing a smile to Sonata's face. "I wonder what they're up to right now..."

"I can't believe Trixie got stuck with you!" Trixie yelled.

"Well you didn't have to come with me, you know?" Rainbow replied. The both of them had just gotten off of a bus they had taken from their school, and most of that trip had been arguing with one another. "You could've gone with Fluttershy and Applejack instead."

"And go to the slums?" Trixie replied dryly, "No thanks, Trixie has a thing called standards."

Rainbow rolled her eyes, and started walking away from the bus stop. "And trying to find a missing person isn't a part of those standards?" she asked.

Trixie quickly caught up with her, "Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" she asked.

"Oh shut up already..." Dash mumbled.

"Hey, Trixie heard that, and she'll have you know that-" Rainbow paid no attention to Trixie's little speech, and instead looked around at the streets around her. They were covered in a blanket of snow, most likely brought about by last nights storm, making crunching sounds with every step Dash took, and while the air wasn't quite as cold as it was when she was outside Sunset's house, it was still cold enough to send the occasional chill down her back.

"Hey! Are you even listening to me?" Trixie asked.

"Huh?" Rainbow replied.

"Clearly not..." Trixie mumbled, "I said Trixie has been here, and had no luck finding Sunset already!" she repeated.

"What?!" Dash stopped in her tracks. "You've already been here?"

"Last night Trixie came looking for her, something I'm aware you didn't do," Trixie replied smugly as she walked past Rainbow.

"I went straight to her house as soon as Princess Twilight showed up!" Dash replied.

"Why did you go there?" Trixie asked, "I mean if I was running away, the last place I'd go is my own house, so what made you think she would be there?"

"If you've already searched here, why didn't you tell Pinkie? She could've sent you somewhere else?" Rainbow asked, ignoring the previous question.

"Well how was Trixie supposed to know she was in Ponyville?" she asked, "It was dark, and there aren't any huge signs that say 'Welcome to Ponyville' on them around here."

"Alright, I get it," Rainbow rolled her eyes again, and gave Trixie a slightly puzzled look, before continuing to walk on down the street.

"What?" Trixie asked, walking on with her.

"It's just... Well, why were you looking for Sunset at night?" she asked, "You must have known about that storm, right? That could've been dangerous."

"Of course Trixie was aware that there would be a storm, what kind've idiot do you take me for?"

"Then what were you doing searching for her when you knew a snowstorm was coming?" Rainbow replied, "Cus that sounds like a pretty stupid thing to do to me."

"I just..." Trixie stopped.

Rainbow stopped also, and turned around to face Trixie, who suddenly looked, a lot less like herself. "Just what?" Dash asked.

"I just thought that, I had to find her..." Trixie replied, staring down at the snow.

Where did that come from? Rainbow thought. "Why you?"

"Trix... I hasn't exactly, been nice to her recently, have I?" Trixie asked.

"Well none of us have, really," Dash replied.

"I'll admit, I never did trust Sunset, even after she saved us from those three, whatever they were, and everyone slowly started accepting her, and letting go of their hatred for her," Trixie sighed weakly, "I never did... I always thought she was up to something, and so as soon as this whole Anon-A-Miss mess began, I instantly assumed it was her."

"So you blame yourself for this? Is that it?" Rainbow asked.

"Not really," she replied, "I just can't stop thinking that, maybe if I wasn't so quick to accuse her straight away, then maybe this wouldn't have gotten so bad," Trixie continued, "Maybe she wouldn't have ran away, I just feel like I owe her, after all, Sunset did save us, and look what we did..."

"You okay?" Dash asked.

"...So when I heard that it wasn't her, and that she was missing, I spent all day trying to find her..."

"How long were you out looking for her anyway?"

"I started as soon as those three kids admitted it was them doing all this," Trixie replied.

"Really?" Rainbow asked, "You spent all day just, running around the city?"

Trixie nodded, "I did, and I didn't find a trace of her anywhere..."

"Well... we're gonna find her," Rainbow said, "The whole school is out looking for her now, so there's no way we won't find her sooner or later."

"I guess you're right."

"Snap out of it Trixie," Dash said, "I know I could've stopped this is I hadn't just left her like I did, but what's done is done, and there's nothing we can do about that."

Trixie looked up at Rainbow, "I guess you're right," she took a deep breath, "Lets go."

"You sure you're ok now?" Rainbow asked.

"I," Trixie gave Rainbow a grin, "Trixie's fine."

The two of them heard someone, "I'm going for a walk, I'll be back later." They both turned to see who it was. Someone had just left the apartment they were standing in front of, and she slammed the door shut.

"Isn't she one of the sirens?" Rainbow asked.

The girl walked over to them, "And what do you want?" she asked.

"Nothing, why?" Rainbow replied.

"Then get the fuck out of my way!!!" she demanded.

Rainbow moved out of the way, and the siren walked onward, away from the two girls. "What's her problem?" she asked.

"Who knows?" Trixie shrugged, "She was like that last night aswell," she said.

"You ran into her last night?" Dash asked.

"Yeah, Trixie'll tell you all about it," she said as she walked the opposite direction the siren went, and Dash followed behind her.

Author's Note

Hey I updated, It's a christmas miracle! And given my current update rate, expect the next one in 2017.

In all seriousness, any and all comments and criticism is appreciated, especially on how I handled Trixie here.

The girl behind you

"I'm going for a walk, I'll be back later," Aria said as she slammed her front door, and walked away from her house, only to walk into a pair of girls, apparently waiting outside her house. "What do you want?" she asked.

"Nothing," one of them replied.

"Then get the fuck out of my way!!!" she demanded. The two girls moved out Aria's way, and she walked past them, down the street. Then why are you waiting outside my house? she thought.

"What's wrong with her?" one of the girls asked.

"Who knows?" a familiar voice replied.

That voice? Aria stopped and shifted more of her attention to the two girls conversation behind her.

"Beats me, she was like that last night aswell." Aria turned her head around so she could get a glimpse of them out of the corner of her eye. She recognized one of them as the girl from last night, Trixie, and while it took her a moment, she recognized the other girl was one of the girls who had defeated her, Adagio and Sonata. One of the six girls Sunset was close to.

When the two of them started walking away, Aria turned around and slowly stared atthem for a moment. Are they still looking for Sunset? she asked herself, looking over at her appartment.

She was about to approach them, and confront them about Sunset, but before she even took her first step towards them, she thought that might not be the best idea. While Sunset was in the appartment that was literally right next to them, they were both walking away, so they hadn't found her already, though she did smile at the thought of what Adagio would do to them both if they stepped through that door, it would be better for Sunset if they didn't find her.

But despite all that, it always was fun to screw with people.

Aria came to a decision, She reached into her pocket, and pulled out a coin, Heads, you screw with them, tails, it's not worth it, she flipped the coin into the air, and caught it as it fell. She opened her hand, and looked at the coin, as a dark grin began to grow on her face, a grin she hadn't made in quite a while.

She looked up from her hand, towards the two girls that were now a fair distance away, and began to close the gap between them.

Rainbow and Trixie continued down the street of appartments, though they had to turn around and head back towards the bus stop. Behind them was one of the sirens from the battle of the bands, and they both thought it was best to not go the direction she was going.

"So how much of this place have you searched?" Rainbow asked.

"Trixe looked all over this place," Trixie replied, "And no one had seen her, Trixie even had a picture of her from one of your performances." Trixie reached into her pocket and pulled out the photo to show Rainbow. It was a small picture of the Rainbooms practicing in the music room, luckily they didn't have their pony ears, wings, or hair. Sunset's face had been circled with a red marker.

"This was the only photo you could find?" Rainbow asked, "You couldn't find one of just her?"

"Well, Trixie could've used one of her Princess of the Fall formal photos, but I shouldn't have to explain why that would've been a bad idea," Trixie said uneasily.

"You know, she kept taking those down, and someone kept putting them back up," Rainbow said.

"Yeah... I really don't know what I was trying to accomplish in doing that again," Trixie mumbled.

"That was you?" Rainbow asked, though after what Trixie had just told her, about how she had it out for Sunset, it wasn't all that surprising.

"Guilty as charged," Trixie replied dryly.

They had reached the bus stop that they had walked away from not long ago, "You really did have it out for her didn't you?" Rainbow asked.

"Hey, how about a joke?" Trixie asked, clearly wanting to change the subject.

Rainbow rolled her eyes, "Sure..."

Trixie opened her mouth, but was cut off by someone behind them. "Three sirens walk into a school full of idiots and brainwash everyone." Trixie and Rainbow turned around to see the person behind them was the siren from earlier. "What? I thought it was funny," she replied dryly, before sitting down on the bus stops bench.

"Uh, Trixie, didn't she walk the other way?" Rainbow asked.

"Yeah, but I forgot the bus stop was this way," the siren replied, "And yes, I can hear you."

"What do you want?" Rainbow asked, taking a step away from the siren.

"My name's Aria, not You," Aria replied, harshly, "And what does it look like I'm doing? I'm waiting for the bus."

"Well, good luck with that," Trixie replied.

Aria glanced at Trixie, "Oh, hey, you're the one from last night?" she asked, "Trixie, right?"

"Tha... Y, yeah, I am. So What?" Trixie stuttered.

"Uh... Trixie..." Rainbow whispered.

"So did you find what you were looking for last night?" Aria asked.

"Why do you care?" Trixie asked,

"Trixie..." Rainbow repeated, "Don't answer..."

"Hey, I'm just curious is all," Aria said, "Oh well, I guess it doesn't concern me anyway," she shrugged.

"You're right, it doesn't," Rainbow said. She quickly spun around, and grabbed Trixie, "Lets go."

"So, I guess you changed partners then today," Aria said calmly.

"Changed partners?" Trixie repeated confusedly, "What do you mean?"

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "You and that other girl were looking around here last night," Aria said.

"Trixie, she's just trying to mess with you!" Rainbow said, "Now can we go?"

"Trixie doesn't quite understand, I was on my own last night, there was no one with me," she said, still confused.

"Yeah, there was. She was right behind you, she had like, firery hair and a black leather jacket on...."

"What?" Rainbow asked.

Aria pointed at Dash, "You know her, she was in your band when you, her, and six other girls stripped us of our magic," she said nonchalantly. "What was her name again... Sunflower something?"

"W... What did you just say?" Trixie asked.

Aria gave Trixie a confused look, "That she was with her and about six other girls when they took away our magic?"

"No no, before that," Trixie said.

"She had a nice black leather jacket on?" Aria said, still looking confused.

"You said Sunset was right behind Trixie," Rainbow said in a very aggressive tone, "Why would you say that?"

Aria looked at them both, "I... I don't get the question," she said, slowly.

"Why would you say Sunset was behind Trixie?" Dash repeated, "It's a simple question."

"Is there something I'm missing?" Aria asked, "Why is it such a big deal that someone was behind you? You didn't seem to care, when Sonata said there was someone there."

Trixie felt a shiver rush down her spine. "...Excuse me?" she asked nervously.

"Remember when Sonata ran past you, and about a minute later, just as you ran off, she called for me and Adagio to help carry her?"

Trixie froze on the spot. "...No..." She mumbled. She could remember the conversation from last night, when one of them walked past her to go see someone else, and right before Trixie ran off to continue searching for Sunset, she did call for help carrying something.

"Sunset had hurt her leg, and needed a hand getting up," Aria continued, "Is she alright, cus she seemed rather, depressed?" she asked, "Hell, I don't even think she recognized us. When she got up, she just, walked off the same way you went."

Dash was looking at Trixie, "Hey... Trixie... You alright?" she didn't get a reply.

A bus began to approach the stop, at which Aria finally stood up. "Well, there's my bus," neither Trixie, nor Rainbow replied. As the bus stopped, and the doors opened, Aria boarded the bus, "Oh well, see you two, whenever, I guess." After Aria had paid for her ride, the bus doors closed, and the bus itself drove off, leaving the two girls.

"Trixie, you know she's lying," Dash said, although admittedly, she was trying to convince herself of just that.

Trixie sat down on the bench, in the same spot Aria was sitting. "I don't believe it," she said weakly.

"Trixie, what did I just say?" Rainbow asked.

"Sunset was right behind me," Trixie said.

"No she wasn't! You hear me?" Rainbow asked. "She was just trying to get to you, it's what those sirens do." Trixie didn't reply. "She was lying, alright."

As much as Trixie wanted to believe Rainbow, she had this feeling inside her, a terrible gut feeling that, no matter how much she wanted to, she just couldnt deny. Tears began to fall from her eyes, as she covered her face with her hands, she just couldn't believe she was so close.

Sunset was right there, she was right behind me.

Author's Note

This was going to be longer, but I decided to just stick with these three this chapter, hopefully it's still alright.

Any and all criticism i appreciated... as usual.

Good times and bad times

Sonata placed two large pillows in front of the tv, and reached over to the game console to hit the on button. "C'mon, it'll be fun." She looked behind her at Sunset, who sat down on one of the pillows, "I'll even go easy on you," Sonata added.

Both Adagio and Sonata knew it would be best to try and get the current situation out of Sunset's head, and get her thinking about something else for now. Naturally, Sonata's first idea was video games, which Sunset was happy to go along with.

"You don't need to go easy on me, Sonata," Sunset said as Sonata sat on the pillow next to her and handed her a controller.

"Awe, c'mon. It wouldn't be very fair if I didn't give you an easy ride." Sonata smiled as the game started up. It was a fighting game, one that Sunset was no stranger to. After going through the character select screen, and the loading scree that followed that, the game loaded.

"Alrighty then," Sonata began, as she pointed at Sunset's controller, "You can press that button to jump, that button to do a light attack, that one for a heavy attack, and you ca-"

"Player two wins!"

"Waitwha???" Sonata looked back at the screen, and saw she had already been defeated. "How did you just..?"

Sunset gave a weak, forced smile, "I told you, you don't need to go easy on my, Sonata," Sunset repeated.

"Oh, played this one before have you?" Sonata asked as the next round began, "Alrighty then, have it your way!" for the next minute the screen was full of movement, with attacks flying all over the place and both characters getting thrown back and forth. It eventually ended with Sunset's character laying on the ground.

"Player one wins!"

"Gotcha!" Sonata turned to Sunset and poked her tounge out. The final round was more or less identical to the last, and it ended the same way as well. With Sunset's character on the ground, defeated.

"Player one wins!"

"Oh yeah!!" Sonata threw her arms up in the air victoriously, "I won! Oh yeah, go me! I'm the best!" Sunset on the other hand, put her down controller on the floor, and sighed, making Sonata feel a tad guilty for boasting so much. "I uh, I mean, don't get upset, you'll probably win next time," Sonata quickly said, "I just got lucky, that's all..."

"Finally, someone who can actually play this game," Sunset said calmly.

"Huh?" Sonata asked, "You're not upset you lost are you?"

"Course not," Sunset replied, turning her head slightly and shooting Sonata a small grin, "On the contrary, I'm glad to go up against someone who actually stands a chance against me."

Sonata giggled lightly, "Oh, is that how it is?"

"Rematch?" Sunset asked, picking the controller back up.

Sonata returned the small grin to Sunset. "Sure. I'll beat you a second time, why not?"

Moments later, after another three rounds, it was Sonata's character laying in defeat this time.

"Oh come on!!!" Sonata yelled.

"What's wrong, Sonata? Don't get upset just because I beat you," Sunset said, in a light mocking tone.

"You were one hit away! I had you beat there!" Sonata replied.

"You had me beat? I'm pretty sure that says player two wins on the screen. Who's player two again?" Sunset asked.

"Rematch! Now!" Sonata demanded.

"Alright, I'll kick your ass again!" Sunset replied.

The two of them stared at each other for a few seconds, and then they both broke out laughing at each other. Slowly, they both began to calm down. "Sorry about that, I... I don't know what came over me there," Sunset said.

"Me neither," Sonata replied.

"I can get a little, competitive at this game," Sunset continued.

"Tell me about it," Sonata said, "I might be a little mad about this as well. There's only so many times I can beat Aria before that begins to get boring."

"Yeah," Sunset laughed, "I know how you feel. Speaking of Aria, when is she gonna be back?"

Sonata shrugged, "I dunno. Oh!" Sonata began searching her pockets for her phone, which wasn't there. "DAGI!" she called out, "CAN YOU GET MY PHONE FOR ME!?!? IT'S IN MY ROOM!!"

"WHAT!" Adagio yelled back from her room, "WHY CAN'T YOU GET IT?!"

"BECAUSE I'M PLAYING A GAME WITH SUNSET RIGHT NOW!!"

Adagio walked out from her room, and looked at the two girls in front of the tv. More specifically, she saw Sunset had a smile on her face, one that wasn't forced or fake in any way. She was, actually smiling. "Sure Sonata, I'll be back in a sec." Calmly, Adagio walked towards Sonata's room, and went in.

As Adagio walked into Sonata's room, she quickly saw the phone on Sonata's bed side cabinet. she walked over to it, shaking her head. She reached out to pick it up, bit something else caugt her eye. It was another phone, right next to Sonata's, Sunset's phone.

Adagio shook the thought from her mind, and picked up Sonata's phone. But as she turned around, Sunset's phone began vibrating on the cabinet.

Adagio was about to leave the room, and ignore the phone. In just about any other situation, she would have done. Despite being together for thousands of years, there were still the occasional secrets they each had, and the three sirens did respect each others privacy, especially Adagio. She knew it would be wrong to snoop through Sonata's diary, or go through Aria's phone, and it was the same for Sunset.

In any normal situation, Adagio would have simply ignored the phone. But this wasn't a normal situation.

Against her better judgment, Adagio pocketed Sonata's phone, picked up Sunset's, and saw that she apparently had over three hundred unread messages, one of which had just been sent, and two hundred missed calls. Adagio went through some of the messages, starting with her first unread message.

I can't believe we trusted you Sunset!

Hey Shimmer, why aren't you in today? Trying to get dirt on someone else for your next post?

Just what do you think you're playing at Sunset? You really think this plan of yours is gonna work?

Just a heads up, no one's falling for your crybaby act this time, so just give it up! We all know it's you!

Why don't you just go back where you belong you pony freak!

Just an FYI, you're not invited to anymore of my parties! Or any sleepovers! Ya got that!?

"They really do want you dead, don't they?" Adagio muttered quietly.

Most of the messages were like that, nothing but insults and vile hatred in the form of the text, and each one only made Adagio angrier and angrier, but there was one she saw that was different from the others.

Sunset, can we talk about this whole mess? I know I've said some mean things, but I'm starting to think we have the wrong person. Please message me back.

"Dagi!!! Have found my phone yet?!"

Adagio was snapped out of her concentration by Sonata yelling from the other room. "Not yet!" Adagio yelled back, before returning her attention to the phone. She looked through some of the texts, but there was only one other thing that caught her eye.

A full on conversation between Sunset and an RD.

RD
Where the hell are you Shimmer?! What you just said about Scoots is to far! The next time I see you, you're gonna be sorry Sunset!!

SS
Rainbow I swear, it's not me doing this! I don't even know what's being said anymore! Why won't any of you believe me!?

RD
Oh please, what you just said about her is something that only me and her knew about. I knew it was a mistake to tell you about that!

SS
There were six of us at that sleepover, you didn't just tell me! Besides, maybe Scootaloo told someone else about it!

RD
So now you want me to think that it's Pinkie, Rarity, Aj or even Fluttershy behind this! Are you really that desperate!?

SS
I'm not saying it's one of our friends, I'm just saying you didn't just tell me.

RD
So if you're saying it's not you or one of my friends, and the only other one who knew that about Scootaloo was her herself, then are you accusing Scoots of being Anon-A-Miss? You're sick Shimmer!

SS
Of course I'm not saying it's Scootaloo, why would she even do this?

RD
I'll ask you the same question, why would you do it, Sunset?

SS
Dash, I wouldn't do something like this!

RD
Well I'll tell you then. Does, revenge for your public humiliation in front of the entire school, ring any bell?

SS
You know I've changed since then...

RD
I thought you had, Sunset, but obviously you're still just looking out for your own selfish goals.

SS
Rainbow, please, give me one chance, just one.

RD
Fuck off you stupid she-demon!

SS
Rainbow... you don't really mean that, do you?

SS
Please tell me you don't mean that Dash...

RD
Do I need to repeat myself, Sunset?

SS
Alright Dash, I get it...

RD
Are you really just sitting at your computer updating your little blog right now!? Seriously?

SS
What do you mean?

RD
You just updated your stupid blog again. How do you even know that about Applebloom anyway?

SS
I'm not even going to argue with you anymore Dash. Goodbye!

RD
Good riddance!!!

Sunset didn't reply to that one, and this, Rainbow person, didn't send another one for about half an hour.

RD
OH MY GOD! SUNSET WHERE ARE YOU!? WE NEED TO TALK TO YOU RIGHT NOW!!!

Although, it wasn't just this one message she got. It seemed that between three o'clock, and quarter past three, Sunset had received pretty much the same message from about fifty people. I guess whatever this Anon-A-Miss person did at three must have pissed of the entire school tenfold for everyone to message you like that, Adagio thought.

"No..." She shook her head, and took a very, very deep breath. "No more Adagio," she said to herself as she came out of the message screen, "If Sunset catches you going through her phone, then whatever trust she has in you will be blown to shreds," she mumbled.

Right as she put the phone down and turned around, it vibrated on the desk.

Incoming call.

While she tried to ignore it, she couldn't help but glance at the phone, and at the caller ID. Almost immediately, she grabbed the phone off of the desk. As she saw the callers name, her anger that had been slowly building up as she read those messages took hold of her, as she answered the phone.

The call was from the same person Sunset was texting to yesterday. RD.

Author's Note

Yay, a new chapter!

I know I probably went a little bit far with Rainbow here, and it may seem out of character for her, but that was intentionally done.

Any and all criticism and comments are appreciated.

Wrong Number

Rainbow Dash and Trixie continued through the the rather empty streets of Ponyville, continuing their attempt to find their lost friend. "Do you see her anywhere?" Trixie asked.

"I don't see anyone..." Rainbow replied bleakly, looking around the empty streets. "Can't say I blame them, it's freezing out here."

After their recent encounter with Aria, the two of them were a bit more jumpy. Trixie was repeatedly turning around, thinking that Sunset would be behind her, like she was last night, and while Dash refused to admit the siren had gotten to her, she was still turning around at the slightest sound behind them.

"She's gotta be here somewhere, Trixie just knows it!" Trixie said in a clearly uncertain tone.

"It doesn't matter how many times you say that, it isn't gonna help us find her..." Dash said.

"I know..." Trixie mumbled.

Rainbow reached her hand into her pocket, and slowly pulled out her phone. "Guess it's worth a shot." She navigated through her phones to her text messages. She let out a sigh as she reread the messages she had sent to Sunset yesterday.

How could I say this stuff to her? she thought to herself as she scrolled through them. She also reread Sunset's replies as well, which didn't make her feel any better at all. What the fuck was wrong with me???

"Wow!!!" Rainbow came back to reality, and to Trixie reading her messages.

"HEY!" Rainbow quickly put her phone back in her pocket.

"And Trixie thought she was harsh," she said, "Did you actually call her a she-demon?"

"That's none of your business!" Dash snapped harshly.

"S... Sorry Rainbow," Trixie said lightly, quickly realizing her mistake. "I'm not exactly in a position to judge."

"No, you aren't." Rainbow pulled her phone out of her pocket again, and went to her contacts. Specifically, to Sunset's number. "Can't help to try..." she mumbled halfheartedly as clicked the number, and her phone began calling Sunset.

"Um, Rainbow, do you really think that is going to work?" Trixie asked.

"Doubt it, but it's worth a shot. You run on ahead, I'll catch you up."

"Fine. Don't be too long," Trixie replied as she ran on ahead, and around a corner.

Dash's phone stopped ringing, and she heard light breathing from her phone. No way, she picked up? "Sunset? Is that you? It's me, Rainbow Dash?" she asked.

"Rainbow Dash..." Sunset said, though there was something not quite right with her voice.

"Yeah, it's... Sunset?" Dash asked, having noticed that the voice was a bit, off.

"W-What is it?" Sunset asked weakly.

"Is... Is something wrong with your voice?" she asked.

"I've got a sore throat," Sunset replied, "Now what do you want?"

I guess it's because of last nights storm? Dash questioned, but shook her head, No, she picked up, now don't screw this up Dash. she thought. "I just wanted to-"

"You wanna what?" Sunset interrupted, harshly. "You wanna insult me again? Accuse me of something else now?"

"Suns-" Dash began, trying to get a word in.

"Why can't you just leave me alone if you hate me so much!" Sunset continued, "Or was calling me a she-demon in message just not enough for you!?!?"

"Sunset..." Rainbow wiped a small tear from her eye. She couldn't bear hearing Sunset like this, she didn't even sound like herself anymore. It sounded like so much more than a simple sore throat. But after what she had said yesterday, Dash knew she deserved it.

"If you want me gone so much, then just leave me alone, and I'll leave you alone!"

"I'm sorry, Sunset..." Dash said, followed by a short, but noticeable pause from Sunset.

"...What..?"

"I said, I'm sorry, Sunset." Rainbow continued, "I- We were all wrong about you. The truth came out last night, who Anon-A-Miss really is, and, the fact you were innocent."

"The truth has come out?" Sunset asked.

"Yeah, everyone's looking for you, even Princess Twilight is here," Rainbow continued, "I understand if you don't want to, but I need to talk to you, Sunset."

"You... Just want to talk?" Sunset asked.

"Yeah, that's all," Dash replied softly, "I promise."

"What's taking you so long?" Rainbow saw Trixie running back towards her. "No way, did she actually answer?" she asked, to which Rainbow nodded.

"I'll be at Ponyville park in half an hour."

"You're in Ponyville!?" Rainbow didn't get a response, as Sunset quickly hung up.

"She is?" Trixie asked, quite shocked that she was actually here, in the same part of the city her and Dash were.

"Yeah but," Rainbow replied, lowering her phone from her face.

"Trixie'll call the others and let them kn-"

"Wait!" Rainbow interrupted, "It would probably be best if she didn't arrive to too many of us there. She really didn't sound right, at all."

"Well, she obviously feels hurt, so that's probably normal," Trixie replied.

"I guess so," Dash said. "Let's just get going. Do you know where the park is from here?" she asked, putting her phone in her pocket.

"Yeah, it's not far. If it'll take Sunset half an hour to get there, then we'll probably get there before her," Trixie replied, before running down the street, with Rainbow not far behind.

"Wait!" Rainbow came to a screeching hault, and pulled her phone out of her pocket once more.

Trixie stopped and turned back around. "Didn't you just say we shouldn't get everyone together yet, Rainbow?" she asked.

"I know what I said, but this is the exception to that." Rainbow replied.

Twilight and Rarity were at Canterlot Boutique. One of Rarity's two boutiques, this one positioned right in the heart of Canterlots richer part of the city. "Are you sure you haven't seen her, Sassy?"

Sassy Saddles, the one Rarity had put in charge of this boutique, shook her head. "No. I'm afraid I haven't, who is she?" she asked.

"Her name is Sunset Shimmer. She's a friend who went missing last night, and now we really need to find her," Rarity replied with a guilt ridden voice.

"Are you sure you haven't seen her?" Twilight asked.

"Positive." Sassy answered.

Suddenly, Rarity's phone began ringing in her pocket. She pulled it out, and answered it eagerly. "Yes, who is it?"

"Rarity, it's Rainbow," Rainbow began, "Me and Trixie are meeting Sunset in about half an hour but..."

"Oh thank goodness!!!" Rarity said overjoyed.

"...Is Princess Twilight still with you?" Dash asked.

"Yes, she's right here," Rarity replied.

"Is there any way you two can get to Ponyville park, and fast!?" Rainbow asked.

"Um..." Rarity looked at Sassy Saddle, "You have a car, right?"

"Yes," Sassy replied.

"Can you take us to Ponyville park?"

"Of course. I'll just close the shop for an hour. It's not like I'm getting any business in this weather," Sassy replied, looking around at the empty boutique.

"Thank you. Rainbow, we'll be there as soon as we can!" Rarity replied as she hung up the phone, and ran out of the boutique, followed by Twilight and Sassy.

"I'll be at Ponyville park in half an hour." Adagio quickly hung up the phone, and put it back down on Sonata's bed side table. She gave her throat a rub, as it really was a bit sore after that imitation, but at least Rainbow bought it.

She turned towards the door and walked out of Sonata's room, and back into the living room, and saw Sonata and Sunset were still playing together. "Sonata," Adagio said. Sonata turned around and Adagio pulled her phone out of her pocket and lightly threw it to her. "Catch."

"Thanks!" Sonata replied as she caught her phone, "What took you so long?" she asked.

"I'm going for a walk, and no, I don't know how long I'll be." Adagio walked over to the front door and grabbed her coat which was hanging by the door. "Apparently whoever was doing this to you has given up, Sunset."

Sunset spun her head around towards Adagio, "What?!" she quickly replied.

"Yeah," Adagio continued, "I just got off the phone with someone called Rainbow, and she said it's apparently all over. The real culprit confessed yesterday."

"What... It's..." Sunset was having a bit of a hard time processing that information. "Rainbow Dash... It's all over?" she asked with a fair amout of disbelief.

"I'm going to go meet her now in the park. Do you want to come with me?" Adagio asked as she put her coat on.

Sunset shook her head weakly, "No. I'll stay here."

"Rainbow really does want to see you," Adagio said, despite the fact she knew there was no changing Sunset's mind.

"And I don't want to see her," Sunset said turning back to the tv.

"Alright," Adagio replied, "Sonata, take care of her."

Sonata put her arm around Sunset's shoulder in a weak attempt to comfort her. "Will do," she said with a smile, as Adagio walked outside, and closed the door behind her. When the door was shut, Sonata turned to look at Sunset, "Don't worry, Dagi'll take care of this, she always knows what to do."

"I hope so." Sunset replied dryly.

"Why didn't you go with her?" Sonata asked. "You heard what she said, apparently the truth is out, you don't need to be scared anymore."

"I heard what she said, but that's exactly why I'm not going," Sunset said, "I just don't know what I should do now..."

Author's Note

Well, this one came out quickly, no idea why, I just really wanted to write this one up now.

Any and all comments and criticism are appreciated.

Confrontation

Trixie and Dash both arrived at Ponyville park, where they were supposed to be meeting Sunset, and noticed Rarity and Twilight had already arrived ahead of them. "HEY!" Rainbow shouted to them, before her and Trixie ran over to them. "How did you two get here before us?" Rainbow asked.

"We had a lift," Rarity replied.

"Trixie doesn't suppose Sunset's already been and gone. Has she?" Trixie asked.

Twilight shook her head. "Not yet." Twilight looked around the snow covered park, it was a rather nice place, and it seemed so different from the city that now surrounded her. "I hope she's alright..."

"She didn't sound alright over the phone," Rainbow replied, "She said it was a simple sore throat, but it sounded lke more than that."

"Well we'll just have to wait until she arrives," Rarity said, glancing around. "Whenever that is."

Trixie looked at her phone. "She should be here by now. You don't think she blew us off, do you?" she asked.

"I hope she didn't," Twilight said.

"I wouldn't put it past her right now," Dash replied, "If I was her, you're the last people I'd want to see right now..."

"Rainbow Dash! That's not funny!" Rarity said angrily.

"Good, cus I wasn't joking!" Rainbow snapped back.

"There's no need to yell, I was only saying," Rarity replied.

"Yeah, and I was only saying if Sunset doesn't show up, it wouldn't really surprise me!" Rainbow replied.

"Are we seriously about to start fighting against each other?" Trixie asked rhetorically. "Because if you ask me that's the very LAST thing we should be doing."

"Trixie's right." Twilight stood in between Rarity and Rainbow, "We all need to stay clam about this, and give Sunset a warm welcome when she gets here! Not this!"

Rainbow and Rarity looked at each other regretfully. Twilight was right, this whole mess happened because everyone got too angry at Sunset for doing this, they didn't even consider the thought that the girl spending her time crying in the bathroom might be innocent. Getting angry was one of the things that started this, and it certainly wasn't going to fix anything.

Rarity sighed, and looked around. "Hey!" she began, overjoyed that someone else was coming. "There's someone..." That joy quickly evaporated as it was obviously not Sunset. But that wasn't the worst part, the worst part was that everyone there recognized the woman walking towards them. She was the leader of the three sirens.

"Well isn't this fantastic!" Rarity mumbled.

"What is she doing here?" Rainbow asked.

"Well, if she's here to fight," Trixie began, "Take it from someone who got punched in the face by her last night, she isn't that strong."

"Rainbow..." Twilight began, "Didn't you say there was something wrong with Sunset's voice when you were talking to her over the... whatever it was?" she asked, a sudden serious tone in her voice.

"Over the phone?" Rainbow replied, "She did sound a bit off, bu-"

"You're sure that was actually Sunset, right?"

Rainbow swallowed nervously, "Yeah, I called her on her phone. Twilight, what are you trying to..." The princesses stare said it all. "You think I was talking to her?"

"Well, Sunset isn't anywhere around, and she's headed right towards us," Twilight replied.

The siren quickly approached, and seemed rather angry. "Which one of you is Rainbow Dash?" she asked.

The four girls looked at each other cautiously. "I am." Rainbow Dash stepped forward.

"Well on behalf of Sunset Shimmer, I have a message for you..."

Rainbow almost smiled. Almost. "From Suns-"

Rainbow was quickly cut off by a sudden kick to the stomach and punch in the face. As Dash stumbled back in pain, she felt the siren grab her throat and her shirt, as she swung her down into the snowy ground below. "The she-demon says "Fuck you!""

"Rainbow!" Rarity and Twilight rushed over to Rainbow who was clutching her stomach in pain, and now had a bloody nose, despite only getting hit in the face once. Rarity knelt down, and took a handkerchief from her pocket and used it to wipe Rainbow's nose. "Are you alright?" she asked.

Twilight turned her attention to ths siren behind her. "What was that for!?!?" Twilight demanded.

"Why don't you ask Rainbow."

"Twilight, be careful!" Rarity said nervously.

"Twilight?" The siren grinned, "Oh, you must be Twilight Sparkle, right?" she asked.

"That's Princess Twilight to you!!" Twilight snapped back, "Now what do you know about Sunset?"

"My apologies. My name is Adagio Dazzle," Adagio began, "Under just about any other situation I would be delighted to finally meet you in person, Princess."

"Excuse me?" Twilight questioned. "Delighted?" she repeated.

"Yes, delighted." Adagio repeated, "Anyway, I have something to tell you about Sunset Shimmer."

"We already know," Trixie interrupted, "Me and Rainbow already ran into one of you earlier."

"Must have been Aria," Adagio said, "And what did she tell you?" she asked.

"That apparently Sunset was right behind me, and she apparently followed after me when she got up off the ground, right?"

Adagio rolled her eyes, "Note to self. Have a chat with Aria about fucking up extremely delicate situations," she mumbled, "What she told you was only half true. Yes, Sunset was standing right behind you, but she didn't get up."

"W-what do you m-mean," Rainbow coughed, as she climbed her way to her feet.

"I mean she didn't get back up by herself," Adagio continued, "Me and the two others had to carry her unconcious body to our house. I think it's safe to say that, if it wasn't for Sonata, she'd be dead right now."

"So, she's at.. your house?" Rarity asked uneasily.

"I swear, no harm has come to her, but yes. She is," Adagio stated in a calm voice.

"Why should we trust you?" Trixie asked, "How do we know you aren't just lying to us about this whole thing?"

"There's probably nothing I can say that will make you change your mind. I'm aware of that," Adagio continued, "But that girl poured her heart out to the three of us, and why? Because we were willing to listen." Adagio pointed to Rainbow, "Unlike you..." she pointed at Trixie, "...and you..." and then at Rarity, "...and you, and everyone else at your school!"

"H-hey, we had our reason," Dash replied in a weak attempt to defend herself.

"You should know I now want to strangle you just for saying that!" Rainbow backed off after hearing that. "You used her to defeat us, and then threw her aside like a piece of shit!" Adagio continued, "And congratulations, you made her never want to see your face again!" Adagio turned away from the other girls, "I would go on about how much you fucked up, but I don't think I'm the right person to do that." She began to walk away, "I'll save that for Sunset."

Adagio's phone began vibrating in her pocket. She pulled it out, and answered it. "Hello?"

"Hey Adagio, it's Sunset, I..." Adagio put the phone on load speaker, so that the other girls could hear Sunset, "I just wanted to ask a favour."

"Sunset, are you alright?" Adagio asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Sunset replied.

"Are you?" Adagio asked again.

"Yeah, I promise, I'm fine."

The four girls immediately recognized Sunset's voice. "Is that... It's really her!" Rainbow said.

"Ok, what favour?" Adagio asked.

"Are you... with Rainbow Dash right now?" Sunset asked.

Adagio glanced behind her, at the girl in question. "Yeah, I am. Do you want to speak to her?"

"No, no no, no. No!" Sunset repeated, "I... really don't, uh...'

"Alright." Rainbow was a bit saddened by that, but wasn't really surprised. "What did you want?" Adagio asked, turning back towards the girls.

"Well... Don't hurt her or anything! Sonata said you seemed furious when you left, so don't... that would only make the situation worse," Sunset said.

"Alright," Adagio said.

"And, tell her that I'm alright, and that, she doesn't have to worry about me," Sunset continued. "I've also been through some of my more recent texts, so I know that there's a great big search party out there looking for me. Tell Rainbow that, she should call Pinkie Pie, and tell her to stop the search party," Sunset said, completely unaware that Rainbow, as well as Rarity, Trixe and Twilight could hear her.

"Why do you want it stopped?" Adagio asked.

"Because I don't want them to find me like this..."

"Like what?"

"Right now I, I feel so... I don't know what to think about this whole mess, and I really don't know what I'd do if I saw them right now." Sunset began quietly crying on the other end of the phone, and while she was probably trying to hide it, it didn't work. "I don't know what to do, but I know that, if I see any of them right now, it wouldn't help, at all."

"Will do, anything else?" Adagio replied softly.

"One more thing. Apparently Princess Twilight is here," Sunset continued, "Tell Rainbow Twilight can go back to Equestria. She's only wasting her time here."

"Wasting my time here?" Twilight repeated.

Sonata's voice quietly came in through the phone. "Here's your ice crea- Oh my god, Sunset what is it! Why are you crying?!"

"Is that Sonata?" Adagio asked.

"Yeah, uh, I should probably go now, see you later Adagio," Sunset replied weakly.

"I'm on my way home now," Adagio said.

"Ok. See you in a bit then." Sunset hung up the phone.

"Well, Rainbow, you heard her. You know what she wants." Adagio turned away from the girls again, pocketed her phone, and walked off. "You don't have to believe me when I say this, but I really am worried about this girl."

"Hey!" Rarity shouted. Adagio halted her movement. "We don't exactly have a choice right now, but if we hear anything from Sunset about you hurting her-"

"The three of you are gonna pay!" Trixie finished. Adagio nodded her head, and continued walking away.

The four girls looked at each other. "So now what?" Rainbow asked, "Should we, call off the search party, or..."

"I'm not going home... " Twilight Ran forward to catch up with Adagio.

"What is it?" Adagio asked.

"I'm going with you," Twilight stated.

"All due respect Princess, she really doesn't want to see you, either."

"I don't care! I'm not going home until I know she's ok," Twilight said.

"Fine," Adagio replied, "But only you, understand?" Twilight simply nodded, and her and the siren continued onwards, towards the park exit.

Author's Note

You know that nervous feeling you sometimes get when you post a new chapter? well I'm feeling that right now.

Any and all comments and criticism is appreciated.

A little late

Adagio and Twilight continued down the street towards Adagio's house. After the call from Sunset basically confirming that she was at the sirens house, Twilight had decided to go back with Adagio, to see her friend, and offer a much needed apology.

"You know this is a bad idea, right?" Adagio asked. She wasn't happy with the princess coming with her, Sunset said herself that she didn't want to speak to, or even see her friends.

"I don't care!" Twilight snapped back, "I should have been here one week ago to sort this mess out, But I wasn't!"

"A... week ago???" Adagio asked, "You mean to tell me that you knew about this mess since last week, and you've done nothing?"

"Not quite," Twilight replied, "Sunset sent me a letter about this, back when it all started, last week," she sighed, "I should have been here then to take care of this before it turned into, well... this."

Adagio chuckled lightly, "Well, you sound like quite crappy princess if you let this happen."

"Yeah..." Twilight replied weakly.

"Still, you're here now, even if it is too late," Adagio continued, "And I guess you might just be in luck."

"Why's that?" Twilight asked.

"Because from what she's told us, you may be the only one she'll talk to out of your group of idiots," Adagio replied, "I mean you're the one she wanted to help her sort this out in the first place, so she might be a bit more open with you rather than them."

"I just hope she's alright," Twilight said to herself.

"Well she's not," Adagio said bluntly, "She's hurt, scared, and... Well if I had to describe it one word, I'd call her Broken. If you ask me, that's not alright."

"Broken?" Twilight repeated.

"Well, her whole life came crashing down around her. When that happened to the three of us, even we were on edge, to say the least." Adagio continued.

"You mean at the battle of the bands, don't you?" Twilight asked.

"But even we weren't this bad..." Adagio sighed, ignoring Twilight's question. "Whoever this Anon-A-Miss person is, I'll admit, she sure knows how to destroy someones life."

Twilight swallowed nervously. "H-how can you be so sure of that?" She really didn't want the siren to be right about this, and that she was just messing with her.

"When you're as old as I am, and you've seen every kind of person and pony there is to see, you can understand a lot about someone, just by looking at them." Adagio looked over at Twilight, her gaze sending a small shiver down the princess's spine. "And Sunset is currently..."

"What..?" Twilight asked, "What about her?"

"You don't want to know, Twilight," Adagio replied.

"Tell me!" Twilight demanded, "Just how bad is she right now?"

Adagio seemed to ignore Twilight's question, but eventually answered it. "Earlier today, just after she told us what had happened to her, she said that we should never have found her. That we should never have saved her last night," Adagio said rather dimly, "And I can tell you right now... She meant every word of it."

Twilight stopped, dead in her tracks. "You... Mean..."

Adagio also stopped, as to not get too far away from the princess. "She wanted to die last night," she continued, "She thinks it would have been best if she had died in that snowstorm."

"Why didn't you say this at the park, when Rainbow, Rarity and Trixie were there!" Twilight asked, a sudden aggressive and assertive tone in her voice. "Well?" Twilight demanded.

The siren wasn't fazed by Twilight's order at all. "Because they would have just done what you're about to do right now..."

"You're lying!" Twilight Yelled.

"Yeah, that..."

"Sunset wouldn't say something like that, she's stronger than that!" Twilight said.

"Well maybe you don't know your friend as well as you think you do," Adagio replied, "Because right now she just wants to give up..."

Twilight picked up the pace, and ran past Adagio. "I've got to see her!!" Twilight said to herself.

"Hold on princess!" Adagio said, her voice, rather demanding, "While you could in deed, end up helping her by going to see her right now, You might not like what she has to say to you!"

Twilight halted at a turn in the pavement, not knowing which way to go next. "Which way?" Twilight asked, ignoring Adagio's previous statement.

"Fine." Adagio caught up with Twilight, and turned the corner. "This way. It's not to far now," she said walking on ahead, as the princess followed behind.

"Sunset!" Sonata said as she continued banging on the bathroom door, "How long are you gonna be in there?!"

Moments after the phone call with Adagio, Sunset had gone into the bathroom, and had locked herself in. Sonata had been trying to get her to open the door and let her in, but she wasn't getting anywhere.

"I don't know, alright!" Sunset yelled.

"Come on! You've been in there now for over ten minutes, and I'm starting to get worried about you, alright!" Sonata said with another set of bangs on the door.

"I'm fine Sonata! I'll be out in a bit..." Sunset replied weakly with a few sobs.

"I can hear you crying in there Sunny! I wouldn't call that fine!" Sonata replied.

"Then you're hearing things..." Sunset said weakly.

"Well, ok... Do you wanna talk about something then?" Sonata asked, "Yknow, to pass the time, since you've been in there for so long?"

"No," a weak voice replied.

Sonata heard the front door to her apartment open. "Sonata, I'm home!" she heard Adagio shout.

"Oh good!" Sonata ran down the hall to see Adagio hanging her coat up. "Dagi, thank goodness you're here! You see after Sunny got off the phone with you she started crying and then she went over and locked herself in the bathroom and I've been trying to get her to open the door but she won't open it and I just don't know what to d-"

"SONATA!" Adagio interrupted. Sonata immediately stopped taking. "Calm down, and start again."

Sonata took a deep breath. "Sunny's locked herself in the bathroom, is crying, and won't come out." Sonata then noticed that someone was accompanying Adagio. "Who's that?"

"I'm... Princess Twilight," Twilight answered, "I'm here to see Sunset an-"

"Oh, so you're the princess who never wrote back, right?" Sonata asked.

"Y...Yeah. That's me," Twilight sighed.

"Look Dagi, I'm not saying I know better than you, but I think bringing her here was a bad idea..." Sonata said.

"So do I." Adagio walked through the apartment, to the bathroom door. She could hear the girl crying on the other side, as she calmly knocked on the bathroom door. "Sunset," she began, "Can you open the door?" she asked nicely.

"I'll be out... in a bit," Sunset sobbed.

"Well, there's someone here who wants to see you," Adagio continued in a soothing voice.

"Did Rainbow Dash follow you from the park?" Sunset asked, "Tell her to fuck off!"

"Actually, it's..." Adagio was about to say it was Twilight, but instead decided to move away from the door. Adagio gave Twilight a small nod, who then approached the door instead.

"Sunset?" Twilight began.

"That's... T... Twilight?" Sunset asked.

"Yes, it's me, I'm here," Twilight began, "I know I'm a bit late but... I'm here now." Sunset didn't reply. "Can you, maybe open the door?" she asked nicely.

"Go home Twilight!" Sunset replied.

"What?"

"I said go home!" Sunset repeated, "You're just wasting your time here!"

"Sunset, please open the door," Twilight repeated, "Can we just talk about this?"

The door slowly opened. On the other side of the bathroon door, Sunset's eyes were full of fresh tears that she was failing to hold back, and both of her jacket sleeves were wet as well, where she had been repeatedly rubbing away her tears. "What do you want, Twilight?" she asked harshly.

Twilight ignored the question, and instead rushed towards Sunset and hugged her as hard as she could. She expected Sunset to bring her arms up and hug her back, but that didn't happen. Sunset's arms didn't even move an inch. "Why are you here, Twilight?" Sunset asked again harshly.

Surprised by Sunset's rather harsh question, Twilight moved back from Sunset. When she had stepped back, she saw it. Twilight thought that Sunset would be glad she was here to help sort this whole mess out, glad that she had finally came, but that wasn't at all true.

Sunset's eyes, while still full of tears, were also full of anger. Instead of seeing the eyes of someone who was happy to see someone who could help, happy that the princess had arrived, Twilight instead saw the eyes of someone who was full of rage, and hatred. "Sunset?" Twilight asked nervously.

"Why are you here?" Sunset asked harshly, "Why now? Now that it's all over, you finally turn up..."

A nervous shock shot through Twilight entire body. "I'm here to help," Twilight replied.

"Help?" Sunset repeated. "I been asking for your help for over a week, and now I don't need it anymore!" Sunset replied.

"I know," Twilight sighed, "I'm sorry, I should have been here a week ago, but instead I wa-"

"Save it for someone who cares!" Sunset interrupted.

"Wha? Sunset, I-" Twilight replied.

"I said save it!!!" Sunset yelled. "I don't need any more of your lies, anyway princess!"

"What lies?" Twilight asked.

"The lies that you, and all the others kept telling me!" Sunset replied, "None of you cared about me! If you did, you would have been here when this all started!"

"Sunset, it's not like that, I'd never lie to you!" Twilight replied.

Adagio put a hand on Twilight's shoulder and gently pulled her away from Sunset. "Sunset, calm down," Adagio said.

"But no!" Sunset continued, "Just like all the others, you only turn up when it turns out you were wrong!" Sunset clenched her fist, as it started to tremble.

"Sunset..." Adagio said, taking a step closer to Sunset.

"You only come looking for me when it turns out that I was telling the truth! You don't care about me at all, if you did you wouldn't have left me crying in the school bathroom for a week!!!!!"

There was a small moment of silence. "Sunset That's not it! I-" Twilight began, but was interrupted again, this time by Sunset raising her arm. Sunset brought her arm up, and swung her trembling fist as the princess.

But before Twilight could even realize what was about to happen, there was a sudden crash, and Adagio had Sunset pinned up against the wall. "Calm down Sunset!"

Twilight quickly moved away from the two girls, as she realized Sunset had almost hit her. "When I needed you the most, you weren't there! None of you were!" Sunset continued.

"Sunse-"

"Just go away Twilight!!" Sunset yelled.

Sonata grabbed Twilight and pulled her towards her. "You. Go. Now!"

"She's right," Adagio continued. Sunset let go of her anger, and as Adagio let her off the wall, she hugged the siren, who hugged her back, and started crying into her shoulder. "You should go."

Sonata pointed down the hall. "Alright... I'll go," Twilight sighed. "But, Sunset, is there anything you want me to tell the others?" she asked nervously.

"Tell them they can all burn in hell for all I care," Sunset cried, "And that I'm not coming back!!!!"

"Alright..." Sonata guided Twilight to the door, and opened it for her. "One more thing."

"Yeah, What is it now?" Sonata asked.

"Well..." Twilight removed a small bag from her back, opened it, and pulled out Sunset's magic diary.

"A book?" Sonata asked.

"I know she probably won't want this right now but..." she handed the book to Sonata, "If she ever wants to write to me about something, she can always use this..."

"Will do. Now GO!"

Twilight walked outside, as the door immediately slammed shut behind her. When she heard the loud slam, she leaned her back against the door and slid until she was sitting in the snow leaned up against the cold door behind her. She lowered her head, and covered her face with both of her hands.

"I'll be there next time... I promise..."

Author's Note

For any of you worried this story is going to end soon with a 'quick apology and everything is alright, all is forgiven just like that' chapter, it isn't, and it isn't going to end for a while.

Any and all criticism and comments are appreciated.

A less than pleasant meet up

Rainbow Dash and Rarity sat in the back seats of Flash's car, as he drove them around all the Ponyville apartments. He had picked them both up not long after Twilight and Adagio left the park, and were now going to the sirens apartment.

"I know it's one of these..." Rainbow muttered, trying to remember where exactly she and Trixie had seen the siren Aria a while ago. "C'mon Twilight, where are you?"

"You're sure it's around here, right?" Flash asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure!" Rainbow replied.

"There she is!" Rarity said. She pointed out the window, at someone who was sitting against an apartment door, and as the car got closer, sure enough, it was Twilight. "TWILIGHT!" she shouted, trying to get the princess's attention.

The car stopped in front of the apartment. Dash quickly got out of the car, and ran towards Twilight. "Hey, what's going on? Why are you out here?"

"...It's all my fault..." Twilight mumbled.

Rarity ran over to them both. "Twilight dear, W... What happeded?" she asked.

Rainbow looked around her, and recognized where they were, she could even see the bus stop not far down the street. "Is... She in there?" she asked. When she didn't get a response, she walked over to the window, and took a quick peek inside.

Twilight looked up at Dash, "Rainbow... Don't," she said halfheartedly.

Through the window, Rainbow could see her. Sunset was laying on a bed, crying into a pillow. Rainbow felt paralyzed at the sight of the poor girl. "Sunset..."

"She's in there?" Rarity asked, running over to the window, and looking in. "Oh my..."

Twilight got up, and joined them at the window, taking in the sight for herself. Rainbow brought her arm up, and was about to tap the window to get Sunset's attention, but her hand froze inches away from the glass. As much as she wanted to, she just couldn't bring herself to tap the glass.

"Let's just go..." Twilight said, turning away from the window and walking towards Flash. Rarity was the next to walk away, but Rainbow was still frozen in place, and all she could do was watch Sunset cry, knowing full well that she made her like this.

Eventually, Rainbow was able to tear herself away. But before she walked back to the car, she took out her phone, and took a picture of the number on the apartment door, so she knew exactly where Sunset was. When that was done, she made her way towards Flash and into the car. "So... Where should I drop you all off?" Flash asked weakly.

"Sugercube Corner," Rarity replied, "That's where Pinkie wants to meet us..."

Pinkie Pie was sitting in one of the booths in Sugercube Corner, with Fluttershy next to her, and Applejack opposite her.

Applejack had her arms folded, and her hat angled downwards to cover her face. Fluttershy was slumped over on the table, completely motionless, to the point where if it wasn't for her quiet sobs, you could probably mistake her for a dead body. Finally, Pinkie was simply staring at her phone, waiting for a message.

"U'know she ain't gonna call, right?" Applejack asked.

"Well if Sunset wants me to call this off, then she'll have to call me herself!" Pinkie replied, not moving her gaze from the phone at all.

She had received a text from Rainbow Dash telling her Sunset wanted the search party of people looking for her to stop. Simply put, Pinkie wasn't having that.

"Oh come on Pinkie, do you really think she'd call herself?" Applejack asked. "Seriously!?"

"Well... N..." Pinkie stuttered, "I-If she doesn't call, then I won't stop this party!" she replied.

"Fine..." AJ replied weakly, "Ah'm not in the mood to argue..."

The front door of Sugercube opened, and Rainbow, Rarity and Twilight walked in. Pinkie gave a weak wave. When they saw Pinkie and the other two girls sitting together, they slowly walked over and joined them in the booth. Applejack shifted towards the window, giving space for Rainbow Dash and Twilight to sit down, and Rarity simply took a seat next to Pinkie. None of them looked like they had good news to tell.

"...So..." Rainbow began, "Have you called it off yet..?" she asked Pinkie.

"I-" Pinkie began.

"Not yet," Applejack interrupted, "She's waitin' for Sunset to call and tell her herself..."

"Well then you're gonna be waiting a long time," Rainbow replied, "She isn't going to call..."

"Yeah she will," Pinkie replied weakly, "Just... Just give her a minute... You'll see..." Pinkie's hand began trembling, "Any minute now..."

"Pinkie, Rainbow's right," Twilight said, "She isn't going to call. Even if she did, you wouldn't like what what she would have to say..."

"Well... How do you know?" Pinkie asked.

"Because I spoke to her!" Twilight replied, "And she... Isn't coming back to us anytime soon..."

"Hold up," Applejack began, "You spoke to her? You know where she is?" she asked, tilting her hat back to its normal angle.

"Yeah..." Twilight replied, "And yes, I know where she is, but-"

"Then where is she?!?!" Pinkie asked loudly.

"Well, that's... kinda..." Dash began.

"Well? Where is she?" Pinkie repeated.

Rainbow, Rarity and Twilight looked at each other. "We might as well tell them," Rarity said, "Can't make things worse, right?"

"What's going on?" AJ asked, "Where is she?"

"Sure. You wanna tell em or should I?" Dash asked.

"I'll do it," Twilight replied. "You see, Sunset's..."

"...Well?" Pinkie asked.

"...She's..." Twilight took a deep breath, and let out a sigh. "She's with the three sirens," Twilight stated.

"The three sirens?" Pinkie repeated, "Who are... Wait... You mean..."

"The three from the battle of the bands a few months ago?" AJ asked.

"Yeah, she's with them," Rarity answered.

"But that's ridiculous!" Pinkie yelled, "Why would she be with them?"

"Because they did what none of us were willing to do..." Rainbow replied, "They gave her a chance..."

"But aren't they like, super crazy about taking over Equestria?" Pinkie asked.

"They seem to have changed since then," Twilight replied, "Now they're taking care of her..."

"How can y'all be so sure they've changed, Twi?" Applejack asked, "What if they're just, faking it, u'know, to try an-"

"You could say the same thing about Sunset, right?" Twilight interrupted weakly. It seemed to shut everyone up, as she didn't get a response from almost any of the girls.

"...I did..." Rainbow replied dryly. The five girls gave her a rather questionable look.

"You did what?" Pinkie asked.

"I said some... things to her," Dash continued, "Well, not directly to her, but..." She reached into her pocket, and pulled out her phone.

"You sent her a few mean texts?" Rarity asked, rather unamused, "I think you're overexaggerating this a tad, Dash."

"Yeah... A few..."

"What kind of things?" Twilight asked.

"Here..." Rainbow Dash passed Twilight her phone. On it were a collection of messages that had been sent to Sunset over the last few days. Twilight gave her a small, disgusted glance, "Yeah..." was all Rainbow replied. Twilight turned her gaze back towards the messages, and while they were all rather mean, and only getting worse as they went on, there were one that caught her attention the most.

Fuck off you stupid she-demon!!!

Twilight's slowly put the phone face-down on the table, and glanced at Rainbow. "Uh... Twilight, What's it say?" Pinkie asked nervously.

Twilight's arm quickly swung at Dash. There was a loud smack, as the palm of her hand made contact with Rainbow's face.

"Twilight!!" Rarity began, "What was that for?!"

"I deserve that..." Dash mumbled, rubbing her cheek.

Out of curiosity, AJ picked up the phone from from the table, and saw some of the messages, as well as the one that had set Twilight off. "That's low Rainbow. Even for what was going on here, that was low!"

Applejack passed the phone to the girls opposite her, who also read them. "Wow..." Pinkie said, "Just... What the hell Rainbow?"

"Yes, if you'll pardon my language," Rarity began, "What the hell was wrong with you?"

"I was pissed off, alright?" Dash replied dryly.

"So was I," Rarity said, "But I didn't-"

"We all were," AJ interrupted, "But none of us went far!"

"Yeah," Pinkie continued, "Yeah, we said some things, but-"

"What kind of things?" Twilight asked, though it sounded more like a demand.

"It can't be worse than me..." Fluttershy mumbled, though no one seemed to hear her.

"Um..." Pinkie began, "I told her tha-"

"Actually, I don't want to hear it!" Twilight interrupted.

"Oh... Ok..."

"It doesn't even matter anymore," Twilight continued, "What does matter, is that I was wrong to trust you!"

"Wrong to trust us?" Rarity repeated.

Twilight removed her bag off her back, opened it, and took out a few peices of paper. "I told her that you would look after her! I thought I wouldn't need to come over and resolve this, because her friends would all take care of her! How could I have been SO FUCKING STUPID!!!!" Twilight slammed the papers onto the table and gave Rainbow a glare that said move. Rainbow did just that.

After a few deep breaths, Twilight stood up and walked past Dash, towards Mrs Cake at the front counter. "Where's the bathroom?" Twilight asked. Mrs Cake pointed towards them, and Twilight walked over to where they were located. While she didn't really care about it, everyone in Sugercube Corner was watching her.

When Twilight was out of sight, the girls just stared at the bathroom door. Then, one at a time, they each turned their gaze towards the papers Twilight had put on the table.

The five girls looked at each other for a moment, and then back at the papers.

Pinkie was the one to break the silence that had formed at the table, with but a simple question that all five of them knew the answer to, without a dout.

"Are they... What I think they are..?"

Author's Note

Yep, I know, the title sucks, but I really got nothing else.

Any and all criticism and comments are appreciated.

A cry for help

The table was rather silent after Twilight left. The five girls sat in silence, staring at the small pile of papers the princess had slammed down into the table before she left.

"...So..." Pinkie began nervously, "Who wants to go first..?" All five of them knew exactly what they were, but none of them wanted to read any of them.

After no one had made a move for a while, Applejack reached her hand out to grab the top peice. Just before she picked up the paper, however, she first gave Fluttershy a small, questionable look.

"W...What?" Fluttershy mumbled.

Applejack didn't respond, and looked back towards the pile as she picked up one of the papers. She gave it a quick scan and sighed.

"So are they... What we think they are?" Rarity asked.

"Yep..."

"I knew it..." Rainbow said.

Aj gave a weak cough to clear her throat, and began reading the message to the four others around her.

Dear Princess Twilight.

Things have been a bit rough around here recently, you see, yesterday someone started spreading the secrets, of some of the people in school. I don't know how they found these things out, or why they're doing this, but I'm worried because everyone thinks it's me! Everyone was looking at me funny, and talking about me. Any advice?

Sunset Shimmer.

Dear Sunset.

I'm sure things aren't as bad as they may seem. While I don't really know who's doing this, I'm sure it's just a one off, this time tomorrow, everything will be fine. And I'm sure you're not the only one being accused, those ~~ponys~~ people are probably accusing you as much as they are somepony else, so don't worry about it to much.

Take care, from Princess Twilight Sparkle.

PS, if you ever want to talk to somepony, you've always got your friends to help you through this. Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack and Pinkie Pie. I know them, and they'd never turn their back on me when I need them, and I'm sure they wouldn't leave you either.

Thanks Twi, speak to you soon.

Applejack stopped reading for a moment. No one was eager for her to continue.

"So... What next?" Dash asked.

"You really want me to carry on, Dash?"

"No..." Rainbow replied, "But Twilight brought them here for a reason, so she must want us to read them."

Begrudgingly, Applejack continued reading.

Dear Twilight.

It wasn't a one off. This person didn't stop today, instead they've decided to give themselves a name, they're calling themselves Anon-A-Miss, and they let out even more secrets now, and they're framing me for it! Everyone has pretty much accepted that I'm doing this, but I swear I'm not!

I left school early today, but I'm going to talk with the girls tomorrow. At least I know they'll believe me.

From Sunset Shimmer.

Dear Twilight.

They didn't believe me. They all think it's me, and none of them want to see me again. I feel like I'm back at square one again, like I'm right back at the Fall Formal. Everyone was calling me a monster, or a she-demon.

Your friends made it clear they don't believe me. They think I fabricated my friendship with them, that I was waiting for a moment like this to strike back at them. I thought they'd believe me, but they didn't.

I know you haven't replied to my pervious message yet, but I need your help Twi.

Sunset Shimmer.

"So, what did Twilight say next?" Pinkie asked weakly.

"She... Didn't say anything?" Applejack replied, questioning her own words.

"What do you mean?" Rainbow asked.

"Twilight didn't reply, look." Applejack handed the letters to Rainbow, who scaned over the remaining letters. None of them, except for the last letter on the last sheet of paper were from Twilight, they were all from Sunset.

"But why didn't she reply?" Fluttershy asked.

Rarity shrugged. "We'll ask her when she comes back."

"You gonna read the rest to us, or not?" Pinkie asked weakly. Rainbow sighed, and continued with the letters, which at this point, were more like desperate pleas for help.

Twilight? Where are you?

Why aren't you replying?

Do you hate me as well? Did they somehow get a message to you, telling you not to trust me..?

Twilight?

Spike?

Anypony?

Please reply... Even if it's to tell me you hate me, just please reply!

I'm scared...

I don't care anymore... I don't care who's doing this, or why they're doing this, but I'm done. Whoever it is that's framing me wins... Because I can't take it anymore, so I...

I give up...

Goodbye Twilight.

SUNSET PLEASE DON'T DO ANYTHING DRASTIC! I DO BELIEVE YOU SUNSET! I'm on my way over right now! Please, PLEASE don't do anything stupid, I'll explain everything to you when I arrive. I'm sorry I wasn't here earlier, but I didn't know it would get this bad for you!

Rainbow took a deep breath of regret, and set the letters down on the table. "So that's the one Sunset didn't get?" Rarity asked.

"Yeah." Everyone looked up to see Princess Twilight had come back while Rainbow was reading the final letter. Dash moved over, giving the princess space to sit down.

"Hey, Twilight?" Applejack began.

"Why didn't you reply to these sooner?" Dash asked.

"Rainbow!" Rarity snapped.

"What?" she asked, "You're the one who said we should ask her!"

"Well yes, I did. But I didn't mean to just come out and ask it like th-"

"Because..." There was an immediate moment of silence around the table, as everyone awaited Twilight's response. "Because I was in Canterlot for the last few days. Away from home, and away from mine and Sunset's book."

"What were you doing?" Fluttershy asked.

"Me and my friends were getting things ready for a Hearths Warming Eve play that we were performing in. Princess Celestia even let us stay in Canterlot Castle so we wouldn't be going back to Ponyville every day. So I was never home to get her messages," Twilight said.

"Why were you there for so long?" Rainbow asked.

"Well, the Canterlot Hearths Warming Eve play is, kind of a big deal, so we spent so long practicing and everything, and we aren't even performing it until next week," Twilight replied, "We did the same thing last year. We were having dress rehearsals, setting up the stage, and..."

"And what?" Pinkie asked.

"Having fun," Twilight said, with a harsh, upset tone growing in her voice. "While my friend was being tormented, and having her entire life destroyed around her, I was having fun in Canterlot setting up a stupid play when I should have been here..." she sighed, and took a deep, calming breath, "After the very first message!"

"Why didn't you come then?" a puzzled Pinkie asked, ""Y'know, after the first message.

"Because I thought I knew you..." she replied weakly. "I thought you were my friends from back home, so I thougt you would stay with her, like they would for me..."

"Hold up, I thought we were your friends from back home?" Applejack asked.

"Well, you are. You all are," Twilight replied, "But, you also aren't... It's..." Twilight gave herself a moment to think of the easiest way to explain it, without complicating it. "You see, you're Applejack, and I've got a friend back home called Applejack, and while she may look, talk, and act the same as you... She isn't you." Twilight continued. "Does that make sense?"

"Totally," Pinkie said. "You thought we were your pony friends, so you treated us like them."

"Exactly..." Twilight replied, "But there's one more thing I should have thought about."

"Another thing?" Fluttershy asked.

"Our pasts."

"Your pasts?" Rainbow repeated.

"Yeah," Twilight continued, "Ever since I met them, they've been my best friends. Hell, the same day we met, we saved all of Equestria from Nightmare Moon, but... It's not the same for her, is it?" she asked to no reply, "Sunset has only been friends with you for a few months, and for the three years prior to that, she had the entire school under her 'rule'. I didn't think about that, but I should have..."

"Twilight..." Rarity began, "This isn't your fault."

"Well, it doesn't even matter anymore." Twilight stood back up, "I'm going home."

"What?" the five of them asked in unison.

"Well there's no point in me staying here right now," Twilight replied, "Sunset doesn't want to see me, and if she does change her mind, then I've given her her book back, so she can write to me. Though, I doubt she will."

"So what do we do?" Rainbow asked.

"Right now she just needs her space, so she can think about what to do next," Twilight replied, "whether she comes back to us, or stays where she is,"

"With those sirens?" Fluttershy asked.

"Yeah, with them. It's not really our choice to make," Twilight replied finally, as she then walked out of Sugercube Corner, leaving the five girls.

Author's Note

And another one done.

I would really like to know about Twilight's reason for not being here though, simply put, the only way I could think to have her not show up to help Sunset but still believe that Sunset was innocent was to have her not receive the letters from Sunset.

Any and all criticism and comments are appreciated.

It's my fault

Fluttershy walked out of Sugercube Cornor, and began her walk home. After Princess Twilight left them, the table was covered in an uncomfortable silence that she just couldn't take anymore.

As she walked past the window where her friends were seated, she gave them a weak smile and a wave. Pinkie gave a wave goodbye, Rarity simply smiled, Rainbow Dash was looking down at her phone, and Applejack was... not there.

She felt a hand on her shoulder, and saw Applejack behind her in the reflection of the window. "Oh... What s it?" she asked nervously.

"Just thought Ah might as well walk with you," Applejack replied, "This ain't the time to be on our own."

"I guess not," Fluttershy replied. The two girls removed their gaze from the glass window, and began walking down the snow covered street together.

"What the hell happened this last week?" Applejack asked. Fluttershy didn't reply, "Why'd I do it?" she asked glumly.

"It wasn't just you AJ," Fluttershy replied, "we all... misjudged her, an-"

"Then why'd WE do it?" Applejack interrupted, "Ah mean, sure, maybe some of the other students still held something against her, but we didn't, we were her friends! So why the hell did we do it!" AJ asked, "Why didn't we believe her?"

"...Applejack..." Fluttershy began. Strangely, she sounded quite, freightened, of all things.

"Flutters, ya alright?" Applejack asked.

"...Can I... Ask you something..." Fluttershy asked.

"Uh... Acourse. What is it?" Applejack replied.

"Well... Promise you'll tell me the truth."

"What kind of promise is that? You know I ain't no lier!" AJ replied. She had to admit, she felt a bit insulted by that.

"Well, ok..." Fluttershy came to a stop, and took a deep breath, then another, then another.

"Yall sure you're alright, Shy?" AJ asked, stopping just ahead of her.

"Did you... Did you really believe it was her?" Fluttershy asked nervously.

"What..?" Applejack asked.

"Well, I mean, did you really think it was Sunset that was doing this?" Fluttershy asked, "Because I..."

"You what?"

"Well, did you?" Fluttershy asked for a third time.

"I..." Applejack sighed, "Ah did, I don't know why, but I did think it was her."

"That's what I was afraid you'd say..." Fluttershy mumbled.

"Well, actually, Ah think I do know why," AJ continued. "It's just like Twilight said, we've all known her as a manipulative bully who always gets her way for about three years, and a friend for a few months." she sighed, "And probably cus it was easier to blame her than it was help her."

"wlididbelevhr..." Fluttershy mumbled weakly.

"What was that?"

"I'll tell you, but... Well actually it doesn't really matter right now so there's no point in..." Fluttershy blurted out at a much faster pace.

"Fluttershy!" The girl stopped her rambling. "Just calm down, and tell me." Applejack put her hand on her friends shoulder reasuringly, "This is about earlier, ain't it?"

"Um..."

"When we were reading Rainbow's text, you said something about what you'd done, didn't you?" AJ asked.

"You... Heard that?" Fluttershy asked nervously.

Applejack nodded. "I ain't gonna judge you or nothing, Ah'm not proud of what I've done either, but keeping it to yourself ain't gonna help nobody." She gave a smile, in a attempt to make Fluttershy feel more comfortable. "So, is there anything you wanna say?"

"Well... Okay," Fluttershy replied nervously, before taking a deep breath. "I believed Sunset was innocent!!!" Shy said.

Applejack removed her hand from Fluttershy's shoulder, as her face twisted in confusion as she processed what her friend had said. "Huh..? You... You knew she was... Why didn't... What!?!?"

"Well, not at first. I mean, initially, yeah, I thought Sunset was to blame, but, after... I, I just knew it wasn't her."

"You knew she was innocent?" Applejack realized what Fluttershy had said.

"Well, like I said, it wasn't until I-"

"How did you? W...How???" Applejack asked.

Fluttershy walked over to a nearby shop wall, and sat down, resting her back on the wall. "It was, um..."

"Yeah," AJ walked over and sat next to Fluttershy, "How did you figure it out?" she asked.

"It was," Fluttershy began, "it was when Anon... those three girls I guess would be more appropriate now we know who it was, put out that thing about me, two days ago..."

"You mean about you and Angel Bun-"

"Yeah, that," Fluttershy interrupted, a slight blush of embarrassment appeared on her face, "Well, when that was let out, I... I snapped at her..."

"Yeah, Ah heard about that, how 'Fluttershy stood up to Sunset'," AJ replied.

"It's something I'll never forgive myself for..." Fluttershy mumbled as she recalled the events, and told AJ what had happened.

Two days ago.

Fluttershy stood in front of her open locker, with an embarrassing blush on her face. Sunset was stood behind her, trying to talk to her. "Fluttershy, I'd never do this, you know that, right?"

"Go, away, Sunset..." Fluttershy mumbled, "Haven't you done enough to me by now?"

"But It's not me! I swear!" Sunset replied.

The most recent Anon-A-Miss post had been about Fluttershy, and it was quite a personal one.

Did you know Fluttershy showers with her pet rabbit, Angel Bunny? I mean, I know she's an animal lover and all that, but if you ask me, that's a little to far on the creepy side of things.

Classes had just ended, and people were now flooding out of their classroom, and a couple of people decided to pass a quick comment as they rummaged through their own locker right next to Fluttershy.

"Isn't that the girl who showers with her bunny?"

"She does what?!"

"Yep. Haven't you seen the most recent Anon-A-Miss post?"

"She showers with her pet rabbit? Oh come on, that one can't be real!"

"Well, every single one of her posts so far have been true, and do you see the look on her face?"

"Don't say that, she'll look over at us."

"Good point."

Fluttershy began quietly sobbing in her locker. "Why would you do this?"

"Fluttershy, I'm not doing this, please just hear me out!"

"I thought our friendship meant something to you Sunset..." she sobbed. "Was this all you wanted? To find out personal things about us and spread them around, all just for laughs?"

"Of course your friendship is important to me!" Sunset begged. "You five girls are all I have..."

"Then why are you doing this?!" Fluttershy asked.

"But I'm no-"

"Well I didn't tell anyone else about... You know... So of course it was you!" Fluttershy yelled into her locker.

"We were in the cafeteria when you told me that! Someone on a nearby table must have overheard you..." Sunset said.

"Someone from the nearest table?" Fluttershy replied, "So you're saying it was one of the younger students? Like Button Mash, or Applebloom?!"

"Fluttershy, listen to me!" Sunset cried.

I'm not really sure why, but when she said that, I lost it with her...

"Listen to you?!" Fluttershy began. her hand started shaking angrily. "You want me to just listen you!? Well I have!!!" she slammed her locker shut, angrily, "For three whole years I listened to you, I did whatever you wanted me to Sunset, without question!" she yelled.

"F...Flutter...Shy..?" Sunset stepped away nervously. Fluttershy's yelling had attracted the attention of the entire hallway, even the teachers popped their heads out of their classrooms.

"For three years, I was your own little bullying bag. You hurt me, assaulted me, and downright humiliated me for the last three years, AND I'M NOT TAKING IT ANYMORE!"

"Is that really Fluttershy?" one person asked.

"You go girl!" another said.

"And even after all this time..." Fluttershy continued, as her trembling hand slowly clinched into a fist, "THIS is your idea of revenge? This is PATHETIC!" Fluttershy spun around and grabbed Sunset's shirt, "YOU'RE PATHETIC SUNSET SHIMMER!!! WE ALL KNOW IT'S YOU SO WHY DON'T YOU JUST DISAPPEAR, AND... Never... come... back...."

Fluttershy froze on the spot.

The girl in front of her was trembling and crying with nothing but fear. Sunset was actually... afraid of Fluttershy, just like she was before. Everytime Sunset would demand something from Fluttershy, or would pick on her for whatever reason, Fluttershy would look just like Sunset did now. Truely, and utterly terrified.

It was right there. That was the exact moment I knew this wasn't her doing... but it was to late.

"Sun...Set..?"

Fluttershy's grip on Sunset's shirt weakend, quickly followed by Sunset who threw Fluttershy's hand off her shirt. "Fine, have it your way," Sunset cried before bolting down the hall as fast as she could.

"So you see, Applejack? I'm the reason she ran away, I know it!" Fluttershy cried.

"That's nonsense," AppleJack replied uneasily, "It's not your fault she ran away, it's all of our fault..."

Fluttershy got up off the ground, "But I told her that she should just disappear! If I didn't say that, maybe she would have been in school yesterday..." she took a deep breath, "Please don't tell the others about this, Applejack. Please!"

Before Applejack could reply, Fluttershy broke out into an immediate sprint down the street. "Wait, hold up!!!" she shouted, but Fluttershy had already turned a corner, and was out of sight.

Applejack however, still had an unanswered question in her head. One that had been there since Fluttershy said she believed that Sunset was innocent. Why didn't she try to convince her friends that Sunset was innocent?

Author's Note

As usual, any and all comments and criticism is appreciated.

calmed down

Sonata walked over towards her bedroom door, with a mug of hot chocolate in her hand. She knocked lightly on the door, and called out to the girl inside. "Sunset, can I come in?" she asked.

Sunset had been in there ever since Twilight had left an hour ago, and for half of that hour she simply cried herself dry. Any previous attempts to try and talk to her from both Sonata and Adagio were met by a stern "LEAVE ME ALONE!"

But now that the tears had hopefully stopped for now, and Shimmer had calmed down, Sonata decided to give it another try.

"Sunset, can I come in?" Sonata repeated nicely. When she was met without an answer again, she decided to go in anyway. Slowly, Sonata opened her bedroom door, and tiptoed her way towards her own bed.

Sunset was just laying there, faced away from the door. She didn't say anything, or move, or make a sound, save for the sound of her own breathing.

"You feeling better now?" Sonata asked. Sunset's head gave a small turn, indicating she was awake, and she had heard Sonata, but quickly turned it back, and rested it on a wet pillow. "I made you a hot chocolate... Ya know, if you like em..." she set the mug of hot chocolate down on the bedside table, and sat down on the floor next to the bed. "Don't suppose you wanna talk about anything, or, something???"

Sonata reached her hand under her bead, and pulled out a small pile of comic books. "Ya wanna read one?" she asked, "They're 'Power Ponies' comics. I've got every issue ever made!" she said proudly, "even the cancelled ones that you can't buy anymore!"

Again, Sunset didn't reply at all.

"...Well, ok... But just tell me if you want one, ok," Sonata said weakly.

Minutes went by, then more, then more, until the two of them them had been next to each other for about an hour and a half. The whole time, the room had been silent, save for Adagio asking how they both were every now and then. But when that silence was broken, it was Sunset who was first to speak.

"Sonata..." She began.

"Yeah? Yeah? What is it? What is it?" Sonata asked, admittedly a bit excited.

"Well... I've just been thinking about something, and... I kinda want another opinion about it," Sunset said weakly.

"Well, what it is?" Sonata asked.

"Do you think I should have been that hard on Twilight?" Sunset asked.

"To hard on her? Why would you say that?" Sonata replied, "She ignored all your messages, right?"

"Well, yeah, but I didn't even let her explain herself," Sunset continued, "For all I know, she could've had a good reason for not being here. I mean, she is a princess, maybe she had some unavoidable royal thingy she had to do, or maybe she had other ponies asking her for help before she realized how bad I needed it, or..."

Sunset took a deep breathe, "I'm here saying how nopony listened to me, and yet I sent Princess Twilight away without any kind of second thought..."

"I guess you're right," Sonata replied, "She did seem like a nice girl, or pony for her."

"She is..." Sunset replied, "Even though I don't care about the others anymore, I should've heard Twilight out, at least!" She sighed, "I'm glad Adagio was there to stop me. I've never felt that angry since..."

"Since when?" Sonata asked.

"Since I was the old me..." Sunset finished.

"The old you?" Sonata repeated, "You mean the 'you' that everyone thinks was causing his whole mess?"

"Yeah... That me..." Sunset replied.

Sonata felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned her head to see Adagio was next to her. "You were just angry..." she began. Adagio walked over to and sat on he end of the bed. "You were angry at all your so-called friends, and you associated Princess Twilight with them, and since she was the first one out of that group you saw... You just let it all out on her."

Sunset sat up, took a deep breathe, and turned to actually face the two sirens. "Thanks for stopping me Adagio," Sunset said, "Really, thank you..." she repeated with a tiny, but still existing smile.

"You're welcome, Sunset," Adagio replied nicely.

"I just wish I had my book right now... So I could tell Twilight I'm sorry for yelling at her..." Sunset said.

"Book?" Sonata asked, "Oh, you mean..." Sonata stood up and bolted out the door, only to bolt back in with a book in her hand. The book Twilight had given to her when she left. "...This one?"

"That it" Sunset said. Sonata handed her the book, "I'll write to her tomorrow, tell her I've calmed down, and that I'm ready to hear her out," Sunset sighed lightly, "None of this is Twilight's fault, I'm sure she has a good reason for not being here." Sunset told herself.

"And what about everyone else?" Adagio asked.

"Everyone else?" Sunset repeated, "Oh, well, I've been thinking about that as well, and I..." Adagio saw a sudden gloomy look cover Sunset's face, and Adagio suddenly felt like she shouldn't have asked that. "I know what I wanna do right now." despite what Sunset was saying, there Adagio heard a large amount of uncertainty in Sunset's voice.

"Well..." Adagio continued to stare at Sunset for a few more moments, "...Alright. C'mon Sonata, lets give her some space," she said as she walked out the room.

"I'll bring you another hot chocolate, that one's probably a bit to cold now," Sonata said as she followed Adagio out.

"Hey, Sonata?" Sunset began. The siren turned around with a smile. "I can still, read one of these right?" Sunset asked, picking up a Power Ponies comic.

"Sure, go ahead!" Sonata replied, as she walked out her room.

Outside in the hallway, Sonata quickly closed the gap between her and Adagio, "Maybe this is gonna be easier than we thought," she said.

Adagio shook her head in disagreement, "She may be willing to give that Princess a chance, which all depends on her reason for not being here, but even then, those other schoolgirls don't have a chance right now," she said.

"Oh, ok." Sonata turned around, and looked back towards her room, "I guess we'll just take this one step at a time, then."

Author's Note

I know it's short, but I wanted to get another chapter out before I go on holiday, so, yeah, this one's really short.

Any and all criticism and comments are appreciated anyways.

Midnight thoughts

It was a rather quiet night at the sirens house. Or rather early morning, about one o'clock in the morning. But while Sonata, Aria and Adagio were most likely fast asleep, the former of whome was laying in a sleeping bag next to her bed, Sunset was wide awake.

She couldn't sleep. There she was, just laying on Sonata's bed, staring up at the ceiling, and thinking about her plan for tomorrow.

She had been thinking it over for a while now. Ever since Princess Twilight left the appartment hours ago, Sunset had been thinking about what she could do tomorrow.

Sunset had decided that, maybe she should give Twilight a chance. The two of them were in different worlds after all, and Twilight is royalty, so maybe she was busy.

But as for the others. Well, they were what Sunset was thinking about right now. The girls who had originally given her a chance, but in the end, they believed her just as much as everyone else did. In the end she was nothing but a monster to them.

Maybe she should have seen it coming. It was only recently she felt that people in the school had really forgiven her. She can even recall some of the teachers, including Principal Celestia, giving her a vicious glare from time to time, so maybe she shouldn't be surprised by such a reaction from everyone.

But she thought that was behind her. That she had finally been forgiven for what she had done.

When she thought about it, it had only been months since the Fall Formal, and that was nothing compared to the years she had been her past self. So maybe it would take years to make up for it.

If that was true, if it would take years to truely redeem herself, was it worth it?

Sunset began imagining things if she went back to CHS. If her and her friends started again. Could she do it? They gave her a chance, so maybe she should so the same.

Her gaze shifted from the ceiling to her phone, that was laying on Sonata's bedside table.

She had received a whole ton of messages today, and just about everyone of them had the word sorry in it. Maybe everyone's now realized that she has changed. Maybe now they would accept her.

But one question, one simple question made her doubt everything Sunset had just thought of.

"Who did this to me anyway..?" She mumbled quietly. That one question spawned a few more. "Why did they do it? How did they pull it off? What if..." For just a moment, Sunset felt like her heart had suddenly stopped, "What if they do it again?" she asked herself.

Well of course that wouldn't work, Anon-A-Miss had apparently confessed who she was, so it's not like people wouldn't know who it really was. "But what if... Someone else does something else... And they blame me for it?"

This whole mess had proven just how easy it is to blame Sunset Shimmer and get away with it. So much so that it would probably only take about five people to get her expelled. She could picture it happening.

The door to the principals office flew open, and one injured girl, limped her way into the office, with the assistance of four other girls giving her support.

"What happend to you?" Principal Celestia asked, rising from her chair and rushing over to help the girl.

"I... I was attacked in the hallway..." the girl mumbled.

"You were WHAT?!" the principal yelled, "By who?"

"S..Sun... It was Sunset Shimmer..."

"She did this to you?" Celestia asked.

"Yeah! We saw the whole thing!" one of the girls replied.

"It was pretty brutal!" another replied.

"She broke her leg and her arm!" the third girl said.

"Yeah, she went nut!! You've gotta do something!" the forth girl yelled.

The six Rainbooms, as well as Twilight Sparkle, who was here visiting, walked past the office, and took note of the injured girl.

"Oh my... What happened to you?" Sunset asked.

"You know exactly what happened here, Sunset! Don't play dumb with me!!!" Celestia yelled.

"What??? But I didn't do any-"

"That's enough! Consider yourself expelled!" Celestia replied, slamming the office door shut.

"I didn't do this!!"

"Why would you do this?" Fluttershy asked.

"Yeah! I thought you had put all this behind you!!" Rainbow continued.

"I have, this isn't me!" Sunset replied.

"And here I was thinking you were a nice person! Whoops, won't do that again," Pinkie said.

"Girls, I'm being set up again, it's just like that Anon-A-Miss mess before. I'm innocent!" Sunset cried.

"You know I heard you were forcing Anon-A-Miss to do what she did just so you wouldn't be directly responsible," Rarity said.

"But, I'm-"

"Well Sunset?" Twilight began, "What do you have to say for yourself?"

"Sunset!"

"Sunset?"

"SUNSET!!"

Sunset's eyes shot open, to the sight of a very worried Sonata, who sighed heavily. "Oh good. You're up. Are you ok?" she asked quietly.

"Y-Yeah... I think so..." Sunset replied weakly.

"You sure? You look like you were having one hell of a nightmare," Sonata replied, "You were mumbling things and..."

Sonata's bedroom door burst open, and Aria and Adagio rushed in, both armed with metal baseball bats. "We heard you shouting, Sonata. What happened?" Aria asked.

"Are you two alright?" Adagio asked.

"We're fine," Sonata replied, "Sunset was just having a... bit of a terrible nightmare."

"I'm fine now, I swear," Sunset replied, "It was just a nightmare."

"Alright," Adagio said.

Sonata saw Adagio give her a small signal. "I'll be back in a minute, you wanna drink?" she asked as she walked over to the other two sirens.

"Yeah, it might help," Sunset replied. As the three sirens left the room, and shut the door behind them, Sunset looked back up at the rooms ceiling. Her mind was now made up about what she wanted to do.

The bedroom door opened up, and Sonata walked in with two glasses of water. "Here." She put one down next to Sunset's phone, and drank from the other one.

"Sonata, can you three do me a favour tomorrow?" Sunset asked.

"Sure, what's up?" Sonata replied.

"Can you three take me back to CHS?" Sunset asked.

"You wanna go back there? Why?" Sonata asked.

"I'll explain tomorrow, on the way," Sunset replied.

"Well... I guess we can..." Sonata replied.

"Thanks." Sunset reached for her drink, and drank it all down in one, before setting the glass back down. "Night Sonata."

"Night Sunset," the siren replied as she got back into her sleeping bag, and they both went back to sleep.

Or at least, would try to, but Sunset was up all night, still unable to get any sleep.

Author's Note

Another smaller chapter, but I just wanted to write something after coming back from my holiday. The next one will be longer than this, I promise.

Any and all comments and criticism is appreciated.

Leaving?

The beginning of school bell rang throughout the buildings hallways, as students began making their way into the school from the cold outside. Despite all the people walking through the schools entrance, it was rather silent, as none of them said anything to anyone, or even made eye contact to one another.

In short, the atmosphere around the school that day was dark, and dead.

Trixie was one as of those students. She walked into the building, and unzipped her coat, before having a glance around at the other students.

"...Don't suppose anyone has heard from her?" she said. breaking the silence.

The others just turned towards her and gave Trixie a gloomy look. It was all the reply she needed.

"Me neither..." she replied weakly.

Trixie hadn't told anyone where Sunset was, or more accurately, who she was with. Not knowing how her classmates would take it, she had kept the knowledge that she was with the three sirens to herself. Yes everyone was worried sick about her, but telling them that Sunset was in the hands of three former Equestrian monsters, that no one at the school really undestand, might not exactly make anything better.

"What are you doing here!?!?"

Trixie was distracted from her thoughts by a surprised voice infront of her. She looked up to see everyone was looking right at her. "What?"

"Can you move... " A very familiar voice called from behind her.

That's... It took about half a second for Trixie to recognize the voice behind her. It was the same voice from the siren she had ran into yesterday, and the night before when she was looking for Sunset. Trixie turned around, and sure enough, the one behind her was Adagio Dazzle. "Great... It's you..." Trixie said.

She wasn't alone, however. There were three others with her, who had just walked through the front doors of the school. Two of them were her two siren accomplices, Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk, but the third girl was someone in a hooded jacket,

Trixie wasn't dumb by any means, she knew exactly who that hooded girl was, but no one else did.

"What are you doing here?"

"Hey, you're those three freaks, aren't you!?"

"Great, you're the last thing we need!"

"We've got enough problems right now without them."

Everyone probably would have easily figured out it was Sunset under the hood, if it wasn't for her three new... rather unwelcome friends.

Adagio took a step closer to Trixie, "Can we come in?" Adagio asked.

Trixie took a peak over Adagio's shoulder at the hooded girl. While her face was hidden, Trixie somehow knew without a doubt, that It was definitely Sunset under tuat hood. She even noticed her hands were trembling slightly. Not enough that everyone would see, but it was there.

"Well?" Adagio asked. "Can we come in your school?" She repeated.

"What?! You've got to be kidding, get out!" one of the students said.

"Yeah, we've got serious problems right now!" another replied.

"Let them through!!!" Rainbow Dash shouted from the back of the crowd.

The crowd turned their attention to Rainbow, who was accompanied by Spitfire and Lightning Dust, who all slowly, walked closer to Trixie, the sirens and Sunset.

"Rainbow? You're kidding, right?" Lightning asked.

"No, no. Rainbow is right," Trixie replied, "Trixie thinks we should let them in as well." Trixie returned her attention to Adagio, "But just what is it that you want here?"

"We don't want anything," Adagio replied.

"We don't, but she does," Aria continued.

"Don't suppose you would give us directions, would you?" Sonata asked.

"It's up the stairs," Sunset said, pointing to the large staircase in the middle of the hall. That was a choice she would quickly come to regret, as the school students recognized that it was her under the hood.

"Sunset? Is that you?" Spitfire asked.

Lightning moved closer to Sunset, in an attempt to reach out to her. "Sunset? What are you doing with these three?"

"Lightning, I don't think that's a good idea," Dash said.

Before she knew it, Dust felt an incredibly strong grip on her arm. "What the?" Adagio had grabbed Dust's arm, preventing Dust from getting any closer. "Hey! You three stay away from her!" Dust said.

"We should stay away from her?" Adagio asked. "What about you?"

"Yeah!" Sonata continued, "What about all of you? You meanies!"

"Here's a little piece of info for you. We're the only reason she's alive right now!" Aria shouted.

"Um..." Sunset interrupted. The three sirens turned their attention towards her. "Can we just... Get this over with..? They're not worth it..."

Adagio let go of her grip on Lightning, who quickly backed up towards Rainbow and Spitfire.

"Alright. That's probably best anyway. The quicker the better," Adagio said. She took a look around at the crowd of students, who didn't look like they were any mood to put up a fight. "Which way?" she asked.

Sunset once again pointed up the stairs, and the four of them moved towards the staircase.

"Um... Sunset..." Rainbow began weakly as Sunset walked past her. "I just want to say... I'm so-"

"Save your breath, Dash!" Sunset interrupted. As she continued walking. Rainbow didn't even bother catching up to her. Instead, she just stood with the crowd, in complete silence.

The rest of the school hallways were empty, as everyone who wasn't a part of the large crowd was now in their homeroom. This made getting to the principals office simple, since there were no more obstructions.

The four of them approached the office, and Sunset gave a light sigh. "Here we go..." Sunset lifted her arm, ready to knock on the door.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Adagio asked.

"What other choice do I have?" Sunset replied, as she gave the office door a few knocks.

"Come in." Sunset opened the door, and both her and Adagio walked in.

Principal Celestia was sat in her chair, looking through one of three files on her desk. Adagio calmly rested herself against the door as it closed, preventing anyone from interrupting. She had promised Sunset she wouldn't say a word while her and Celestia were talking, but she did want to be in the room with her.

"Do you have any possible idea how much trouble you're in?" Celestia asked.

"Um... Principal..." Sunset said as she took down her hood.

Celestia immediately looked up from her desk, and was in shock at the girl in her office. "Sunset!?... You're back?... We didn't think we'd... I'm sorry, it's just-"

"I'm guessing... From what you just said, you were expecting someone else?" Sunset asked.

"Well... Yes, but you were honestly the last person I was expecting..." Celestia replied weakly. "But, what is she doing here?" she asked, looking towards the siren blocking the door.

"She's with me," Sunset replied. "I know the three of them did, well... What they did, but I swear, they're not here to cause trouble!" she said before Celestia passed a comment on just who Adagio was.

"Well... Alright, I'll take your word for it." Celestia turned her attention back to Sunset. "Why did you come back?" She asked, "If I'm honest, I... We never thought we'd see you again,' she continued.

"That's why I'm here," Sunset replied. "Well, one of the reasons." She sighed.

"One of the reasons?" Celestia repeated, "Honestly I'm surprised you have one reason good enough for you to come back."

"Firstly, I know everybody has been worried about me," Sunset began, "At least they were... After they found out I wasn't doing this... But, they're still worried, so I thought I should come her to let you know that, I'm fine. I'm okay. I'm alright..."

"Sunset, you didn't need to do that," Celestia said.

"You all don't need to be worried about me, cus I'm okay now..." Sunset took a deep breath. "I also want to let you know that... I'm not coming back to CHS."

Celestia nodded. "I... Understand..."

"If I'm honest, it's not something I want to do, but..."

"Sunset, you don't need to explain, I understand perfectly..." Celestia said weakly.

"... I really do want to stay here but..." Sunset continued, "After all my efforts, what I've done, or tried to do to make up for myself, and everything I've tried so hard to convince everbody that I really am different now... When that all gets blown away this easily... It just makes me wonder if there's any point in trying."

"Sunset..."

"I just can't do it anymore. I've tried, I've tried, and I've tried... But in the end, It's clear that nopony really cares about me."

"That's not true!" Celestia replied.

"They never did, and they never will, so I just..." Sunset sighed, and wiped a few tears forming in her eyes. "I just give up!"

"I..." Celestia really didn't know what to say. She was at a complete loss for words.

"Thanks for listening to me." Sunset got up from her seat and turned towards Adagio and the office door.

"SUNSET WAIT!" Celestia shouted, seemingly out of nowhere. Sunset stood still on the spot. "I owe you an explanation. Everyone here does, but as the principal of this school I should've helped you through this, and I owe you an explanation as to why I didn't!"

After a small moment of silence, Sunset turned back toward the chair, and sat back down. "You just heard me out so... Go ahead." Sunset said.

"Thank you," Celestia said. "Well, back when you were... The old you..." she began awkwardly, "You would blame other students for things you had done. Like that one time you blamed Lyra for damaging the sports equipment, or when you blamed Octavia for stealing Bon Bon's hairclip..."

"What's that got to do with this?" Sunset asked.

"Well, when those kind of things happened, I always thought you were innocent, even though everyone else knew you were guilty, and because I thought you were innocent, I never punished you for anything." Celestia continued, "Every time you pulled something, I would always be on your side, bailing you out. Every time."

"I get it..." Sunset mumbled.

"So... When this happened, I thought you were innocent Sunset." Celestia sighed, "I really did think you were innocent, and being set up... But, because everytime I thought that before I was wrong, I thought that I was wrong here. I thought you were innocent, so I told myself I wasn't going to bail you out anymore. I wasn't going to defend you this time."

Sunset didn't give any kind of reply.

"I even went as far as to tell the other teachers to specifically not listen to you this time, not that any of them took much convincing at all." Celestia sighed heavily, "I was trying so hard to not repeat the biggest mistake I ever did at this school, letting you get away with, but... The one time I decide I won't listen to you... Is the one time you really are innocent. I know it may not be the best reason, or even a good reason. But it's my reason," Celestia said weakly.

There was a long silence between the two of them. The only thing that could be heard in the room was the ticking of the clock.

"You said before... That you didn't want to go, Sunset, didn't you?" Celestia asked.

"I don't..." Sunset replied, "I really don't want to... I've got nowhere else to go, and as much as I really want to, I just can't go through this again."

"Well, if, by some miracle you do decide to return here, I promise that I won't ever let this happen to you again," Celestia said, "I promise I'll look out for you."

"Really?" Sunset asked.

"I promise!" Celestia replied, "Please think about it over the weekend. If you really do want to come back, then do, and I'll look after you. But if you don't want to come back, then I hope you find a place more accepting of you than here."

Sunset once again got up from the chair. "Thanks. I'll think about it." She walked toward the door, and Adagio opened it up for them both.

"Please, take care of yourself Sunset." Sunset gave a tiny smile, and walked out the office.

Adagio looked over at Celestia. "You should just be glad you've got that face. It's probably the only reason she listened to you," Adagio said as she walked out the office, and clossed the door behind her.

Author's Note

Told you this one would be longer.

Any and all criticism and comments are appreciated.

I don't ussualy do this, but... Next chapter is a CMC chapter.

Confession

Aria and Sonata both stood outside the door to the principal office. While Adagio had gone inside with Sunset to keep an eye on her, the two of them were given very simple instructions. Don't let anyone in. Given that the hallways were dead quiet, this wasn't exactly hard, no one had even walked past the office since they got there.

"How much longer are they gonna be?" Sonata asked, "I don't really wanna waste anymore of my time here."

"I told you before, I don't know," Aria replied, "Besides, I don't think any of us really want to be here anyway."

"Good point," Sonata replied.

"I don't even know why Sunset came to do this," Aria continued, "If I was Sunset I would just leave without so much as a goodbye text!"

"Can't argue with you there," Sonata replied, "How much longer are they gonna be? I'm bored!"

"What did I just say, about you asking that?!" Aria asked aggressively.

"Well sorry! I'll be sure to keep it to myself next time," Sonata replied.

"Good."

"Um..." a voice murmured.

Both of the sirens moved their attention away from each other, and towards the third voice. There were three little girls standing in front of them, each looking rather confused.

"Yeah, what is it?" Aria asked.

"Can we... Go in?" one of the girls asked.

"Yeah sure, go ahead," Sonata replied.

Both Aria and Sonata were standing right in front of the office door. "Can you... Move then?" the second girl asked.

"No, I can't," Aria replied bluntly.

"So... How are we suppose to-" the third girl. began.

"Scootaloo... Do those two look... Kinda, familiar to you?" the second girl interrupted.

The three of them took a moment to look at the two sirens. "Now that you mention it, a little bit, yeah." A few more moments past of the three girls staring at them, before they all slowly backed off a bit. From the looks on each of their faces, they had just recognized the two sirens.

"We should uh, probably come back in later."

"Me two!"

"Agreed!"

The three of them were about to dash down the hallway as fast as they could. But the opening of the principals office door made them stop, as they saw Sunset walk out from the office.

"Hey... You alright?" Sonata asked. Sunset completely blanked her, not giving any kind of reply.

Adagio followed shortly behind her, closing the office door as she left. "How'd it go?" Aria asked.

"We're going home," Adagio replied bluntly.

"Guessing it went badly?" Sonata asked.

"You could say that." Adagio noticed the three other girls, each of whome were staring at Sunset. "And who are they?" the two sirens shrugged.

"Um, Sunset..." one of them began.

Surprisingly, that got her attention. Sunset looked up, only just now noticing they were there. It was Sweetie Belle, Applebloom and Scootaloo.

"We uh..." Sweetie began nervously, "We... We wanna say were sorry fo-"

"Save your breathe!" Sunset interrupted. "I know what you're gonna say. You're sorry, you should've believed me, and all that stuff, but just save your breathe!"

With that said, Sunset wasted no time, and without giving either of the girls any time to reply, she began walking away. The three sirens simply followed behind her.

The three crusaders were quick to follow behind them. "Hang on, that ain't what we..." Bloom began, "Well, we do wanna apologize, but we need to tel-"

"She said she didn't want to hear it," Aria interrupted.

"Yeah but, we-" Scootaloo began.

"Didn't you two have a thingy at the principals office?" Sonata asked, "You should probably go to that, and leave us alone."

"Why did you three even come here?" Sweetie asked, "And why are you with Sunset anyway?"

"None of your concern, kid," Adagio said.

"Honestly, I think it is our concern," Scootaloo replied nervously.

"And whys that?" Adagio asked.

"Well beacause... We're Ano-" Applebloom froze mid sentence.

"Well?" Adagio asked, "Why is this your concern?"

"Well... You see..." Scootaloo began, only to be interrupted by the schools bell.

Homeroom had just ended, meaning that any moment now, the hallways would be filled with other students. Students that Sunset would rather avoid more than anything right now.

Sunset quickly put her hood back, hoping that no one would realize who she was before she could leave. "Look, I appreciate you're both trying to apologize, but I really gotta go now!" She was about to bolt it down the hall, but when the school bell stopped, three voices shouted from behind her in unison.

"WE'RE ANON-A-MISS!!!!"

Silence fell within the hallway, as some students stood in the door ways of their classrooms. Everyone there had heard that rather loud confession, and now they waited for Sunset's response.

Sunset slowly turned around, and removed her hood. She simply stared at the three small girls. She was speechless, and thoughtless.

The silence was broken by the sound of laughter.

Aria and Sonata had burst out laughing. "Alright... That was a good one!!" Sonata laughed.

"Yeah... We almost believed you there for a second!!" Aria continued.

"We're not joking!!!" Sweetie Belle shouted.

"Yeah, we're serious here!" Scootaloo said.

"Oh of course you are!" Sonata continued, still laughing. "And I'm actually the real princess of Equestria!"

"Fucking hilarious..."

The two sirens immediately stopped laughing, as they looked over at Adagio, who didn't seem to find any of it to be a joke. "Um... Adagio?" Aria began, "They're not serious, are they?"

"You three did this to me?" Sunset mumbled quietly. Her eyes were filled with shock, and her body seemed paralyzed, not moving an inch. "You're joking, right?" She didn't know what to think about what the crusaders had said. They had just told her that they were the ones responsible for everything she had gone through, and she just couldn't believe it. "Please tell me you're joking..."

"Listen you three!" Adagio began in a loud, commanding voice, "I can appreciate a twisted sense of humor, but this isn't the time! So I'm gonna give you three seconds to take that back!!!"

Applebloom shook her head, "We're not joking..." she replied glumly.

"You three destroyed my entire life..."

"We didn't mean for it to go this far, we-" Sweetie said.

"So you ACCIDENTALLY destroyed my life?!?!" Sunset asked, as a flow of tears began to flow down from her eyes.

"I... Guess so..." Scootaloo replied.

It was then that Sunset felt something deep down inside her. Something had been triggered in her that she hadn't felt in a long, long time. A fire that she thought was long extinguished from her. A deep, deep anger she hadn't felt since that one night. That night that she, nor anyone else at the school would ever forget, and as that anger grew, she could feel that she was about to snap at any moment.

"I need to go!" Sunset rushed as fast as she could out of the school.

"Sunset!!" Sonata shouted down the hall.

"You two go make sure she's ok," Adagio said.

"And what are yo-" Aria began.

"I said, go make sure she's alright!" Adagio repeated.

Aria and Sonata both glanced at each other, and ran after Sunset, leaving Adagio with the three culprits.

Adagio took a few steps towards the three girls, who each closed their eyes tight and prepared themselfs for the worst. It wasn't like they could really run away, if they did, then they would simply get it off of someone else later.

But Adagio didn't actually hit them. Instead, they heard the sound of clapping.

They opened their eyes to see Adagio was actually applauding them, which not only confused them, but everyone else around them.

"Congratulations. I'm impressed," Adagio began, "And I mean that, I am seriously impressed with you three!" her applause stopped. "You broke her. You took someone who was brave enough to stand up to me and my sisters, and is the only reason any of you are alive right now, and you broke her down into a crying, hopeless, broken mess of a pony, who just wanted someone to listen to what she had she to say."

"We're sorry..." Applebloom mumbled.

"I don't quite think that will cut it for her!" Adagio continued, "How many times has she apologized for what she'd done, and yet in the end, you all threw her away like a piece of shit." She looked around at the other students around her. "You know what, I think you three would make great sirens. I mean just look at this. If you can do this at such a young age, then I really do think you would make fantastic sirens." Adagio grinned rather maliciously. "Though, all of that aside, like I said, I'm very impressed you were able to pull this off. You remind me of myself when I was younger."

"Anyway. I should go make sure Sunset is ok." Adagio turned away from the three girls. "I just hope you can sleep at night knowing that she's never coming back, and it's all your fault..."

Adagio left the three of them standing there completely speechless, as she too, walked down the hallway in the same direction Sunset, Aria, and Sonata did.

Author's Note

You know that feeling when you know this should've been done over a month ago? Cus that's what writing this felt like.

Any and all comments and criticism is appreciated.

Inner rage

The classroom was filled with an awkward, and depressing silence. Given the recent events, no one in the classroom had any energy for conversation, not even Miss Cheerilee, who was usually one of the most energetic teachers in the school, had it in her to say anything.

Students sat quietly in their seats, waiting for first period to begin so they could leave, not making a sound. One of those sudents was Pinkie Pie, usually the most active, happy, peppy, hyperactive person in the entire school was sitting calmly in her chair, staring at the clock, waiting to leave.

Eventually the excruciating silence was broken by the sound of the school bell. As the bell continued to ring, each of the students began to proceed towards the classroom door to leave. As Pinkie was leaving the classroom, she took a look at some of the other students from the other rooms. It was probably safe to assume that her depressing start to the day had been shared throughout the school.

Suddenly, without any form of warning, she was knocked down onto the floor by someone running down the hallway. After a moment to process the quick event, she looked down the hall , and was just able to catch a glimpse of someone making turning a corner and leaving her sight.

Pinkie climbed to her feet and just as she did, two more people ran past her, almost bumping Pinkie back down to the ground, who were most likely chasing the first person. These ones she was able to recognize quite quickly, however. They were two of the sirens from the battle of band.

"What are they doing here?" she asked herself, "Shouldn't they be with Sun..." Pinkie felt a quick surge on energy, the first she had felt all day, and used it to start running down the hall to chase after the two sirens. "Sunset should be with them. What if that was her?" she muttered to herself, "Even if that wasn't her, they should know where she is, right?"

Pinkie wasn't running that long. The three that she was chasing had led her to the schools main entrance. The three of them had stopped and taken a seat on the small set of steps just outside the main door. Luckily for Pinkie, the main door was left wide open, allowing the cold air from outside into the building, but more importantly, it allowed Pinkie to spy on the sirens while she hid just inside the school crouched downagainst the wall, out of view.

She peeked her head out so she could see three of them, and just as she had suspected, the one the two sirens were chasing after was indeed Sunset Shimmer.

Pinkie's face initially lit up with joy. Sunset was ok! Pinkie was worried that the sirens would've done something to her, that they would've hurt her... Not that Pinkie was in an appropriate place to think that, given that she was partly the reason for ths whole mess...

But as Pinkie looked at Sunset, her smile began to fall. There was a look on Sunset's face that... sent a strangely familiar shiver down her spine. Pinkie didn't understand why this was bothering her so much. She looked not only really mad, but her eyes were raining tears. Of course Sunset would be both angry and upset, she had a right to be right now, but this felt like something else.

But on top of that, there was something else that was bugging her about the three of them. Something she couldn't quite place.

Pinkie shook the thought from her head, and began listening to what the three of them were saying.

"Why'd you run off like that?" one of them asked.

"Sorry... I just needed to... Get away from them before I... That's all," Sunset replied hesitantly.

"Well, we were leaving anyway. You didn't need to do that," the other one replied.

"Yeah I did!" Sunset replied quickly. "I felt like I was about to snap! Like if I was there for one more second... I don't know what I would've done to the three of them."

"The three of them?" Pinkie repeated, as she noticed that Sunset's hand had been turned into a clenched, trembling fist. "I guess she knows it was those three girls then." she whispered.

"Well it's alright now. They're in there, and you're out here. I say we go, and don't come back." The siren put her arm around Sunset, in an attempt to give her a hug, but Sunset didn't seem to acknowledge her.

Pinkie felt like running out there to give Sunset a hug herself, but she stopped herself on the knowledge that that probably wasn't in any way a good idea.

"I just hope they pay for it!" one of the sirens said bluntly.

"ARIA! THAT'S NOT HELPING!" the other replied loudly.

As she continued to watch them, Pinkie suddenly realised what was bugging her about them. She could swear that there three sirens... Right? So why were there only two of them here?

Pinkie felt four light taps on her shoulder, followed by a rather intimidating sounding voice.

"Can I help you??

Pinkie spun around quickly, and gazed upwards at the person looking down at her. It was the third siren. "Um..." The siren grabbed Pinkie's hair and forcefully dragged her up onto her feet. "OW OW OW THAT HURTS!" Pinkie yelled.

The two other sirens, along with Sunset looked behind them into the school.

"Who's that??" one of them asked.

"Pinkie?" Sunset asked, before wiping some tears from her eyes.

"Um... Hey Sunset," Pinkie replied.

"She was sitting just inside listening to you lot." The third siren yanked back on Pinkie's hair painfully. "Now I'll ask again. Can we help you?" she repeated.

"I just wanted to know if Sunset was ok with you, so I just kinda maybe followed them here!" Pinkie replied loudly, as the siren continued to pull her hair. "Can you please let go? PRETTY PLEASE?!?!"

She let go of Pinkie's hair, who quickly backed away. "Sunset will be fine with us or at least better of than with you. So don't think you need to follow us home now." she replied bluntly.

"Why are you even being friendly to her anyway? Shouldn't you... U'know, hate her?" Pinkie asked.

"Why?" the siren repeated. A small smile apeared on her face. "Well you see we've actually mind controlled Sunset Shimmer, and have brainwashed her into hating all of you, and hope to do this in a pitiful attempt at revenge on you all for taking away our magic and humiliating us. In fact, we even brainwashed those three children into doing this in the first place. Meaning that this whole thing is our fault.

"Um... Dagi, I think that's going a bit to far..." the two sirens outside the school looked at each other awkwardly, before glancing over at Sunset, who didn't seem to care.

"Is that what you want to hear, girl?" Adagio continued. "Some kind of explanation as for why this isn't your fault? An excuse for why you're not the bad girl right now." she laughed, "Well I'm sorry, but no."

"No..?" Pinkie repeated.

"No. We're taking care of her because, unlike you, we actually care about her!" Adagio stated.

"Hey! We do care about her!" Pinkie replied.

"Oh of course you do" Adagio replied sarcastically, "That's wh-"

"BULLSHIT!!!"

Sunset rose up to her feet, and marched over to Pinkie Pie, even giving Adagio a light push out of the way. "you don't care about me at all! None of you ever do! If you did then you would've been there for me, you would've listened to me instead of disregarding everything I said as a blatant lie!" Sunset grabbed Pinkie's shirt and pinned her up against the wall. "Even after I helped you all defeat these three monsters you still held it against me, didn't you!?"

Pinkie now understand why Sunset's face was confusing her earlier. Yes, she was upset and angry, but this rage was something else indeed. It felt as if all of Sunset's suppressed rage from before the Fall Formal had been let out all at once.

"Sunse-"

"You know, these three monsters have done more for me in one day than anypony at this school has done for me in the last week! They listened to me! That's all! But what have you done Pinkie Pie? Nothing! You probably never wanted to help me, did you? I bet the only reason you even..."

Sunset's rant came to a brief stop, and she let go of Pinkie's shirt.

Pinkie used this time to look at each of the sirens. Of the two outside the main doors, one was clearly worried, while the other using her as a human sheild. And the third siren, Adagio, had a stunned look of wonder on her face, and seemed to be completely speechless.

"Pinkie..." Sunset continued, "On the night of the Fall Formal, after everything had ended, Princess Twilight told you five to look after me. Right?"

"Y-yeah..." Pinkie stuttered nervously.

"If Twilight hadn't asked you to look out for me... Would you have still helped anyway? Or would you have not given me a chance, like everypony else?"

"I... Of co..." Pinkie began, but she couldn't finish her answer. For some reason, she just couldn't tell Sunset that she would've helped her. Pinkie was doubting herself. Would she have helped Sunset, or not? She didn't even know herself. "I don't know, Sunny..." Pinkie answered, as she gazed down at the floor in disappointment.

"Of course you wouldn't have." Sunset turned towards the school exit, but looked back at Pinkie almost immediately. "If you really care, then do me a favor."

"Yes, what is it, anything????" Pinkie replied.

"If I don't come back to school, then don't you ever let those three girls live this down."

"What?" Pinkie asked.

Sunset didn't say anything else to Pinkie. She walked out the school, followed by Adagio, who still had a look of shock on her face. She walked past the other two, and towards the large statue-portal. While she didn't go through it, she did rest up against one of the corner pillars. One by one, each of the sirens went over to join her.

Pinkie sighed, and walked into the school. There was nothing that she could say to Sunset, no reason for her to ever want to talk to Pinkie, or any of the others really, ever again.

Author's Note

Yay, new chapter. Hopefully Sunset's little breakdown was done in an ok fashion.

And no, this doesn't mean Sunset has reverted back to her old self.

I hope you all had a nice Christmas, the next chapter will be back in Equestria with the pony mane six. Should be out sometime soon.

Any and all criticism and comments are appreciated.

A rough morning

"Hey Twilight? Twilight? Nope, she's out cold. Guess I'll leave a note."

Twilight's eyes slowly opened up about halfway. "Hhhmm..." After moving her head a little, she saw Spike walking away from her bed. "Spike..?" she mumbled.

Spike looked behind him, at the now awake pony. "Oh, Morning Twilight. Sorry, I woke you up, didn't I?" he asked.

"Yeah," Twilight rubbed her eyes, still half asleep. "What time is it?" she asked as she levitated her duvet off herself, and climbed down off the bed.

"About twenty past nine," Spike replied. "Sorry I woke you. I just wanted to see if you wanted to come to Sugercube Corner with me and the others," he continued, "But I guess you might just wanna stay here for now."

"What's happening at Sugercube?" Twilight asked.

"Well, nothing much. Pinkie just thought we should all hang out there for a while and relax." Spike shrugged, "But, You don't have to come if to tired."

"Sure I'll come. Just give me a minute to get myself up," she replied with a smile.

"Oh, alright then." Spike walked towards Twilight's bedroom door, and out the room. "I'll be in the main hall when you're ready!" He shouted as he went down the castle halls.

"I won't be long!" Twilight shouted back. Her smile quickly vanished from her face, as she went over to her bedroom unit, and grabbed a hair brush with her magic. She gave a tired sigh as she brushed her mane with the aid of a mirror.

She really was rather tired. When she returned through the mirror from the human world, it was two o'clock in the morning. She had woken Spike up just to let him know she was back, and he was back to sleep in no time, but when she got to bed, due to everything that had been going on recently, she didn't get much sleep at all.

When she had finished brushing her mane, she let go of the brush, and glanced over at her bedside unit. More specifically, the book on the unit. It was her magical diary, the one that her and Sunset would use to communicate. She still couldn't believe she let this whole mess happen. She could've prevented this whole mess from happening.

She walked over to the book. She considered writing something. She didn't know what, but something. The thought was quickly disregarded when she remembered that Sunset most likely wouldn't even care anyway. She was done with Twilight, and the others. "But still... You never know..." she mumbled.

"You alright Twi?!?" she heard Spike yell.

"Yes. I'm coming now Spike!" Twilight levitated a saddle bag over to herself, opened it, and used her magic to grab two books from her rooms bookcase, as well as the diary. She put the diary in first at the bottom of the bag, and placed the two other books on top. With that done, she closed the bag, and put it on her back, before heading out the room, and towards the main hall.

"She might write, you never know..." As she walked through the castle, she considered if she should tell her friends about the mess that had happened in the human world. On one hand, she shouldn't keep stuff from them, but on the other hand, in doesn't really involve them. None of them have even been over there, except Spike, and do they really need to know anyway? Maybe not.

She arrived at the castles main hall, where Spike was waiting for Twilight next to the castle doors. "You ready to go?" he asked.

"Yeah. Let's go." Twilight smiled.

"Um... What's with the bag?" Spike asked.

"Oh, I've just... Got a book or two for me to read while we're there," she replied. "You know, just if I feel like reading."

"Oh... Okay..?" Spike said, a tad confused. "Which one you bringing?" he asked.

"Oh. Um..." Twilight opened her saddle bag and brought out one of the books. "...Advanced Magic and You. Volume Five." she replied after reading the title

"Haven't you read that one already this month? Twice?" Spike asked.

"No," Twilight replied, putting the book back in her bag.

"I'm pretty sure you have... Are you sure you wanna go out, maybe you should just rest in bed today?" Spike asked.

"Spike, I'm fine," Twilight replied. She walked over to the castles main doors, and opened them with her magic. "Besides, if i didn't come out, then you and the others would just be worried about me being in bed all day."

"If you say so." Spike followed Twilight out of the castle, and shut the door behind him. "So how's everypony doing in the human world then?" he asked.

"They're..." Twilight began. Maybe she should tell Spike. After all he has been to the human world before. So it would make sense to tell him about the mess that had happened. "Aren't the others waiting for us at Sugercube Corner right now? We probably shouldn't keep everypony waiting." Twilight walked on ahead of Spike before he had a chance to reply to her.

Maybe she should, maybe she shouldn't. But Twilight decided to think about it and decide that later. Besides, what good could telling him right now do anyway? Sunset probably doesn't want to see him either.

Spike ran up behind her, after locking the castle doors. "That doesn't really answer my question," Spike said. "How's everypony doing in the huma-"

"They're fine Spike," Twilight interrupted, "Everypony's fine... Oh and... Sunset wishes us both a happy hearth's warming." Twilight Smiled through her lie, hoping Spike would buy it.

"Well that's nice of her. Did she give you anything?" Spike asked.

Twilight sighed with relief, as it seemed her bought it. "No Spike, she didn't, and she didn't have to anyway," she replied.

Spike snapped his claws, "Hey I've got an idea, maybe we should get her something!" he said, rather excitedly, "I mean, this is her first hearth's warming since she actually got some friends, so we should get her something really nice, and make ait a special one! Right?"

"Uh, yeah... We should get her something nice..." Twilight repeated. Her smile began to drop a bit.

"Uh... Twi?"

"Sorry, just... Thinking about what we could get her," Twilight replied hastily, "Our worlds are a lttle different after all."

"I think they're more than a little different." Spike replied.

"Let's just get to the others. They're probably wondering where we are." Twilight said with a strong desire to change the subject.

"Well, they don't know you're home yet," Spike said.

"Well I guess that'll be a nice surprise for them then," Twilight replied. For now she had to not let that this mess get to her. The last thing she wanted right now was for her friends to worry about her. She put a smile back on her face, as she and Spike headed towards Sugercube Corner.

Author's Note

So I've been gone a while, and I'm sorry about that. I made a small little blog thing about that. But I'm back now.

Sorry that this one is really short, this segment was originally about half as big, and then continued at sugercube with the others. But since I've been gone for a while, and not writing, I decided to just make this a small separate chapter to get myself used to writing again.

Tl dr. Sorry its short, I'm just getting used to things again.

Any and all criticism is apprectiated as usual.