Cables crisscrossed the desk, programs open on both desktop and laptop, as Twilight watched the progress of her program as it fed the monitoring ones normally connected to the various sensor equipment the false data that had taken her all week to come up with. Her eyes kept glancing at the feed that she had tapped into via the school’s network—for a top tier private school, their network security was abysmal, aftermarket, out of the box software that barely counted as an antivirus and basic firewall. The feed showed the prerecorded and randomized footage of her in the lab from past weeks, rather than what she was actually doing. She couldn't be too careful…not against the principal, not after what she’d seen. Principal Cinch could not be allowed access to knowledge about magic…or be allowed to sell that knowledge to anyone else.

Her head ached, and she took another sip from the sugary, caffeinated soda she’d bought from a vending machine when she’d gone for her last bathroom break. She could not afford to fall asleep or lose her focus, not during this crucial moment of data forgery. It had to look perfect, legit, and provide records over the week that moved to match the fake answers and findings she was going to turn in.

Forty seven percent. Almost halfway there.

Indigo had gone home some time ago, and Twilight was both glad for the solitude and missing her friend. The athletic girl had provided a sounding board and had grounded her with conversation, keeping her from delving too deep into the thoughts that had kept her from sleeping the night before. Without her there, Twilight found herself going through the last six months with Sunset Shimmer, looking for what she had missed the first time around, set against the revelation that…something akin to magic was real. So many offhand remarks shaded into something more dark and sinister, so many statements that now felt like incomplete truths and misdirection.

Not that she could entirely blame the older girl for that. Until the other day, she would have laughed at something so ludicrous being suggested, before doing her level best to debunk any ‘proof’ provided with hard science. In fact, she’d spent several hours trying to do that last night and also the day Wallflower’s ‘evidence’ had come into her possession, to no avail. While video evidence could be faked, there had been no sign or trace of any technology that could project the complex visual and auditory sequence she and Indigo had witnessed—technology that could create full color, three dimensional holograms was still firmly the realm of science fiction.

Purple eyes checked the progress bar again. Fifty four percent.

Twilight got up, deciding it was safe to leave the computers at their work, and crossed to the refrigerator that she stored her samples in, taking her list and checking off each one as she removed it to a travel container to take home. She didn't want to leave anything behind that could be used by someone else to track her findings. She’d even reprinted all of her previous reports with slight changes to things like the exact place in the electromagnetic spectrum that her anomalous energy fell into, or the exact numbers of her findings, and gone through the network to make sure there were no other copies floating around.

Sunset might have been keeping information from her—and there would be a conversation about that at some point—but Twilight was not about to put her at risk, not if she was tangled up in this ‘magic.’ There was plenty of historical and modern precedent to indicate that anyone with a significant difference could and would be treated barbarically by those in power, particularly if they viewed someone as a potential threat...and how could ‘magic’ be seen as anything but?

Her phone buzzed in her pocket, and she sighed, barely glancing at it as she hit the cancel button and checked on the computers. Nothing had changed yet, the progress still ticking along slowly. Twilight returned her focus to her various samples.

As she did, her mind wandered to what she’d seen with her own eyes yesterday: Sunset talking to her doppelgänger in front of Canterlot High, being hugged, and then the young woman and the dog that looked just like hers disappearing into thin air.

Come to think of it, Sunset had been touching the base of the mascot statue, looking at it with an expression that had seemed…bittersweet. The same way she looked when she talked about her guardian or her childhood. Was the doppelgänger from the same place as Sunset? If the illusion was to be believed, they both had the same faint accent…not as distinct as someone for whom English was a second language, but also not quite the difference between American English and British English. It was more like…regional accents. Like the difference between some parts of Canada and the US.

Was that it then? Was this ‘Equestria’ where Sunset was from? Is so…what was it? Where was it? Twilight frowned, Sunset’s other form coming to mind, along with the questions that had kept her from sleeping. Was it some kind of curse or energy based mutation? Was Sunset actually a non-human being, hiding in human form? It couldn't actually be a demon like Indigo had assumed at first, could it? Sunset was many things, but Twilight knew her, had seen deeper into the identity of Sunset Shimmer than any other, and Sunset was not a being of evil. Hotheaded, yes. Intense? Definitely. In possession of a fierce temper? Sunset admitted that one freely. But no one who could look at someone the way Sunset had been looking at her lately could be some kind of hellish spirit.

What about possession? Could it be some kind of result of what had happened at the fall dance the night they’d met? Had she run afoul of magic? Was that why she was so cagey about Twilight researching the ‘strange energy?’ If Sunset had run afoul of it somehow, then she would do her best to protect Twilight from a similar fate.

She moved from the fridge to the cabinets, going down her list of samples one by one—and taking back the ones Wallflower had attempted to steal by hiding them from her, dismissing the buzzing alarm on her phone twice more while she went through every inch of cupboard space above and below the countertops full of lab equipment.

An unsettling idea took root as Twilight tried to figure out as many possible scenarios for what was going on as were feasible, based on the data she had. Sunset had indicated her guardian had been aware of the energy…could that guardian be responsible for the dark eyed form as much as she was for the grief and pain in her Sunny’s heart?

It was a chilling possibility…one she couldn't discount, and it made her even more restless and on edge. The dark haired teen checked her progress, and fought back a frustrated sigh when it only showed sixty one percent. The dark haired girl had already packed up her research samples and data, and she couldn't reset all the lab equipment back to factory defaults until she’d finished falsifying the data on the computer. That left her, once more, alone with her thoughts and no distractions.

Trying to organize or look through them meant more possible stories put together by her brain, desperate for explanations to the blank spots in her knowledge. Could Sunset’s guardian be responsible for that other shape? Or someone associated with the guardian? Was that one of the reasons Sunset had run away, and not just the neglect and anger? Was that guardian hunting for her? Or worse, was she in league with Abacus Cinch somehow?

And if magic and curses were real…what else could be real? Were other myths real? Vampires? Werewolves? Ghosts? Was her world just one big urban fantasy with a hidden ‘Secret World’ full of magic and nonhuman creatures? Places hidden from human eyes where dragons and unicorns and sorcerers lived freely? Were sightings of Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster just places where the secret world brushed against the real?

She sat back with a sudden thought. Had Lyra had the right of it all along? Was…was that why Sunset seemed completely comfortable with Lyra’s fixation on cryptozoology? Because she knew which ones were real?

What if that secret world was real and Sunset had run from it…and it followed her to Canterlot? Was that what caused the conflict between those three girls with the reptilian features and Sunset and her friends? The doppelgänger had referenced Sunset ‘bringing the magic with her from Equestria’…so was this secret world now trying to take over her town? Was Sunset trying to stop it before it affected too much else?

It certainly seemed to affect Sunset and her friends, if the magical girl transformations and epic musical battle were anything to go on…and they had some kind of incredible power—she was convinced that the winged unicorn made of stars and rainbows had been the second Alpha level event she had recorded, and the energy output from that had put most power plants to shame.

Could it affect more people after prolonged exposure? From what she had seen, it had an effect on the woods around Canterlot High. Were more students than just Sunset and her friends affected?

What about herself? Twilight wondered. She had been chasing the energy for months, and had already started to wonder if exposure was causing her to develop some form of sensitivity to it. Could it affect her further? What about her family? Or…Indigo…

Or Wallflower.

Wallflower, who had been to CHS with her. Who had…acted differently since that ill-fated outing.

Had Wallflower been affected by the magic energy that day? Was that related to Twilight feeling like she was missing time from that day? Had something magic happened?

Twilight put her face in her hands, her whole body aching with a combination of exhaustion and stress. She had to stop this, before she sent herself into an anxiety attack. This was neither the time nor place. Not with twenty one percent left to go on the progress bar of her laptop.

She needed to talk to Sunset, ask for the full story and get answers to all her questions…if Sunset was even willing to answer those questions…or if Twilight could bring herself to ask them with how much of a mess her emotions were about everything right now.

Deep breaths, Twilight, she told herself, half looking for Mental-Sunset to appear.

Silence. The mental facsimile of her girlfriend refused to appear, had disappeared over a week ago, and her brain couldn't seem to make it reappear, no matter how much she begged her subconscious.

Twilight knew she needed to do something to calm down, and threw herself into the exercises and techniques she’d learned for just that purpose. Fist over her heart, she started with the one that worked most often, extending and retracting her arm in time with her breath, visualizing the stress leaving her body amidst the air in colorful swirls. Then she tried counting and holding her exhales and inhales. After that was ‘looking around the room and identifying different pieces of sensory input’…and yet…

Nothing seemed to help; her mind could not let go of the ideas, continuing to throw up dozens of possible permutations of how talking to Sunset might go when she saw her this weekend. First it was how she might even broach the subject, which prompted completely unhelpful gems like:

“So, Sunny, are you really from a hidden world of magic? Are dragons and unicorns real?”

“If magic was a real thing, would you tell me?”

“I saw something I can't explain at the amphitheater, involving you and your friends…”

“Sunny…you don't happen to turn into some kind of gargoyle-like creature under the full moon?”

“Are you under a curse? Can we break it?”

Her guts twisted and she rejected both all her ideas to start the conversation and the strange, unidentifiable reaction deep down to the very concept. So she tried to think instead of how Sunset might answer being asked if the energy was really magic. Potential responses there were almost as bad and even more upsetting, because while Sunset might be smiling and happy that Twilight worked out the answer, there was also a chance that the reaction could be angry or scornful. Twilight shook at the image of a sneering, frosty figure staring down at her like she was a misbehaving dog, asking in that stiff, unpleasant tone Sunset usually reserved for guys harassing them when they went out, “I thought you were about science, Twilight, not fairy tales.”

Biting back a whimper, Twilight hugged herself and wrenched her mind forcefully away from the thoughts, and fears, desperate to formulate a plan to ask and justify her unbelievable hypothesis…maybe use the videos Wallflower had given her, approach them as ‘clearly fake’ and gauge the response? Or tell her about the visions at the amphitheater and see how she reacted? All she had were questions, and no real solid evidence beyond some freaky interference in the video recording of her last meeting with her principal, and the video clips from Wallflower, who had a grudge and thus made the videos suspect.

It's not like she could trigger one of these events on command, she decided with a slightly bitter note as she watched the progress bar finally hit ninety two percent.

And then she heard someone at the door, trying to open it, only to be stopped by the lock—and the wooden door stops that she had shoved into it from behind to offer resistance to anyone with a key. After a few heart stopping seconds, someone knocked, a firm pattern she had heard on her bedroom door for years, used between siblings as a secret code.

What was her brother doing here?

Twilight tripped over her own feet scrambling to the door, wincing when she cracked her knee into an open cabinet door she had forgotten to close properly. Limping, she rapped her knuckles on the door in a pattern, wanting to verify that it was her brother for certain. Three short, four long, and four light taps in a diamond pattern on the compass points of the door, and she listened for the reply, casting a worried glance back at her laptop and the barely moving progress bar.

Why did someone have to show now? Couldn't it have waited twenty more minutes?

The answer came, tapped out on points to form a constellation of stars on the door. She moved the wedges, unlocked the door and cracked it with her weight against it to peer out, ready to shut it in an instant…but it hadn’t been a ruse. Her brother and father stood there, looking concerned and upset.

“Let us in, Twily,” her brother said. “I don't want us to talk in the hall.”

Reluctantly, she did so, quickly shutting and redoing the lock behind them, returning the wooden stops to their position at the door. “What are you doing here?” she asked tersely, not looking forward to having to edit her spoofed footage for the cameras.

Her father raised one eyebrow at her, but when Shining pulled in a breath like he was about to respond, he lifted one hand. Immediately, her brother ceased, and took a step back to lean against the door.

“Are you aware of what time it is, Twilight Sparkle?”

The use of her full name, rather than the family diminutive made the anxiety crawling in her stomach spawn a swarm of offspring that set about having some kind of mad brawl for the position of queen of her anxieties. Her father had that extremely polite, excessively neutral tone to his voice that gave away none of his emotions but never boded well for whoever had instigated its necessity.

“I am,” she responded stiffly, checking her monitor. Ninety three percent. She did her best to keep any bite out of her response, but from the fractional tightening of the muscles around his eyes, the teen was not as successful as she might have liked. “It is a little after my usual time for leaving. I simply intended to catch a later bus home. I just need to finish running a few things, so that my project report for Principal Cinch is as complete as I can make it.”

Twilight was not about to explain what she had truly been doing, instead willing her father to understand what she was getting at with her eyes. She couldn't tell him here, not when every instinct kept telling her that someone was watching and listening in. All she could do was hope he might accept it and hold off on further questioning until they got home.

He did not. “Try again, young lady. You should have been home almost two hours ago—school has been over for four.”

What? That couldn't be right.

“What's more,” he continued, before she could protest out loud, “you did not let anyone in the family know what you have been up to, and you have misrepresented the situation of your after school activities to both your mother and I.”

She could feel the situation spiraling out of control. His words were ‘Dad-speak’ for saying she had lied to them, but that didn't make any sense. The teen scrambled to answer. “I…what? But…I didn't…I've been staying after almost every day for my project…” she started, wringing her hands. “I know…time got away from me today…I didn't mean to…but I had things I needed to…”

Shining broke in, frowning. “Twilight…you told us your BFF was getting you from school…except she hasn't seen you since last weekend.”

Once more, Night Light held up a hand to silence discussion. “You also refused to answer your phone the multiple times I called you tonight—not missed them, but actively declined the calls, Twilight. We have talked about this before. Now…get your things. It's time to go home—dinner has been done for almost an hour at this point.”

Frantically, she moved towards her computer. Ninety seven percent. “I need a few more minutes, Dad,” she fumbled, “and I didn’t know you were calling…” She grabbed her phone, and checked it…and realized what had happened. “I…thought it was my alarm for checking different parts of the project…” It didn't help her understand where the thought Sunset had been picking her up this week had come from, since she couldn't remember saying that at all…only the week before…unless they had just assumed that it was still ongoing?

Rubbing his forehead, her father sighed. “Mistake or not, Twilight, you should have been paying more attention when it kept happening—actually looking at your phone, instead of hitting the big red button that popped up on it. Save your data and pack it in. It's time to go home.”

The tone was one that didn't allow much argument, but she had to stall long enough for the program to finish. She began packing the plastic cases of samples into her backpack, taking as much time as she thought she could get away with. “Dad…I understand that I messed up, and that I completely lost track of time, but this is something that I can't just…stop in the middle of—it’s critical I let it finish, and I have to be here to monitor it.” Twilight took a breath and steeled herself for what she was about to do. “In accordance with the Laboratory Research Agreement, I am allowed to have that time in regards to a situation where stopping or pausing would otherwise render an experiment or observation invalid. I would like to invoke that now, as stopping what I am doing will set me back by weeks.”

Her father frowned at her. “That same agreement, Twilight, also stipulates cases in which the Parental Override can be invoked, and I think a situation where you have lied to us about your activities and whereabouts constitutes such an event.”

Twilight flinched at that—not only could she not voice the whole truth, when she knew it wasn't safe, but she hadn't lied about anything. Maybe that was the tactic to take…

“I didn't lie,” she said simply. “I got picked up three days last week, but last weekend we talked and I told her—” Her eyes widened as she realized belatedly that she couldn't go into why she had asked Sunset to give her space this week, why Sunset was a distraction to her project.

“Told her what?”

“…that I needed to focus on my work,” she finished lamely.

Shining snorted, looking around at the lab as Twilight kept herself between them and the laptop screen. “You’ve certainly done that,” he remarked cuttingly.

Clearing his throat to stop a potential argument between them, her dad adjusted his glasses to look at her. “That doesn't explain you misleading your mother and me.”

The teenager let out a breath, frustrated at herself and her family members, and trying to collect thoughts that were starting to unravel. “I’m sorry…I didn’t mean to…” Apologizing and explaining would take up time, she decided, glancing towards her laptop quickly. Ninety nine percent. Almost there. She could do this. “…I guess I just didn't think to men—”

She broke off as Shining Armor made to reach over and close her laptop.

“Don’t!” she yelped sharply, slapping his hand away. She knew her response was too harsh when her father sighed behind her.

“Twilight…”

Using her body to keep them away, she shook her head. “I can’t. I worked too hard on this. You’ll ruin everything—you have to let me finish! I can't let you ruin it now, not when I’m so close to being done!”

Night rubbed his temples. “Son, why don't you collect those stacks of paper for your sister—they won’t fit in her bag with everything else.” Having moved her brother out of the way with that, he turned back to her, unhappy. “I know you are invested in your work and finishing in a timely manner, young lady, but it's a school project for a school you won't be attending next year, not the Manhattan Project. You need some perspective. I will not ask again. Close your programs down and pack your things. I do not wish to have an argument with you in this building.”

She determined she had pushed as far as she could, and turned to her laptop, just as it emitted a chime. Relief was a brief but welcome emotion as she verified that her data program had finished and she was free to shut everything down. Quickly, she shut the program and disconnected the cables, and made sure the camera program was scheduled to go back to normal in approximately five minutes—just enough time for them to vacate the lab.

Laptop in carry case, samples in her backpack, and Shining carrying her papers, she went around the room under the guise of checking the various machines…and deliberately reset every single one to factory defaults, other than the lab computer…which she had already manipulated to do so upon its shutdown. The actions were a sort of autopilot under her father’s watchful gaze, and she stewed in the way both males seemed incapable of realizing there was something more to her actions than what she had said—it made her angry. Sunset would have—

The dark haired girl shook her head to dispel those thoughts. There was no point in dwelling on might-have-beens, especially when she wasn't even sure she was ready for the conversation she was going to have tonight with her girlfriend. She decided to focus instead on making sure everything was prepped for the final adjustments on Monday to completely conceal her real data and present only the false set as her project finale.

“All done?” her dad asked.

Nodding, she put her backpack on. “Yes, sir.” Mentally she calculated they had about ninety seconds to leave the room before the regular camera feed came back, so she put up no resistance when the two males flanked her and encouraged her towards the exit. For a moment, her brain threw up the notion that they were acting more like guards than members of her family.

She pushed the thought down, unable to handle even just one more thing at the moment, and took a measure of comfort that there was a guiding hand on her shoulder from her father. It meant that she could give into the desire to disconnect from the constant paranoia and sensory overload of being on high alert all day long while running on about four hours sleep in the last seventy-two and large amounts of caffeine. By the time they got into the car, Twilight was drifting into a hazy fugue-like state, the sounds of traffic and the conversation in the front seat little lore than a distant buzzing in her ears.

It stayed that way the entire trip home, and even once she got out of the car and followed them up the sidewalk to the porch. Sounds, lights, even smells were dull and muted as she stepped into the house, hung up her backpack and coat, and began to take off her shoes. In a way it was…refreshing to not be bombarded on all sides until she couldn't handle it, and Twilight let out a deep breath that felt as though it took some of her stress with it…

Until there was suddenly a body in her personal space, a hand touching her without warning, and a voice full of barely repressed agitation, crying out, “Sparky!” in a volume far too loud for her head at this moment in time.

On some level she knew it was Sunset, excited and worried by her absence and probably an unwitting victim of her parent’s misinterpretation of her actions, but right now, none of that mattered. Twilight was not ready for the contact, or for the emotional storm dredged up by a voice she’d last heard in a magical illusion talking about magic and some evil lizard-fish-horse-girls. She couldn't cope, and so she threw her arms up in an instinctive attempt to get everything pressing in on her away, from the lights that made her eyes burn from their searing brightness, to the sounds that crashed discordantly in her ears, to even the fabric of her clothing which suddenly felt like constricting barbed wire scraping against raw flesh.

“Get off!” she yelped. “No! Off! Off! OFF!”

Arms spasmed and flailed, the pain from smacking one hand into the stair railing barely more than a footnote, amidst it all. It was like she couldn't breathe suddenly, air turned to thick, molten taffy that filled her throat and lungs.

The figure recoiled away from her, and her vision caught just the barest glimpse of Sunset’s face—her human one, not the strange gargoyle-demon from her dreams—full of hurt and confusion and keen distress. Her lips moved…an apology, perhaps, or a question, but Twilight couldn't read lips all that well, so it was hard to say.

Instead, she hunched in on herself, hands wringing themselves against her wrists. She could dimly feel the way her ragged nails—victims to her frantic efforts with keeping her real data from Principal Cinch over the past week—scraped at her skin, and without thinking, she dug them in deeper. The sting of it permeated the layer of noise around her brain, giving her something to focus on other than the maelstrom of emotions and uncertainties.

Once more, amber hands came towards her, this time trying to stop her from digging into her wrists, and she shoved them away. She followed it up with a look that made Sunset’s eyes meet hers with more hurt than confusion—and wasn’t that unfair? Sunset had no right to be hurt and confused when she was the one keeping such monumental secrets about things that affected Twilight. Of course, she was the only one who had any inkling, so she was not surprised when her mother pulled Sunset into a brief hug and her words filtered into Twilight’s ears through cotton wool.

“Sunset, sweetie, give her a minute to catch her breath and center herself. Why don't you come with me to the kitchen to get everyone something to drink?”

That didn’t mean she didn't feel irritated at the way her mother was comforting her girlfriend instead of her. Even if she didn't want to be hugged right then, it would have been nice to get something like understanding from someone in her family—her father and brother sure hadn’t given her even that much.

The redhead she was scowling at shook her head. “I’m okay, Mrs. Velvet,” she said distractedly. She kept her distance this time, and her voice was softer, full of apology. “Sparky, I’m sorry…I…I didn't think…I was just worried. You weren't here, and no one knew where you were…” Sunset stumbled over her words. “…I wanted to go with them…they made me stay here…I only wanted to know you were okay…”

Later on, when she would try to describe the way she felt in that moment, the closest she could come was to say it felt like liquid ice running over her body and seeping in to her core, coalescing into a chilling shell around her very self, numbing some parts while leaving others untouched. Her mind latched on to the parts that seemed relevant. Sunset was apologizing, and her mother…her earlier irritation doubled. Once again, when there was a conflict between Twilight and her family, Sunset was taking their side instead of hers. Except this time, Twilight wasn't the one being irrational or jumping to false conclusions—her family was. She was doing what was needed—she was protecting Sunset! Sunset should be on her side! Sunset should be supporting her…like she’d said she would.

Instead, it sounded an awful lot like Sunset was the reason her parents thought she had lied! She was responsible for the way Twilight’s father and brother had shown up at the school to force her to abandon her work, after their conversation about how she wanted to buckle down and focus on her project. Why?! Why would Sunset turn on her like this? What purpose did it serve…unless she knew? Did she know that Twilight knew? That Twilight had evidence now, had the crystal shards and video and. Hard data?

“Why?” Twilight found herself asking sharply.

Blue-green eyes blinked. “…why what?”

“Why are you sorry? What are you sorry for?” the dark haired teen demanded of her paramour, a tiny part of her hoping that she was wrong.

Sunset shuffled, rubbing her elbow with one hand. “…I didn't mean to upset you. I was just so worried, because you…everyone thought you were with me and then you weren’t and I thought maybe something had happened. I was just so glad you were okay, I didn’t know trying to hug you would make it worse…”

Twilight squared her shoulders and crossed her arms over her chest. “So you're sorry for trying to hug me…but not the rest?”

“What? For worrying about you being missing?” Her girlfriend’s voice wavered with uncertainty. “For wanting to make sure you were okay? For being afraid something else had happened at that terrible, twisted Tartarus-pit you call a school? Why would I be sorry for that?” Sunset stared at her in incredulous disbelief.

“Because you told me you understood,” Twilight bit back. “We had this big conversation last week, about how I wanted to focus on my work! You said you understood, that you were here to support me. You knew I planned to spend this week buckling down and getting this done! That I couldn't afford distractions of any kind this week!”

Her girlfriend frowned. “I do understand…but…I didn’t realize I wasn’t supposed to come over today,” she said in a hurt voice. “We never miss a Friday sleepover…” The frown deepened. “And I didn't know that ‘focusing on your project’ meant lying to your parents about me picking you up, Twilight, about seeing me yesterday, when I haven't talked to you since last weekend.”

“I did not lie to anyone,” she responded frostily, “and I am beginning to take offense to the fact that everyone is accusing me of that without listening to the facts. It is not my fault that assumptions were made, but I was doing my best to pour as much extra time into the project as I could—you all have been at me to finish quickly, and I was doing my best to comply with that while not leaving anything Principal Cinch could use against any of us.” She stared hard at Sunset with the last bit, before sweeping her gaze across her family. “But pardon me for not realizing that I needed to spell everything out in small words to be understood by you. Next time I’ll even include pictures to make sure I’m clear about what I’m doing—would that help?”

Nostrils flared and blue-green eyes burned with anger. “Maybe you could try communicating with people at all, Twilight,” she sniped back, “instead of yelling at us for caring if you got hurt. Last I checked, no one here can read minds.”

Twilight narrowed her gaze, thinking of the image she had seen in the magical illusion, and then back to the same figure whispering in her dreams. “No?” she countered in an icy tone, feeling like some part of her private self had been invaded without her consent. “Are you sure you are willing to swear to that, Sunset? Because I am uncertain if I can believe it.” It was a dagger aimed at the weakest spot, Twilight knew that, but she was just so tired of not having the answers to something that had been twisting her life out of shape for months, and all her frustrated emotions from having her paradigm forced shifted this week boiled to the surface.

“What? Twilight…do you even hear yourself right now?” Sunset snarled, her anger starting to break through her control. “You're accusing me of…what? Telepathy?”

“Let’s try a different angle then, Sunset Shimmer.” Each word was crisp, clipped, and precise. “If I were to ask you about your past, and if it were intimately connected to the anomalous energy I have based my project on, would you tell me the truth? Would you admit to withholding crucial information that could have helped me understand what is going on? Would you tell me now?” Lavender hands made a cutting gesture as Sunset’s mouth opened, keeping her from doing anything but stare. “Or would it be another round of dancing around it, with half truths and vague statements that let me fill in the blanks incorrectly? Would you make another bevy of promises you have no intention of ever fulfilling?”

“…I…”

“You want me to believe you, Sunset? Here’s your chance. Tell me what really happened at the Battle of the Bands! Who those girls really were! What was going on?”

Silence, and wide, blue-green eyes filling with horror.

Hands tightening into fists, she tried again, wanting Sunset to just tell her. To just trust her enough to tell her the whole truth! “Nothing to say? What about the Fall Formal—your ‘fall from grace’, the events that had everyone calling you ‘the Demon Queen of CHS?’ What happened that night? Was it really illegal fireworks and a gas line leaking? Go on! Tell me about it…or would you prefer I believe another story about finding something on a desk.”

Seeing the realization in those eyes was enough to tell her she was right. That what she’d seen and heard had been real. “When were you going to tell me that you were responsible for the energy I have been trying to track? Or that you’ve been studying it for months while I’ve been floundering, because you knew exactly where it came from and how to access it?” Her voice warbled with fury and hurt, and she struggled to keep her face from showing just how upset she was.

“That’s not—Twilight, I couldn't, not without asking for—” Sunset broke off, shaking her head.

She locked eyes with the redhead. One more push, and maybe finally she’d get her answers. “What does the word ‘Equestria’ mean to you?”

Sunset ran her hands through her hair. “It used to mean ‘home,’” she growled. “Now…it's just a place I used to live. A place I can't go back too, after what I did…and that I don't really care about anymore. But…I never lied, not to you, Twilight! Maybe I didn't spill all my secrets, but I wasn't ready to! And I never lied to you!”

Tired of the runaround, of the way Sunset hid critical data that affected Twilight behind the excuse of personal secrets, Twilight snapped. “A lie of omission is still a lie, Sunset Shimmer...and that's all you’ve done to me since the day we met.”

Victory had never tasted so bitter before, as she watched Sunset crumple, all the anger snuffed out in an instant and replaced by something that wasn't quite fear but close to it. It was dead silent—even Spike was sitting still, his ears flat to his skull and looking forlorn, and none of her family seemed able to shake themselves from their stupors.

Her father broke out of his shock first, and he stepped forward to intervene. His voice was flat, more emotionless than Twilight had ever heard in her life, but his eyes were filled with anger like she had never seen, even the night Shining had verbally attacked their mother. “Not divulging information one is legally bound not to speak of is not a lie, omission or otherwise, Twilight Sparkle, something I know you are exceedingly aware of,” he told her, his face hard and eyes glittering with the force of the emotions his voice was denied. “I don't care what is going on in your head, or how angry you are with me for interrupting your fixation on finishing your project, but this stops now. I have no idea what kind of information you presume you have, or how that relates to your relationship in any way…and frankly, I’m too angry and disappointed in you to care. Regardless, you will not speak to anyone in this house that way, even your girlfriend. Do you understand me? Or do I need to be more detailed and specific?”

It was like being bludgeoned in the chest with a battering ram. Her heart didn't just ache, it felt caved in and bleeding. After all the talks, after all the reassurances and encouragement, after sharing her feelings and asking for time…Sunset had—No. She had kept a lot of secrets…misled Twilight about the energy and about what was going on at CHS…but she would never have broken that promise. Not after Twilight had confided in her about how she struggled with it and wanted the chance to do it herself, and how Wallflower’s forcing it from her had made her feel…

“But she did,” a part of her mind pointed out. “Here’s the proof. Your father knows—he called Sunset your girlfriend…and no one else is surprised either. You didn't tell them…so who else would have? Your therapist can't, since doctor patient confidentiality is a big deal…that leaves Cadenza or Sunset. Who is the more likely?”

No…Sunset wouldn't…

“She didn't trust you to do your work on your own. She’s been keeping secrets that have totally upended your life…why would she trust you to be able to come out on your own?”

Betrayal tore its claws into her already bleeding soul, and she turned to Sunset, blinking back sudden tears. “You told them?” she demanded. “You…you promised me you wouldn’t, not until I was ready.”

“Told the—No! I never said a word!”

Yet they knew.

Someone had told.

Cadence or Sunset?

Sister or girlfriend?

Which one had betrayed her?

Her head was pounding, her breath was short and felt like it was passing through a tiny straw, and her nerves tingled with ice crystals against the inside of her skin. Furious, hurting, and beyond exhausted, she couldn't help but agree with the little part of herself that hissed, “Only one of them has a history of using people, of lying and manipulating. Even the most well meaning can and will backslide into old habits on the path to change…”

Twilight felt something break inside her, and shaking fingers pulled the lanyard and key off her neck, vision blurring as she stared at it for what seemed an eternity, not hearing anything other than an empty rushing in her ears and the pounding of her pulse in time with the stabbing pain in her skull…

Lips moved, and she formed the words, though she could not really hear them over the roar of white noise. “I see I was mistaken about a great many things, Shimmer,” she said, refusing to let anyone know how broken she felt.

The key fell from her fingers, and she did not wait for it to hit the ground before she stormed up the stairs to her room where she could cry in peace.

She would never admit that she did hear the key when it struck wood, and the awful finality with which it settled into stillness after bouncing twice.

Author's Note

*hunkers down in a bunker to watch the fireworks*

It should be noted that about 2/3 of Arc 2 has been planned around THIS scene. This Chapter.

Its all led to this moment.

This chapter.

I know a lot of you were hoping the talk would happen in a good way, and I'm sorry it didnt...but there's a reason that will become clear soon.

This fight isnt just contrived drama...it matters. Especially since we're a week from the games in universe. Exactly one week. A weekend and four school days.

So yeah.

There's...about six or seven chapters to go before the games begin.

And on that note, I need to get back to work. Had a bit of a rough week.

See you all in the comments--Speaking of, I'll respond to the ones from last week as soon as i can. Like I said, rough week.