Ahead, the black bus was a furious beast, crouched and rumbling ominously, surrounded by the hive of activity that was the Crystal Prep student body that were heading to the Friendship Games. In addition to the team, the top performing twenty-five percent of the school in various areas was given the chance to attend, with empty seats from those who declined then filled by “the next people” on the class list. All in all, it meant somewhere close to two hundred people were gathered, gossiping and speculating, and they kept looking at her.

Twilight bristled. She hated the attention, and she was still angry and hurt by what had happened over the last week. Not to mention still more than a bit sleep deprived. With the way her family had been acting, her only solace had been in the garage lab, trying to wrest the secrets of magic from the shards that had done so much at the amphitheater…

Twilight stared at the shards, then at the device in her hands. It was picking up almost nothing, just a faint…leftover impression of an energy signature, like a battery that had been used up. “…after the holographic display at the amphitheater, there should be more left than this!” She slumped against the desk, but took the reading and did her best to match it to one of her other documented readings of past ‘events.’

It didn't take long to find them. There was the big event that she now knew had been the ‘Musical Showcase/Battle of the Bands’—the very event caught on video and also replayed before her own eyes as some kind of magical hologram, which made sense…but there were other matches. The event that she had missed during a meeting with Principal Cinch. One more recently, that she now realized coincided with the Friday Sunset had come in shell-shocked about the Pep Rally and being chosen for the Friendship Games Team. One the weekend of Sunset’s horrific nightmare that woke the whole house, and another the day Sunset had come to get her from her school.

Every single one came back to Sunset Shimmer. Even the first event, the one she had witnessed change the sky in the park. That had been the night of Sunset’s Fall Formal, and the night they met.

Was this particular energy signature Sunset’s? If so, why did the gem fragments match it? They belonged to those girls who had summoned the images of the hippocampi.

The dark haired girl made a frustrated sound, and turned to stare at the giant board full of data and images, all connected to various other parts with color coded string, all in an attempt to detangle the things she knew or suspected based on evidence in her grasp. “This would be a lot easier,” she complained to Spike, “if Sunset had just told me. Then I’d have what I need, instead of sifting through scraps!”

Resentment and hurt rose up again, and she felt the tears gather in her eyes again, making her vision blurry. “But no,” Twilight whined, dropping her scanner on the desk and collapsing into her chair, “of all the secrets she chooses to keep beyond all rationale, even when confronted with it, its this one!” Her breath stuttered and hiccupped as she fought her tears. “Not the one that mattered to me, about us—no! Magic is more important to keep secret from me than not outing me to my parents!”

Spike made a low sound and hopped up into her lap, trying to lick her face, showing love and support as only a dog could. At least…she thought it was support, until he twisted to grab her phone and push the rectangle of glass and plastic against her hand.

“Not you too,” she growled, tossing the phone back onto the desk beside the scanner. “I don't want to talk to her right now! I care about her, Spike, but she broke my trust, and she's been lying to me all along. How can I ever trust her again? How do I know everything hasn't been a lie?”

The dog stared at her, hard, and it felt like judgment.

“If you're going to side with everyone else in the house without even asking why, you can go spend the rest of the night with Mom and Dad,” Twilight told him bitterly.

Speaking of her parents…

Her phone buzzed, her mom’s number, and she read it dully. A text telling her to come in and eat, that she had learned over the last three days she couldn't ignore, because they would shut her lab’s power and unlock the door with the master key on her.

“Let’s go,” she sighed, scrubbing her face and preparing herself for the inevitable argument at the table when they tried to ‘talk’ to her.

A hand touched her shoulder, making her jump and tense in response as it jerked her from her thoughts.

“Whoa! Easy,” Indigo hissed from beside her. “It's just me. Why didn't you wait for me?”

One hand pressed to her heart to calm its racing. “…I tried,” she whispered back. “Cinch sent Sugarcoat to ensure I made it. She wouldn't let me wait.”

Indigo snorted and looked over at the pale haired girl. “Insufferable kiss-ass,” she said, loud enough to be heard, something about the other girl making her hackles bristle.

The other teen stared back dispassionately. “And you are a loud-mouthed, obnoxious, mediocre athlete from a family with more money than social class. Now that we all know each other, do you have a point, or do you just like the sound of your own voice?” Not once did the voice waver from flat, bored emptiness.

“Just pointing out that you seem to enjoy rimming Abacus Bitch,” she countered. “Which is funny. I would have thought better of you until recently.” Indigo made a rude gesture, then turned back to Twilight. “Alright. Well, buddy system rule is still in effect, Sparkle. We don't split up, you and me.”

Twilight could only give a jerky nod and cover a yawn with one hand. Sleep had been as elusive as the answers to her questions, and the dark haired girl had stepped well past exhausted into some transcendent state of being entirely powered by insomnia, anxiety, and borderline illegal amounts of caffeine in her bloodstream. “…yeah. Okay…which bus is ours?” she mumbled to Indigo. In her frenzy of trying to tear the secrets out of the broken bits of crystal, she had completely spaced on the Games itinerary and details…under normal circumstances she would have probably panicked about being unprepared, but it was taking a decided back seat to her world falling down around her ears.

Oh, and the fact that magic was real. That was…kind of a big deal.

Her friend gave her a long, searching look, and put an arm around her shoulders to steer her towards the big black bus. “This one. Team arrives in style. They chartered buses for everyone else.” With a flying elbow and lots of threatening curses, the athlete pushed through their teammates and peers to get Twilight on the bus, including an accidental blow right to Suri’s perfect face that sent her to the ground with a squeal of pain. “Oops. Sorry. Pollen has my nose plugged. I missed the warning smell of dirty skank!” Indigo called as she nudged Twilight up into the bus, and towards the very back where there was a seat with a bigger gap between it and the next row because of the emergency exit.

Glancing around, she nudged Twilight into the window seat. “Okay, Sparkle, what’s wrong? You have been a mess all week but you not having a bulleted schedule for today is huge.”

“…I forgot,” she said with a tight shrug. “I’ve had a lot on my mind. Then Sugarcoat basically accosted me the instant I got to the lab to drag me out here.”

Blue brows arched almost to her hairline. “You forgot something the size of the Friendship Games? Okay, now I know something is wrong.” At the scowl she sent the other girl, Indigo put her hands up. “Telling it like I see it, Twilight. You’ve been a wreck all week, and you’ve hardly said two words to anyone, me included. What happened last weekend with the Badass in Bitch Boots that’s got you so tied in knots?”

Pain and anger ripped through her, showing on her face before she could stop it, her mind on the betrayal of being outed yet again by someone other than herself, and this time by the one person she trusted to respect her desires. “I don't want to talk about it,” she snapped bitterly.

Indigo winced. “Ah, mierda…what happened? She get upset about the questions? Or is it worse than we thought? Does the principal eat baby hearts or make sacrifices to the Devil on an altar made of former students? Did I make a deal with a she-devil?”

Crossing her arms defensively, Twilight hunched in on herself, pressed to the window. “How should I know? She wouldn't answer my questions, and then it turns out she went behind my back and told my parents something personal that she promised she would let me tell them first!” Her voice was a furious, whispered hiss, her mind in just enough control to focus on her volume control. “And now everyone in my family is taking her side! All week, my parents have tried to lecture me whenever they see me about it. ‘We don't talk to people like that, Twilight,’ and ‘you went too far, for something that wasn't her fault…’ As if it doesn't matter that not only has she been keeping secrets and lying to us for months, but she also betrayed my trust!”

Her friend stared at her. “….oooookay…maybe you should back up a bit and tell me the details?”

She glanced around the bus—the loading process was slow going, and there wasn't yet anyone seated close by other than Lemon Zest, whose head was bobbing away to the music that was blasting so loud from her oversized noise canceling headphones that Twilight could completely make out the singer’s lyrics from two rows away. It was a wonder that the girl didn't already have hearing loss, if she listened to her music that loud. “Fine.” Leaning close, Twilight recounted the way her brother and father had fetched her up from school because she lost track of time and hadn’t realized that her phone going off had been a call and not the alarm she had set.

Indigo made a confused sound. “What's that gotta do with your…friend…? It sounds like that's on your family.”

“They accused me of lying about where I was all week, and then assumed they knew what my reasons were for staying late.” Twilight sank deeper into the seat. “And she was on their side for it…she might have even been the reason they were upset when they came to get me—the first thing she did was start apologizing…”

The expression on Indigo’s face was one Twilight couldn't name. “Uh huh…apologizing for what? Getting you in trouble with your folks? And why did they think you were lying? Youre not exactly known for it.”

She growled irritably. “…they assumed, incorrectly, that she was picking me up after school. They were under the impression that I was with her some of the afternoons last week like I was the week before. We forgot to mention that I had decided to focus on my project.”

“So…it was a misunderstanding from your parents? How is that her doing? It's…not really her job to inform your parents about your plans, Twilight. And if she was supposed to cover for you, you should have told her.” Indigo made a loose gesture. “Sounds like a case of ‘shit happens’ to me.”

Huffing and regretting how petulant it made her seem, Twilight struggled to articulate her feelings on the matter. “She should know me better than that, that I wouldn’t normally do that kind of thing and that if I did, then it must be fore a very good reason…she could have tried to get to the bottom of it instead of just siding with them!”

Silence stretched, before Indigo shook her head. “Twilight…how was she supposed to know? She trusts your family, right? Why would she think what they were saying wasn’t necessarily true? Or at least, that they believed it to be true? Did you even give her a chance to find out that it was a misunderstanding on your parents part? Because…it kind of sounds like she was pretty innocent in all of this. Like, yeah, your folks assumed, but…how is that her fault?”

“It's—” Twilight stopped herself, actually finding herself struggling to formulate an answer. “…I guess…it just felt like she should have investigated more,” she said, feeling the frustration leak out into her voice. “Maybe given me the benefit of the doubt?”

Indigo cocked an eyebrow. “Like you did with her?” the other girl countered softly.

“I…”

Her friend squeezed her shoulder. “I’m not saying you don't have a reason to be upset. Parents don't always listen, even if they hear us, and I wasn't there, but don't you think you should have done some investigating of your own instead of getting mad at your ‘BFF?’”

Crap.

The basketball player was right, and Twilight slumped in her seat. “…maybe you're right,” she said, rubbing her face. “I…maybe wasn't as fair to her on that one as I should have been…but it…it wasn't fair. Isn't fair. She should be on my side, not theirs! Every time something goes wrong, it's their side she takes.”

Brows furrowing, Indigo asked, “What do you mean?”

The resentment and frustration boiled over as people started boarding the bus in earnest. “Exactly what I said!” she hissed in a low voice as she tried to keep their conversation fairly private. “She keeps…always siding with my mom, and acting like my parents are perfect and wonderful and can't do anything wrong…and the moment she gets upset about something, Mom is all over her, coddling her like she's five!” Her fingers dug into her knees. “After the fight, all this week, Mom has been cooking meals for her and sending my brother and Cady to drop them off, to check in on her…”

“Uh-huh…” Indigo was scrutinizing her. “And you…don't like that?”

“Not really. She's not five, and why is it that she gets hugs and cookies and I just get told how badly I hurt her and how I’m acting out of line—they don't even care to find out why I lost track of time last week.” The icy anger curled itself up in her stomach. “It's like they care more about her than me.”

The other girl actually chuckled. “Oh. Oh, Sparkle…you don't see it do you?”

“See what?” Now she was confused.

Gesturing, Indigo said. “This…you’re jealous of the ‘new baby.’” At her affronted sound, Indigo held up a hand. “Hear me out. You're the youngest, right? No kids born after you?”

Twilight shook her head. “Just me and Shining, and he’s twelve years older than me.”

“Right…now I don't know what her family is like, but I'm gonna guess it's…less supportive than yours. Maybe even lousy.”

What could she say to that? It was true—Sunset’s former guardian had been out of the picture for a while, and even when she wasn't…

Even as angry and betrayed as she felt, Twilight still wanted to have stern words with the woman if she ever saw her.

Taking her silence as confirmation, Indigo kept talking. “Point is, your folks are probably stepping up to be like part time parents because they think she needs it…in a way that you don't, because you don't have a shit homelife…”

Scowling, Twilight crossed her arms over her chest. “I don't see how you get from there to this ‘new baby’ analogy. She is not an infant.”

Indigo chuckled. “I didn't mean it literally…what I meant is you’re the youngest, and you've never had to compete with someone who needed certain kinds of your parents’ attention more. What you're feeling is the same thing every kid feels when they get a younger sibling and Mom and Dad have to give them time and attention.” She nudged Twilight lightly. “It’s normal, but…you need to let that go. They aren't taking something away from you to give it to the ‘Bitch With A Bad Attitude.’”

Feeling her insides doing gymnastics was making her feel nauseous, even as she tried to wrap her brain around Indigo’s statement. Jealous? Was she? “…I can see how it could be misconstrued as jealousy,” she conceded at last. “However, I still find it to be unfair. She is being treated with kid gloves and I’m getting lectured.”

Her friend sighed heavily. “Twilight? Do your parents love you?”

“Yes! Of course they do!” she retorted, offended.

“How do you know?” Indigo questioned.

Twilight frowned. “Because…they do. They tell me all the time.”

A slow nod, and then: “What about right now? Do they love you right now, even though you're fighting? When they are upset with you?”

This conversation was losing coherency, the dark haired girl decided, but humored her friend anyway. “Of course…they're my parents. Just because we don't see eye to eye doesn't mean they don't still love me…or I them.”

“How do you know that?”

Twilight toyed with her hair restlessly, something akin to understanding starting to nip at the edges of her awareness. “Because they’re my parents. That's…just what parents do.”

“That's just it, Twilight,” Indigo told her, expression sad. “That's not true for everyone. Is it true for her? Knowing the people in her life love her, without being told?”

The words crashed into her, and suddenly she couldn't breathe because her insides felt like one giant knot. The world around her stopped, like some omnipotent being had hit the pause button on reality, and a memory took its place.

The guitar lay on the bottom half of the bed, the impromptu musical demonstration all but forgotten with the weight of the words Sunset was speaking. Her voice was soft, not a whisper, but a quiet kind of volume that didn't carry beyond the person it was meant for, and it was painfully neutral, as though Sunset was forcing herself to avoid any emotion at all, good or bad. “I mentioned before that I…I’m an orphan…not sure if you remember that.”

Twilight twisted in her girlfriend’s lap so she could hug her and press a kiss to her jaw. “I remember. I just…didn't want to ask about it in case it was…too painful.”

The body under her rippled with a shrug of some kind. “Painful implies it reminds me of what I miss…but you have to know something to feel its absence.” Blue-green eyes glittered with moisture, but Sunset blinked it away rapidly and cleared her throat. “That’s…not the kind of orphan I am.” Her arms tightened around Twilight. “I…don't remember them at all. I don't know what they looked like, what they sounded like. I can't tell you what their names were, or if they had a favorite song, a hobby…I don't even know if they even wanted me. There were no aunties or uncles to tell me about them, no grandparents to take me in, no cousins to relive old memories with so I could know who they were. I don't even have the name they gave me—the name I was born with.”

She got a distant look in her eyes. “My guardian named me Sunset Shimmer…but…a guardian isn't the same thing. At one point…at one point I thought it was, but…after seeing your family…I know it's not.” The laughter that bubbled up was bitter and broken. “There was a time when I would have given anything for her to treat me like your mom does, but I learned that all I was doing was fooling myself. By then, there wasn't any pretense of a relationship between us. She was very clear on how much I disappointed her…so I did what she wanted…what they’d all wanted for years…”

“I left.”

Twilight ripped herself violently from the memory, trying to control her breathing. She could barely meet Indigo’s eyes, and she couldn't find her voice to answer the question. She didn't need to, however, as Indigo nodded. “Exactly—they probably know that and are trying to give her what she doesn't get at home. That's a kind of attention you don't need, because you got it when you were little, and now you just know. Just like they would’ve if you had younger siblings.”

Quiet fell for a time as she digested that, still not able to speak. Indigo…had given her a completely different perspective on the way Sunset interacted with Twilight’s family…especially since…since the conversation where Twilight had told Sunset that she was part of the family.

How could she have pushed that knowledge to the side so easily? She had held Sunset when the older girl had confessed the depth of how broken her relationship with her former guardian was…had offered her girlfriend…her best friend…a place within her own family, something that Sunset craved.

Her mother had even warned her, back at Christmas, when she’d explained the idea to give Sunset her own room at the house…

“Why did you and Dad decide this?”

Velvet looked over at her, still emptying the closet of spare bedding. “…Sunset is a very sweet girl who has been dealt a very unpleasant hand, sweetheart. Your father and I like her, and it's very clear that the friendship between the two of you is allowing both of you to flourish in ways neither of you would on your own.” She considered it for a minute. “I suppose this is our way of trying to offer her a little bit of stability that she hasn't gotten from other adults in her life.”

Twilight packed old clothes away in a box to go into the attic. “…oh.” She ran her fingers over a shirt from when she was in kindergarten. “I think it’ll make her happy.”

Her mother smiled at her. “I do too, Twily. Your father and I are doing everything we can to show her that she is safe here and that we aren't going to do what other adults have done in the past. She needs that reassurance until she believes it's not going to just vanish. That we won't vanish.”

Frowning, she looked down. “…oh…can I do anything to help?”

Velvet left the closet of blankets for a minute to sit on the bed and draw Twilight into a hug. “I think you are doing fantastically, Twily. I think you just need to be aware of the fact that kids like Sunset sometimes believe that love and care are transactional, rather than selflessly given, and it will take time and lots of repetition for her to change her thinking.”

She finally found her voice as she reexamined the behavior from different angles. “…is that why she sides with them? Because she thinks if she doesn't they will make her leave?”

Indigo sighed, and tilted her head back to look upwards. “It’s possible. Some kids with shitty homes do the whole ‘appeasement’ thing. My kid brother’s got a friend like that. He’s always going to agree because at home disagreeing means he gets hit by his dad.”

Twilight fell silent again, the anger and now-identified jealousy snuffed out by rational understanding. She was still frustrated with the secret keeping and lying—extremely frustrated and upset, if she was honest, for all the reasons she had thrown at Sunset before, considering how the ‘magic’ had messed up her life for half a year or more. And that didn't even touch on the hurt she felt over Sunset’s betrayal.

“…It doesn't explain why she broke her promise,” she said dully. “She always kept them before…and I know I was taking more time than she really liked…but she was supportive of it…so…I just don't get why…” Her eyes burned and she looked down at her lap before shutting them against the tears that wouldn't come after all the angry crying she had done in her room that week.

The other girl patted her shoulder. “What exactly happened there? You keep referring to that but I’m not clear on what actually went on.”

She rubbed her face. “I was trying to get her to tell me, you know…the truth. And…she just wouldn't answer. She kept playing dumb but I could tell she knew what I was talking about..and then all of a sudden…my dad is…well, he was just there, and he was furious.” Twilight sank deeper into the seat. “He started to lecture me about how I wasn’t allowed to talk to…anyone…like that…not even her…but…he didn't say her name. He called her…y’know?” She made a noise in her throat but she couldn't say the word aloud.

Indigo gave a glance around, but no one on the bus was listening. They were too busy with their own conversations, it seemed. “Yeah. GF, I get it.”

A whine escaped her. “That was it, and it was all that I could really hear. It just repeated in my head, over and over…he knew, and from Mom’s expression, she knew too. They both knew, and I didn’t tell them…” Twilight twisted her hands against her wrists. “The only two people who could have were her and Cadence…and it had to be her. Cady’s kept my secrets for years…”

“…so…wait. You didn't actually hear her do it?”

Her voice was as empty as she felt. “It had to be…and I just don’t understand why. Why would she break a promise that important to me?”

Scratching her neck, Indigo said, “That’s a good question…are you sure she did? Like, did she admit it? Or did your folks tell you she did?”

Twilight made a face. “I have been avoiding my family all week as much as I could. They keep trying to talk to me at dinner…Dad claims she didn't, and that Cady didn't, and Mom claims they didn't need to be told, but that doesn't make sense. We were careful. I was careful. We didn't give anything away, so the only way they could know is if someone told.”

Indigo was quiet. Too quiet, and that look on her face… “What? What do you know?” Twilight demanded.

“Look, Sparkle…you two are…” Indigo sighed. “You aren't exactly hard to read. She came to school to help you, and it was obvious to me that ‘best friends’ was code. No one gets that protective over a BFF. She carried you out of CPA, Twilight. Wouldn't let anyone touch you—if they tried, she got…aggressive. Like she was gonna kick or bite them. Maybe set them on fire. Are you sure she told? Or that she did it on purpose? Could it have been an accident? Or maybe your folks asking her and her not being able to lie for the answer?”

Her brows scrunched up as she thought about it. “I suppose it's…possible.” A part of her desperately wanted it to be, to have a reason to not believe Sunset had betrayed her trust in the worst ways possible. “Are we really that obvious? We’ve been exceptionally careful, even at home. Nothing that could be seen as anything other than best friends.”

The other teen sighed heavily. “We’ve already established that your parents care about you, right? Well, that means they pay attention…and I don't care how good you are at acting, everyone acts a little different when they get a crush. Especially if the crush goes somewhere. If your parents are the way you've described, they noticed. And…look, tall red, and leather clad is intimidating when she wants to be, but she looks at you and goes all toasted marshmallow.”

“Toasted marshmallow?” Twilight blinked. “I…don't understand that reference.”

“You know, when you toast those big marshmallows for s'mores? The outside gets this golden crunchy layer that looks hard but it's paper thin, and the marshmallow underneath is gooey and so soft it's basically liquid in the center. She's like that with you. Looks hard and tough but is basically melty goo inside.” Indigo shrugged. “Though if I hadn't seen that hickey on your neck before, I would have figured it was an unrequited thing on her part.”

She remembered Wildsong saying something similar in the cafe, and it slammed into her like a punch to the gut. “…and if my parents saw that…”

“And any kind of reciprocation on your end, yeah…then they probably figured it out enough that maybe they just asked her so they were sure or something. And if she’s trying to please them so she can stay around…” Indigo spread her hands, palm up. “What else could she do? From that side of things, it's kinda an impossible choice, Twilight. Break a promise or never be allowed back.”

Anger got the better of her briefly. “But my parents would never do that to her!”

Once again, the answering words were cold water on her emotions. “Maybe true, but…does she know that?”

Doubt filled her. Before she would have said yes, but now…Indigo had pointed out things she had never considered before. At least, not that she considered in the present tense for her girlfriend. She knew Sunset was slow to admit feelings and didn't throw the word ‘love’ around casually. She was aware, also, that Sunset sometimes acted as though affection she received from others came with some kind of price-tag, that she had to do something to be worthy of it…but she had never thought about how the inverse might be true in Sunset’s mind as well. That affection could be withheld or terminated if she didn't perform as expected or pay the assumed price-tag fast enough.

And if that was the case, or if her parents had simply guessed on their own…

Then Sunset hadn't broken her promise.

“But what about lying to you? Keeping all of the information about magic from you with no intention of coming clean? Even when it affected your life, your education…maybe even your family?” the voice in the back of her mind whispered, voicing all the worst of her doubts, fears, and frustrations. “She kept secrets, even when confronted to come clean!”

She wavered. It was a major point of contention. Sunset’s secrets were okay when they were disconnected from anything not directly to do with Sunset herself, as they should be, but the secrets about magic were something that should have been voiced earlier, considering how much it was now entwining about Twilight’s life. Especially if it was part of the reason things had gone so sideways at Crystal Prep.

Yet she couldn't shake a feeling something was missing. Sunset wanted her free of CPA…had been the one making her tell her parents about things she didn't want to that happened at school. The redhead had even come there, putting herself at risk from whatever was going on…for Twilight. So there had to be a greater reason for her waiting to tell beyond selfishness. Fear maybe? Or was her previous guardian involved somehow? Was that not why Twilight had been working for months on her own to conceal her own real findings from everyone?

“And what was her excuse when you confronted her?”
…she didn't really give one, Twilight realized, thinking back.

“Exactly!”

With a frown, she ignored the flush of dark triumph from deep inside. Sunset hadn't given one…because Twilight had not given her a chance to. She had interrupted and pushed and not really given Sunset much of a chance to get a word in edgewise, and certainly no time to even formulate a response—something Sunset tried very hard to do for Twilight whenever she asked a deep or emotional question.

“What about not telling you she was some kind of monster in human skin, invading your thoughts and mind and dreams without permission? Are you just supposed to ignore that?!”

Twilight recoiled mentally. Sunset was not a monster! She might look like some kind of demonic gargoyle figure in the illusion she and Indigo had seen, or in the video clips, but Sunset was not a monster. Not at heart.

She was scared sometimes. Damaged and traumatized from a neglected childhood and bullies who tormented her until she lost her temper. Yes, she had been a bully herself for a while, lashing out in her own anger and pain in a twisted way of protecting the sweet, compassionate core that had so much love to give…

Love she had given Twilight without ever giving it a name. All those times she’d dropped everything, forgot everything else, just to make sure Twilight was okay. That crooked smile and gentle hugs, the encouragement and challenge, the way she made her feel stronger than she ever believed possible. The warmth and presence in a dozen dreams swearing to protect her and keep her safe, the voice she had once believed conjured by herself, manifesting at her school as a supportive presence that guarded her from dark thoughts and the unnatural shadows that Twilight had not been ready to admit existed.

Love that had burned in blue-green eyes that wonderful night in the loft, in the syllables of the sweet pet name that was for Sunset alone to use…a moment that had shown Twilight that she loved Sunset just as fiercely.

“Love her? You don't even know who or what she really is! She lied to you! Deceived you!”

“…I love her…” she whispered, banishing that hissing voice down to the depths of her subconscious.

Indigo let out a soft sound of relief. “…yeah, that was pretty obvious, Sparkle,” she chuckled. “It's enough to make other people jealous.”

Twilight shook her head, feeling her body start to shake. “You don't understand,” she choked out around the feeling in her throat and pressure in her chest. “I…love her…and…I…oh…what have I done?”

Those eyes, staring at her. She could recall them with utter clarity now, the agony in them as the key fell. As if her world were falling apart, and Sunset was somehow gravely wounded and yet resigned to it.

Sunset had kept secrets, yes…the magic in particular…but…she had still done everything to protect Twilight she could…perhaps she could have done things differently, told Twilight sooner…but it hadn’t been a betrayal…and what…what if she hadn't known about the dreams or the manifestation in Twilight’s mind?

Twilight didn't have those answers.

She didn't have them because she’d steamrolled right over any response and attacked, without listening. The signs were there that she needed to get away and stop herself. Her mother had tried to intervene and give her that space by trying to get Sunset to leave her be for a bit. Her father had cut her brother off from setting her off several times. She knew her own cues and triggers—even a lack of sleep couldn't justify ignoring them.

And this time, her meltdown had done what might be irrevocable damage to the girl she loved more than she had ever loved anyone before. The girl who loved her and treated her like she was the most important thing in her life.

Breath wouldn't come. Her lungs were trying to function in the pressureless void of space, blood frozen to black ice in her chest cavity. Spots dotted her vision, and it wasn't until someone struck her sharply between the shoulder blades that she could suck in air.

“Twilight!” Indigo hissed sharply. “You’ve got to breathe and focus before the teachers notice! Before Cinch does!”

It hurt, between the pain in her upper back from Indigo’s heavy hand and the needles of ice stabbing her from inside, but she forced her lungs to expand and contract. “I-I…threw it a-away…” she whimpered brokenly, fingers grasping for the missing key that should have been around her neck. “S-she’s got…to think that…” In a moment of anger, of frustration, in the middle of a catastrophic emotional upheaval…Twilight had done it again. She’d broken the promise a second time. She had thrown Sunset away, just like everyone else in the older girl’s life had, treated her abysmally the instant Sunset hadn't given her what she wanted…after refusing to trust and believe her over something a hundred times more important.

She was an awful person, a terrible friend….and an even worse girlfriend.

Indigo's voice was firm and low, almost as if she were trying to mimic the tone she'd heard from Sunset herself, a thing that was both achingly wonderful and agonizing to Twilight’s ears as she pulled her back from the brink of another meltdown. "Twilight, I need you to listen to me. Right now it's not safe... whatever you did, however she took it... you can't fall apart because it's not safe. We're gonna be there soon—we almost to the park on that side of town.”

“I-I need to t-talk to her,” Twilight choked out, her voice cracking despite being little more than a whisper.

“And you will. When we stop, I’ll text her as a neutral party. Or if that doesn't work, I'll find her or someone who can get us to her... and you two can sort this all out. But right now you gotta focus. You can't let anyone know how bad off you are right now. You have to keep it together!”

In a show of support, Indigo grabbed her hand. Strong fingers laced through hers, squeezing tight enough to hurt...and yet the lavender-skinned girl welcomed the feeling, the pain cutting through the noise in her head and the crushing guilt that threatened to overwhelm her. Even more, she deserved to be in pain, to feel what she must have inflicted...

Twilight gasped for a breath, and then another, forcing her lungs to work through sheer determination and she dug the fingernails of her other hand into her leg, "... okay... I... focus now...breakdown…later.."

Her voice was ragged and her throat felt tight and raw, as if each word were jagged glass scraping over bare nerve endings, but Indigo made an encouraging noise. "That's it Twilight, you can do this. I'm gonna be right here with you, okay? I promised to have your back, and I made a deal with La Diabla to stick by you. We’ll sort this all out, and we’ll be safe once we’re off this bus…”

Gripping that hand like the lifeline to sanity that it was, Twilight forced herself to look out the window and breathe, all the while holding back the ocean of anxiety and guilt threatening to crash over her like a tsunami with everything she had. Purple eyes searched for the first sight of their destination, a place that should provide safety enough for her to deal with what was in her head and heart.

She just hoped that it wasn't too late to fix what she had so childishly broken.

Author's Note

Its me. I'm the god with the pause button, Twilight.

Anyway.

So yeah.

The Games have officially begun.

Twilight is as much a mess as Sunset right now, for similar but different reasons, and shit's about to get REEEEEEAL ugly. But at least we get a glimpse into her psyche for why she's being such a hormonal bitch right now. (Teenagers, oy.)

Lookit Indigo being a champ! There was a surprise character that continues to be one of the story's unsung heroes. Her, Cady, Luna, and Velvet, I swear. Like holy shit.

If you haven't seen it, I put up another chapter for Cassandra's Cry--the sidestory that runs alongside Rubicon from Spike the Dog's perspective. It has one chapter left that will be going up in the next week. And an epilogue.

See you kids next week. I have to go work on another chapter. We're getting to the good stuff.