They huddled beneath one of the lamps Prosecutor Tirek had set up, the light flickering as the raging sky above pulsed black and red. There were others with them - support staff, Guards - but, however terror-filled the glances those others threw at the sky and the tent hiding the rift of the Wondercolt statue were, they couldn't match the dread and horror beating inside their hearts.
Rainbow's hand itched into a fist, sweat beading on her forehead as she looked around. Applejack, hair down and without her hat in as much of a disguise as she allowed herself (though, mercifully, it appeared to be working), murmured comforting words to Fluttershy, hiding behind her indigo-dyed hair. One of the Guards was looking at them curiously, but the others only had eyes for the storm, and whispers of worry for voices.
The lamp dimmed. Thunder boomed. The ground quaked beneath their feet.
Half a minute since the last pulse. The Surge was getting faster. She needed to rescue Sunset quickly.
But how? Tirek had her locked up tighter than any treasure Daring Do found, and even with AJ and Flutters at her side, Rainbow had to admit (however begrudgingly) that she wouldn't be able to force or sneak her way in. Finding Pinkie, Twilight, and- finding the others would help, but even all together she wasn't sure they'd be able to win, and it would take too much time to find and sneak them in anyway.
She growled, grinding her knuckles into her black-stained hair. She hated when being a hero didn't mean just finding the villain and walloping them before blasting them with the friendship laser. She was a doer, not a thinker like Twilight, but she couldn't think of anything she could do here-
"Pardon me, miss," the staring Guard asked Fluttershy, "but, do you go to school here? You look like one of the students we were told to look out for."
"She gets that a lot," Rainbow snapped. "Whenever she walks down the street, she always gets at least three people asking if she's someone they know. They don't, she just has that kind of face. You don't know her, so stop bugging her."
The Guard raised his hands in gesture of apology, then sat back down.
Another pulse.
Maybe she shouldn't even bother sneaking in? What if she just gave herself up and asked to help Sunset? Would that work? Maybe, but then Tirek would have two of them, and she had no doubts that he wasn't just going to let them go after they managed to stop the Surge. And, wincing in her heart, she had to admit that she wouldn't be much help getting them to that point; Sunset and Twilight were the magic-smart ones, she was the girl who beat up whatever they couldn't think their way out of. Giving herself up wouldn't work, either. Maybe-
One of the support staff was pointing at AJ. "Did you hear her?" they whispered to a neighbor. "The only people here with an accent like that are the family of one of the students, one of the magic-using students."
"Because she's not from around here," Rainbow retorted, causing the two whisperers to jump. "She's from out of town, from Appleloosa."
"One of the magic-using students has family out there, too," the first whisperer replied. "Is she one of them?"
"No," Rainbow snorted. "And even if she was, so what? Are people guilty of what their cousins did, now? Do you wanna punish her for something someone she's never seen did? Why don't we take a climb up your family tree and see if you need to be punished for something your second cousin twice-removed did?"
The whisperer fell back, but the whispers picked up, sending Rainbow's heart racing. She hated whispers, she always had, they always made her think the worst, and there were plenty of worsts for her to think of now. What would happen if the Guard caught them here? Would they take them to jail? Would they take them inside, to Tirek? What would he do to them? Interrogate them? Experiment on them? Would he even want them alive?
Her mouth dried up as she looked at the shivering Fluttershy, imaging her chained up in a cell or a lab somewhere, or lying dead in an alley. She was willing to risk meeting those fates herself, but was she willing to risk her oldest friend meeting them? Was she willing to risk them happening to AJ, stealing Apple Bloom's sister away from her? Her blood ran cold as she looked around, seeing for the first time all the Guards around them. Had she led her friends into a trap?
One of those Guards sighed, shaking her head. "I still can't believe that Sunset Shimmer would do this. She really seemed to have turned herself around after that explosion a couple Falls ago."
"We don't know that it was her," Rainbow made sure to choose her words with care; she needed to make sure that she didn't say anything that would risk the others getting caught, but she couldn't just let Sunset get bad-mouthed, either. "For all we know, the Surge could just be natural."
"Natural?" one of the support staffers scorned. "There's nothing natural about this. This wouldn't be happening at all if she hadn't blown up that magic bomb at the Fall Formal in the first place. Directly or indirectly, this is all her fault."
Rainbow bit her cheek. "We don't know that for sure," she carefully replied. "I'm just trying to make sure we don't ignore any possible explanations."
The scorner narrowed their eyes. "Why are you so sure that she's innocent? Are you friends with her?"
Another pulse rippled through the ground, and the Guards began drawing their staffs, sending Rainbow's heart pounding. "I'm not her friend!" she blurted out, jumping to her feet. "I'm not her friend, my friends aren't her friends, we've never even seen her before! I'm not her classmate, I'm not her ally, I'm not her friend, I-I-"
Four Guards surrounded Sunset, escorting her out of the school towards the tent covering the statue. Tempest had a hand firmly locked on Sunset's shoulder, and wasn't afraid to simply kick or drag her along as she walked.
She demonstrated that willingness when Sunset looked Rainbow in the eye, clearly having overheard what she'd just said, her denial of her friendship with the captive girl. That wasn't the worst part to Rainbow, though; no, the worst part was the expression on Sunset's face as she looked at her, looked at her betrayer.
It was an expression of understanding, without hurt or blame. Indeed, she almost looked happy, thankful that Rainbow had spared Sunset's friends her fate. The gentle smile on Sunset's face and the warmth in her eyes indicated nothing but empathy, compassion, and love for her friend.
It would haunt Rainbow until the day she died.
Then, twisting the knife, that smile moved, and Pinkie's voice came out, repeating her cryptic words from before they'd split up for the day; "Before sunset, you will deny her."
Before Sunset herself, in her darkest hour, Rainbow had denied knowing her at all.
"I need to go," she choked out, then ran away, heedless of direction or her surroundings, Pinkie's words, Sunset's smile, and her own betrayal pounding in her head. And it was night.