A little Unicorn filly by the age of eight jumped in excitement through the marble-made halls and corridors of Canterlot Castle. She had an amber coat, a brilliant crimson and yellow mane, cyan eyes and a two-colored sun as a Cutie Mark.
This little bunch of energy was known as Sunset Shimmer.
"Mom! Mom! I did it!" the young pony exclaimed joyfully when she entered Princess Celestia's private chambers.
The fireplace crackled and a cozy atmosphere dominated the room. In front of the alicorn were some last scrolls she wanted to read before calling it a day. Besides them was a decorated tea set, a filled cup of the calming liquid was hovering in the air.
"Oh? What happened that you are so happy my Little Sun?" Celestia asked with a motherly smile.
"Stop calling me that! I'm a grown pony! I don't need cute nicknames anymore, that's not cool!" Sunset pouted adorably.
The Alicorn of the Sun had to stop herself from hugging the filly like a plush toy. This little unicorn was just too cute for her own good. Instead she had another idea to tease her daughter and student, "I see." She sighed loudly, "So you won't need my bedtime stories anymore after I lowered the sun and raised the moon either? Truly a shame, but last time I checked big grown ponies like you can sleep perfectly fine without such foalish things."
Sunset's eyes widened in shock and she looked pleadingly at the ancient ruler, "NO! I can't sleep withou-uhm, I mean I would like to hear more of your stories. If you don't mind of course. You know, grown up ponies apprec-apre..ci... LIKE bedtime stories, too."
Celestia chuckled in amusement, "Is that so? I don't remember that I ever heard something like that."
The amber filly stomped her tiny hoof to emphasize her point, "But it’s true! I read about that!"
The princess tapped under her chin with a foreleg in faked confusion, "Where exactly? Please help an old mare with her failing memory."
"In... a book."
"What book?"
"A big book."
"What color was that book?"
"Blu-green! No wait... brown? Yes, brown!"
"Interesting, what title had that book?"
Sunset sticked her tongue out, so hard was she trying to come up with a title. Celestia waited patiently, trying her hardest not to laugh.
A flash of inspiration hit the personal pupil of the princess, "'Bedtime Stories for Everypony - Sleeping like a filly'!"
"Who is the author?"
"Err... a-author?" the filly whispered nervously.
"Indeed. I can't seem to remember the name of the author either." The tall alicorn gasped happily, "But we are both lucky that you read the book! I'm sure you know the name of the pony who wrote it."
"S-sure. The name of the author. Makes sense. Of course I know the name of the author! It would be silly if I didn't know the author's name! Do you really need to know it?"
Celestia nodded her head eagerly in response.
Sunset spoke her thoughts out loud, not that she was noticing it, "Dream Writer? No. Sleepy Star? Nope. A.K. Yearling? Sounds boring. I got it! Spell Weaver!" She said proudly.
"Of course! Now I remember. What would I just do without my faithful student at my side?" the monarch asked rhetorically.
But Sunset thought that the question was meant seriously. Her answer came in a blink of an eye, "Eating wayyyy too much cake the whole day."
The bringer of dawn and dusk could only stare at her Little Sun, "Are you sure that you are not secretly related to Luna?" Celestia mumbled quietly.
"What was that?" the unicorn questioned innocently.
"Nothing that should concern you, I was just talking to myself. Don't worry," Celestia assured with a smile.
A dumbfounded 'oh' was already on her lips before the older mare changed the subject.
"Now tell me, what have you achieved? You seemed like you would explode from happiness," the ruler of Equestria inquired gently.
"Oh, right! I managed to levitate six objects at the same time. Look!" Sunset said and levitated six books to prove her point. Sweat started to show itself on her forehead.
Celestia nuzzled her daughter's neck, "I'm so proud on you. You managed to do something even ponies nearly two times your age have huge problems with."
A loud cawing interrupted the duo's moment and a majestic phoenix came through the open balcony door. Its feathers gleamed beautifully in vivid amaranth and luminous vivid gamboge, the eyes were like fiery pits of light brilliant yellow flames. The proud bird landed gracefully in front of Sunset, lowered her head and rubbed her cheek against the equally tall filly like a warm and soothing blanket during the coldest winter.
"Phila! You are back!" the filly exclaimed happily and returned the gesture.
Celestia chuckled warmly at the scene in front of her before she focused on her pet, "It is wonderful to see that you are back from the ashes. How many poor guards did you prank this time young lady?"
Sunset giggled, she knew that Philomena had a mischievous streak and loved to prank clueless ponies, especially the newer staff of the castle, when it was time for her to start a new life cycle. Most didn't know that, but the royal pet phoenix was highly intelligent and could understand the pony language perfectly.
The reverse however, could only be said about a certain filly. Until this day it remained a mystery even for the Princess of the Sun how her most faithful student could understand Philomena's every sound. She could even talk with the beautiful animal as if she was an actual equine rather than a phoenix.
To their knowledge Sunset couldn't talk with any other type of animal or avian-like creature as it was the case with Philomena. Not that they could test it out with letting the unicorn talk with other phoenixes or any greater number of exotic magical animals. They were very rare and difficult to find after all, it was simply a blessing of great luck to encounter one.
But no matter how this mystery of life came to be. It was a rare gift for Celestia's Little Sun.
It was barely two years ago that Celestia found the filly that would become her daughter. She had felt the magic surge in Canterlot, a place where many of the ley lines of the land crossed at Mount Canterhorn, despite it originating in Manehatten. An amazing feat the likes of which she would not feel for nearly six years when Twilight Sparkle would have a similar surge.
She had jumped from her throne, telling Raven that court was cancelled as she ran from the throne room. Her worried guard captain ran after her, only getting her to say she was needed in Manehattan before she threw herself from the nearest balcony. Spreading her majestic wings, she’d rocketed off for the city.
Arriving in a few hours, she’d found the City Guard battling a fire. She was told there was some manner of explosion before the block went up. Ignoring their protests, she rushed into one of the buildings.
There amongst the fire, singed and soot covered though unharmed, was a young filly. Crying, she sat there in what had clearly passed for her home. It became obvious that she was the source for the explosion, a sudden release of magic as she’d gotten her cutie mark.
Picking up the crying foal in her magic, she’d pulled her closer, cuddling her, whispering calming words to her. Carrying the foal from the building, she found a unit of EUP assisting the City Guard, the commander snapping to attention as he saw her.
She’d rushed so fast that her guard had to mobilize a unit of the local EUP division. She’d apologized, and accepted an escort to a hotel where she could clean herself and the filly, brushing off the protests of her taking an urchin with her.
Once her guard had joined her, she returned to Canterlot by more leisurely means, bringing the filly with her. Arriving home, she put the resources of the crown to work finding the foal’s parents to no avail. Failing to do that, she’d adopted the filly herself.
Barely more than a year of tutoring later, an incredible little pony stood before the admissions board at Celestia’s School For Gifted Unicorns. She’d passed the basic exams, especially those in practical magic, not that that was a surprise to Celestia. But now was the real test. A simple test they said, just hatch a Phoenix egg. Of course no student had yet to do it this session, but then again it was scarcely to be exptected.
How one fails is perhaps more important than how one succeeds. Success is easy, it's one desires, but failure? Failure twists a knife in one’s heart, failure brings out the worst of a pony, whether it's to hide from the world or lash out at it, it shows one’s true character.
Failure was one's greatest teacher in life.
Young though she was, Sunset understood the importance of this test. Not in what it was meant to show, but what it would show. The nobles had no problems with nepotism, at least not when it favored them, but were quick to lash out at perceived nepotism when it wasn’t. As the princess’ daughter, one would be forgiven if they assumed she’d be automatically accepted to the school, therefore it was important that Sunset earned her way in.
She did her best, she lifted it, stroked it, squeezed it and caressed it, and yet it remained unchanged. They tried to stop her, to tell her that it was alright, she wasn’t expected to succeed, but she wouldn’t have it. Finally in her frustration she lashed out, blasting the egg, not with pure magic as one would expect, but fire. A lance shot from her horn, setting the table the egg rested on ablaze, blackening its shell. The table collapsed, the egg falling to the floor with a sickening crunch.
Tears ran down the young unicorn’s face as she looked at her failure, her dreams dashed. Sitting down to have a cry, she was surprised by a sound, the sound of an egg cracking. Quickly she rushed to the egg, using her magic to help its occupant escape from its confines. A little ball of orange fluff, a tiny little ember that hopped over and pecked at her hoof.
She giggled at the little thing, her little ember, using her magic to lift it up. The little thing nuzzled its mother, chirping hungrily. At first at a loss, Sunset got an idea, lighting her horn, a flame hanging on the end of it like a candle. Lifting the little chick to her head, it quickly leaned up and pecked at the flame, poking at the filly’s horn.
The test was forgotten, at least by her, but the assessment committee wouldn’t forget her, for how could they forget the filly who’d done one impossible thing before breakfast?
What they could say now was that these mythical birds seemed to grow fast and that their own, very unique, life cycles served them as a growth spurt like puberty for ponies. She became taller and taller after each, prolonged, cycle. Philomena was already nearly the size of the young unicorn. The princess decided to declare her to be the royal pet after she remained as much at Celestia’s side as that of her daughter and to provide the avian animal with a loving home.
The two were inseparable, and quickly became best friends after a very short time because of the possibility of boundless communication. Always when the time would allow it they talked with each other. One time the alicorn's adopted daughter told Celestia that her phoenix loved to bathe in fire. She would know, after all she regularly poured magical fire down upon the bird, terrifying Philomena’s caretakers as she bathed the royal pet.
After this revelation, Celestia strived to maintain fireplaces throughout the castle for the phoenix year round. The demand of firewood for Canterlot Castle was never this high before this revelation.
In time, Sunset would help it to learn to fly, using her magic to support it, helping it flap its wings. It was expected that it would leave when it was ready to fly, for such a majestic and rare bird deserved its freedom. Yet, despite being able to leave, it remained, staying with its mom, perhaps the only pony able to talk with a phoenix, perhaps a product of the powerful fire magic she had at her beck and call. Whole monologues could be heard from it in a language only they shared. At first Celestia had doubted it, but one only had to watch the two, how Sunset nodded her head every now and then, how Philomena replied. It was clear to anypony that they were carrying a conversation no matter how improbable that was.
Sunset laughed wholeheartedly after the phoenix was done. After she calmed down she replied smilingly, "Silly Phila, you scared the poor guards half to death with your antics. And that was mean."
"Oh? What did she do this time?" Princess Celestia asked curiously, with a hint of annoyance in her voice when she thought about the possibilities.
"Phila explained to me that she acted like she was actually dying from an attack and flew to the barracks where the new recruits just got their pro-prom-"
"Promotion my dear," the monarch added kindly.
"-promotion to real guards. The new recruits were alone and in panic after she crashed into them, because she lost more and more feathers and nopony knew that it was supposed to happen. They thought that somepony really attacked the royal pet in mid flight and searched the entire training grounds for an attacker, completely forgetting about Phila. She said that they are most likely still looking for the one who did it."
Celestia showed a side of her in private with Sunset that normally nopony would witness. Smug pride, "What can I say? She learned from the best." The alicorn blushed when she noticed what she just said, "Philomena you will have to apologize to the guards. I can't imagine what grief your prank caused them!"
"Sun..." a mysterious voice whispered loudly. It sounded like the source of the voice was was somewhere in this room. But where?
The filly looked around in bafflement, "Did you hear that?"
"What do you mean?" Celestia's voice sounded suddenly so distant, despite the fact that she sat right in front of the unicorn.
Philomena flew suddenly in front of Sunset and set her body ablaze. A fearsome and respect inducing spectacle. She looked threateningly at the princess’ mirror for some reason the little filly didn't understand before her friend disappeared like she never existed.
"Sunset..."
There was this voice again. It sounded strange, but somehow familiar. But how did it knew her name? The pony in question turned around and found nothing, but when she turned back to ask her mentor for protection and advice in panic, because her best friend was gone, she saw that Princess Celestia had disappeared as well.
"M-mom?! Princess! Philomena! Where are you?!" she screamed frantically.
Not even a thought later the flames in the fireplace extinguished. A numbing coldness replaced the earlier feeling of comfort.
"Sunset~" The voice was closer, it sounded feminine and like it was calling for her like an old friend in a chipper tone. But still far away at the same time.
"What in the hay-huh? I'm me again!" shouted the once more adult mare in joy.
The protégé of magic looked at the big mirror nearby standing before the wall and found her body and voice restored to her real, older, self. Her pony self in fact. "I remember this day," she thought melancholically. Tears were assembling themselves in the corners of her eyes, "I had somepony like a mother and a great friend, who loved me both. The days of my fillyhood before we became more distant to each other. Before my pride and ambitions became insatiable. What changed between us?"
"We did," a cackling voice replied maliciously. It was the same voice from earlier, just much closer and prominently.
Sunset's reflection changed dramatically and some kind of pony-demon-hybrid was looking back at her. It sounded like the unicorn herself, only much more sinister. The outer appearance was nearly completely wrong.
The eye color was the same, but the sclera black, furthermore it had changed her fur into a crimson red. Her mane and tail were longer, floating in a non-existent breeze and looked more like actual flames. The hooves were covered in black royal shoes similar to Princess Celestia's golden ones. But the most distinctive two features were for one the long brilliant opal and black colored curved horn and a giant pair of bat-like featherless wings on the pony's back, black on the underside, and two shades of crimson on the upperside.
Sunset Shimmer would always recognize her greatest failure, no matter the form.
"YOU!" she shouted furiously, "How are you still alive?! The Elements cleansed you from my body!"
"Did you miss me?" The demoness laughed loudly. "Come on Shimmy, you are more intelligent than that! We are not the Nightmare, but an inseparable part of you. We are one, no matter if you like it or not," Demon Sunset admonished harshly.
"That's not true! You are much crueler than I ever could be! Even at my worst there are crimes I would never commit. You are evil! Some twisted, by magic corrupted version of me. If not for the protection of the Elements of Harmony you would have killed Twilight and the girls!" the amber pony argued heatedly.
"You are so pathetic that it sickens me," the demon replied in annoyance and fury.
The once beautiful mirror of Princess Celestia's room lost its flawless sheen. The golden framework melted slowly away and cracks appeared upon the glass. Suddenly the mirror exploded and Sunset could barely protect herself in time with a quickly cast magic shield by instinct. Shards were scattered around her.
A hole in the wall was everything that remained where once the mirror stood.
Hoofsteps ended the for the unicorn unbearable silence as a certain demoness entered the princess' chamber through her newly created entrance. So Sunset hadn’t imagined things, the corrupted version of herself really was at least twice her size, if not more.
"Surprised? Good, because I have enough of your stubbornness!" Demon Shimmer screamed into the mare's face after closing the distance between them with long strides.
"W-what do you mean?" She didn't understand what this... thing wanted from her.
The corrupted alicorn snorted, "I'm getting tired of your denial. How long will you run away from the truth and continue to blame me for something WE did? I admit that trying to dispose of the princess and the others permanently was more my plan than yours. However, you are the one who chose to take the Element of Magic for yourself in the first place. Nobody and nopony forced you to do it. Don't you see who I am? What I am?"
Sunset growled in disgust, "Of course I know what you are! You represent my earlier self. The arrogant, prideful, power hungry and much more egotistical Sunset Shimmer who never cared for anypony or anything else than herself and her own desires!"
The bigger pony showed her sharp teeth with a far too happy smile, "Indeed. I'm you, a part of you and not some hallucination or creation of Dark Magic, like you wish was the case. We achieved so much in our life and you were simply too weak to pull through in the end. Worse, you abandoned your pride, you abandoned me, after your defeat!"
Her tamer half wouldn't have any of it, "My pride is the very reason I ended up alone! YOU are the reason I lost everything I loved! And for what?! Power? Recognition? Wings?! I'm glad we lost, because that meant that I received a second chance in life! And I won't lose this opportunity because of you!"
"Pah! You naive, stupid mare! Do you really think it's that easy?! That you can simply blame me for everything bad that happened in your life and act as if you are some innocent flower who fell victim to unforeseen circumstances beyond her? Don't make me laugh! You are as much at fault as I am!" Demon Sunset spat.
"Of course not! I know what I did in my past and I will always regret it. But you are wrong if you think that I would need you any longer. Princess Twilight showed me a better way-" she was stopped in mid sentence.
"Does that lie let you sleep better at night? Face it, she could have taken you back home to Equestria, back where you belong. Where you could have been united again with what you lost. Instead she gave you to those six backstabbing morons like some basket case that needed to be reintegrated into society again after going off the deep end. Look at the facts! She abandoned you to live in a world you didn't belong! A unicorn who lives in a world without magic in a body without magic? That sounds like the start of a bad joke," the demoness lectured dryly.
"No! Perhaps it's not Equestria, but now I have real fr-" her voice broke and her eyes widened. Sunset fell to her knees in despair. Right, there was something important she forgot about until now.
The pseudo alicorn's face nearly split because of the victorious grin that adorned her face, "So you DO remember Anon-a-Miss! And here I was worried. Your greatest defeat in life, without even doing anything worth being punished for at all. That must have been terrible for you and how happily everybody jumped at the opportunity of giving you payback for the crimes of your past. I mean really, even the Elements hadn't done such a number on you. And your supposed-to-be 'friends' held you accountable in the moment their own secrets were made public knowledge. Isn't 'true friendship' something wonderful?"
"Stop mocking me!" Sunset responded enraged, the tears were streaming down her cheeks by now. She could only shake her head in resignation, "I just don't know what to do anymore. I thought that they were my best friends! That I could count on them and that they would have my back. Now I have nothing left."
"That's not true, you have still me at your side." Sunset gave her a deadpan glare, "What?"
The unicorn sat herself on her rump, raised an eyebrow and spoke neutrally, "So what's your plan now? Do you want to take over my body? Are you still having these unrealistic dreams of conquest against other princesses with millenia of experience in comparison to us? Or do you want to seek revenge on Twilight and the girls? Which of the three will it be?"
"Seriously? How the mighty have fallen. To use sarcasm on yourself-"
"I'm not you! And you are not me! We-"
"I heard you the first time!" To Sunset's immense surprise the demoness looked hurt. Why? She was nothing more than a twisted entity, right? "You would think being your own person is the greatest thing, but let me tell you that it's not all that cracked up to be, at least for me. I'm a magical manifestation of your ambitions, desires and pride. Created and fed by them, until the Elements of Harmony separated us from each other. I hate to admit it, but the time apart from you gave me more than enough time to reflect on myself and my situation."
"Make sense for once!" Sunset exclaimed in frustration.
Demon Shimmer groaned in embarrassment, "Do I have to spell it out for you?! I'm not truly a living being like you! I have no soul, no real personality. Everything I can do, what I can feel, only serves the purpose of defending our pride or achieving the dreams we had prior to the Fall Formal. The sole reason we can even talk right now is, because your body is in a comatose state since the Windigos attacked you in Canterlot Park."
"What?! So that wasn't a nightmare?! Windigos really invaded Earth?!" Her eyes turned to pinpricks, but not only from shock, but something she didn't feel in years, longing. "Princess Celestia. She was real, too."
Demon Sunset rolled her eyes at the softness in the unicorn's voice, "Yes. I obviously don't know what happened after you lost conscience, but the fact that I didn't disappear into nothingness gives me the hope that she saved your sorry flanks from freezing to death just in time. Could we go back now to more important matters? You know, me and my predicament?"
"How do I know that you won't just try to take over in the moment we are one again?" pony Sunset asked with suspicion in her voice.
The demoness wanted to shout to the non-existent heavens, "Because I'm a part of you! In the moment we are fused together once more I can feel whole again and will most likely return to the places I came from in the first place. Your mind and soul. I'm a representation of your pride, not your deceit, I have no use for such underhoofed tactics. If I really wanted to take over your body I would simply kill you here and now in your weakened state and be done with it."
If that didn't sound nice of her, nothing would, in Sunset's honest opinion. Still, there was something very wrong with her darker half. Gone was the arrogant, self-centered attitude she had during the Fall Formal. No attempt of attacking or taunting her like the unicorn mare expected that a meeting between them would have gone. And what stood out the most was that a being who represented her worst from the past had a sincerely pleading undertone in her voice. The twisted alicorn really wanted to be one again with her, no strings attached. She didn't even try to trick Sunset into a deal where she would remain sentient, instead the demon wanted to give up her existence.
But Sunset had still doubts. What if all this was just an act to take over in the last second when she had her guard down the most?
A conversation of the past stirred in her memories. It happened during the sleepover at Pinkie Pie's place when Princess Twilight tried to help them with the sirens.
"WAH!" Sunset shouted in shock. Where did she come from?!
"Boulder was hungry," Maud said emotionlessly, completely ignoring the stunned expressions of Princess Twilight and Sunset.
To prove her point the passionate rock lover took a box of crackers out of the cupboard to her left and 'fed' her 'pet-rock'.
Sunset backed away, unsure what to do else in this situation. The awkwardness didn't get any better during the whole 'feeding process'. Even after Maud started to leave.
The Equestrian ponies in disguise looked at each other in clear embarrassment. Why was it always so hard to socialize with the party planner's big sister?
"I still can't get over the fact that she's related to Pinkie Pie," Sunset whispered in astonishment to break the silence.
"You and me both," Twilight replied equally quiet with an amused voice.
Both grinned at each other.
Sunset yawned. It seemed the amber-colored girl was more tired than she thought, "I'd better get some sleep. Good luck with the counterspell!" she said a little too chipper and turned around to leave, not seeing the worried expression on the monarch's face. The unicorn-turned-human continued talking, "Not that you'll need it. That must be nothing compared to the stuff you're expected to deal with as a princess in Equestria."
"By Celestia that was close." Sunset was worried for a second that Princess Twilight would want to talk about the fact that she was so distant the whole day.
But Twilight had something on her heart and didn't let her fellow pony leave easily, "Sunset Shimmer?"
The girl in question turned around, visibly concerned, "Please let it be nothing!"
The Princess of Friendship opened her mouth to say something, anything, then she closed it again. Twilight waved with her hand in a calming manner, "Nevermind-"
"Yes!" Sunset thought joyfully.
"-It's not impor... no."
"Ponyfeathers!" She cursed in her mind.
"You are one of my friends, too. So it is important to me. You are important to me. Please! I want to help you, but I can't do it if you are not honest with me. Since I came back to this world I noticed that you are always nervous around me and let me handle everything whenever one of the girls asked a question. I saw it in your eyes that you had ideas of your own, but you never spoke up. Almost as if you were... afraid of me... why?" Twilight sounded visibly hurt.
The disguised pony jumped forward, trying to remain quiet enough that nobody would hear her except the lavender teenager. Her voice became apologetic and strained, "No. It's not your fault Your Highness! It's all my fault. I-I'm so sorry. You have to believe me. I never wanted to hurt you. Worse, I nearly k-killed you and the others-" The princess cringed at hearing the 'K-word'. That was something you didn't hear a pony saying at all in Equestria. Or a transformed one in this case. "-I'm such a monster! Princess Celestia surely hates me now. YOU hate me now! And I deserve every moment of it. I'm nothing more than a dirty-"
She was cut-off by a strong and warm hug. Her eyes widened in surprise, "P-princess?"
Tears wet Sunset's pajamas, "Stop it. I forgave you a long time ago, Sunset Shimmer." Her soft expression turned stern, despite the moment they shared, "You can't burden yourself with the errors of your past or let them define who you are. I'm sure the girls forgave you as well. I did, Spike did and so did Princess Celestia after I explained everything to her."
Sunset's heart nearly stopped when she heard her former mentor's name, "R-really?" she squeaked out softly.
The princess nodded her head and spoke warmly, "Yes. One of the very first things she asked me after my return was: 'How is she? How is my student?' I rarely saw her this happy before when I said to her that you were fine. I'm sure she misses you. Oh, and please call me Twilight from now on. I hate it when my friends call me 'princess' or 'your highness'. I'm just a normal citizen like everypony else and I don't want any special treatment just because I have two wings and a horn. You know, as a pony. Obviously I'm not an alicorn right now in this body. In fact I-"
"Mom..." the amber girl thought sadly before she answered gratefully, "Thank you pri-Twilight. I really don't know what to say to be honest."
"You don't need to say anything, but you have to forgive yourself. Princess Celestia once told me that the forgiveness of others will always feel empty to us if we are not able to forgive ourselves first. Let's just say I caused a little incident with a 'Want-It-Need-It' spell' and know how it feels like to be disgusted by yourself," she laughed falsely.
A Want-It-Need-It spell?! That was one of the strongest forms of mind control! Wow, Sunset didn't expect to hear that.
The two Equestrians were still hugging each other. The turned alicorn went even a step further and rubbed her cheek over Sunset's like a cat. It was comforting and calming gesture between the equines of Equestria. Between friends.
Sunset's face took a similar shade of red as her hair. After all this time she couldn't help it that some patterns of human behaviour took root in her. Must be the teenager hormones, "T-Twilight? Humans normally don't do that to each other. It's more a pony thing."
Confusion reigned over the other girl, then realization, followed by strong embarrassment, "Oh..."