//------------------------------// // Night Part II: Words and Food // Story: Ashes to Inferno // by Sun Aura //------------------------------//                 One hot shower later, Sunset felt better. At least physically. Fluttershy had been right about her back. The wounds were mostly healed, but definitely scars. She was okay with that. Maybe it was a delayed reaction, but she was okay that the worst that actually happened was physical scaring.                 Though as she dried off, she found another ‘scar’ of sorts. She’d thought it was just her imagination at first, but her teeth were odd. Though it was nowhere near the mouth full of fangs her Demon form had, her canines were just a little too long, a little too sharp. Checking herself over once more, she was glad not to find any other surprises.                 Before she left, she took a breath and thought over her options. She could run. With her money, it would be easy to run, transfer to a different school. Get as far away from everything as possible.                 Yet she didn’t want to. She’d hated these five girls, for reasons beyond their control. She’d torn them apart. But somehow, they wanted to give her another chance. And she wanted to take that chance. She wanted to be happy, and these five…. They weren’t a ‘key to happiness’. She wasn’t going to invest all of her happiness in their approval, or lie to keep them liking her. But they could teach her to find it herself, though she did have one question.                 Taking another breath, she walked downstairs. The smell of something delicious was emanating throughout the halls, and led her directly to the kitchen.                 The girls seemed to have done more than just a pizza run. Something was in the oven, and both Pinkie and Applejack were still fussing over bowls of various things, and slapping Rainbow’s hand every time she reached to sample the bowl. Sunset was more than a little terrified by the amount of flour all over the kitchen.                 “What in the hell?” Sunset muttered.                 “Howdy there,” Applejack greeted, smacking Rainbow’s hand again.                 “What happened to pizza?” she wondered.                 “Well, there weren’t any places open,” Pinkie explained. “But there’s a 24/7 grocery shop in between my place and yours. So when I went and grabbed my usual sleepover supplies, we stopped there and grabbed a few extra odds and ends from my kitchen because I didn’t know what you had.”                 “Uh huh,” she nodded, looking over the kitchen. “And what all are you making?”                 “A lot of things,” she shrugged. “Right now we have some macaroni and cheese pizza going, but I’m working on more pizza, along with various cookies and AJ’s making pie! Oh! And I’m working on two cupcake flavors, but I’m only making the lemon-raspberry ones right now!”                 “That’s a lot of food,” she mused.                 “Well, there are six of us,” Rarity said.                 “And we also picked up chips and soda and other junk,” Rainbow said, reaching for the bowl again. “Damn it AJ!”                 “You want cookies, you have to wait,” Applejack said, waving her spoon threateningly.                 “Oh, but Pinkie can eat all the dough and batter she wants?” she retorted.                 “Chef’s privilege,” she smirked. “You learn to cook something other than a hot pocket, you can eat the dough.”                 Rainbow pouted, but refrained from reaching to the bowl again. Sunset gave a small snicker at their antics.                 “Hey,” Sunset grabbed their attention. “Can we… can we talk about a few things?”                 They all nodded, gathering around the kitchen table. Sunset sat at one end, Pinkie on the opposite, the rest in the middle with Rarity and Fluttershy closer to Sunset. Putting her hands on its surface, she took a breath and braced herself.                 “I want to talk,” Sunset began. “About where we go from here. I know you said you’re not doing this because Princess Twilight asked you to. But I want to be sure…. I don’t want this to be an immediate forgive and forget. I don’t mean I want you to hang it over my head because ‘I deserve punishment’ or whatever. I mean that I don’t want you to pretend that I never hurt you.                 “Because I know I did,” she swallowed. “I knew exactly what I was doing. I just thought I was doing the wrong thing for the right reasons. It doesn’t excuse what I’ve done. I know you are open to forgiving me, but I want to actually work to earn that forgiveness, not just pretend it didn’t happen.”                 “That’s a good plan,” Applejack said. “Good thing most of us were already planning on something like that.”                 “You were?” she asked.                 “Well, AJ and I were,” Rainbow said. “Pinks and Shy give in easy, and Rares is fond of second chances. I’ll admit, I’m going to be stubborn. But I’m not going to not try. I’m open to you being a better person, but I have to see it happen. I’m not going to, you know, set up a test to see if you’re really doing good, but I’m not going to fight you.”                 Everyone stopped and stared.                 “What?” she asked.                 “Your middle name is ‘Fight Me’,” Pinkie said.                 “No it’s not,” she stuck out her tongue. “But point is, I’m still going to try and be your friend and do all the things friends would do. But I’m not going one hundred percent on the ‘trust’ side until I see more of you. Maybe it’ll be gradual, maybe it’ll be an event. Who knows.”                 “Good to know,” Sunset said. “But the rest of you, I have to ask. Going into this, do you believe I can actually be a better person?”                 “Anyone can,” Fluttershy said. “As long as you want to be better, you can. If you didn’t want to, we wouldn’t be here.”                 “Definitely!” Pinkie nodded. “Like, yeah, you were totally a dick for a while, but I’ve seen you make others happy. When you weren’t actively being mean, you were fun to hang around. And you were definitely having fun on stage last year, even with me literally climbing you.”                 “I already said my thing,” Rainbow said. “But again, I think you can, but I need to see it happen before I go in full force.”                 “That goes for me too,” Applejack said. “Skeptical, but open to the idea and willing to work with you.”                 “I always knew you couldn’t be completely horrible,” Rarity said. “I still remember when we met at the Freshman Fair. You were so embarrassed that Principal Celestia ‘told the pretty girl you were scared’.”                 “Ugh,” Sunset rubbed her face. “I was really hoping you’d forgotten about that.”                 “Actually, that’s a good question,” Rainbow interjected. “Do you even like people?”                 “What kind of question is that?” Pinkie asked.                 “Let me rephrase that,” she backpedaled. “You grew up in a world of magical creatures, but no Humans. Are you attracted to Humans or do we look super weird to you? Follow up question, how do you feel about this world’s horses?”                 “This feels like a loaded question,” Sunset said. “This world’s horses are fucking creepy. Yes, they share traits, but they’re like some kind of monstrous mockery to the point I’d need to draw a picture to explain. Humans, on the other hand, while they fall into the Uncanny Valley due to the Counterpart thing, you’re a Sapient race. Equestria has more than just Ponies. Dragons and Griffons for example, are also Sapient beings. The way most Equestrians will see it, as long as you’re Sapient it’s a free pass.”                 “Huh,” Applejack said. “Never thought of it like that. Then again, we only have Humans.”                 “We’re getting off track,” she shook her head. “Overall, thank you. For even believing I can, or for believing the possibility. And I’ll try to earn that, in any way I can.”                 “For now, let’s start with apologies,” Sunset said. “I’ll apologize for individual events as I remember them, but first I’ll just say I’m sorry in general. I’m sorry for thinking the ends justified the means, that I was hurting you guys to get something that I never had a chance at. And I’m sorry I hated you for things outside your control. Hell, I hated you for something even Princes Twilight and your Counterparts couldn’t control. “                 “Why?” Pinkie asked. “I mean, okay, yeah, we were probably in your way, so I can see how you’d need to break us up-“                 “Pinkie!” the other four chastised.                 “Well it’s true,” she defended. “She wanted Twilight’s Element of Magic, but it reacted to our friendship. If we weren’t friends we couldn’t interact with it, so whatever she was trying to do would’ve been ruined just by the fact that we have a stronger connection to it. So I can see why you need us out of the way for your plan, but what was the point of it all and why did you hate us? And what was your plan because Princesses Celestia and Luna are really powerful and could probably easily vaporize any threat if they weren’t so against killing in the first place.”                 “It’s a very long story,” Sunset sighed.                 “You can start from the beginning,” Fluttershy said.                 She put her hand over Sunset’s, a feeling of softness and warmth practically radiating out of her. Sunset looked around them once more, and found that while she was nervous, she wasn’t scared. They might not agree, but they were willing to listen.                 “It started years ago,” Sunset began. “I was a lot like Twilight had been. Magically gifted, intelligent, all that. And just like her, Princess Celestia took me in as her personal student, teaching me Magic far beyond what the average Unicorn knows. Things far beyond what anyone would know, really. Ancient spells, Magic that answered to no one, but could be convinced to work with you.                 “But there was one thing I didn’t really have,” she continued. “I wasn’t the best at interacting, and most of the ponies I did interact with were bratty Nobles. But I came to see that the Princess was more than a Princess, she was a Pony, just like any of us. I wanted more than a teacher, I wanted a friend. I wanted her as a friend.                 “So I did anything I thought I had to do to make her my friend. I pushed others away so that I could master spells because I thought if I were the best student, she’d like me more. I thought the only thing keeping us apart was the fact that she was a Princess and I was not, so that became my goal. I spent nearly four years doing that, before breaking into the Dark Magic section.                 “Of course, that led to a fight and she kicked me out. I ended up running away and made my way here. I restarted my life, basically. Spent a year learning enough to be a passable kid, then enrolled myself in school. At first it was just, you know, continuing life. Get an education, get a job, so on.                 “The Freshman Year Fall Formal, well, that was a surprise win. I hadn’t been trying to make friends, but I wasn’t going out of my way to be a jerk. I was just charming enough on my own that when I entered as a joke I managed to win. But I realized that I liked it when people liked me. So I did everything to keep them liking me.                 “But after Sophmore Year, I heard about Princess Twilight. She was not only my replacement, but she’d done everything I couldn’t. Celestia loved her, because she and your Counterparts had gained the Elements of Harmony. I thought that if I could get the Element of Magic, I could prove I was worthy of everything I’d wanted.                 “Pinkie already pointed out why I tore you apart. If I wanted to be able to use the Element of Magic, I had to break any connection you five might have to it. And I threw away everything I had chasing after my old dreams. Every sort-of-friend I made, because I thought if I could just get Celestia’s approval, I could have everything.                 “You already figured out I faked those messages to cause your fights. I got Applejack’s phone by pretending to spill a drink on you. Fluttershy, you left yours in your locker during Gym class. And Pinkie, well, during our scenes at rehearsal had been easy. But I had to keep you apart, which meant getting your ‘groups’ to fight. That took rumors and blackmail.                 “I began to hate you, to think you deserved it. Because I couldn’t figure out why you and your counterparts deserved everything that was withheld from me. It wasn’t your fault, it wasn’t even your counterpart’s fault. I was just chasing after something that was never mine to begin with. Who knows why Celestia liked your Counterparts. Maybe it’s my fault, for thinking the ends could justify the means, maybe it wasn’t meant to be.”                 “But the worst part is what almost happened. I used the Element of Magic without a trace of the other five Elements, and the Magic turned Dark. That-that thing I turned into was every negative emotion I had felt or caused. I wanted power to obtain my goals, and the Dark Magic twisted it around and blasted that ambition into a want for power itself.                 “By the time I’d realized how much I fucked up, I was already a Demon. I was... so angry and scared, and that Magic made it all the more intense. I hurt so much that I didn't care what happened, just that I thought having power would make me happy in some way, make it all stop. And I... I'm sorry for all I could've done like that.                 “Again, it doesn’t excuse anything I did. I made many bad decisions. And I’m sorry for not realizing it sooner.”                 “So, like, ‘Cool motive, still murder’,” Pinkie said, gaining glares from the other four. “What?”                 “Pretty much,” Sunset nodded. “I don’t know if you’d call it a ‘cool’ motive though. But yes, I had my reasons, even if it doesn’t justify anything.”                 “You are right,” Rarity said. “I definitely disagree with the choices you made. But I can see why you made them.”                 “I can’t say I wouldn’t make the same mistakes in that situation,” Applejack nodded. “I’d like to think I would choose better, but unless I experience it, I wouldn’t know.”                 “I kinda hate the whole thing,” Rainbow said. “Not the-ugh I need to think things through. I meant I hate fact that you were in a situation where you had that as an option.”                 “So, where do we go from here?” Sunset asked.                 “Well,” Pinkie said. “Usually I’d check on the pizza so I don’t burn your house down. After we have all the cookies and cupcakes and pie ready we’ll stuff our faces and do sleepover stuff. Usually I’d say ‘nostalgia movies’, but Equestria doesn’t have movies much less ones that we have here so 'nostalgia' is relative! But we can still do makeovers and talk and play truth or dare and- Oh fuck my pizza!”                 The group laughed as she jumped and sprinted to the oven.                 Sunset decided she liked this. She liked….whatever this was exactly. Friendship wasn’t the right word, not yet.                 They were definitely friendly, cheerful, and getting closer as the night went on. But Sunset could feel it. They weren’t yet giving it their all. They didn’t completely trust her yet.                 She wasn’t mad, of course. It was understandable. In fact, she was glad they were holding back. She’d meant it when she said she didn’t want them to forgive and forget. But she was happy to be slowly earning that trust.