//------------------------------//
// Revelations 
// Story: Pony heart 
// by sunsetsjournal 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 4:
Revelations

When Sunset woke up it was just 6:00 am, it was a sign that despite having gained her calm back, even if for only a night, she had not been sleeping well: “Mmmm...” sighed Sunset, as she rubbed her eyes with her fingers in a rather useless attempt to wake up: “what a night”. After snoring a couple of times she finally felt the right strength to leave her warm blankets and get up from her bed. She walked through the corridor, until she reached the bathroom where she could see her sleepy face in a mirror. As she washed her face, she quickly found out the cold water cloud not make her fears go away as it did with her last wish to go to bed: “At least this time I have some spare time to eat a proper breakfast” thought Sunset.

The girl got to the kitchen room downstairs, opened the fridge, grabbed two eggs and a few beans, a pan from the shelf right above her head and started cooking. As the delicious smell of fried albumen filled the air, her stomach started making weird noises, as if it was directly claiming food: “Ah, I feel you boy; don’t worry you’ll be full in no time!” While keeping an eye on the eggs, Sunset cooked the beans to which she added a special spicy souse she had recently bought and carefully placed them on a platter: “At least that’s something I’m still good at!”The girl was in fact a talented chef, for every recipe she tried, she always made a lot of effort to accomplish the perfect result which she did with ease. Yet it was the last part of making food she enjoyed the most: to her taking care of minimal details as putting together something to eat was a true art which spoke to her soul and in which she would always find distraction from anything bothering her. She took the eggs out of the pan and placed them on the same platter as the beans and added salt and black pepper. She sat on a chair and started enjoying her breakfast, when suddenly she remembered hearing some of her schoolmates in the cafeteria they used to have beckon as well in the morning: “lucky them” thought Sunset: “I’ve always wondered what meat tastes like, but as long as I know, ponies like me are vegetarian and even thought I may have gotten used to some of this world’s food, I am not willing to go that far, yet”.

As she felt herself satisfied with eating, she actually smiled for a bit: “guess breakfast really is the most important meal of the day”, the girl got back to her bedroom and opened the closet: “what to pick...” Sunset took a whole lot of time to choose what to wear, which meant that Rarity’s influence had slowly started to effect her. In the end she went for another leather jacket of hers: this one was also entirely black, if not for two orange stripes on a pair of short sleeves with turnups and had a metal zip, an aquamarine dress which included a fair yellow skirt beneath, a pair of flexible blue jeans which were so clean one could swear they were bright new and a couple of back boots; yet these ones were quite high and the of kind that could be tighten up with the use of two straps located on the front and had orange coloured stripes like the ones on her jacket; then she grabbed her school bag and headed to the door.

As the girl got outside, she felt a fresh breeze gently touching her cheeks while refilling her chest with oxygen, but that was not all, for it looked like even the sun was brighter that day and its rays shone upon the girl like they were there for her, only for her. Sunset was so relived by this one of kind feeling that for a moment she had even began to smile, yet deep in her heart she knew she could not forget what she needed to do, what she should have done in the first place. The girl quietly started walking with her head down and her eyes facing the ground; sometimes her silence broke into a sigh, a sad one, the one that can only be understood by those who felt what is like to be outsiders, cast out, alone, the kind of feeling which can only be understood by those who suddenly find themselves far away from home, surrounded by aliens, strangers who look down on you as a freak, the kind of sensation that only the ones who, after seeking something they do not posses for which they could do absolutely anything, are isolated from the rest of the world, the ones who feel true sorrow and regret every single day as they wake up and look at themselves in a mirror and see a monster behind its thick glass. Sunset knew only one who had felt those things, for it was her own self; yet the girl had also felt what it is like to meet someone special, the only one capable of sharing and comfort her in her suffering, she had felt what it is like to be forgiven and surrounded by friends, for the first time in her life she had felt true happiness. But now it was one of those friends she cared so much about, the one who had showed her the path to achieving joy, to be the cause of her own torment and no matter how hard she tried, she could not help thinking about her, about what had kept her away for so much time, about the reason because of which she had not yet replied to her after so many times she had desperately tried to contact her: “Why?” kept thinking Sunset all the way to school: “Why Twilight? Why aren’t you answering me? Am I not important to you any more?”.

Along the way which strangely seemed longer than usual, Sunset heard laughing and turned to look where it was coming from: it was two kids playing with each other; they both looked rather young, they must have been five or six years old. One of the boys was not so tall, had short straight light brown hair, eyes the colour of dust, a small heart shaped head with a cheerful smile on it and lentigines on his cheeks, the other one was more well built and had dark hair and black eyes, but was happy looking in equal measure.

The sight of those two children brought up certain memories in Sunset’s mind she was not proud of: the memories of a filly with a red and yellow mane and a fresh new cutie mark on her flank, shut in an enormous and luxurious room in a solitary castle, with her hooves on a wooden desk turning the pages of a magic encyclopedia too heavy for her to go around with. That day a certain Minuette and other two fillies along with her had invited her to hang out, but she had refused: “I wonder what she is doing right now” thought Sunset: “maybe she still lives in Canterlot, maybe she still enjoys attending to parties like back in the days, maybe she even still remembers me”.

After that long walk which had unexpectedly brought back to life those painful memories, the girl finally got to school, she raised her head towards the door standing right in front of her, yet she could not see anybody else around: “I am first to arrive” Sunset said to herself: “First, just like in my dream”. Sunset sighed and decided not to go in yet, she turned around and sat on the staircase instead, took her journal from the handbag hanging on her shoulder and opened it: “still nothing” said the girl after turning every page of the only thing which could connect her with her friend or at least that is what she had thought for a moment. As she put the journal back inside her bag, her sight stopped on the CHS wondercolt statue: “Of course!”exclaimed the girl: “there is another way!” Sunset quickly went for the portal, but stopped when she found herself just a few centimetres from it. After staring at it for a few seconds, she tried to make another pace towards the portal, yet it did not take long for Sunset to find out that her legs had suddenly started trembling: “even after all this time I’m still afraid of using it”, the girl was right to hesitate, she knew going from one dimension to another was no joke, that it was doubtlessly a threat, plus the last time she had walked through that very portal she herself was the threat, a threat to Equestria; not to mention the feeling of nausea it had caused her. Nonetheless she found in heart the courage she needed to make the next step and let her right hand pass the portal barrier: “Anything to get my friend back” she kept repeating to herself: “Anything!”. She could already see her whole arm turning into a pony leg, when she felt something touching her left shoulder, as a familiar and at the same time pleasant voice spoke to her:

“What’ ya doin’ Sunset?”, the girl pulled her arm out of the portal and turned around only to see Applejack and the rest of her friends with a questioning look on their faces: “so Sunset?” Applejack repeated:

“Ah, nothing just...”

“Tryin’ to get to Equestria?”

“Well...you see girls, I…” Sunset suddenly stopped talking, probably as she had no excuse to cover for herself at that very moment:

“Darling, we’re your friends”, intervened Rarity: “do not we deserve to know what is going on or more importantly what is bothering you?”

“Sure, but...”

“chelax Sunshim, you have us and we are here for you!”, added Pinkie Pie:

“Mmmm...”, Sunset still hesitated for a moment:

“C’mon Sunset, spill the beans!”, insisted Rainbow Dash:

“We can hep you, If you need us”, said Fluttershy with her sweet and kind voice:

“Ok”, sighed Sunset giving up: “I suppose It’s only fair of me to tell you, after all you’ve all been worrying about me these past few days.” Sunset breathed heavily and said after a while: “here’s the dial...” and told them what nobody else but her own self knew until that moment.