Twilight and Trixie stared at Sunset Shimmer from across the table as she finished her tale.
Twilight had covered her mouth, tears openly streaming down her face, while Trixie just stared in wide eyed shock. Sunset was trying to keep it together for the sake of finishing her story with mixed results.
She wasn't outright crying like the lavender filly, but her eyes were moist with unshed tears and she was shaking visibly with the effort not to break down right then and there.
"Trixie is... Trixie doesn't..." Trixie trailed off and slowly shook her head in disbelief, "Trixie doesn't know what to say..."
"How could... why would the Princess do something like that?" Twilight whispered with a sniff, "I don't understand."
Sunset didn't respond for a few moments as she tried to get herself under control enough to speak again. Twilight and Trixie waited for Sunset while she took some deep breaths and a large swig of orange juice. She slammed her cup back down on the table and spoke suddenly.
"I still don't know for sure why she did what she did, but now that I've taken some time to think back on it," she wiped her eyes with a hoof and looked at the other two fillies, "it almost sounded like she was deliberately trying to scare me - to teach me some kind of lesson."
"But why though?" Twilight said, stomping her hooves on the table indignantly, "why did Princess Celestia resort to such... heavy-hoofed tactics just for a lesson? What was even the point?"
Sunset was about to give her answer when - to Twilight and Sunset's surprise - Trixie cut in.
"She probably wanted to scare Sunset into not doing something," Trixie said quietly, not meeting the other fillies eyes. The orange and lavender fillies looked at Trixie for another moment before Sunset lowered her head, brow furrowed in contemplation.
"That... that makes sense," Sunset muttered. She slowly nodded and looked back up at the other two, "she didn't want me to learn Runic or Summoning Magic, and I think she thought I might try to learn more about them anyway."
"So she tried to scare you away with an illusion - some kind of terrifying memory from the past," Twilight finished with a grimace, "and she definitely went too far."
"Trixie agrees," the blue filly added, directing a glare at the table, "for the Princess of all ponies to show something like... like that to a foal," she clenched her teeth in anger, "it's dep... depora... daplo..." she shook her head fiercely and slammed her hooves into the table in front of her, "it's unforgivable!"
Twilight and Sunset stared at Trixie with widened eyes, taken aback by the sudden fury in her voice.
"Trixie..." Twilight began to ask in concern, "are you-"
"Trixie is fine!" she snapped. She turned to face Sunset, trying to get back on the topic at hoof and the attention away from her, "what happened after you blacked out?"
"Well..." Sunset answered tentatively, casting a wary glance at Trixie, "I woke up in the castle infirmary. Princess Celestia was there looking worried-" she scoffed "-though now I'm not sure if it was because of my health or because she was afraid that I remembered what she did."
"And then?" Trixie pushed, "what else happened?"
"I started to freak out when I saw Celestia, but then the voice stopped me - told me to calm down and act normal."
"That's another thing I don't get," Twilight interjected, "what was that voice? Did you find out why you were hearing it or where it came from?"
Sunset shook her head with a bemused frown, "I never found out who's voice it was, and I haven't heard it again since I left the castle."
"Weird..." Twilight muttered. Sunset nodded in agreement and continued her story.
"Anyway, it took some time, but eventually I was able to convince the Princess that my panic attack was a severe case of nosocomephobia-"
"A severe case of what?" Trixie cut in, confused.
"A fear of hospitals," Twilight absently clarified before addressing the orange filly, "and she believed you?"
"I'm... actually not sure," Sunset replied, "but she didn't bring it up again."
Sunset's stomach growled softly and she looked down, remembering that she had yet to finish her late lunch. She picked up the sandwich and took a bite before continuing.
"I couldn't stay around Celestia after that," she said through a mouthful of daisy sandwich. She swallowed and started again, "every time I saw her I would start to have another panic attack and have to leave before she noticed.
"I could tell she was starting to get more and more suspicious, so I did what the voice told me to do... I left," she polished off her sandwich and idly gazed at the gently falling snow outside the window, "one night, I just grabbed some things I'd need for a long trip and slipped out of the castle without a word to the Princess."
She turned back to the others with a resolute frown.
"I never looked back."
Trixie gave Sunset a look of approval, but Twilight was more concerned.
"What about your family?" she asked, "why didn't you go back to them?"
Sunset chuckled humorlessly in response.
"I don't have a family, Twilight," she said, giving the lavender filly a sad smile, "from what I was told, my mom died during child birth and my dad gave me up to an orphanage when I was barely a month old - or that's what my caretaker assumed anyway. That's where I had been living before the Princess took me in."
"Oh..." Twilight replied with a melancholy frown.
Sunset's smile turned reassuring, "Don't worry too much about it, Twilight. I'm not broken up about it or anything," she looked at the table with a slight frown, "I mean yeah, it kind of hurts knowing that my mom died and my dad may not have wanted me, but I never knew either of them so I can't really be all that sad about it, y'know?"
"I... I guess so..." Twilight said, looking unconvinced.
Trixie remained conspicuously quiet on the matter and, after a minute decided to change the subject entirely.
"What about that weird door you saw in the hallway?" she asked, "did you find out what was behind it?"
"No," Sunset replied with another shake of her head, "I never got the chance to ask. I was a little... distracted at the time, remember?"
"Oh... right."
"That reminds me..." Twilight chimed in, tapping her hoof on the table thoughtfully, "why was the Princess so fixated on 'what it means to be a Princess'?" she frowned as she looked at the orange filly, "she said she was worried about the future and thinking about what being a Princess meant.
"Is she afraid something bad's going to happen at some point in the foreseeable future?"
"I'm not sure," Sunset replied with a shrug, "but now that you mention it, she did seem like she was trying to get me to understand what a Princess had to go through, I'm just not sure why."
"Well Trixie still thinks the whole thing is a load of horseapples," Trixie added with an indignant huff.
"Watch that mouth, young lady," an old raspy voice called out sternly as the front door swung open.
The three fillies turned their attention to the old stallion trotting into the cottage with varying looks of surprise.
"Uncle Scroll!" Twilight exclaimed, hopping out of her seat and making her way over. After a moment, Sunset and Trixie followed behind her.
"Hey, girls," he said with a smile as he levitated his saddlebags off his back and into the kitchen, "I miss anything important while I was out?"
Twilight went to answer, but Sunset cut her off.
"Not much," she replied casually, "we were just talking while we ate some lunch. I'll tell you about it later."
"A bit late for lunch isn't it?" Ancient Scroll asked raising an eyebrow, "Sun's just about to hit the horizon - not that you can see it out there."
Sunset shrugged.
"I hadn't eaten since I woke up, and Twilight was hungry too."
"Ah, I see," Ancient Scroll replied with an understanding nod, "fair enough," he trotted into the kitchen, "help me put some of these groceries away, would you, girls?"
Trixie and Twilight began making their way over to where Ancient Scroll was, when Sunset suddenly stopped Twilight, putting a hoof on her shoulder. Twilight looked over to the orange filly questioningly.
"I just wanted to say thanks, Twilight," Sunset said with a grateful smile, "you were right, I do feel a lot better now that I told you girls," she turned her gaze to the kitchen entrance, "I think I should be able to tell Uncle Scroll about it myself."
"That's good to hear, Sunset," Twilight responded, returning Sunset's smile, "I'm glad you decided to share that with us. I know how painful that must've been."
Sunset nodded in response and without another word, they both followed Trixie into the kitchen.