She woke up with a sharp gasp. Sitting up in her sleeping bag, her eyes scanned over her sleeping friends, who were all okay. Taking a deep, deep breath, she looked at her arm. Pale yellow met her eyes, instead of the red she was half-expecting. She clenched her hands, nails digging into her palm and ignored the twinges on her shoulders. Slowly, slowly, her hands stopped trembling.
Sunset crawled out of her sleeping bag and carefully weaved her way through the room, avoiding Pinkies’ octopus arms on the way, tiptoeing past Rarity, Fluttershy, and Twilight, and stepping over Rainbow and Applejack. Once out of the room, Sunset stopped and thought. She was thirsty but didn’t feel like walking all the way to the kitchen. Compromising, she made her way to the bathroom. She closed the door and turned the light on.
Turning the water on, she made a cup with her hands and sipped the water. After doing this a couple of times, she glanced up and nearly screamed. Her skin was red, and her eyes were black. Blinking quickly, her image returned to being her normal yellow-skinned and teal-eyed self. She sighed softly and splashed some water on her face. Realizing she was sweating, she decided to take her shirt off - just for a minute or two. As she raised her arms, the twinges in her shoulder pulsed and throbbed. She finished removing her shirt and threw it to the ground. Turning around, she eyed what was causing the twinges. Situated on each shoulder was a scar, remnants of her time as a—she stopped that thought and shook her head slightly.
The doorknob started to shake and turn. Sunset whirled around, picking up her shirt to cover her front, and thinking, Buck. I forgot to lock the door. Twilight stood on the other side of the opened door, blinking at Sunset through her glasses.
“I—I’m sorry, I didn’t realize it was occupied.” Twilight started to turn around, but her eyes were drawn to something behind Sunset. “Wha- Sunset, are you ok?”
“Of-Of course I’m fine, Twilight. I’ll be out in a minute, just got a little hot in the room.” Sunset said, eyes glancing to the side.
“Then what are those?” Twilight asked.
“What are what?”
“Sunset”
“Oh, those.” Sunset had forgotten about the mirror. Bucking mirrors. I’m trying to hide here, and you go and show her. “They’re called scars, Twilight.”
“I know what scars are, Sunset. A scar is an area of fibrous tissue that replaces normal skin after an injury. Scars result from the biological process of wound repair. But you haven’t been…hurt recently, not that I can remember. And those look new.” Twilight furrowed her brow, trying to remember something that important.
Sunset wondered if she could distract Twilight, because she was just too tired to deal with all this, especially after her nightma---dream. It was a dream, that’s all. “They’re not new, Twilight. And I’m done with this conversation.” Twilight looked down, shrinking into herself. “I’m too tired right now. I’ll answer your questions tomorrow, ok?” She was going to regret that, probably, but she didn’t care. She threw her shirt back on and walked out of the bathroom, ducking under Twilights’ arm.
“Ok. But you will answer them? Truthfully?” Twilight turned around, looking at Sunset, and Sunset hesitated, but nodded. “Night, Sunset.”
Sunset fled---walked-- back to the room, back past Applejack and Rainbow, past Fluttershy and Rarity, and tripping over Pinkie, landed in her sleeping bag. Horsefeathers. Bucking horsefeathers. Why did I say that? I don’t want her to know. But I can’t—won’t—lie to her. Hopefully, she’ll forget. Sunset curled up in her bag, tears leaking through her closed eyes as her shoulders kept throbbing.
Sunset snuggled deeper into her sleeping bag, ignoring the sounds of the fillies waking up and getting ready for the day. Rarity, Fluttershy, and Applejack were the first ones up, followed by Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle. Rainbow Dash and Sunset were always the last ones up. At the thought of Twilight, Sunset remembered her promise, and nearly groaned. Finally surrendering to the fact she had to get up, she wriggled her way out of her sleeping bag, yawning and looking around to determine where everypony was. No-one was in the room with her, not even Rainbow, so she was the last to get up. Stumbling down the stairs, she shuffled into the kitchen, and poured herself a cup of coffee. Turning around, she saw all her friends sitting at the table, just watching her.
“M-M-Morning.” She yawned. None of her friends answered, still just looking at her. Which is a little creepy.Why is Pinkie sitting still? “Is everything all right, girls? You’re all acting….” Sunset struggled to find a good word, then gave up, “Weird. You’re all acting weird.”
The girls exchanged glances, and Twilight spoke up first. “Sunset, do... do you remember last night? Our…. talk?” Sunset just stared at her and nodded slightly. “So, can… can we continue it?”
Sunset glanced at the other girls and took a giant gulp of her coffee to hide her nervousness. Of course she would tell the others. “I--I guess so. What do you filly—girls want to know?” She winced as she stumbled through the word, closing her eyes and taking a sip of coffee. I am not awake enough for this. Please don't ask anything I don't want to answer.
Exchanging glances again, and Rarity spoke this time. “Darling, forgive us, but Twilight did tell us about your conversation last night. Do you have scars on your shoulders?” Sunset nodded, figuring there was no reason to lie about that. “Oh, how ghastly.”
“You mean, how awesome.” Rainbow ‘corrected’ her. “Even with all the stunts I’ve pulled, I’ve never managed to get a scar, not even when I skateboarded into that car that one time.”
Applejack frowned, “Whether it’s cool or ghastly, Ah’m more concerned ‘bout how ya got the scars, Sunset. Twilight said it looked recent, but Ah didn’t think ya had done anything to get them.”
Sunset looked at Twilight, who shrunk down and muttered a sorry. “I’m not mad, Twilight. And girls, the scars aren’t new. They … just… happened to look that way last night. They’re from…” Sunset wondered how to put it, so they would stop asking questions, then realized they'd ask questions anyway, no matter what she said. “From the Fall Formal.”
“From the Formal, so when you turned into that Demon, the wings and tail left scars? But you would’ve told us, right? Unless you thought you deserved it, and didn’t think you could tell us, because you thought we wouldn’t help you, because Princess Twilight asked us to look after you, and you thought we were just doing what we were told, without caring about you. But that’s not true, because we do care about you, because you’re our friend, and friends shouldn’t leave friends to be hurt by themselves, because then, they’re not being very good friends.” Pinkie took a breath.
“That’s not the case, Pinkie.” Sunset said after she figured out what Pinkie had said. “It’s not that I wasn’t going to tell you filly—girls, it was more the fact there was no reason to mention it. And after the Dazzlings, when you all had seen my back, I figured you had seen them and just didn't want to bring it up."
“umm, why do you keep calling us fillies? And are you ok answering our questions?” Fluttershy spoke up.
Sunset shrugged. "I'm not awake yet. And if I didn't want to answer your questions, I wouldn't be."
“Wait, wait, wait. You said that you got the scars from the Fall Formal, when you turned into that Demon. Does that mean Twilight has scars, too? From her time as that thing?” Rainbow asked, looking at Twilight.
“No, I don’t have any scars.” Twilight shook her head. “But I am curious about that, Sunset. If you turned into a…a Demon and got the scars, would I not also get the scars from when I turned into one, as well?”
Sunset finished her coffee and poured another cup. She would have to give a small lesson on Magic and Intent. It is entirely too early for this discussion. After taking another sip, she explained, “That’s a bit different. Part of it was willingness. Part of it was want. Part of it was feeling. Part of it was intent. I was feeling anger and jealously and had stolen something that I had no right to. And I wanted to hurt ponies. I didn’t want, or expect, to change. Thus, my… transformation was unwilling. But my outside changed to match my inside—at the time. When you changed, Twilight, you were just curious, right?” Sunset glanced at Twilight, who nodded. “So, you were curious and just wanted to find out more about Magic. While you didn't want to change, Magic had to change you into a form that could handle the magic you were attempting to find out about. You didn't want to hurt anyone and Magic didn’t want to harm you, either. So it didn't leave any scars." Sunset finished her coffee.
Rarity and Fluttershy frowned. "Then why did the scars look new? If they're from the Formal, that's been quite a long time. They shouldn't look new."
Sunset crossed over to the sink and started to wash her cup. "They just...do that sometimes. Nothing serious, girls."
"I've never heard of scars doing that." Twilight sounded doubtful.
"Yeah, well, personal experience is different from reading about it, Twilight." Sunset nearly snapped at her. "Ok, girls. Seriously. Enough. They look new, but they're not. And they don't hurt." A lie, but she wanted them to back off. She watched them exchange another round of glances, but they all agreed to drop the subject. Thank Celestia they didn't ask more questions--like why I was up in the middle of the night. Or how often they appear like new.