The drive back to Sunsets house was made in silence. Luna couldn’t stop thinking about seeing that monster. He just sat there at the table, like he owned the place. No remorse, no guilt, nothing but the supreme confidence of someone who believes with all of their heart that whatever they may do, it is right.
For Sunset, the drive was an exercise in focus. If she didn’t focus all of her attention on the road, she would have been screaming. Who did he think that he was? Not only had he essentially threatened her dream, but his comment to Luna as they left. That was truly the frightening part. Luna had suffered because of him, but if what he inferred was true, more people have suffered after that. And possibly even worse.
Another thought occured to Sunset during the silent drive. Had she honestly signed up for this? When she and Luna had first got together, Sunset knew that she could deal with the past trauma of one person. But this was a completely different situation. The past was supposed to remain there, and now it was reaching up and showing its teeth.
The bottom line was that Celestia knew that Sunset wasn’t from this world, was operating on forged documents, and was trying to keep a low profile. While her own involvement in that was enough to keep Celestia quiet, Immaculate Faith was another matter. It all came back to Luna. The redhead loved her girlfriend, without question. But was love enough to handle all of this mess? All of the information seemed to point to that it could get even worse. Was it a risk she could take?
The car roared into the garage, shortly after Shining Armor pulled up. The trio walked into the house, and arranged themselves in the kitchen again. Luna reached into her shirt and angrily pulled the microphone out before tossing it on the table.
“A waste of time! Yet again he manages to slide out of any responsibility because of police procedure.”
“Lu, please. We threw this together at the last minute, hoping that we could get something. It was a long shot at best.”
The older woman turned on her lover.
“This was all for nothing! How can you even think that this was a good plan? What was going through your head Sunset? We get there, and then you just lose your temper and walk out? We didn’t even have the chance to do anything!”
Shock was clearly written across Sunset’s face. Before she could respond, the deeper voice of Shining Armor spoke up, interrupting the tirade of the pair of women.
“I think that we all need to calm down. This isn’t something that we could have planned for. Sunset is right that we had minimal time to put any of this together. But Luna has a point that you were in there for less than ten minutes. Your coffee was still hot when you lost your temper Sunset.”
Sunset turned her fire on the detective.
“So this is MY fault now? That bastard threatens Luna. Threatens my dreams. And I am expected to just roll over and take it?”
“Nobody said you just had to roll over, Sunset. But for my sake, you should have at least tried to keep calm! We were going in to try to keep that monster from hurting anyone else, and all you can do is fly off the handle the moment things get rough. I needed you Sunset! I needed for you to be my rock in there, and instead you let that bastard get under you skin and scare you off!”
Shining Armor looked at the pair, watching the escalating argument. This was clearly outside of his jurisdiction.
“Ladies, please! We will figure out another chance to close this. For now we just need to keep calm. I am going to go back to the station and see what I can dig up, but for now please try to keep this under wraps.”
Shining grabbed the microphone and transmitter, and beat a quick retreat to the door. Getting involved in this particular domestic issue wasn’t something that he wanted to do.
Sunset and Luna hardly noticed the detective take his leave. Their fight was only escalating.
“How is this my fault Luna? Here we were doing perfectly well for ourselves, and then when one person comes knocking on the door, you fall apart! One person! How can I count on you to be there for me if a single man can make you shatter like that?”
“How is this about you Sunset? How? The biggest nightmare that has ever walked the earth shows up, my own personal tormentor, and you expect me to NOT fall to bits? I NEEDED YOU! I needed you and you weren’t there for me. How is that a partnership, Sunset? You told me that we would get through this together. You said that you would be right there for me. And you RAN! You ran just like you ran from Equestria! From the fear of being accepted at the fall formal! From being part of a team at the battle of the bands! I needed you to be there for me, to be strong once. Just once. And you became a coward.”
The final word hung in the air between them.
Coward.
Sunset just stared openmouthed at Luna. The silence dragging on as her fury became white hot.
“Get out.”
“What?”
“Luna, you need to get out now.”
As her temper cooled, Luna realized what she had said. Her face dropped from fury to fear.
“Sunset…”
“OUT!”
Luna flinched as Sunset screamed at the top of her lungs, pointing to the door. In a daze, she backed out of the kitchen toward the front door.