Sunset Shimmer was sitting on a chair in front of the principal’s desk and Principal Celestia was standing in front of the large black and white photo hanging on her wall, a perfect reenactment of her first day in Canterlot Academy.
“Remember what I told you when we first met, Miss Shimmer? I told you that the students of Canterlot Academy are amongst the brightest and most talented in the country, from all sorts of different background. Every single one has proven their worth and earned their keep, and you are no different; your grades are spectacular, I thought you had a bright future ahead of you despite your rocky start.
“But I’ve received some worrying reports about your behavior. I was willing to look the other way as long as you only behaved badly within school ground, hoping that we could contain you, convince you to convert all that extra energy into something good, something productive. But after today, I can see that this is not working.”
“Wait, you think I was responsible for the fire?!” Sunset Shimmer finally stood up, ready to defend herself. “I’ll have you know that--”
“Sit! Down!” Principal Celestia interrupted, turning around and shooting the student and icy glare that made Sunset flinch. “I am not finished.” Sunset Shimmer did as she was told. “I know you are not responsible for our gymnasium burning down, the vice principal herself saw a suspicious person fleeing the scene not long after the fire had started and we are going to find out who he or she was. But let’s not digress, we are here to discuss your behavior.”
“Fighting. Blackmail. Extortion. Trespassing. Those are all flaws I thought we could fix. But an all-out brawl in the middle of the park? Attacking someone with a real sword? Destruction of private property? And that’s only the tip of the iceberg. For goodness sake, you bullied the son of the Truebloods into cleaning their house after you vandalized it yourself!”
Sunset Shimmer wanted to challenge those accusations, but she was stunned at how well-informed the principal was. “Wh-What--”
“All this information came from a very credible whistleblower who asked for their identity to remain undisclosed for fear of retaliation, if that’s what you’re about to ask.”
“I--”
“Before you come up with any excuses, Miss Shimmer, I want you to know that this person has also provided heaps of evidence that they are going through with Vice Principal Luna as we speak. If anything you say contradicts what we have, things will only look worse for you, so I warn you to think carefully before speaking.”
Sunset Shimmer opened her mouth, but the words wouldn’t come out. After several failed attempts at speaking, she gave up.
“Well, under other circumstances I would expel you immediately, but I am willing to give you the chance to redeem yourself.” Principal Celestia sat down on her chair and interlocked her fingers under her chin. “I know for a fact you couldn’t have done all of this alone, but our mutual friend has done enough bringing all this to my attention. Now I want to hear this from you: tell me who else was involved in those incidents, and I’ll go easy on you.”
“What if I told you there was no one else involved?”
“Then I would accuse you of lying, because that’s what that would be.”
“Too bad, because that’s my answer. None of my friends were involved, and that’s the end of the story.”
“Think about what you’re throwing away, Miss Shimmer. Graduating from Canterlot Academy opens up a lot of opportunities later in life, opportunities that you are turning your back on for petty reasons.”
“Since when was loyalty to those I care about reduced to pettiness?”
“Loyalty, huh? So there are other people involved.”
“Ok, fine, you got me. I wasn’t working alone, but guess what? I’m not telling you. If you want to find out then do it yourself, you lazy cow!”
“Excuse me?”
“What, can’t hear me from up there you dumb giraffe? I’m going to be expelled anyway, I have nothing to lose, so let me get a few things out of my chest: your stuck-up school is a literal dumpster and your teachers are a joke who only suck up to you in order to gain a raise. Everybody hates you, you long-legged freak, and I’m happy to leave this shithole behind. ‘One of the best’ my ass, this is worse than a concentration camp!”
Principal Celestia angrily slammed her hands on her desk.
“Gather up your things and get out of my school. If you’re still here in the next ten minutes I will have my prefects forcefully throw you out.”
Sunset Shimmer got up and walked towards the door. “I won’t give them the satisfaction.”
“And don’t even think about wearing our uniform, I don’t want people thinking someone like you is associated with the prestigious Canterlot Academy!”
“I’m not sure the bum who finds this poor excuse of a dishrag in the garbage will care about how prestigious this pile of shit school is as he uses it to wipe his ass!”
“OUT! NOW!”
“GLADLY!”
Sunset Shimmer slammed the door shut, causing a picture frame that was hanging near the door to fall and crack the glass. Sunset Shimmer picked it up, and after a quick inspection she figured out it was a smaller version of the black and white photo the principal was staring at in her office. She turned around as she heard the sound of the door across from the principal’s opening.
“What’s with all the screaming?” Vice Principal Luna asked.
“None of your damn busin--” Sunset Shimmer stopped halfway when she peered into the darkness of the woman’s office and saw the light of a desk lamp illuminating two things: the first was the pile of evidence Principal Celestia told her about. The second was the face of the person sitting in front of the desk who, according to what the principal told her, was the snitch. They silently stared at each other for what felt like hours.
“…Fluttershy?” The girl tried to hide behind a curtain of pink hair as Sunset tried to march into the office, only to be stopped by the vice principal herself. “No. No no no, that can’t be right! Someone is fucking with me, right? You-You are not the snitch, Fluttershy! That can’t be you. You are…”
The shy girl looked away from her “friend” and sighed.
“I’m so sorry, Sunset, but you were out of control, I had to tell someone!”
The amber-skinned girl’s legs stopped responding and she fell to her knees. “…my friend.”
Luna said something to her, but she had completely tuned out the world at this point. The one person she felt she could trust the most had stabbed her in the back; the world was spinning and nothing made sense anymore.
The vice principal placed her hands on her shoulders but Sunset Shimmer shrugged them off, got up and ran. She only stopped running when she returned to her dorm room. Along the way, her shock and sadness morphed into rage, so the sound of the door slamming against the wall as Sunset kicked it open echoed throughout the entire building. Only when she was inside did she realize that she was still holding the picture frame with the cracked glass. She was going to toss it into the trash bin when something caught her attention.
With a raised eyebrow, she removed the monochrome image from the picture frame and inspected it closely. On the far left of the row stood one girl in particular that caught her eye; she was scowling at the camera with her arms crossed and her hairstyle looked very familiar: twintails with highlights. She couldn’t possibly tell what color they were, given that the picture itself had none, but the hair was much darker than the highlights.
The girl standing to her right had light hair with dark highlights styled in a bob cut and waved at the camera with a huge smile, but she also looked very familiar once Sunset imagined her with longer hair tied up in a ponytail.
The girl beside her wore glasses, her hair was styled in an over-the-shoulder braid and she also had her arms crossed but, unlike the first girl, she was smiling. Not just any smile, but a smirk; a wicked smirk that had been burned in her memory. The same smirk that plastered Adagio’s face the last time she saw her, underneath Canterlot Academy, in The Pit, all those months ago.
“How is this possible?” Sunset muttered; her confusion was justified, given that the picture she was staring at was around a hundred years old.
Sunset Shimmer threw the picture in her backpack, alongside a few other possessions. She also stuffed the clothes she was wearing when she first crossed the portal in the backpack; she would ask for her friends to pick up the rest of her stuff for her once she found a place to call home, but for now it would be wise to carry at least one change of clothes in case she needed it. She then took off her school uniform and picked up random articles of clothing. Once dressed, she gave the room she once shared with Fluttershy and Adagio Dazzle one last once-over before grabbing the skateboard leaning against the wall and exiting the building.
A group of people was waiting for her outside: Rainbow Dash, Trixie, Starlight, Derpy, Moondancer, Twilight and Rarity.
“We heard you being called to Celestia’s office.” Derpy asked. “What was that all about?”
“And why aren’t you wearing your uniform, darling? Did something happen?” Rarity asked, dreading the answer.
“Well, it’s been fun, but I guess I’m not Canterlot Academy material after all. Starting today, I’ll attend to my education somewhere else.”
“I’m sorry, what?” Twilight asked. “You’re leaving? But why?”
“Principal Celestia thinks I’m an animal that needs to be tamed, but I am a free spirit. She didn’t like that very much, so I got kicked out. Also Fluttershy is a filthy little traitorous bitch who snitched on me!”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Fluttershy? No, that can’t be right, Fluttershy would never--” Rainbow Dash tried defending her friend.
“Well, she would. And she did! Why not ask her yourself, she’s with the VP right now, going over the evidence she collected on the things I did!”
“But why would she do that? She doesn’t seem the type.” Trixie questioned.
“Who knows? She was friends with Adagio before I came along, maybe they’ve been working together this whole time. I wish I could figure out what made her flip on me, but sadly I don’t have the time; if I don’t leave the school in the next few minutes, the prefects will kick me out themselves.”
“Correction, we’re going to kick you out right now!” They all turned around to see Fleur de Lis, leader of the prefects, standing just a few feet away from them with her three subordinates, Octavia, Sour Sweet and Sophisticata. “Your ten-minute head start is up, now please come along or we’ll have to make you.”
The quartet tried to walk past the students but they all stood side by side, blocking their path.
“What is the meaning of this?”
“We know where the exit is, we can escort her out ourselves, thank you very much.” Starlight Glimmer said.
“Aww, they’re standing up for their friend, that’s cute!” Sour Sweet said, placing her hands in her cheeks. “Think about this moment when you’re in detention and ask yourselves if it was worth it.”
The seven girls formed a circle around Sunset Shimmer to prevent the prefects from even touching her as they walked out of the school, but that didn’t stop Fleur from glaring at her. Sunset put her hands in the pockets of her jacket as she walked, but she felt something small and hard in her left pocket and pulled it out. She looked down at it in confusion: it was a small circular device, no bigger than a button.
“What’s this?” She asked, prompting Moondancer to inspect it.
The redhead picked the device and looked at it really closely as she adjusted her glasses. “Looks like a listening device. I think someone bugged you!”
Rarity looked at the yellow stripes on the sleeves of the jacket. “Isn’t that the same jacket you wore that day at the carnival?”
“The very same.” Sunset confirmed as she took it off. “Fluttershy suggested wearing it that day.” She tossed the jacket in a trash bin they walked past. “Guess we now know how your secret got out and who was responsible, huh?”
“I just don’t understand why Fluttershy was doing stuff like that!” Rainbow Dash spoke, still unable to fully believe what she had just heard. “There has to be more to this story.”
“I don’t doubt it. But I won’t be around to dig deeper.” She took a deep breath and stopped walking as soon as they were out of school grounds. “See you around, I guess?”
“Wait, before you go…” Trixie took off her battered leather jacket and draped it over Sunset’s shoulders. “You look… I dunno, wrong in everyday clothes without a leather jacket.”
“But Trixie, isn’t that--” Starlight Glimmer protested.
“This jacket belonged to the first leader of the vagrants.” She explained. “She gave it to the next leader of the vagrants after she graduated, and it’s been passed down from leader to leader since then. I’ll let you borrow it, but you’ll have to return it to me when you come back, alright?”
Twilight Sparkle pulled a pen and a small notepad from her pocket. She scribbled something on it, ripped that page out and passed the paper to Sunset Shimmer.
“This is the address of one of our old friends who lives in town. We… Lost contact over time, but she’s a very dependable gal. If you need a place to stay, I’m sure she can help!”
After saying their goodbyes, Sunset Shimmer rode her skateboard away from Canterlot Academy while her friends waved at her.
The address Twilight Sparkle gave her led Sunset Shimmer to a small, old house that had seen better days, located in a neighborhood caught between two worlds: to its right was a trailer park, full of people who preferred to keep to themselves, and to its left was an industrial park, a constant source of noise throughout the day.
“Another lost lamb leaves the wolves’ den, looking for the slaughterhouse.” Sunset Shimmer yelped and quickly turned around, assuming a fighting stance; a girl who wasn’t there before suddenly popped into existence barely a foot behind her.
“Where’d you come from?” Sunset asked – she originally thought she could never find pinker people than the ones she met in Canterlot Academy, but this new girl put the school’s levels of pinkness to shame: her skin was bubblegum pink and her long straight hair that went all the way to her knees. She wore blue sneakers, grayish blue sweatpants and a dark purple hoodie with a front pocket where she kept her hands in at all times.
“From a caring mother’s womb.” She sounded uninterested and her blue eyes, despite pointing in Sunset’s direction, didn’t seem to be looking at her or anything in particular.
“I… Uh… Anyway, do you live here? I came from Canterlot Academy and I--” The pink girl’s hand suddenly came out of her pocket and slapped Sunset Shimmer on the side of the head. “What the hell is your problem?!”
“Rule number one of the Apple household: mentioning that accursed place’s name is forbidden.” Her voice tone hadn’t changed a bit. “Keep that in mind if you plan on sticking around.”
“What in tarnation is going on out there?” A third voice joined the conversation, this one coming from inside the house. A girl opened the door soon after.
Sunset Shimmer eyed the newcomer up and down: orange skin, yellow ponytail, green eyes, freckles, the accent… She looked very familiar, but she couldn’t quite remember where she knew her from.
“Can I help ya?” The blonde girl asked with her hands on her hips.
“Have we met before?” Sunset asked.
The girl rubbed her chin, staring at the former unicorn for a few seconds. Suddenly she snapped her fingers.
“The graveyard! Yer that girl from CA, ain’t ya?” The memory quickly came back; they had briefly met when she took Starlight to talk to Trixie behind the old church. “What can I do ya for?”
“For real?” Sunset Shimmer raised an eyebrow. “After that ‘warm’ introduction I was under the impression you would punch me in the jaw if we crossed paths again.”
The girl clutched her stomach as she laughed. “Yeah, yer right, I would have. No student from that haunting place is welcome in my home. But then again, yer not one of ‘em anymore, are ya?”
“How do you--”
“It’s a sunny Sunday afternoon, ya want me to believe a CA student didn’t have better plans than hangin’ out all the way out here with us rejects?”
“Also you are carrying a change of clothes.” The pink girl, who had opened her zipper of the backpack and peered inside while Sunset was distracted, said. “I don’t think you came for a sleepover, students aren’t allowed to spend the night outside of school.”
“Don’t touch my stuff!” Sunset Shimmer took off her backpack and hugged it. “And yes, you’re right, I was expelled. Twilight Sparkle gave me this address, said you could help me finding a place to stay.”
“Twilight, huh? Well, I suppose she’s not the worst of the bunch. If she thinks yer ok enough to send my way, I guess yer not the worst scum that place has to offer. Ya can crash in the guest room, if yer willin’ to pull your own weight.”
“Can I at least get your names before I sleep in a total stranger’s home?”
The gal with the southern accent slapped her own forehead. “Right, of course, I knew I was forgettin’ somethin’!” She grabbed Sunset’s hand really tight and shook it really fast. “Name’s Applejack. The gal lurkin’ behind ya is Diane.”
“Pinkamena Diane Pie.” She introduced herself, but didn’t bother shaking hands. “Pinkamena is a mouthful so people took to calling me Pinkie, but that’s not my real name. Diane is not as funny or catchy as ‘Pinkie Pie’, but at least it’s in my birth certificate.”
“I’m Sunset Shimmer. You said your last name is ‘Pie’, are you related to Maud Pie?”
She nodded. “Maud is my big sister, the only person in that school who will not stab you in the back. Or at least not without reason. And she wouldn’t gain pleasure from doing so.”
“So, what’s yer story, sugarcube?” Applejack wrapped an arm around Sunset Shimmer and guided her into the house. Diane followed them in and closed the door behind her. Applejack sat on an armchair while Sunset and Diane shared a couch. “Who’s responsible for ya getting’ the boot? Was it Coach Lockdown, too?”
“What do you mean, ‘too’?”
“At least two of the three people in this room are here because of that snake. So, are we a three of a kind or just a pair?” Sunset Shimmer shook her head. “Then let me guess: someone ya thought was trustworthy turned her back on ya when ya needed her to stand up for ya?”
She frowned. “Out of all the people in CA, I thought I could trust her the most. Serves me right for lowering my guard again after the first time I got burned because I got too comfortable!”
“Was it someone from the soccer team? Maybe a certain somebody who looks like a walkin’ gay pride flag?”
“You mean Rainbow Dash? Nah, we barely know each other. But why her, specifically?”
Diane got up and walked up the stairs. “I’ll be in my room.”
They watched her until she disappeared upstairs.
“Am I missing something?”
Applejack sighed. “Diane and Rainbow didn’t exactly part ways in the best of terms. It’s a very sensitive subject so don’t go bringin’ it up, alright?” Applejack got up and followed the pinkette upstairs. “C’mere, let me show ya yer room!”
She took Sunset Shimmer to a room upstairs. When she opened the door, they found Diane lying in bed on her back, staring at the wooden ceiling with her hands on her stomach.
“Hope ya don’t mind havin’ a roommate.”
“Can’t be as bad as the roommate that got me expelled.”
“Make yerself comfortable. I’ll be downstairs, fixin’ supper.”
The pony girl tossed her backpack on the floor, slid her skateboard under the second bed in the room then flopped into it. She flipped over, mimicking Diane’s pose – Sunset thought about striking up a conversation, but nothing came to mind so they just ended up staring at the ceiling in silence until Applejack called:
“Soup’s on, girls!”
As the three figures sat around the table, the front door opened and two more people walked in.
“Hey there, Diane! Hey there, Applejack! Hey there, um…” The little girl with lemon yellow skin, orange eyes and bright red hair tied with a large pink bow greeted; she had the same accent as Applejack. “I don’t think we’ve met.”
“Nope!” The big, burly man behind her said; he had pale pink skin, messy orange hair and the same green eyes and freckles as Applejack.
“Welcome home!” Applejack greeted them. “This here is Sunset Shimmer. She’ll be stayin’ with us for a while, is that ok?”
“Eeyup!” He said, before joining them around the dinner table.
“This here is my big brother, Big Macintosh – Big Mac for short.” He nodded at her. “The tiny one is my lil’ sis, Apple Bloom!”
“Howdy!” Apple Bloom waved from her seat across the table.
They all had dinner together; Apple Bloom bombarded her with question while Big Mac kept interaction to a minimum. After they were done, the two siblings and Diane went upstairs while Applejack and Sunset Shimmer stayed behind to wash the dishes.
“Man of few words, isn’t he?”
Applejack chuckled. “Big Mac likes to think before sayin’ anythin’, and he does a lotta thinkin’! Apple Bloom, on the other hand…”
“Did she steal his vocal cords when she was born?”
“Maybe.”
The two shared a laugh as they finished cleaning.
“Ya should rest. Tomorrow we’re goin’ job huntin’!”
“Say what?”
“I told ya, you can crash in here as long as ya can pull yer own weight. Another mouth to feed ain’t cheap, ya know?”
Apple Bloom and Big Macintosh were the first to leave in the morning; Apple Bloom was still in middle school and Big Mac did construction work at the industrial park. Diane also left for her job as cashier in the local minimart after breakfast, leaving Applejack and Sunset Shimmer alone.
“Got any particular set of skills that would be good for a job in town?” Applejack asked from inside her bedroom while changing.
“I have many skills.” Sunset, who was waiting outside the bedroom, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed, said with a cocky smirk. “Can’t exactly narrow them down.”
“That ain’t very helpful, sugarcube.”
“Let’s just look around town and see what’s available, alright? I’m sure I can handle whatever they throw at me.”
“I have a job too, y’know? Can’t exactly afford to accompany you all day.”
“Why do you even insist on coming along, anyway? I can take care of myself.”
“Just want to make sure yer actually tryin’.”
“Isn’t my word good enough?”
“Not until I get to know ya better, to make sure yer not a freeloader tryin’ to trick us. Not that it happened before, but I ain’t takin’ any chances.”
Sunset Shimmer grunted as she rolled her eyes. Her annoyed expression was replaced with one of shock when the bedroom door opened; Applejack was wearing jeans, boots and a white tank top, the same outfit she wore when they met in the cemetery, but there was one minor detail she had completely forgotten about, and that was the Stetson hat.
Sunset Shimmer had seen that hat before – or at least the silhouette of that hat, given that there was smoke blocking her view. Her shock turned into anger and she grabbed Applejack by the tank top and slammed her against the wall.
“What in tarnation?!”
“So it was you, you hateful bitch! You set the gym on fire!”
“What? I didn’t burn anythin’!”
“Don’t you lie to me, I saw you coming out of the locker room! Is your hatred for Canterlot Academy so profound that you’d not only commit a crime, but risk someone’s life over it?”
“Don’t you dare call me a liar! Yes, I admit, I was there, but it wasn’t me who started the fire.”
“Then who was it? Indigo Zap? Yeah, I can see why she’d start a fire then duck under the burning bleachers. Just confess already!”
“It! Wasn’t!” Applejack grabbed her wrists and, after a quick spin, she pinned them against the wall, preventing Sunset Shimmer from moving. “Me!”
She tried struggling, but the southern girl’s muscles weren’t just for show. “Then why were you there?”
“A student from CA came and talked to me, asked me to meet with her in the locker room and she’d help me get revenge on Lockdown. When I got there she’s nowhere to be found and suddenly the place is on fire!”
“After everything you said about the people from CA, you expect me to believe you would just blindly trust someone from there?”
“I know what I said about them and I meant every single word, but that creep is a bigger issue and I’d gladly work with an enemy in common to bring him down.”
“What’s your problem with Lockdown anyway? Besides being a verbally abusive asshole, he’s harmless.”
“Ya think he’s ‘harmless’, huh?” Applejack let go of one of her wrists and pulled her into the bedroom. She tossed Sunset on the bed, forcing her to sit down, then pulled a nearby chair and sat as well. “Let me tell ya the tale of Coach Lockdown and why he is a disgustin’ creep who shoulda been locked away ages ago.”
Sunset Shimmer looked down and saw Applejack squeezing her clenched fist, as if trying to hold back a lot of aggressiveness.
“It all happened on freshman year. Diane and I were CA students, and by then she still called herself ‘Pinkie Pie’; she was as happy as a clam at high tide, ya couldn’t find a person as cheerful as her anywhere in town and she always had this huge smile on her face. She and Rainbow Dash were inseparable, and one thing they loved doin’ together was prankin’ people, all harmless and in good fun. Sometimes they wouldn’t agree on what kinds of pranks were ‘ok’ or ‘not ok’, but Pinkie always managed talk her down eventually. Well, one time Rainbow wasn’t talked down so she decided to follow through anyway, but by herself.
“Long story short, someone got hurt – nothing too serious, but the girl still had to be carried to the infirmary. Coach Lockdown caught her and was goin’ to kick her outta the soccer team, so Rainbow freaked out. Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie, she decided to help Rainbow. She marched right into Lockdown’s office and did the biggest mistake of her life.”
Applejack took a deep breath, trying to convince herself to keep going despite how uncomfortable she was feeling.
“Wh-What did he…?” Applejack raised her hand, signaling for Sunset to not interrupt.
After another deep breath, she kept talking. “They… They struck a deal; Pinkie would take the blame for the prank and Rainbow would stay in the team. In return, he… The dirty son of a bitch wanted to take pictures of her. Some really horrible, disgustin’ pictures. And she agreed.”
Sunset Shimmer’s heart skipped a beat as she flinched. “That’s… That’s just… Ugh, I don’t even have words to describe how I feel!”
Applejack nodded in agreement. “Things just went from bad to worse; somehow the pictures got leaked. She takin’ the blame for that prank combined with pictures of her in her knickers everywhere in school, or ‘highly improper behavior for a girl her age’” Applejack did air quotes as she said that “as our dear Principal Celestia put it… Well, Pinkie got expelled.”
“Why didn’t she report him? What he did was a crime! A big one, at that!”
“She was afraid the truth about the prank would come out and Rainbow would get kicked out of the team; poor Pinkie was loyal to a fault. Soon as I found out what had really happened I marched right to Celestia’s office and tried to defend Pinkie, but she said it was the word of an angry student without a shred of evidence against the word of a ‘respectable’ teacher, and completely dismissed everythin’ I told her.
“I tried talkin’ to Rainbow Dash, see if I could convince her to confess and save Pinkie, but…” She glared at the floor, clenching her fist harder. “The coward didn’t want to lose her spot on the team, so she chose soccer over her best friend. So much for ‘standin’ up for her friends’ like she constantly bragged about!”
If Sunset Shimmer didn’t hate the principal enough before, she sure did now. Her opinion of Rainbow Dash also took a heavy blow. “What next? You said you were expelled because of him as well, right?”
“Sure was, but for a different reason.” Applejack reached under the bed and pulled out a baseball bat; it looked old and worn and it had a buttercup carved on the barrel. “Since I was the only one willin’ to stand up for Pinkie, the next morning I marched right up to Lockdown’s office when he wasn’t there and smashed everythin’. His windows, his desk, his cabinet with all the trophies inside it… I turned that room upside down!”
Sunset couldn’t help but smirk. “Can’t say I would have done things differently.”
“Pinkie was too ashamed to go back home, so she’s been livin’ with us since. Canterlot Academy ruined Pinkie’s life, and she’s changed ever since. Now that she calls herself Diane she don’t smile no more and, save for when she goes to work, she barely leaves the house. They… They broke her, Sunset.”
“Yeah, I… I see.” After a minute of awkward silence, Sunset Shimmer got up from the bed she was sitting on. “So, uh… About that job hunting trip we were going on…”
“Yeah, time’s a-wastin’!” Applejack got up as well, leaving the bat on her bed.
“Ah, and one more thing about the girl we talked about.”
“I didn’t know there was somebody else in there, honest. I would’ve stayed and helped if I did!”
“No, not her. I mean the girl you were supposed to meet there.”
“Ah. Then shoot!”
“Who was she?”
“I never did get a name, but she stands out in a crowd. Got this huge cloud of ginger hair behind her head! Ring any bells?”
Sunset Shimmer clenched her fists and nodded. “Many.”