That night after Chrys left, Sunset had something done that she hadn’t experienced in a long, long time.
Luna walked with Sunset to her bedroom and pulled the covers back and let Sunset slide in bed. Once she lay down in bed, Luna pulled the covers up and kissed Sunset on her forehead goodnight. Luna told her goodnight and that she loved her. Sunset realized something right then and there; Luna had just tucked her into bed.
Sunset lay there reflecting on what had just happened. She grabbed her phone (knowing full well Luna was gonna confiscate it during her grounding) and texted Applejack she was ok. Applejack replied she was glad and told her goodnight.
The other news of her being adopted could wait for another time. All she had done was cling to Luna and call her mom. Luna said she loved Sunset like a daughter. Does that mean Luna and her could be a family? Does that mean Chrys would be like an aunt to her. It also meant she would be related to Principal Celestia. Not a thought she relished.
The next morning Luna was on her phone while having her coffee and Sunset was eating her cereal and toast.
“I don’t believe it. Is this gonna happen every Friday night?” Luna asked no one in particular looking at her phone.
“Is what gonna happen every Friday Night?” Asked Sunset, remembering last Friday they had a strong thunderstorm.
“We have a cold front coming through tomorrow night, so there is a line of strong storms coming through with it. But it’s gonna be a quick line coming through about 11:15 p.m.” Luna said.
Luna looked at Sunset who was looking worried and fearful. Luna went over to comfort her little worry bug. Luna hugged her from the side and Sunset turned to face Luna. Luna grabbed her hands and pulled Sunset to her feet and wrapped her in a big hug.
“Sunset what is it about thunderstorms that scares you so bad?” Luna asked her voice full of concern.
“Try going through them in a rickety club-treehouse in an apple orchard
Including a severe thunderstorm or two. You get scared of them. I felt better in the shelter. It was a concrete structure and sturdier.” Sunset said her eyes welling up slightly.
Luna just held her little worry bug. All she wanted to do was protect her little girl. She knew she couldn’t always be there. She however wanted to be there when she could.I
Luna looked at the clock. “Sunset we are gonna be late, we both got to work today.”
Luna told her, grabbing her purse. Sunset grabbed her backpack, and followed Luna out the door.
Luna got to the faculty lot and parked the car. Sunset hopped out and grabbed her bag. Luna shut the car off and grabbed her purse, and headed towards what was starting to look like the front of Canterlot High School again.
“Sunset you've been helping make this a reality.” Luna indicated with a sweep of her arm towards the entrance of CHS. Sunset could feel some pride build up inside of her at that comment.
“SUNSET SHIMMER!!” Pinkie Pie yelled seeing Sunset and Luna arrive.
Noticing the look on Sunset’s face Luna put her hand on Sunset’s shoulder “It’s ok go play with your friends. But be in my office soon.” Luna told her. Sunset ran over to meet her friends at the statue.
When she arrived at the statue Pinkie was almost bouncing up and down as Sunset arrived.
“Sunset I have some stupendously awesome news, my parents are gonna be out of town next weekend and Friday Night I can have a sleepover with all my friends. We want you to come too.” Pinkie said with her big smile.
“I have no idea what to do, or how these things work, well not in this world anyway. I never had friends until Friday night. I’ll admit I’m kinda scared here.” Sunset told them with her eyes welling up.
“Darling, why are you scared?” Rarity asked,
‘What do I do for a sleepover, what do I bring, what do I wear, do you actually sleep?” Sunset rattled off question after question.
“Relax. Sunset.” Fluttershy said quietly. ‘I’ll help you out with what to pack or bring and what we do. OK?”
Sunset let a tear fall down her cheek. The other girls stopped and looked at her in shock and confusion. Why was Sunset crying?
“Sunset darling why are you crying?” Rarity asked.
“Sugarcube what’s eatin ya?” Applejack also chimed in.
“It’s so nice that you are all including me. For a long time I wanted to be included, but I was bitch and kept walls up, so no one saw me cry, and acted like stuff like this was lame.” Sunset rambled on.
“When in reality you wanted to be included in normal teenage girl stuff like this all along.” Said Fluttershy putting her arm on Sunset’s shoulder. Sunset just nodded her head and looked at her phone.
“Oh man, students are starting to arrive Luna wants me in her office before the students arrive.” Sunset said looking around nervously.
“Not a problem for us, the five of us are gonna walk you to Luna’s office.” Said Rainbow confidently. The five girls did just that. They all formed a protective shield around Sunset and walked her into the school and straight to Luna’s office.
Sunset opened the door and Luna was sitting there, texting quickly put her phone down, when she saw Sunset’s friends come in with her. She was a little annoyed that they were with her but that quickly faded when she heard why.
“Sunset I was about to go looking for you! You know I try to keep you out of the students' sight.” Luna said.
“Don’t sweat it, we formed a shield around her, when she realized how late it was getting, and got her here safely.” Rainbow Dash said.
“I still can’t believe we pulled that off.” Fluttershy remarked.
“I can, because we're awesome!” Rainbow Dash said pumping her fist in the air.
“Well girls thank you for getting her here safely, now head to class before you’re late and Rainbow Dash to the ISS room.” Luna told them all.
“Luna I have some great friends, don’t you think?” Sunset beamed.
“Yes you do honey, so what did they want to talk to you about this morning?” Asked Luna.
“Next Friday Pinkie Pie is having a slumber party, for all the girls and wants me to come. Please can I go Luna?” Sunset said pleading with her hands folded.
“On one condition. Will you start calling me mom? I can start the adoption process anytime you want, and be more than just your guardian.” Luna said, waiting for Sunset’s response.
“You really do care about me don’t you Luna?” Sunset asked.
“It’s pretty obvious don’t you think?” Luna asked.
“Ok well I have to get to work, I’ll see you for lunch, love you mom.” Sunset said walking out the door.
Luna beamed at the comment.
* * *
The front of the school was coming along and the foreman liked Sunset as she was a hard worker. One of the younger construction workers remarked to the foreman about how cute she was. The foreman told him she was a student and 15, and that ended his crush quickly. Other than that the day went great.
Rainbow Dash did her school work, quietly in the ISS room. It wasn’t a great day for her. Rainbow was energetic and sitting quietly in a room was driving her stir crazy. She did some doodling on the back page of her notebook for a while
“Just think Friday you're done, then next Friday it’s Pinkie Pie’s slumber party. You just need to get through this first.” Rainbow thought.
Every hour a different teacher would watch the ISS room. The last teacher was Ms. Cheerilee. She could tell Rainbow was having a hard time dealing with ISS.
“Ms. Dash calm down. The day is almost over.” Ms Cheerilee told her. After the bell rang Ms Cheerilee told Rainbow Dash as she was leaving the room “If you finish your school work tomorrow, you better bring something to entertain yourself with.”
Thursday and Friday went off rather smoothly for everyone. Luna did paperwork with very few discipline incidents to handle. Sunset finished working on the wall with no problems outside, she knew next week that was going to change in school. Rainbow found entertainment in ISS with a copy of Daring Do. All in all it was a quiet two days.
Luna, Rainbow and most of all Sunset knew that was not gonna continue come Monday.
Thursday night as Sunset was sitting in her room after school doing her homework Luna came in to ask Sunset why she was doing her homework in there.
“Well I’m grounded which means don’t leave my room right?” Sunset asked.
“No it means don’t leave the apartment, you can come out of your room and spread out in the kitchen, if you need help let me know.” Luna told her.
Friday night Sunset was doing her homework in the kitchen for an hour before dinner. Luna was busy cooking dinner
“Sunset, clean up your homework and set the table, you are gonna like what I have planned for tonight.”
Sunset did as she was told but found she was happy to do it. She felt content to actually work hard and especially for Luna. She wondered if this is how it was supposed to be when you have a mother. Sunset beamed and a huge smile appeared on her face.
Luna noticed it too “What are you so happy about?”
“I don’t know, I just feel happy and content to help out and do what you say.” Sunset replied.
“You're starting to trust me, I think that is part of it.” Luna told her.
Sunset set the table as Luna checked the oven. She was hoping this worked.
“OK Please don’t let me have burned this.” Luna thought.
She opened the oven and pulled the dish out, It smelled wonderful. Her surprise had come out great. Luna brought the dish over the table.
“Sunset feast your eyes on this. Vegetable Lasagna!!” Luna exclaimed.
“Awesome! I can’t wait to dig in.” Sunset exclaimed as she put a pitcher of juice on the table.
Sunset had three helpings of the lasagna, after Luna and her were done dinner Sunset started cleaning up.
“You must have been hungry hun.” Luna said after seeing how much Sunset could put away.
“Famished, and I haven’t had a dish like this in a long time.” Sunset said.
After the kitchen was cleaned Luna and Sunset retired to the living room. Luna sat down on the couch and opened her arms and motioned Sunset to come sit on her lap. Which Sunset did as it was her favorite place. In Luna’s arms on her lap was the one place Sunset felt safe and loved. Sunset could have stayed there all night, but Sunset decided to give Luna a treat. Climbing off her lap she pointed to the closet.
“Luna tell me about your movie collection.” Sunset asked.
“Wow no one ever asked me about it.” Luna said, kind of shocked.
“Well you said you wanted to talk about it, but afraid you would bore me, well go ahead tell me about it.” Sunset said, she appeared to be interested so Luna was gonna oblige.
“I’m not sure where to begin.” Luna said.
“At the beginning.” Sunset replied.
For the next two hours Luna talked about movies telling Sunset about different genres of movies. She would talk about different movies and tell Sunset about them and they ended up watching two movies that night.
When the front did come through Sunset sat in Luna’s lap her favorite place to be, wrapped in Luna’s arms. Luna smelled of Lavender, a very calming scent and to Sunset. This was much better than a week ago at the Fall Formal.
The storm only lasted 15 minutes and Sunset sat with Luna with her head on Luna’s shoulder. Luna kept her arms around Sunset. She wanted to reassure her little worrybug. For Sunset it was a perfect Friday Night.
The weekend was very lazy as they both slept in both days and even got Doordash on Sunday night.
Sunday night Sunset cried out in her sleep. Luna came in and sat next to Sunset who was drenched in sweat. She put Sunset on her lap and rocked her as usual.
“Luna, the Demon, she says no one wants me, no one loves me.” Sunset cried out just clinging to Luna.
“Sunset I want you, I love you, you are my little girl.” Luna soothed, stroking her hair.
“Sunset, do you want to take a few days off? I can clear it with Celestia.” Luna asked.
“No tomorrow I got to go to school. I have to. ”Sunset said.
“Just gotta make through to Friday. Just gotta make it through.” Sunset thought.