//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 
// Story: In Between 
// by LulaMoonBow 
//------------------------------//

Sunset fell out of the portal and landed on her flank. There was no one in the room. Sunset opened the door of the room she landed in. She saw the eerie dark hallways and felt a shiver run down her spine. She tried to exit the room, but a force field held her back. She considered going back through the portal and trying another day, but then a loud alarm took her by surprise. Her heart was pounding in her chest so much that she might as well have had a heart attack. She backed away from the door and her knees felt weak. It didn't take her long to realize that Twilight was her friend and that she would understand what Sunset came here for, but she still felt shocked by the sudden alarm. Her heart slowly reduced to its normal speed and she had calmed down when she saw a lavender unicorn with a purple mane and persian blue eyes enter the room.

"S-Starlight Glimmer?"

"Sunset! What are you doing here?"

"Well, I wanted to talk to Princess Twilight... if she's available..." Sunset said.

"Why did you come so late, though? It's already nearly midnight, and Canterlot is pretty far away," Starlight replied.

"Canterlot? What is she doing in Canterlot?" asked Sunset, confused.

"She didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

"Well, I believed you already knew, because you're one of Twilight's friends and all... Didn't you know that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna retired?"

"What?!!"

"Yeah, so they had to pick a new ruler, and, well-" Starlight started. “Twilight is now kinda ruling Equestria...”

It took some time for Starlight’s words to fully register to Sunset, but when they did, shock took her over.

"T-They picked Twilight?" Sunset stuttered. "Well, of course they did. But, she didn't tell me? Am I not important to her? Does she not care about me?"

"I'm sure she has a good reason for not telling you..."

"Yes, like any reason would justify the fact that she didn't inform me that she was now ruling an entire country!" She said, furious.

"Look, we can take the train to Canterlot tonight, and we will reach around five, when Twilight should be awake. Then you can talk to her, let's say you take, hypothetically speaking, 2 hours, and after that, she can get us home. She should be able to get us home much faster than the train, let's say about 1 hour max. Then you can go through the portal and get home. So, hypothetically speaking, you should be at the human world by around eight in the morning. Sounds good?" suggested Starlight.

Sunset nodded. "Yeah,  that would be nice. We go there, I congratulate her, and we can chat over a hot cup of tea, acting like she didn't just ignore her friend and act like being Equestria's new ruler is no big deal. Easy peasy lemon squeezy."

"Good," Starlight said, completely ignoring her friend's sarcasm. "The train will arrive at the station in half an hour."