Shortly afterwards, the door rang, and Rainbow rushed down to open it.
Luna stood in the doorway with a patient smile. "Good evening, Miss Dash," she said. "I hope you are well?"
"Eeyup," Rainbow said. "Had a fairly productive day, reunited with my old gang."
Luna stepped inside, carrying a backpack with Sunset's yin-yang sun icon on it. "And my niece? She is well?"
"Well enough, given how her life has been," Rainbow said slowly. "She's definitely getting better, though."
"I do believe you've helped as much as her therapist has," Luna said with a chuckle.
"I'm her friend--as I told her, I'm the next best thing."
"I'd argue that you're better."
Rainbow frowned. "Uh, how so?"
"You don't cost me five-hundred dollars a month," Luna chuckled.
Rainbow grinned. "Well, that's true," she said.
Luna stepped into the living room with Rainbow, just in time for a loud buzzer sound effect to trigger.
"The fuck?" Sunset gasped. "How--what--I don't--"
"Wow, that was close," Fluttershy said. "Want to play again? You're really fun to play against."
"You bet I wanna play again. Kick my ass twice in a row...I'll show you!" Sunset pointed a finger dramatically at Fluttershy. "I'll beat you this time!"
"Before that, though, perhaps you'd like to retrieve your bag?" Luna asked.
Sunset looked up in surprise. "Hi, Aunt Luna. I thought it was Mom coming over?"
Luna's mouth twitched up in a grin. "Is that how it is, then?"
"Yeah, kind of," Sunset said with a cheeky grin.
"She's not an evening person, and it's well past her bed time. I sent her to bed and brought your things over myself." Luna passed the backpack off to Sunset, adding, "Though I am obligated to pass along the usual 'mom' warnings as well."
"Of course," Sunset said with a sigh. "I should have known I wouldn't get out of it."
"No drugs, sex, or insider trading," Luna said casually. "Behave yourself. Have fun. Remember that we love you."
"Love you two, too," Sunset said with an eye-roll.
"'Insider trading'?" Rainbow said slowly. "How is that one of the 'usual mom warnings'?"
"You didn't raise her," Luna said tiredly.
Sunset muttered something under her breath, but all she said aloud was, "Thanks for bringing my stuff over, Aunt Luna. I'm going to go change into my pajamas."
"Alright. Love you." Luna turned around, striding back to the front of the house with little fanfare. Sunset, for her part, pulled her pajamas out of the backpack, then through it onto the nearest couch before heading into the bathroom.
"How often did you get into trouble for insider trading?" Rainbow asked slowly.
"It was one time! And I didn't even get in trouble for it because it was an accident!" Sunset snapped. "I was twelve, give me a break!"
"Heh. I've done dumber...somehow," Rainbow said, plopping down on the couch. She wore a set of borrowed pajamas, as did Applejack. The cowgirl's bust size and muscle mass made it a slightly less comfortable fit, but thankfully, all three of them were around the same size.
Come to think of it, Rarity and Pinkie and Sunset were also around the same size...
Before she could think too much on this, Sunset's backpack flopped over, and with a loud thud, a thick, ancient-looking book hit the ground.
"What was that?" Sunset called out.
"Some old book fell out of your backpack," Rainbow answered, moving to pick it up. "Uh...kinda looks like a diary?" She flipped it up. On the front cover was the picture of Sunset's trademark sun insignia.
"I don't keep a diary," Sunset answered slowly.
Rainbow flipped open the first page, then blinked. The pages looked to be full of writing. What it said was a mystery, however, as the letters were completely indecipherable to Rainbow Dash. There was one that vaguely looked like an 'A', and there was one that vaguely looked like an 'E', but everything else was foreign to her. It also appeared to be some form of cursive, which certainly wasn't lending the text any more legibility. Flipping to the last page with letters, she noted that it was all the same.
"Rainbow Dash!" Sunset squawked. "What are you doing?"
"Oh, uh, sorry," Rainbow said, hastily closing the book and dropping it on the backpack. "In my defense, you said it wasn't your diary."
"Don't act like that woulda stopped ya," Applejack called from the opposite side of the room.
Rainbow ran a hand through her hair. "Sorry," she said.
"It's fine," Sunset said. "It's not like I have any rights to complain about not respecting other people's privacy, anyway."
"Don't say that! Just because you did some mean things doesn't make you any less of a person! You still have a right to privacy!"
Sunset gave a smile, and said, in her venomously sweet tone, "Oh, okay. Then how about you not rifle through my shit?"
Rainbow winced. "Heh, walked right into that one. Um, sorry."
Sunset chuckled. "It's fine. What even..." She picked it up, frowning. "Huh. Forgot I still had this."
"What is it?" Rainbow asked.
"It's an old memento from my first home."
"First home?" Fluttershy asked.
"Oh, uh...before Principal Celestia adopted me," Sunset said awkwardly, taking in Fluttershy's and Applejack's looks. She sat down, holding the book in her lap, running a hand across the cover. "I've...never really talked about this."
"Even with Flash?"
"Flash was a boost to my popularity, and I didn't see him as anything more than that," Sunset said. "I ought to apologize at some point. Anyhow...I never even knew my birth parents, and was adopted by...someone of upper class. But things...weren't going how I wanted them to, and...I ran away. To here." She opened the book to the first pages, seemingly reading the text. She stared at it for a long moment, flipping through a few pages at a time. A wistful expression crossed her face, and she let out a sigh. "God, my horn writing was awful," she muttered with a smile..
"Horn writing?" Fluttershy asked, confused.
"Um..." Sunset shook herself, slamming the book shut and focusing on Fluttershy. "Sorry, I just...um...got sidetracked. Misspoke."
"Oh...I suppose that makes sense." Fluttershy looked to where Rainbow Dash sat, seeing the athlete trying her hardest not to look like she was hiding something.
Rainbow was well aware that subtlety had never been a strong suit of hers, but thankfully, Fluttershy didn't ask.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Fluttershy asked Sunset instead.
"Way too much I'd have to get into," Sunset said, looking to the side with a nervous look on her face. "A whole lot of it I don't want to explain tonight, so how about instead, we just go at it for round three?" She picked up her controller, shaking it at Fluttershy with a grin.
Fluttershy grinned back. "O-kay," she said. "I just hope you don't mind losing again..."
"Hah! Not gonna happen, Flutter-Wonder!" Sunset said confidently.
Rainbow smiled. Fluttershy had been her gaming partner for many years, and had actually gotten quite good at it...better than Rainbow herself was, actually. Rainbow didn't foresee Sunset winning any time soon.
She looked once more to Sunset's strange book...from the pony-world, judging by what Sunset said. Truthfully, she was very curious about it, but elected to ignore it for now.
Instead, she leaned over to Applejack, saying, "I was right."
Applejack blinked, turning and frowning at her. "Pardon?"
"I'm not mad anymore," Rainbow said. "So, I was right."
"N-no! You went and told her the truth! I was right!" Applejack said, thumping her chest with a fist. "You defused everything, and that's why yer not mad!"
"No, I think it was my thing," Rainbow said, more forcefully. "Like, think about it a moment."
"I am. More than you seem to be, anyhow."
Rainbow opened her mouth, but Sunset cut in by loudly clearing her throat.
"Would you two please knock it off?" she said as Fluttershy giggled.
"Uh, sorry," Rainbow Dash said. She and Applejack chuckled, as Fluttershy and Sunset went back to their game.
"I guess that everythin' turned out alright regardless," Applejack said.
"Yeah." Rainbow smiled. "I guess things did."
The annoying sound of someone's phone vibrating woke Rainbow up. She wearily reached over, grabbing her own phone, to see that that wasn't it. Rainbow sat upright, yawning, then looked around. The vibrating was coming from elsewhere in the house, it sounded like...and Fluttershy and Applejack didn't seem to be hearing it, either.
And Sunset wasn't in her sleeping bag.
Rainbow got up slowly, doing her best not to wake up her friends, then crept through the house. Sunset wasn't in any of the rooms she passed, nor was she where the phone was.
Rainbow stepped into Fluttershy's living room, looking at the pink light from across the room. She stepped closer, frowning, then her jaw dropped.
It wasn't a phone; it was a book. Sunset's book with her insignia on it sat on a table, glowing bright pink and vibrating.
Rainbow reached over, flipping it open to the most recent page.
There, beneath the text she'd seen earlier, was a a fresh block of text, written in fresh ink, with a pink ball-point pen right next to the book. Beneath that was another bit of text that seemed to be writing itself.
As in, the text was flat out appearing out of nothing. Rainbow stared as line after line wrote itself into existence, twisting swirls and sharp angles and what looked to be hieroglyphs.
Then it stopped, suddenly. After a second, what looked to be one word, or perhaps two, appeared, followed by a question mark.
"Gah," Rainbow muttered. "Why? Why couldn't it be proper English?" She rubbed her head, then sighed. Sunset seemed to be gone--she'd even checked the bathrooms. Someone was making the words appear, she reasoned, and they were wanting a reply.
Rainbow drew a small version of Sunset's mark, and followed it with a question mark.
After a brief pause, the other person drew a symbol. A sun, but not Sunset's, with several rays coming off the sides.
Rainbow growled. "Oh, come on," she muttered. "Sunset, where'd you go? I don't know how to work your stupid magic book!"
Another symbol appeared, a blank circle, followed by a question mark. Rainbow stared at it a moment, trying to figure out what it meant, before it clicked.
After a second, she drew the cloud with a lightning bolt emblazoned on it that she wore on her normal tank top. Then she drew it next to Sunset's, and, after giving it a pause, scribbled out Sunset's.
Then she drew another one of Sunset's symbols, following it with another question mark.
There was a slight pause as the recipient seemed to digest that. But then they sent a reply.
???
Which meant that they either didn't know where she was, or had no idea what Rainbow was asking, which was far more likely.
Rainbow gave up, stepping away from the book. Well, there were two other places she knew to check, and she doubted Sunset would have randomly decided to head to her house.
Rainbow had briefly debated putting on proper clothes, but figured this was important enough to risk the run into town in her pajamas.
Still, it took her a worrying length of time to get to Canterlot High School.
Rainbow charged across the grass, passing the horse statue, before seeing Sunset sitting on the school's steps. She bolted over to her just as Sunset looked up at her.
"Ack! Rainbow?" she exclaimed. "What are you doing out--"
Rainbow threw her arms around her in a hug. "Don't," she said.
"What?" Sunset said.
"Don't...do it," Rainbow said, voice cracking. "I won't let you. I didn't let you do it then, and I won't let you do it now. I--"
Sunset pushed her away, looking into Rainbow's eyes with a light twinkle in her own. "I think you're mistaken," she said with a smile. "How many times do I have to say it? I'm not going anywhere."
Rainbow wiped tears from her eyes. "So...you weren't heading back up to the roof?"
"No. Not at all."
"Thank God," Rainbow said. "I thought I'd be too late. Not fast enough...but...if that wasn't it..." She slapped Sunset, hard, across the face. "Then what the bloody hell are you doing, sneaking out of the house in the middle of the fucking night?" she shouted. "You had me worried so sick, Sunset!"
"Ow!" Sunset said, rubbing her jaw. "Rainbow--"
"No, no, no! Stop right there!" Rainbow shouted, ignoring the tears streaking across her face. "I wake up, you're gone, and you're weird book thing is glowing and vibrating! I don't know where you went, you didn't leave a note! You didn't take your things, left your phone! I was so scared I'd come up to find a bloody red smear across the pavement, Sunset!"
Sunset sat back, stunned. "I...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to worry you," she said slowly. "I...I just...wanted some fresh air and didn't want to wake you." She rubbed her jaw. "Was that necessary?"
"You scared the fuck out of me, Sunny," Rainbow growled, rather than admitting fault. "Why the hell would you take a stroll in your PJs at one in the morning?"
"Because...that book...it contains all the letters between me and....my mother," Sunset confessed. "I got nostalgic, and...sent her one. It's a magic book."
"I got that when I saw it glowing and spawning text blocks," Rainbow said with an eye-roll.
"Wait--she replied?" Sunset said. "Shit, I didn't mean to wake her in the dead of night! Wait, she replied! What did she say? Does she forgive me? Does she hate me? Does she not want anything to do with me anymore?"
"I haven't the foggiest," Rainbow said, throwing up one hand. "The text might as well be manji, Sunset. The most either of us got out of that exchange was that the other was not you."
"Oh, right," Sunset said, holding a hand to her head. "Well...I'm guessing you didn't bring the book with you?"
"Uh, no. I'd have had to find a backpack and it didn't seem important."
Sunset shook her head with a sigh. "Well, it just makes this part harder."
"What part?"
Sunset gestured to the moon. "Well, if I timed it right..."
The moon sparkled, just slightly. Ahead of them, the statue glowed, and the flat wall of stone shimmered, reflecting Rainbow's face briefly like a mirror.
"...the portal back home is open again," Sunset said. "Only problem is I don't know if that was the Princess saying she'd love to see me again, or saying I'd be executed if I set foot in her castle again."
"She wouldn't do that," Rainbow said confidently. After a moment's hesitation, she added, "Right?"
"Probably not," Sunset agreed. "Still, no idea whether or not she'll forgive me." She grinned lopsidedly at Rainbow. "Leap of faith, right?"
Rainbow stared at her, then let her gaze pass over to the 'portal'. "Yeah. I guess it is."