//------------------------------// // Friday : Crusaders reunited // Story: So long old friend (An Anon a Miss Tale ) // by ALoneWolf //------------------------------// 3:00pm read Sunsets phone as she stared at the screen of her Smartphone, it was now Friday which marked the last day of school for the week and the start of the weekend for all of the students who were ready to relax. The fiery teen however knew there was no time for her to relax as she had other priorities today, that being Applebloom and the crusaders. With the girls, Dash, and Flash crossed off her list of reconciliation, it was now time to confront the perpetrators behind the infamous Mystable incident. Throughout the day Sunset was struggling to find the right words to say to Applebloom when she sees her, while she did forgive her and the other two, a part of her still felt uneasy about seeing the young farmgirl. Especially with the fact that she was the ringleader behind it all. But she knew that there was no running away from this any longer, and that it was only a matter of time before she came across the crusaders. With Bloom still in a depressed state given her sisters death and with the funeral to commence the tomorrow , Sunset knew that she had to choose her words carefully lest the sophomore snaps and goes down the same path as her late sister. As sunset places her phone back in her pant pocket, she stares at the front entrance alongside her friends. "Well" she begun. " Guess it's finally time to see Applebloom" "Yup" Dash replied. "Let me guess, you wanna go by yourself again Sunny?" Pinkie asked. Sunset nodded a yes at her friends question before answering. " Yes, I'm sorry Pinkie but just like with Rainbow and you guys with Twilight, It's best that only I confront her as I wouldn't want her to get overwhelmed as well. And given her current state, and no offense but having a large group would only make it worse" the others nodded in total agreement . "Ok darling we understand" Rarity said. " Just be careful alright? I can't imagine what that poor girl is going through right now" "Don't worry I will" Sunset replied. " Well I should head on over while it's still dawn out, I'll see you guys at the funeral tomorrow" "Alrighty Sunny" Pinkie waved. " We'll see you tomorrow" The other girls waved goodbye to their friend as well as she made her way out of the building but not before waving goodbye herself. As they watched their friend leave, Dash and rarity took out their phones and began typing. "Who are you two texting?" Fluttershy asked. "Let's just say it's someone who is in need of some words of wisdom themselves" Dash replied. "Indeed" Rarity said. " I know Sunset requested to go solo, but she'll defiantly need some backup with Applebloom especially given the state she's in. She'll need some friends by her side to snap her out of it" After hearing the word friend, Pinkie and Fluttershy nodded fully understanding whom it was that Rarity and Dash were texting right now. one hour later Outside the large entrance which led to Sweet apple acres, home of the apple family, and foundation of the towns famous apple business, we find Sunset pulling up on her motorbike as she surveys her surroundings. After a short drive, the fiery teen parks her bike near the gate as she turns off the ignition and removes the key shutting off the engine entirely. As she gets off her bike, Sunset takes it upon herself to look around at her destination. While she has been at the Apple family home dozens of times, the atmosphere however didn't feel the same to her given that Applejack wasn't gonna be there to greet her. She tried her hardest to hold back her tears as she knew that Applejack wouldn't want her to fell saddened with her not being here, after composing herself Sunset made her way down the stone and gravel path leading to the Apple residence. After a short trek while admiring the lush apple trees that she came across, Sunset finally reached the main gate leading to the large house where the Apple family resides. She take sit upon herself to lightly tap the gate only to find it unlocked and swing open slightly, this gave the teen an indication that the family was possibly expecting her arrival. Which is to be expected as Sunset did interact with Big Mac a few days ago with him being one of the students apologizing to her. She proceeded to open the gate and made her way towards the house, at last she reached the front door and proceeded to ring the doorbell. After a few seconds, the sounds of tumbling can be heard indicating the door being unlocked. Soon the front door opened and there stood Big Macintosh who looked down at his friend making the assumption that he was expecting her. "Howdy Sunset" He greeted. "Hey Big Mac" She replied. There was an awkward silence for a few seconds before the tall teenager broke the ice. "Your here to see Applebloom are ya?" He asked. "How'd ya guess?" She said. "Apple family instincts my friend, that and Flash texted me that you planned on having a word with her later this week" He replied. " And I'm guessing today's the day?" Sunset gave a silent nod " Yup, so is she here?" "Yes she is" He said. " Granny's out taking care of the funeral arrangements and Winona's at the vet so it's just me and her today, but I should warn ya partner. Be careful when ya talk to Bloom, she's still a mess after what happened last Christmas. I know you'll have some choice words to give especially with her being the ringleader behind Anon a Miss. But promise that you'll go easy on her?" Sunset then placed a hand on the farmboys shoulder. " Don't worry Big Mac, I promise to go easy on her" A small smile formed on his face as he ushered the fiery teen to come inside. " She's upstairs in her room, I'll be downstairs working on dinner to give ya'll some privacy" "Thanks Big Mac" Sunset replied. " This shouldn't take too long" Big Mac then responded by placing his hands on her shoulders. "Good luck partner" He said. Sunset nodded a thank you before making her way upstairs while the tall teen looked on silently praying to god that's he'll be the one to snap his younger sister out of her depressed state. Soon Sunset was now on the second floor of the house, she surveyed the many doors in the hallway until she spotted her target. With her having been to the apple residence dozens of times, she was already familiar with the rooms that belonged to the siblings and granny smith. As she make her way towards Blooms door, her mind began to question on how to answer. Should she knock or just enter? She asked herself, while a part of her believed that Bloom wouldn't respond if she knocked. She knew that was the polite approach, especially with the thought of her either getting dressed or finishing some homework from her online classes. After pondering for a few seconds, Sunset decided to knock and proceeded to do so. She then waited patiently for an answer from the other side of the door. "Come in" Came a quiet voice. And Sunset was quick to do so, she slowly opened the door and entered. As she stepped inside, there stood non other than Applebloom laying on her bed typing on her labtop. No doubt she was getting some homework done while her brother was preparing dinner, Sunset took notice of the young teens appearance. She was no longer wearing her bow, hair was messy, and her eyes had a look that combined both depression and sorrow and there was a pile of dirty clothes scattered on the edge of her bed indicating that she hasn't left the house for a while. Finally after a few seconds, the farmgirl looked to the side to see who was in her room and her expression changed to a look of shock and fear. "Hi bloom" Sunset greeted which only earned her a scream from the farmgirl who was quick to stumble out of bed in a panic as her labtop slid off of her lap landing softly on the dirty laundry pile. Bloom crawled her way to a corner in the room and wrapped her arms around her body as a way to shield herself out of fear of sunset hurting her. "I'm sorry!!!!!" She shouted while quivering in fear. " Please don't hurt me Sunset, I didn't mean to frame you or get my sister killed! I'll do what ever you want, I'll leave the city, hell I'll even let you spread a fake rumor about me just to get even, just please I'm begging you have mercy!!!!" Bloom said nothing more and continued to quiver as tears started to rain down like a waterfall. Seeing the young teen in this state was too much for Sunset to handle, while she knew that Bloom would be surprised to see her, she wasn't expecting her to believe that she wanted revenge against her or to even hurt her. While she was upset at Bloom, she wouldn't dream about hurting her. But the fact that she believes that broke her heart, No longer able to take this, Sunset slowly walked towards the crying teen and wrapped her arms around her neck into a hug which shocked the girl to the core who was not expecting a hug from the girl that she hurt. “ It’s alright Bloom, calm down” Sunset said in a soothing tone. “ I’m not gonna hurt you” “ But why?” Bloom asked. “ I made your life a living hell last December Sunset, and worst of all I caused my sisters death. How can you not be so angry at me after all the shit I pulled?” “ Because I don’t wanna lose anyone else” Sunset replied ,she then looked the teen straight in the eye as she got serious. “ Listen Bloom while I was furious at ya for pulling that stunt out of pity jealousy, I don’t want to see you like this. You already lost Applejack and your friends aren’t speaking to ya at the moment, it’s pretty obvious that your in a depressed state and I don’t want you to do anything that you’ll regret cause you’ve already suffered enough” “ And listen what happened with Applejack was not your fault or Dashes, she was upset at betraying my trust that it made her go over the edge and felt that she didn’t deserve to live anymore after I left. A part of me blamed myself for it as well as I felt that if I didn’t leave in the first place, the feud between her and Dash wouldn’t have happened. But I know that it’s not healthy to continue to blame one another as that’s not gonna help with anything, now let me ask you Bloom. I understand your reason for doing what you did, but why didn’t you just talk to Applejack about how ya felt instead of taking drastic measures on me?” Applebloom was hesitant to answer at first, but she knew that Sunset deserved to know the truth especially since she couldn’t bottle away her feelings any longer. “ I didn’t think she would listen to me Sunset, Sweetie belle tried to tell Rarity during you guys last sleepover but she simply just escorted her out of the room to give you and the others some gal time without her little sister. That’s when I came to the conclusion that Applejack and the others only cared for you and not their younger sisters” “ I just thought that you were taking our place especially since Applejack started calling ya family which broke my heart at the thought of her getting the most attention, she even had to cancel our sister movie night because she already promised to come over to your apartment to have movie night with Dash and the others. She didn’t even think to ask if I wanted to come too” Sunset was surprised after hearing that, she had no idea that Bloom and Applejack were to have a family movie night that day. “ I’m sorry Bloom, if I had known you two were to hang out that day I would have postponed it” “ No Sunset, you have nothing to apologize for” Bloom replied. “ You did nothing wrong, I should have took the more mature route and realize that my sister can’t always spend time with me. But I didn’t, I took the bullying path and nearly ruined your rep especially after you worked so hard to redeem yourself” Tears began to form on the teens face as she continued. “ SunsetIm so sorry for what I did, I was no better than your past self. I ruined so many lives and lost so many people, and because of my foolishness, I’ll never see Applejack again. I understand if you’ll never forgive me as it’s what I deserve for driving you away” Bloom said nothing more and began to sob quietly, Sunset looked on continuing to feel sorry for the poor girl after everything she’s been through. But before she could say anything else, there was another knock at the door which earned both of their attentions. “ Who can that possibly be at a time like this?” Bloom said with a sniffle. Sunset then got up and walked towards the door “Must be Big Mac” She then opened the door and to her shock and surprise found not Big Macintosh, but Sweetie belle and Scootaloo standing right in front of her. Sunset was taken aback at this not expecting to run into these two, while she did plan on seeing them as well. She wasn’t expecting them to show up here of all places. “ Hi Sunset “ Sweetie belle said quietly. “ What are you two doing here?” Sunset asked. “ Dash and Rarity texted us an hour ago and told us everything” Scootaloo answered. “ They figured that it was about time that we confront not only you but Bloom as well, plus they figured that ya might need some backup with them not being able to come along” After hearing this a small chuckle can be heard from the fiery teen. “ Hehe should have known, come on in girls” and the two of em did just that. However unlike Sunset, Blooms reaction to seeing her former friends was not as positive. “ Da hell are you two doing here?” She said coldly. “ We don’t want any trouble bloom” Sweetie belle replied. “ We just want to talk” “ Oh so NOW ya wanna talk to me?!” She shouted. “ Well here’s a news flash for ya, I sure as hell don’t! Do you have any idea of what I’ve been through these past few months? Where the hell were you when I lost ma sister? Where the hell were ya when I was all alone aside from my brother and grandmother? I get that I shouldn’t have dragged ya two into this and that was my mistake, but y’all could have just told me to my face that ya hated me for ruining your lives instead of shunning me for a few months like a bunch of cowards!!!” “ We weren’t shunning you!” Scootaloo shot back. “ We were just as upset and depressed as you Bloom, believe me you’re not the only one who was full of guilt over AJ’s death . I’ve been having nightmares about not just her popping out of her grave to seek vengeance against us, but also Dash saying and I quote “ I wish my parents never adopted ya, get the hell out of here and never come back squirt”. “ Ive been having similar nightmares too” Sweetie belle jumped in. “ Believe me we were just as upset as you Bloom, me and Scootaloo just felt that it was for the best to give each other some space given the events that transpired as we felt us being together right now wasn’t gonna help. We were gonna text ya to say that we should give each other some space for a while, but Scoots felt that would have counted as talking. We never hated ya Bloom, we were just to blame for Anon a Miss. we just needed some space to clear our minds” Blooms angry expression began to slowly fade away, but it was still obvious that she wanted complete answers to this. “ Why didn’t y’all just tell me that ya needed some space to clear y’all’s minds? I would have understood if ya just told me” "We know" Sweetie belle replied. " But like we said , we felt that it was for the best to give each other some space. and that includes talking and texting each other, plus after what happened with Applejack we knew that ya needed some time to yourself. Cause if it was Rarity, i would have reacted the same way too" "And me as well with Dash" Scoots jumped in. " Ever since they adopted me a few years ago, I felt so happy to finally have a family after my parents abandoned me. After going left and right from orphanage to group home, I thought I'd never have a decent life . That is until I met Dash and her folks who were quick to take me in, despite us not being related by blood, Dash treated me like I was her own little sister and I couldn't have asked for anyone else to be my big sister, if she ended up killing herself instead I'd never forgive myself either" Scootaloo let out a small sniffle not caring if it went against her tough girl nature. " Even though Anon a Miss was your idea Bloom, we're just to blame" Sweetie belle said. " Even if you didn't drag us into it we would have still went along with it anyways as we've always stuck together. But in the end we weren't there for you when ya needed us, we should have had your back and stood by your side" "But we didn't" Scoots jumped in. " we were cowards and I don't blame ya one bit if you hate our guts. We deserve it, but for what it's worth Bloom, we're sorry for Applejack, not being there for you, and everything else. I hope you can forgive us one day, cause your just our friend, your our sister as well and we'll always love ya girl" There was silence in the room after the duo finished their explanation, Sunset was hesitant to jump into it not knowing if it was right to interfere with the trios personal manor. Sweetie belle and Scootaloo however just hung their heads in shame believing that they've lost their friend due to their decision to give each other space without even as much as to text or talk to her about it. In a flash , bloom walked forward and was quick to bring them into a group hug as a small smile and tears began to form. "That's all I needed to hear" She said, and in an instant Sweetie belle and Scootaloo returned the hug as tears of joy formed on their faces as well. " I love ya'll" "We love you too Bloom" Sweetie belle and scoots said in unison, they then found another pair of arms wrapped around them belonging to sunset. "Room for one more?" Sunset asked and the trio happily invited sunset into their loving embrace. The group hug was interrupted by another knock at the door only this time it was Big Macintosh who looked on at the heartfelt scene of reconciliations with a big smile on his face. "So I take it everything's cool ya guys?" He asked. "Yup" They all said in unison, Sunset turned towards the trio with a smile on her face. "I forgive you girls" She said earning her happy grins from the trio. "Thanks sunset" They all said, suddenly the front door can be heard opening along with a happy bark indicating that Granny smith and Winona have returned. "Looks like Granny and Winona are home" Big Mac said and then a dinging sound can be heard as well. " And just in time, cause it looks like dinners ready, ya'll are welcome to stay if ya want?" The group stared at each other for a few seconds until they nodded in unison before accepting the tall teens proposal. "Sure, that sounds nice" Sunset said. "Thanks Big Mac" Sweetie belle replied. "Dinner would be great" Scootaloo said. With nothing more to say, the group exited the room to head downstairs ready to have some home cooking in each of their bellies. Sunset however while she was happy to have fully reconciled with everyone, knew that tomorrows was the big day and she knew that there was one last priority to take care of before she was ready to move forward with the others.