“Sunset!?” Rainbow yelled, frantically looking in every direction. She and Coco had run off looking for Sunset. Unfortunately, they had yet to find her. Not to mention, the street that they were on lead to the center of town where there were plenty of intersections and turns that she could’ve gone down. She could be in any part of the town. “Dang it! Where did she go?” Rainbow grumbled.
Coco, unsure about what to do, decided to pull out her phone and told Rarity what happened.
“They said what?!” Over on her end, Rarity snapped her pen in rage.
Coco flinched at the volume but recovered. Even as she talked she continued to look around, checking the windows of every building and down every corner. “Sunset ran off and we don’t know where she went.”
Struggling to calm down, Rarity took a deep breath and rubbed her temple. “I… I understand. I’ll call the others to help look for her. But looking around blindly won’t help. Have you two tried the library?”
“But isn’t the school closed today?” asked Coco. “It’s Saturday.”
“Please,” scoffed Rarity, “the security in our school is terrible. You might be able to simply walk right in. There’s a good chance that Sunset is inside.”
Hesitantly, Coco nodded. “If you’re sure.” Taking the phone from her ear Coco turned to relay the information to Rainbow Dash. “Rarity thinks she’s in the library!”
“Gotcha!” Rainbow immediately turned and ran down the street leading to Canterlot High.
“Wait up!” Coco lifted the phone back to her ear. “I have to go. Please let me know if you find her.”
“Of course, darling. I’ll call the others immediately.”
~~~
Rainbow burst into the library, having kicked the door wide open. “Sunset!”
“Rainbow, the door was unlocked,” Coco chided. She entered and started looking around. “Sunset, are you in here?”
Rainbow ignored her and began checking every nook and cranny of the library, calling out Sunset’s name repeatedly.
Coco also contributed to the search, running over to their usual table. “Sunset are you here anywhere?”
“Hey, come check this out!” Coco turned at the sound of Rainbow Dash’s voice. It came from the far corner of the library. Once she got over there she found Rainbow Dash holding a light purple blanket and Sunset’s backpack. “What’s this about?”
“Girls? What are you two doing here?”
Rainbow and Coco turned back to see Cheerilee standing at the entrance of the Library, already clad in a giant pencil costume. Coco immediately ran up to Cheerilee and gave her a desperate look. “Sunset ran away and we can’t find her.”
Cheerilee gasped in surprise. “Oh dear. That’s not good. Do you know any places where she might be?”
Coco glanced down in thought while Rainbow tossed aside the objects and walked up to the two. “We thought that she would be here. No dice though,” she grumbled.
“So you don’t know anywhere that she would go? Do you know where she lives?”
Rainbow shook her head in frustration. She pointed an accusing finger at Cheerilee. “You’re a teacher why don’t you know?”
Cheerilee glared at her with a deadpan expression. “I don’t go around memorizing the addresses of my students.”
Suddenly, Coco’s eyes lit up in realization. “I think I might have an idea!”
~~~
Rainbow burst through the door into Coco’s home. “Sunset!” she called out.
Coco moved past her, grateful Rainbow didn’t kick this door in also, and ran down the hallway leading to the stairs and into a particular room. Opening the door, Coco smiled at her discovery. Therein lay Sunset Shimmer; sitting on her old bed curled up in a ball against the headboard, with her costume’s pith helmet and satchel thrown away on the ground. Coco had kept the room exactly the way Sunset had left it in hopes that she’d change her mind about the roommate situation.
Hearing Coco enter, Sunset glanced up. She wasn’t crying but her bloodshot eyes were a clear indicator that she had been. “Oh… you found me,” she muttered. Her voice was dry and listless.
Rainbow came into the room and stood next to Coco. “Well duh. You ran off, or course we’d go looking for you.”
“Rarity and her friends are also looking,” Coco added, taking a small step closer.
Rainbow spotted the pith helmet over in the corner and walked over to pick it up. “Anyway, let’s just forget about those three and go see Daring Do.” Rainbow tried to hand the hat back to Sunset, but after receiving no response simply opted to just placed the hat on her head.
Slowly, Sunset reached up and sat her hand on it. “Why?” she asked, her voice muffled.
“Because Daring Do is awesome, and this is a once in a lifetime deal!”
“No,” Sunset tightened her grip around the helmet.” Why do you guys keep trying to help me? I’m a horri—”
“Stop saying that!” Coco nearly yelled. Walking forward, she sat down on the bed besides Sunset. “You are not a horrible person, Sunset.”
“Yes I am!” Sunset raised her head and looked directly at Coco. “I did so many terrible things to so many people for so long.” She looked up at Rainbow Dash. “How can you all forgive me so easily? Especially after what I did to you and your friends?”
“Well...” Rainbow nervously scratched her head, “what you did wasn’t that bad. I got to enjoy not listening to Pinkie rant about the differences between cupcakes and muffins for a while after all.”
“We forgive you because we know that you’re sorry,” said Coco. “We know that you can be a good person.”
“But I--”
“Listen, Sunset,” interrupted Rainbow. “My dad always said that if you keep looking behind you, you’ll crash into what’s right in front of you. So it doesn't matter what you did to us before. What matters is that we all want to be your friend now.”
“But all I’ve ever done is hurt people,” whimpered Sunset.
“What did I just say?” Rainbow groaned, not used to dealing with these types of situations. “Look, do you still want to hurt people?” Sunset shook her head. “Good. Then I forgive you. There, done.”
Coco gently brought Sunset’s attention back on her and gave her a warm reassuring smile. “We want to be your friends. Rarity and the others too, we all forgive you and we all want to be your friends.”
As soon as their words clicked in her mind, Sunset’s eyes began brimming with tears anew. The last few walls surrounding her heart finally broke and she leapt forward to wrap Coco in a tight embrace, crying her heart out.
Coco, surprised at first, quickly returned the hug. “It’s alright.” Coco could feel that Sunset had been bottling up her emotions for a long time. A wet spot on her costume was a small price to pay for emotional recovery. She even joined in, crying small tears of empathy.
Rainbow, not really one for mushy stuff, blushed slightly, and turned away. “Oh jeez,” she muttered. Coco calmly reached up and pulled her down into the hug. Unable to break free, the tomboy simply decided to ride out the moment and join in.
Several minutes later, Sunset pulled away and dried her eyes. “I-I’m sorry about that.”
Coco smiled. “It’s alright. We all need to cry every once in a while. That’s what my dad told me.” She smiled up at Rainbow. Rainbow missed the look as she quickly got to work examining her costume for any stains.
“I’ve… I...” Sunset hesitated and fumbled with her words. “I am… lonely. I do want friends... but I don’t know if I deserve any. I don’t even know how friendships work.”
“Eh, we pretty much just keep doing what we’ve been doing, I think,” Dash guessed. Finding no stains, Rainbow let out a sigh of relief and leaned back on the floor. “Except we have to leave the library more. I swear I think I caught myself looking at a history book one time!”
“We could start by telling Rarity and her friends that you’re alright,” suggested Coco. “They all stopped what they were doing to go out looking for you.” Coco reached down and pulled out her phone.
Sunset nodded, and a particular moment from her nightmare flashed through her head. “Hey, Coco, Rainbow Dash?” Both of them looked up at her. Sunset gave them a smile, probably the brightest and most genuine smile she had ever made. “Thank you… thank you for being my friends.”
Coco returned her smile and Rainbow blushed. Standing up, she brushed the dirt off of her pants. “Well if you’re done with all of the mushy-feely stuff, let’s go tell everyone that you’re fine and go see Daring Do.”
Sunset nodded and stood up from her bed. Offering a hand, she helped Coco up as well. All three of them eagerly left the house to follow Rainbow Dash.
~~~
“In the Fortress of Talancon why did you decide to use the Orb of Atonement instead of the Cube of Commitment. The cube would’ve solved the problem just as well as the orb with the added effect of curing your sickness.”
A.K. Yearling, or rather, Daring Do groaned lightly. “Because, the cube also had a curse on it that made the cure temporary. The illness would have actually have become permanent, showing up and disappearing at random. That was the trick, I had to choose the right artifact. Are you done yet?” she asked the girl in front of her. By Daring’s count this had been the 21st question in a row. All of them related to either her choices in various books, clarifications on certain events, information on the artifacts themselves and even pointing out technical inconsistencies in the books.
Luckily, this girl was the last one in line. She had long dark blue hair with two streaks through it, one purple and one pink. She wore a Daring Do costume that, like most of the others, was completely inaccurate. In Daring’s eyes anyway. Though she had to at least admit that, unlike the others, it did seem like the girl put real effort into making it and didn’t just buy it online. If the multiple bandages on her fingers were of any significance. She had apparently come from out of town to see her as well. “Just one more,” she said eagerly. “Is Spirit Shift here? I have questions for him too!”
Daring leaned forward and sat her head in her hand. “Spirit’s not here. He didn’t want to come,” she answered. “Lucky bastard…” she added under her breath.
The girl nodded sadly but quickly perked back up. “Well that’s alright. Thank you very much for answering my questions. I’m such a big fan. Finally, she handed her book over to be signed. “If you could please make it out to Twilight Sparkle…”
“No problem.” Taking the book, Daring signed her pen name “A.K. Yearling” and added the customary “Keep Adventuring!” above it. Once she got it, Twilight squealed in delight and thanked her once again before leaving.
“God, I’m tired,” muttered Daring. This is why she never did book signings. She hated them. In fact, she hated doing anything repeatedly. Say “hi,” ask for their name, and sign the book. That was it… usually anyway. She only agreed to do this as her little sister claimed she had a lead on the recent mysterious happenings in this town; and that said lead would show up at the signing. Unfortunately, that person had yet to show up. It also wasn't helping that she was forced to wear a stupid green dress.
With the lines of fans finally cleared, Daring yawned and stretched her back out. After a few satisfying cracks, she relaxed back in her chair. Turning her head towards her agent she asked, “So are we done here now? I haven’t seen any Sunset Shimmer yet.”
The tall man, dressed in a dark business suit, checked his watch. “We still have twenty more minutes, Ms. Daring.”
Daring groaned, scowled, and stood up from her seat in a huff. “Nope, I’m done! Anyone else who shows up is outta luck.”
The front doors of the book store slammed open to reveal three girls, two of which were panting in exhaustion. The one girl who wasn’t panting turned to her friends and frowned. “Come on! If you’re going to dress like the best adventurer of all time, you could at least handle a quarter mile run like that.” Sighing, Rainbow turned to see her hero standing right in front of her. With a gasp, her mind skidded to a complete stop.
Daring carefully examined this new arrival. If she were about a half a foot shorter it would almost be like looking in a mirror. “Wow, this is a fantastic costume,” Daring observed, a proud tone in her voice. “You even got the hair right. I’m guessing that this isn’t something you got online.”
Coco weakly raised her hand. “Ah-I made it, Miss Yearling.”
Daring grimaced and turned to Coco. “Please, just call me Daring. A.K. Yearling is just a pen name that I use and I didn’t even come up with it. Anyway, I love the costumes that you made. They look almost exactly what I used to wear.”
Coco beamed at the praise while Rainbow’s mind finally started rebooting. She quickly turned to face Daring. “OhmygoshOhmygoshOhmygoshOhmygosh! It’s really you!” she squealed.
Daring chuckled. “Yeah, it’s me. Let me guess, you got something for me to sign.” Rainbow immediately reached into her satchel but paused as Daring held up a finger in front of her. “But I’ll only sign one thing. Got it? Also, please no more questions.”
Rainbow despaired for a few seconds before pulling herself together. Reaching past all of her posters and pictures, Rainbow brought out her new copy of Shifted Spirits as well as her old copy of Spirit Amulet. She looked between the two trying to decide which was her favorite. Finally she looked up at Daring herself. “Which one of these did you enjoy writing better?”
Daring looked momentarily surprised but smiled nonetheless. She never expected to be asked which one was her favorite. She looked between both of them. “Well, Spirit was a pain in both of these…” She pointed to Spirit Amulet. “But at least I wasn’t using his body during this one.”
Meanwhile standing by the door with her back turned to everyone, Sunset was panicking furiously while Coco tried to comfort her. “What do you mean you forgot your book?” she asked.
“Exactly what I just said! I left it on the floor in the room!” whispered Sunset.
Coco frantically reached into her own satchel and brought out her own book. “Here, take mine!”
Sunset looked at her like she was crazy. “No way! That’s your book. Maybe I can just get one from here.”
Coco shoved the book into Sunset’s arms. “Take it, you’ve been a fan much longer than I have.”
“Hey you!” Sunset immediately turned around as Daring made her way over to her. Behind her, Rainbow melted to the ground with her book pressed tightly against her chest. A look of bliss stamped across her face. Daring looked Sunset up and down and smirked. “Love the open shirt preference. What’s your name?”
“S-S-Sunset Shimmer!”
“Sunset… oh so you’re the girl!” Daring’s eyes lit up in excitement. “I’ve heard that you’ve got a story for me!”
Sunset stared at her in confusion. “I have a what?”
“Come on, you know the whole big light show a few months ago?” she smirked. “Bunch of destroyed stuff. All my instruments went crazy. And I got a hot tip that you were right at the center of it.” She poked Sunset’s nose. “So tell me what happened! I gotta know and no one else is talking about it! Please?” she begged.
Sunset’s mind nearly shut down then and there. Daring Do was right in front of her, asking her for her story! Her mind zoomed back into reality when the exact situation kicked in to her head. Daring wanted to know her story. The story about the demon girl who stole a magic artifact. Nervously, Sunset glanced over at Coco who nodded. Taking a deep breath Sunset began her tale.
~~~
“--and then she took the crown back home with her. I’ve been trying to make up for what I did since then.” Sunset let out a deep breath as she finished explaining what happened. Of course she spared details of another world, referring to the crown as an artifact from her hometown and never mentioning Equestria by name under the excuse of not wanting people to go searching for it.
Having moved back to Daring’s desk so that everyone could sit, Daring Do was leaning forward on the desk, completely enthralled by the story. Though she still had some reservations. “So, you tried to incriminate her by doctoring some photos with scissors and glue? Why didn’t you use the computer?”
Sunset chuckled embarrassingly. “I’m not really that good with technology. I can barely use my phone.”
Daring laughed along side her. “Yeah I hear that. Get me a book any day. So the crown is back, safe and sound?” Sunset nodded happily. “And you’re sure that you don’t wanna tell me where you’re home is? I would absolutely love to check it out! I’ll use it in my next book,” she begged.
Rainbow gasped and turned to Sunset with the most pleading and needy look possible. Sunset simply shook her head. “I think it’s safer if you didn’t know, Daring.”
Daring sighed forlornly. “Oh, alright then. If you really think so. Anyway, I gotta go soon, so do you have anything for me to sign?” Sunset held out Coco’s book and Daring took it. Opening to the front page she wrote:
From a Shimmer to a shine.
Don’t focus on remembering whom you hurt. Just remember whom you helped. Stay with your friends and keep learning.
Jumping onto the friendship train with you, Daring Do.