//------------------------------//
// Just Shove Her in the Closet! 
// Story: Three Little Visitors 
// by Daniel-Gleebits 
//------------------------------//

Three Little Visitors: Pt 14


“I know I’ve said it already,” Rainbow sighed. “But this sucks. Royally.”
Her friends concurred broodingly. Fluttershy, looking out of the window, stretched out a finger to the glass in the direction of an indigo bunting, but she didn’t really seem to be paying the bird much attention.
“The worst part is that I’m not even sure there’s anything that we can do,” Rarity said, chewing her index finger. 
“How’s your dad doing?” Applejack asked.
Rarity’s lips tightened. “He’s not acclimatising well to house arrest,” she said heavily. “Nor to having almost murdered a child by accident. Nor to having shot Sunset in the back.”
“Well if he ever wants his guns back, Big Mac’s willing to sell ‘em to him. Ah think he only bought ‘em ta hold onto them for ‘im.”
“I know,” Rarity said, her teary eyes fixed on the floor. “Thanks, Applejack.”
“Sure thing, sugarcube,” Applejack said, smiling as she put a hand on Rarity’s shoulder.
“So what are we going to do about Sunset?” Rainbow asked. “Not that I don’t enjoy the hospital,” she went on sardonically, “but she’s been crying for an entire week now. She barely speaks to us anymore.”
“Well ya’ll can’t exactly blame her, Rainbow,” Applejack said, spreading her arms. “Ah mean, ah knew we was doin’ something not exactly legal here,” she went on in a more discreet tone, “but t’ain’t fair that she’s havin’ ta deal with the consequences alone.”
“Quite,” Rarity agreed. “She could go to prison over this. Or, a detention centre I suppose, since she’s underage.”
“Whichever,” Rainbow said impatiently. “It’s all totally unfair. We only tried to do the right thing.”
“That’s no excuse when breaking the law,” Twilight said darkly. “That’s a reality you have to get used when you’re a princess.”
There was a pause, after which Rainbow scoffed impatiently. “We can’t leave her to this! How can we call ourselves her friends if we leave her to go to prison?”
“That’s not what’s bothering her,” Pinkie said, quietly. 
Everyone looked at her, a little disconcerted. Perhaps it was the unusually contemplative tone, or the serious expression on her face, or perhaps just the fact that Pinkie was capable of lowering the volume of her voice that did it, but whatever it was about her, her friends seemed to find the situation even more serious than they did before.
“What do you mean, Pinkie?” Fluttershy asked, nervously. 
“She’s not crying because she’s in trouble. They took away her children.” She looked around at them, giving each of them significant looks. “How can you not get that?”
Several of them looked uneasily between themselves.
“I knew that she was close to them,” Rarity admitted. “I mean, she took a bullet for one of them.”
“Her children, like her children children?” Rainbow asked, gesturing with her hands. “As in, her actual kids?”
“Like, the apple of her tree?” Applejack added.
“Like, her daughters, yes,” Pinkie said, scowling a little. “How can you guys not understand that?”
“Pinkie, there’s no need to be confrontational about it,” Fluttershy muttered, looking at though she was speaking against her better judgement. 
Pinkie seemed to bite her tongue, and said nothing.
“I didn’t know you felt so strongly about this as well,” Rarity said to Pinkie, cautiously. 
“It’s just that I’ve seen the way she is when she’s with them,” Pinkie said with a sigh. “I know it has only been a few months, but she’s really bonded with them.”
“It’s not unheard of,” Twilight put in. “She’s fairly new to friendship and forming closeness with other people. Ponies can be very susceptible to new feelings like that.”
“So, we have a double problem then,” Rainbow said, flinging her arms into the air. “No problem, right? We got this. We work it out.”
“Or we make it even worse,” Applejack added.
“Thanks, AJ,” Rainbow said with a tight smile. “I was getting a little too optimistic  there.”
“So what are we going to do about it?” Rarity put in before they could start arguing. “Anyone have any ideas?”
A short pause followed, after which Twilight spoke up.
“I have an idea,” she said quietly. “I’ve been thinking about it for the past week. You might say that I’ve thought of little else.”
They all stared at her, waiting for her to go on.
“Well?” Applejack prompted after another pause.
Twilight hesitated, and looked furtively between her friends. The tension seemed to grow between them all.
“You’re... you’re not going to like my idea,” Twilight said, her mouth scrunching up like she’d swallowed a lemon.





Most people who are forced to lie hour after hour in a hospital bed for a week typically get bored. They become restless, irritable, and long to escape their involuntary confinement. The only thing about Sunset’s bedridden state that could be called good would be that she wasn’t afflicted by any such sense of paralyzing boredom. Her mind was far too saturated by the compound failures of the last week.
Like a teenager who’d joyfully bought their first car without reference to advice, inspection, or reputable internet services, she had stridden blindly forward into motherhood with no real plan, no experience, and not a single clue. She hadn’t even comprehended that it was taking on the role of being a parent until the responsibility had already been pressing down upon her. She hadn’t recognised the maturity or resourcefulness of her children, and had treated them like normal ignorant kids in her secretive pursuit to help them by keeping their past from them.
Sunset had had the entire week to brood on these uncomfortable facts; a week full of people visiting her and trying to cheer her up. Sunset unfortunately was one of those uncomfortable breeds of people who finds both solitude and companionship equally desirable and equally displeasing when in a susceptible mood. When people visited, she wished them away, and when they were away, she wished for their company.
Apart from her friends, who kept her up to date (usually just to make conversation) on what had happened since she’d been shot. She’d learnt that Rarity’s father had turned himself in to the authorities, and had not pressed charges against Sunset or Adagio for breaking and entering. In addition, since Sunset wasn’t pressing charges for having been shot, and because of all of the peculiarities in the law to do with placement, circumstance, and testimony, what had had to be done with Rarity’s father had apparently become a rather convoluted issue. Eventually, he’d been placed under house arrest until a formal decision could be made. 
The most surprising visit she received during this time was from principal Celestia. As she had predicted, a certain amount of blame and suspicion came to rest on Celestia and Luna, with their involvement in the illicit placement of the children into Sunset’s care being investigated.
“No, Chrysalis hasn’t been so much as suspected so far as I’m aware,” Celestia said heavily when Sunset inquired. “No doubt she has people she can turn to. Favours she can call in. I honestly doubt she’ll be affected by any of this. She’s adept at camouflaging herself when there’s danger.”
Sunset thought it a little strange that Celestia’s tone had a subtle inflection to it. One might be forgiven for thinking that Celestia was impressed.
“I am more grieved for you, Sunset Shimmer,” she said gravely. “I had hoped to shield you from the ferocity of the law should it come to this. But as circumstances have occurred, they got to you before I had a chance to intervene.” She gave Sunset a tender look, possibly noting the look on Sunset’s face.
Sunset fully expected her to say something in regards to working a way out of the situation, telling her not to worry or some such guff as that. She was surprised therefore when Celestia sat down on the stool next to the bed, and ran a hand through Sunset’s hair.
“You miss them, don’t you?” she sighed.
Sunset’s heart jumped. Before she had any chance to stop it, before she even understood it was happening, she was crying again. Celestia said nothing more, but remained where she was, holding Sunset’s hand and running a hand through her hair. Short of a hug, which Sunset knew Celestia must have figured would be impossible in Sunset’s condition, it was the most comforting – and motherly – thing Celestia could do to comfort her. It struck Sunset in that moment that Celestia might have a stronger understanding of what she was feeling than she previously thought.
With all of this time to think – to do little but think – Sunset had come to only one conclusion; she had to get her children back. The only problem was that she had no idea how to do it. Once she got out of hospital, she’d be arrested, or as good as, and Aria, Sonata, and Adagio had already been carted off to an orphanage on the other side of town. Even if she got out of trouble herself, she’d not be permitted to have her children back for at least a few years, if ever. And if she was convicted...

Sunset lay in a beam of pale light, which bleached the colour out of her already slightly faded hair. When the sliding door opened she barely made an effort to look up, but when she saw every single one of her friends filing passed the cop on duty and looking, in their own ways, distressed, a sense of lively curiosity spurred her to a little energy.
“What’s up?” she asked when no one said anything.
“The doctor asked us to tell you that you’ll be discharged on Thursday,” Twilight said. “They think you’ll be well enough to heal at home after that.”
Sunset nodded once. “Three days,” she said wistfully. “Oh joy.”
Before Sunset could sink further into gloom, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie, who were standing at the back of the group, burst into a fairly audible conversation. Under cover of this, Twilight leaned suddenly forward.
“So we’re getting you out of here tonight,” she said in hushed tones.
“Excuse me?” Sunset asked, not sure she’d heard correctly. 
“Tonight,” Rarity repeated. “We coming back tonight and breaking you out of here.”
Sunset stared at them. “O-kay...” she said slowly. “And um... then what?”
Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy all looked over their shoulders. The policeman was paying no attention to them.
“Well really, that depends on you,” Twilight said quickly. She looked furtively at Rarity and Fluttershy, and then pressed on. “If you stay here, you run the risk of going to prison. We can’t convince a court in a non-magical world of the necessity of our actions; they won’t believe us or at best won’t understand. One way or another you need to leave.”
“Okay,” Sunset said again, still feeling as though she wasn’t getting the entire picture. “I need to go and see the kids first though.”
“Yes,” Rarity agreed. “We’re planning that out as well. To go and get the kids at the same time.”
“I need to talk to them first,” Sunset said.
Twilight and Rarity frowned. “Talk to them?”Rarity asked cautiously.
“Sunset, we might not have time for that. The police will be looking for you as soon as you go. You’ll be a fugitive.”
“I’ve messed up everything from the start,” Sunset said, her voice becoming hard. “It’ll only take a moment. I just need to say something to them first.”
Twilight eyed her sidelong, as though she was trying to decide something. Sunset stared right back; it was the one thing she’d been able to decide on this past week. She knew what she wanted to say and do should she see them again. Then, it was up to them. She was done making the same mistakes.
“Just, um... just a concern here. What if they, err, don’t want to come?” Fluttershy asked tentatively.
Sunset paused and swallowed to moisten her suddenly dry throat. “Then I’ll leave them alone.” She paused for a moment, and then suddenly let out a short chuckle. “You know, sometimes it’s so easy to forget who they used to be.”
“We’re your friends,” Twilight said with an earnest smile. “Whatever you decide to do, we’ll support you.”
Sunset paused. “Twilight? Could you do me a favour?”
“Sure! Anything,” Twilight said, looking politely inquiring. 
“Do you still have the pendant shards? Adagio’s ones.”
“Um, yeah,” Twilight said, looking faintly surprised.
“Could you bring them, and my magic journal with us tonight, please?”
“Sure,” Twilight said uncertainly. “Um... can I ask why you’re asking about the shards?”
“It’s not really all of the shards I’ll need,” Sunset said, absently rubbing the area around her wound. “Just the one of them.”





Twilight and company did not at first inform Sunset of how they would break Sunset out of the hospital. It shouldn’t have been too difficult; there was only one guard by Sunset’s door, and the usual security in the building. The place had a few night staff, but was otherwise deserted. 
The first clue to a hint of a rescue operation came when Sunset heard a tapping on her window. With the blinds shut, she couldn’t see what was doing it, and so after about the fourth tap, she shifted out of bed and went to open the blinds. Her middle stung with pain, which made her walk across the room slow and painful. Reaching for the blind’s cord she gave it a jerky tug, and then nearly leapt out of her skin.
Several things almost made Sunset cry out; first was the lancing pain shooting through her gut as she instinctively tried to step back from the window. The second was her surprise, which sent warning triggers like claxon bells ringing through her brain, at the sight beyond the window.
The thing waved at her.
“P-Pinkie?” Sunset managed to whisper, opening the window as quietly as she could. “What in the world are you doing out there?”
Pinkie, who was wearing the all-black attire of jumper, combat boots, and black mask usually worn by spec-ops teams, was dangling from a harness attached to Celestia-knew-what. A little pink cloud of hair stuck out from the mask, hovering eerily over Pinkie’s bright blue eyes. With all of the grace of a pile of bricks, Pinkie manoeuvred her way through the open window, and undoing the harness, dropped like said pile of bricks onto the floor with a loud thump. Sunset’s heart pounded loudly against her ribs as she glanced at the doorway, expecting the cop to come bursting in. But nothing happened.
“Hi the—“ Pinkie began loudly, but Sunset clapped a hand to her mouth.
“Not so loud!” she hissed, looking again towards the door. Then she blinked. The policeman was gone. “Where did...?” Pinkie said something muffled by Sunset’s hand. “Sorry, what?”
“I said we initiated a distraction,” Pinkie explained, beaming. 
“In the form of what?” Sunset asked cautiously. 
“Rainbow Dash throwing paper balls at him,” Pinkie replied cheerfully.
Sunset opened her mouth to protest the blatantly obvious problems with such a plan, when she stopped and grinned. 
“You almost had me there,” she chuckled, wincing a little at the pain in her gut.
“Had you where?” Pinkie asked, evidently puzzled. “The paper ball thing was my idea.”
The sliding door opened, and in stepped the rest of her friends with the notable exception of Rainbow Dash.
“Come on, ya’ll,” Applejack said, who was in the lead. “Ah don’t think Rainbow will be able to keep that guy distracted for too—“ She stopped. “Pinkie, how did... where’d ya get those clothes?”
“Thrift store.”
Applejack simply stared, then gave her head a shake. “O-Okay, but, what are ya doin’?” 
“Rescuing Sunset,” Pinkie answered, as though this should be obvious.
“And what do you think we were doing?” Applejack inquired, gesturing at the rest of their friends.
“Rescuing Sunset,” Pinkie guessed.
“Right,” Applejack nodded. “So it don’t make no sense for two of us to be rescuing her, does it?”
“Applejack,” Pinkie scoffed. “There’s five of us. Six if you count Rainbow Dash.”
“No, I mean it don’t make sense to have two separate plans.”
“We don’t have two separate plans,” Pinkie said, looking puzzled.
“Then what are ya doin’ coming through the window?”
“Duh,” Pinkie said, exasperated. “It’s a rescue mission. How come you guys didn’t come through the window?”
Applejack looked about ready to burst from indignation and impatience. 
“Girls,” Sunset interrupted with forced good humour. “Abbott and Costello would be proud, but as I understand it we have very little time here, and my pain meds havn’t quite kicked in yet, so if we could get to going?”
“I think we have less time than we imagined, darlings,” Rarity said uneasily. “I think I hear footsteps.” 
“Did Rainbow really get the guard to chase her by throwing paper—“ Sunset began to ask, but then noticed two or three scrunched up balls on the floor as they exited her room. “I literally can’t believe that worked.”
“She may have employed a few choice insults as well,” Twilight said through her teeth as they snuck down the hall.
“If there’s anything our dear Rainbow Dash is good at...” Rarity commented disdainfully.
They managed to move through the hospital mostly undisturbed, but Sunset’s injury had not healed sufficiently enough to allow her to walk unaided. As they descended the stairs to the second floor, she nearly collapsed  as she seized hold of the railing. 
“I got you,” Pinkie said quickly, hoisting Sunset up. “Are you okay?”
“It just hurts to walk,” Sunset groaned, taking shallow breaths. “I just need something to take the weight off.”
“I think there should be crutches somewhere,” Fluttershy suggested. “Would that help at all?”
The crutches did help a lot, but Sunset knew from the outset that the night was simply not meant to be easy and painless. Of the seven of them, only Applejack and Rarity had a learner’s permit, and only Applejack actually had a vehicle that she could freely use. Unfortunately, said vehicle was a large landrover. The only consolation was that she hadn’t brought the farm’s flatbed truck, but that still didn’t make the journey any easier to bear. 
“Can’t you drive a little more carefully, Applejack?” Rarity hissed. She peered over her shoulder at Sunset, but also clutched at her arm rests as though she were on a roller-coaster.
“Ahm drivin’ as careful as a momma cat around sleepin’ kittens,” Applejack growled back. “T’ain’t mah fault Big Mac don’t know when ta fix the axel proper.”
“Are you okay, Sunset?” Twilight asked, holding her hand in the backseat.
“Need a cushion?” Pinkie inquired hastily. “Maybe some whipped cream? Is the car interior too drab?”
“Hey!” Applejack snapped. 
“I’ve got some confetti bombs I can set off if you like,” Pinkie continued, ignoring Applejack.
“Whipped cream?” Sunset asked, genuinely glad of a distraction from the stabbing pains in her gut. “And what confetti bombs?”
Pinkie produced a can of whipped cream seemingly from nowhere. “I carry some everywhere,” she said cheerfully. “I told you I had too much as home. My confetti bombs are everywhere. I set them up ahead of time. I’m pretty sure there’s one or two in here somewhere.”
“There better not be!” Applejack barked.
“Toss some here, Pinkie,” Rainbow said from the mid seat. “I tell ya, that guy must have chased me twice around the hospital.”
“Who was that other person running after you?” Rarity inquired. “The one who was barking.”
“No idea,” Rainbow coughed, snorting with laughter as she held out her hand for Pinkie to throw the whipped cream. “She just kind of appeared out of this side room and almost pulled my mask off. It was crazy!”
Pinkie under-armed the whipped cream can, which missed Rainbow’s outstretched hand. A loud “PFFFT!” sound accompanied by a whistle and a bell erupted inside of the vehicle, followed by a shower of confetti. 
Applejack looked quickly over her shoulder and gave Pinkie the evil-eye.
“Heh, knew there was at least one,” Pinkie chuckled, grinning innocently.
“Girls,” Sunset said into the sudden silence. “Twilight’s idea.” She paused. “I suppose you all... talked it over?”
“We did,” Rarity said uncomfortably from the passenger’s seat. “We don’t like it,” she said hurriedly. “But... it’s just...” She swallowed.
“I know,” Sunset said quietly. “If it all goes that way, or if something happens tonight, I just want you guys to know I’m grateful and everything.”
“Don’t ya’ll go talkin’ like that,” Applejack said with mock-sternness, turning a corner. “We don’t need no last words here.”
“We’ll still see each other,” Fluttershy peeped hopefully from the second middle seat.
“I hope so,” Sunset whispered. “You guys mean so much to me.”
An awkward silence followed this pronouncement. Pinkie gave a loud sniff and wiped her watery eyes, and even Rainbow Dash had to bite her lip and look determinately out of the window into the night. 
“Hey, I think we’re here,” Applejack said heartily into the quiet.
As opposed to the usually dank, frightening, and/or bleak impressions one usually has of orphanages, the Canterlot Local Orphanage was in many ways far more pleasant in bearing. Its exterior was of bright red bricks and yellow stone, and a large sign above its door cheerfully proclaimed its name in colourful but sober font. With Fluttershy agreeing, and even seeming glad, to stay and watch the car, the rest of them moved as quickly and quietly as possibly could to the front gate. The front gate, however, was locked.
“Tch!” Rainbow Dash scoffed. “It’s just bolted from the inside.”
“Fire safety code,” Applejack commented. “They can’t lock everyone in.”
“Give me a boost,” Rainbow said, gesturing at the wall.
“Watch out for CCTV,” Rarity warned, cupping her hands to her mouth.
Within moments Rainbow hopped the wall and unlocked the gate.
“Now here comes the hard part,” Twilight began as they pressed into the shadows of the front door. “We don’t know where the three of them are, but it’s likely they’ll be in bed at this point. Which probably means—“
“Excuse me, Twilight,” Sunset interrupted as politely as she could. “But if I know my children, they’ll not be with the other children.”
Twilight blinked. “Why do you say that?”
“Because they’ll have been in trouble. And because of that, they’ll be separated from the other children, probably in some detention area.” She rubbed the dull ache in her abdomen and gave a tight smile. “Call it parental intuition.”
“Bad news,” Rainbow reported, trying the door. “This is locked too, and no wall to jump.”
“Try the back door?” Applejack suggested.
Moving around the building, Sunset using the singular crutch she’d taken from the hospital, they found an open side-door with a light on within. A short distance away, a young man in overalls with headphones in his ears was carrying cardboard boxes inside from a red truck, singing under his breath and mincing his way back and forth apparently to the tune of whatever he was listening to. 
“Do you think there’s anyone inside other than him?” Pinkie wondered aloud in a stage whisper.
“I’d think so,” Twilight said thoughtfully. “There has to be someone on site to make sure the children are okay.”
“Hopefully they’re all asleep or something,” Rainbow added, trying to be more positive.
“Ah doubt they all are,” Applejack said darkly.
They moved in tandem through the door as the young man shuffled his way back out, performing a little spin with his eyes closed.
“Flash, ahhh!” he breathed as they all passed stealthily through the door behind him. “Saviour of the universe!”
“Well that was eas— Mmph!” Pinkie said cheerfully before Rarity slapped a hand to her mouth.
“Kitchen,” Twilight summarised. She gestured for them to move on, and they came out into a narrow vestibule with a window and a door ajar on one wall. “Ah, this is what we’re looking for.”
“I thought we were looking for Sunset’s kids,” Rainbow said, evidently puzzled.
“Yes, but hopefully in here we’ll find that out,” Twilight said, stepping into the room. 
Sunset panted a little as she gimped into the room, and sat down heavily in one of the spinning chairs. She could feel the effects of her pain meds kicking in properly now; along with the general dullness in her torso and abdomen, she felt a fuzziness in her head. For the past week this feeling had been her constant companion during the night hours, guiding her through pain to the bliss of sleep. Now she wished it were gone; she needed her wits about her tonight. 
The office was small and couldn’t fit all of them in, so Pinkie found herself stuck outside to peer through the little window in the wall. With her balaclava on she looked like a cartoon burglar peering through the window of a house belonging to a child with an unnatural capacity for engineering traps out of household appliances. 
Whilst Sunset got her breath back, Twilight scanned the wall, and said “Ah-ha!”
“What is it?” Pinkie asked, pressing her nose against the glass. 
“The layout of the building,” Twilight said triumphantly, running her finger down a birds-eye depiction of the orphanage. “Kitchen and main office, so we’re here...” she muttered, squinting at the room-layout. “The bedrooms are all upstairs.”
“And if you’re right, sugarcube,” Applejack said, leaning over Sunset’s shoulder, “the kids’ll be... here.”
Everyone gathered around to look at a smallish square at the rear of a long hall opposite the stairs labelled 

Detention Room

“Sounds like them,” Rainbow said, grinning. 
“Ahh!” cried a voice from outside. Instinctively they all looked towards the window, except Pinkie, who stood outside of the window staring in surprise to her left. Before any of them could react, Pinkie disappeared. A few seconds later, the sounds of struggling and quickly stifled inarticulate cries was cut off as they all heard a door quickly opened.
Twilight peered carefully out of the door, and then let out a sound of disbelief which prompted everyone else to look out. 
“Hey, help me close this door!” Pinkie hissed, leaning her shoulders against what was obviously a side-cupboard.
“Oh this ain’t good,” Applejack said hoarsely, turning pale.
“Pinkie!” Twilight hissed like an angry goose. 
“Don’t worry, she didn’t see my face,” Pinkie grinned, tugging at her mask. The door suddenly gave an enormous jump, nearly throwing Pinkie off it. A large woman in a pale pink nightgown appeared from inside the cupboard, her eyes and mouth covered in a pair of rags evidently taken from the cleaning supplies she was displacing. Her hands were tied by a length of grey plastic cable.
Rainbow Dash and Applejack leapt forward and forced the cupboard closed. Apparently the cupboard was quite a tight fit, since the best the woman seemed able to do was let out muffled cries and press feebly against the door.
“Well this is just great!” Rainbow Dash snarled. “If anyone finds her before we’re gone, we’re dead!”
“No one’s going to find us,” Twilight whispered loudly. “We just need to get upstairs, get the kids, and leave. Sure the police will be summoned and everything, but I doubt any of you guys will get in any trouble as long as your alibi holds up.”
“What alibi is that?” Sunset asked interestedly. 
“We’re camping,” Rainbow Dash replied, watching the door closely. “In one of Fluttershy’s nature retreat spots.”
“If all goes well, I’ll be the only one held responsible for their disappearance,” Sunset said grimly.
“Can you two watch that door?” Twilight asked as she, Sunset, and Pinkie all made their way to the front entrance and the main stairway. 
“Yeah,” Applejack said, looking uneasy. “We got it. Arr-Dee, you stay by the kitchen and watch that delivery boy don’t come this way.”
“On it boss!” Rainbow saluted, sneaking her way back down the corridor.

The trip to the detention room went as smoothly as might be expected. Pinkie tip-toed ahead, darting from wall to wall and pressing herself into the shadows in the highly exaggerated manner of a child playing spy. Twilight helped Sunset up the stairs as Sunset tried not to make too much noise with her crutch. Passing a door that was ajar, they saw that it was labelled Cheery Rose – Chief Supervisor.
“Sorry Cheery Rose,” Twilight muttered, glancing downwards.
They shuffled quietly up the corridor, hearing the low sounds of snoring, muttering, and the occasional whisper from within as the children inside sat up talking to each other. No sound permeated from downstairs.
“All clear,” Pinkie said in a stage whisper, dropping upside down between Twilight and Sunset. She clapped her hands to both of their mouths as they both went to scream, and then gave them knowing looks before landing lightly on the floor. “They’re in there,” she whispered, pointing dramatically to the door ahead.
“Were you... in there?” Twilight asked uncertainly.
“Duh,” Pinkie whispered, stalking forward. She pressed against the wall next to the door, and made a series of complicated hand-signals. Twilight and Sunset looked at each other, Sunset finding it especially hard to follow what was happening.
“What does that mean?” Twilight asked.
Pinkie rolled her eyes, thought for a second, and then pointed at the two of them.
“Us?” Twilight inquired.
Pinkie nodded, and then mimed for them to walk, and then pointed at the door.
“Why didn’t you just say so?” Twilight snapped as quietly as she could, grinding the words out.
“It’s not my fault you don’t know the elegant art of signalling!” Pinkie whispered boodingly.
Sunset was in too much pain for this. She struggled forward, and opened the door.





As might be expected, the detention room wasn’t quite as homey as the rest of the building. Whereas everywhere else there had been colourful wallpaper and children’s art projects interspersed with the odd notice emblazoned with charming clip art of flowers and teddy bears, this room was a pale spring green with only a bed, a wooden chair, and a cupboard in it. No decorations adorned the walls, and the only thing on the ceiling was a hanging electric light with a plain lampshade in the foulest orange colour imaginable. Sunset had once seen some kind of slime growing on a dead tree that had been the exact same colour as that shade, and she made a point of scooting around it to get to the bed.
On the bed, which was made for a single adult, lay squeezed her three children. A lump rose in Sunset’s throat as she looked down on them again, but she fought it down; she needed to be calm now. A little before she had quite finished seating herself, Adagio moved. It became clear to Sunset that she had only been feigning sleep.
“If you’re here to tell me I can go back, then don’t. I don’t want to—“
Sunset had to stop herself smiling quite so widely at the dear expression on Adagio’s face. Wide awake, her features were arranged into her classic look of petulant disapproval as she turned to look at the chair. Then the expression froze, and turned to blank astonishment.
“Hello,” Sunset said quietly. “Not who you were expecting?”
Pinkie and Twilight chuckled quietly, but Adagio simply stared; she didn’t seem able to speak, and after a little while Sunset became a little concerned. True, the last time they’d seen each other Adagio had been haranguing her for lying and keeping the truth from her, and Sunset had not expected Adagio to forget her anger, but Sunset had dared to hope that maybe after a week or so, Adagio might have had time to cool down a little. Now she thought that maybe she had been too optimistic.
Well just look what’s happened she thought morosely. Taken away by strangers to some unknown place. Story of her life...
Sunset opened her mouth with the intention of apologising, or explaining, or perhaps apologising and then explaining, or the other way around. She wasn’t quite sure, but she thought that she ought to say something.
Before she could force her tongue to articulate anything at all, Adagio made a sudden movement. Before Sunset quite knew what was happening, thin arms closed around her neck. Then apparently horrified at what she’d done, Adagio pulled suddenly back and pushed herself roughly back onto the bed. 
Sunset, nonplussed and rubbing at her wound a little, looked towards Pinkie and Twilight for help. Twilight raised her eyebrows and shrugged, whilst Pinkie looked encouraged and gave her the thumbs up. Adagio sat on the bed, staring determinately at the sheets with her face glowing pink. And then Sonata sat up, rubbing her eyes. Apparently disturbed from her slumber by Adagio’s sudden movements, she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, blinked a few times, and in the midst of a shuddering yawn, she spotted Twilight and Pinkie. Then she looked left.
It was fortunate that Aria too seemed to have been feigning sleep. Apparently curious about what Adagio was doing, she rose and spotted the visitors too, and was just in time to slap a hand across Sonata’s mouth as the latter inflated her lungs to let out a joyous cry.
“Shut up!” she hissed at Sonata. “The supervisor might hear!”
“Yeah, she won’t,” Pinkie said, hiding a smirk behind her hand.
“Hello, Aria. Sonata.” Sunset smiled at them.
Sonata let out a muffled flurry of words.
“Be quiet!” Aria hissed. She waited for Sonata to nod, and then let go.
“You came!” Sonata whispered ecstatically. “See, I told you she’d come to get us!”
“I thought you’d died,” Adagio said, half sulkily, half trembling. Sunset found it hard to tell whether Adagio was relieved or disappointed.
Sunset’s lips pursed. “Almost, I suppose you could say.” She looked each of her children over.
“Why are you here?” Adagio asked spasmodically. 
“It’s obvious,” Sonata whispered, removing Aria’s hand. “I told you she’d come back for us!”
“You have come to take us home, haven’t you?” Aria asked quietly, looking as usual cautiously stern.
Sunset let a slightly wry smile crease her mouth. “We can’t go back home,” she said heavily. “Things can’t be like they were.”
“Why not?” Sonata asked, looking scared. “You... you still like us, don’t you?”
“Of course I do,” Sunset said with a sad smile. “But things have changed. We can’t live where we used to. And things won’t be the same anymore.”
“Why have you come?” Adagio repeated. “I don’t... know who you are. I don’t know why you do anything you do. Everything you do is covered in lies!” She paused and seemed to make an effort to be quiet again. “What has changed?”
“Almost everything has changed,” Sunset said.
“Sunset, if you need to talk to them, now might not be a good time,” Twilight said, nervously looking over her shoulder to the door.
“I know, Twilight,” Sunset said, not looking away from her children. “But I can’t just take them with me. I can’t treat them like little children.” She moved a little on her chair so that she could lean forward with minimal irritation of her wound. “Adagio is right. All three of you know that I’ve lied to you, kept things from you. I believed it was for the best, honestly I thought that I was doing the best for you. But it was that kind of thinking that was wrong. I look at you and I see three children, and I forget who you actually are. I wanted you to trust me, but I didn’t trust you enough to tell you the truth.”
“Sunset?” Twilight asked slowly. Sunset ignored her.
“I took the three of you in because I knew you before. I felt guilty that I hadn’t done anything to help you then, and when I saw that you’d turned into children, I was afraid that something horrible would happen because of something I did. I thought that if I took you in, and later if I studied the pendants, that I’d be able to find out if you were in any more danger.” Sunset paused and squeezed her bandaged fingers. “When I did that, so as not to make anyone suspicious of where you’d come from, I... well, I adopted you.”
“Adopted?” Aria asked, frowning.
“It means that, lawfully speaking, I became your parent. I wasn’t supposed to, you see, it’s against the—“
“That means you’re our mom!” Sonata exploded. 
“So another thing you didn’t tell us,” Adagio said scathingly, as Aria tackled Sonata into silence. “Mom.”
“Yes,” Sunset said quietly. “Although that was... that was because of a different reason. It...” she sighed. “Just none of it went to plan. Before I knew what was going on, I found that I cared about you. I didn’t want to just make sure you were okay and then send you away, I found that I liked having you around me.” She cringed a little at how controlled and fake this was all sounding. She needed to stay on topic, or the vagueness in her brain was going to make her incomprehensible.
Adagio “hmph”d, but with less energy than usual. “Like you can expect me to believe anything you say,” she said thickly.
“She saved you,” Sonata said resentfully, frowning at Adagio.
Adagio blushed. “She only needed to because Aria was running around behind my back!” she snapped. “Keeping things from me and—“
“I was trying to keep you away from those stones!” Aria hissed waspishly. “You don’t know what you were like with—“
Sunset let out a breath and raised her hands. “Girls, stop,” she said firmly. 
Rather to her surprise, all three of them stopped arguing. Even Adagio returned to a moody silence.
“None of you are at fault here. If I’d seen you all for who you really were, if I’d taken into account how mature you all are, perhaps none of this would have happened. But it has. I’ve broken the law, and so now if I stay here, I’ll probably be taken away, and I’ll never see you again.”
All three of them reacted with their varying degrees of dismay. Sonata predictably looked the most devastated, her eyes widening and brimming with tears. Aria’s expression tightened and she looked pale. Even Adagio looked up from her resentful brooding to gave Sunset a surprised look. 
“Then... then I want to be taken away too!” Sonata said thickly.
Sunset smiled, feeling her chest warm up. “No, Sonata, I’m not going to be taken away. At least, not if I can help it.”
“You might just be if we don’t—“ Pinkie finished her sentence with some complicated hand gestures towards the door and a significant look.
“I know,” Sunset assured her. Turning back to her children she continued “I have to leave here. I can’t come back. I’ve come to ask if you want to come with me.”
Sonata didn’t bother to answer. She leapt out of the bed, threw her clothes off immediately, and rushed to pull on her colourful green tunic. Adagio didn’t move, but Aria gave Sunset a serious sort of look.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“To where I once used to live,” Sunset answered. “To where you three used to live long ago. We’re going to Equestria.”


- To be Continued