//------------------------------//
// Spoiler Warning: Sunset Does Something 
// Story: Three Little Visitors 
// by Daniel-Gleebits 
//------------------------------//

Three Little Visitors: Pt 15


“What’s Equestria?” Sonata asked, looking puzzled.
Adagio gave an unhappy little snort. “Something else you’ve been keeping from us,” she commented acidly.
Sunset pursed her lips. “I didn’t keep that one from you. It just sort of didn’t come up. I didn’t have any plans to go back there, and...” she gave her head a little shake. She knew how weak her words were sounding. She had to get to the point. “I’m inviting you to come there with me.”
“You’ll still be our mommy, right?” Sonata said, pulling nervously at her fingers. 
“If you want me to be, yes,” Sunset smiled. “Or you can live with someone else. You’ll be able to choose.”
“But we have to live with someone of course,” Adagio muttered, her lip curling.
“Equestria can be just as dangerous as this world,” Sunset said with a sigh. “Sometimes, even more so. But I promise that I’ll not force you to go anywhere you don’t want to.”
Adagio let out a contemptuous sound that made Sonata scowl.
“Why are you being so mean to her, Adagio?” she demanded, in the closest thing to a serious tone Sunset had ever heard her use. “She saved you, she saved all of us and gave us a home and looked after us.”
“Sonata, don’t,” Aria said warningly, her eyes on Adagio.
“No!” Sonata snapped. “She’s always like this, but Sunset doesn’t deserve it. She’s nice to us and—“
“Shut your stupid mouth!” Adagio bellowed.
Pinkie, who’d been alerted by Sonata’s rising voice, managed to close the door just in time. Sunset and Twilight watched her with wide eyes as Pinkie listened to the wall for signs of alerted occupants from the other rooms.
“Adagio, please keep your voice down!” Twilight pleaded in a loud whisper.
“You think she’s so wonderful and nice,” Adagio sobbed, angry tears forming in her eyes. “But she lied. They always lie! They always want something, and they take everything!”
“What are you—“ Twilight began to ask, looking pale, but Sunset held up a hand. She knew full well what Adagio was talking about.
“If you want to go be her plaything, then you go!” Adagio snarled at Sonata. “I’m sick of it! I’m never going with her, or any of them! I hate them! I hate everyone!”
“But... but why...?” Sonata whimpered, shrinking before Adagio’s rage.
“Sonata, just stop,” Aria said quietly. “You don’t get it.”
“What?” Sonata demanded. “What don’t I get?”
“Don’t talk like you know,” Adagio sneered at Aria, wiping her tears away with clenched fists. 
“None of us know what it was like, Adagio” Sunset interceded quickly. “But she knows what was going on. I know what happened to you. And I’m sorry that anyone treated you like that.”
Adagio gritted her teeth and gave Sunset such a venomous look that made Twilight and Pinkie Pie recoil. 
“Don’t talk like you know anything,” she breathed, her voice trembling. “What has ever happened to you that was so bad? You have these idiots who like you,” she said, pointing to Twilight and Pinkie. “You know nothing. You have a perfect life but still want to steal from me, and then want me to just come live with you like you could actually be my mom.” Her eyes burned with a determination beyond her years, and she said in a poisonous hiss “I’d rather starve on the streets than go with you.” 
With that, she turned resolutely away, her face set in the blackest scowl.
For a moment there was silence. Sonata knelt on the bed, staring at Adagio with slightly wobbling eyes. Even Aria kept her sight downcast, her expression tight. Twilight and Pinkie were watching Sunset, evidently both trying to think of something to say.
Sunset took a deep, trembling breath. What Adagio said had hurt, hurt deeper than almost anything Sunset had felt before. Almost.
It hurt mainly because of the parts that were true. She had stolen from Adagio, betrayed her trust without even realising that was what she was doing, committing the one heinous crime that Adagio seemed incapable of forgiving. And with a past like the one Adagio had, Sunset couldn’t blame her. Not one bit.
“Twilight,” she said, her voice a little hoarse. “Pass me the shards, please.”
“W-What?” Twilight asked, caught off-guard.
“You have the shards, don’t you? Like I asked.” Sunset asked. 
“The... shards?” Twilight repeated. “O-Oh, yes!” She fumbled in her bag for a moment, and then plucked out the little plastic bag of pendant fragments. Holding them, Sunset gazed for a second at the dried blood streaking the interior of the bag. Then she spotted the particular shard she was looking for, distinct in its shape from the rest, and plucked it out carefully with her bandaged fingers so that no skin touched it.
“You’re right, Adagio,” Sunset said wearily. “I did steal from you. I looked at your memories without asking, without even telling you. I thought I was doing the right thing, and I still do to a degree, but I can see that I was wrong. And even though I saw what happened to you, even felt what you were feeling sometimes, I don’t know what you went through. I can’t possibly understand. It’s only fair then that you get to see my worst memory.”
A short silence followed this, broken by Pinkie Pie.
“Wait,” she said quickly. “Sunset, are you going—“ she stopped herself at the look on Sunset’s face.
Sunset’s declaration had been enough to cajole Adagio into consenting to turn around and look at what Sunset was offering her. Sunset held out the shard, still coated in her dried blood to Adagio. Adagio glared at her.
“I don’t want to look at that,” she said, a slight tremor in her voice.
“It’s not your memory,” Sunset assured her. “It’s mine. From a point in my life when I realised that I had nothing.” She paused. “Absolutely nothing. I was alone and pathetic, and for the first time in my life, I knew it.”
Adagio eyed the shard warily. Apparently on an impulse, Pinkie tore a piece of the black clothing she was wearing, and placed it in Adagio’s open hand for Sunset to lay the shard on. For a long moment Adagio stared down at it, clearly uncertain.
“I can’t take back what I did,” Sunset said.
“You think this makes up for it?” Adagio interrupted, the petulance in her voice perhaps a little less than before.
“Adagio, I hope you’ll understand me when I tell you that this isn’t about making us even,” Sunset said solemnly. Adagio blinked. Taking advantage of her silence, Sunset went on. “There’s no making things even between us. I betrayed your trust; nothing I say or give you can make up for that. You hold there the most vulnerable moment in my life. You can do whatever you want with it.”
Sonata stared down at the shard in Adagio’s hand, shining a little in the starlight filtering through the window. Her expression was one of mingled curiosity and fear. Sunset sighed with satisfaction; if Sonata understood the implications here, then—
“Whatever I want,” Adagio said quietly. She looked at Sunset with that familiar look of calculating cynicism. “How do I know this is what you say it is?”
“You’re welcome to look at it,” Sunset prompted. “It’s yours now.”
“Although I wouldn’t if I were you,” Pinkie muttered, unusually cowed.
Adagio paused. “You look at it,” she said suddenly, holding it out to Sonata. Sonata leaned away.
“I don’t wanna!” she gabbled quickly, shooting a nervous look at the shard.
Aria said something fiercely in Ancient Greek that made Sunset and Pinkie blush a little. “Just look at it yourself, Adagio,” she snapped. “You’re such a whiny baby.”
Adagio blanched. “Whiny—“ she began angrily.
“Baby!” Aria jeered scathingly. “If you don’t believe her, then look at it yourself instead of trying to make Sonata do it. What makes you think you can trust what Sonata tells you, anyway?”
“Hey!” Sonata puffed indignantly. 
“Yeah, maybe she lied,” Aria went on. “But I don’t remember beardy the creeper taking a bullet for you.”
Adagio glared at Aria for a few seconds, visibly trembling with emotion at this mention of the Ram. Aria stared grimly back. With an impatient snort, Adagio turned away from her. 
“Fine,” she grumbled. “But this better not be another lie,” she said quickly, directing a look of dire warning at Sunset. 
Sunset didn’t reply, but held Adagio’s gaze, determined to give the girl no reason to think that she was lying. At the same time, she felt a little guilty about the nature of the power she’d given Adagio over her. She knew that Adagio didn’t like, or was even afraid of, looking at the memories in the shards, and Sunset couldn’t blame her. A part of Sunset had hoped that Adagio would simply accept what she said, but she knew that wouldn’t happen. Adagio was too smart and too suspicious to simply believe her.
“If this isn’t good,” Adagio said, her hand hovering over the shard.
“Oh just do it already,” Aria groaned, rolling her eyes.
“Or don’t,” Pinkie put in, grimacing.
Adagio scowled, and lowered a single, bare finger, to the blood-encrusted fragment.
Sunset watched Adagio’s expression closely. The memories instantaneously transferred; she knew from her experiments with Twilight. The face was where you saw the initial, gut reaction. To her surprise, Adagio’s expression didn’t change at all. Maybe Sunset’s memory wasn’t the most traumatic experience, but it was at least an eye-opener. Apparently all it made Adagio was thoughtful. She frowned as though confused about something.
“And I can do anything I want with this?” she said, as though continuing a conversation they were just having.
“It’s yours now,” Sunset replied, watching Adagio closely.
Adagio still didn’t seem entirely convinced, rather to Sunset’s dismay. She looked at everyone in the room in turn, as though trying to catch one of them out, expecting someone to say that it was all a joke, or a trap. When no one did, she fixed her gaze upon the bed sheets, and said in a voice just a bit louder than a whisper
“Fine, I’ll go.” Then she glared up at Sunset and added. “But don’t think this means everything’s okay. I still don’t trust you.”





Explanations with mere words could not adequately convey Sunset’s feelings as they moved as quietly as they could through the hallway to the stairs. Not the least because of the extraordinary buoyancy she was feeling, which she wasn’t sure whether to put down to her elation over getting her children back, or the wooziness of her medication. It had all gone as closely as it could to how she had hoped it would. She didn’t expect instant forgiveness.
“Revitalisation potions will work better than those pills,” Twilight assured her.
They snuck out and to the end of the hallway, Sunset wondering if all the noise they’d been making was just par for the course in this place, since none of the children seemed to have found it suspicious enough to emerge from their rooms and investigate. Things were going so well that Sunset wasn’t really even surprised when Applejack came running up the stairs three at a time.
“We got trouble,” she whispered urgently. “That delivery boy spotted Rainbow stealin’ a pack of cookies from the kitchen.”
“I was not stealing them!” Rainbow said hoarsely, bringing up the rear. “I couldn’t catch him before he drove off. If he called the police, they could be here any minute!”
“So we got to go. Now!” Applejack summarised. 





The only thing that stopped Sunset cursing audibly at how slow she was moving was the heady sense of discombobulation in her own brain. She attempted it a few times under her breath, but only managed to make one or two inarticulate grunts that made Twilight ask her what was wrong.
“Can we... you know, door?” she asked doggedly, trying desperately to formulate a sentence through the mist gathering in her mind.
“Yeah we can!” Rainbow announced. Raising a forefinger and thumb in a deliberate fashion, she undid a little catch and turned a small, golden lock on the main double doors. Rarity couldn’t help giving a slight smile of satisfaction for this demure and precise action, which instantly turned to shock and outrage when Rainbow leant back, and kicked the double-doors open like a hero from an action movie.
Rainbow’s grin faltered at the look on Rarity’s face. “What?” she asked defensively.
“Forget it,” Rarity snapped grumpily, pushing passed her. “Make room for Sunset already.”
“Whaaat?” Rainbow demanded as they moved as quickly as they could towards the gate, but Rarity refused to answer.
“Just get in!” Applejack barked, jumping the hood and starting up the car. “If that delivery boy did call the cops, we got minutes before they come after us like fruits bats on an orchard.”
“Oh,” Fluttershy peeped, looking alarmed. “There was a—“
“Give Sunset some space, for goodness sake!” Rarity cried, barring Pinkie’s way.
“Um, I just thought I should tell you all—“ Fluttershy began again.
“Don’t worry, we’ll be at the school in no time,” Pinkie said optimistically. “Ouch! I sat on some of my equipment.”
“But, I think it’s important—“ Fluttershy said, her voice growing higher.
“What equipment?” Rainbow asked, seating herself in one of the middle seats.
“You know,” Pinkie said, reaching her hands into her pockets. “Wire-cutters, aerosol, smoke bombs, trip-wire.” So saying, she produced each item before replacing them in her seemingly bottomless pockets. “And a length of rope,” she finished, lifting her black sweater to show a length of rope crossed over her shoulders, and bright blue and yellow undergarments. Apparently on instinct, Rarity’s hands flew up to cover Aria and Sonata’s eyes.
“A police car went by and I think they might still be close!” Fluttershy announced loudly. She opened her eyes to find the entire car looking at her in amazement. “I-I...” Fluttershy stammered. “Sorry.”
“You only saw it once, right?” Applejack asked after a short pause.
“Yes,” Fluttershy answered meekly.
“And how long ago was it?”
“Umm...” 

WEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOO – WEOWEOWEOWEO!!

“Dagnabit!” Applejack swore. With a screech of tires and a thud as Applejack’s boot stomped the pedal to the floor, the rover sped down the street with a great roar of the engine.
“Applejack!” Rarity cried in alarm. “Necessity may be that we need to go fast, but for heaven’s sake, think of the children!”
With no seats left available, Pinkie, Rainbow, and Sonata hadn’t been able to sit. Rainbow’s arm shot out to catch Sonata as inertial forces sped her towards the back seat. 
“I got her,” Rainbow assured. “Floor it!”
“No! Don’t floor it!” Rarity shrieked.
“Shat up!” Applejack bellowed, taking a sharp turning at a traffic light. “Shut up, sit down, and let me do the drivin’!” She gave them all a single fierce look over her shoulder that effectively silenced everyone. 
After several more hairpin turns however, Sunset didn’t think her stomach could take much more. Nauseous from the medication, she gurgled a little and pressed a hand to her mouth.
“Got a sick bag in your pocket too?” she asked Pinkie, trying to chuckle.
“Yes,” Pinkie said seriously, holding one out.
“I was kidding...” Sunset said, frowning a little.
“Oh,” Pinkie replied, looking faintly surprised. “Hah hah.”
“Good thinking, Pinkie,” Rarity said thickly, seizing the bag.
“It’s not like I want to be breaking the law here,” Applejack grumbled as they tore down the main street towards the school. 
“Go, go!” Rainbow cried, looking through the back window at the red and blue glow behind them. “They’re catching up!”
“I really don’t feel good...” Sunset groaned.
“We’re almost there,” Twilight said, grasping her hand. “I can whip up a healing potion like that.” She attempted to snap her fingers, but merely managed to clumsily rub her middle finger and thumb together. “I think I’ve even got a few lying around in my lab. And the hospital is just—” She continued a steady stream of reassurance that, whilst Sunset was grateful for, Sunset couldn’t focus enough to listen to.
“Sunset?” Adagio said suddenly. 
“Yeah?” Sunset replied, looking at the girl.
Adagio sat in the seat next to Sunset, her eyes downcast. She was fingering the shard inside its torn cloth wrapping in an absent sort of way, her expression unusually thoughtful. 
“In this...” she began, starting to hold up the shard. Then she seemed to second guess herself and lowered it again. “Do you feel... lonely?” 
Sunset was genuinely surprised at the question.
“Oh geez!” Rainbow blurted, as red and blue lights lit up the night sky behind them. “Turn, Ay-Jay! Turn!”
Applejack spun the wheel and they tore into a smaller side-street.
“No, no, no!” Pinkie cried. “This’ll take us over to the industrial sector! We need to turn right!”
“We need to double around, lose the cops!” Rainbow countered.
“We’re breaking the law!” Rarity sobbed, tears ruining her mascara.
“Oh my...” Fluttershy squeaked from the passenger seat. 
“No, I’m not lonely,” Sunset answered Adagio, over Rarity’s hysterical crying and Rainbow and Pinkie’s argument.
“Girls! Let Applejack concentrate!” Twilight ordered commandingly.
“But she’s doin’ it wrong!” Rainbow cried in outrage.
Applejack swore the loudest yet, skidding to a halt on a street corner. Sunset felt a lance of pain shoot through her despite her medication and let out a low groan of agony.
“We’re getting to that portal,” Applejack snarled. “We’re getting there, and if any single one of you makes one more noise about mah drivin’, I’m gonna take mah bass and stick it right up your...“ She paused, red-faced, at the looks everyone was giving her.
“Wait, look there!” Twilight said suddenly, pointing ahead. 
They all let out gasps and other sounds of irritation. Ahead was the school, its dark silhouette painted against the inky blue night sky. What should have been a solid black and grey facade was tinged by the alternating red and blue of a nearby light steadily flashing somewhere nearby. No siren sounded, and the light did not move away.
“They’re camping the school,” Rainbow said in a hushed voice. “They must know we’re going there!”
“How would they know that?” Rarity asked, hiccupping herself back to her normal voice.
“Nah, the road around the school’s a big intersection,” Applejack said speculatively. “Ah reckon they’re watchin’ all the main roads around here. That’s probably where that one that was followin’ us was goin’.”
“You felt lonely back then,” Adagio prompted.
“I did,” Sunset nodded, smiling a little. “All the time. I just didn’t realise it till then, you know? Until I had friends.”
“And these idio—“ Adagio stopped herself. “Your friends... make you happy?”
“Very much,” Sunset replied. 
“And you’re leaving them behind so that we can go live with you?” 
Sunset paused here. In short, yes; Adagio was right. Sunset had weighed her choices from the outset, even if she hadn’t realised it, and chosen her children over her friends. She still loved her friends, and it hurt deeply to leave them behind, but...
“I made the choice to take care of you. I knew that, maybe, there would be consequences for it. But it was the right thing to do.” She smiled as earnestly as she could. “I’d never have been able to live with myself knowing I hadn’t tried to help you.”
Adagio stared at her as though none of this made any sense to her. Looking speculative for a moment or two, her eyes slid out and then back into focus. She gave Sunset a haughty look and folded her arms, just like she always did.
“Well don’t worry about it,” she said aloofly, looking out of the window. “I’m going to cause you so much trouble you won’t have time to feel lonely again.”
Sunset started to laugh, but she stopped quickly as she felt the dulled lancing pains in her abdomen.
“Oh,” Adagio said, looking furtively at Sunset’s middle. “I suppose I never did thank you for stopping me getting shot.” She looked up at Sunset, and then down again. She shuffled a little and licked her lips. Sunset stared to see her looking so awkward. “Thanks,” she finally said, forcing the word syllable by syllable through her pressed lips.
“That looked painful,” Aria sneered over the back of her seat, Sonata snickering beside her.
“So does this!” Adagio roared, aiming a badly-judged back-hand at Aria’s face. Aria ducked, letting Adagio’s fingers swipe into Sonata’s open mouth. Whilst Sonata burst into a fit of high-pitched whining, Adagio reached over the chair trying to reach Aria.
“Should I...?” Twilight asked Sunset, uncertainly.
“Just let them work it out,” Sunset said weakly, feeling tired. 
“Okay, fine!” Rainbow yelled, throwing her arms up. “What do we do then? We can’t just stay on this corner forever. It doesn’t matter that they can’t see us if Sunset and the kids don’t get...” She cleared her throat. “If they don’t get to the thing, you know.”
Sunset looked suddenly at Rainbow, but the athlete avoided her eye. She hesitated.
“Are you guys okay?” she asked.
This question brought about a determined round of not-answering. 
“We get that what ya’ll are doin’ is right, sugarcube,” Applejack said eventually. “It’s just...” She scratched her head and looked around as though asking someone mutely to help her.
“What Applejack means is that we support your decision,” Rarity said quickly. “But... we’re still going to miss you.” She tugged awkwardly at her fingers. “We might never see you again.”
“We’ll still visit sometimes,” Twilight assured, trying to inject some positive thought into the occasion. “Once the heat has died down a little.”
This seemed to cheer everyone up a little bit. Whilst none of them could be said to be happy about it, they did manage to give each other reassured smiles.
“Well, there’s only one thing for it,” Pinkie said with a dramatic sigh. “Sunset and the kids will just have to run for it. None of you guys can be seen without our alibi going out the window.”
“Maybe, darling,” Rarity said giving Pinkie a raised eyebrow. “But Sunset can’t run. She can barely even walk. No offense, dear.”
“None taken,” Sunset groaned, clutching her middle.
Pinkie Pie sighed hugely, and everyone in the vehicle instinctively braced themselves for a hard slap of Pinkie-logic.
“Well duh,” she began, sounding as exasperated as a scientist trying to explain why the theory of gravity is still just a theory. “Obviously I’m going to go with her and act as a distraction.”
“Obviously,” Rainbow Dash mumbled sarcastically, rolling her eyes.
“The pink one is coming to live with us?” Adagio asked warily.
“Of course not!” Pinkie chuckled, patting Adagio’s head. “It’s just that I have the mask and dark clothes so no one can recognise me. I’m just going to make sure you get to the magic statue so you can go live in pony-land with your mom.” She paused. “Come to think of it, won’t you be arrested there too?” she asked Sunset.
“No, I sorted that out with Princess Celestia ages ago,” Twilight said, waving an airy hand. “I wrote ahead to my friends to find you four a house too.” Humble though Twilight was, she didn’t seem able to stop herself pausing for someone to recognise her forward-thinking generosity. Unfortunately the first person to speak was Adagio, who whispered in Sunset’s ear whilst glaring suspiciously at Pinkie.
“The pink one disturbs me.”





Final good-byes were not something Sunset ever felt comfortable with. Outside of Applejack’s land rover in the shadow of a tall office block, everyone gave her one last light hug, to Twilight, and each of her three children. Sonata hugged everyone back with great enthusiasm, and even Aria at least put on a pretend smile and hugged everyone back. Adagio received the hugs in huffy fashion, and possibly recognising this, Rainbow and Applejack instead clapped her on the back.
“Don’t forget to write, guys,” Sunset said, grinning, as Twilight passed her the journal.
“You’re giving us your magic book?” Pinkie asked in wonderment, as she ran a hand over the embossed cutie mark on the cover. 
“Well yeah,” Sunset said with a twisted sort of smile. “I don’t think Equestria has much mobile reception.”
“Fair point,” Pinkie sniffed. “Rarity, catch.”
“What?” Rarity asked, and then shrieked as the heavy book sailed through the air at her. “Pinkie Pie! Be more careful!” she cried in a hoarse whisper. “What if that had hit my face? Or chipped one of my nails?”
“Oh, yes, whatever would we do?” Applejack asked, just loud enough for Rainbow to hear her. Rainbow tried to hold in a snort, but it shot out her nose.
Sunset watched her friends, potentially for the last time. She was glad to see them as they were, as they had always been. She didn’t want to remember them looking unhappy at her leaving, or any of the other sad emotions associated with her going away. 
“We’ll see you guys soon I hope,” Sunset said to them all.
“Yeah. I’m sure the heat will die down soon enough,” Rainbow said blithely. “They must have better things to do than chase you four around.”
“I think what Rainbow means to say is that they’re very busy people,” Fluttershy put in, sensing the implied insult.
“We’ll keep you abreast of everything,” Rarity said with a watery smile, giving the book a shake. “Keep in touch, won’t you?”
Assuring Rarity the longest possible messages back daily, Sunset chivvied her children ahead of her, Pinkie pulling her balaclava down and edging unnecessarily across the wall like a ninja, with Twilight bringing up the rear. 
Sunset felt her friend’s eyes on her, but she did not look back. Ahead of them the siren lights were still flashing, illuminating the black faces of the buildings with colourful light. If there was a policeman, they would need Pinkie to prevent them from halting their escape; they’d have to walk dead set into the middle of the street, in perfect view of anyone watching. 
Sunset’s pace had already slowed to a near crawl, leaning on the crutch. Either the meds were wearing off, or working better than ever before. Her head was all but swimming, and the dull general ache in her body had grown like a parasite sapping her strength. Twilight helped her along, whispering caution and encouragement, and her children all watched her with varying degrees of concern. 
Pinkie let out a gasp that made Sunset and Twilight jump. “The car is empty!” she exclaimed in the loudest stage whisper. “How perfect is that?”
“It’s next to a bakery,” Twilight reported, peering around the corner.
“Like in the movies!” Pinkie squealed. 
“So much for the attentiveness of the men and women in blue,” Sunset muttered to herself. “Let’s go before they come out.”
They made it across the street and to the edge of the school grounds. Just as they crossed the limit, Sunset’s wound sent a wave of nausea through her as the dull ache shattered a layer of numbness and revealed the hidden stabbing pain beneath. Twilight gasped and bent down with Sunset as the latter fell to one knee.
“What’s wrong?” Sonata asked, both hands held up in front of her in a worried gesture.
“Nothing, I’m fine,” Sunset said automatically without thinking. The pain was intensely distracting. “I just... could you guys give me a boost?”
Twilight and Pinkie pulled her up under her arms and hoisted her upright. Just to be helpful, Sonata uncertainly picked up the fallen crutch and hovered around looking worriedly into Sunset’s face.
“Twilight, does Sunset look pale to you?” Pinkie asked through her mask.
“Pale?” Twilight frowned.
“You know: less colour, whiter, face losing blood.”
Twilight reached back and pulled Sunset’s T-shirt up. She didn’t say anything, which made Sunset ask what was wrong.
“Nothing getting to Equestria faster won’t fix,” Twilight said in a false-cheery voice.
“Whoa...” Aria said, her face a curious mix of terror and wonder as she peered at whatever Twilight had seen.
“Come on, we’re almost there,” Twilight said desperately. “Pinkie, help me! The Ponyville hospital isn’t that far from—“
“Hey!” called a new voice.
Sunset’s heart leapt in her chest. She heard Twilight swear quietly as a beam of light flashed across them, blinding Sunset’s vision.
“What are you kids doing out this late?” asked the voice. “And... and what in the world are you wearing?”
“What?” Pinkie asked innocently, sidestepping in front of Sunset. “I’m Black Bart. Have you never been to a fancy dress party?”
Peering over Twilight and Pinkie’s shoulders, Sunset saw a policeman holding up a torch at them. He scowled.
“Black Bart the stagecoach robber?” said the evidently well-read officer. “You look nothing like him.”
“It’s a modern interpretation,” Pinkie said in mock-exasperation. 
“That doesn’t answer my question,” the policeman said menacingly. “What are you doing on these grounds? It’s the middle of the night.”
“We’re just...“ Twilight said, apparently automatically. She seemed distracted by the policeman raising the torch to get a better look at Sunset. His brows narrowed.
“Hey, aren’t you—“ he began. 
He got no further. Before Pinkie could so much as squeak “Hey!” Adagio thrust her hand into her pocket, and pulled something out. Raising her hand up high, she brought it sailing down through the air. The next thing Sunset knew, she was surrounded by a thick layer of purple smoke that billowed around them all like escaping gas. Coughing, she saw Twilight’s dark form near her step back and fall over with a scream. 
“What the—!“ the policeman exclaimed, turning his torch this way and that. “Oof!” he grunted. 
“You’ll never catch me, copper!” Pinkie cried through the cloud.
“How dare— Get back here!” the officer shouted. 
Sunset trudged forward. Pinkie was trying to lead the policeman away, and they had to take advantage of this chance. She took a step forward and nearly tripped over Twilight, who was picking herself up. Too late Sunset stopped herself letting out a sound of uncertainty as she tried to maintain her balance. She heard a swishing sound, and suddenly felt a heavy blow strike her shoulder. She felt herself collapse over Twilight onto the grass and tasted blood in her mouth.
“Don’t you hit my mommy!” Sunset heard Sonata cry shrilly. 
The policeman didn’t quite say “What the—“ but it was a close run thing. Sunset vaguely heard the sound of sandaled feet rush past her, and then the wild yell of someone being bitten in an unguarded area. A second small figure rushed by in the thinning smoke, whilst a third leaned down next to her.
“Come on,” Adagio whispered. “Where are we going?”
“It’s this way,” Twilight hissed back. “Into the side of that statue.”
“What?” Adagio asked, blankly. 
“Just help me get Sunset there, I’ll show you,” Twilight muttered quickly. “Sunset, are you—“ 
Sunset felt her lungs seize up, and she coughed wetly into her sleeve. “Well that’s... not good,” Sunset rasped, seeing dark stains blurring in front of her.
“Aria, Sonata, come on!” Adagio cried.
“Hey! Stop ignoring me!” Pinkie voice cried out.
“Are you all crazy?” the policeman cried in frustration. “Who actually has smoke bombs?”
“How do you... know what a smoke bomb is?” Sunset asked Adagio as she and Twilight half dragged her to the statue.
“The games I downloaded on your laptop,” Adagio replied succinctly. “Noobs never use them properly.”
Sunset tried to laugh, but it cost too much. The cloud of smoke had more-or-less dispersed; the policeman was now between a fleeing Pinkie Pie, and the statue, being taunted by Pinkie and still pummelled by Aria and Sonata.
“Aria, Sonata...” Sunset called.
“Try not to talk so much,” Twilight begged her, hauling her towards the statue’s base. “Your wound is open, you’re bleeding!”
Adagio called out in Greek. “You two get your butts over her!”
Leaving the policeman unsure who to follow, Aria sprinted over, followed closely by Sonata who spat out a wad of blue material from the policeman’s sleeve.
“Just follow me,” Twilight instructed them, pressing her hand to the stone. The surface rippled, and Twilight’s hand sank in. “Come on!” she cried, giving Sonata a shove between the shoulder blades.
“Hey, stop!” the officer barked, deciding to go for them. “What are you doing?”
Sonata tripped into the portal, letting out a cry that was swiftly cut off as she sank out of the human world. With a determined look on her face, Aria leapt after her, and before the shocked policeman could exclaim in wonder, Twilight, Sunset, and Adagio disappeared with her.
For a moment, the officer considered trying to follow them. Picking up his fallen truncheon, he looked back at his car, and considered. On tap, he decided it wasn’t worth it, and made the short trek back to his cruiser.
“Marge would never forgive me,” he muttered, as thoughts of getting lost in between dimensions floated through his head.





On the other side of said between-dimensions, Sunset landed on all-fours to find Sonata flat on her face on what looked like a crystal floor, and Aria wobbling around as though unsure of how to work her limbs. Sonata’s dusky blue foal body still seemed to be instinctually trying to use only it back legs to walk, since she was progressively moving forward with her face sliding against the floor, her front legs dragging behind her.
“Wow!” Sonata cried out of the corner of her mouth. “Thing is, I kind of remember being a pony. ”
“I know what you mean,” Aria said, managing to stand up straight. She planted her short pink legs like a heroic statue, her tongue sticking out with effort. “I can remember things better, and...” she paused. “We were ponies then. And that woman who we stole the cakes from was a sheep.”
“She totally was,” Sonata said reminiscently, hitting a table leg. “And the old priest guy was a goat. You’re cute as a pony, Aria.”
“Shut up.”
“Spike!” Twilight cried. “Spike!”
The shout echoed loudly through the crystalline room, echoing down what sounded like miles of endless corridors beyond.
“We’re not in a labyrinth are we?” Adagio asked, just now realising that she had Sunset partially on her back rather than on her shoulder as she had done before entering the portal. “What is this place?”
“This is Equestria,” Sunset managed. “We’re in... Twilight’s...” She stopped, feeling her breaths coming less frequently. It was becoming harder to... to...
Sunset belatedly felt the impact of something hard and cold like a pane of glass slam into her. Her blurring vision informed her that she was on the floor, and that it wasn’t it that had hit her, but her that had hit it.
“Sunset!” Twilight’s voice cried. Odd, it sounded to Sunset as though she had cork stuck in her ears.
“N-No!” shrieked another voice close at hand. “Make her better!”
“Spike!”
Sunset stopped listening. It seemed to her like just a mess of inarticulate noise, and she found that she really didn’t care enough to listen to it anymore. Instead, she found it far more agreeable to settle into the closing darkness. Maybe she’d sleep it off. But she couldn’t help thinking, as this feeling like relief swept over her, that she was leaving something unfinished. 






Twenty Years Later


“She won’t come,” Aria said blithely from between her teeth, setting down the tray of drinks. “She never does. I don’t know why you hold out hope every year.”
“She has to come,” Sonata said, scowling. “She doesn’t have any excuses this time.”
“And I thought that you knew her,” Aria sighed, handing her mother a glass of lemonade.
“Thank you, Aria,” Sunset said. Levitating the glass and taking a sip of it, she smiled at her children. “Come now, she’s a busy pony. She has a lot of responsibilities to live up to.”
“Yeah, but not now,” Sonata objected. “She’s off work for the next week!”
“She’ll use the time to cosy up to ponies she knows,” Aria said in a disgusted tone, flopping down on the sofa next to Sonata. “She needs to. Occupational hazard of politics. Especially in a big town like Baltimare. It’s frankly a testament to how ruthless and evil she is that she’s kept her position as long as she has.”
“I do wish you children would get along better,” Sunset said with a dramatic sigh. “You do your mother such pain to hear you say such things about each other.”
“We visit you all the time,” Sonata said sulkily. “Or I do anyway.”
“Shut up, Sonata,” Aria snapped. “You know I have to travel a lot.”
“How come you never interview me, Aria?” Sonata asked suddenly. “You go all over Equestria asking ponies I’ve never heard of stuff no one cares about—“
“As soon as you do anything remotely interesting, Sonata, I’ll be sure to cover it. Until then, I think I’ll stick to actual news.”
“Thank you for the new extrapolator, Aria” Sunset said quickly before Sonata started puffing up like a balloon. “It’s just what I wanted. My old one can’t tell the difference between transparency and holistic transcendence anymore.”
“You hint at things a little too well,” Aria said with a sly smile. 
Sunset drank a little lemonade to stop her children seeing the smile on her own face. “And thank you for that—“
“Perfectly useless,” Aria muttered.
“—book of recipes, Sonata,” Sunset finished, levitating the book in question. The cover, which was a bright pink, had a goofy picture of Sonata in a chef’s hat raising both of her hooves whilst food and ingredients literally exploded around her, as though someone had taken a picture of Sonata in the midst of the mother of all food fights.
“All my favourite recipes,” Sonata grinned. “I’ll come over and make some of them since you’re always so busy at the school.”
“Teaching idiots must be tiring,” Aria agreed.
“Aria,” Sunset said warningly. “Be nice.”
“Fine, fine,” Aria said hastily, recognising the danger signs. “Teaching criminally inept—“
“You’re not too young for me to put you over my leg, young filly,” Sunset interrupted.
Sonata laughed. Aria merely smirked at the knowing smile on her mother’s face. 
A loud knock at the door interrupted Sonata’s laughing. All rather surprised, they turned to look at the door, unsure if they’d actually heard something.
“Come in, the door is unlocked,” Sunset called after a brief pause.
The door clicked, and swung open. The white facades of the Canterlot buildings beyond reflected the harsh light of day a hundred times, and at first none of them could see who it was that stood there. Then a cold, familiar voice said
“So, what have you two been saying about me?”
Adagio’s smugness couldn’t have been more pronounced. The slightly narrowed eyes behind her square spectacles, the slightly upturned corner of the mouth, and the slightly upturned position of her head made Sonata blush, and Aria roll her eyes as an excuse to look away.
“That’s what I thought,” she said, her purple jabot swinging a little at her neck as the golden mayoral pin affixed to it flashed in the light. “It’s good to see you two numbskulls again, too,” she said with the merest inflection of a laugh.
“See, I told you she was coming,” Sonata said to Aria, as Adagio passed them by.
“How’s this for a title to an article?” Aria asked of no one in particular, raising a hoof to trace imaginary words in the air. “Worst Chef in Equestria: Sonata Dusk. I like it. It’s snappy. I just have to find a story to match.”
“You better not!” Sonata cried, hopping up on the couch seat.
Sunset smiled warmly at her eldest daughter. Adagio looked back at her with an unfathomable twinkle in her eye, and then smiled too.
“Welcome home, Adagio,” Sunset said.
“Happy Birthday, mom,” Adagio replied, pulling a present out of her saddlebag.


- The End