The bell rang, and I walked out of algebra class with Applejack. She looked a bit uncomfortable for some reason. Was she possibly keeping something from me?
"Hey, AJ. Is something wrong?" I asked.
"What? Nope, everything is perfectly fine!" she said with an obviously fake smile. I rolled my eyes at her painfully obvious lie. Typical Applejack. I guess that's why she's the Element of Honesty. I decided not to press her any further. Whatever she was hiding, I would find out soon. I decided to change the subject.
"So, are you going to the Fall Formal?"
"Yeah. You?" she asked. "Oh, right. Sorry," she quickly added. Were they really still apologizing for mentioning that?
"No, it's okay. That was in the past. You really don't need to apologize every time you mention it. Yes, I am going," I meant it. Even though I hadn't forgotten the events of the last Fall Formal, it was in the past and I had put it behind me. Besides, all of my friends were going. Those weren't the only reasons though. Somehow, I had this feeling that this Fall Formal was going to be similar, but at the same time different from the last one. I don't know why, I just... knew.
I joined my friends at the cafeteria and sat next to Pinkie Pie, who was grinning away as usual.
"I still can't believe it's been a year since we became friends!" Fluttershy said, smiling at me. I couldn't believe it either. It felt like only last week Princess Twilight reached out to me and helped me finally make some friends, even after everything I did. I still think I didn't deserve it at the time, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
"Yes, well, about that, Sunset darling. There's something we've been meaning to ask you for quite a while," Rarity spoke up. I became curious.
"What is it? This is about the Fall Formal, isn't it?" I asked.
"Not exactly." said Fluttershy. She was clearly hesitant about asking whatever it was. "There's this thing about you we don't really know, so we decided to ask you about it. We know it's a personal question but..." Oh, great. Here it comes...
"What led you to come here in the first place?" an impatient Rainbow Dash blurted out. "Heh, sorry," she added when she saw everyone in the cafeteria was staring at her.
I knew it! I knew they were going to ask me about this someday! I love my friends to bits, but this wasn't really a subject I liked talking about. In fact, I hadn't talked about it to anyone, not even Princess Twilight. Before, whenever someone would try to ask me about my past, I would just avoid it by joking, "Where were you this whole school year?" Then they would laugh, feel bad about it, apologize, and leave me alone so I wouldn't have to answer any questions. It had worked a lot of times, but those people who asked me were all people other than my six friends (seven now, counting our world's Twilight) It didn't seem like the little trick was going to work here.
I tried to keep a smile on my face, but Twilight (our world's Twilight) noticed that I wasn't exactly eager to answer.
"Sunset, you don't have to answer if you don't want to," she said with a comforting smile. You could definitely tell she was Twilight, even if she was wearing glasses.
"It's just that it's been a year and that's a super long time to go without knowing something so important about one of your bestest friends! So, we got curious and just asked you so you would tell us!" Pinkie Pie chimed in, still smiling.
"But, you know, only if it's okay with you," Fluttershy said in her usual soft voice. Six pairs of eyes were looking at me with anticipation, but also reassuring smiles. I sighed. Pinkie Pie was right. A year was a long time to go without telling your friends something like this. They had told me everything about them, and they fully deserved to know about this important part of my life. I trusted them more than anyone with this.
"You're right. You should know about this, and there's no better time than now to tell you," I admitted.
"Why don't we head somewhere a little more private first? The band room, maybe? I don't think anyone goes there at this time," Applejack suggested. The others, including me, nodded in agreement. The question was indeed a personal one, but I really should tell them now. If not them, who else? If not now, when else? I had to do this.
At the band room, I was still thinking about where to start telling the story. "Should I start when I first became Princess Celestia's student, or the events that led to that? Oh, maybe I should start when I got my cutie mark! Wait, no. Before that. I am definitely not cut out to be a storyteller, even if I know the story better than anyone else..." I kept thinking.
"Sunset?" Twilight said, interrupting my train of thought. She looked concerned, but then she smiled and nodded and said "Whenever you're ready, just start at the beginning," I smiled back. I now knew exactly where to start. Now if only I could tell it without seeming like I'm justifying my actions. Not that I thought there was any way to "justify" them.