The next day, my mom drops me off at school, and I meet Octavia at our usual spot. We greet each other with a brief kiss and enter the school, holding hands trying to act like it's another day. Everyone around us was acting more hectic than usual with The Dazzlings' escape, but we don't pay any mind because we know what really happened, and after all the hype from the vandalism and the trial, we've gotten used to all of this.
"How's your cheek today?" Octavia asks.
"It still hurts a little, but it's getting better," I reply. "I see you managed to cover up your bruises with make-up."
"Indeed," She says. "It's not perfect, but at least it covers them well enough that my parents won't notice. The less they know about taking part in a fight against sirens from another world, the better."
"No argument there," I say.
For a couple of minutes, we quietly walk down the hall holding hands until it was time to separate to our respective first-period classes.
"By the way, after school, we're going to meet up with Vinyl, Lyra, Bon Bon, Derpy, Doc, and the Rainbooms to discuss Sonata and give them your apology. After that, I'm thinking of us doing something later tonight just you and me," Octavia says.
"Uh, actually, I'll have to rain check on doing something later," I say reluctantly. "I'm kinda doing something with the guys."
"Oh? And what are you doing that prevents you from spending time with your girlfriend, may I ask?" She queries.
"We don't know yet," I admit. "I just know that I promised that I'd hang out with them today because I kinda owe them for spending so much time with you since practically the moment we got together, and I did ditch them from our plans to go to the trial together with the others."
"Hmmm. I suppose joining the E.M.R. and having all our movie nights is pretty much all you've done after school for some time," Octavia says with a playful smirk. "Very well. They can borrow you this time."
"Oh, so I'm just something that can be borrowed from and otherwise hogged by my girlfriend, eh?" I ask teasingly.
"In fact, Mr. Draft, you are," she replies in a matter-of-factually tone. "Last time I checked, the rule is the girl can have her boyfriend around with her whenever she pleases no matter what."
"Oh yeah? Who made that rule?" I ask.
"That would be me," Octavia says, sticking her tongue out playfully.
"Oh, why you...!" I say, as I start tickling her, making her squeal with laughter.
"R-r-rough Draft, people are looking at us!" Octavia shouts in mid laughter.
"Yeah, well, this is what you get!" I counter.
The tickling goes on for a few more seconds before I finally stop, and she playfully smacks me upside the head.
"You are such a dork," She says plainly.
"Yeah, well, you're dating this dork, so there," I counter back.
She smiles at me before she leans in for a peck on the lips.
"And I'm delighted that I am," she whisperers sweetly before she begins to walk away. "Anyway, I better get to class. We are meeting at the music room right after school ends. I expect you to be there."
"As you wish milady," I say, mocking her accent.
"Keep up with that accent, and you'll wish I'll just smack you upside the head, darling," She says, not even looking at me as she walks out of sight.
I walk to my first class with a satisfied grin. Despite all the crazy stuff that happened yesterday, it feels great to be alive and to be with someone as kind and understanding as Octavia. It may have yet to have been two weeks since I met her, but all in all, it's been a great near two weeks.
Maybe with her help, I can let go of my grudge with Sunset Shimmer after all.
****************************************************************************************************************
The bell rings, announcing that it is lunch time. I head to the cafeteria, grab my lunch, and head to my usual spot with Caramel and Soarin when a hand grabs my shoulder, and I turn around to see Rainbow Dash.
"Yo, Draft," she says. "Did your girl tell you about meeting the music room, right?"
"Yeah, why?" I ask.
"I just want to make sure we're all going to be there," She answers. "Whatever is happening to Sonata, Vinyl wants all of us to be in the know."
I nod in agreement before I remember that I need to apologize to everyone.
"Look, while we're talking, I want to say I'm sorry for my outburst yesterday," I say.
"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to," Rainbow Dash replies. "Sunset's the one you claimed is still evil and all that."
"I know, and I'm going to apologize to her, too," I say. "Just felt that this is as good of a time as any to say sorry to you while we're talking."
"Yeah, well, I'll accept your apology after you say it to everyone else," Rainbow Dash says. "You did make a fool of yourself saying we should try to save Sonata and yet get pissed off at Sunset three minutes later."
"Yeah, I know. Octavia made that point to me already." I say before another thought occurs to me. "Speaking of Sonata, I'm about to eat with Caramel and Soarin, and odds are we're probably going to talk about the Dazzlings escaping, so what do you think would be the best way to handle that?"
"Well, I don't know if you've heard, but the news is starting to spread about Vinyl 'capturing' Sonata at her place," She says, using air quotation marks on capturing. "So, if they ask, you could say that you're meeting us with Vinyl after school to comfort her over the dramatic experience or something."
"Are you sure about that?" I question. "I mean obviously I can't talk about it here, but maybe we should let them in on our secret? I mean, they're my best friends, and Soarin is your boyfriend, and it might not be best to leave them in the dark."
Rainbow Dash hesitates and scratches the back of her head.
"Well, I don't know," She answers reluctantly. "I'd hate to lie to my guy and all, but frankly, we don't even know how to deal with this thing between the Rainbooms and your 'fight evil magic without magic' club. I guess in hindsight we should let them on it just in case. I mean, I'd hate for Soarin to be a brainwashed pawn again, so if that's what you guys are trying to prevent for if something like the sirens happens again, I'm all for it. Maybe we should talk about that after school."
"Makes the most sense to me," I say. "I just hope we don't leave them in the dark to long, you know?"
"Totally," Rainbow Dash agrees. "Well, I better head back to my friends. See you in the music room."
"Later," I say as I continue to head to my table with Soarin and Caramel waiting for me. Both of them were already in deep discussion about what happened.
"Hey, Rough Draft," Caramel greets. "Did you hear about what happened to DJ PON-3?"
"Yeah, Octavia told me that she took down one of the Dazzlings that was trying to hide around her neighborhood," I lie. "She says DJ PON-3's distraught from the experience."
"Wait, how would Octavia know about that?" Caramel questions.
"She's good friends with DJ-PON-3," I reply.
"Oh cool," He says. "So what happened with the Dazzling? Do you know?"
"No idea. I'll probably have to ask Octavia about that," I answer. "Anyway, what did you guys do after the Dazzlings escaped?"
"Well, we were out of it for a while, but when everyone came to, the police told us to stay there while they called for backup so that to chase after them," Soarin explains. "They started investigating and asking questions about what happened, and after a while, they allowed us to go home. Luckily, neither of our parents were in a panic after hearing about what happened. What about you? How did you go from going to the trial with Octavia to telling her about you and Sunset Shimmer anyway?"
"Yeah, and what's up with that bruise?" Caramel adds.
I freeze, realizing that I didn't consider them asking about my bruise. I wish I could tell them what happened, but Rainbow Dash is right; this isn't the best time. What was worse is that I'm taking too long to answer, so I have to think of a good explanation fast. I take a deep breath before I tell them the first story that comes into my head.
"Well, it's a little embarrassing," I say. "So, I noticed that the orange Dazzling was about to activate her gizmo. I didn't know what it was, but the first thing that came to my mind was getting down on the ground and taking Octavia down with me."
"Ooooo. Saving your girl from the flash. Smooth," Soarin says with a sly grin.
"Yeah, well, that's where me acting heroic ends, actually," I say, scratching the back of my head. "When Octavia and I got up, and we saw that everyone was mobilized from the flash and that the guards were knocked out, I got scared that the Dazzlings escaped and might eventually come back and attack us again. I was in so much shock that I just ran away. I didn't know where I was going. For all I knew, I could have accidentally run right into the Dazzlings and get captured. Just running away from the situation was all I could think of."
"So you went from being a hero too cowardly running away. I'm sorry, dude, but that's a fail," Soarin says with his eyebrow raised.
"Yeah, not my greatest achievement, I admit it," I say. "Anyway, Octavia chased after me and eventually caught up and held me down and helped me calm down. After a couple of minutes, I managed to collect myself and accept that we're in no danger until Sunset Shimmer appeared."
"Wait, what was Sunset Shimmer doing there? Wasn't she also at the courthouse?" Caramel asks.
"I don't know," I say. "Maybe she avoided the flash too and decided to go after the Dazzlings what with being enemies with them and all."
They look at each other before they made gestures indicating that it made enough sense.
"Anyway, she came to us and acted all worried, asking if we're okay, especially towards me," I continue. "At that point, I had enough of her acting so nice to me and obviously trying to get me into her good graces again so that now everyone will believe that she's good."
Soarin and Caramel roll their eyes, annoyed, but they continue to listen.
"It was at that moment I just blew up at her. I yelled at her. I called her names. I told her how much I despise her and how much I didn't believe her that she was good, and after a while, I upset her so much that she just punched me right in the cheek and ran away, probably to go back to chasing the Dazzlings."
Soarin raises an eyebrow and says, "That doesn't sound like Sunset Shimmer to resort to that."
"Well, I did go a little too far in hindsight," I say. "I won't go into details as to why, but after a few insults, I probably had it coming. I mean, even if for the sake of the argument that she's good, she has a breaking point like anyone else. Anyway, after that, Octavia took me home and said that she had enough with watching me act that way towards Sunset Shimmer and convinced me that it was time to explain why, and you know the rest."
Neither of them say anything for a moment. Caramel is a little confused, and Soarin still has his eyebrow raised.
"Did that really happen?" he asks suspiciously.
"Yeah, it did," I claim. "I mean, can you guys explain for yourselves why else we were not there when you guys came to?"
"That's true," Caramel admits. "Your story sounds a little far fetched, but we didn't see you and Octavia there after we recovered from the flash. In fact, I noticed that Applejack disappeared too and got worried about what happened."
"He sure did," Soarin says with a chuckle that makes Caramel blush lightly. "I noticed Rainbow Dash was gone too, but I knew she was fine. My girl can handle anything."
I roll my eyes at his proud statement.
"Well, I didn't see them, but maybe they were chasing the Dazzlings too, and they just decided to split up with Sunset Shimmer or something," I suggest.
"Makes sense," Soarin admits. "Still, though, I'd like to know what exactly you said to Sunset that pissed her off. That doesn't sound anything like her. She's usually so kind and wanting to do good and stuff."
"Uh, yeah, I'm never going to tell you. The less you know, the better," I quickly say.
Suddenly the bell rings, and lunch is over. We panic and quickly wolf down our food again before heading out to class.
"Oh, hey, we never got around to what to do after school," I point out.
"Oh yeah. I'm probably not going to be available until later because of homework," Caramel says.
"Yeah, I got a project to take care of after school," Soarin says.
"Well, that's okay. Octavia wanted me with her for, uh, comforting Dj PON-3 about capturing the Dazzling after school anyway. How about we meet up around 5:30 and head to the arcade or something?" I suggest.
"Sounds like a plan," Caramel says.
"I'm down," Soarin adds.
"Alright, see ya then," I say, and I walk away to my next class.
I'm secretly thankful that they have stuff going on right after school. Even so, I hate that I had to lie to them and that they don't believe me. Heck, I don't think I would've believed me. I hope that we can address this at the meeting so that I can come clean with them.
Until then, it's gym with Mr. Iron Will again. Oh, what a delight.
*******************************************************************************************************
Thankfully Mr. Iron Will's class wasn't as bad as usual. Just running laps, which was tiring, but anything is better than dodgeball.
Anything.
While students were heading out to go home for the day, I walk the opposite direction to the music room with my dear girlfriend standing outside next to the doorway waiting for me. We greet each other with a kiss, but I still have Soarin and Caramel in my mind and started to feel down, which Octavia notices.
"What's wrong?" she asks.
"Oh, it's Caramel and Soarin," I say with a sigh. "I kinda had to make up a story of what I was doing between after the Dazzlings escaped and before we had our talk. I don't think they believe me."
Octavia makes a concerned frown.
"You wish you could tell them the truth, don't you?" She says.
"Yeah, I mean they're my best friends, and I know Rainbow Dash isn't' fond of lying to Soarin either. We've both been thinking about suggesting that we let them in our secret since neither of us want them to be in the dark or end up as a pawn for another magical person's game," I explain.
"Then, we'll have to address that after Vinyl explains the situation about Sonata, won't we?" she states.
"I would like that," I say. "By the way, I don't have to meet up with Caramel and Soarin until around 5:30, so if we have time, we can spend some time together."
"Lovely," she says pleased.
"Also, if either of them asks you, I did heroically keep you from getting affected by the flash, but got so scared that the Dazzlings were gone that I unwittingly ran away in shock and you had to chase after me and calm me down. Then Sunset Shimmer just happened to be passing by while chasing the Dazzlings and stopped to ask if I was fine and that's when I blew up on her, she got mad and punched me, and then we went to my house and talked about why I hate her," I add.
"Is that really the story you gave them?" Octavia asks disapprovingly.
"Well, I kinda was on the spot," I say with a shrug. "Besides, it's not like I could tell them that I'm in a secret fighting evil magic group that went siren hunting.
"Yes, but I do despise that poppycock excuse all the same," She says with a scoff before she continues proudly. "I'll play along for you, but I hate to not boast about how my boyfriend bravely fought two Dazzlings with me and caught one."
I snicker at her statement before I teasingly say, "Now, who's the one being too sweet?"
She scoffs again and playfully slaps me upside the head. She then looks past my shoulder and says, "Speaking of which, it looks like it's time to start apologizing."
I'm confused for a moment until I turn my head to where she was looking. Sunset Shimmer is heading to the music room, feeling uneasy as she was looking at us.
I let out a sigh as I whisperer to Octavia, "Do I have to do this now?"
"You know you do," She whispers back. "Remember, if you can forgive Sonata, the least you can do is be on okay terms with her. Now quit acting like a child and apologize like a man."
I let out an annoyed groan knowing that she's right. Plus, I don't like her calling me a child. I reluctantly turn around and awkwardly walk over to Sunset Shimmer. She stops walking as she realizes that I'm walking toward her and acts nervous as we are only a few feet apart. I could say she is nervous instead of knowing that she's faking it, but hey, one step at a time.
With all the calmness and dignity I can muster, I take a deep breath and awkwardly say, "I'm sorry that I shouted at everyone claiming that you're just using your...friends for own gain. That was wrong of me."
Sunset Shimmer is surprised, unprepared for my reluctant apology. She can probably tell that I'm not entirely doing this willingly, but part of me hopes that she knows I'm at least doing this with some good intentions.
"It's okay. I understand why you did it," She eventually says while awkwardly playing with her fingers. "I know I hurt you badly, and I guess this is a good time as ever to give you my apology. I know that this won't change how you feel about me right away, but I want you to at least hear me say how sorry I am about the Spring Fling. I took advantage of you, and I've been regretting it ever since my friends stopped me at the Fall Formal. I hope that one day you will truly forgive me."
I stand there, unsure of what to say. I didn't expect her to apologize about the Spring Fling.
"Thanks, I guess," I say reluctantly. "I uh, appreciate that you respect that I'm not ready to forgive you."
For a while, we don't say anything. We look away like everything else is more interesting than the other person.
Finally, I clear my throat and say, "Well, uh, we better get inside. Vinyl and the others aren't going to wait forever."
"Yeah," Sunset Shimmer says with a nervous chuckle. "I'll see you in there."
With that, she walks past me and enters the music room. I stay where I am for a while, contemplating that awkward conversation before I turn to Octavia, who has her arms crossed and an eyebrow raised.
"You call that an apology?" She asks.
"Hey, I did say I can't do what you want right away," I say with a shrug. "Besides, I should get a medal for managing to say anything, it was so awkward."
She lets out a disappointed sigh before she says, "Well, it is a start, but I expect you to do better when you apologize to everyone else."
"Yes, ma'am," I say.
**********************************************************************************************************************
The moment we enter, all eyes are instantly on me. Vinyl has her arms crossed, Lyra and Bon Bon frown, Derpy and Doc weren't there when I yelled at everyone else, but they likely were told what happened, and thus Doc has a disapproving stare while Derpy has an edgy look. Applejack also has her arms crossed and looks at me, disappointed. Rainbow Dash has her hands on her hips, and her eyebrow raised. Rarity also looks at me disapprovingly with Fluttershy hiding behind her nervously. Pinkie Pie stands next to Sunset Shimmer, who has a sad face waiting for me to make a move.
I look a deep breath and with a little more confidence then with Sunset Shimmer say, "Hey everyone, I'm sorry about my outburst. I let my grudge against Sunset Shimmer get the better of me, and if you E.M.R. guys want to know why, I'll explain later. Regardless, I regret what I did, and I already said I'm sorry to Sunset Shimmer, so...yeah."
No one says anything for a while before Vinyl finally speaks.
"I'm gonna hold you to that explanation part, dude," She says. "Otherwise, it's all good to me if everyone else is fine with that."
"I'm sure you had a good reason with what Sunset used to be," Lyra says with a small smile. "So, I'm okay with it."
"Well, if Lyra is in, then so am I," says Bon Bon with the same smile as Lyra's.
"How can I say no to that?" Derpy says in her cute squeaky voice.
"Sounds jolly good ol' chap," Doc says with a smile.
"Now hold on a moment," comes Rainbow Dash's voice. "Who says only your group gets an explanation?"
"Rainbow Dash! You shouldn't step into their business!" Applejack ridicules.
"It's alright, girls," Sunset Shimmer says calmly. "It's better if you hear it from me. At least, if Rough Draft doesn't mind."
I feel suspicious about Sunset Shimmer talking about the Spring Fling, but I know if I was going to change for Octavia's sake, I have to compromise.
"I think that's fair," I say.
I turned to Octavia, and she gives me a small but appreciative smile.
"Well enough about that. Let's get down to business," Vinyl announces.
We all agree as Octavia and I take our seats, and I whisper in her ear, "Better?"
"Much," she whispers back.
Once we are all seated, Vinyl stands up and clears her throat.
"Okay, so I talked to my parents and their lawyer, and I got good news and bad news," She starts. "The good news is my parents were cool about it, the police bought our story about 'capturing' Sonata, and my parent's lawyer wasted no time declaring that he wants to appeal her case."
We all made murmurs of excitement before Vinyl continues.
"The bad news is that can take up to 4-6 weeks. It'll probably be the latter since she did escape, and she still had to go back to juvie."
All our hearts sink at this news.
"Aw, isn't there something we can do to get her out now?" Bon Bon asks.
"Not by a landslide," Vinyl says bluntly. "The best they could do is put her in a minimum-security prison where she can at least have visitors so we can help her through the process in exchange for information about Adagio and Aria and where they could be."
"There's also another problem," Sunset Shimmer adds. "I looked it up, and even if we get the appeal and all, I'm underage to take her in. And while they don't know I attacked the school as a she-demon, it isn't likely that I have a good enough rep to the police to be trusted."
"Now, you should just leave that to me then," Applejack says confidently. "My family's the most trustworthy people in this town. If it's a place Sonata needs to stay, I'm sure my family will take her in once they know the situation."
"Sounds great. Any objections?" Vinyl asks, and we all happily say "no" at the same time. "Good. Now for the other business at hand."
Our happy faces then turn to uneasy frowns as both groups are awkwardly looking at each other.
"I'll go first," Applejack announces. "I get why you guys what to form your own crusade against all the magic that's going on and all, but don't you think you guys are a little paranoid for not coming to us?"
"Well, it's like I said yesterday, Applejack," Vinyl explains. "I may have been all good with it when I helped you against the Dazzlings, but everyone else who isn't Doc has pretty much been hypnotized at least once if not twice in roughly a month, and so aren't as comfortable about any of the magic that's been going on as everyone else."
"Vinyl's right," Octavia adds. "Don't get me wrong, we appreciate all that you have done, but all this magic and demons and everything else is frighting to us. We don't want to be pieces in someone else's game anymore. We want to be able to make a stand. "
She turns to me and takes my hand and says. "We want to be able to fight back even though we don't have magic."
I smile at her and squeeze her hand in appreciation.
"But do you really expect to do that with tasers and your cute scanner thingies?" Rainbow Dash questions.
"Oi! I worked hard on those!" Doc retorts.
"Well, we had to start small," Vinyl explains. "Besides, we kinda wanted to take advantage of the fact that the Dazzlings had no magic and wanted to be prepared in case they pulled something like they did. Besides, we might not have magic, but we still captured one of the Dazzlings." she finishes proudly.
"Well, to be fair, it was Sonata who isn't as threatening as the other two," I admit.
"Oh, quit being modest, darling. If she didn't dive in front of you, you would've taken down Adagio, their leader," Octavia says proudly, which makes me smile appreciatively.
"Yeah, it's so impressive that you took down an ordinary teenage girl," Rainbow Dash says sarcastically, earning a glare from Octavia.
"Be that as it may, I don't think being a secret group that wants to go against things they don't even understand by themselves is the best route," Applejack says plainly. "It's reckless to go at it all alone."
"Applejack's right," Sunset Shimmer says. "I understand how scared you guys are about magic, but that doesn't mean we can't find a way to work together. After all, we have the Magic of Friendship. What better kind of magic to rely on than that if you want to fight evil magic, right?"
No one in the E.M.R. says anything. I am unable to make up my mind about her argument. I still can't trust Sunset Shimmer even if she does mean well, but at the same time, she's right. I turn to Octavia, who looks less comfortable about this, then I am before I turn to everyone else. Lyra and Bon Bon look at each other, also looking edgy, and Derpy looks uncomfortable about the idea.
Doc, on the other hand, is deep in thought for a minute before he eventually says, "Well, clearly everyone else apart from Vinyl and I are not as willing to go along with your plan, but perhaps I could offer a compromise?"
"Whatcha thinking, Doc?" Vinyl asks.
"Well, as a scientist, I don't credit this phenomenon as 'magic' per se. With that said, I wish to understand it if for no other reason than to help me develop better scanners and other equipment for myself and my friends, so perhaps you girls could help me with that. After all, we as a group may not be on board to merge, but those other two Dazzlings, Adagio and Aria, are still out there and with or without magic, their escape yesterday implies that they're still dangerous. Plus, we don't know why they were so desperate to go to try to go back to the other world. Whatever frightened them like that must be dangerous as well."
Sunset Shimmer begins thinking about Doc's suggestion before she eventually says, "I hate to admit it, but you might be right. I'll have to bring this up with Princess Twilight."
"Uh, Princess Twilight?" Doc asks, puzzled.
"She's one of the rulers of Equestria," Sunset Shimmer says. "If there's anyone we should concern your theory with outside of everyone in this room, it's her."
Doc gives Sunset Shimmer a nod in understanding. Then I remember Soarin and Caramel, and so I clear my throat to gain everyone's attention.
"You know, now that we're on the subject of clueing people in, there's something else I wanted to bring up that I've already discussed with Octavia and Rainbow Dash," I say.
"What's that?" Vinyl asks.
"Well, I'm wondering if we can bring in my friends, Soarin and Caramel, into this. Make them a part of the E.M.R. and all that."
Vinyl frowns and asks, "Why should we? I mean, come on, we're trying to be a small and secret group, man."
"Well, that's kind of all the more reason to." I counter. "I've made up a story for explaining why Octavia and I disappeared after the Dazzlings escaped, but I don't think they really bought it. Plus, they're pretty trustworthy, and they're among the people who aren't scared about magic in general, so maybe that could make things easier between us and The Rainbooms if we have more people who aren't as afraid of magic as you and Doc."
"Yeah, I have to agree with Rough Draft on this," Rainbow Dash says. "While they wouldn't be in our group, I don't like hiding this from Soarin since he's my boyfriend and I'm good with him being a group where he could try to find a way to defend himself if we need to kick some magic person's butt again."
Vinyl, Sunset Shimmer, and Applejack think hard about my request.
"Eh, I guess we can give it a try. If you think they can be trusted to keep the secret and help out and all, I'll trust you, man," Vinyl says with a shrug.
"Well, I'm not too big on you guys doing this stuff on your own, but I guess the more people who are working to defend themselves and all that, the better," Applejack says.
Though the way she said it, she sounded concerned about who we let in, like maybe she was thinking about Caramel rather than our group in general.
"If it can help us work our way to earn your trust, then you have my support," Sunset Shimmer says while Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie nod in approval.
"Yo, Doc, Derpy, Lyra, Bon Bon, any objections?" Vinyl asks.
"I don't see why not," Doc says.
"That sounds nice," Derpy says.
"Lyra and I are in," Bon Bon says.
"Besides, Soarin is super cute," Lyra adds excitedly.
"Hey, he's my guy!" Rainbow Dash snaps. "You can fight over the other one all you want!"
I turn to Octavia and whisper, "Two girls fighting over Caramel. I'd love to see that."
Octavia giggles.
"Well, anything else to discuss? Cause I think that's everything," Vinyl says.
"Yeah, I guess that's everything," Applejack says. "I think you guys can work stuff as you'd like, but maybe next time we should try to work together if anything happens, and that's including finding the other Dazzlings."
"Fair enough," Vinyl says with a shrug. "So... I guess we'll catch you guys later or something."
"Guess so," Sunset Shimmer says.
Thus, the Rainbooms say their goodbyes and leave the music room, leaving everyone in the E.M.R. behind. I take this opportunity to finally tell Vinyl and the others what happened between Sunset Shimmer and me. I feel uncomfortable to tell the story again to more people, but Octavia is there to comfort and support me along the way. By the end, their reactions were about the same as Octavia's: they are shocked and disappointed at what I did, but they understand that I regret it, and it made sense to them why I still don't trust Sunset Shimmer. They also told me how I need to change and how I'm a hypocrite and everything, and I explain that I know, and Octavia's helping me improve. Pleased that we're all on the same page, they say their appreciation for telling me and fully forgive me for my outburst. Shortly afterward, they decide that they all need to head home and so say their goodbyes leaving Octavia and me behind to spend some time alone.