5. Reflections
Sonata had never been so terrified in all her sixteen years of life.
Sonata liked to think she knew about scary things. Ghosts are scary. The boogeyman is scary. Pop quizzes are scary. This? This was absolutely petrifying.
Of the trio, Sonata was the one with the dubious honor of sitting next to her doppelganger. Sonata wasn’t quite sure what her sisters’ logic was, but she did know one thing: If she survived this trip, she was going to have words with them.
For now, though, Sonata sat stock-still, keeping her eyes forward, watching her double out of the corner of her eye. The whole experience was surreal. The two would lick their lips nervously with the same motion at the same time, they would both gulp at the same time, and whenever one dared to sneak a glance at the other, the other returned in kind at the exact same time. Honestly, the double seemed as scared of Sonata as Sonata was of the double, and Sonata didn’t know what to think about that; should she be worried that it was even mirroring her fear or relieved it wasn’t wearing a more sinister look?
Suddenly, the double pulled out her phone, and Sonata gasped sharply at the sudden movement. Startled, the double gasped and resumed her rigid posture, which startled Adagio and Aria, who stared ahead, trying their best to see what was happening out of the corner of their own eyes.
Soon, the double relaxed and began frantically texting someone. It brought Sonata some relief to see that the phone was a different model than hers, but that relief was stamped out by the thought of who the double might be texting.
And Sonata had an inkling.
Ever so slowly, Sonata leaned over to get a glance at the screen. Sure enough, “Adagi-D” and “Ari-B” were at the top of the screen. Sonata would’ve giggled at the cute nicknames if she weren’t scared for her life.
Eventually, the double put her phone away, and the pair sat, waiting for their stop.
As they waited, someone sneezed up ahead. “Gesundheit,” Sonata and her double said at the exact same time, and Sonata’s world spun as she heard her own voice coming from the double. Was there anything different about her?
Finally, blessedly, the bus reached their stop. Adagio yanked the pull cord with more force than necessary, and the three began filing out of the bus. Against her better judgment, Sonata risked a glance back at the double, who was just staring at her. Sonata shivered and hurried off the bus.
The rest of the trip home was a blur for Sonata. She didn’t think her sisters said anything the whole time, not that she would be able to understand them if they had; every sound around her was muffled, as if she were hearing them through a tank of water.
She wasn’t paying attention to where she was going, either. The only reason she didn’t get lost was because her sisters had a firm hold on her hands.
Finally, they arrived home. And though Sonata couldn’t really see anything, she could feel the change in temperature and smell the familiar scent of the house. She was led over to their sofa, where she plopped down, the world tilting around her as a single mantra repeated itself in her mind.
“There’s another me. There’s another Adagio. There’s another Aria. There’s another me…”
“Sonata!”
Aria rushed over to her passed-out sister, shaking her to try to rouse her. Adagio sat nearby, her head in her hands, trying to process what they just went through.
Suddenly, their mother rushed into the room. “What’s going on?” she asked. Her eyes fell on her unconscious daughter. “Sonata! What happened?” she asked frantically. Her panic turned to anger. “Was it those punks at school again?”
“No,” Aria said. “The school had nothing to do with it this time.”
Melody was skeptical, but eventually, her anger faded, but her worry remained. “Then, what happened?”
Aria looked to Adagio, as did Melody. After a slight pause, Adagio said, “She was…almost hit by a truck. An eighteen-wheeler. We’re all kind of shaken up about it, Sonata most of all. I guess it finally caught up to her.”
“A truck?!” Melody shouted, looking at Aria, who nervously looked her mother in the eyes as she corroborated with a nod. “That’s even worse! Oh, my poor baby!”
Hurriedly, Adagio said, “Mother, don’t worry. We’re alright. She just had a fright. We’ll take her to her room.”
Slowly, Melody’s panic subsided, though she still looked extremely worried. “You do that,” Melody finally said after taking a deep breath. “I’ll make her something sweet to eat. Oh, wait till your father finds out about this. He’ll be worried sick.”
Melody marched into the kitchen to get to work, while Adagio and Aria worked together to get Sonata upstairs to her room.
The first sensation Sonata felt was something resting on the top of her head. Slowly, her other sensations returned to her; she smelled the familiar scent of her room, she heard the ticking of her clock and the birds outside, and she felt the warmth of the thing on her head. She groaned softly, and she felt the weight on her head remove itself. She opened her eyes, blinking away the blurriness, and saw Aria bending over her, looking at her worriedly.
“Aria?” Sonata said weakly. She suddenly heard something to the side, and Adagio’s worried visage joined Aria’s. “Adagio? What happened?”
Adagio and Aria exchanged glances. “You…fainted,” Aria finally said, “down in the living room.”
“Fainted?” Sonata asked. “Why—” Sonata cut herself off as she suddenly remembered the events on the bus. “Oh.”
“Yeah,” Aria said.
“H-How?” Sonata asked, sitting up and fighting off any remaining dizziness. “How is it possible? How can there be another us?”
“’Another us?’” Aria asked.
“Yeah,” Sonata replied. “She was texting some people. She was using nicknames, but the names were still really similar to yours.”
A shudder ran through her sisters as they processed that. “So, Adagio,” Aria said, turning to her older sister. “Anything?”
Adagio took a deep breath through her nose and settled down on Sonata’s desk chair. “I…have no idea,” she finally said, throwing her hands up in the air. “I don’t know if these are clones, robots, or even aliens! But I bet I know who does know.”
Aria and Sonata thought a bit. “Sunset?” Aria guessed.
“Not just Sunset,” Adagio said. “The whole school. It all makes sense now. The familiarity everyone had with us, the hatred everyone feels for us, and even the fact that no one’s telling us what the hell’s going on!” Adagio forced herself to quiet down. “Those three…whatever they are did something at that school, and now, everyone thinks we’re them, and Sunset and Principal Celestia, despite being on our side, won’t tell us because we wouldn’t believe them. And they’re right.”
Her sisters let that sink in. “So, what now?” Aria finally asked. “Can you call Sunset?”
Adagio sighed. “No. Unfortunately, she has my number, and she hasn’t texted me yet. It’ll have to wait until tomorrow, it seems.”
“Do you think they’ll come for us?” Sonata asked quietly. “They know we’re in the city now. What if they try to…get rid of us?”
Their blood froze, and they shared terrified looks, each silently agreeing to lock her door and close her curtains for the night. Even then, none of them would get very much sleep that night.
“They have parents!”
Sunset punctuated her exclamation by excitedly slamming her lunch tray onto the table, startling her friends. After taking a moment to recover, confusion overtook them.
“Uh…What?” Rainbow asked.
“The Dazzlings! I hung out with them yesterday, and—”
“You what?!” Rainbow demanded.
“I told you I was gonna get to know them, didn’t I?” Sunset replied. “Anyway, before we left, Adagio texted her mother to let her know they’d be home late! Do you know what this means?” Before her friends could reply, she answered herself. “It means that those aren’t the Dazzlings! They’re their human counterparts! Option three, it is!” Sunset ended her declaration with a happy little victory jig as her friends stared at her.
As usual, Rainbow was the first to speak up. “Or…they could have just hypnotized someone into pretending to be their mom.”
Sunset immediately stopped her jig and rounded on Rainbow. “Oh, come on! Do you really think they can still hypnotize people? Their gems are gone!”
Rainbow shrugged. “Maybe it wasn’t the gems that let them do that. Maybe it’s their voices.”
“But they can’t sing anymore!” Sunset argued.
“That you know of,” Rainbow corrected. “Maybe their voices got better.”
“Yeah,” Pinkie agreed. “And you still haven’t proven that you haven’t been hypnotized.”
“That’s because I’m not hypnotized!” Sunset snapped.
“That we know of,” Pinkie said, mimicking Rainbow.
As Sunset ground her teeth, Applejack spoke up. “Putting aside their mind control powers, did you actually see their mom? Like, a picture or somethin’?”
Sunset paused as her shoulders fell. “Well…no.”
“Maybe they didn’t hypnotize someone to be their mom. Maybe they just lied to you and texted someone else. Maybe they didn’t text anyone at all.”
Sunset’s mood soured instantly as disappointment set in. “I…guess it’s possible,” she growled. “They just seem so different, though.”
“Again, they’ve had to hide their act for a thousand years. What’s a few more weeks?” Rainbow said.
In response, Sunset just dropped her head onto the table, frustrated.
“I know it’s not really what ya wanna hear,” Applejack said, “but we’re just tryin’ to make absolutely sure that they’re on the up-and-up. The last thing we want is for them to do somethin’ to ya.” The rest of the girls nodded in agreement.
“It’s fine,” Sunset huffed. “I’ll get proof. I’ll go to their house and see her with my own eyes. Their dad, too.”
Sunset stood and turned to the sisters’ customary table, but curiously, they were nowhere in sight. Confused and embarrassed, Sunset dropped back into her seat and ate her lunch, avoiding eye contact with the others.
The sisters were nervous wrecks all throughout the school day. Try as they might, they just couldn’t relax. They even skipped lunch, hiding away in a corner of the library and watching the only entrance. In class, they would constantly shoot glances out any windows they could see, dreading the time they would finally see themselves outside looking in. Thankfully, they never saw such a sight, but that just meant they could be attacked on their way home, where there would be no one to help them.
Finally, the final bell rang, and Adagio immediately tore her gaze from the window and rushed over to Sunset, who was watching her in concern. Adagio bore down on Sunset and got very close to Sunset’s face as she muttered, “We saw them.”
Nervous, Sunset broke eye contact as she asked, “Saw what?”
Adagio forced Sunset to look back into her eyes as she replied, “Them.”
Recognition lit Sunset’s eyes, and she gulped. Quickly, she took Adagio’s hand and rushed her out of the room, ignoring the other students watching them. They quickly reached Aria and Sonata at their lockers, each looking as worried as Adagio.
“You saw them?” Sunset asked.
Wordlessly, Aria and Sonata nodded. Adagio said, “Sunset, what is going on? And no more deflections. We are scared to death and could really use an explanation before we all have a panic attack!”
To her relief, Sunset sighed in resignation. “I suppose there’s no use trying to hide it now. I’ll tell you. But not here. Maybe…at your place?”
“Yes!” Sonata shouted. Quieting down, she added hastily, “I mean, yeah, that sounds great.”
Aria nodded, as well. “I’ll ask Mom if it’s okay. Not that I think she’ll have a problem with it,” she said, smirking despite her worry.
Sunset looked confusedly at Adagio, who averted her eyes. “Mother and Father have been…worried about us,” she explained. “We tried to keep our bullying hidden from them, but after last Friday, that was no longer possible. I’m sure they’ll be thrilled to know that there’s someone at this school on our side, and, well, we really could use the escort home.” Adagio looked back at Sunset. “Still, you don’t seem too worried about this.”
Sunset chuckled and said, “Well, this wouldn’t be the first time I dealt with them.”
“So, you’ll keep us safe, then? If they do show up?” Adagio asked with uncharacteristic meekness.
Sunset coughed nervously, blushing a little at the scared and hopeful look Adagio was giving her. Shaking her head to clear it, Sunset puffed out her chest and said confidently, “No problem, girls. I won’t let them hurt you. You can count on it.”
The three shared an audible sigh of relief, and after following Sunset to her locker so Sunset could grab her things, the four were off.
The trip to the girls’ home was both tense and warm. Tense because the sisters and even Sunset were looking every which way for the Dazzlings, though Sunset was far less frantic and far more analytical in her search than her companions. Warm because the girls were clustered behind Sunset, pushing into her like pups seeking shelter with their mother, keeping her back warm and warding off the winter chill, even if it came with the price of the occasional bump and push as they walked.
“Still, I can’t really blame them,” Sunset reasoned. “They’re terrified, and they have every right to be. I’m sure I’d be doing the same, in their shoes.”
Finally, after not too long a walk, the group arrived at a two-story, upper-middle-class house in the middle of an ungated neighborhood. It was, like the other houses in the neighborhood, made of red brick and overlooked a small, freshly mowed lawn bordered on the street side by several well-trimmed bushes, which also lined the driveway. At the street-side corners of each house’s lawn stood a mature birch tree—with street lights regularly breaking the pattern—giving testament to the neighborhood’s age. Overall, the house had an elegant, albeit cookie-cutter, look to it.
“Nice place,” Sunset said as they walked up the driveway.
“Thank you,” Adagio said, having calmed down leagues since reaching the neighborhood, as had her sisters. “We’re planning on decorating a bit to give it a personal touch, but we haven’t gotten around to it, yet.”
The group walked into the house, where Sunset took in the flowery scent of the house, still slightly mixed with that “freshly moved-in” smell. She took in the foyer, which was still sparsely furnished, though several family photos lined the mantel of a clean fireplace and the walls, giving a warm, welcoming touch to the room.
“We’re home, Mom!” Sonata called.
Suddenly, Sunset was caught by surprise as a tall, elegant woman rushed over and grabbed her in an excited embrace.
“You must be Sunset!” she exclaimed, her voice musical. “It’s so wonderful to meet you. Thank you so much for coming!”
“Mom, come on!” Aria protested, blushing in embarrassment. “Don’t do that.”
The woman released Sunset, calming down. “I’m sorry, Sunset,” she said. “I just couldn’t contain myself. I’m so glad my girls finally made a friend. They’ve had such a terrible time at school last week.”
Sunset flashed a guilty look. “Yeah, I’ve, uh, heard the news.”
“But, at least they have a friend to help them out, now,” she said with relief as she reached out her hand. “I’m Melody Lights.”
Sunset took it. “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Lights. I’m Sunset Shimmer, but I guess you already knew that.”
“I actually didn’t know about the ‘Shimmer’ part,” Melody said, grinning.
Sunset looked at the sisters, who looked away, embarrassed. “We…didn’t know, either,” Adagio said. “Until recently, we didn’t really care.”
“But we know now!” Sonata chirped. “Anyway, we’re gonna hang out upstairs. See ya, Mom!”
With that, Sonata rushed upstairs, and the others followed, Sunset smiling at Melody before going up herself.
The group gathered in Adagio’s room, and Sunset immediately noticed that the curtains were pulled shut, leaving the room lit only by the artificial light of the ceiling light and bedside lamp. Sonata was settled on the bed, which Aria also sat upon while Adagio sat at her desk. Sunset alone stayed standing.
All the light-heartedness of the last few minutes left, leaving only worry and grim curiosity. “Okay, Sunset,” Adagio said. “We’re ready.”
Sunset took a deep breath, and after a warning about its unbelievability, began her tale. She started with the portal to the other world in the statue, went into her own infernal transformation, and ended with the sirens and their subsequent defeat at the Battle of the Bands, when they ran off, powerless.
“So, the Sonata you saw wasn’t a changeling or a ghost or an alien—at least, not in the traditional sense. She’s an interdimensional exile. Same with her sisters. And, apparently, they’re still in Canterlot.”
There was a pregnant pause, before Aria said, “Well, Adagio was right; if we hadn’t seen the other Sonata with our own eyes, we wouldn’t have believed you.”
“I told you it would be hard to believe,” Sunset said, shrugging. “Luckily, we don’t have to go hunting for them to prove it. My friends and I still have magic in us. Maybe I can convince them to help me show you.”
“That’d be cool,” Sonata said, “but will they agree?”
“I don’t know,” Sunset admitted. “I’ve been trying to convince them that you’re not the sirens for a few days now, but they’re more stubborn than I thought they’d be.”
“We’ll give you whatever you need to prove that we’re not them,” Adagio said hastily, “but I think we have a bigger problem: They know we exist. They know we’re in the city. Will they come after us?”
Sunset sighed. “I don’t know,” she finally said. “It’s…possible, I guess. We can only hope not, but, if I’m honest…I can see why they would.”
The girls immediately tensed up, terrified looks on their faces, and Sunset quickly said, “But don’t worry! I’ll do what I can to make sure they don’t.”
Unfortunately, the girls didn’t look convinced. “How will you manage that?” Aria asked. “How will you even find them?”
Sunset paused again. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I can start searching along the bus route, but honestly, luck’s going to be a big part of it unless I get some more information.”
The girls paused to let it sink in, exchanging worried looks with each other. Finally, Sonata said quietly, “Can you…stay over?”
Sunset looked at her. “Like…overnight?”
“Y-Yeah,” Sonata said. “I know it’s sudden, but you’re our only friend here, and we’ve been kind of lonely. At least, I have. Plus, I don’t like the idea of walking to school tomorrow morning without you there to protect us.”
Aria and Adagio snapped their attention to Sunset, their curious gazes instantly turning to hopeful ones. Sunset looked between them, considering it. “It’s not like I have any plans tonight, and they have been looking lonely, lately. And they’re so scared.” Sunset came to a decision. “What kind of friend would I be if I left them alone and scared all night?”
“Sure, girls,” Sunset said resolutely. “I’ll stay over. Just clear it with your parents and point me to my room.”
“Yay! Slumber party!” Sonata squealed, rushing downstairs as the others hung back.
“Thank you, Sunset,” Adagio said. “This means a lot to us.”
“Hey, it’s no problem. It’s not like you asked for all this to happen. The least I can do is help you however I can,” Sunset said. “So, where’s the guest room?”
Aria chuckled. “Come on, Sunset. What’s a sleepover where everyone sleeps in separate rooms?”
“So, do you have any sleeping bags?” Sunset asked.
“No,” Adagio said simply with a smirk, “but that’s alright. I believe we were planning on sharing you tonight, anyway.”
Sunset paused, blushing. “Will we be wearing sleepwear?”
“Yes!” Adagio said loudly, a blush lighting her own face as Aria burst out laughing.
“Just asking!”
The evening at the sisters’ house—“I really need to think of a collective name for them,” Sunset thought—was a pleasant one. Sonata got the all-clear from their mother, and after working on their homework, the group spent the next few hours trading stories about Manehatten, Canterlot, and even one or two from Equestria, though Sunset was hesitant to talk about that, for fear of being overheard.
Eventually, Sunset got to meet their father Soprano Nights, a ruggedly handsome, well-built man with dark-blue skin and black hair. He was ecstatic upon meeting Sunset—“Any friend of my daughters’ is a friend of ours,” he had said—and after a somewhat stressful dinner where Sunset, to the sisters’ amusement, had to make things up to satisfy the parents’ endless questions, Sunset took a photo of herself with the family, and the girls went upstairs to Adagio’s room to get ready for bed.
Aria lent Sunset some of her sleepwear, which consisted of a loose t-shirt and shorts. Her build was slightly different from Aria’s, but they fit well enough. Sonata came in wearing a pink, knee-length nightgown, while Adagio…
“It’s the most modest thing I have!” Adagio stammered, blushing while wearing a lilac, mid-thigh-length, thankfully opaque nightie with violet, faux-fur trimming. The nightie exposed her neck and shoulders while showing off a good portion of cleavage. “I wasn’t really thinking of what I’d be wearing when I agreed to the sleepover.”
“Yeah, sure, you weren’t,” Aria snarked, snickering at Adagio’s glare as Sunset looked away, blushing.
“Let’s just go to bed,” Adagio said.
Sunset opened her eyes, seeing only Adagio’s ceiling, dimly lit by a night light in the corner of the silent room. She sighed. It was no use; she couldn’t sleep. Unlike her friends, who seemed to have taken enough comfort in her presence to actually fall asleep, she couldn’t stop thinking about the Dazzlings.
“They’re still in Canterlot,” she thought. “I would’ve thought they’d skip town, but they’re still out there.”
Sunset would be suspicious of them even in any other situation. But this was not just any other situation. The Dazzlings’ counterparts—“The Night-Lights, maybe?”—lived here now, and the Dazzlings knew it. And when Sunset said she could see why they’d come after her friends, she meant it. The Dazzlings obviously lived relatively close—they lived at least on this side of the city—and having two copies of each girl in town could draw unwanted attention to either group. Who knows what they’ll do to keep that kind of attention away from them?
Sunset looked to her new friends. Sonata clung to her tightly on her left, while Adagio clutched her right arm, her head buried in Sunset’s shoulder. Aria slept on the far right, her back to the trio. Things moved so fast with them. Yesterday, they finally agreed to hang out with her after she herself was cold to them all last week, and now, she was sleeping in the same bed with them.
“But what was I gonna do, say no?” she thought. “There were so hopeful. They…They need me.”
That made Sunset’s chest swell with pride again. Sunset couldn’t remember the last time she felt so needed. The closest time was, ironically, during the end of the Battle of the Bands, but even then, Sunset couldn’t deny that she was kind of a last-ditch effort. Sure, she was the deciding factor after the Dazzlings overpowered her friends, but the plan never included her to begin with.
This was different. These girls didn’t feel safe without her, and it would be downright cruel not to be there for them, even if sleeping with them might admittedly be going a bit far. After all, the Dazzlings didn’t know where they lived, did they?
…Did they?
Sunset looked over to the single window. They never opened the thick, purple curtains at any point throughout the evening. Earlier, Sunset found herself wishing they’d just open it up and let in some light. Now, however…it could be the one thing stopping any outsiders from confirming the girls lived there.
Sunset’s grim curiosity starting bubbling up, and she bit her lip, arguing with herself. Finally, she gently untangled herself from Sonata and removed her arm from Adagio’s grip. Slowly, very slowly, she got up from the bed. The sisters were thankfully fairly heavy sleepers, so besides a few minor stirs, the girls remained asleep.
Sunset tiptoed over to the window. Steeling her resolve, she opened the curtains ever so slightly, only enough to be able to peek outside.
The street outside was dark, dimly lit only by streetlights a couple houses down either side of the street. The birch trees blocked much of the light, leaving the bushes on both sides of the street in near-darkness.
Sunset squinted her eyes, but the only things out front were those bushes. Instead of relief, Sunset still felt suspicious. She looked back to the bed and squinted. In the dim light of the room, Adagio’s mass of curly hair did kind of look like a bush…
Sunset snapped her eyes back to the bushes outside. How many were there, again? Sunset hadn’t bothered counting when she first arrived. Now, she was kicking herself. For a full minute, she stared unblinkingly at the bushes, her eyes peeled for any sign of unnatural movement.
There was none.
Nothing moved that couldn’t be explained away by the wind. Quietly, Sunset released a breath she didn’t know she was holding and closed the curtain again. She carefully climbed back into bed between Adagio and Sonata, and finally, she, too, fell asleep.
Stats
Page generated in 0.019 seconds
Total duration
1,008 users online
432,303 hits today, 1,872,792 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
This has been a really fun story so far. Looking forward to the next chapter.
9195190 Thanks so much!
oooh snap
i wonder what the dazzlings will do
more importantly i hope the nightlights dont go "ooooh we forgive you...bullies" XD
they better earn that crap!
i really wonder if the dazzlings will be good or evil here.
Very much looking forward to more
9196156 9196541 Glad you're enjoying it so far!
9196577
Answers damn it! XD
9196578 Well
...To keep details out of it, there's a difference between understanding why someone's done something wrong and looking the other way.
As for the Dazzlings, you'll have to wait and see
.
Holy haybiscuits, this story is amazing. It's even better than I expected, and that's taking into account the great ratings.
I absolutely love the pacing and how you went from one problem right into this new one for Sunset. I love how you write your Night-Lights (name pending) and their relationship with Sunset.
I absolutely love this story and can't wait to read more of it, and I'm gonna try to get as many people as I can to follow this as well.
I'm sick of the Rainbooms, they actting just as bad with the Anon A Miss incident and hpe Sunset throws it in their faces soon.
9199066 Oh, man, this really made my night! Thanks so much for the kind words, and I'm thrilled that you're enjoying it so far!
9199838 Yeah, that stubbornness of theirs is a serious flaw I've noticed in the show. It's fun to write, but I'd be tearing my hair out pretty quickly if I had to actually deal with it in person.
9200162
Pinkie Pie accusations were funny....at first now it just stupid and annoying and insulting!
I love for Sunset to tell them all off, and maybe even say, maybe it was a mistake to give THEM a second chance and walks off to be friends with the human Dazzlings.
Had to double check the likes on this story. I can only assume its classified as 'undiscovered' as it needs way more views. Solid pacing so far and excellent job portraying the trio's terror at seeing siren!Sonata.
9218426 Thanks very much! I'm glad you're enjoying it so far!
I'm starting to like this, although I still don't see why Celestia didn't quietly pass the word round that these aren't the sirens.
Kudos to Sunset for going into that situation without succumbing to paranoia. She only had the sisters' word for it that they'd seen one of their counterparts, and the Rainbooms already offered convincing alternative explanations for why they appear to have parents, and not to be dangerous. The reader knows they're legit, but Sunset does not. It could all have been the culmination of their sinister plan, yet she goes home with them and stays the night anyway, for the sake of friendship. In another story, it would be an act of suicidal bravery. I love Sunset. The Mane 5, by contrast, are coming over really badly... which is totally appropriate in a continuity which includes Anon-a-Miss.