• Published 31st Oct 2020
  • 748 Views, 6 Comments

Refuge in Sunset - PactOfSkyranger



What if Twilight managed to escape the soiled grace of Canterlot for the Human World?

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A New World Holds New Companions...

The halls of Canterlot High were empty that night.

Regardless of that, Sunset Shimmer waited outside its doors for someone.

She checked her phone, waiting for another text from her mysterious texter.

The first thing that made this text unique was that it woke her with a phone call, playing an airhorn before playing a metal song, and when she had answered, the unlisted caller hung up and sent a sequence of text messages that was still on her phone.

?: I want to make a bet.
If I lose, I will give you all six.
If I win, you only get one.
Go to the school.
If something happens before the moon passes the window, I win.
If you don't go to the school, you will get none.

When she had tried to reply, the number was apparently not in use, so she figured this was interesting enough to humor.

Suddenly, just as the moon was about to center in the window, she saw the portal in the base of the statue shimmer, and a girl with a tattered skirt and burned blouse tumbled out.

What really made Sunset look at this girl, however, was the fact that she was wearing the Element of Magic on her head, which tumbled to the pavement before the girl crawled over to it, stared longingly into its gem, and put it back on, sitting there wide-eyed.

Definitely Equestrian, Sunset thought to herself, but she must be really out of it if she hasn't noticed the changes.

Just as she was thinking that, the unlisted number buzzed in her pocket again.

?: I win the bet.
Then again, how could I not?
Be gentle with her.
After all, she's lost so much already.

He rigged it!, Sunset realized, before she thought, If he was really willing to give me all of the Elements of Harmony, something big must have happened.

She reached out and grabbed the girl’s shoulder, but the moment she made contact, the girl writhed and wriggled, saying, “NO! PLEASE! IT WASN’T ME, I SWEAR! I DIDN’T MEAN TO DESTROY THE EVIDENCE! GIRLS! DON’T SEND ME BACK TO DIE!”

Sunset’s eyes widened. Die?! From the sounds of it, this girl was framed for murder… and everyone believed she did it. “Calm down,” she said. “I’m not letting anypony take you back there. You’re safe.”

The girl turned to Sunset with shock, and a fair amount of relief, before her eyes landed on Sunset’s symbol and she hugged her. “You know Celestia?”

Sunset nodded. “I was her personal student.” Before she denied me my rightful wings, she thought to herself.

Twilight wiped a tear from her eye and said, “I was probably the student right after you, then. I’m not sure if she would have believed me or just asked me to run away with her, but after Princess Luna scheduled my hanging, I’ll take any link to Celestia I can hang on to.”

Sunset quirked an eyebrow. “Princess Luna? Who’s that?”

The girl’s eyes widened, before she said, “Celestia’s younger sister. She was corrupted into Nightmare Moon by her jealousy, and Celestia, unable to truly wield the full set, had to seal her in the moon. I was able to reawaken the Elements and purify her, with the help of my frien-“

The girl paused at this, tears building in her eyes.

Call Sunset “a queen bee bordering on the manipulative bratfest that would be Lila and Chloe combined,” if you knew Lila and Chloe, but she knew painful memories when she saw them, so she laid a hand on the girl’s back and said, “It’s okay. Let it all out if you want.”

The girl spent 3 minutes expressing her pure sorrow, peppered with lines like “I’m sorry” and “I couldn’t save you,” and even a heartfelt, “I miss you, my faithful assistant,” for flair.

Eventually, the girl wiped her face, and continued. “My friends, who I never would have even reached the castle ruins without; Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity Belle, and my faithful baby dragon assistant, Spike. After that, it was all pretty okay, until the day we went to that school theatre performance.”

The girl’s eyes hardened. “Cheerilee, the teacher… well, some of the fillies and colts were going missing, but until the fire - and the torrent of water that may have ruined my chances at being exonerated - we only had vague ideas of the depravity she had delved into. But then… she took Twist to the ruins, and we followed.”

Her eyes closed as she hung her head. “Cheerilee picked us off, one by one… even Spike. The last thing he did was send a misconstrued message, and Cheerilee would have killed me too… if the spirits of my friends and their Elements hadn’t resurrected me. So intent on making her pay, I didn’t give any thought to making her face Justice in a court… I ended it.

Sunset could spot tears in her eyes as the girl’s story continued. “The next thing I know, Celestia was out cold recovering from a magic transfusion to keep me alive, Sherlock Hooves is convicting me in court, and two hours from the gallows, I think that mismatched statue in the garden teleported me out of my cell so I could escape here.”

Sunset’s eyes widened. There was only one mismatched statue she knew of, and she didn’t doubt it would have the requirements. “Well, now that it’s off your barrel, I think it’s only fair I tell you the truth,” she said as she gave an abridged, but no less honest, account of the events that led to her own escape to this world, thinking, Look at me. The only thing it took to break my veneer was an innocent girl with a murder story. Still, I can’t forget my ambitions.

When she finished, Sunset extended her hand and said, “Now that we’ve traded sincere stories, I think it’s only fair we introduce ourselves.”

The girl hesitated for a bit, but then took the hand and said, “I’m… Twilight Sparkle.”

Sunset smiled as she pulled Twilight up and replied, "Sunset Shimmer."

Twilight got to her feet… then her legs wobbled as she keeled over, and Sunset caught her arm on her shoulder. “It’s alright… I wasn’t any better at walking like a human when I came here. We should probably work out how to get you enrolled in Canterlot High; a new environment might help you heal better than just stumbling through and expecting every corner to contain a Royal Guardspony when I’m not around.”

Twilight nodded and replied with, “That sounds nice.”

Sunset smirked. Get her in a place she can be near me; check. Get her to trust me; check. Still, open friendship with me might paint a target on her back, so I’ll need to find her a more… respectable friend.

Sunset’s eyes then widened, and she said, “Oh yeah, and about the school… it’s bound to be full of familiar faces. Whatever you do, try not to act like they should already know you… or go nuttier than Discord when you see the math teacher or the vice-principal.”

Twilight sounded confused as she answered, “Um… okay?”


Let’s rewind a bit, and see these events from Twilight’s perspective.

No sooner had she ran into the mirror than she found herself tumbling through a prismatic vortex, no purchase to be found.

Thinking illogically that her savior was simply a trickster, she screwed her eyes shut-

And tumbled out onto a paved road, not unlike those in Manehattan, the necklace - no, crown - slipping off of her head and landing a few hooves away.

Almost as if it were the body of Spike, she instinctually crawled over, barely registering the small protrusions on her forelimbs, grabbed the crown, and stared into the glimmering star sapphire.

Girls, she thought to herself as she raised it to her head, I don't know if you're still with me, but I'm sorry I couldn't save you. At least... I still have this to remember you by.

So lost in her thoughts was she, not even lending notice to the fingers on her hand, she remained there kneeling on her hind limbs... until a faint grip on her shoulder jolted her into panic.

“NO! PLEASE! IT WASN’T ME, I SWEAR! I DIDN’T MEAN TO DESTROY THE EVIDENCE! GIRLS! DON’T SEND ME BACK TO DIE!,” she pleaded, before she heard a gentle, “Calm down,” from beside her. “I’m not letting anypony take you back there. You’re safe.”

Twilight turned towards the voice, and to her relief, it was no mare she had ever noticed in CSGU, or even anypony from the castle in general. Instead, Twilight laid eyes upon a figure with skin of goldenrod and hair like raging fire, garbed in a studded leather jacket and boots with fuschia accents. The skirt she wore - for this had to be a mare - had a stripe of fuschia beside one of butter yellow and surrounded by orange, and the shirt under that was fuschia as well, though it displayed a symbol, however different, Twilight recognized immediately as one she could trust, even if doubt still swirled in her head.

She leapt to embrace the girl. “You know Celestia?”

She nodded. “I was her personal student.”

Twilight wiped a tear from her eye and said, “I was probably the student right after you, then. I’m not sure if she would have believed me or just asked me to run away with her, but after Princess Luna scheduled my hanging, I’ll take any link to Celestia I can hang on to.”

The girl quirked an eyebrow. “Princess Luna? Who’s that?”

Twilight's eyes widened, before she said, “Celestia’s younger sister. She was corrupted into Nightmare Moon by her jealousy, and Celestia, unable to truly wield the full set, had to seal her in the moon. I was able to reawaken the Elements and purify her, with the help of my frien-“

At this, Twilight's memories came rushing back, and her hind limbs went limp, tears building in her eyes.

The girl seemed to notice this and set her down before kneeling themselves, laying a hand on Twilight's back and saying, “It’s okay. Let it all out if you want.”

Twilight, lost in pure sorrow, lost track of time as the floodgates opened, tempests of tears pouring from her eyes and her mouth moving on its own, speaking, “I’m sorry” and “I couldn’t save you,” and at the end, she let out a faint, “I miss you, my faithful assistant,” wiped her face, and continued. “My friends, who I never would have even reached the castle ruins without; Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity Belle, and my faithful baby dragon assistant, Spike. After that, it was all pretty okay, until the day we went to that school theatre performance.”

Even as her eyes hardened at the mere thought of Cheerilee, the gates had opened, and Twilight did not stop until she related every last minute of the events that led her here.

After the last word had long since slipped Twilight's mouth, the girl said, "Well, now that it's off your barrel, I think it's only fair I tell you the truth. You see... well, you remember the mirror you went through?"

Twilight nodded, and the girl continued. "Well, I'm also from that side. My... disagreements started after a mid-term test. A couple of classmates wanted to invite me for lunch, but I had to practice for my Advanced Summoning exam, and I wanted to re-read Advanced Elemental Magical Practices to refresh my knowledge."

Twilight couldn't help but notice a grimace on the girl's face as she soldiered on but decided to pay it no mind as she said, "Celestia took me aside, gave me a little talk about friendship, brought up a humility lesson, and took me before the mirror. She told me to look into the mirror, and I saw somepony who could be great, powerful... even-"

The girl coughed as she was about to go on, let off a quick apology, and remarked, "Anyway, Celestia called time, and as we were leaving, I saw something she dismissed as a 'trick of the light' when she told me to reflect, and I was obsessed from that point on. Eventually, she told me I wasn't ready, and I tried to impress her."

She laid a hand on her arm and turned away. "It was a big mistake in hindsight to try the dark magic wing, but I wanted to know... and I did. That mirror, an artifact called the Crystal Mirror, is supposed to only open the gate between this world and Equestria every thirty moons - around two and a half years. Given that statue you mentioned lined up pretty well with a couple of the stained-glass murals in the castle about a creature named Discord and how the princess - well, princesses - sealed him away, I'd say something caused a leak in the seal, and he found it entertaining enough to watch Luna squirm when she found you escaped."

Twilight couldn't help but imagine the scene Luna would be making, and she giggled - just a bit - as the girl continued. "When Celestia found me, we got into a big argument about ambition and reflection and how 'becoming a princess must be earned,' and it ended with me getting banned from the castle."

The girl's extremity clenched as she said, "I wanted to prove myself, even if I wasn't going to enjoy a smile from the princess, so I pressed my luck and ended up catching the gate just before it closed... about the last bit of luck I had in Equestria."

The girl then perked up, extended her extremity, and said, “Now that we’ve traded sincere stories, I think it’s only fair we introduce ourselves.”

Twilight felt the tiniest bit of hesitance, then laid her own inside, first with the growths balled up, then letting them go flat like the girls, and said, "I'm... Twilight Sparkle," to which the girl replied, "Sunset Shimmer."

As Sunset pulled Twilight up to her feet, her legs wobbled, unused to this bipedal motion like Sunset was doing, and she keeled over, Sunset catching her arm on her shoulder and saying, “It’s alright… I wasn’t any better at walking like a human when I came here. We should probably work out how to get you enrolled in Canterlot High; a new environment might help you heal better than just stumbling through and expecting every corner to contain a Royal Guardspony when I’m not around.”

Twilight nodded and replied with, “That sounds nice.”

As they walked away from the building behind the portal - which, Twilight saw, was a mirror set into the pedestal of a statue - Sunset's eyes widened, and she said, “Oh yeah, and about the school… it’s bound to be full of familiar faces. Whatever you do, try not to act like they should already know you… or go nuttier than Discord when you see the math teacher or the vice-principal.”

Twilight was confused, but simply answered, "Um... okay?," as the two set out towards something of a new life.


The next day...


Twilight's eyes were wide, her stance rigid, as she laid eyes upon an unmistakable figure emerging from the door behind her.

"Okay," Twilight whispered to Sunset. "Now I see why you didn't want me to freak out... but I am still scared as a filly right now."

Though their hair didn't appear like a night sky, Vice-Principal Luna and Principal Celestia exuded a similar air to the princesses she knew so well.

Luna looked upon Twilight with a sort of indifference, before saying, "And why, pray tell, are we interviewing a random girl who brought a facade crown to school?"

Twilight tensed at that, before her eye twitched and she yelled angrily, "This is not a facade! This is the one thing I have left of my friends!"

Luna responded, with equal outrage, "You would do well to watch your temper, young lady! Such disrespect will not... get..."

Her mood trailed off, however, as she saw a fear in Twilight's eyes and a return to being as stiff as a board, eyes wide with faint whispers of, "Not here... she's not here, you're safe... it's not her, not her, no, no, nononononono".

"Aaaand she's frightened again," Sunset retorted glibly as she laid a hand on Twilight's. "Seems like every shock she gets from someone new puts her into panic mode."

Luna felt guilty for frightening her, but sighed as she reserved her judgment. "Miss Sparkle, I assure you that you have nothing to fear from us. Miss Shimmer, would you care to enlighten us on why your new acquaintance is so tense?"

Sunset racked her brain for a moment, nearly considering saying Twilight was haunted by a dream - and she had had a nightmare about Princess Celestia not believing her innocence and choosing to commit suicide, Celestia realizing the truth too late and Twilight too late to reach up to her, so it wouldn't be a total lie - but eventually sighed and said, "She was involved in a serial child murder case she lost her friends and little brother in. She was lucky to survive the wounds she received but ended up killing the murderer - an insane schoolteacher obsessed with "killing the weeds" in her class - in a blind fury and got convicted by mistake. You remind her of the woman who vilified her in her trial."

The sisters were shocked, but Celestia found it in her to speak. "Did-"

Sunset's eyes hardened. "Stop. There. Why would a teenager like this girl kill her closest friends and baby brother? I asked that myself, and I couldn't find a reasonable answer, because there is none. Not only that, but you also remind her of her old mentor. How would you feel, seeing the likeness of your mentor ask that question? I may be stuck-up at times, but I know that if you say another word... it would ruin her."

Celestia found herself struck speechless at that, and after noticing a small tear in Twilight's eye that threatened to break her rigid fear, she realized it.

It wasn't her, she thought as she turned to her sister, who had come to a similar conclusion. Nobody could falsify that pain, that loneliness.

As she was about to speak again, her computer let out a short noise; one Sunset recognized as a message notification from MyStable.

Looking at it, Celestia frowned and said, "Alright, Sunset. Just one more question. Who is this girl, really?"

At this, Sunset froze. "Come again?"

Celestia's frown deepened as she explained, "I may not like Crystal Preparatory's principal Abacus Cinch, but us and Dean Cadance do keep in touch. She is like a niece to me, after all, and according to her, Twilight Sparkle is in class there right now. From the description I gave her when you walked in, the one there and the one right in front of me are nearly identical - asides a lack of prescription glasses, a looser hair style, a lack of uniform, and of course, the facade crown."

Twilight and Sunset gaped. First, Twilight had frozen up when Vice-Principal Luna was called in. Second, Twilight had briefly been enraged when Luna called the crown a facade, only to freeze at Luna's frustrated yell. And now, they were both frozen as Celestia revealed she knew this world's native Twilight.

So stiff were they, neither of them reacted as Twilight's crown slipped off her head, only snapping out of it when the crown clattered on the floor.

The two sisters were also surprised by the clatter, as well as Twilight's fervent search for it before cradling it and placing it back on her head, where the whole thing gave off a noticeable glint that, Celestia noted, had nothing to do with the light in the room.

Celestia held up a hand and said, "I believe we may need to deliberate this with the dean and other in question present. Rest assured, we will sort this out, miss Sparkle, so I advise you get some rest, familiarize yourself with your homeroom teacher, and socialize with some of the other students."

Twilight and Sunset relaxed at this, nodded, and filed out of the office.

Before Luna did the same, however, she said, "Sister... that crown..."

Celestia nodded. "It's just like the legends of Clover and the stone circle. Something unnatural is passing through these halls, and it's not like miss Blush's lucky charm. However, broken as she is, I trust that girl to do the right thing with any power such a thing might hold."

Luna looked down, as if recalling something long past. "I still remember her, you know. That little ebony girl with the blue catlike eyes."

Celestia stilled. "The girl who you felt left a part of yourself feeling empty? The girl who spoke as if she was the deepest, darkest part of you given a conscience?"

Luna turned. "She knew, Celestia. She knew about my darkest thoughts, and told me to talk with you before they had to rush her to the hospital and she just... blasted into nothing when we were visiting."

Celestia nodded, a faint tear in her eye as she replied, "You're right. That girl was a phenomenon. No coloboma, scleral collagen normal, and no illness; her eyes were just like that, her cells' proteolysis resisting all modern medicine... and then she went up in a blast of some unknown energy and there was no trace of her. It was like..."

Luna hummed before interjecting with, "Agreed, sister."

"It was like she had something, was something, that couldn't exist in our world."


"So," Twilight said, "What are we going to do now that's out of the way?"

"We," Sunset replied, "are doing nothing together, not in these walls. I have a... certain reputation, one that will single you out if you hang near me during school hours, or even say my name!"

"Rich kid?"

Sunset sweated a little - what she said next could bring her plans crashing down - but eventually formulated the response of, "More like a 'temper bomb,' Twilight. I couldn't exactly get over my rebellion, so, as you saw, I can get pretty opinionated when I feel something is... undeserved."

Not a lie, per se, but not the whole truth, Sunset thought to herself as, thankfully for her, Twilight seemed to accept the answer.

Twilight, of course, had her doubts about Sunset - a conveniently placed shoulder to lean on? Something has to be up - but decided not to say anything, smiling and nodding before saying, "So who do you think I should hang out with in the meantime?"

Sunset put a hand to her chin, then smiled as she walked away. "You strike me as fitting in with the Techie clique as a single unit. That said, you might want to keep a distance from the Eco Kids, Fashionistas, Dramas, and Athletes until you've got a handle on your emotions around familiar faces."

Twilight quirked an eyebrow at that, asking, "What do you mean? What'd be so familiar about-"

"Darling!," interjected a voice behind Twilight that made her shoot up straight in recognition.

As Twilight's mind raced, she heard the sound of heeled boots coming closer, and a familiar liltling, "Whatever happened to your outfit? It looks as if you've been through a burning building!"

As the girl passed over to Twilight's side, Twilight's eyes threatened to burst into torrents as she took note of ivory skin, a coiffed purple hairdo, and, most identifying to Twilight's memories...

...three lozenge-cut gemstones in a distinct arrangement.

"Darling," Rarity asked, "whatever is the matter? You look as if you've seen a ghost!"

The dam broke, and even though Twilight knew the girl in front of her was not her Rarity, the mere sight of her in all her elegance caused her legs to go weak as she took the Element off her head, held it to her chest, let the tears flow, and whispered in the most ephemeral way she could, "Rarity, is it chance that I see your image first? Is it your way to assure me? Is it providence?"

Rarity, of course, heard none of this, seeing only a girl in need of comfort, and ever so gently swept the girl into her arms before taking her to one of the spare classrooms she knew not to be frequented by her former friends, laying her in one of the chairs, and letting her get it out of her system.

When Twilight's tears finally ran dry, Rarity took the opportunity to ask, "Now that you've gotten it out of your system, would you mind terribly if I inquire as to why you are so downtrodden?"

Twilight looked up, back into those radiant sapphires, and found the courage to say, "You... remind me of an old friend. She was killed in the Garden Murders, by jaw wedge. That psycho even fed her eye to me!"

Rarity's eyes widened. "Oh my! That certainly wouldn't be pleasant, death or unorthodox enucleation. Even so, I must admit a lack of knowledge on anything resembling 'Garden Murders.' Would you care to enlighten-"

At that point, Rarity felt a vibration from her skirt, lifted a decorated rounded rectangle to her eyes, then abruptly switched topics. "Oh, dear. I'm afraid we may have to pick up this conversation later. Sweetie Belle is wondering where I am."

Happy to have an excuse not to bring up the Garden Murders in full, but sad at a reminder of another pony she had failed to save, Twilight took some time to extract herself from her seat as the bell rang for home.

Trailing behind the throngs of teenagers, a few bearing likeness to others she knew but too obscured to tell, Twilight met Sunset at the door, and the two returned to Twilight's apartment.


A few minutes prior, however...


Rarity examined the text she had received not long after Sweetie Belle's question of where she was. The two messages that such vastly different tones, but seemed to originate from the same number, unknown ID or not.

SB: Sis where r u?
SB:Weren't you going to bring me along before you finished your work on that dress?

???: Yes, miss Belle.
???: Best scurry along now.
???: After all, you'll need all your precision if you want to win a prize.
???: Just be careful how curious you get. In your dreams, the Garden Murders will have yet to be resolved...
???: ...so won't you help a lady out?

Putting the unsettling mystery out of her head for now, Rarity met her sister at the front and returned to the Carousel Boutique's loft.

Unbeknownst to her, an ornately dressed man walked into the woods behind her, smirking as he looked at a fine chain necklace, gold and a sort of blue metal interwoven.

If anyone, say, a certain green girl with a turtleneck, were to follow him, they would find nothing.


[Deleted Scene: A Bad Breakup]
It was this realization that prompted Luna to say, "Sunset, can you step outside for a minute? You can stay by the doors, but this is private. Twilight, I am going to come closer. If you don't want me to, just say so, but I am sorry you had to go through something like that."

Luna softened her posture as she approached, Twilight leaning back for a moment before tensing as Luna wrapped her arms around her, and Luna felt a deep connection at that moment, saying, "My ex-boyfriend, Cristallus Sombra, was the bad boy in the year above mine. He used to talk about how his ex, Radiant Hope, left him because of a disagreement he had two years prior with her godmother, Nostro Amore."

Luna shuddered as she pulled away. "When I got close with another student, Amore's biological daughter Mi Amore Cadenza, she revealed that Radiant had been declared mad and raving for saying Sombra was a criminal and not providing evidence and that Nostro had been murdered under mysterious circumstances... two years prior."

As Luna sat on Celestia's chair, Twilight's eyes widened as she said, "Did... did he-"

Luna nodded. "After I brought it to Sombra's attention, he pulled a knife and held it to my throat. He said, 'The old lady had it coming. She snitched on the Umbrum, and the shadows told me to collect.' You see, Sombra's mother, Rabia Sombra, ran a sweatshop for a budding gang disguised as an orphanage, and Nostro was an escapee that managed to bring evidence to light."

Twilight shivered as Luna continued. "She was better armed and more rabid a fighter than Nostro said, and the force had to... finish it. Afterwards, most of the Umbrum were rounded up... but one of the members had commissioned Cristallus to get revenge, and now I knew too much."

Luna put a hand to her throat. "I would have had my throat torn out if Celestia hadn't been listening and startled him by pulling the alarm, allowing me to disarm him. She had even created a recording we could use as evidence if Sombra made it to court... but I wasn't thinking straight. He reached for a sheath I noticed on his boot, and I moved on instinct, driving right into his leg and tossing away the boot before-"

At this, Celestia laid a hand on Luna's shoulder, and the story stopped for a moment as Luna let out a breath of panic she might not have realized she was holding before continuing with, "When the police arrived, I was kneeled over Sombra, crying, and the pocketknife was buried in his palate. There were those that cried for me to be locked away, which sent me into a goth phase that got me suspended, but Celestia's recording of the confession exonerated me and Radiant."

At this, Twilight couldn't help but go into a short laughing fit that surprised the sisters. When she realized the two were watching in disbelief, she said, "My mentor had to give me a transfusion after they rushed me to the hospital. She was unconscious for my trial, and all the evidence ended up misconstrued; Spike's message, my outburst in a suburb... They didn't believe me, and in that holding cell, I had doubts about if my mentor would believe me."

As the sisters' eyes widened, Twilight felt tears stream down her face. "I was lucky a paralegal took my case and found the evidence needed to open inquiry into the teacher that actually committed the murders."

"Paralegal...," Twilight thought to herself, that's really the best way to describe Discord's intervention, if putting it lightly. Already sentenced with two hours before the gallows; "paralegal" is exactly the word to describe "escaping to another world."

Author's Note:

My crisis training notes didn't prepare me to write all of the bit in Celestia's office. The last line of that scene is a way to set up a twist. Or is it? (Not in the way you think.)

Sunset may be fudging a lot, and some of it having to be on-the-spot fibs doesn't help, but remember, Twilight's receiving sympathy for the first time since the Garden Murders. If you get into a traumatic situation that involves everyone from your neighbor to your friends to your mentor's sister (and possibly your mentor herself) to the ruler of your homeland, you're going to want to look for someone who believes you, is willing to shelter you, and - Okay, I'm just taking a shot in the dark. My self-esteem enhancing pamphlet never covered "nobody trusts me, I know I didn't do it, somebody please reach out to me" in much detail. (Abuse and codependency, yes, but this isn't abuse and Twilight may be desperate for people who believe, but Sunset is still using Twi and Twi has the feeling that Sunset is trying to insinuate herself into Twilight's life, or something else is insinuating Sunset into Twilight's life. They'll keep at a distance before we get into rebuilding Twi's self-esteem.)

Also, yes, Rarity's cutie mark uses lozenge cut. Yes, lozenge is an actual cut of gem.

And we're just going to refer to the events of Cheerilee's Garden and Scarlet Harvest as "the Garden Murders" from now on.

Also, for the deleted scene, I winged a backstory and some names with Fiendship is Magic plotline. Of course, having Luna say "mood kindred" was way too fast-paced, so I decided to use Celestia's connection with Dean Cadance as a drama device and set up a mysterious subplot.

Happy Nightmare Night.