Those words, they didn’t seem like something that Rainbow would have said. It wasn’t that she never apologized, it was more that she rarely apologized. Part of me, though, quickly chastised the other part of me that had thought that. I should have expected the best of my friend, and knew that she was going to rise to the occasion. The simple fact was, though, that there was a reason why I had placed the talk with her as something that had three hours to do.

Well, three hours were on the schedule to have her found and the conversation completed.

The thing was, though, that I knew almost every other conversation was going to take less time. The closest was Applejack, and that was because we were likely going to have lunch while we had the conversation. Then there had been Rarity, and the conversation there was going to have to do with the possibility of Sweetie Belle being taught by me as well. Fluttershy’s conversation was going to likely have a lot of time when she apologized, and it was obvious that she had been more angry than anypony else there.

Maybe I had just not thought about what it was that Rainbow had thought. Maybe I had been a bit harsh, the thought that Rainbow was just being Rainbow was at least a little harsh. There was a chance that I needed to apologize to her. Then again, there was also the chance that she was likely to tell me that there wasn’t a problem for me to apologize for. I really didn’t know what it was that I was supposed to do in this situation. I had formed a completely negative conclusion about one of the most loyal friends that a pony could have ever had.

That made me feel as though I as a bad friend.

“Equestria to Twilight.” I saw a blue hoof in front of my face, likely waved a few times before she actually said anything. “Did I break you or something? You’ve just sort of been standing there with your mouth open for the past ten minutes.” That couldn’t possibly have been the truth. Well, no, it could have been the truth. I didn’t want it to be the truth, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t. “I think I broke Twilight. Oh boy. That’s something that I don’t want to have to tell Princess Celestia.”

At that point, I shook my head.

“I guess I just didn't expect that, Rainbow.” I quickly pulled out my schedule, and then pointed to the entry that had to do with her. “As you can see, I had eight to eleven put on the schedule to find and talk to you about Sunset Shimmer. I hadn’t thought that you wanted to find me.” It likely wasn’t in my best interest to admit this second part. “And I thought you really didn’t like Sunset Shimmer, so an apology at this point seemed to be little more than a pipe dream.”

That sounded even more negative than I had initially thought it was.

“Well, I really wasn’t going to apologize.” I had to wonder what had changed her mind. “It wasn’t until I got home, and talked to Spike about what happened, that I started to think that I might have overreacted.” That seemed all too normal. I remembered times when I had been freaking out, when I had thought that the worst was going to happen, and Spike had been there for me to make sure that I didn’t completely overreact. That was something he had done for me, and it seemed completely obvious that he was going to continue this trend.

Of course, her overreactions were different than mine.

“See, I didn’t think about a lot of the things we’ve been through. We gave Trixie another chance, and we gave Discord … well, Fluttershy gave Discord another chance. I still don’t know if I trust him or not.” That was a sentiment that I shared, though Fluttershy was definitely having an effect on me. If Discord stayed good, I was definitely not going to hold a grudge. That still didn’t tell me why she had apologized. “Spike also pointed out that she wasn’t the same as before. I mean, she got hit with the elements. After that happened, we totally forgave Luna for the whole Nightmare Moon thing. And she had tried to kill Princess Celestia.”

I simply nodded.

“And then he pointed out that you’ve rarely led us astray.” I blushed a little at that comment. If any of them had a reason to not say that, it was Spike. Then again, he was always the most reasonable out of all of us. It still hurt to think that he wasn’t ready to see me yet, even if he was ready to heap praise on me. Maybe it was because of that, the idea that he said good things about me and still didn’t seem to want to see me, that made it worse.

“And so I decided to find you, apologize, and try to figure some things out for myself.” I hadn’t even gotten a sentence in edge-wise, she had been doing a good job of keeping my attention. I hadn’t even asked her what her problem had been, so I hadn’t been able to try to come up with a solution. Yet, at the same time, I knew better than to try to hijack her conversation. Even though I had intended for it to be my conversation, it most certainly was hers.

Weird.

“I guess I was simply wondering why.” That was something vague. “Why did you choose Sunset Shimmer to be your student? What’s it about her that’s so special?” There were a lot of possible things that I could have said that made her special. “If I’m gonna get behind this, I need to know more about Sunset. ‘Cause the last things that I heard weren’t exactly the most flattering.” I couldn’t help when I snickered. That was certainly one way that it could have been worded.

Another way was that the only things she had heard about Sunset Shimmer were that she had tried to kill me after stealing my crown and had formed a mind controlled army of teenagers with the intent of ruling Equestria and the Crystal Empire. The way that Rainbow had put it was definitely less wordy, though.

“That’s a really big set of questions, so you might want to sit down.” I pointed over to one of the outside tables that Sugarcube Corner had. As soon as the two of us had sat down, I looked up at the sky. “I don’t really think I’m going to be able to ask them in the way you asked. The easiest one would have to be the second one. I believe the way you asked it was ‘what about her is so special.” I took a breath, and let out a sigh.

“She’s kind of like me, really. Well, the old me. At the same time, she’s like a mirror of me.” I stole a glance at Rainbow, who simply looked back at me confused. “There’s something about her that just pulls away from ponies, doesn’t trust them. At the same time, she let her lessons get to her. There’s a strong pride in her. I really get the feeling that there has to be a reason for that.” I wasn’t likely making much sense. “I guess I just see that what she was is something that I could have easily been, and I just want to help make sure she doesn’t go back to being that.”

I wondered if that made any real sense.

“As for why I had chosen her to be my student … well, you’re not going to like this.” That was likely the understatement of the century. “Initially, I hadn’t. I mean, I told my brother and Cadance that I had, but it had been a lie.”

“Wait, you lied to your brother?” The sound of her voice told me that she was as shocked as I had been when I had done it. “But he’s your BBBFF. You sang a song about it, and you were mad when he had even forgotten to tell you about his wedding. Doesn’t that feel a little hypochronrial?”

“Hypocritical. Yes it is. I’m not proud of it either. When I heard that he wanted to remove her horn, something just pushed me to do it.” I had a feeling that she was going to say something about that. “I just thought about what it would have been like for me. Magic is something hat every unicorn has, it’s something that helps us identify who we are. I imagine it’d be like being a pegasus who has prided themselves on their flying getting their wings removed. It just felt wrong.” That was the only way I knew to put it. Sunset had been Princess Celestia’s student, after all, and she had a cutie mark that had been based on magic.

Sunset Shimmer really was a lot like me, as well as a lot different.

“I can understand that.” I noticed a shudder from Rainbow. “I don’t know what I’d do if I heard a pegasus was going to lose their wings at all. Even if they barely use them, like Fluttershy, it’d still be something terrible.” I didn’t know what else Rainbow had wanted to know, though. “So, you see yourself in her and you want to help her out. What else can you tell me about her? Like why she even came back in the first place.”

“She said she came back to visit here family, before heading back.” There was something that had come to mind recently that I hadn’t shared with Sunset. Cadance wouldn't have been able to make me teach her, much like Sunset had said, but there was something that she hadn’t thought about. “Though that’s going to be really difficult. Part of the punishment that Cadance had give her was that she is banished from the Crystal Empire for good.”

Rainbow gave me a confused look. “Yeah, so? She doesn’t want to go back to the Empire, she wants to go through the mirror.”

“A mirror that is inside the Crystal Empire, in the castle, where she isn’t allowed to go.” I said as I looked as a particularly interesting looking cloud. “That means that she’s not going to be able to do anything beyond stay here.” I didn't know if I wanted to say the last part, where Sunset had said a few things that weren’t exactly the most positive. “And if I were to be completely honest, I don’t know what I’m going to do after she gets out of the hospital. She’s convinced that I only want her as my student because Princess Cadance said that I had to watch over her as part of the punishment.”

“She can do that?” It took Rainbow far less time to question it than it had taken me, and I hadn’t even done it until Sunset had pointed it out to me.

“No, but I didn’t think about that.” It had only started off because of that, though, and I had to let Rainbow know. “Not that any of that matters. I thought about how great it would be to have a student. Not only that, but Sunset would make an amazing student. I thought that it was going to work out in the end.” Maybe I had been hoping that one of my friends were capable of helping me out through this problem. “What would you do if you were me?”

“You really want Sunset to be your student, don’t you?”

That was a silly question. “I really do, Rainbow. She might not be the easiest to get along with sometimes, but she is a good pony with a lot of potential. I know I can help her.” A single tear escaped as I thought about the fact that I wasn’t likely going to be able to help her out. This was a failure on my part, I knew it.

“Chin up, Twi.” I felt a hoof wipe the tear away. “Everything will work out in the end, I just know it.” That was incredibly vague. It also didn't answer question about what she would have done. “I don’t know what I’d do if I were you, but it doesn’t matter much anyway. You’ll come up with an answer. I know it.” I wished that I had that sort of optimism about me, At least I had finally gotten an answer to the question, though, even if it wasn’t going to help me much. Rainbow started to hover. “Well, I got what I wanted to say out of the way. Time for me to go take a nap, maybe get bust some clouds up. Today’s going to be a pretty slow weather day.”

Before I had any time to say anything else, she started to speed away.

I wondered if this was what prison was like for more than a day.

The meals I ate were brought in, just like I imagined normal prison was like. I was restrained to a single room, just as I imagined a jail cell was. There was no way for me to move in that room, much as if I had been chained to the wall. I wasn’t able to use magic, though that was through nopony’s fault here. That was just a huge fluke. There was one other thing that made me think this was similar to some sort of prison sentence.

I was bored out of my mind.

I had read the first two chapters of that book, a charitable name for that filth. It wasn’t like I was some sort of art critic, or book critic, or even a big reader. For all I knew, there was something complex about the story that I was missing. In the end, though, I found it to be one of the most boring things I had ever encountered. Not only that, but the characters seemed shallow, the plot points were things that I had no difficulty predicting, and it seemed to rely on brutish action as opposed to a well crafted story that was capable of taking me in.

I wanted a story that had a central idea to it. I was willing to throw the action away, or at least put it to the side. If I was going to read during my time, and consider it an enjoyable experience, it had to have deep characters. They needed to have personalities that couldn't be described in a single sentence. These characters needed to be able to say they had growth as characters, as ponies. These shallow characters of Daring Do were just some of the least interesting characters I had ever had the misfortune of reading.

Wow, I became a snob after reading a couple of chapters of this book.

I ... I was staying away from recreational reading. I couldn’t remember if I was ever like this before, but it didn’t matter much. I was certainly like this now, and I liked it better when I hadn’t really read all that much.

I really needed to find something else to do.

I had scheduled the conversation, which was supposed to be preceded by a search, at three hours. I should have been glad that it wasn’t even 9:00 yet, and part of me was. I guess the better way was that I should have been more glad that this wasn’t taking as long as I had scheduled it to. If everything was able to be cut shorter, that meant that I was able to plan out the next day sooner. It also meant that I was able to go see Sunset Shimmer today, something that I hadn’t thought was going to happen.

Next on my list was to head to Sweet Apple Acres.

This was another conversation that I thought might have been difficult. Applejack had worked so hard to be less stubborn, but she was still more stubborn than I thought she would have been. At the same time, it was also good to know that she trusted my judgment in terms of a student. Maybe this was going to be another time when my perceptions of my friends turned out to be something that actually held me back from being able to see them for the amazing ponies that they were.

I had to wonder why my recent fears led to the idea that I was a bad friend.

Maybe that was something that I needed to talk to all of my friends about at once. There was always those incidents with Spike and Rainbow, they definitely didn’t help me in that area. I was a bad friend to them, though. I had to wonder if that was the only thing that was shaping the way that I thought about everything. These past couple days had been more difficult on me than expected, at least from a mental perspective.

Everything was so much easier before I had gone to the Crystal Empire.

As I continued to walk down the road, the scenery changed to apple trees. These weren't just any trees, though, these were Sweet Apple Acres trees. These apples made some of the best cider around, at least the best that I had ever drank. These were also the trees that ere almost completely bare. It made sense, Applebucking Season had just ended a while back. There were likely some trees further in that hadn’t been completely harvested yet. I remembered they said something about how the trees were set up to grow in stages.

I had the notes written down back at the library.

With the way that the weather teams worked, it was possible to have certain trees grow their fruits faster. It was also likely something to do with Earth Pony magic, a field that I wasn’t as well-versed in as I wanted to be. That was another topic that I needed to talk to Applejack about. There was a chance that she could have helped me figure out more about it. I knew that the connection to nature was magical, that it was what helped the Earth Ponies grow food in such large quantities, but I didn’t know much more about it beyond that.

It was about this time that I felt an apple smack against my head. That snapped me from my thoughts, and focused my attention on the young filly that was standing there in front of me. Applebloom was standing there with her two friends, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. I had to think a moment about why they weren’t in school. It wasn’t the weekend, it wasn’t a holiday that I knew of, and it wasn’t late enough for them to be out of school.

When all else failed, the best source was the children themselves.

“Shouldn’t you guys be in school?” That was far more blunt than I probably should have been.

“We were.” Sweetie Belle started. “We were in school, learning about the myths surrounding Nightmare Moon.” I remembered how they had taught it. They had been wrong, of course. Every book I had read, ones that were Elementary School Level, all mentioned that it was a legend that was passed down to scare foals. Bad foals would have been told that they were going to have to behave if they didn’t want to face down Nightmare Moon. Not a single book at their level even considered the idea that she might have been based on a real figure.

It also didn’t think of the possibility that the use of her as a scare tactic was something that came long afterwards. When I had learned more about it myself, from sources that were more thorough, I had been tempted to go back and tell them how wrong they had been. I had been so tempted that I had actually argued my point to one of the many teachers that had taught me through the first few years of my schooling, one who I actually respected a great deal.

Of course, it hadn’t ended with either of us being in a good mood.

That had little relevance on the discussion at hand, though. I was also sure that they didn't care about how inaccurate the lessons were. In fact, I guessed that Scootaloo probably hadn't even been paying attention to most of the lesson. She seemed to be a lot like Rainbow Dash in that way.

“Scootaloo was asleep, of course.” My hypothesis had turned out to be correct. “I was taking some notes about the history of using Nightmare Moon as a tale to scare foals, when Ditzy ended up coming in through the window.” Sweetie Belle didn’t look happy about that. Then again, she had always seemed to be the most studious of the group. “Apparently, she had been trying to catch something that had fallen out of a moving wagon, and missed.” That did sound plausible. “We never were able to find the thing that she was supposedly trying to catch.”

That also sounded plausible.

“It was about that time that Cheerilee told us to take the rest of the day off. Apparently, she was afraid we’d get hurt.” Everything was lining up nicely. Ditzy seemed likely to break a window, with herself obviously, and Cheerilee seemed like the type that would have sent her students home to make sure that they didn’t get hurt. “She just said we need to write a small essay about what we feel about the myths surrounding Nightmare Moon.”

I almost wanted to see if they wanted my help, but I had a lot of things I needed to do for the day. Then again, this was a chance for me to help these young students, these three open minds. Maybe if I got everything else done quicker, I could have helped them out with their problems.


“So, whatcha here for?” Applebloom cut in, pulling my attention away from the possibility of an impromptu reschedule. “Not that ah don’t want ya here, ya normally just don’t show up without a reason.” Each of the crusaders had something that I liked, usually multiple things, and this was one of them. Applebloom really reminded me of her sister right now, which pulled me back to why I was here in the first place.

“Actually, I was hoping to talk to your sister. She’s not too busy, is she?” I hoped the answer was no, and that she pointed me to the right orchard. “I’ll only take a little bit of her time.”

“Sorry, ya got here a little late.” My jaw dropped. I had only been a little late? I had hoped that my unannounced visit wasn’t going to be a problem. “Rainbow Dash just shows up a little bit ago. She said she had somethin’ important ta say to mah sister. I heard some yellin’ just a bit ago, too. I wasn’t tryin’ to overhear, but it was somethin’ that had to do with a Sunbowl Shingle.”

“No, it was Sunset Shimmer.” Sweetie Belle corrected.

“How would you know? You were busy telling me that antidisestablishmentarianism is the longest word in Equestrian.” Scootaloo sighed. “And then I asked what it meant, and you so proved you’re a dictionary in disguise.”

“You’re just mad that I know big words, and that you’re just a chicken in disguise.” Sweetie shot back. “Besides, I heard Rarity say something about Sunset Shimmer under her breath when we were eating.” I had to wonder what that was. Actually, I didn’t have to wonder. This was a perfect time to stop an argument that was forming, this one between the crusaders at least, and figure out more information about what my friends thought.

“What exactly did she say?” I queried.

“I couldn’t understand much of it, to be honest.” Sweetie Belle blushed as she responded. “I just know that when I asked her about it, Rarity told me that it was something she would tell me about later.” It would have been easier if she had just told her sister, but that didn’t seem to be the way things worked for me. Well, no, that wasn’t even remotely close to true. The conversation I had just had with Rainbow Dash had been easy enough.

Where was this negativity springing from?

“Well, I’d love to stay and chat … but I think I should go help stop whatever had caused those two to yell at each other.”

Applebloom stepped in front of me. “Actually, ah can’t allow that. Ah was asked to make sure that nopony interrupts the discussion by Applejack.” That was adorable, but I had things I needed to do. I wasn’t going to be stopped, certainly not if I was needed to go mediate an argument.

“And I was asked by Rainbow to do the same thing.” Scootaloo stepped beside her friend.

This was actually a good friendship letter in the making, if I still actually wrote those. These two were standing up to a pony who was stronger than them. They were doing this because of the bonds that they had with their sisters, in Scootaloo’s case more of an adoptive sister than a blood sister. “I’m sorry, but I really need to-“ It was around this time that I felt some dust hit my face, and my vision started to fade a little.

“Ah learned how to make that from Zecora.” I tried to focus, to get my vision to come back, but it wasn’t happening. My head became heavier, and soon I felt my legs start to shake. This wasn’t the first time I had been hit with a sleeping powder, but it was the first time that I had been hit with one from a filly Applebloom’s age. This said something about her abilities in this field, something that I needed to let her know as soon as possible.

As soon as possible wasn’t right now, though, since I was passing out.

This room had a ceiling that was comprised of twenty three tiles.

That was something that I had counted before, but it was always good to be sure. I had also counted approximately forty-seven small dots on each of those tiles. There were a couple with forty-nine, but it wasn’t all that important to the overall count. The total number of small dots on the ceiling was … too darn high. I had discovered that scientific fact shortly after they had fed me the thing that they called lunch.

It hadn’t been horrible, but it wasn’t all that great,

My meal had consisted of apple juice, which I was told was given by Sweet Apple Acres, as the drink. The sandwiches had been daffodil with some daisies. There had been two of them. Desert had been a muffin, poppy seed was more exact. It had all been good, the apple juice was actually the best part of the meal. Maybe it was because the rest of the meal had been kind of dry, the apple juice had helped to clear the last bits of muffin from my throat.

And then they left a couple of books.

I had told myself that I wasn’t going to read any of them, lest my snob-side return. At the same time, the description of one of them pulled my attention.

Bella Swan is a student, just wanting to get through her classes. She has recently transferred from Manehattan to a small town school. What she doesn’t expect, though, is what is about to unfold. She might not have been looking for love, but sometimes it happens when we least expect it.

I had never read a romance novel before, and this one seemed to have a lot of awards. Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad to read this one. It didn’t hurt that it looked as though one of the ponies on the cover was a vampire. I always loved those sorts of ideas. The question about how they were going to have something as amazing as vampires with romance, that was the thing that finally got me to open up the cover.

The title had seemed a little weird, though.

I was awoken by the sound of laughter. I knew the voice, it was Rainbow Dash. I slowly opened up my eyes, and glanced to see that two of my friends seemed to be having a good time. At least I didn’t need to stop Applejack and Rainbow Dash from fighting, since they seemed to be standing right here in front of me with wide smiles on their faces.

“What’s so funny?” Something did feel weird, but I couldn’t quite place a hoof on it. Well, no, a couple of things felt weird. One of them was the fact that I was apparently tied to a tree. The last time this had happened, it had been because I and tried to stop a larger Spike from wrecking the town. Those had been interesting days, but …

Wait, I was tied to the tree?

“And how did I get tied to this tree?” That was likely the question I should have led with.

“Ah don’t rightly know, Twi. If ah had to guess, though, it was those Cutie Mark Crusaders. They seemed to be pretty pleased with themselves that they stopped anypony from interruptin’ us.” It was about that time that it all came back to me, at least a lot of it did. I had come here to talk to Applejack, and then they had stopped me. Applebloom had hit me in the face with some sleeping powder, some pretty potent powder to be honest, and then they had apparently tied me up.

“And that’s not the best part.” Rainbow moved over, and snatched something from on top of my horn. “They left you something to eat, too. Apparently, they thought this was going to stop you from getting out.” Their method of stopping an alicorn from casting was to place an apple on the horn. That wasn’t actually the worst idea, even if I was sure it wasn’t something that would have actually worked for more than a couple of seconds.

“I have to ask, though, how they even stopped you.” Rainbow continued. “I mean, couldn’t you just have teleported away?”

That was actually a good question, and it deserved a real response. “Well, yes, I could have theoretically teleported out if they hadn’t surprised me. I didn’t have any idea that Applebloom was able to create sleeping powder, let alone something as strong as she was able to make.” I let out a sigh. “Even if I had known, I didn’t think that they would have used something like that.” I looked up to see the two of them staring at me. “I really underestimated them, didn’t I?”

“Eeeeyup.” Applejack responded.

I thought about asking them to help me down, but I knew I could do it myself. The apple wouldn’t have stopped me for long, but now there wasn’t even that. The ropes were soon untied, and they were laying down on the ground. I hadn’t anticipated gravity, though, so I was soon laying on the floor near where the rope had fallen to. A shake of my head, and then I stood back up. There was something that I needed to say, and it was to Applejack.

“So, I hear ya wanted to talk ta me about somethin’ important?” Applejack started, right as I was going to mention it. Then again, it might have been a good idea for me to take a little time and gather together my thoughts. There was no way that I was going to get a second chance. Then again, I had been wrong about how the talk with Rainbow was going to go. Maybe this was another thing that I was, inevitably, wrong about. “Ah also heard it has ta do with Sunset Shimmer, so ah think that ah wanna say some things first.”

That wasn’t expected.

“What do ya think of Trixie?” She asked. That didn’t seem very relevant to the discussion at hoof, but I was going to answer it anyway.

“Trixie is a  mare who has made a lot of bad choices, but she isn’t without hope.” I smiled as I looked at my two friends. “I have to wonder what it would be like if she had friends. She reminds me a lot of what I could have been if I had let my position get to my head.” That was true. It was also something that ponies had expected of me, that I was eventually going to snap and get a giant head about everything that had happened to me.

“If she were ta come here right now, would ya be her friend?”

That wasn’t even a difficult question. “Of course. We all deserve friendship.”

“And what do ya think of Discord?”

That was also an easy question. “I think he’s a being of pure chaos, a creature whose existence is focused around destroying harmony.” That was what had happened the time when he had escaped. He had turned my friends against me, much as Chrysalis had. The only difference between those two was that one forced it and the other just tricked everypony.

“Alright. Would ya be his friend if he asked ya?”

That was something that I had to put some thought into. There wasn’t much chance of that happening, I knew. Discord didn’t like me, and I didn’t like him. It was likely because I valued organization, order, and he despised everything about that. Fluttershy had done a lot of good work with him, though, and the two of them seemed to be good friends. If that was possible, then there must have been some good in him all along.

Maybe the answer should have been an easy yes. At the same time, though, I couldn’t forget what he had done. I couldn’t forget, and it seemed as though I hadn’t completely forgiven him yet. Every time I looked at him, or at least a lot of the times that I did, I saw what my friends had done. I saw the creature that had taken our friendship and tried to destroy it.

That was why my answer wasn’t yes.

“No chance of that.” I answered.

“And why not?” The quick question had likely been because she had known what I was going to say. I didn’t know of a single pony, beyond Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, that had forgiven him for what he had done. Fluttershy had forgiven him because that was her way, and the same was true of Pinkie Pie. The two of them were the most likely to forgive anypony really, or at least almost anypony when it came down to it.

“Because he hurt my friends.” I had never felt so right to say something in my life. This was a perfectly good reason in my book.

“That’s true.” Applejack nodded. Maybe that was why she didn’t seem to have forgiven him either. Maybe she had just as much against him. Maybe she had more, actually, there was really no way for me to know. “Are ya gonna push for him to be sent back to stone?”

That was a thought. I had to wonder if that was even a good idea. I didn’t like him, but that didn’t mean that he had done anything wrong. I just wasn’t going to have him as a friend. My personal feelings were just that. I was going to have to deal with them in my own time. For now, though, I just had to put my faith in Fluttershy. She trusted him, she liked him, and so I was going to believe in her. “Of course not. Just because I don’t like him, doesn’t mean that I’m going to be unfair to him.”

That was when it hit me like a brick.

“And now ya understand what ah’m goin’ through.” That had been her point with all of this, obviously. “Ah don’t like Sunset Shimmer. When I look at her, I see a pony who tried to kill my friend. I see a pony that was gonna try ta take over Equestria. I see a lot of things wrong with her.” As much as I wanted to argue that she shouldn’t have seen those, I couldn’t. “At the same time, though, I trust you. I believe in you. If you say she’s not the same pony as before, ah believe ya.”

“If you know she isn’t the same pony, then why don’t you like her?” As soon as I said those words, I realized it was silly. I was being the same way with Discord at times. This wasn’t going to end with me apologizing to the former Lord of Chaos, but it still was something that I had done.

“Do you think that Discord is the same as he was before?” If I was able to say yes, then everything would have been so much easier. That wasn’t something that I was capable of doing, though, so I simply shook my head. “But we’re ponies, we have memories. And a bad reputation ain’t somethin’ that can just disappear overnight. It’s somethin’ that ya gotta work on, somethin’ that needs to be seen. The same can be said about Sunset Shimmer."

"Wow.” That was all I was able to say initially. It wasn’t that I thought that Applejack was an idiot. This was just the second time when I had been proven wrong in my assumption. I had thought that it was going to take a long time to get Applejack to change her mind, and that I was even going to be able to get her to. I had thought that I was going to be able to get her to like Sunset Shimmer. The thing that had happened was less like that, though, and more about how I now understood more about why Applejack thought the way she did.

“Wow what?” Rainbow responded.

“I came here, thinking I could get Applejack to like Sunset.” I started. “I never actually thought about whether or not she had a good reason for disliking her. I just thought that, well, everypony would quickly forgive her and I’d write a letter about it.” That last part was more of a joke, I actually hadn’t written many letters lately. “And now I feel like I should apologize to you, Applejack. I guess I got so used to just fixing problems, I didn’t even think about whether or not this is a problem or if it needs to be just fixed.”

“There’s nothin’ for ya to apologize fer.” Applejack was quick to retort. “Ah know ya, it wasn’t malicious or nothin’. Ya just have had to fix so many problems, sometimes ya just go into autopilot.” That was probably the closest to the truth. “It’s like when ah applebuck. Sometimes, ah just do it. Ah don’t think about it, ah just do it.” Of course, the difference was that Applejack didn’t buck a tree that wasn’t ready, or think that something was a tree that was really something else.

But I understood what she was trying to say.

“Actually, ah was thinkin’ you could tell me more about her. After all, we’re prolly gonna get to see a lot more of her these next few weeks.”

I looked down, the realization that it wasn’t set in stone anymore coming to my mind.

“Actually, that might not be true.” I realized that I had to tell them now. Maybe, if I was lucky, they knew a way to help. Either way, they were my friends. It just felt wrong to not tell them about what had happened. Part of me wanted to put it off, though, because there was the chance that I was going to have to tell the same story to the others.

Then again, there was no reason to not tell Applejack right now.