Sunset and her friends, having finished their regular band practise with one another, now found themselves feeling more than satisfied over the great music they'd been playing together. But, with this time now over, they set to work on making sure all of their instruments were put away properly. That is, with the exception of Twilight, who didn't actually have an instrument right now. Instead, the young scientist simply sat to one side along with Spike, petting him slightly while she watched her other friends all do what they were doing. Applejack and Rainbow, naturally, were laughing to themselves over who was making the best music during their session, while Rarity had taken to polishing her own, making it shine like the sun, much to her delight. Fluttershy was enjoying a quiet moment with her own pet, Angel, and Pinkie was giving her drumsticks a few twirls, which seemed to amuse her quite a bit. Meanwhile, Sunset, who was the first to put her instrument away, looked to the rest of the girls, putting her hands upon her hips before finally breaking the silence.

"Pretty good jam today, girls."

Applejack chuckled to that.

"Ah'll say! We get better an' better these days!"

"Indeed, darling. We're becoming quite the musicians," Rarity added.

"And it's super fun too!" Pinkie exclaimed.

Sunset had a laugh herself, but didn't say anything, as Rainbow then elected to speak.

"You know...I could always get this lot cleared away a bit...faster? If you like?"

Of course, words like that earned her looks of incredulity from her colleagues, leading to a sigh on her part.

"I know, I know, no abusing our magic, right?"

Nodding, Twilight stood up, allowing Spike to leave the music room after all this, no doubt to chase some poor local squirrel, before taking a step forward and looking to her friend with some concern.

"I realise our abilities can make things convenient for us, Rainbow, but given what trouble it gave for us last time we over-used them, it might be best to just...ease off every now and again."

Rainbow grumbled to that.

"Okay, sure."

Sunset then frowned as she remembered those past days.

"I'm not exactly eager to re-live all that, Rainbow. Hearing everybody's thoughts in my head constantly? It was a pretty trying time for me."

Fluttershy looked to her with worry.

"Was it really that bad?"

Sunset sighed.

"It was. You wouldn't believe what trouble I had just trying to get to sleep when it was all going on. Every time some late-night jogger went past my apartment, boom, up all night after hearing whatever was going on in their heads."

The others nodded in agreement, clearly sympathising with her statement. All, that is, except for Rainbow, who instead looked to her with some measure of curiosity.

"...What thoughts were they?"

Sunset looked to her, confused.

"Pardon?"

Rainbow shrugged her shoulders.

"The thoughts you heard...what were they like?"

Rarity turned to her, almost aghast at those words.

"Rainbow Dash! Are you seriously suggesting that Sunset Shimmer violate those people's privacy by revealing their innermost thoughts to all of us for the sake of mere gossip?!"

Rainbow considered that.

"...Yeah?"

Rarity blinked.

"Oh...um...alright then."

Then, she too looked to Sunset.

"As morally debatable as this may be, I confess that I too wonder about what it was you heard."

Folding her arms, Sunset dwelt on that possibility.

"Well, I can't say it was easy to really pick out specific thoughts when they happened. It was especially bad when the school day starts. Imagine going to a really crowded place, full of people who are all chatting so loudly that you cant hear yourself think. That was what it was like for me."

Pinkie grinned to that.

"Sure...but you must have heard something over all that, right?"

Thinking back to those days, Sunset shrugged her shoulders.

"I guess? I mean..."

Tapping her finger to her chin, she took a moment to really try and think back to what she heard in her mind during her out-of-control-magic days.

"Mr Cranky was focused on his lesson plan for the day. Sounded pretty tired about it too. Cheerilee was thinking the same, albeit with more enthusiasm than Cranky."

Twilight nodded to that.

"Sounds about right."

Then, a grimace crossed Sunset's face.

"Then there was that one moment where I heard Snips' thought and..."

She turned away, frowning.

"...let's just say I would've thought twice about having him around me back in the day if I knew he was thinking that kind of stuff about all the girls he was looking at."

It took only a moment for the others girls to get the idea, leading to a shared shiver among them all.

"Okay...way too much information!" Rainbow admitted.

In spite of that prior moment, Applejack chuckled to her athletic colleague.

"Bet yer wishin' ya hadn't brought this up now, eh, Rainbow?"

Rainbow smirked to that.

"They day's still young, AJ. There's still probably loads of...wait..."

She then turned to Sunset again.

"You talked about Snips, but...what about Snails?"

Sunset shrugged her shoulders.

"Surprisingly, he was just thinking about the chores he was going to do when he got back home."

Rarity gave a "hmmm" to that, almost sounding impressed.

"Well, at least one of those lads has their head on straight."

Again, there was a general murmur of agreement on that, and when it was over, Sunset spoke once more.

"Other stuff was as you'd expect. Trixie thinking about how great she is, Octavia dwelling on her next solo performance..."

A warm smile crossed her face.

"...I even heard Flash secretly thinking of taking Scootaloo to her favourite amusement park for her birthday."

"Aaaawwwwww!" the other girls all said simultaneously.

Sunset chuckled to that.

"Funnily enough, Scoot was thinking about that very place at the same time, so no prizes for guessing how she'll react when her brother takes her there."

Hearing all of that, Rainbow let out a chortle.

"Yeah, yeah, this is all good stuff, Sunset...but was there anything big you heard? You know, something juicy or shocking?"

Though a little irritated at her friend's insistence that she divulge someone else's secrets, Sunset, in all honesty, had a hard time even coming up with an answer to that. But, after a while, her eyes widened, and she snapped her fingers.

"Oh! I did hear this one thought, very quick, and it came from Vinyl."

The girls all gave her their complete attention, but the ex-unicorn suddenly started to look a touch more serious.

"What I say now...doesn't leave this room."

All of them immediately assumed the "Pinkie Promise" pose, with hand on hearts and everything. And Sunset, seeing that, looked around briefly before whispering her answer.

"Well...let's just say a certain cello-player is going to get a surprise invite to her favourite restaurant."

A moment passed, then simultaneous gasps from the other girls.

"Oh my!" Fluttershy exclaimed.

"Daawww! That's nice!" Pinkie added.

"How positively wonderful!" Rarity declared.

"Mighty sweet of her!" Applejack stated.

"And hot as heck too!" Rainbow concluded.

Twilight, who seemed to share her friend's sentiment, nevertheless looked to Sunset soon afterwards.

"Did it ever feel troubling to you? Being able to hear your classmates' thoughts like that? I mean...I always imagined a moment like that might reveal things that...well...would make you look at them in a bad way. Maybe...maybe sour your time at the school?"

Sunset thought on that, and then, shortly afterwards, a small but genuine smile came to her.

"Maybe...but not at this school, Twilight."

“...You mean besides Snips?” her spectacled friend added.

“Yes, obviously.”