Sunset Shimmer sat on the floor, shoulders hunched, as she hit her head repeatedly on the wall she was in front of.

"Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow."

By no means did it hurt, but she had reacted in this simple, conventional way when she had first started to hit her head, and she had decided to continue to do so, for Celestia knows what reason. The word 'ow' had long since disconnected from its meaning, and after two hours of intermittently repeating it, the basic sound seemed hard to pronounce, since her mouth had over-salivated.

Every time her head and the wall collided, her horn would prevent anything other than the top of her brow from coming in contact with the surface, so Sunset had taken to permanently furrowing her brow so she didn't have to keep switching between a surprised facial expression and an angry one.

To be completely honest, she was halfway between the two. Surprised, because in a small amount of time Twilight Sparkle had coaxed out a sensitive secret of the unicorn and nearly brought her soft side out with it.

This was also why she was angry. Why had she been so open about nearly everything the alicorn had asked her? Twilight might as well be her arch enemy and Sunset was generally very secretive about her personal thoughts.

Somehow, Twilight had gotten Sunset to trust her, even if it was a small amount. Maybe it was the fact that she and Twilight were pretty much strangers, and the princess seemed more than happy to listen to her. As much as she hated to admit it, Sunset wanted to discuss her feelings instead of keeping them all to herself.

I really, really hope she doesn't come back any time soon.

"Sunset?"

Darn it.

"Can I come in?" Twilight continued.

"Go away!" Sunset whined, her voice raspy from repetition-of-'ow'-induced dehydration. This, she realised, made it sound like she had been crying. She cleared her throat and repeated herself, "Go away."

The door opened, as Sunset had predicted. She turned to face Twilight as she stepped in, closing the door behind her, wearing a stupidly sympathetic smile on her face.

"What?"

"You feeling okay?" Twilight asked as she took a step towards the unicorn.

"Yeah. Except, y'know, boredom." Why had she said that? It only invited Twilight to stay longer.

Twilight sat down next to Sunset, her back against the wall, and the unicorn glared at her. "Anything...anything on your mind? Anything you wanna share with the class?" The alicorn gestured around her, giggling at her own joke.

Sunset stared at her. She could tell that the princess was emphasising the fact that they were the only two there, meaning that Twilight was the only other pony able to hear her, thus implying that everything said in there would stay in there.

From that thought, Sunset had an idea.

"Anything about...your ex-boyfriend?" Twilight prompted.

Sunset nodded like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Well, duh! And I don't miss him, before you even ask."

Twilight grinned in triumph. "I wasn't going to." Sunset looked at her in confusion. "Which would imply that you actually do miss him."

The unicorn looked at her hooves, and Twilight knew she had hit the truth. "Well...yeah, but who wouldn't? Everypony knows that love is...kinda awesome, I'll admit."

Twilight took Sunset's hooves in her own. With a genuinely sweet smile, she said, "I can be your friend, i-if you want." She held her breath, waiting for the sarcastic remark or humiliating laughter.

But Sunset only nodded. She looked at Twilight with grateful, sincere eyes and stuttered in a nervous manner that reminded the alicorn so much of Fluttershy, "C-can we go somewhere else? I...I really don't like being...locked up."

"But of course!" Twilight beamed, the tight knot wound in her chest suddenly unwinding. She took Sunset by the hoof and led her to the door.

Once they were out in the corridor, Twilight loosened her grip on the unicorn's hoof to let her know that it was okay to let go. Walking with three legs was clearly challenging for both mares, even though they tried their best to walk naturally.

To her surprise, Sunset didn't pull her hoof out of hers. In fact, the unicorn tightened her own grip like she was afraid that Twilight would run away if she let go. The princess ruled out the possibility that Sunset didn't like physical contact, and a smile was brought to her lips as they pushed open the castle doors.

They got some funny looks as they wandered through the streets of Canterlot, all of which they noticed. "Seriously, what is the deal with Canterlot folk and seeing anything even slightly different to their high-class society?" Sunset hissed as she spotted their seventeenth onlooker.

Twilight giggled in a manner quite unlike that of a normal princess. "I've been questioning that for quite some time and I still haven't come up with anything."

She saw Sunset smile at the ground before turning to face the alicorn. "You're not really a princess, are you? I mean, I can see you're an alicorn and you've got a crown everything -"

"You would know, since you tried to steal it," Twilight reminded her smugly.

The unicorn laughed awkwardly. "Yeah...but, as I was saying...you're not all uptight and official like Celestia and her sister."

"You'd be surprised, actually. Not two years ago, Celestia pretty much told me and my friends to mess up the Grand Galloping Gala."

Sunset froze. "Wait, what?!"

"It's true!" Twilight insisted. "And last year Luna came to Ponyville on Nightmare Night and acted like a foal."

Sunset's mouth was open. She shook her head. "I don't believe you."

"Do you believe the fact I never wanted to be a princess?" Twilight questioned, tugging Sunset back into the motion of walking. They were nearing the fancy Canterlot train station which was slightly less upper-class than the streets of Canterlot.

Slightly.

"Eh," Sunset shrugged, "sort of." She looked away as a train entered the station and ponies started to board it. "I'm kinda glad you caught me," she admitted.

Twilight chuckled. "Only kinda?"

Sunset jostled her. "Don't push it."

She jumped as the train's engine burst to life and the doors started to close. Once they were shut, the wheels started moving, so Sunset let go of Twilight's hoof.

Without another word, the unicorn galloped over to the last carriage and leapt over the barrier. She landed on the little platform right at the back of the train and slid into the other side.

She stood up and took a glance back at an incredibly stunned Twilight, and she smirked. Some more ponies were looking at her from the train station platform, but none did anything. To her surprise, neither did Twilight.

When Sunset was no longer in sight, Twilight sighed. She looked down at her hooves, blinked, then trotted down the steps that led back to the road.

She could feel the impression of Sunset's hoof still on her own, and she smirked too. But hers was a knowing smirk, instead of a triumphant one.

She hoped Luna would understand.

"Fluttershy, I've just realised something."

The pegasus looked up at Discord with a smile on her face. For the past half hour, her cheeks absolutely refused to relax from that position, making it difficult to eat the food on the plate in front of her. From what she could tell, Discord was having the same problems.

"You know the term 'I love you'? It's used to express love between friends, family, and couples, despite the fact that being in love with someone is reserved only for romantic relationships. Why?"

Fluttershy swallowed the food she had been chewing before replying, "It's just like physical signs of affection. As I said before, kissing somepony -"

"Body. Seriously, we need to fix your terminology, especially when what you're talking about concerns me. Not everypony's a - for goodness' sake, now you've got me saying it!"

The mare rolled her eyes. "Anyway. Have I answered your question?"

"No. You've reinforced my confusion. You see, kissing somebody - thank you very much - on the lips is considered a sign of being in love with that somebody, right? So romantic relationships kinda have their own special type of physical signs of affection, since the love between them is often the strongest. Why doesn't that apply to verbal signs of affection as well?"

Fluttershy giggled. "Don't ask me, I'm not the Princess of Love."

"Okay...but do you see my point?" Discord propped his elbows up on the table, chewing a forkful of paper. When he had conjured this up for himself, he had insisted to Fluttershy that it was made out of chaos magic, not actual paper.

"I feel like you brought up this point to get me to say that you love me again," she said quietly, taking a sip from her glass of water.

"In love with you," he corrected. "You see? Even after I've explained this to you, you still stick to the conventional terms of ponykind. Well, my darling, I can assure you that from this point onwards, I will use the phrase 'I'm in love with you,' rather than your average, unoriginal phrase of affection."

Fluttershy giggled. "Alright. And I assume you would like for me to do the the same?" He nodded once and grinned. "Okay." She paused for a moment to run over the thing he had just said. Fluttershy's smile faltered and her heart started to thump wildly when a particular word he had used reminded her of a particular friend she had. "Discord, are you actually searching for a way to get us out of here?" she blurted before she could stop herself.

Seeing his rather surprised reaction, she continued, "I-it's alright if you're not, I'm just...I'm sorry to nag you about it, but I really, really want to see my friends and I don't want to stay here for much longer."

Discord tapped his claw on the table, musing over what to say. "Not...not really," he decided, earning a disappointed nod from the pegasus. "Fluttershy, I haven't exactly had a lot of time to do it - I mean, the majority of my time I've spent with you. I...I do try my best to make you comfortable here, but I..."

She sniffed. "N-no, it's...it's fine, I understand." She attempted to inconspicuously wipe her eyes, behind a curtain of her hair.

But he noticed. He teleported over to her and draped his arm across her shoulders. She let out a loud sob as she tried to relax into his warmth. "I just...I r-r-really, r-really want..."

"Shhh, I know," Discord soothed, gently holding her head and stroking her mane.

"No, you don't," she whispered, forcing herself to look him in the eye. She couldn't see him clearly through her salt tears. "I'm sorry, but you don't. They've been my seven best friends for years, a-and...I feel like pieces of me are missing without them. P-please Discord, don't try to empathise with me. I love you, but you have to understand that I...I love them, too."

There was complete silence between the two, with the only exception being Fluttershy's strangled, raspy breaths. Discord continued to caress the soft locks of her mane with one hand, holding her close with the other.

"Okay," he said after a while. He felt her nod into his chest and clasp at his fur. "Do you..." She looked up. "Do you want to help me look for a spell?" Again, she nodded.

He made the table disappear - they were finished anyway - and slipped his eagle arm underneath the mare's bent forehooves. He then sat down on her bed and conjured up a book about the Elements of Harmony.

A book which, if it turned out not to have specific instructions, Discord would be able to generate his own spell from the information - he did that a lot anyway.

He would also be able to learn exactly how they work, and therefore understand the bond between Fluttershy and her friends to the extent she wished.

When one lies in silence for a long time, one starts to hear things one wouldn't normally have heard.

Rarity found this out as she lay, motionless and unsleeping, on Rainbow's couch. She had discarded her optimism for getting some sleep hours before, since she knew it would only frustrate and tire her further.

She stared up at the cloud ceiling and once again acknowledged the clouds she was lying on. As it turned out, clouds weren't nearly as soft as she thought they were. At least, for ponies who did not have the luxury of wings and had to cast a spell to make the clouds tangible. This also made them hard and uncomfortable.

The unicorn tried not to notice it. She focused on the sound of the wind, and the rainbow trickling down outside the house. She was pretty sure she could hear Tank's propellor buzzing away somewhere in the house. Aside from that, it was quiet.

That is, until Rarity's ears twitched to the sound of carefully placed hoofsteps. For a pegasus, the texture of a cloud was light and fluffy but, thanks to their biologically lighter weight, this did not cause them to fall through like any unicorn or earth pony would've.

That's how silent the room was.

"Rarity?" Rainbow called in a clearly dehydrated voice. The unicorn sat up and looked at the bedraggled pegasus with tired eyes. "Sleep well?" she yawned.

"Nope," Rarity groaned.

"Me neither."

"Do you have any tea, by any chance?"

Rainbow nodded. "I actually do," she said and walked into her kitchen.

There was a distinctly loud sound of a kettle boiling, then Dash returned minutes later with two steaming mugs of tea, one in each hoof. Her wings flapped lazily from lack of sleep; she was barely an inch off the ground.

Rarity took her mug and sipped it. Too hot, but she kept on sipping.

"You have to go speak to him, you know," Rainbow said. Rarity wished she hadn't spoken. "And soon too, or he'll think you don't care."

"I don't want to come off desperate," the unicorn mumbled into the rim of her mug, her lips contemplating whether to take another scorching sip.

"No, that's exactly what you want." Rarity glared at the pegasus in confusion. "Look, the way I see it, he thinks you don't actually give a flying feather about him. Being desperate to be his friend again will show him otherwise. If you want to be on his good side that badly, what he gonna do? Turn down the mare of his dreams?"

At that precise moment, Rarity's mug slipped out of her clammy hooves. They were boiling hot, so she started waving them in the air. Rainbow didn't even look at the now broken mug.

"You know what? Fine! Lets go!"

They rushed out of the door. Rarity threw her hooves around Rainbow's neck, then remembered something. "Oh! But first we have to go and pick up my sister and her friends. I can't leave them alone for any longer."

Dash shrugged and took of, curving down to Carousel Boutique. The moment they slammed into the ground, Rarity hopped off Rainbow's back and rushed inside, despite the disorientating impact.

"Ninety-eight, ninety-nine..."

Rarity froze in the open doorway.

"One-hundred! Ready or not, here I..." The now uncovered eyes of Spike locked onto the unicorn's. He stood, blinking, waiting for her to say something.

After what seemed like hours, Rarity stuttered, "Y-you..." She gulped. "You c-came back here to...to..."

"To look after the CMC?" Spike finished, glancing a the fillies who were emerging from their hiding spots.

"You're the worst at this..." Sweetie started to complain, but trailed off the moment she saw Rarity. The three fillies simultaneously darted upstairs.

Rarity cleared her throat and took a step forward. The dragon reassumed their previous distance by taking a step back, like they were the same side of two magnets.

Rainbow Dash trotted in behind them and closed the door. She nonchalantly acknowledged Spike and went to lean against the wall, quietly listening in to their conversation.

Rarity gulped. She was shaking. She gritted her teeth and forced herself to think clearly. "Spike, I am sorry."

As she expected, he wasn't impressed. She focused on the wall behind him, to seem as though she was looking at him but deliberately avoiding eye contact.

"I don't believe you -"

"I know you don't believe me," Rarity interrupted. "It sounds like a poor excuse, doesn't it? That I was teaching Rainbow how to...how to dance."

"Please explain." Spike folded his arms.

"Rainbow..." She looked at the pegasus, who nodded in confirmation. "Rainbow wants to learn how to be a gentlecolt. I was showing her how to lead a dance, and we got caught up in the moment. It means nothing, I promise."

"Ah-huh?" The dragon's expression did not change. "And why, might I ask, does she want to be a gentlecolt? She already pulls off 'colt' just fine. Why the sudden formality?"

The unicorn glanced at Rainbow, who nodded and smiled grimly. She raised her eyebrow at the pegasus, who nodded insistently.

Spike observed their silent conversation, beginning to guess the reason for himself. No, he told himself. It's impossible.

"Rainbow's in love with a mare," Rarity blurted, finally getting Spike's face to change. It was a surprise, but he forced himself to remain doubtful. "Oh yeah? Who?"

Rarity gulped and took a step back, allowing Rainbow to answer for herself. Dash clear her throat and looked a the dragon as honestly as she could. "Applejack."

Before he could answer, the door swung open to reveal that very earth mare. "Did Ah hear somepony say mah name?"

Rainbow's heart fluttered, and she didn't hesitate to tackle her with a hug. "AJ! It's been a while!"

"It...certainly has," she replied awkwardly, patting Dash's shoulder. She looked over at Rarity. The unicorn mouthed, 'she knows,' at her, turning the mare's expression to one of guilt and concern. She pushed Dash away and cleared her throat. "I-is Apple Bloom here? Ah really need to talk to her." AJ decided she would apologise to Rainbow later, after she had apologised to her sister.

"She sure is!" Rainbow exclaimed with a grin on her face. "Hey, Apple Bloom! Somepony's here to see you!" she hollered.

Applejack once again looked at Rarity. The unicorn shook her head. "I haven't told her what you did," she whispered.

Apple Bloom came running down the stairs, excited, but she froze when she saw her sister. The filly backed up a few steps in instinctual fear. "Apple Bloom, please, A-Ah wanna talk to ya," Applejack pleaded, cautiously nearing the staircase.

The farm filly sighed and turned to her sister.

"Ah..." She gulped, removing her hat. "Ah'm sorry Ah shouted at ya, that Ah treated you and Mac's help like dirt. Ah'm sorry Ah..." She gulped again, glancing at Rainbow, who was slowly growing more and more confused. "Ah'm sorry Ah locked ya in yer room. Ah was tired and upset, but that's no excuse. Ah shouldn't of treated y'all in that way. Ah...Ah...can ya ever forgive me?" She looked up at her sister, who looked back down at her.

Applejack could feel her friends' disapproval as well as her sister's. She wished she could do this alone, but it occurred to her that she had given her sister enough time to think it over and waiting any longer would seem careless.

A hoof rested on her shoulder. "Apple Bloom, we all do stupid things. I assume you know that it was technically your fault Discord escaped in the first place?" The filly pursed her lips. "Yeah. That was because you and the CMC had a stupid little fight. You didn't know how bad it would get, because you didn't know that Discord is real, the gosh darn chaos spirit.

"I hate him too, y'know. He took my best friend away from me. That could be viewed as your fault, but I'm not gonna blame it on you. We all make mistakes, and really we can all share some of the blame.

"Maybe you shouldn't have bothered your sis. I'm not saying you had it coming, but even I get ticked off if Scoots bothers me about something. I shout at her, and y'know: I feel bad after. I see that she was only excited about that particular thing, and she wants me to be excited about it as well. Excitement is great.

"Just like help. You tried to help your sister, even though she can be a stubborn little rat. You wanted her to be happier. I know that being excited makes me happier, and being helped makes AJ happy too. She's just too proud to relent, or even show her gratitude.

"But she knows, like I know, that the intent was good. She feels bad, just like I do with Scoots, about what she did. Maybe you won't forgive her straight away. Judging by your expression, it's gonna take a while. Heck, Scootaloo and I can go days without talking to one another, all because of the fact I couldn't acknowledge what she was really trying to do. And even when we do speak again, it takes a while for things to repair themselves. But you work thought it together, and right now that's all you can do."

Rainbow grinned as her words sunk in, taking a visual effect on Apple Bloom - and Sweetie and Scootaloo, who had appeared at the top of the stairs.

Applejack hugged Dash, to her surprise. She wasn't crying, she was just making a happy-sad-grateful face that often came with tears. Rainbow hugged her back.

Apple Bloom sighed exasperatedly. "Oh, fine," she said and leapt in to join their embrace. Soon, everybody in the building was hugging one another - even Spike and Rarity; the dragon had decided that Rainbow had, in fact, been telling the truth.

When they felt it was time to pull away, the CMC returned upstairs. Eventually, the other four let to as well.

Applejack looked into Dash's eyes for a long, long time. "Rainbow, why...Ah mean...Ah said such horrid things about ya...why would ya..."

"I was making a point about forgiveness. Couldn't do that if I hadn't forgiven the mare I was doing it for, now could I?" Rainbow grinned coolly. "I have to ask, though: why didn't you come to apologise earlier?"

"That is a good question," Rarity admitted, breaking from her and Spike's conversation.

"Ah've been busy organising a 'Welcome home, Fluttershy!' party with Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich, Equestria's two best party planners."

"I thought Pinkie was the only one!" Rainbow exclaimed.

"Me too!" Spike and Rarity said in unison. The unicorn turned to nuzzle him gently.

Applejack grinned. "And that brings me to why Ah'm here today. Pinkie and Cheese are on a date."

"WHAT?!" all three of them screamed in unison.

"From what Ah can tell," Applejack added.

Rarity noticed that Rainbow was blushing at how close she and AJ were, and at the mention of dating. She caught the pegasus' eye and made a subtle flapping gesture with her hooves.

Rainbow's eyes widened. "Oh! Right!" She turned to Applejack. "Hey AJ, you wanna come flying with me?"

The farm mare blinked, thinking it over. "Umm...sure, why not."

"Great! Come on!"

As the two mares walked towards the door, Rainbow turned to mouth a 'thank you' at Rarity. The unicorn beamed and wrapped a hoof around Spike, as if to say, 'no, thank you.'

Author's Notes:

Guys...
There's only two chapters left...
Ahhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What am I gonna do? WhatamIgonnado? WHADDAMIGUNNADO?!
Uhhh...uhhh...AH-HA! I'll make the next two superlong, and put superlarge amount of effort into them.
Okay?
Okay.