After dinner, everyone had gotten changed into their pajamas. Sunset was wearing a pink, short-sleeved shirt with a sun on the front of it, and purple pants. Rainbow was wearing a white-and-red T-shirt with a pair of baggy sweatpants. Rarity had opted for an evening gown, while Fluttershy had custard-yellow pajamas on with rabbit prints on the front and back of them. Pinkie had on a T-shirt with cupcakes on the front of it and a pair of blue, baggy pants on. Applejack had on a green, long-sleeved shirt and black sweatpants.

Everyone had gathered in the living room that night to play Spin the Bottle. Everyone, that is, except for Sweetie Belle, who remained upstairs in her room. Rarity, feeling a bit guilty that her friends were having a good time while her sister was being left out due to her actions at the dinner earlier that night, decided to head upstairs to check on her sister and invite her to play a few games with her and her friends. Before heading upstairs, though, she looked at Pinkie, who was just taking a seat next to Rainbow on the couch, and said, “Darling, I'm sorry, but Spin the Bottle can be a bit too...mature for Sweetie Belle to be playing. I must insist that we play something else.”

Pinkie thought for a moment, then beamed a big smile as she squealed out, “How about Truth or Dare, then?”

Everyone agreed and got up. They went upstairs into one of the three guest rooms that were across the hallway from Sweetie Belle's room, while Rarity headed to her sister's room. Rarity knocked on her sister's door. “Sweetie Belle, can I come in?” she called out.

“Go away!” Sweetie Belle yelled back. “I don’t want anything to do with you!”

Hearing how upset Rarity's sister was, Sunset walked out of the guest room she and her friends were in, saying gently to Rarity, “Come on, Rarity. Let's give her some time. I think she needs to be left alone for right now.”

Rarity sighed as she followed Sunset into the room, taking a seat next to Rainbow on the floor. Pinkie was sitting next to Fluttershy on the bed, while Applejack and Sunset both sat on the floor. Sitting down, Rarity said, “My sister, it seems, will not be joining us tonight. She is still too upset from being punished for her dreadful behavior from earlier tonight.” Rarity looked at Pinkie, who smiled back widely. “So, Pinkie darling, if you want to still play Spin the Bottle, we can still do that, or we can play something else.” Pinkie, looked around, beamed greatly as she said excitedly, “Who's ready for a game of Spin Truth or Dare?”

“Uh, what type of game is that?” Sunset asked with a confused look on her face. “I don’t think I know the rules to that game.”

“The rules are simple, silly. We spin a bottle, and if it points to you, then you have to either kiss the person next to you, or choose Truth and get asked a question that has to be answered with either true or false, or choose Dare and do as the person dares you to do.”

“Darling,” Rarity began looking at her friends, “How are we going to select who goes first? I mean, selecting by our ages won’t really work.”

“Really, why not?” Pinkie looked at everyone with a sheepish grin on her face.

“Because I am the same age as Fluttershy, Sunset and Rainbow. We can’t all go first at the same time.”

“Why not do it by selecting numbers?” Fluttershy chimed just above a whisper. “You could write down one through six, and we can draw from a hat.”

“That's a great idea! I’ll go get a pen and paper.”

Pinkie bounced towards the door, stopping when Sunset called, “Pinkie, could you bring me my backpack while you're out? There's a plastic bottle inside that we can use for this game.”

"Sure!" Pinkie headed out the door and downstairs, returning a few minutes later with a pen, paper, a hat, and Sunset's backpack. Setting the bag down, she was about to start writing down the numbers when everyone heard a soft ringing coming from Sunset's bag.

“Oh, I better get that. It might be the Cakes calling to find out when I'll--” Sunset suddenly froze when she realized only too late what she had just said. Looking at her friends, she saw they all had confused looks on their faces, except for Pinkie who must already know why the Cakes would be calling her phone. Sunset looked down, folding her arms over her chest as she began to tug at her shirt. “I guess I have some explaining to do, don’t I?”

“Uh, darling, why would the Cakes be--” Rarity's eyes went wide when she realized why the Cakes were calling Sunset's phone. With a gasp, she said, “Darling, is it really true, then, that you've been living on the streets?”

“Yes, Rarity, it's true I was living on the stre--”

Before Sunset could finish, she found herself the recipient of a warm group hug from all of her friends. Each of her friends hung onto her tightly, not wanting to let her go as they all tried to show the red- and yellow-haired girl their love for her. Sunset blushed from the unexpected attention.

As the warm hug ended, Fluttershy said while trying to fight back her tears, “You do have a place to stay now, don’t you, Sunset? I mean, if you don’t, you're more than welcome to come stay with me and my brother.”

“Thank you, Fluttershy, and thank you all. I really needed that hug. I...I feel like I'm apart of a family again.”

“Sunset,” Applejack said, reaching out and putting Sunset into a headlock while ruffling her hair a bit, “when are ya gonna get it through that thick skull o' yers? You ain’t part of a family. You are family.”

Sunset squealed and laughed heartily as she gently pushed her friend off of her. Pinkie looked to her right and let out shriek, sending Fluttershy behind Sunset. As Fluttershy poked her head out from behind her friend, Pinkie held up a karaoke machine that she had spotted against the wall. Plugging it in while Sunset giggled lightly to herself from Fluttershy jumping behind her, Pinkie picked up the microphone and being to sing.

“Hey, hey, we may be different from night and day. But if you look a little closer, you’ll see~” Pinkie sang into the microphone.

Fluttershy soon joined in, as did Rainbow. Sunset stepped out into the hallway, taking her phone with her and closing the door behind her. She headed downstairs to call the Cakes.

Stopping in front of Rarity's work room, to her shock, she saw Sweetie Belle trashing the entire room and muttering to herself, “I hate you, Rarity. You and damn holier-than-thou bullshit. You'll never understand me.” She punctuated her sentence by throwing a manikin to the side of the room.

Setting her phone to silence, Sunset video-taped the tantrum. She watched as Sweetie Belle knocked over piles of ribbons and bolts of cloth, tossed sewing thread through the air, all while cursing up a storm. When Sunset had enough, she walked into the room, saying, “Sweetie Belle." Sweetie tensed. "You need to stop this right now. Your sister is going to throw a fit.”

Looking up from what she was doing, Sweetie Belle was seething with anger. She threw a small bolt of cloth at Sunset, who ducked just in time. The bolt hit a manikin, knocking it over and causing a bucket of red paint next to it to spill onto the dress the manikin was wearing. Instantly, the dress was completely soaked in the red paint.

Hearing the crash from upstairs, Rarity came running downstairs with everyone following her. Sunset was just straightening herself up when Rarity came into the room. She let out a loud gasp when she saw the state of her work room.

“My...My work space! What have you done?!” Rarity exclaimed in shock. Looking around at the mess, she let out an even bigger scream when she saw the dress. “NO! THAT DRESS WAS FOR COCO POMMEL’S SISTER'S WEDDING!” Looking at her sister, then to Sunset, who looked down while gripping her phone tightly in her hands, Rarity exclaimed, “HOW COULD YOU BOTH DO THIS TO ME!?”

Seeing an opportunity to try to get out of what she had done Sweetie Belle said, “Sunset was the one that did this Rarity! It wasn’t me, honest”

“WHAT!?” Sunset exclaimed in shock, her eyes going wide, “No, that isn’t what happened at all!”

“I will give each of you one last chance to tell me the truth!” Rarity quivered with anger. “Now, what happened? Which one of you did this?”

Sunset looked to Sweetie Belle, who had a slight smirk on her face. She closed her eyes and said, “I'm sorry, Sweetie Belle, but I can’t let this slide.” She turned to Rarity and handed over her phone. “Press the playback tab, Rarity. You’ll see what happened.”

Rarity took Sunset's phone and pressed the playback tab. To her shock and horror, she watched as a video of her sister played back everything that her sister had done. Shaking with anger, she looked up from the phone to Sweetie Belle, who was no longer smirking after she realized that Sunset had proof.

“Go to your room this very instant, young lady! You are hereby grounded until Mom and Dad come home!”

“What! That’s not fair, Rarity!”

“'Not fair'? You want to talk to me about 'not fair'? You think it was fair of you to lie to me about doing this? You think it's fair that I have to tell Coco that her dress is now ruined and that I can’t get another one to her before her sister's wedding? You think Sunset here thinks it's fair that you tried to blame her for your actions? Honestly, Sweetie Belle! First, you flat-out punch Diamond Tiara in the face, and you threw a fit when I punished you for that. Now, you've wrecked my work room, you destroyed a client's dress, and on top of that, you lied about it and tried to frame Sunset! I really don’t know who you think you are, young lady, but this behavior needs to stop and stop right now.”

Sweetie Belle, seeing that Rarity's words were final, ran past her sister up to her room, slamming the door behind her. Sliding against her door, she muttered to herself while she wiped away her tears, “This is all Sunset's fault. I will make you pay for this, Sunset. To think I actually stood up for you at the restaurant. My friends are right. Sunset is turning our sisters against us.”

After Sweeite ran off, Rarity sighed and began to clean up the mess that her sister had made. With her friends' help, she was able to get the room back to working order. Before heading back upstairs, she headed into the kitchen, picked up the phone, and called Coco, giving Coco her most profound apologies for the dress and agreeing to pay her client back the money that she had spent on it.

After hanging up, she trudged upstairs headed into the guest room and sat down on the bed. Her friends soon joined her. Sunset sat down on the floor, still holding her phone in her hands. She looked at Rarity, who had a sad look on her face, and said, “Hey, don’t worry, Rarity. Your sister made a horrible mistake, but I'm sure she'll come around before too long.”

“I hope so, Sunset. She is going to be grounded for almost a week, and I am sure our mother will add to that grounding, either taking away her phone or by making sure she doesn’t spend any time with her friends. I am really sorry you had to see her act like that and that she tried to place the blame on you.”

“Meh, don’t think anything else of it, Rarity. I'm,” Sunset looked down and swallowed hard “used to it." Looking back up at her friend she beamed a pleasant if not fake smile to hide her anger as she finished "Now, can we get back to having at least a little fun before bed?”

“Of course, darling. Although I'm not in the best of moods right now, I will at least try to have a good time.”

Sunset looked to her right when she heard Pinkie and Fluttershy singing. She held up her phone, pressed the record tab, and turned the volume back on. Rarity, seeing this, asked with a slightly raised eyebrow, “Are you recording them them, darling?”

“Yep. I want to capture the memories.”

As Sunset was putting her phone away, she and Rarity both heard Pinkie yell out, “STAGE DIVE!”

“Eeek,” Fluttershy squealed, diving out of the way as Pinkie came crashing down into Rarity's closet.

Helping her friend up, Sunset saw that Pinkie was covered in clothing. As she pulled the pink-haired girl free from the wreckage of the closet door, Sunset said, “What are all these clothes, Rarity?”

“Huh? Oh, that." Rarity grimaced briefly. "That is the Closet of Shame. I toss old clothing in there that didn’t quite work out how I had planned. Sadly, Coco's dress will be going in there as well. You all are welcome to try them on if you want to.”

“So, this is, like, what, the sixth door you busted, Pinkie?” Rainbow said, helping herself to some of Rarity's old clothing.

“No, this would actually be the twelfth one. I've been keeping score for Twilight.”

“Really, darling, Twilight wants to know how many doors you've broken?” Rarity asked.

“Yeah, actually," Sunset piped up. "Speaking of which, how about I write her after I get a few snapshots of us all dressed up. That way, she'll have something fun to look forward to when she comes for a visit.”

“That's an awesome idea, Sunset! I’m totally down for that!” Rainbow exclaimed, slipping on a oversized tuxedo shirt and coat, along with a top hat.

The rest of the night was spent with the girls trying on outfit after mismatched outfit and Sunset snapping picture after picture--a total of eight, in all--before yawning and putting away her phone. Sunset smiled wearily to her friends, who all noticed how tired the redhead was getting. Looking at her watch, which read 11:30 p.m., Rarity gasped out, “Goodness! Is that really the time? No wonder you're so tired, Sunset.” Sunset yawned again, then smiled as she sat down on the bed next to Rainbow, back against the headboard. "Yeah, no wonder," Sunset said. She tried to stay awake but found she was getting too sleepy. She made the mistake of closing her eyes, and she fell asleep immediately.

Right on Rainbow's shoulder.

Looking at their friends, Fluttershy whispered out, “Don’t they look so cute together, Rarity?”

“Hmmm, yes, they do. Now be a dear and help me get Sunset under the covers so she can get a good night's rest.”

After a few moments, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow were able to ease Sunset down on the bed until she was lying flat. They placed a pillow under her head, and Rainbow pulled the covers up to Sunset's shoulders. Once she was satisfied that Sunset was sleeping soundly, she and her friends all departed the room. Rainbow stopped in the doorway of the room to take one last look at her sleeping friend thinking to herself as she slowly shut the door. "I'll tell Sunset tomorrow about how I feel about her." Rainbow closed the door a light blush was on her face. Rarity noticed this as did the rest of Rainbows friends yet no one said anything as Rarity headed to her own room, while Fluttershy took the first guest room and Pinkie, Applejack and Rainbow all took the third guest room.

Sweetie Belle, in the meantime, was on her computer, talking with Scootaloo. She had just enough time to send one last message to her friend before her sister walked in.

“I’m in.”

Seeing that her sister was on the computer, Rarity balled her hand into a tight fist as she said angrily to her sister, “What part of being grounded don’t you under--”

“Oh, relax. I was just telling Scootaloo and Apple Bloom that I won’t be meeting them at the library tomorrow like we had planned because I'm grounded. I didn’t want them to come over here and hear you scold them. Now, I'm going to bed, and I will thank you to get out of my room!”

Rarity huffed and did so. After the door closed, Sweetie Belle smirked.

Next Chapter: A Talk with Celestia (Edited by Icecreammac) Estimated time remaining: 20 Hours, 5 Minutes