Rainbow woke up in the middle of the night to the sounds of Sunset’s voice coming from an air vent in the wall next to her. Listening for a few moments to Sunset’s moaning, Rainbow sat up, wondering what was happening. Rainbow got out of bed and carefully crept past Applejack and Pinkie Pie, who both were asleep on the floor next to the bed.

She was about to open the door when she heard a soft snort from behind her. Fearing she had woken up her two sleeping friends, she turned around to see that Applejack had rolled over on top of Pinkie Pie. Giggling to herself, Rainbow turned back to the door, opened it, and stepped into the hallway.

Rainbow carefully opened Sunset's door, walked into her room, and looked at her friend. Sunset's hair and face were drenched in sweat, and she was groaning and talking in her sleep.

“No, Cheerilee. I...” Sunset turned her head to the right, gripping the sheets tightly in her hands, “Stay back...hurt...you again,” Sunset moaned out. She gripped the bed sheets tightly in both hands. “I...Musical Skies...didn’t...” She continued to moan, tossing back and forth.

Rainbow reached out her hand laying it on Sunset's shoulder, saying, “Sunset, wake up.” She gently shook her friend's shoulder. “Sunset, wake up. You're having a nightmare.”

Sunset’s eyes snapped open. Her mouth opened, but before she had a chance to scream, Rainbow quickly covered her mouth. Whispering to her as she placed a finger to her own lips, she said, “Shh, you're gonna be alright, Sunset. No one's gonna hurt you.”

Sunset breathed in and out heavily, and she swallowed hard. Rainbow removed her hand from Sunset's mouth and nodded to her. Sunset looked down at the sheets she had been gripping. To her shock, the sheets were torn where her hands had gripped the sheets. Rainbow, seeing how upset Sunset looked, pulled the covers back and climbed into bed with her friend.

She gently pulled Sunset to her, placing her friend's head onto her breast as she said to her while running her fingers through her hair soothingly, “Hey, I'm here now. No one is going to hurt you, Sunset. I'm here.”

Sunset breathed out slowly while Rainbow soothed her.

“Rainbow, you know Rarity is gonna throw a fit if she gets up and catches you in here with me.”

“Let her. This is more important than her saying what we should or shouldn’t be doing. Besides, you need me by your side. You were having a nightmare, and I wanna make sure you're gonna be able to sleep. So come on, just lie down and sleep.”

Sunset wrapped her arms around Rainbow's waist and closed her eyes as Rainbow pulled the covers back over the two of them. She soon fell fast asleep in Rainbow's arms, while Rainbow looked out into the darkness of the room, thinking to herself, “What happened to you, Sunset? What hurt you so much you'd have such a bad nightmare?”

The next morning came with a light snowfall. Sweetie Belle sat at her desk, turned on her computer, and sent her friends Applebloom and Scootaloo a message. Then she quickly turned it off before her sister entered her room.

Seeing that her sister was already up, Rarity said sternly to her, “Sweetie Belle, I want you downstairs in less than ten minutes. You are going to help get breakfast ready for everyone. After that, you are to stay in your room today. There will be no going out, no cell phone usage, and no having your friends come over to hang out and play video games with. You are grounded for your actions yesterday, both towards Sunset and my workspace.”

Sweetie Belle looked down and snarled out bitterly to her sister, “Fine, whatever!”

“Don’t push it, young lady. I am appalled by your behavior of late. You may see your friends during school. I can’t stop you from seeing them during lunch, but I can keep you from doing any after-school activities until mom and dad get home. Oh, and for your information, I have already called both of them. They are most upset by your behavior.”

Rarity turned to leave Sweetie Belle's room. Looking over her shoulder, she said, “I fully expect you to apologize to Sunset when she gets up. Now get dressed and come downstairs.” With that, Rarity left Sweetie Belle’s room and headed downstairs to start breakfast.

Sunset woke up with Rainbow still in bed with her. She smiled lightly to herself. She slowly began to sit up waking Rainbow up in the process, who yawned, stretched, and looked at her. She blushed lightly and climbed out of bed, saying as Sunset also yawned and stretched, “You feel better now that you had some sleep, Sunset?” Sunset looked out the window, then to Rainbow, and nodded. “Good. I'm going downstairs now, but if you wanna talk, just tell me. I’ll always be there for you. I promise.”

“Thank you, Rainbow. I want to talk about my past, and I really do want to open up to you and the others. I just don’t know if I should.”

“Hey, don’t sweat it. When you're ready, you’ll know. Until then, I'll be right here for you. Now, how about some breakfast? I’m so hungry, I could eat a hor--” Rainbow's sentence was halted when a pillow struck her face, causing her to laugh.

“Har har, very funny, Rainbow. Now if you will excuse me, I'm going to take a shower before breakfast.”

Rainbow turned to head out of Sunset's room when she noticed Sunset’s phone was sitting on a table next to the guest bed. Rainbow picked up Sunset's phone and grinned while Sunset said, “Rainbow don’t you even think--” Rainbow quickly pressed the camera button, much to Sunset's annoyance, then said as she smirked to Sunset, “Aaaand send.”

“Rainbow.” Sunset's eyes went wide with slight shock “What did you just do?”

“Relax. I just sent a picture of the second most awesome person in CHS to my phone. I'm gonna use it as my background.”

Before Sunset could protest any further, Rainbow made a hasty retreat out of Sunset's room and downstairs. Sunset placed her phone back onto the table, shaking her head as she smiled to herself. She unlocked her phone so she could quickly use it when she got out of the shower to call the Cakes. She got up and headed into the shower to start her day.

Sweetie Belle came out of her bedroom fully dressed, still fuming about getting in trouble. She closed her eyes and said to herself, “Sunset has to have something that I can use to pay her back for all she did to me.”

Sweetie Belle went into Sunset’s room and looked around. She saw Sunset's phone on the table, and she saw that the phone was unlocked. She picked it up, unplugged it from its charger, and brought it back to her room. She plugged it into her computer, and after waiting for a few moments, Sunset's entire phone catalog popped up on the screen.

Looking through it, she found the pictures that Sunset had taken of her friends from the previous night. Pressing the download tab on her computer, Sweetie Belle downloaded every picture. Once finished, she unplugged the phone, then returned it to Sunset's room. She was just turning to leave the room, when Applejack came out of the bedroom next to Sunset's and saw Sweetie Belle in Sunset's room.

“What in tarnation are you doing in Sunset's room, Sweetie Belle? Haven’t ya caused enough trouble already?”

“I was looking for Sunset. And this isn't Sunsets room. It's Rarity's guest room, which is in our house.”

“Uh huh.” Applejack put both hands on her hips and stared coldly at Sweetie Belle. “Lookie here, Sweetie Belle. Ah, don’t think Sunset is gonna like that you're snoopin' around in her room. Now, why don’t you run off before ya cause any more trouble.”

“Fine, whatever. I was just gonna say I was sorry for my behavior and ask her to forgive me, is all.”

“Well, you can do that at the breakfast table, where something like that should be done. And it should be done in front of all of us. Now get before I go and tell Rarity you were acting like a fox trying to get to the chickens.”

Sweetie Belle headed back into her room, leaving Applejack to head downstairs. She took out her phone and called Apple Bloom, saying when she picked up, “Apple Bloom, it's Sweetie Belle. Listen I'm sending you some photos. I don’t have time to explain much, but I need you to look through them and take out any photo that has Sunset in it. There will also be a video as well. I need you to look over it and mute anything that has Sunset's voice in it.”

“Will do. What's this email that Ah got here from you?”

“That was me telling you that I'm grounded for a week. When we meet at school, I'll make my conditions to taking part in this clear to you both.”

“What conditions?”

“I can’t talk now. I have to go. Just look at the video and the photos, then once you've edited them, show them to me, and I'll take it from there.”

Before Apple Bloom could say anything further, Sweetie Belle hung up and placed her phone onto the charger next to her bed. Rarity came upstairs, knocked on Sweetie Belle's door, then entered, saying to her sternly, “Are you ready to head downstairs and help out with making breakfast, Sweetie Belle?”

“Yes, Rarity.” Sweetie Belle looked down at the floor. “I’ll help out, and once breakfast is over, I’ll head back to my room and remain here for the entire day.”

“You're lucky it's Sunday and I don’t have anything to do today, so I will expect you to remain in your room the entire day. If I catch you using your phone, your video games, or your computer, I will be most upset. Now come along. Everyone except Sunset is already downstairs.”

Sweetie Belle headed downstairs, smirking to herself. She quickly dropped the smirk when she got into the kitchen. Fluttershy was outside on the porch, feeding some birds. Pinkie was sitting at the table, reading the Sunday comics. Rainbow was sitting across from her playing some a game on her phone. Rarity headed to the stove, turned it on, and started to take pots and pans out of the cupboards to begin breakfast. Applejack was sitting in the living room, talking on her phone to her brother.

Sunset, meanwhile, finished her shower, dried off, then dressed and headed downstairs. Seeing Sunset, Sweetie Belle let out a forced sigh.

“Sunset,” Sweetie Belle began, trying not to snarl out her words, “I'm...sorry.”

“Sorry for what?” Rarity said, handing her sister a pot. “Your apology won’t mean anything if you don’t say what it is for.”

Sweetie Belle looked at her sister, then to Sunset, who smiled back warmly to Sweetie Belle.

“I'm sorry for trying to frame you for what I did last night. It was wrong of me to do that to you, and I would like to make it up to you if I may.”

Sunset laid a gentle hand on Sweetie Belle’s, shoulder saying softly to her, “It’s alright, Sweetie Belle. I forgive you. Now, how about we all move past this and try to enjoy our time together.”

Everyone gathered at the table and enjoyed a nice breakfast. Afterwards, Sweetie Belle headed back to her room, while Sunset and her friends headed into the living room. Pinkie was beaming a bright smile as she placed a bottle down on the coffee table in front of everyone. Grinning mischievously at her friends, she said, “It's time to play Spin Truth or Dare.”

“Oh, boy.” Rainbow facepalmed. “We should have known this was coming.”

“Yep. Ah, guess we shoulda known that Pinkie was gonna somehow slip this game in,” Applejack stated, sitting back down on the couch. “We didn’t play this last night, so now is as good a time as any to play it.”

“Do you really think we should play this with Sweetie Belle in the house. I mean, don’t you think this is a bit, well, mature for her?” Fluttershy almost whispered out as she sat down to the left of Sunset. “We should probably pick something else to play before we head home later this afternoon.”

“Oh, come on. As long as we don’t dare any of us to do anything illegal, it'll be fine. And the rules do allow us to just kiss each other on the cheek. There shouldn’t be a problem, right?” Rainbow stated bluntly while throwing her arms out. “Besides, if Rarity grounded her sister, she won’t be here for this.”

“Rarity, this is your house, and I'm willing to play, but if you want us to play something else instead, I'm sure we would all understand,” Sunset chimed in.

“I'm not sure, darling. What else would we do? I don’t have any R-rated movies around due to Sweetie Belle being a bit too, uh, curious. So, as long as we keep the kissing part of this game to just giving each other a very quick peck on the cheek, then I don’t have a problem with this game. Oh, and I do suggest we leave Sunset's past out of our Truth or Dare questions, everyone. While I am sure she wants to us tell more about herself, a game really isn't the time to be asking such questions.”

Everyone looked to Sunset, then nodded in agreement. Pinkie pulled out of thin air a pen and paper and started to jot down numbers one through seven on the paper. She crumpled up the paper and tore it into seven pieces, then held out her hands. Each of her friends took a piece of paper. Once everyone had a piece of paper in their hands, she beamed a large smile as she squealed out, “Alright, let's get this game started!”

Next Chapter: Spin, Truth, or Dare (Edited by Icecreammac) Estimated time remaining: 19 Hours, 45 Minutes