"Twilight? Twilight? Are you there?" I hollered frantically, thinking she had hung up on me before I looked at my phone to find out that the battery had died. I couldn't believe that I was so upset that I hadn't even heard the low battery warning.

With my eyes sore and red from crying, I slowly looked over my shoulder at the clock and saw it was 4:58am. Still somewhat shaken, I laid my head down on the pillow and hoped I could go to go back to sleep. After almost a half an hour of staring into nothingness, I decided to just get up and take a shower.

I had to shield my eyes for a moment when I turned the bathroom light on so they could adjust. After starting the water, I removed my top and just stared at my arms.

What have I done? I thought to myself. Was this really necessary?

I finished undressing and got into the warm shower. The feelings of being mistreated began to grow stronger my mind as I rubbed the soap over the scabs from where I had sliced my arms over the last two days.

Maybe I went too far. No, It's still the best for everyone if I go away, I began arguing in my head. But Twilight assured me she'd talk with the others. Of course she'd say that to calm you down in the middle of the night.

I shook my head violently as I attempted to end the argument in my head before clutching it tightly in my hands.

What is going on with me? I wondered as I felt my tears being washed off my face by the warm water. I'm a better person, ain't I?

I finished my shower as I ran out of hot water, got dressed and went to the kitchen for my usual bowl of corn flakes. Before I began eating, I took note of the sheet of notebook paper still laying on the counter from last night. I picked it up, reread it not once but twice, folded it in half and put it in the drawer that I keep my bills in.

"I should probably call Twilight and explain I didn't hang up on purpose," I muttered to myself.

I noted the darkness that still covered the outside, so I got my guitar from the coat closet and began to hum the song I had planned to sing at the Musical Showcase to kill some time. After humming the first verse and chorus, I began singing the second verse softly with my eyes closed.

Ambition... is what I believed,

Would be the only way to set me free.

But when it disappeared, and found myself alone,

That's when you came and got me,

And felt like I... I...

I had to stop playing when I reached the end of the verse. I just couldn't finish it. I hadn't felt like I was home in a long time. The cuts on my arm proved it. I tried to figure out why I suddenly changed my mind about killing myself. I'm alone here and I most likely be imprisoned if I go back to Equestria.

What am I doing here? I thought as I began weeping. I need to leave. Twilight sacrificed her sleep to listen to me this morning but I still don't feel as though I belong.

I glanced toward the direction of my bill drawer and thought, Maybe...

When I was about halfway to school, I received the following text from Applejack:

Sunset, we need to talk asap.

I wonder what she wants to do to hurt me now? I thought uneasily. I guess I should play along.

Where do you want to meet?

A minute later came the response:

Meet at the statue when you get to school.

I put my phone back in my jacket pocket, and felt the crinkle of paper that was in the inside pocket.

I saw the iconic horse statue as I came around the last corner before CHS. At the base of the statue was someone looking toward my direction, waving at me.

I felt myself start to hyperventilate as I grew nearer to the statue, so I stopped and took a moment to calm myself before resuming my journey toward school. Hopefully this wouldn't take long.

"Hey thar, Sunset!" Applejack hollered with her arms stretched wide.

Here goes nothing, I sighed as the farm girl wrapped her strong, slender arms around me.

"Why didn't y'all say anythin' to us?" she whispered to me as I heard her voice start wavering.

"I-I'm not sure that... that you would understand," I told her as my eyes started watering.

"What do you mean, sugarcube?" she replied, confused. "We're yer friends. We'll be thar fer ya."

With that last line, I broke down emotionally. The months of pain, frustration, confusion and anger all spilled into my words as I cried my heart out for the second time in less than six hours.

"Frie-friends? Friends?!" I raged with tears running down my face. "Y-you... all of you have ignored me since the Fall Formal. I admit I was a-a total asshole to you and the others but... but why did you guys have t-to take advantage of me?"

Applejack released me from the hug but still kept ahold of my upper arms while her confused look began to grow stronger.

"What?!" she said as she looked at me eye-to-eye. "Y'all really believe that's what happened?"

"Isn't it?" I cried. " That's a popular saying in this world. 'Kick 'em when they're down'? Seems like the best way to... to..."

"Sugarcube, listen. While Ah don't know 'bout anyone else, but Ah person'lly didn't ev'n realize how Ah was treatin' y'all," she said as she pulled me back in for another hug as she began shedding tears herself. "Ah'm real sorry, Sunset."

"Like I-I told Twilight this morning, I-I'm so confused," I cried into her shoulder. "I want to... to... die so I can escape the pain. But I still want to live."

She led me over to the statue and helped me down onto the grass, where I pulled my knees to my chest and rested my forehead on them. Applejack sat down next to me and rubbed my back to help comfort me as my cocktail of emotions continued to escape from my eyes.

"Sunset, Ah'd like, no, love ta do what Ah can ta make it up ta ya," she told me as she cradled me in her arms.

"Me too," I heard someone else say softly.

It was then that I realized that there were more than the two of us in the grass. I looked up and wiped the tears from my eyes to see Fluttershy squatting down in front of me.

"Sunset, I'm so sorry," said Fluttershy as she reached out to hold my hands. "I wish I would've known before this. Is it really true that you began cutting yourself?"

I just nodded as I pulled my left sleeve up to reveal seven scabs, each measuring about two inches long. There were five audible gasps as I pulled the sleeve back down. I looked to my right and saw Rainbow Dash looking over Applejack, then to my left to see Rarity kneeling on the ground beside me and finally above me to see Pinkie Pie looking down from on top of the statue.

"Darling, why on Earth would would you do this?" Rarity asked. "It looks terribly painful."

"It is but it helped take my mind off the emotional pain for a while," I whispered softly. "Why do all of you want to help me now? I'm not worth anything to anyone."

"What?!" Rainbow Dash shouted. "You're totally worth it to us. You really think we hate you?"

"Well don't you?" I asked as I resumed crying. "I-I got left out of everything y-you guys do together. Hanging out after school at-at the Sweet Shoppe, MyStable, slum-slumber... part-parties, being... being..."

There was a silence between the six of us as my breakdown spiraled out of control, eliciting tears from everyone else. A moment later Applejack was joined by four other girls in holding me while I wept.

"We are sooo sorry, darling," Rarity whispered in a comforting tone. "Please accept our sincerist apology."

After regaining some control, I looked over Fluttershy's head to see that Twilight had arrived was and standing behind the group holding Spike with tears filling her eyes.

"Thank you," I mouthed in her direction as I embraced the rest of the group the best I could.

After five minutes or so, we each released our embrace one-by-one until it was just me on the ground until Twilight approached me, reached down, took my hand, pulled me to my feet and into a tight hug. "You're welcome," she barely whispered.

"Let's head inside and get ready to compete," Rainbow said, wiping tears from her eyes.

I still had a little skepticism deep down that what happened at the statue was just a front, but for the first time in months I began to feel like I belonged somewhere. Not only did I actually get to be part of the band's pre-performance discussion for the first time, they had me give the pep talk.

"This is it. Last round and you're in the finals." I said enthusiastically before turning to Twilight. "Unless you think the counter-spell is ready to be played now."

I looked at Twilight and saw she had a worried look on her face. I knew then there was something wrong with the spell she was trying to write.

"Don't worry, Twilight," Applejack reassured her. "Finals aren't until t'night. We'll git in a little more practice before we're supposed to hit the stage. We won't let ya down."

While Applejack's statement was met with a chorus of "Uh huh" and "Yep" from the others, Twilight turned around and in a tone that I knew all too well, quietly whispered, "You won't let me down..."

Fluttershy used the silence to let her tiny voice be heard, "Um, I was just wondering... we haven't played any of my songs yet and..."

"It's the semi-finals. We gotta do 'Awesome As I Wanna Be'," Rainbow Dash said in an egotistical tone.

Dejected, Fluttershy quietly said, "Don't know why I even asked..."

After Trixie finished playing her only song, "Tricks Up My Sleeve", her and Rainbow Dash started jaw-jacking with each other. The two massive egos were pissing everyone off, Rainbooms and Illusions both. I thought a fight was going to break out when Trixie brought Twilight into their trash talking. Luckily, Trixie set off a smoke bomb and "disappeared" before it got to that point. A moment later we heard Principal Celestia on the PA:

Next up, the Rainbooms.

"Knock 'em dead, Rainbooms," Spike said enthusiastically.

"I'll be here," I said before my tone of voice changed. "Just... watching..."

My skepticism from earlier began to surface as my disappointment grew. They didn't know about my guitar skills but I thought they would've at least offered to let my help on back-up vocals.

As the girls started playing, Rainbow's ego began to take over as she showed off. She began playing harder and something caught my eye when she turned to face my direction.

No, no, no, no. Her ears are changing, I thought as I began to panic.

"Rainbow! You've gotta stop!" I yelled, hoping she would be able to hear me over the music.

She either didn't hear me or chose not to hear me because she continued to play harder.

"Spike, what do I do? She's gonna blow our cover," I asked frantically.

"I don't know but you gotta do something, and quick," Spike told me, just as frantic.

With my mind blank, I reacted on instinct, I ran on stage and tackled Rainbow like I was a football player. She fell backwards into Twilight who tripped backwards onto Rarity which caused her to kick Applejack's bass into the air where it landed inside of one of Pinkie's drums. Fluttershy hauled ass off the stage screaming as soon as the lights came up.

The students in attendance all began booing the band and myself until Flash hollered, "Now that's the bad girl we love to hate!" That caused the entire gymnasium to erupt in cheers.

The girls all left the stage, leaving me alone to take the crowd's negative reaction for them.

What have I done? I thought as I stood there frozen with embarrassment.

My "friends" were waiting off stage like vultures for me to join them.

"What was that?" Rainbow Dash asked angrily.

"You were showing them your magic," I replied. "I... I didn't know what else to do."

Rarity responded in an almost degrading tone, "Close the curtain. Unplug her amp. Give us the chance to deal with the situation."

"I just wanted to help," I said as the emotional pain began surfacing.

"Yeah, well, you didn't," Rainbow Dash replied, still angry.

I tuned them out after that as I was working hard to keep the tears from escaping my eyes.

I shouldve known that it was just a show outside, I thought sadly.

And then Trixie had to get her digs in on me, accusing me of sabotaging the band out of jealousy before Principal Celestia and Vice-principal Luna announced the Rainbooms as the winners. We all stood there in shock before having a stare down with the Dazzlings and getting booed out of the gymnasium.

I excused myself from the group to use the restroom, where I took out the paper out of the inside pocket in my jacket. I read it slowly as my left hand caressed the knife in my pocket.

I know this says hanging but fuck it, I can't take this any longer, I thought as I opened the pocket knife and lined it up with the large vein on my left wrist. Just as I began to apply pressure I heard a voice say, "Sunset, what are you doing?!"