Pinkie wasn’t the worrying type, but when it came to Sunset and Fluttershy not being at school, it was kind of grounds for worrying. After getting possessed by the Darkness, it drove the point a bit further to Pinkie that Sunset wasn’t as safe as she, or the rest of them, may have believed. Sunset was absent today, but perhaps that was due to Principal Celestia telling Sunset to stay home? That was a possibility, but then again, Principal Celestia was absent as well. The girls had been texting Sunset all day, but there was no reply, so, finally, Pinkie decided to try and call her. They had been sending a few to Fluttershy, believing that the duo might be doing a mission together. However, none of their texts were answered by either of the two girls.

Pinkie waited in the lobby area of the school; after thinking it over, she decided to just call Sunset and see if she would answer. The phone rang a few times before Sunset’s voicemail message answered. {S’up, this is Sunset Shimmer, leave a message, and I’ll get back to you. Or not, just text me.}

We ALL have been! Pinkie thought. “Hey, Sunny, it’s me! We’re kinda getting worried that you haven’t replied to our texts. I didn’t know if you knew, but Principal Celestia’s not at school and neither is Fluttershy, I figured Principal Celestia probably told you to rest up today, but I just wanted to make sure that’s the case. Either that or you and Principal Celestia are having some mother-daughter time together and I’m totally interrupting it with all these texts and calls, so if that’s the case then just text us back and we’ll stop!……” The bubbliness in her voice faltered as she continued. “Sunset, please call me back, I really am worried about you, you know? It doesn’t have to be a long message, just something short to tell us you’re okay. Okay, I’ll call you later…bye.”

Pinkie hung up and sighed with dejection, she knew that Sunset had responsibilities as Witchblade, and with Sombra and the Darkness still moving around in the city, she could hardly blame her girlfriend for going radio silent if she was on a mission. Just then, Pinkie’s cellphone rang back, without bothering to look at the caller ID she swiped to answer and said, “Sunset?!”

{Uh, no, sorry lil’ Sis, but it’s just me,} said Limestone.

“Oh…”

{Wow, don’t sound too disappointed.}

Pinkie shook her head and gave herself a light slap across the cheek to snap her out of her funk. “No, no, sorry, I am happy you called! But why are you calling in the middle of the day? You usually don’t call me unless it’s an emergency or wait until I get to the house…IS IT AN EMERGENCY?!” Pinkie’s question was loud enough that it made a few of the students stop and look in her direction as they saw the wide bug eyes of Pinkie Pie, along with her holding of her phone as if she was trying to shake the person who was on the other end. And as per usual, the students walked on, chalking it up to another of Pinkie’s random moments.

{Jeez, calm down Pinkie. No, it’s not an emergency, I just wanted to talk for a sec. Or is right now a bad time?}

“I have a free period right now, what’s on your mind?” Pinkie asked with a chipper voice.

{I, uh, just wanted to make sure that Sunset was alright. You said she was crashing at her guardian’s place and I thought I might’ve messed up the night before last.}

Pinkie, in an attempt to lighten the mood, put on a devious smirk. “Oooh, Big Sis Limey, you didn’t by chance try and steal Sunset away by trying to have a wild night of passionate sex behind my back, did you?”

There was a loud sputtering on the other end, followed by some coughing, and ending with a light wheezing intake of air. Most likely Lime was drinking something the moment Pinkie said that. She always had a knack for knowing when people were doing that and saying something to make them spit it out.

{The hell – No – No I did NOT fuck your girlfriend! I-I wouldn’t ever do that to you! A-At least I don’t think I did that. Oh, shit I did, didn’t I?! I got so shitfaced that night that I fucked Sunset, didn’t I?! Shit, shit, Pinkie, you gotta believe me, I didn’t mean for it to happen!}

Pinkie was slightly taken aback by how vehemently Limestone was apologizing for something she didn’t do. It was just a joke, but Limestone seemed to have taken it seriously, very seriously at that. “H-Hey, it’s okay, I was just–”

{Okay, maybe I did want to do it with her! Maybe I do have a small crush on the girl! And maybe I fantasize about burying my face between her legs and making her cry out my name! I mean, can you blame me? She’s hot as hell! Ugh that’s no excuse or apology…I’m sorry Pinkie, I’m a shitty big sister, but I swear I’ll do anything to make it right! I-I’ll–!}

“LIME!” Pinkie shouted. When her sister stopped her rant, Pinkie spoke, “Lime, I was just kidding, you didn’t really do anything to Sunset that night.”

There was a long and heavy silence that followed, the tension was so thick you could cut it with one of Sunset’s Witchblade blades, the BIG ones. Limestone wasn’t playing along with her joke; Limestone had fully believed she had slept with Sunset and that that was the reason why she wasn’t there that following morning. To hear that her eldest sister had a crush on Sunset was a little jarring, to say the least. Limestone had never outwardly shown that she liked Sunset, in fact, most of the time, up until now, Limestone had been abrasive towards her.

“Um…wow…I…I didn’t know you felt that way towards Sunset, Limey. But to be fair, Sunset is really hot,” said Pinkie, attempting to lighten the mood again.

{Pinkie…I’m such a shitty big sister…}

“No, you’re not, at least you said something.”

{Yeah, only after I thought I did something wrong…I’m sorry…}

Pinkie rubbed the back of her head as she tried to think about how to defuse this situation. “Hey, w-why don’t we talk later? Just clear the air, huh?”

A heavy sigh emanated from the other end, but then Limestone replied, {Yeah, I let’s do that. I’ll go ahead and go…sorry again, Pinks.}

Limestone hung up the phone before Pinkie could reply to her, out of everything that probably was going to happen today, that wasn’t on her top ten. To say that wasn’t a shock would be underselling it, her own sister had a crush on her girlfriend, yeah, that was still not an easy thing to comprehend. Could you have made this more convoluted?!

– I’m sorry what? –

You just had to make my big sister, Lime, have the hots for Sunny! Like I said, I know she’s hot as hell, but what are you trying to do?! Give her a harem?!

– Well if you’re up for that… –

Don’t push it mister! I’m still trying to figure out how I can swing a fourway with Twilight, me, and both Sunsets, this isn’t a Clop story!

– Sheesh, excuse me for trying to squeeze in a little side note conflict. Oh, by the way, Luna’s about to talk to you. –

At around that time, Vice Principal Luna came walking up to Pinkie Pie from behind, but just before Luna could speak, Pinkie whipped around with a broad smile and said, “Hi Vice Principal Luna! What’s up?”

“Gah!” Luna exclaimed as she jumped back a bit. “My god, sorry, I just – how did you know I was back there?”

Pinkie Pie gave a little wave. “Eh, the author gave me a heads up.”

“The…‘author’?” Luna pinched the bridge of her nose and decided not to probe further. If there was one thing that she learned in her tenure at CHS, it was not to fall down the rabbit hole that was Pinkie Pie. “Anyway, I needed to ask you if you’ve heard from my sister?”

Pinkie raised an eyebrow. “No, I mean I know she’s gone today.”

“Yes…well…” Luna glanced around to make sure that there were no eavesdroppers. “Last night, my sister had to go to the Mayor’s place because there was something that the Angelus needed. She transformed, and then teleported away. She told me not to wait up for her, but I ended up doing so and, needless to say, I am very tired.”

Pinkie could tell, there were bags under her eyes, and she looked a little drunk, but that’s more than likely due to not sleeping the whole night.

“So, I was wondering if Sunset said anything to you about Celestia? I’m sure my sister told her to stay home to get some more rest after her ordeal, but…”

Pinkie shook her head sadly. “No, I haven’t, and Sunset’s not answering me, or any of us. I’m getting kind of worried too…”

Luna sighed and then smiled a little as she placed her hand on Pinkie’s shoulder. “I guess we both have people who make us worry. If you wish, I could excuse you to go and check on her. I don’t make this a habit, but considering the circumstances…”

“No, I need to trust Sunset. She wouldn’t be ghosting us for no reason, she’ll talk to us, and when she does, I’m going to yell at her for making me worry!” Pinkie proclaimed in her normally bubbly tone.

“Indeed, and I’ll do the same to my sister.”

Shining Armor had a lot on his mind today, he just found out that his little sister, his LSBFF, was being abused and sexually harassed by the student body of Crystal Prep, and on top of that, five of them kidnapped her and tried to film her getting raped. If it wasn’t for Sunset – the human world one – then they would have succeeded and Twilight would’ve been irreparably damaged, both physically and mentally.

What he said to Cadence was true, he was going to find out as much as he could about Crystal Prep. There was no way that Twilight wasn’t the only instance of something happening in that school, maybe not to the level of what happened to Twilight – at least he hoped so – but there had to be something someone was hiding. However, that was going to be an issue, if these things were getting buried, then there might not be any record of such things in the police files. That wasn’t the only thing on his mind though, there was also the fact that the Sentinels were acting strangely. They seemed on edge, Araquiel, who was probably the most popular and fun loving of the Sentinels stationed at their precinct, was a little quieter, not as boisterous.

Not only that, but Gaghiel was MIA. Of the four, well, three now, Gaghiel was the one who was most orderly and uptight. To see that the big cat wasn’t here in the station was surprising to say the least. Not that Shining minded at all, out of the lot that were assigned to them, he liked Gaghiel the least. Araquiel he kind of liked, Hadriel was quiet and did give advice, and before that attack, Ayil was pleasant enough, but Gaghiel, nope, didn’t miss him one bit.

Apparently, they weren’t the only ones, he called a few other stations to find out if it was just their Sentinels or others, but it seemed this was going on all around. The whole lot of the Sentinels were on edge, as if they were being forced to do something they didn’t want to do. If Shining was being honest, that made him a little edgy, it made him wonder if the Sentinels were gaining independence from Angelus or something. He wasn’t sure if that was worse than having Angelus in control, honestly, he still didn’t trust that angel.

While Shining was ruminating, his partner, Spearhead, couldn’t help but notice his dower mood. “Dude, you alright. You look down. Did Cadence dump you or something?”

Shining rolled his eyes. “No, Spear, she didn’t dump me. It’s something else, with Twily.”

At this Spearhead raised a concerned eyebrow, he knew how devoted Shining was to his little sister, so to hear that something was up with his brainy little sister was concerning even to Spearhead. “What’s up with Twilight? Did she hurt herself or something?”

Shining Armor’s brow furrowed. “No, someone hurt her.”

“Seriously?! Dude, if you need to put a scare into someone, just tell me, I’ll back you up. You’re like family, bro, and no one hurts my family,” said Spearhead with all due seriousness.

Hearing that made Shining Armor smile a little, knowing that his best friend since high school considered Twilight family and was willing to get worked up for her sake was heartening. “I may need to call that in, but not right now. I need to do some more investigating.”

“Armor, Thrust,” called out the voice of Captain Broadside. The old grizzled police captain entered their office and looked to the two young detectives. “Need you to go out and look into a possible Blood King hang out, we got an anonymous tip so check it out.”

“Got it,” they both responded.

Both of them went to the locker room and changed out of their detective attire and into more street worthy clothes, a hoodie, some ripped jeans, and a t-shirt. They kept their guns, considering the part of town they were heading, it wasn’t that unusual for someone to be carrying, especially if they looked like possible gang members.

Once they were changed, the duo made their way towards south Canterlot where the tip was called in. When they arrived, it was an abandoned business building, about four floors, some of the windows were boarded up, and others were broken. It could’ve been a law office, or a boarding house. Whatever it once was, it was dilapidated, the kind of place no person with good sense would bother going inside unless they were doing something that they didn’t want others to see. Perfect for criminals.

“How do you want to do this?” Spearhead asked.

“I’ll head in through the front,” said Shining.

“I’ll get the sides and go in from there, we’ll meet up in five.”

Shining nodded and proceeded through the front, of course it looked as if it had been purposefully broken into, but around here, if anyone did see anything, they stayed silent, not wanting to get involved and possibly receive retribution from the criminals they reported on. Shining carefully looked around, it opened up to a lobby area, with a staircase that led up to the first floor and split off into two directions, right and left, an out of commission elevator, and about two hallways that led to rooms and offices. Despite it being almost midday, the sun’s rays barely penetrated through the windows, just perfect for Blacknights.

Shining stuffed his hands into his pockets, trying to look as tough and standoffish as any potential or wannabe gang member. He was about to look around downstairs when he thought he heard movement up above. With caution, he went towards the stairs. Shining took the left staircase and proceeded upwards. There was a long corridor, not the best set up, it basically made him a setting duck if someone wanted to shoot him. Steeling himself, Shining slowly walked down the hallway, gently twisting the knobs of the doors to see which ones were open in case he needed to duck into one of the rooms.

As he walked down further, he heard another noise behind him. Shining quickly turned around but saw nothing. Slowly, he drew his gun from the waistband of his pants and held it at the ready as he steadily walked to the far end of the hall. Once there, he proceeded to the third level, which, thankfully, was a bit more open. There were cubicles on this floor, apparently the building had seen several different businesses over the years, and they left some things behind. Shining went down the aisle but paused when he saw movement.

“Hey, who’s there!” Shining called out.

There was no response.

Shining was getting a bad feeling, like he was being stalked, hunted. There was a good chance this was a trap set up by the Blood Kings, he wouldn’t have put it past them, not after their attack on their police station. Regardless, if it was a trap, he was going to make sure he made as much noise as possible to alert his partner and have Sentinels drop out of the sky and onto this place. Not that he planned on sacrificing himself, he still needed to make those girls and Cinch pay for what they put Twilight through.

A low growling caught Shining’s attention, a growl that emanated right behind him. Shining, carefully, slowly, cocked the hammer of his pistol back, and readied himself to duck away and shoot. However, he was robbed of that chance when whatever it was that was behind him, lunged and knocked him to the floor. Shining Armor rolled onto his back, but that was when the attacker pinned him, slamming its hands onto his forearms, preventing him from rising or fighting back.

“Be calm, Detective!”

Shining stopped struggling and looked up, the creature that pinned him started to release a bright glow, allowing the detective to recognize who it was. “Gaghiel?! What the fuck?!”

“Are you alone?”

“What?!”

“Are! You! Alone?!”

“No, my partner’s outside looking around,” Shining answered.

“No other Sentinels came with you?” Gaghiel asked.

“No.”

Gaghiel scoffed. “That’s just stupid on your part, and on my Sentinel brethren. No matter, it works our favor.”

“Yeah, yeah, can you get off me now!” Shining demanded.

The Beast of God did as Shining asked, the liger sat on his haunches as he waited for Shining Armor to stand back up, the police detective rubbing his forearms from the forceful takedown.

“Why the hell are you here? I haven’t seen you at the station at all.”

“Before I answer that, tell me, how have my brethren been acting?” Gaghiel asked.

Shining Armor wasn’t sure where this was going, but he answered, “They seem…on edge. I’ve been getting the same answer whenever I call some other police stations and ask how their Sentinels are acting. And you seem even more on edge than they do, what’s going on?”

“Realize that the only reason I’m speaking to you is because the host of my Mistress believes you to be trustworthy, and because you have ties to her Son’s host.” Gaghiel looked around, his ears twitching to and fro, trying to pick up on any possible intruders. When he was satisfied that there was no one around he began, “Last night, a mortal tricked my Mistress and ended up stealing most of her power from her.”

“WHAT?!” Shining Armor shouted in shock. “Was it Sombra or one of his Blood King guys?!”

Gaghiel shook his head. “Neither it was a mortal by the name of Neighsay. A man of the cloth, a follower of God. However, it seems he has his own agenda, he promised to help us in this war against the Darkness, but instead, he is using it as an opportunity to seize the power of my Mistress and the Darkness! He has stolen enough power to command the Sentinels, but not all of it. I was able to stop him before that happened, and as such I am not under his control. My brethren however…”

Now that explained why they were on edge, the Sentinels knew that Angelus wasn’t in charge anymore, and they’re more than likely under this Neighsay’s command to not talk about it. “Wait, I thought Angelus was an angel or something, you’re saying Angelus is inside someone?!”

“That is the case, yes.”

Shining Armor whipped around and watched as someone exited the corner. He whipped up his gun, readying to shoot, but stopped when she realized who it was.

“Ms. Celestia?!”

“Hello, Detective Armor, I wish we were meeting under different circumstances,” said Celestia.

Shining Armor released his left hand from his gun and facepalmed himself. “Sunset Shimmer is Witchblade, and you’re the Angelus, why not? So…you’re not Angelus anymore?”

Celestia concentrated, and immediately her body flashed with light, forming armor, flaming hair, and white wings. “I can still use her power, but at best, I’d say it’s twenty percent of her full power. Neighsay took a good majority of it last night.”

“He will seek out my Mistress and try to claim the rest for himself, but right now, we need to focus on getting my Mistress somewhere safe, somewhere that neither my brethren, nor Neighsay, would think to look for her,” said Gaghiel.

“You managed to escape, why didn’t you head to Sunset’s?” Shining asked.

Celestia released her armor form and said, “I didn’t want to bring this on her so soon after her ordeal.”

“I feel like I’m missing something.”

“A little bit, yes. But regardless, I need you to contact Sunset – my Sunset – and ask her if it is alright for me to hide out at her…twin sister’s house?” Celestia asked, not sure how to explain it.

Shining Armor could tell she was struggling to figure out how to tell him there were two Sunsets, so he spared her and said, “Don’t worry, Cadence and I know about them, but why not call her yourself?”

“Because I know Sunset will come here to get me, and if she does…”

“She might bring Sentinels with her, there is no doubt Neighsay is probably tracking her movements to try and find out where my Mistress is,” said Gaghiel.

“But I don’t think they’re tracking the other Sunset, so…as much as I’d hate to put you out…could you possibly give me a ride to where she lives? And call my Sunset to let her know I’m okay?” Celestia asked.

Shining Armor rubbed the back of his head, if it was only himself then he’d be up for it, but with Spearhead, that would take a lot of explaining and Shining wasn’t sure he wanted to bring his best friend and partner into something like this. This was next level stuff, and while Shining himself possessed no supernatural powers or weapons, he had somehow found himself in the middle of this stuff.

It all started when you picked up a naked girl from an alley and brought her home…ugh, sounds like the beginning to a bad porn movie, thought Shining. Still, the other Sunset helped save Twilight from those bitches at her school, and the one I know saved my ass and our collective asses a few months ago. And if what they’re saying is true, then we have a bigger problem than Sombra.

“Alright, I still have Sunset’s cell number, I’ll give her a call. My partner’s walking around outside, so don’t kill him, Gaghiel.”

Shining took out his cellphone and put in the call. He waited for a few seconds, hoping that Sunset would answer. Thankfully he didn’t have to wait long.

{Shining Armor? What’s up? I don’t usually get a call from you unless something bad is happening…is something bad happening?!}

“Jeez, guess I’ll make a note to make more social calls. Anyway, I’m not sure if you know this, but your guardian’s here with me.”

{WAIT, WHAT?! CELESTIA’S WITH YOU?! How is she, is she okay, is she hurt, is–?!}

“Whoa, whoa, calm down, she’s fine, she’s with one of her Sentinels, apparently one that isn’t under the control of this ‘Neighsay’, guy. I’ll take it you know what’s up?” Shining asked.

{I do know. Thanks for finding her, just tell me where she is, and I’ll head there.}

Shining shook his head, as if thinking Sunset could see the gesture. “Not a good idea, she said that you might be followed by the other Sentinels. It’s probably better if I bring her to you, she also thinks it’s better if she hides out at your twin’s place.”

There was a brief pause before Sunset replied. {That’s probably for the best, I haven’t noticed any Sentinels following me, and Witchblade hasn’t sensed anything either. But you’re probably right about doing it yourself. I’ll text you Sunset’s address so head there as soon as you can.}

“Got it.” Shining Armor hung up the phone and looked to Celestia and Gaghiel. “We’re good, I’ll take you to the other Sunset’s place once your Sunset sends the text. God, that’s getting a little annoying to say.”

Celestia chuckled in sympathy. “I know, it was a little confusing when I first found out myself.”

“Hey, Shining, you up here?! It’s been five minutes dude, sound off if you aren’t dead!” Spearhead called out as he rounded the corner. “There you are, dude, what are you doing? I just about called in–” It was then that Spearhead noticed not only Gaghiel, but also Celestia. The young detective straightened himself up and tried to act suave. “Hey, Shining, who’s the lovely lady. And…is that Gaghiel? I haven’t seen you in a minute.”

Shining Armor rolled his eyes at his friend’s attempt to hit on Celestia. “Okay, one: keep it in your pants, and two: there are some things you need to know.”

Twilight didn’t like lying to her parents about why she didn’t want to go to school, despite what awaited her at Crystal Prep, she always went to school, the few times she didn’t was when she was really sick and her parents made her stay home. But now, she was pretending to be on Cadence’s advice. She knew that, eventually, the truth about what happened at Crystal Prep was going to be told to her parents, but Cadence left it up to her when she was going to tell them.

Last night she had a short nightmare about what happened to her two days ago, Twilight awoke with a start, a cold sweat, tightness in the chest, and panting, the classic signs of a panic attack. Twilight hugged herself, patting her body to make sure her clothes were still on her. This also brought on a bout of anger, she had made the decision that she wasn’t going to let what happened define her or how she did things. But it seemed her psyche hadn’t quite caught up to her will just yet. About the only thing that dispelled the bad thoughts was focusing on Sunset.

Thinking of that amber skinned girl, with fiery locks of hair, in her flaming Ember form, made her look like the definition of a hero. Not only that, but she was damn sexy on top of that. She was reading some articles online when she awoke, but at some point, thanks to her broken sleep due to her nightmares, she was starting to get groggy. The more Twilight’s thought’s lingered on Sunset, the easier it became to fall asleep as her mind conjured images of her girlfriend in her mind.

In one of her dreams she saw Sunset walk towards her, flames danced around her body, carefully covering up the more private and intimate parts of Sunset’s body. Twilight found herself on her own bed, gulping at the display of her girlfriend walking towards her bed, with the dancing flames around her.

With a wave of her hand, Sunset released a stream of fire towards Twilight, but she wasn’t afraid. The flames washed over her body, feeling her with a comforting warmth, and in the process, she found her clothes completely burned away. Reflexively, Twilight covered her breasts with her right arm and her crotch with her left hand, her face went flush at this revelation as she looked at Sunset with a nervous smile. Sunset put on a devilish grin as she approached her lover, with a flick of her wrist the flames that were covering Sunset’s body dispersed, allowing her own naked form to be displayed.

“S-Sunset…?” Twilight stammered.

The pyromancer crawled atop the bed, slowly, like a predator stalking its prey, her eyes locked onto Twilight’s, staring deeply into them. Twilight found herself mesmerized, not only by her girlfriend’s body, but also by her eyes. There was a small glow in them that made Twilight quiver with excitement. As Sunset approached her, Twilight gradually lowered her arm and moved her hand away from her crotch. Sunset was now within a hair’s breadth of Twilight’s face; she placed her hand on Twilight’s right breast and gently pushed her until Twilight’s back met the mattress. Without hesitation, Twilight parted her legs just a bit to allow Sunset to come closer, the pyromancer straddled Twilight’s right leg and lowered her own body until they were pressed together.

This sensation was so different from when Indigo forced her to open her legs, with Indigo, there was barely any build up, if any, she just threw herself at Twilight and penetrated her womanhood with her fingers until Twilight had her orgasm. But now…

“I won’t hurt you Twilight…I won’t do anything you don’t want,” said Sunset, her tone was king and yet sultry at the same time.

“Thank you, Sunset…Sunset…”

“Sunset…”

“That’s not my name, sweetie.”

Twilight snapped her eyes open and saw that her mother, Twilight Velvet, was leaning against the doorway. Despite being middle aged, Velvet looked quite young, at most in her late twenties, her husband’s friends often joked that Night Light was a sugar daddy to Velvet, to which Velvet would always roll her eyes and scoff at such things.

“Looks like you nodded off a little there.” Velvet walked in and sat on the edge of Twilight’s bed, the young genius brought the covers up to try and hide her blushing face. “So, the way you were calling out Miss Shimmer’s name…that’s, um, that’s not how I used to call out my friends. Then again, I never used to call my friends’ names out while I slept either.” Twilight kept silent. “Twily, you can talk to me, you don’t have to be embarrassed.”

“How can I not be embarrassed by the fact that my Mom just heard me moan someone’s name?!” Twilight exclaimed.

Velvet rubbed the back of her head as she said, “Yes, well, I can understand how that’s embarrassing. But you don’t need to be, we’ve all had one of those dreams at least once in our lives. But, just let me say this, I’m happy for you.”

Twilight peeked from behind the blanket and asked, “Are you…? I…w-we’ve never discussed things like…me liking…the same gender…”

Velvet moved closer and patted the spot where Twilight’s knee was. “Sweetie, all your father and I ever cared about, is yours and your brother’s happiness. We only wished that the person that our children chose to be with made them happy and are good to them. Cadence is that for Shining Armor, and it looks like you’ve found someone like that in Sunset Shimmer. I had a feeling that you and she were closer than normal, you haven’t really connected with anyone since Moondancer.”

Twilight lowered her blanket shield until it was resting at her waist. “That was grade school, Mom, and we were less friends and more work colleagues. I blame myself for that, I think she wanted to be friends with me, but I never really paid much attention to that. I just liked that she was into the same things I was and that she liked reading and science as much as me. I just didn’t put the effort in to make it more of a lasting friendship.”

Velvet smiled. “But Sunset’s different, isn’t she?”

Twilight couldn’t help her face breaking out into a grin. “She’s amazing…She’s as smart as me, she’s strong, not just in a figurative sense, but literally, she’s physically strong. She’s gone out her way for me, protected me, and even found something worth loving in someone as broken as me…”

Velvet raised an eyebrow as she listened to her daughter talk about herself. Protected you? Broken?

“I don’t deserve to be with her…sometimes I can’t imagine why she’s with someone like me. I mean, I wouldn’t blame her for finding someone else who’s less of a hassle…”

“Twilight Andromeda Sparkle, stop talking about yourself like that!” Velvet ordered. “If Sunset thought that way, she wouldn’t be with you in the first place! You’re not broken and you’re not a hassle!”

Twilight gripped the edges of her blanket until her knuckles turned white. “I am…Mom…there’s something I need to tell you, but I want Dad to be here, and Shiny and Cadence too.”

Velvet was getting a little concerned about the way her daughter was talking. Her motherly instincts told her to push her daughter and find out what she meant, however, whatever it was, it was important enough that she wanted their whole family together. “Alright…I’ll call Shining and ask if he’s free. Are you hungry at all?”

“A little, yes,” Twilight answered.

“Then I’ll make you a little something,” said Velvet as she got up from the bed. “By the way, how long have you two…?”

“Oh, not very long, at most we’ve been an official thing since…? Last week.”

“Oooh, so right around when you stayed over at Sunset’s house. Did you two get up to anything explicit?” Velvet asked with a teasing tone.

“MOOM! NO!”

Velvet put her hands up in surrender and chuckled a little, “Ok, all I ask is that you be safe when you do, and don’t do anything too wild. And don’t be afraid to experiment a little, goodness knows I did a little during my college days.”

Twilight cringed a little, she did not want to know what kind of things her mother did when she was younger. “You know, most parents would discourage their children from directly engaging in sexual activity, same or opposite gender.”

“How else do you learn about yourself? But like I said, be safe, and remember, NO means NO.”

Or in Indigo’s case, “no” means “more”. “I know, thank you.”

When her mother left, Twilight took out her cellphone and started texting Sunset.

[Sunset, I…I’m going to tell my parents today, about what happened to me, and everything else. I don’t know if you're busy right now, but if you can, could you please come over? I…I could really use your support. I hate sounding so needy, anyway, if you can’t that’s fine, I’ll just change the date to this weekend or something when it’s less inconvenient to everyone. I–]

Twilight was about to type “I love you” but stopped. Did she love Sunset Shimmer? Yes, yes she did. But Twilight also knew that dropping the L-bomb this soon into a relationship might scare Sunset into breaking up or make her think she’s even more pathetic than Twilight thought herself to be. Twilight shook her head, she had to stop thinking like that, like her mom said. She was not going to let what those girls did define her own self-worth or confidence. With that in mind, instead of typing “I love you”, Twilight just stuck on a heart emoji and sent it off. Twilight heard the pitter patter of paws running towards her room and Spike immediately jumped off the floor and onto her bed.

The purple dog began lapping at her face as he panted and licked her some more. “Spike, quit it!” she giggled. “Okay, I’m up, I’m up!” Spike calmed down as he sat in her lap, letting Twilight pet him. She glanced at her cellphone again and noticed the time. “Ugh, already three? Guess I dozed off longer than I thought.” Twilight’s stomach growled, which made Spike poke at her belly curiously. “Okay, I should probably go down and help Mom, and after, why don’t we go for a walk, huh boy?”

*Bark* Spike replied.

“I knew you’d like that.”

Next Chapter: To War: Part 4 Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 10 Minutes