Sunset walked quickly through the crowd, wanting to get away from everything. She needed to think. However, a hoof stopped her march soon after leaving everypony behind. Everypony except one familiar stallion.
“May I interrupt your escape for a moment?” Savoir Fare asked before pulling out a little thermos from his saddlebacks. Sunset was about to say no, but the waiter opened the container, and the scent of freshly made coffee made Sunset reconsider his offer.

“Okay, but not in the open,” she said taking the thermos.

“As you wish,” another voice said before the two ponies were lifted off the ground and dragged towards a nearby alleyway. “Don’t think you can just hide from eagle eyes so easy,” Gilda said before dropping them on the ground and landing in front of them, blocking the exit. “Now, mind telling me what was all that about? You did a complete one-eighty and left your friend looking like she was having a panic attack.”

“She’s her sister actually,” Savoir corrected.

Gilda looked at him with a frown. “And who are you?”

“I own the café in town and she’s one of my regulars. I just wanted to see if she was okay. And who would you be?

While the two finished introducing themselves, Sunset took a large sip of coffee to calm herself and think. ‘Remember truth Sunset.’ She downed the rest of the coffee and gave the thermos back to Savoir. “I won’t enter into details since is very personal, but I think my sister is hiding something from me.”

Savoir hummed. “For what I’ve heard and seen, she isn’t one for secrets and lies.”

“Yeah, and she sounded like she was trying to have one of those sappy friendship moments or something like that.” Gilda added. “What was your response to that part? That’s probably what left her gasping for air.”

Sunset flinched a bit after hearing that. ‘Way to go you idiot,’ she told herself.
“You’re right, but still, I know something is off. There is something she’s not telling me, and I think she’s doing it because it’s her responsibility as a representation of friendship.”

“May I ask a question?” Savoir asked in a complete neutral voice, and Sunset nodded. “Is that the worst possible reason she may have?”

Sunset looked at him with uncertainty. “Y-yes.”

“Then what could be the best reason for her to hide this thing between you two?”

“Yeah, why would your sister lie? Has she lied to you before?” Gilda added with more emphasis.

Sunset took a moment to think. ‘They’re right; Twilight is not a lying person, but this situation is not exactly normal so she may be acting out of the norm.’ She thought back to when she told Rainbow about it. The reaction had been quite unexpected, with her actually getting angry in her favor. ‘Did Twilight react the same? Is she also thinking everything was just unfair for me?’ Sunset then remembered her talk with Celestia about what had happened in the mountain. ‘I remember… Twilight said that I could take her place, that she didn’t want it. The she wanted me, as her sister.’

“You’re right.” Sunset finally responded. “She can’t be lying to me. Something is off here.”

“Like what? What exactly is she hiding?” Gilda asked with a little impatience. This discussion was getting too long for her liking.

“What if something happened between then and now that changed things?” Savoir asked calmly, showing more patience than the griffon.

“It was a long time ago. I don’t know what she has…” A thought crossed her mind, giving her a possibility that would explain everything. “I think I know what happened, I need to speak with somepony. Thanks for the help.”

Gilda shrugged. “I owed it to you.”

“Come by if you need more coffee,” Savoir said before walking away, soon followed by Gilda.

Sunset summoned a letter and quickly sent a message to Celestia. ‘We need to talk.’

“There she is!” A filly shouted, and Sunset turned around to see the crusaders running at her with labored breaths. “Where have you been?” Sweetie asked.

“Yeah, it’s been two months already!” Scootaloo added.

“Yah never came to the farm!”

Sunset held her hooves up. “Okay okay, sorry. Remember I told you I had something to attend the other day? Well, that involved going back to Canterlot and I didn’t have time to say goodbye or anything else. But I’m here now, so… do we go to your clubhouse?”

“Better than this shady alleyway,” Sweetie said looking around them.

“Okay, get close to me.” Sunset said as she lit her horn and teleported to Sweet Apple Acres along with them, making them very disoriented at the sudden change in space.

“Wow, that was a doozy.” Applebloom shook her head to clear her mind after experiencing teleportation for the first time. “The clubhouse is over here.”

Sunset quickly followed them to a treehouse hidden in one of the edges of the orchard, that while slightly ramshackle, it seemed to be recently built. “Did your sister build it for you?”

“It was hers before, but I repaired it so we could use it,” Applebloom said as they walked up the stairs, and Sunset admired her work.
‘How did she not get a cutie mark in carpentry?’ she wondered as they finally entered the clubhouse. The interior was kind of barren, but they seemed to have the basic necessities, which luckily included some cushions for them to sit down.
As they all took a seat, Sunset started. “Okay, so, what did you want to talk about?”

Applebloom quickly responded. “What happened the day you stayed for lunch? Why did you freak out when you drank a glass of water?”

“It’s something called Aquaphobia. It’s a fear of water, that’s why I freaked out, but Rainbow is helping me deal with it, so it doesn’t happen again.”

“Is it working?” Sweetie Belle asked, looking worried.

“Of course it’s working, it’s Rainbow Dash! She will surely cure Sunset.” Scootaloo exclaimed, and Sunset was happy seeing that her friends seemed to agree.

“It is working. Rainbow is truly an awesome pony,” Sunset said with a smile, and the little pegasus cheered. “Now, I have a question for you three.” The crusaders were surprised but didn’t object. “Why did you say that you could relate with a name that made you feel insecure?”

The three fillies looked at each other, seemingly a little dubious as to how to respond.
Applebloom managed to speak first. “It all started with two bullies that call us blank flanks.”

Sweetie continued. “They made Applebloom really insecure about not having a cutie mark, so she tried to get one all day before Diamond Tiara’s cute-ceañera.”

“But it didn’t work, and she kept teasing her until Sweetie and I defended her. And after that, we decided to create a secret society to find out who we are and what we're supposed to be!” Scootaloo exclaimed with her hooves up.

Sunset blinked twice. “Wait, you mean the daughter of Filthy and Spoiled Rich?”

“You know her?!” the three fillies asked in unison and disbelief.

“Not personally, I met Rich once when he visited Canterlot for some business. He seemed to be a decent fellow. Don’t know how he could raise a bully.”

“Well, she and Silver Spoon are quite nasty when they want to, and not only to us,” Applebloom said with clear contempt.

“Well, as a bully myself, I can tell you that you have two options; Ignore it until they leave your life for good or get bored, or the hard option, try and find what is their problem, or appeal to their feelings to reach an understanding.”

“You think that will work?” Scootaloo asked, not fully convinced.

“It worked for Gilda, and she is a griffon, so I’m pretty sure it can work for her too.”

“I guess we can try talking with her,” Applebloom said, also not really convinced but it was better than nothing.

Sunset smiled. “Just try it and tell me how it goes. I will help you if you-” there was a flash of golden light, and Sunset suddenly appeared in the middle of Celestia’s office.

“What did you want to talk about?” the monarch asked, sitting firmly behind her desk.

Celestia was sitting in her office, going over the usual boring bureaucracy that plagued her days.
Kingdom management was more urgent a few millennia ago, when the worries of the ponies were if they would be able to have just one famine that year instead of four, or what they would have to use instead of wood to keep warm during winter.
Now that things were far more peaceful and survival wasn’t on the line, the needs of the public became almost stupid sometimes. Celestia loved each and every one of her little ponies and would defend them with her life if anything threatened them, but living for so long had given her a different perspective on a lot of things. A perspective that worried her sometimes.
The return of Luna was the first warning sign of this. Due to her old way of thinking, she managed to notice a few problems on the way she had been handling things in the kingdom and was now helping her correct them.
After that night, Celestia realized what the stagnation of the rule was causing to Equestria. She couldn’t rule forever, nor her sister, they needed to prepare a way of succession.
Cadence would be the obvious option, but her rule would be with the Crystal Empire once it returned from its banishment, since it was her right, and managing both the Empire and Equestria would be too much for the young alicorn.
Twilight would be the next candidate, but she still had a lot to learn before even begin teaching her the responsibilities of a ruler.
Then there was Sunset, technically the one that first came up with the idea.
She obviously had the desire to rule, and the knowledge, power, and will to protect the kingdom. She had been learning about friendship, helped several ponies, seemed finally satisfied with her acquisition of magic, and her control over her power was getting better with time. She even managed to pass the little test she gave her with the Running of the Leaves, showing that she could manage the public, pass judgement, and teach others the correct way.
All the things that Celestia once worried about Sunset had drastically changed in just a few months. She could command, defend, and maybe even improve Equestria for the better.
But another, bigger problem, was Sunshine.
Her ‘paranoia’ as Luna put it, was now confirmed. An unknown evil like the one that claimed her sister was living inside her pupil, trapped and justifiably angry with her.
‘But that’s the key word; me,’ Celestia thought. ‘Destroying her would destroy Sunset too, but it looks like she can be reasoned with. She let go of her anger towards Sunset and made a bond with her. If that can be improved, if they can work together, Sunset would be the perfect candidate to rule, and the one that deserves it the most. The question is; how do I convince her?’

“Princess?” her secretary asked, approaching her desk. “A letter came today, it’s from Sunset.”

Celestia took the letter and quickly opened it; ‘We need to talk.’ Was all that it said. “Indeed we do.” She turned towards her secretary and her guards. “Leave now, and make sure nopony enters until I say so.” Her subjects quickly obeyed and once the last one left, she cast a scrying spell on Sunset to locate her and teleported her to her office. “What did you want to talk about?”

Author's Notes:

Sorry for the short chapter, but next one will make it worth it.
Also, the adventures with the CMC are not done yet.

Have a nice existence.

I will be watching you.