The dragon had left the mountain, leaving his hoard behind, but nopony expected him to come back for it.
The six mares descended from the mountain in complete silence, any previous sense of adventure or even worry of the dangers around them was gone.
Twilight walked alone a few feet in front of her friends, head held high, but her gaze was on the ground.
Pinkie was an equal distance behind the rest, her mane deflated, and her eyes looked away from the mountain, almost as if she was looking for something in the sky.
The remaining four mares were looking at Twilight with worry, and it wasn’t because of the little blisters in her coat caused by Sunset’s heat. The silence was slowly killing the four, the tension so thick it was weighting on them like a lead blanket.
Applejack was the first to break. She walked towards Twilight, still keeping a short distance between them. “Twilight, are you-”

“OKAY?” the unicorn screamed as she turned around in an instant. “ARE YOU SERIOUSLY ASKING ME THAT?!” All the mares took a few steps back. “Sunset died! And I don’t have any idea where or when it happened! What even killed her? Will it come for us next? Did dying cause Sunset to almost go nuclear against us?” Applejack opened her mouth to try and respond. “Or was it just you?”

“It’s my fault,” Fluttershy said. “I shouldn’t have said all those mean things to her.”

Twilight’s glare turned to the shy pegasus. “You’re correct, you should’ve said them to me. Like these three at least tried to do!”

Rarity tried to form a defense for the pegasus. “Darling, even if what Fluttershy did was wrong, you don’t think that Sunset was overreacting a little? You told us she has short temper and usually sees herself above everypony, but what we saw there was far beyond short temper.”

Twilight took a step back to see all her friends. “Was anything of what Sunset said a lie?”

“I asked for her help with Gilda.” Pinkie admitted, getting the attention of everypony. “And I… mentioned the ursa attacking Ponyville to her.”

“What?” Twilight asked, her tone reminiscent of Sunset’s.

“It was just a little joke; I didn’t expect that it would escalate so much.”

Twilight walked towards Pinkie, pushing Applejack aside when she tried to stop her.
The pink pony looked at her, her hooves trembling, but not out of fear, until they were face to face. “Did you get my sister killed?” the unicorn asked, driving a metaphorical knife into the mare’s heart.

Pinkies eyes were flooding with tears. “I- I think so.”

“Would a ursa minor really kill Sunset? She’s pretty tough and said she was more powerful than you,” Rainbow said, trying to give some hope to her pink friend.

Twilight shook her head. “An ursa minor? No way.” Pinkie looked at her with a little ray of hope, but the unicorn quickly put two and two together. “But a major? One looking for her missing cub? And threatening to destroy the town by simply walking into it? Sunset couldn’t defeat it if she tried, and I’ve no doubt she tried.” Pinkie collapsed on the ground in sobbing fit, her worst fears confirmed. Rainbow went to her to try and console her friend in any way she could, as futile as it was. “Those two colts. I should’ve called the guard to arrest them instead of giving them silly mustaches.”

“Darling, they are kids, they made a mistake because they can’t think too far ahead.”

“That mistake killed Sunset! And who knows how many more if its mother reached the town! They-” Twilight stopped, doing her breathing exercises to try and calm herself. It took some time, but she managed to minimize it. “I’m not asking for them to be banished or locked up in Tartarus, but they need a heavier punishment. They need to understand the consequences of their actions.”

“This is all Trixie’s fault!” Applejack suddenly declared. “If she didn’t go around boasting about defeating the ursa, none of this would’ve happened.”

Twilight didn’t even look at her. “Do you honestly believe that? Do you honestly believe that Trixie is the one at fault here?”

Applejack was silent, until she finally looked away. “No.”

Twilight returned to the front of the group. “Let’s just get home, I don’t want to keep talking to any of you.”

After managing to get Pinkie on her feet again, they all followed her, again in silence, but nopony wanted to say anything more, just get home and cry.
However, they wouldn’t be able to do it yet, because at the feet of the mountain they found Spike, standing beside princess Celestia.

“I must say, out of all the weird things that happen in this town, your visit was the last one I expected.”

Luna took a sip of her coffee. “We hope we are not unnerving to you, Savoir Fare.”

The waiter chuckled. “Not at all, this is the pleasant kind of weird.”

“Does Sunset also fall in this category?”

“It was a rough start but she’s one of my best and more enjoyable costumers.”

Luna took another sip of her coffee. “This coffee could convince us to also become a regular costumer. Does she really only ask for this one?”

“Every day since she arrived. I’m afraid that the poor mare doesn’t know how to cook her own food.”

Luna laughed. “That’s what happens when you’ve every meal served in a silver platter.” She then turned more serious. “We were wondering about your opinion of her. We have been told you had some sort of friendship.”

“I wouldn’t say friendship, she’s just an enjoyable customer. She’s always helping others, and apparently likes to make pranks. She’s crafty, kind of rude at first, and really insecure.”

Luna raised an eyebrow at the last part. “That doesn’t sound much like the Sunset we know.”

“Well, she only showed it recently. She talked about being lost in the background, with her actions without importance, and that she can’t see herself without taking the main role.”

“Main role?”

“Ruling Equestria. Or at least that’s what she told me, but as I said, she wasn’t really sure about it.”

Luna wondered about the implications of the waiter’s tale and finished her coffee. “We thank you for your time. If you see Sunset, tell her to send us a message.”

“Will do princess, have a nice day.”

Celestia watched the six mares walking towards her.
Pinkie was crying, Twilight was wounded, and the rest had guilt dripping from their faces.
Spike’s letter warned her that Sunset had him scared and worried about Twilight’s safety due to her anger, and Celestia knew well that his fears weren’t unfounded.
Sunset was dangerous, but she still needed something to set her off. The question was; What did it?

“The dragon has left the mountain. That’s the only good news I have,” Twilight reported without any kind of joy in her eyes, even in her presence. Something was very wrong.

“I want you all to tell me what happened with Sunset,” she commanded with a coldness that she had only showed to Sunset.

“I killed Sunset,” Pinkie declared with eyes still full of tears, and the only one able to notice Celestia’s legs trembling was Spike, and he himself felt his blood ran cold at the news.

“She tried to defend the town form an ursa major, or at least that’s my theory. Nopony saw it happening,” Twilight explained.

“She’s alive now,” Rainbow quickly added, wanting to stop the monarch from banishing her friend to the moon. “So everything’s alright. She’s just angry but it will pass, and we will all laugh about this later.” She tried to laugh, but she wasn’t fooling anypony.

Celestia looked at her with a neutral expression. “Rainbow Dash, if you don’t have anything more to add to this subject, you can go home now.”

“But-”

“Goodbye, my little pony.” Rainbow looked at her friends, finding no objection, so she just gave Pinkie one last hug before flying away. “Do any of you know how she cheated death a second time?”

“So she did die that night,” Twilight said, tears in the corners of her eyes. “As I said, none of us saw what happened to her last night.”

Celestia turned to Spike. “You saw her first after last night, right?”

“Yeah, she was dipping her head completely into water when I found her. She first asked about what happened with the ursa minor that attacked the town. She was relieved that Twilight managed to send it away. But then…” He took a moment to continue. “I told her about how Twilight showed that Trixie was a boastful farce, and she got so mad she was literally steaming.”

“Does this Trixie present’s herself as great and powerful?” Celestia asked, and when the ponies nodded, she closed her eyes. “Trixie was one of Sunset’s inspirations in her magic studies.”

“Really?!” exclaimed almost everypony.

“How in Tartarus can a unicorn with its head so far up their arse be an inspiration?” Applejack asked with indignation.

“There are not many powerful mages left in Equestria, and even if Sunset can absorb spells from books like a sponge, she always preferred to see a demonstration rather than read about it. I didn’t see Trixie’s show, but for what Sunset told me, it was so good that the magician got her cutie mark at the end of it. It was the first time she saw it happen, so she left quite an impression on her.”

Twilight looked at the ground in shame. “And I humiliated her to the point that she had to leave the town.”

Rarity put a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “It wasn’t your fault darling; it was me, Applejack and Rainbow who tried to bring her show down in the first place.”

“If we had just shut up and leaved her be, she wouldn’t have made those stupid challenges,” Applejack added.

“What happened with the dragon?” Celestia asked.

“It was all my fault.” Fluttershy flew in front of Celestia. “Because of my fears I couldn’t talk to the dragon, and when the girls tried, they angered him and he attacked them. Sunset stepped in to save them, but she was hurting him, she seemed to… enjoy it.” That last part got the attention of everypony. The only one that had watched the whole fight was Fluttershy. “I snapped at her. I was already angry because she had threatened the manticore that we found in the Everfree when it was just hurt.”

Celestia interrupted her. “Luna told me that Nightmare Moon had angered it so it would attack you.”

Fluttershy’s eyes went wide at her words. “Oh, am, after that, she lied to Twilight about the tickets.”

Twilight interrupted her this time. “She has done worse as we grew up together in the castle. I was angry at the time but just because I didn’t realize it sooner. I don’t hold it against her.”

Fluttershy was starting to get more nervous. “She attacked a griffon in the middle of the town.”

“If you’re talking about Gilda.” Pinkie sobbed. “She just took her away so they could talk in private about her bullying problems.”

“And we kind of deserved what Trixie did to us,” Rarity added.

“But I… then… why was she smiling when she hurt the dragon? Why was she threatening us at the end? Why did she hurt Twilight?”

“Oh, I don’t know Fluttershy!” Twilight snapped. “Maybe because the dragon was attacking us. Maybe because we humiliated one of her inspirations in magic studies. Maybe because you accused her of things without confirming if they were true. Maybe because she died protecting the town and none of us would have even realized it!”

Fluttershy and Pinkie cried, and Rarity and applejack weren’t too far from doing it themselves. They weren’t without guilt.

“I… I made her promise that she wouldn’t prank Twilight again. To help her fit into the town.” Spike shyly confessed.

“Did she say yes?” Twilight asked, surprised that Sunset would miss a chance to make fun of her.

Spike nodded. “Was that wrong?”

Celestia looked at the tiny dragon. “No Spike, that was a kind action, and it just shows that Sunset has improved in her relationship with Twilight, at least a little.”

“She said that I took her place,” Twilight said, and looked at her mentor straight in the eyes. “Is that true?”

Celestia had a very hard dilemma.
She could do the same thing she did with Sunset, but doing it to Twilight and her friends would be wrong. They weren’t the same, it wouldn’t be protecting her subjects from an unknown threat. However, the other option; the truth, could destroy Sunset’s and Twilight’s relationship. She didn’t want to bring Sunset more suffering with her wrong decisions.
‘I promised her; not a word of this to Twilight.’

“It will be better to tell you when you’re all together, it involves all of your friends.”

“But yah just send Rainbow away!” Applejack complained.

“I must first find Sunset and see that she’s alright. Do you have any idea where she might be?”

“No, she just teleported away. How will you find her?” Twilight asked.

Celestia thought about it for a second, and then smiled. “If she has learned at least a little about friendship, I know where to find her.”

“So, you’re not evil anymore?” Gilda asked.

“We aren’t, thanks to the pony that helped you with your friendship with Rainbow,” Luna responded.

Gilda was suspicious of the blue alicorn. She certainly didn’t expect her to show up when she went to practice her flying. “And what do you want to know?”

“Just your opinion of her. You’re not in trouble and this isn’t an interrogation. We just want to know about Sunset.”

“So that’s her name. I just called her the fairy godmother of friendship.” Gilda shrugged, but her words got Luna’s attention.

“And why would that be?”

“Because she just jumped me in the middle of the town and started lecturing me about how I would ruin my friendship with Dash.” Gilda looked down with a little sadness. “She was right. But then she helped me realize that I was wrong and convinced me to apologize.”

Luna looked impressed. “Interesting. Anything else?”

Gilda got a little nervous. “She pissed me off, and I kind of… tried to crush her with a rock.” Luna raised an eyebrow. “She said she did it so I could vent my frustrations before talking!” the griffon said with a little panic, but the princess just laughed.

“We can’t believe it. A thousand years and there are ponies that still use the old ways of therapy.” She calmed herself and smiled to the griffon. “We thank you for your time.”

“So, I’m not in trouble?”

Luna looked at Gilda with a sly smile. “Unless you want to duel us. We haven’t fought a griffon in quite some time.”

The princess had another laugh at the griffon’s reaction before returning to the castle.

Celestia knocked on the blue doors of the tower and waited patiently until they slightly opened, revealing part of a unicorn’s face.

“Hello Moon Dancer, may I come inside?”

The pony went back inside for a moment, but then opened the door to let her in.
Celestia took a few steps into the tower, and quickly saw two teal eyes looking at her, hidden behind the railing of the upper floor.

Celestia smiled. “Hi Sunset.”

“Hello…”

Author's Notes:

A little quick chapter because online classes are fucking boring and I love writing dialogue!

Hope you like it!

I will be watching you.