-SUNSET'S POV-

I opened my eyes to see sunlight filtering through the half-closed blinds of the window in front of me. I yawned and stretched, then I rolled over attempting to fall back asleep.

All of a sudden, my eyes shot open. My heart was racing as I bolted upright looking around. This isn't my room?!

Then I remembered where I was. I was staying with my Aunt and Uncle in the Crystal Empire for the summer. I reached my hand over to my nightstand where my phone was.

Grabbing my phone, I clicked a button, watching the screen light up. Alarmed, the first thing my eyes met was the time.

9:23.

I never woke up this late, not even during summer. My eyes trailed down the screen, no new notifications.

Sighing, I placed my phone back onto the nightstand. I lifted myself upright, my feet touching the cold hardwood floor. As I was about to lift myself up, I heard my ringtone 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams' go off. Uncle Silver Stratosphere had called. "Uncle Silver?" I asked, my voice tinted with curiosity.

Uncle Silver sighed and said "Sunset, I'm sorry to say this but your aunt has gotten worse, we need you over here..."

"Is she okay?" Worry overtook curiosity and I took a deep breath and waited for an answer.

He let out another sigh, this one a longer than the last, "I wish I could say she was but- I'm afraid she really isn't. The doctor said her pneumonia has gotten a lot worse, her lungs got infected from the amount of fluids in them. They are going to have to remove the infection through surgery, she said she wants you there while they do it."

"When are they doing it?"

"In about a half an hour, I really hope to see you then," he responded. Before I could say anything more, I lifted my phone away from my ear realizing he hung up. If he was at the hospital, perhaps someone needed to talk to him. I tossed my phone back onto my bed and stretched.

Getting out of bed, I rushed over to my closet and grabbed some black jeans, a white shirt, and black hoodie with an orange phoenix on it. I slid the hair tie on my wrist down to my fingers as I put my hair into a ponytail.

I grabbed my phone and rushed downstairs, taking an apple from the fruit basket. I ran out the door, looking around for the nearest bus stop. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going and ran into something, or rather someone.

I looked up, the woman had chest-length white hair with modern purple streaks. She wore a gray shirt with three purple stars on it, each a different size than the others. She was a lot taller than me, I felt a little intimidated.

"I-I'm so sorry, ma'am... I- I wasn't looking where I was going and-" I started to apologize, but was cut off by a kind voice.

"That's quite alright, hun, you seem a little distressed, may I ask what has you rushing?" She seemed nice enough, and although Aunt Dawn tells me not to trust strangers, she seems like she could help.

"I... well it's just that my aunt... she's having surgery and I have to be there in..." I trailed off. I looked over to my phone, the lock screen was a picture of a rose with water droplets sliding off of it. In white numbers the time said 9:38. "... 22 minutes." I finished what I was saying, my voice quavering a little.

She looked at me with sympathetic eyes and that's when I realized there was another person standing right beside her. She had an indigo-purple hair color with two streaks of magenta and soft purple, she wore glasses with thick black frames. She was a little shorter than me and looked about 15. She looked at me with curiosity, as our eyes met she immediately flicked her eyes back up to who I'm assuming is her mother.

Her mother noticed this and smiled, right when she was opening her mouth to say something, her daughter stepped in, "Would you like a ride there? We would be happy to take you if you're in that much of a rush." she asked in a smooth, warm tone that seemed to indicate that she really wanted to help. "Right, Mother?"

Her mother looked a little surprised, "Y-Yes... yes, we would be happy to..."

I looked at the young girl and smiled, showing her my gratitude, "Thank you so much! I would really appreciate that. That is... if it's not too much trouble..." I looked at the older one hoping she would say it was okay.

She smiled, "Of course it's not too much trouble! We just walked out of that Target across the street and were heading to that parking garage over there. I would be more than happy to let you tag along."

I smiled widely and followed them up the street, when all of a sudden the woman stopped, "Oh my! We are complete strangers to you! My name is Velvet and this is my daughter Twilight, and you are...?"

I looked up and remembered that they didn't know my name, "Oh! Sunset Shimmer, Sunset for short. Thank you so much for helping me, I really appreciate it." A little tear was building up in my eye at the generous gesture.

"Nice to meet you Sunset, and it's no problem at all, if we make it to the garage in time, we will be able to get you there around 9:50..." She started walking again and gestures for me and Twilight to follow.

Twilight looked like she wanted to say something, but kept walking. We then reached the car garage and took the elevator to the third level. Velvet pulled out her keys and pushed a button, a nearby car's lights flickered indicating it was theirs.

We walked over to the nice, white 2019 Jaguar I-Pace Twilight got into the back seat, Velvet got into the drivers side. I hesitantly walked over to the other side of the back seat and opened the car door. Once I sat down and buckled in, Twilight finally burst, "I'm sorry, but, would you like to be friends? I don't really have many friends and I just want to make a few more, so...?"

I half-smiled and tilted my head, "Yeah, I would love to be your friend... I actually don't have many friends either..." I turned my head and looked out the window at the passing buildings and sighed.

Then I heard a confused voice from next to me, "Really?" I turned back to look at Twilight who seemed genuinely confused, I slowly nodded, "But you're so pretty, how could anyone not want to be your friend?" She then realized what she had said and looked down at her feet and blushed in embarrassment.

Even though I was shocked I couldn't help but let out a little chuckle. "Wow... Thank you, I... Haven't really been thought of like that..." I trailed off getting lost in thought. Twilight looked a little surprised when I said that.

Velvet turned her head slightly so she was now looking at me, "Sunset, is this the right hospital?" she asked as we pulled into a parking space.

I looked at the tall building overhead and nodded. Velvet parked the car and the three of us filed out of the vehicle. We walked into the big building only to be greeted by my uncle pacing around with his head down. "Uncle Silver? What are you doing?" I said while taking a look around the lobby, blue chairs were lining the walls, some with adults and children occupying them. There were two receptionists at the front desk, the desk had four pencil holders with pig stickers on them, pens with flowers on the end were sitting neatly inside the holders.

When he heard my voice, he immediately looked up and rushed towards me, "Sunset! Thank God you're here, Dawn really wants to see you, her surgery starts in six minutes. Come on, her room is this way," he announced to me frantically. He grabbed my hand and ushered me toward the hallway, I stole one last glance at Twilight and saw that she was looking at me too.

Velvet had concern in her eyes, then sat down in one of the blue chairs, Twilight did the same. That alone seemed to say 'We'll wait here'. I was grateful I met them.

Silver was racing down the hallways with me in tow, when we all of a sudden stopped, which caused me to bump into Uncle Silver, he seemed nervous to go into the room. Room 36A...

I walked past my uncle and slowly turned the knob on the door, I pushed it open to find Aunt Dawn laying in a hospital bed wearing a blue hospital gown. When she heard the door open she looked up and the scared expression on her face changed to hope. "Sunset, I'm so glad you came, I really want you to be here..." She said in her honey-like voice. Her red hair was all over the place, and she seemed really distressed. I reached out my hand to hold hers and let a comforting smile creep onto my face.

"I will always be here for you Auntie! Just... just never say never."

She looked at me with pity, "How do you know I'm going to survive this procedure then?" I looked at her in shock, how could she say that! Of course she will survive! Well now that I think about it... I think they said she has a 75% chance of surviving... that's good... right...?

I looked at her, sorrow visible in my eyes, "Auntie, I will be here for you, please just stay strong for me, I need you, Silver needs you... Please...?" She sighed then looked at me, she then smiled, "For you and Silver, I will be strong, thank you."

Just then, a doctor walked over to me, "Ma'am we are going to need you to sit over there with that nice gentleman." He pointed over to Silver. I nodded and went to go sit down next to my uncle. He looked at me with a smile on his face. "Thank you, Sunset..." I smiled back then watched as they began the procedure.

LATER THAT DAY

I sat on the leather couch in the living room listening to yet another one of Aunt Dawn's stories. Silver was dying of laughter when Dawn got to the part where the giant snowball landed on a boy who then fell into manure... I was trying to hold in laughter even though we have both heard the story plenty of times. Once she got to the end of the story, the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it!" I said as I got up and went over to the door. Standing at the door was none other than Twilight Velvet and Twilight Sparkle. "Oh! Hello, what brings you here?"

Velvet's smile widened, "We wanted to stop by and see how your aunt is doing, we thought we would bring these lovely roses as a 'Get well soon' token. Twilight picked them out because she said they reminded her of you," she lifted up the red and yellow roses and handed them to me.

I looked at Twilight and blushed a little, then gladly took the flowers, "Please, come in, you need a proper introduction to my family... Well, most of my family," I opened the door all the way and held it open so they could come in.

I heard Uncle Stratosphere from the other room, "Who is it, Sunny?" My face went red at the nickname, I walked toward the living room with Velvet and Twilight in tow. Once we reached the room, Silver recognized them.

"Oh! It's you guys, the people who brought Sunny here to the hospital. We are so grateful that you did, or else she wouldn't have made it in time!" He stood up and shook Velvet's hand and introduced himself, "I'm Silver Stratosphere and this is my wife, Dawn Horizon."

Velvet smiled and glady shook his hand back, "This is my daughter Twilight Sparkle. I'm Twilight Velvet, but please, call me Velvet. Very nice to meet you." Velvet handed the flowers to Aunt Dawn, who happily accepted the beautiful roses. She then sat down on the couch and started chatting with my Aunt and Uncle.

I looked at Twilight who looked unsure of what to do in the moment. "Hey, so... wanna, check out my room?" I looked at my feet. Why am I so nervous?

"You know, anything to get away from boring adult conversations." my lame attempt at a joke actually caused her to laugh. Wow, her laugh is like... an angel, ascending back to heaven...

After the laughter died down, she looked at me with gratitude. "Yeah, sure."

I smiled a toothy smile and as I started to walk upstairs. I gestured for Twilight to follow, we reached my room and Twilight paused at the door, taking a look around. She found a red chair in the corner of my room and took a seat.

"Wow, your room is very nice..." She scanned the area and saw a Twenty One Pilots poster taped above my bed, "You listen to Twenty One Pilots?" She stood up and walked over to my desk at the side of my room, patiently listening for a reply.

I scratched the back of my neck and looked over to where she stood. "Heh, yeah, I guess it was a phase for awhile, then I eventually gave in and decided that it really wasn't." I jumped face-first onto my bed, then sat up, "So, Ms. Sparkle, anything about you I should know?"

Twilight walked over to me and sat next to me on the bed, "Well... I have a dog, his name is Spike, he's a beagle. I also have a brother, his name is Shining Armor, he was a Senior, he just recently graduated high school at Crystal Prep." I cringed when she said 'Crystal Prep'. They were never really good sports to CHS, no matter what we did to change their mood.

I snapped out of my thoughts when I heard Twilight's voice again. "So... What about you? Any other family?"

I thought for a moment, "Yeah, I recently got a kitten, his name is Phoenix, he's a red and orange tabby cat. I have a sister, she's in college, her name is Tigerlily, I also have a brother, he is my younger brother, his name is Neon Sparks, he's in 7th grade." I finished, remembering my siblings who were still in Canterlot.

She looked at me, she had a look of curiosity on her face, but her eyes hid a small layer of confusion. She's probably wondering about my parents... "Wow, a cat huh? That brings back memories..."

I looked at her expectantly, "Well you see, my brother is actually allergic to cats, so it's a little difficult for him," She laughed softly at the memory. A faint smile visible on her face.

I lifted myself from my bed. I made my way to a drawer, opening it. Inside were drawing supplies and notebooks, I grabbed a dark brown one that had a sun split into crimson on the right and yellow on the left.

"Wanna see something?" I asked her, expecting her to say yes, I closed the drawer and looked over to Twilight.

"Yeah, what is it?" Curiosity overtaking her voice.

"Well, this is a diary that my mom used to keep, I read it a few times, but let me tell ya, there's some funny stuff in there," I handed the book to Twilight, and she quickly flipped through the pages, "Just don't go past page 91, that's my part of the diary." She sensed the sternness in my voice and just nodded as she continued to flip through the book.

Twilight's glasses were slowly sliding down her nose until they reached the tip. She scrunched her nose in an attempt to position them upright again, but the attempt failed. She insead used her pinkie finger to push the back up to the bridge of her nose. I silently watched her read and smiled to myself.

Cute...

Word Count: 2,740

A/N: Thank you so much for sticking around to read this, I would also like to remind you, this is a collab with Sunrise_Mist, It is an effort we are both proud of and if I'm being honest, I wrote most of it xD shhh, I said nothing. The cover was made by Alicornofweirdness, She did an amazing job. But yeah, thanks!