//------------------------------// // Volume I - Chapter 8: Home // Story: The Amazing Sunset Shimmer // by KozLeMage //------------------------------// Two months ago… Two years… Two years she was planning her revenge upon the mentor, the mother figure, that betrayed her. All she wanted was knowledge, and when Sunset was finally able to get it, she was thrown like garbage by the one who was supposed to help her. That rage burned up in Sunset’s stomach for two long years now. And when Sunset got the power she was seeking for her revenge, she got her ass kicked by some princess send by her former mentor. It was all going too well, she managed to run upon the school she hated, she managed to travel to her home world to steal an element of harmony and she managed to make up a plan to rule over Equestria. But, since the day she was born, Sunset knew the universe wasn’t on her side. Even when she puts that crown upon her head, she managed to get all the powers she ever wanted, but she failed, badly. When she was hit by that rainbow, she felt all the pain and the sadness she caused those past years, but not just in this world, but all she did in Equestria too. This is why, for the first time since she arrived in this world, she cried. She wanted to get out of that crater, but her body was hurting her so much that she had to crawl to do it, which made her more pathetic than ever. “You will never rule in Equestria. Any power you may have had in this world is gone. Tonight, you've shown everyone who you really are. You've shown them what is in your heart.” Princess Twilight Sparkle said, looking down to her mentor’s former student. Sunset succeeds, as well as can be, to crawl out of that crater. She looked at that princess who managed to crush all her dreams, and looked down. She had to hate her, she needed to hate her… But she didn’t, all Sunset felt was, sadness, sorrow and remorse. For the first time in her entire life she was sorry. “I-I'm sorry. I'm so sorry... I didn't know there was another way.” Sunset cried. Sunset thought that Twilight Sparkle would look at her with anger, but it wasn’t the case. Sunset saw in her eyes, that she actually was sorry for her. “The magic of friendship doesn't just exist in Equestria.” The Princess said. “It's everywhere. You can seek it out, or you can forever be alone. The choice is yours.” Seek for the magic of friendship? A few hours ago, Sunset would laugh to death to even think about that. But now, she was actually considering it, but there was a small problem here. “But... But all I've ever done since being here is drive everyone apart. I don't know the first thing about friendship.” Twilight smiled and kneeled to help Sunset getting up to her feet, she smiled at her and pointed in her friend’s direction. “I bet they can teach you.” Sunset looked at these girls, with various degree of smiles, Pinkie had the biggest. She had no idea, had that moment, that these girls will be the most important thing to her from now on. Pinkie Pie. She used to hate her so much for being always happy and boring, but now she couldn’t even think about being mad at her. Rarity. What Sunset didn’t like about her at first was that she wanted to be their high school diva. Maybe she would’ve hated her even more if she didn’t have that in common. Applejack. Peasant, this is the word she used to call her and her family. But now, she almost felt like Applejack was her big sister. Fluttershy. It was so easy to pick on her. Sunset just couldn’t not to do it. But now, she was ready to fight anyone who was bothering her. And Rainbow Dash. Oh, Sunset and Rainbow used to fight a lot back then, maybe this is why Sunset felt so close to her now. After this night, Sunset’s life took a big turn. She now had friends to rely on. And of course, there also was Celestia. The caring woman who took her in when she had nowhere else to go. Funny thing that the counterpart of the person, or pony, who kicked her out of her home, was the one who took her to her new home. When Sunset entered Celestia’s house for the first time, Celestia told her “Welcome home.” And it was the exact same thing Princess Celestia told her the first time Sunset entered Canterlot’s castle. After all, maybe loosing wasn’t all that bad? The Amazing Sunset Shimmer – Volume I: With great power comes great responsibility Final Act – Part 1/3 “Home” “Okay now it’s my turn!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed before she pointed towards Sunset’s direction. “Sunset! Truth or dare?” ‘I hate that stupid game.’ Sunset thought, despite the smile she wore on her face. It was Halloween, and Rainbow hosted a Halloween party at her house. Her parents were kind enough to let them the house for the night. The girls, and Red, had arrived maybe four or five hours ago, Pinkie was disguised in a pink Pikachu fursuit, but she quickly dropped the mask off because she didn’t see nothing with it. Applejack was a scarecrow. Sunset had to used all of her determination not to comment about that one. Rarity was a Disney princess. Which? Sunset couldn’t tell, they all looked the same to her. Fluttershy was a rabbit. And Red who didn’t came in disguise had to undergone the wrath of the girls. So, to make it a real girl’s night, they disguised him in a teenage girl. Of course, he tried to fight his way out of it, but as strong as he was, he couldn’t do anything against the five girls. He wasn’t happy at first, but he decided to tag along, it looked like he even enjoyed it a little. So, he was dressed with a dress Rainbow took from her mother. She hoped she won’t notice. He even wore a pink wig that looked like Fluttershy’s hair. And from now on, all the girls would refer to him as ‘her’. They were now all sitting in circle in the middle of Rainbow’s living room. A lot of candy papers and empty soda cans were on the floor, they’d all agreed to help cleaning at the end of the night. “Okay, I’ll say truth then.” Sunset said, crossing her arms, a confident look on her face. “Why?” Pinkie cried, “I wanted you to pick dare!” Sunset raised her eyebrow. “Hum, can I ask why?” She asked. “I wanted you to do dirty things to Rainbow!” Rainbow blushed heavily and screamed, “Hey!” Everyone laughed. “I actually would love to see that.” Red said, taking a drink from his can of mountain dew. Everyone laughed harder except Rainbow who blushed even more. “I bet you do.” Sunset said. “So, Pinkie, what’s your question?” Pinkie seemed to think for a second and said, “Oooooh, I know! I know!” She said, bouncing up and down. Rainbow rolled her eyes and said, “Spit it out already.” “Sunset?” Pinkie asked. “Pinkie?” Sunset said. “I challenge you to say to us who you are into right now!” Pinkie exclaimed. Sunset blinked twice before asking, “I’m sorry, can you repeat that one?” “I saiiiid, who are you into right now? Who’s your crush? Say it! Say it!” Pinkie exclaimed, with her usual high-pitched voice. “Yes, say it!” Rarity said. Fluttershy, who was right next to Sunset, put her hands on her shoulder and said, “You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” “Yes, she has.” Red said, “It’s actually the point of the game.” He received an annoyed look from Fluttershy and he asked, “What?” “I want to know too!” Rainbow giggled. Sunset smiled at the excitement of her friends and said, “I’m sorry Pinkie but, I’m not into anyone right now.” Everyone, except Red and Fluttershy, looked disappointed, but Rarity didn’t let go. “Come on Sunset! You’re a teenage girl! Of course you’re into someone!” Sunset looked at her with a pained smile au shrugged her shoulders, “Sorry Rare.” Rarity looked at the ground and sighed in defeat. “Well, I guess it’s my turn then.” Sunset said. She turned to the person who was sitting to her left and said to her, “Red, truth or dare?” “There’s no way I’m picking dare.” He said crossing his arms. ‘Damn!’ Sunset thought. ‘Sorry Rainbow, it seems I’m a bad wingwoman.’ “Okay then, well, talk to us about you, we don’t know you very well after all.” Sunset said. All her friends agreed on that. Red looked at them and said, “Well what do you want to know? I’m an open book.” “Well, you can talk to us about your family?” Fluttershy asked. Red shrugged and said, “There’s not much to say, my mother died when I was six, I loved her very much. My father was an alcoholic morron, and when my mother died, he didn’t seem to care about us anymore, so I had to take care of my little sister.” Everyone gasped. “Your mother died?” Fluttershy asked. “Your father was alcoholic?” It was Applejack this time. “You have a sister?” Rainbow said, raising an eyebrow. “Yes. To you three.” He said. Fluttershy looked at her feet and said, “I’m sorry I shouldn’t have asked…” “It’s okay really. It was a long time ago.” He said nonchalantly. “And what are they up to now?” Rainbow Rarity asked. “Your father and your sister I mean.” “My father died a few years ago. And I haven’t seen my sister in a long time, I don’t know what she’s up to now.” He said. “I guess that if I haven’t heard about her, it means that she’s okay.” “What’s her name?” Sunset asked. Yes, she was curious too. Red smiled in her direction, “Well, that’s a lot more than one question. And it’s my turn now.” He said, “Now, Pinks can you make me a favor and pick truth please?” “Sure! I pick truth!” She said. “Hey that’s unfair!” Rainbow exclaimed. “There’s no rules in a street truth or dare, RD.” Applejack said. Red smiled and asked, “Pinks, can you tell me what the fuck is wrong with you?” Everyone looked a Red curiously and Fluttershy puts her hands on her mouth, but Pinkie laughed and said, “My parents said it’s because I ate to much candy!” She exclaimed, putting a candy in her mouth. “But I can stop whenever I want.” “That makes sense.” Red said. “No, it doesn’t.” Rainbow facepalmed. She was happy. With all her friends surrounding her… Well not exactly all her friends, Twilight wasn’t there. But she knew she was working tonight, so even if she had invited her, Twilight will have no choice but to decline the offer. Sunset felt her phone vibrating in her pocket, she looked who it was, rolled her eyes and put it back in her pocket. Meanwhile… “Enter the algorithm now.” Dr. Conhorse said to Twilight. Still on their work of transferring lizard’s regeneration capability into a cure. They were trying to harness this capability in transferring into their host subject, Freddie, the three-legged mouse. She did as she was told and put the algorithm into the computer, “Okay, check.” She said, “See what I’m trying to do?” Dr. Conhorse nodded, “Preempt the protein.” “Yes, preempt the immune response.” She said as she pressed enter on her keyboard. But, unfortunately, it failed. “Try it again.” Twilight did, but it failed again. “Damnit.” She said. She tried again, and again, and again, but it failed every time. “What did we do wrong?” Dr. Conhorse asked. Twilight thought about it and scratched her chin, “Wait!” She exclaimed, “I think I know…” She entered the new algorithm she just thought of, and… “It worked!” After several failed attempt, the computer finally declares the regeneration has been successful. “Extraordinary!” The doctor exclaimed. He jumped forward and trapped Twilight in a thigh hug, “Thanks Twilight! I couldn’t do it without you!” She blushed vehemently and said, “It-It’s nothing really, you did most of the work…” “Are you kidding?” He said, “Twilight, we’ve found the answer in just a few days! I’ve been working on this for years! I knew hiring you was the best thing I’ve ever done!” Twilight smiled and giggled. Then Dr. Conhorse shows Twilight their live mouse test subject. Twilight opened the cage and grabbed it. “Don’t worry buddy, I got you.” She said to the mouse. The cure already being synthetized, thanks to Discorp high end technology, the doctor took the vial and put it in a syringe. He approached Twilight and Freddie. “Okay. Careful, wouldn't want to inject you by mistake. Human trials aren't until next week.” Twilight glare at him, but he smiles at her, and Twilight giggled. Then he injected the serum in the mouse. Celestia’s phone dropped on the kitchen’s table as she put her face in her hands and sighed heavily. “Please Sunset, answer…” She gets up from her seat to make some tea. It was at least one in the morning but Celestia wasn’t sleeping. She hasn’t slept well since Sunset’s outburst. She at least hopped that Sunset would listen to her voicemail. Of course, she knew Sunset was right. Of course, Celestia had doubt towards her at first but, she knew she wasn’t a bad kid. And, maybe they were only living together for two months, but Sunset was already family, and she considered her as her own daughter. She wasn’t afraid to say it. And she had to say it to Sunset. But for that she had to answer her phone. As she was going to pour herself some tea in her mug, she dropped it on the floor and it shattered in pieces. “Perfect.” She sighed. Luna wasn’t there to comfort her, she had some business to take care of out of the city for the night, she was going to be back tomorrow. So, it was Celestia, by herself. Just her in this big, empty house. She didn’t notice at first how lively their lives became when Sunset arrived. Before her, it was just Celestia and Luna, and as much as Celestia loved her sister, Luna wasn’t a talkative person. She usually locked herself in her room to play games on her computer. But when Sunset arrived, Celestia had someone to talk to every time, she had someone to cook with, someone to watch movies with. Celestia noticed she was crying when she felt tears running down her face. She dropped herself in her chair and tried to call Sunset one more time. But as she was going to hit the ‘call’ button, she heard a strange noise coming from her roof. “What was that?” After the game of truth or dare, the girls watched movies, played monopoly and Pinkie brought her Nintendo Switch to play some super smash bros. Sunset asked Pinkie if she always had her Switch in her bag which she replied “Just in case of Nintendo Switch emergency.” Instead of asking what kind of emergency it was, Sunset just grabbed a joycon and selected her character, a dinosaur named Yoshi. Rainbow picked Ganondorf, Pinkie took Luigi and Red took Inkling. Sunset wasn’t that much of a gamer, maybe that’s why she lost her three lives and got smashed out of the screen just after two minutes. But even Pinkie who, Sunset knew, played a lot on her Switch, was quickly ejected by the other two competitors. And, in the end, Red got smashed out of the screen. “Ah! Suck it!” She said pointing in Red’s direction. “Yeah, well played.” He said putting down his controller. He let Rainbow gloat, and Sunset came to his side, “You could’ve won, you could’ve avoided her smash and beat her.” Red, getting another soda, looked at her and smiled. “Don’t tell me you let her w-“ But Sunset didn’t finished her sentence when she felt something inside her. She had pain where her heart was, she grabbed her shirt and fell on her knees. “Woah, Sunset!” Red came to her side, followed closely by their friends. “Sunset are you okay?” Rarity asked, kneeling in front of her friend. “I-I’m good.” Sunset said. The pain was gone as soon as it came. “It… It’ll maybe sound crazy but…” She started. “What? What’s going on?” Rainbow asked. Sunset knew something was wrong, but she didn’t know what. But she had a feeling. A feeling she couldn’t describe. She had to go home. “I have to go home.” She said. “What? Now? I thought you didn’t want-“ Rainbow started. But Sunset stood up and walked towards the entrance door. But Applejack stood in her way. “Calm down here sugarcube, what’s goin’ o- Sunset are you crying?” She is? Sunset put her hand on her cheek and felt it was wet. Something definitely was wrong. She looked at Applejack and said. “I really have to go home.” “Okay then, if it’s what you wanna do, Ah’m not goin’ to stop ya’ there.” Applejack said. “But at least let me drive ya’ there.” “No!” Sunset screamed, taking aback her friends. “No. I mean, stay here girls, it’s probably nothing, really.” She turned towards her friends. “I’m sorry girls I have to go, I’ll call you okay?” Her friends nodded and she grabbed her bag and leave. “Welcome home!” Celestia cheered. Sunset didn’t know what to say, she was there, standing in this living room, feeling like a total stranger. She felt something pinched her left arm “Ouch!” She screamed. Celestia smiled at her and said, “I’ve said, welcome home!” “I-I’m home…” Sunset said. “That’s better! Follow me I’ll show your room!” She said starting to walk towards the stairs. Sunset followed her and Celestia leaded her into an empty room, filled with some furniture and a bed. Sunset entered and walked around, it was cleaner than her old factory. It smells better too. “I know it’s not too much for now,” Celestia started “But I know that you’ll be able to decorate it as you like.” Sunset looked at Celestia, but no words came to her. So, she approached her and hugged her. “Thanks...” Sunset said. She had to be quick! She wasn’t fast enough! ‘Fuck!’ She was swinging throughout the city, but she didn’t know why she had to be quick. But she knew something bad was going to happen, or worse, already happened. She swinged, left, then right, then left again… “I won’t be there in time! Come on Sunset!” But she heard something that deconcentrated her, she looked were the sound was coming from and saw a woman getting robed in an adjacent street. She didn’t think twice and swinged in her direction. She landed behind the thug and dropped kick him in the back, he landed unconsciously on the ground. “Thanks…” The woman started but Sunset was already gone, she had no time to waste. She landed on a roof to catch her breath for a second, before jumping from it and she shoots a weeb on the nearest building before she starts swinging again. Then, she saw something through the sky, something like a… Bird? No… It wasn’t a bird. She known all to well what, or who, it was. And it came straight from… “My house!” She screamed. She would be there any minutes now. “I… I can’t accept that.” Sunset Said to Celestia and Luna, both were smiling at her. When they’ve heard that Sunset didn’t have a computer, Luna ran to ne nearest tech store and bought her one. She didn’t even bother to hide the price written on the box, it was written ‘899$’. It made Sunset very uncomfortable. “Oh yes you can, and you will.” Luna said, firmly. “You’ll need it for school after all Sunset.” Celestia said, in a much softer voice. Sunset sighed but didn’t push it, she knew they weren’t going to take no as an answer. “I’m going to repay you one day.” Sunset stated. Celestia put her hand on Sunset’s shoulder, “You don’t have to…” “But I want to.” Sunset said, “If you want me to accept it, then you have to accept that.” Celestia and Luna looked at each other’s, before they both began to laugh. “W-what?” Sunset asked. “Nothing Sunset.” Luna said before leaving the living room. Celestia was going to follow her but she stopped when she heard Sunset calling her, “Celestia?” Celestia turned around to look at her, “Yes?” Sunset smiled, the biggest and most sincere smile Celestia ever saw on her face. “Thanks, again.” Celestia smile, approached Sunset, and kissed her on her forehead before heading for the kitchen. Sunset stood there, in chock. She put her hand where Celestia had kissed her, and she giggled “Eheheheh.” As she arrived in front of her house, she screamed in horror at what she saw. The wall who used to stood the entrance door was completely destroyed. Shen ran inside and called, “Celestia! Celestia! I’m here!” But nobody answered. Cold sweat was running down Sunset’s spine. She looked through the living room, but nothing there. Maybe she’ll had more luck in the kitchen. “Celestia!” She called running in the kitchen. There she saw, lying on the ground, the body of her mentor’s counterpart. “CELESTIA!” She screamed. She ran at her side and took her pulse. ‘She’s alive!’ Sunset thought, already composing the number of the ambulance. But she felt something grabbing her wrist, it was Celestia. Looking at her. “D-Don’t worry ma’am!” Sunset said, lowering her voice. “I’ll call the amb-” “Take that mask off.” Celestia said, with a weak voice. “Let me see your face Sunset.” Sunset did what she was told, and cried. “You knew?” “Since the first day.” Celestia said. “I’m so sorry!” Sunset said. She grabbed Celestia’s hand with both of hers. She closed her eyes et rely her head on her mother figure’s hand, “I’m so, so, so sorry! For everything!” “Don’t be sorry Sunset…” Celestia said, her voice getting weaker and weaker. “I-I want you to know Sunset that… I love you. More than everything.” “Me too!” Sunset was crying, she never had cried that much. She opened her eyes, to look at her, but Celestia’s eyes were closed. “No, no, no, nononono!” She cried. She didn’t have to check her pulse, she knew she wasn’t breathing anymore. “No please…” She did it anyway, but it was too late. “No please, don’t leave me…” But Sunset was talking to herself. Because no one here heard her. She was alone, again. “Don’t leave me mom…”