Ten years is a long time, so Sunset Shimmer thinks. Ten years since she was last a pony. Ten years since she started her life anew as a citizen of Canterlot City. Ten years since making a group of wonderful friends. Ten years of absence from Equestria.

She's perfectly fine with that absence continuing for many years to come.

Twilight Sparkle doesn't appreciate Sunset's reluctance to talk about the past. She's been studying the strange activities surrounding Shimmer since they were teenagers, and has only found further questions. But a murder with ties to Equestria gives Twilight the chance to learn the truth about magic. To stop a terrible enemy from rising again, they must both journey through the mirror. Enlightenment is at Twilight's fingertips.

She doesn't quite know what to think when she meets Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Written before Friendship Games was released.

Twilight is new to Canterlot High, forced to leave her friend's and school since her dad got a new job. This is the story of how she met Sunset Shimmer and the rest of her friends. Join her as she makes her way through High School and all the experiences it provides. New Friends, first love, and dealing with bullies all await her and her friends, can they make it through it all together?

Art by: https://www.deviantart.com/looknamtcn

Professor Twilight Sparkle has spent her adult life trying to forget the follies of her youth, and the fiery sorceress whose betrayal shattered her heart.

Sunset Shimmer has built an empire of steel and science in memory of the otherworldly power she once wielded, and of the soft-spoken scientist she once called "friend."

Now, fifteen years after the disaster which tore their bonds asunder, a new threat will force these two former friends to reunite in order to save both worlds. And as the past collides with the present, Sunset and Twilight will learn that even in a world without magic, friendship and love still have the power to do the impossible.

Set after Legend of Everfree. Later Equestria Girls stories aren't necessarily canon to this timeline.

Pre-read by ChudoJogurt.

Cover art by Kare Valgon.

(2018-25-04) Featured on Equestria Daily!

Story has been written and will update weekly until completion.

This story is a sequel to My past does not define me

It's been one month since Anon-A-Miss' reign of terror through the school. One month since the school was divided. One month since Sunset was framed and persecuted by her fellow students. One month since the CMC admitted their involvement, and were punished.

Sunset should be thrilled, after all her name was cleared and everyone's been bending over backwards to make it up to her. This should be something that brings the entire school together and make her friendships stronger.
But it hasn't.

Sunset feels more alone than ever now. Having lost all trust for the girls assigned to teach her and believing her past will always haunt her, no matter how much she tries to show she's changed.

With the Friendship Games coming up, can CHS band together and defeat Crystal Prep? Will Sunset be able to forgive her fellow students and friends? How is the CMC going to make up for their mistake?

Featured November 17th, 2021

This story is a sequel to Playing with Fire

How does one recover from falling below rock bottom?

That’s what the former queen bee of Canterlot High will have to answer, ever since the events of her Junior year Fall Formal. In under an hour, Sunset Shimmer had fallen from the most feared girl in school to the most reviled. Now, nobody is afraid of her, and they’re going to let her know every day till they graduate.

Sunset however seems, surprisingly, regretful of who she was, and she’s desperate to make up for everything she did. It’d too bad no one will ever giver her the light of day, especially after she turned into a demon. How does one live that down?

And these girls, the ones who caused all of this in the first place, why are they making the effort to reach out to her? She broke apart their friendship. She bullied them all relentlessly. She nearly killed them.
They should hate her the most!

Yet... they provide her with something she’s desperately lacking: hope.

Sunset Shimmer, the mean Queen B of Canterlot High School gets her life changed by a young genius scientist. A month and a half before the Fall Formal.
She learns new things about herself and gains a new lenses to life. A new lenses that just might be too much to handle for the human unicorn as she begins to understand the error of her ways.

If there's one thing we can count on, it's Twilight Sparkle, prized student and newest princess, to botch up a spell in her quest to master all of magic.

This time, it propels her to a new world, this one not inhabited by bipeds, but ponies like herself, and yet not like herself. She has entered the realm of Everglow, where the queen is a queen, and ponies suffer horribly lethal combat much more often than Equestria could manage under the peaceful reign of its alicorn caretakers.

Will she find her way back home, to her friends and responsibilities? Will she survive the harsh new realm she has entered?

Based on Ponyfinder. Want to support the author? Check out his Patreon.

Profanity Warning: Sunset Shimmer isn't afraid to use pony profanity and expect that to spread to others later. While it is essentially kid-friendly profanity, profanity is still profanity.

Two weeks after her fraternal brother had gone missing, Sunset Shimmer encountered Twilight Sparkle, and ended up becoming the purple unicorn's surrogate big sister. This not only caused things to change for the both of them, but also it healed the hole in Sunset's heart in ways even the orange unicorn was unaware that she needed.

Welcome to the rebooted version of the "When Friendship Shimmers" universe. Things will be starting of differently here, with some fun HCs, a few surprises, and an altered opening. The surprises will be starting right out the gate though, if the fact that the story starting with "Season 0" wasn't already an indication that things are not the same from the original version of this universe. And here's hoping this time, people will enjoy the story I wish to tell. Oh, and let's just say...I've taken some creative liberities out of the gate.

Currently revealed HCs:
Sunburst is considered Sunset's baby half-brother, both sharing the same mother but two different fathers
Sunset has her own dragon companion known as Ray (named after the lizard pet she has in the Equestria Girls world from the original cannon, though only the name and color match)
A land north of what will become the Crystal Empire is part of the grand Eeveelution Kingdom known as Icicle Vally; making the kingdom neighbors to Equestria itself. Lightning Town & Team Strikers being from outside Equestria, but Raiden's fame of being a hometown hero is enough to basically allow them to be in equestria without any problems.

Currently revealed relationships:
Sunburst & Sunset being half-siblings
Sunset being Twilight's surrogate older sister
King Throsten; formally Prince Throsten; being an Equestrian Ally alongside the entire Eeveelution Kingdom.
Dragon Ray and Spike treating each other like brothers because of their unicorn companions being surrogate sisters
Scootaloo being Rainbow Dash's Biological LIttle Sister

Notice: While Throsten and his eight Eeveelution wives are part of this reboot, they will only appear in non-plot relevant episodes as side characters. This story is not about them, this story is about an alternate MLP:FiM world where Sunset Shimmer becomes Twilight Sparkle's surrogate sister

Update 8/12/2023 - This story now has a cover art, but this one isn't the long-term one. I did find the cover art that is up right now and thought it'd be nice to have up as this story before certain events happen. Plus, I think by having cover art for before Sunset becomes an alicorn in this universe, it adds to the progression of the story.

Update 8/14/2023 - Fanfiction author "Sunset JJ" is trying to repost this story on Fanfiction without my permission. The next chapter will have to now include the "Rob Snowden Production" notice to deter them away from copying more of this story. Please only read the version on this website as this is the only true official verison. The one on Fanfiction is being created by a story stealer.

Update 8/25/2023 - This Story has entered the featured story section as of today. Honestly, looks like this has become the popular story of this account.

Update 8/28/2023 - Someone made a comment about the way I'm portraying DID in this story. If you want the behind the scenes info, and have issues with what I'm doing with DID, read this blog post: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/1021373/marana-milissa-and-did-behind-the-scenes

Update 10/19/2023 - A death tag has been added for saftey reasons. Not all chapters will contain instances of death though. Only chapters with the specific warning attached will actually have deaths in them. Better to be safe then sorry though.

Update 12/19/2023 - There currently seems to be an ongoing issue where trying to change the cover of the story breaks the site. Until this gets fixed, you guys are just going to have to deal with the temporary cover. I apologize for this inconvenience, but right now, this is beyond my control.

Update 12/22/2023 - While trying to figure out how to upload the cover I wanted to put on this story, I came across this one, and this is much closer to what I originally envision AS the cover in the first place. So I consider this a win.

Update 5/21/2023 - Story has been cancelled. Read the author's note in the latest public chapter to find a link to a blog post explaining why. Also, story is not up for adoption. As in no one is allowed to finish this story for me. And I better not get PMs asking about adopting it. The answer will always be no.