It's hard to forgive yourself of past mistakes when you feel like the people you've wronged may still be harboring ill-will toward you. Sunset Shimmer desperately wants to move on with her life, to accept her new friends truly do love her for who she is, but she can't stop thinking about her past. So what do you do when you want to begin a road to healing? You go back to the beginning and find out where it all went wrong, then rebuild the bridges you've burned to bring you to a better future.

Princess Celestia has something to tell Sunset Shimmer.

Something about her parents.

It's nothing strange at all.

Yep.

Rated Teen and Sex for a very brief mention of how babies are made.

It was just like any other night. The moon had been up for hours and the ponies rested peacefully in their beds. Celestia, on this normal night, decides to take a stroll around the quiet palace.

This seemingly routine walk changes everything for her as she finds one young unicorn thief trying to rob her.

And this thief, harnessing magical powers quite rare to normal unicorns, catches Celestia's attention.

Sunset Shimmer has been worrying her friends of late. It had started off as her talking around the subject of home. Then outright avoiding it.

It isn't that her friends want to have a sleepover at her place, or have her host a Pinkie Party. They're just worried. Sunset does have somewhere to call home right? A roof over her head and a warm place to sleep?

EQG. Set after Friendship Games and before. Takes plot points from the comic special. Notes per chapter as needs must.

Just a story I wrote trying to escape writers block on other projects. It sort of ran away with me. Name comes from this track, but it didn't have much influence on the story. In need of cover art if anyone can point me to something good.

Now with cover art from Novel-Idea, designer of the fine image now applied.

Sunset Shimmer has made many mistakes. She's been rude to others. She's been completely oblivious to the power that friendship has. And she's turned into a massive, flaming demon of rage and attempted to enslave a small group of teenage students.

Sunset's had plenty of time to learn from her mistakes in the human world, but home is where the heart is, and Sunset Shimmer is ready to see it again.

Now with a Sequel!

Rated T for mild profanity.

This story is a sequel to Rise of the Phoenix Empress

It has been nearly nine hundred years since Sunbeam Sparkle claimed the throne of Equestria after Celestia’s abdication. In that time, she has forged Equestria into a powerful centralized empire that spans most of the known world. Even the distant griffons and zebras pay reluctant homage to the Phoenix Empress.

In this series of connected one-shots, we’ll be taking a look at life the new Equestria Sunbeam Sparkle has forged, through the eyes of its inhabitants.

Study Buddies: Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle are the Empress’ co-students. They also rather dislike each other, mostly due to Sunset’s less than friendly attitude. Can they find a way to work together to fulfill the Empress’ high expectations, or will they just end up trying to kill each other?

This story is a sequel to A Moment in the Sun

Sunset Shimmer is on the run. It's been six months since she left her life as Princess Celestia's student behind, but she can't escape her own past. Her parents are offering a reward for her safe return home, and Celestia's agents are watching her every step. She might have gotten out of Canterlot, but the runaway student is still a long way from freedom. Especially since her education with the Princess of Equestria didn’t cover things like how to make a living wage with her magical skills.

However, there might still be one place where she can escape all of them. The infamous island nation of Freeport has long had a reputation as a haven for pirates, criminals, and exiles, but there's no better place in the world for somepony who wants to disappear. The only question is whether Sunset will live long enough to pull it off.

Sunbeam Sparkle is not a good pony. She might not be pure evil, but she is ruthless, ambitious, and so power-hungry that she would even aspire to usurp Celestia's throne. Worse, she succeeds in manipulating Celestia into not only surrendering rule over Equestria, but her immortality as well.

It is often said that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. In most cases that’s true. Many good ponies have begun with good intentions, but slowly lost their way. However, this is not always the case. A rare few virtuous ponies have the character and strength of will to resist temptation, and are never corrupted by their authority.

Even rarer, there comes a time when gaining power makes a pony better than they were before. This is one such story.

Following the events of the "Friendship Games," Sunset comes to a hard decision to return to Equestria and face her former mentor after so many years.

*Special thanks to SuperPinkBrony12 for collaborating and editing.

As the eternal regent of Equestria, Princess Celestia's knowledge of magic is without equal. Over her long life, only a few gifted ponies who had a great destiny before them have had the honor of learning at her side. Sunset Shimmer was one such pony: one of Celestia’s best and most promising students. As she learned at Celestia’s hooves, their bond strengthened until they became far more than student and teacher to one another.

Sometimes those closest to us are the ones who can hurt us the most.

[Note: This story does not directly tie into Equestria Girls]