You like Sunset Shimmer- not that you'd tell anyone, of course. Somehow, someway, you've managed to wiggle your way into the periphery of her social circle at Canterlot High, and now she's taken notice of you enough to ask you over to help her study for the next history exam.

EDIT: Featured 5/19/19!
EDIT: Now with an AUDIO READING by Lonely Fanboy48!

Graduation is quickly approaching Canterlot High. While Sunset Shimmer is happy about this celebratory milestone, something has kept her believing there's more to do back in Equestria. Along the way, she begins to think back on her past, try to understand things she had never questioned before, and take an extended return to Equestria. Little does she know, she would eventually uncover an incredibly dark and unexpected truth...

Sunset has decided to return home... wherever that may be.

The orphanage where she was left?

The castle where the princess had emotionally abandoned her?

She walks the foreign but familiar world, hoping to find something to make her life worthwhile.

Will she find somewhere, or someone, to call home?

[Cover by Mirrored Sea]

Sunset decides to dress up as a demon for a Nightmare Night party. Her fellow students don't handle it all that well and now Sunset has to deal with her unwanted reign.

On a visit to Equestria, Sunset Shimmer discovers she and Princess Twilight have an unexpected connection from their school days... so they go check it out together...

Set in the MLP/EQG timeline, following Mirror Magic and Forgotten Friendship, but before Spring Breakdown.

Now has a YouTube fanfic reading, courtesy of user Lonely Fanboy48. Many thanks!

This story is a sequel to In Luna's Embrace

School's almost over. It's midterms, and classes are worse than ever. But one day, when your exams for the day are over, you have nothing better to do than kick back in the library. While you're there, a girl you've seen around introduces herself to you.

By the time you leave, a sunset is lowering in the distance, but the hopes of another Sunset are rising.

The newest and hottest game on the market is Sword Art Online, or SAO. A VRMMORPG, Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, Sword Art Online takes the player into a virtual reality world of swords and shields. Only 10,000 copies were sold online or in stores. But quickly, things go wrong and the fight goes from fun, to survival.

To escape the game of death, the game must be cleared. All 100 floors of the floating iron castle, known as Aincrad, must be conquered. If you die in game, you die in real life. The NerveGear will fry your brain. The same goes if the NerveGear is removed while you are in the game, you die.

Sword Art Online is a game of swords and shields with no magic. The game isn't designed to handle their Equestrian Magic. Sunset Shimmer must make sure that her friends and guildmates escape the game, or at least survive long enough until the game is defeated.

This story is a Serial Novel Society story: Updates will be at least on a weekly, Tuesday, basis.

*Pre-knowledge of Sword Art Online is not required. The Pilot Episode covers all you need to know.
**First Featured Tuesday, November 12, 2019. Also on 12/3/19, 12/10/19, 01/14/20, 2/11/20, 2/18/20, 2/25/20, 3/3/20, 3/10/20, 3/17/20, 3/24/20, 3/31/20, 4/14/20, 4/21/20, 4/28/20, 5/5/20, 5/19/20, 5/26/20, 6/2/20, 6/9/20, 6/23/2020, 6/30/2020, 7/28/20, 8/4/20, 8/18/20, 8/25/20, 8/27/20, 9/1/20, 9/8/20, 9/15/20, 9/22/20, 9/29/20, 10/20/20, 10/27/20, 11/3/2020, 11/10/20, 11/17/20, 12/1/20, 12/8/20, 12/15/20, 12/22/20, 12/29/20, 1/5/21, 1/19/21, 2/2/21, ICE, 2/23/21, 3/2/21, 3/9/21, 3/16/21, 3/23/21, & 3/30/21.

Want to know what is happening outside the SAO in the real world? There is a story for them! Link to the Asides.

A big thank you to my editor, Void Runner.
A special thanks to SuperSonicHeroes and Wildfiretiremile. Each helped a lot with Beta Reading!
Also, a special Thanks to Badwolf231. He helped me as this project got started.

- Sword Art Online is owned and created by Reki Kawahara.
* Cover Art created with art elements from Orin331, Frye-Medi, and flutterdashrarijack.

Sunset was expecting Princess Twilight Sparkle to be the one to come through the portal on a day when the holidays line up between the two worlds. Instead, her care package of Equestrian Hearth's Warming decorations is brought over by a student from the school of friendship, Gallus.

This unexpected encounter will lead to a holiday lesson that resonates with both of them.

Written for Jinglemas 2019 [Run by the Jinglemas Group]
Written for Wanderer D

When trying to focus on her studies, Sunset Shimmer is stuck watching an annoying little filly who just won't let her study.

Original Art by Baekgup

Cover image by Novel-Idea

Now with Reading by Wubcake

I didn't know what I was expecting when I rushed to help an unconscious girl I found laying on the school grounds, alone with no memories. I didn't expect a mystery. I didn't expect to dig so deep into a rabbit hole. I didn't expect to find love.

On the way home, Sunset finds a girl, laid out in a field near the school, unconscious, injured, and with no recollection on who she was or what happened. Feeling the need to bring closure, Sunset decided to help the girl trace back her steps to where she found her. Along the way, they grow closer to each other. But their journey to find answers might give them the kind of answers that they won't want to hear. What was the girl doing out in the field? What was she running away from? Can she run away from them?

Rated Teen for hand holding, kissing, language, mentions of abuse, self-harm, and descriptions of injuries at the beginning, read at your own discretion.

Participant of the Pride and Positivity Event. Originally written for Scampy's Sunflower Shipping Contest. Special thanks to Secret Moon for editing and pre-reading.