All Sunset Shimmer heard as she was raised up onto the stage, wrestling for the Time Twirler, was the chant of the crowd hungry for the pop band.
“PostCrush! PostCrush! PostCrush!”
Sunset growled under her breath and tried, yet again, to gain control of the device that had trapped her in the time loop. The bothersome device slipped from K-Lo’s hairtie, and Sunset reared her foot back to crush it.
“Woah!”
Sunset slipped on a stray ribbon lurking below her shoe, causing her to fall and bang her head on the stage. She groaned and rubbed a palm to her forehead, trying to ease.
Su-Z leaned down on one knee in front of her and smirked. “Don’t worry… you won’t feel it tomorrow.”
And she grabbed the Time Twirler, held it open, and pressed a single button. Sunset, shocked, could only yell out a single “NO!” as she was sucked away to repeat the day again.
Sunset woke up to the sound of her alarm.
Never had she been so shaken to the core as she was at that moment. Repeat upon repeat upon repeat…
The loops never ended. Perhaps the PostCrush **tches had yet to complete a ‘perfect’ runthrough of their song, or maybe they had just left her in the loops. To save time.
Either way, she must have been in these loops for consecutive years now. Sunset shook in her blankets, trembling with the sheer weight of the situation. Her friends couldn’t help her, not when she was this far past the point of no return.
She threw up. The acidic liquid from inside of her stomach wasn’t in there anymore, and she doubted it would return. Sunset briefly wondered if these loops would continue for all eternity, never stopping. After all, she’d never grow older. Her actions would never influence the following day, not ever.
Sunset attempted to struggle out of her mass of blankets tightly tied around her, only to fall out of the bed with a loud bang. Her muscles too stressed and her body too exhausted to lift her off the ground, she simply laid there, curled up on the floor, trembling.
Stressed pounding upon the metal door to the trailer filled her ears. The distressed shape on the floor called Sunset couldn’t bring the strength to answer the door, or even yell out something vaguely reminiscent of words. She just laid there.
“Sunset! Are you alright?!”
Rainbow Dash’s heavily concerned voice permeated through the now sour air of the trailer. Sunset wished she had something to say, or the ability to say it.
“Sunset?!”
Sunset closed her eyes and braced herself. Sure enough, the yell of her friend was all she had expected.
“SUNSET!”
The door burst open with a bang, and on the other side of it stood six extremely worried friends. The fresh, cool air caused Sunset to flinch and shy away from the cold. Twilight rushed in at the head of the pack, followed closely by the other five.
“Sunset, what’s wrong?! Speak to me!”
Twilight was leaning down in front of her, looking at her friend’s face. Sunset opened her eyes slightly, though it was difficult for her.
“Twi...light…” she whispered. “I… don’t… feel…”
Twilight looked at her with terror and horror. “Sunset! Stay here! Don’t black out, it’ll only make things…”
Sunset’s eyes closed.
“...worse…”
Twilight’s pupils shrunk with horror. “Someone, call an ambulance! Now!”
Rainbow whipped out her phone and dialed three numbers. “Hello, yes, it’s an emergency! Our friend seems to be really sick or hurt or something, and we need an ambulance now!”
Twilight wished inside her head that her friend would be alright as the doctors rushed in to help Sunset. “Sunset, stay with us…”
Her friend wasn’t moving as the doctors put her on the stretcher. She wasn’t moving as all six of them piled into the back of the ambulance with her. She wasn’t moving as the ambulance sped towards the nearest hospital. And she wasn’t moving as she was run into the hospital.
Sunset kept her eyes closed throughout the entire process. She heard Rainbow calling 9-1-1. She heard Twilight’s desperate plea for her to be okay.
Could she answer yes to that question?
Every loop, she had tried to escape. Perhaps, she thought numbly, being out of range of the Time Twirler would end the loops.
"Sunset! What are you doing?"
Sunset had been awake all night. She had watched as, at midnight, the date didn't change. Today was tomorrow and all the rest of them or something.
So, she figured, she would change her alarm to earlier, and maybe drive away with the trailer? She had tried that, but at night. She hadn't been able to get too far away at that point.
So, now she was halfway across the country, owed three tickets, and had a barrage of previously sleeping friends (who were now awake) to contend with. Twilight's bewilderment was reasonable.
"Seriously, why'd you hijack the RV and drive away in the middle of the night?!" Rainbow Dash glared at her.
Sunset didn't glance away from the road. "Time loop. Want to escape. Need to get far away. 'Nuff said?"
Twilight blinked. "Sunset, how long..."
"Three years. Three years I've been trapped in this damn thing, and I'm ready to get out of it!"
Her outburst caused Twilight to flinch, but the thing that rocked her was the presence of extreme shock on her friends' faces.
Sunset sighed. "Look, it's not your problem, it's PostCrush's."
The flash of memory that coursed through her as doctors lay her on a hospital bed was enough to steady her, at least a little bit.
She had continued to loop, trying to get the Time Twirler away from K-Lo and Su-Z, but all to no avail. The band members had made good on their threat to ban her and Pinkie from the festival every single day.
"Nothing I do matters," she whimpered, bile rising in her throat as the thought rose to the surface of her mind. Then, everything went black.
A couple hours later, Sunset woke up in the bed again. Her friends were outside of the room, judging by silhouettes on the frosty glass windows. Voices could be heard outside through the space under the door.
Sunset glanced outside. Of course. She had woken up at sunset. She sighed, closing her eyes. What could she do? Tonight, she would reset again, and tomorrow would be the same.
It would never change.
It's not fair. I've tried everything.
Sunset blinked.
Well... not everything.
Sunset banged her head on her knees and groaned. Was she really so desperate to get out that she would...
Her friends attracted her attention once more.
Kill herself?
It would shatter my friends.
This was true. The seven had been together for so long, and had never really been without each other for longer than a week. But to have one of their number gone forever?
Sunset started sobbing into her blankets. The friends she knew - all gone in a heartbeat. Her world? Gone in a heartbeat.
Sunset thought, for a fleeting moment, that she might repeat. But if she did, she would be trapped. Forever.
The thought of eternal peace was much more soothing. She had made up her mind. Tears still streaming down her cheeks, she prepared to get out of bed and-
The door opened. With a startled yelp, Sunset dove back under the covers.
"Sunset! You're awake!"
The ecstatic voice of Pinkie rang out around the room.
"Ssh, Pinkie! While I know that she's awake, and that's great, be a little quieter!"
"Oopsies!"
The much gentler voice of Fluttershy reached her ears. "How are you feeling, Sunset?"
Sunset pulled her head out of the blankets. "Honestly? Not great," she admitted fearfully, worried that they would catch on to her plans. But the six seemed to be content with her response.
"Listen, everybody... I have something to tell you all..."
The six listened to Sunset's account of the time loop she was in, from the start to where she was now.
"Three years? You've been in this time loop for three years?!"
Rainbow's outrage was justified, as she had explained how it was the PostCrush band members who had done this.
"Yeah... and while I appreciate your enthusiasm, Rainbow, I really need to get some sleep now," Sunset added, giving a fake yawn.
"Oh, okay. Goodnight, Sunset..." Twilight gave a little wave. Sunset swallowed a lump in her throat as she looked over her friends for what was probably the last time. When the door shut, she sprang into action, dashing over to look out the window.
Highest floor.
With a shattering crash, Sunset had thrown her bedside lamp at the window. The result was a gaping hole. Sunset threw herself through the hole, wincing as the glass drove through her skin like a knife and she dropped like stone, falling down to meet the final destination.
Twilight burst through the door to Sunset's room. "Sunset, we heard glass shattering! Are you..."
She noticed the hole in the window and ran to look out of it. What she saw made her heart drop.
She saw her fiery-haired friend, lying at the base of the building.
"SUNSET!"