Sunset Shimmer ran away. There's really no other way to say it. One can call it exile, tactical retreat, or even a permanent change in residence, but the facts are the same. She turned her back on the only reality she had ever known, and ran away. By the time she stopped to look back, the damage was done. It was too late. Celestia would never forgive her. She would never forgive herself.

There's someone else who will, though.

Written for Fan of Most Everything's Imposing Sovereigns contest.

With the memory stone crisis behind her, it's time for Sunset to deal with an even bigger challenge:

A caring Princess Celestia interested in seeing how Sunset lives on Earth.

* Takes place right after Forgotten Friendship, Teen for some tame Sun x Sci-Twi Romance Fluff
* Helps to have seen the two minute short Rarity's Display of Affection
* Cover From a Picture by akainu7
* Editing help by Clancrusher
* Featured on Equestria Daily's 2018 Sunset Day 50 Fic list!
* Translated into Chinese on Fimtale by Cyber Poison

Recommended - PresentPerfect

Sunset Shimmer, twice savior of Canterlot High who earned her wings by using the combined magic of the Earth elements of harmony to save the world from Twilight Sparkle (you know... the one with the glasses). She's offered to help Twilight's (you know.. the alicorn Princess of Friendship) new student learn about friendship while the whole crew embarks on a trip to the Crystal Empire. This should be a fairly relaxing and stress free trip. Right? RIGHT?!

It should go without saying, but MAJOR spoilers to the season 6 premier.

Sunset vector by mighty355. Other cover art stuff by Novel Idea!

Princess Celestia has lived for a very long time and, as such, has had many regrets. One of her biggest ones was driving away her beloved protégée, Sunset Shimmer, who had abandoned her and jumped through a portal to another world.

As time had passed, Celestia's guilt over Sunset had only grown. To resolve their issues, Celestia made it her mission to bring Sunset back home. Whenever the moon lets her, Celestia crosses the portal herself and uses the little time the portal allows to look for Sunset. Many moons and a few attempts later, Celestia finally finds Sunset!...Or does she?

The girl Celestia finds certainly looks like Sunset and even says that is who she is, but this girl claims to only be a simple guitarist and knows nothing about any "Princess Celestia." What will come of this meeting?

Do you know what it's like to start a revolution just because you accidentally had an ideal instead of an idea? Sunset does.

Sunset has seen her world bè͎c̣͌o̯ͧm̼͆̇e̥̽ ̲̈́͑i̪ͩn̲͐t̼͒e̲ͦ̓͗n̘̹̅̎ͅs̤̰͖ͬͪ̀e̯͔̅ͤ̃͗ḽ̟͂̇ͯy͓̜̻͍ͦ͊̍̊ ̳̻̎ ̴̢̢̘ͭ̆ͪ͐-̷̶̧̞ͭͭͭ-̴̦̮̊̆͂ͦ̓͠-̨͓̫̙͉̈̋͢-̵̴̢̩̺̜͇͌̎ͭ̕̕-̶͕̥͖̪̯̜̊̒-̉̐ͨ̾͏̸͇̘͎̞͙͍͜͝͡-̸̴͔̝ͨ̽̓ͧ̀̚̕- because, instead of being quiet, everything was quite but there was no indication of quite what it was quite.

The revolution is over. The world is no longer quite so quite. Susnet Shimmer, Sunset's evil duplicate, has been defeated and susses no more. But, for all of that progress, the typos continue, and Sunset is getting tired of it.

This was to be an entry into No Author left Unnoticed!'s “Sleep doesn't help if it's your soul that's tired.” competition, but when I reached a point where a could cut a little bit to keep it under the word limit or ignore the word limit, add more scenes, and allow it to quadruple in size, I opted for the latter.

Ever since coming home to Equestria, Sunset's found herself unable to sleep. During yet another restless night, she stands on her balcony, searching the stars for something not even she can find. Yet tonight, the stars are looking back in the form of a concerned Princess Luna.

Maybe together, they can find the source of Sunset's troubles.

Synopsis written by the talented Novel Idea!

Cover art done commissioned from the amazing puff-pink on tumblr! Take a look at her awesome art!

Fic partially inspired by this comic by Little-Tweenframes

Story was featured on the front page of FiMFic on 160417, rising to 6th place.

This story is a sequel to The Twilight Before the Sunset

There is one month left until Sunset Shimmer's birthday. One month until Princess Celestia must confess that they are family. Luna and Twilight are anxious to hear Sunset's response when she hears about who her mother is, but Twilight is burdened with the duty to persuade Sunset to visit Equestria and Luna must try to reassure her sister that everything will be fine. The odds of her coming are slim, but they're determined to bring Sunset Shimmer back with her mother, to reunite mother and daughter.

That is, if Sunset will accept the truth.

Something's been on Celestia's mind these days. Luna can tell by the way her sister is acting, something isn't right. But is Luna prepared for the truth that her sister has been hiding for years?

Permission to use artwork from BreezyBlueYT on Deviantart, thanks a bunch!
Check out the previous version here!

Luna and Sunset talk on the roof of Canterlot High School.

Sunset has no desire to kill herself; what concerns Luna is that that isn't the same as wanting to be alive. In fact, it's not even close.

Note about the content:
The "Suicide / Self Harm" tag is only for stories that actually contain those things. There's no warning tag (or any kind of tag) for stories that contain discussion of those things, or related things, without actually featuring them. So I'm warning you here.

This is about a specific kind of deep depression: the kind where you don't particularly want to live. At one point Sunset talks about possible ways she could die, and how none of them would bother her. So if you're not up for reading things suicide related and suicide adjacent, steer clear.

Now that I've spoiled almost every aspect of the story, let me ruin the rest. I didn't tag this as "Sad" because I don't think it's sad. It's definitely heavy, but that's not the same thing.

You might disagree about whether it's sad, though, so take that into account when deciding whether or not you want to read it. If you do read, and you think it should be tagged as "Sad", please tell me in the comments. (The last thing I want to do is bring people down when they're not prepared for it.)

"Sunset, you weren't the first unearthly threat to come to this world, and you won't be the last. If we seem calm in the face of strange events, it's not because we're oblivious or indifferent to them. It's because they're not strange to us. The Fall Formal may have been the most important night of your life, but to us... it was Thursday."

(Slice-of-life adventures of Canterlot High's unlikely band of monster hunters.)

Now with a Tropes page, courtesy of AnoneMouseJr.