A lone vampire bat sneaks through the mirror portal and ends up in the human world. Instead of apples, it now craves something far richer. And unfortunately for Sunset Shimmer, she's its next snack.

Sunset can't remember any of her activities past sundown. The light hurts not just her eyes, but burns her skin. And she's thirsty.

So very thirsty.

It's up to the Rainbooms to save Sunset from herself before she drinks the whole city dry. Too bad Twilight Sparkle is her primary target.

Thanks to Saro0fd3monz for the inspiration!

Edited by DrakeyC and HenryAnthonyCourtler

Now with a TVTropes page!

Now with a French translation!

Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle have one thing in common: They've both been overwhelmed by Equestrian magic, transformed into demonic forms. That's something that's pretty hard to put behind you.

Princess Luna may have a solution. A spell that will allow them to communicate with their demonic selves inside their heads, through dreams. Both are nervous about the prospect. Who wouldn't be?

Sunset and Sci-Twi vectors courtesy of Emeraldblast63 and Givralix.

Sunset Shimmer and Twilight find themselves in the company of old enemies.

They whisper and slowly, they're taking matters into their own hands.

Twenty years. It has been twenty years since the Rainbooms graduated from Canterlot High. Their high school careers, finally looking up after befriending their one-time tormenter, Sunset Shimmer, took a dramatic turn for the worse when she disappeared without a trace, only for them to learn months later that Sunset had died in Equestria.

They never got to say goodbye.

Looking back, some days Twilight Sparkle can hardly credit her own memories. Friendship, Magic and the fiery-haired girl who extended a hand to her when she lost herself... Life moved on, memory faded into dreams, and dreams into mere nostalgia, these days, she can't even recall her face - only a pair of lambent wings and a crown of fiery hair.

Until the day when she found a leather-bound journal with the two-faced Sun sigil of Sunset Shimmer buried deep with the rest of her relics from her school days, and in it, a message from herself...

"Please help Sunset."

Set in the middle of an alternate Season 6, after the events described in the Sunset chapters* of The Sun Never Sets, up to about half way through Chapter 40 - Happy Birthday, this can be read stand-alone but the enjoyment is doubled if you read The Sun Never Sets first.

The prologue functions as a bridge linking The Sun Never Sets to False Dawn, and readers unfamiliar with the former may start reading at chapter 1 with little loss to the overall narrative and reduced confusion.

All credit to the redoubtable Mr Fislewait, pre-reader and editor, for making this entire enterprise possible, and for greatly improving the flow, pacing and consistency of the work. Any mistakes, plot holes and typos are, naturally, entirely his fault my own.

*In other words chapters 2,4,6,8,10,11,12,14,16,18,19,20,21,23,25,27,28,29,31,32,33,34,36,37,38 and the first half of 40. Except certain minor variations which will be made clear in the story itself, the chief amongst which is that Sunset's adventure took place after the events of Friendship Games.

All of Sunset's hard work in college is finally nearing its end. As she's sitting in her dorm room on yet another lonely Friday night, she has to wonder what she might have lost along the way.

After the Fall Formal, Sunset remains as proud and stubborn as she's always been. But unfortunately for her, the students at CHS aren't going to keep letting her walk all over them. Highjinks ensue, and Sunset finds she'll have to give friendship a try; whether she wants to or not.

Slow burn. Story will be set in three major arcs, then maybe a fourth to tie things up.

This is a re-telling of Sunset's adventure towards redemption. Major canon divergence. SciSet is endgame, with background WallTrix.

This story is inspired by "Long Road To Friendship" by The Albinocorn so there will certainly be some similarities, but I think you'll find that I take it in a different direction

Cover art by me!
Featured on 10/7/2019!!!

This story is a sequel to Drunken star

Finally the day comes when Twilight's parents find out she's dating someone, the only problem is that Twilight forgot to mention she's dating a ... Girl.

To make up for the Anon-A-Miss incident, Canterlot High's student body plan a surprise party for Sunset's 16th birthday.

While going over the guest list, the Rainbooms ask a question they never thought to ask: where is Sunset's family? They soon wonder why Sunset has never talked about them. From what little they can gleam from Sunset's bitter remarks, they determine that she estranged from her widowed mother in Equestria. They and Princess Twilight decide that helping Sunset and her mom reconcile would be the best present ever.

But in their well-meaning attempt to help Sunset heal from the scars of her past, the Rainbooms have unwittingly opened an old wound instead.

When Sunset finds herself in a difficult person, the task of helping her may end up being in the hands of the least likely person. Someone who's friend was severely damaged by Sunset's misdeeds. Someone who must grapple with the meaning of forgiveness, loyalty, and compassion.

What Happened to Sunset's Family is the fifth story of Sunset's Steps, the fanfic series detailing Sunset's growth from a forlorn loner to the heroic defender of Canterlot High.

The story is set roughly two weeks before the Friendship Games.

Here are the other stories in chronological order.

Live By The Sword...-Completed.

Working Girl Sunny-Ongoing.

The Downfall of Sunset Shimmer: An Anon-A-Miss Story-Completed.

What Happened to Sunset's Family?-Ongoing

After pictures from her phone get posted online, that human five confront Sunset with the information. After discovering that she and the others had very different ideas about how to confront her, Rainbow Dash finds herself defending Sunset from the rest of her friends.

Rainbow siding with Sunset didn't change all that much. Sunset was still successfully framed, Sunset still lost most of her friends, Sunset will still go back to being the most hated student at CHS, but she won't have to face any of it alone, and that will make all the difference in the world.

Meta stuff follows.

Let's talk about combinatorics.

There is one way for none of the five to remain on Sunset's side, there are five ways for one of them them to side with Sunset, there are ten ways for two of them to do so, there are ten ways for three of them to do so, there are five ways for four of them to do so, and there is one way for all of them to do so. Out of these thirty two possible configurations, almost every Anon-a-Miss story sticks to the first one.

I did a tally once upon a time and what I found was that 96.9% of possibilities were almost never explored, and 87.5% were never explored at all (no "almost" necessary.) These figures get rather more abysmal if you're looking at who did or didn't side with Sunset from the start. The rare stories that have one or more of the five side with Sunset tend to have the initial confrontation go down pretty much canonically, and then have someone have a change of heart later on.

So, in the interest of stuff, here's a thing where Sunset has someone on her side from the very start. Most of the first chapter was released two months early on my Patreon page, for subscribers only, as you might imagine.

This story is a sequel to Never Any Doubt

Needing advice on an important project, Twilight, Tempest, and their friends work to reopen the mirror portal, and rescue a former student of Celestia's... Sunset Shimmer.

Note: This story assumes the backstory for Sunset presented in: Sunset -- Part I and Part II.

For more of this AU, see: By the Light of the Moon

And also check out the series, beginning with Not Exactly Friends.