In the middle of the night of 1986, a twelve-year-old girl wakes up to find an armored pegasus underneath her bed. The pegasus suddenly leaves, but not without the little girl following him back to Equestria. There she finds Princess Celestia when she asks the little girl what her name was, she nearly goes into shock.

"It's Lauren," she said. "My name is Lauren Faust."

Update: Proofread by Fort Impression and Airchi. And a huge thank you to SecrretBrony01 for finally getting this edited fully.

I also want to thank MrAquino, FanficFanPony and Starburst Gleam for helping me keep this story moving with their helpful suggestions. And a tremendous thank you to Lotus Moon for volunteering to read this on YouTube from beginning to end.

When you try and use dark magic to take over Canterlot High, it never ends well.
The Dazzlings lost their powers and were thoroughly embarrassed by Sunset Shimmer, Princess Twilight, and company.

For Sonata, it didn't get much better. Fed up with her inherent ignorance, Adagio takes her frustrations out on Sonata, and kicks her out of the group. With nowhere to go, she winds up wandering the streets. Luckily for her, she wandered into the right place at the right time.

She'll be borrowing someone's kindness for a while.

Will Sonata be able to atone for her mistakes?
Will she be able to make friends?

Author's Note: Originally, I planned to entirely change this. But I realized this provides me with a beautiful opportunity. A chance to explore a world of what-ifs. Sonata being saved by Vinyl after the Battle of the Bands could change the entire timeline from here on out. Let's go.

You'd think I'd have it all: my parents own a fashion company for those who cannot afford clothes like Prada or Gucci, Coach, or any of those fancy names. I can't either, even though my family makes about a hundred thousand dollars every three months (is that a good thing?). I live in a glorious large house, with a well-behaved little sister. Wow, my life is just sooooo perfect. All the girls would envy me.

And yet, they don't.
Why?
Because my life isn't perfect.
Neither am I.

Cover art by Xered

Rainbow Dash has never been a great student and to be honest she never was really bothered by it. But when she is threaten she might have to repeat the 4th grade if some changes don't happen. Rainbow starts hitting the books. Can she do it?

Loosely inspired by the image and the Simpsons episode "Bart Gets an F"

Episodes
Where I get the photo

Special thank you to NaterRang the artist allowing me to use their work.

Heads up there's some grammar issues