In an Equestria where the mirror portal didn't exist; a very different fate awaits Sunset Shimmer.

Anon-a-miss, the mysterious gossiper, plagues CHS. Caught as the perfect scapegoat, Sunset finds herself more shunned than ever before. While determined to clear her name, Sunset decides that first she needs a break. From everything. Back in the place she used to call home.

But as soon as Sunset leaves, her friends at CHS realize the depth of their mistake. Not just in accusing Sunset, but also in forgetting Sunset is not like any other human. As they try with all their might to earn back their friend's trust, they quickly come to learn that they know very little about Sunset and the world she hails from.

And worse for the girls, as Sunset begins to pick up the shards of her old life in Equestria, she begins to wonder whether she really wants to stay at CHS at all.

It was just a week before Christmas. Sunset Shimmer has finally broke. The anonymous cyberbully a.k.a. Anon-a-Miss has exposed the private secrets of her HuMane Six friends on MyStable, friendships have been broken and severed by these claims, lives have been ruined, and all the evidence that coincided with the HuMane Six's secrets are falsely pointed at Sunset Shimmer. What's worse is that everyone in the school, including her friends, have turned on her, leaving her alone and despondent. What's even more worse is that Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria hasn't opened the breach between both the equine world and the human world.

Feeling lower than her defeat during the Fall Formal Incident earlier that year, Sunset Shimmer has given up all hope of trying to talk things over with her former friends, and decided to end it by walking in the December blizzard alone, hoping that the cold would calmly put her out of her misery. Walking along the highway with nothing but her warm clothes and her dreams of friendship crushed, Sunset finally succumbs to hypothermia and sleeps. When she woke up, Sunset knew that she didn't perish. Instead, a kind and generous soul had saved her from salvation, a kind and generous soul who hides a dark past within his memories. When Sunset asks him why he couldn't have let her die in the blizzard, it only took a few sentences out of him to make her realize that he wasn't so different after all. That he was a kindred spirit much like her own.

That's when Sunset decided to spend her first Christmas with her savior, which unfolds into a tale of how two distant yet kindred souls could change their lives for the better. What can more be said for Canterlot High when the scandals of Anon-a-Miss continues to spread through the hallways like an infectious virus, or when some unsavory figures from Sunset's savior's past decided to rear their ugly heads?

Rated T for suicide attempts.

I do not own any of the characters.

All rights preserved to Hasbro, Inc. and Lauren Faust.

Cover art by DNKovic

Celestia was fully aware of the risks that came with accepting this undertaking. She was fully aware that allowing Chrysalis back into not only Equestria, but into Canterlot, could easily backfire if she wasn't careful. She was aware of the panic that would ensue if word of Chrysalis' presence were to get out into the city, and she was aware that she needed to remain absolutely vigilant if things were to run smoothly.

What she wasn't aware of was that two females spending extended periods of time with each other, even if it was for official business, could be very easily seen as something else.

It likely doesn't help that their actions to follow won't exactly dissuade others from this idea.

It definitely doesn't help that Chrysalis herself is just a bit too happy to 'discuss things' with the princess.

"Diplomatic relations", indeed.

Afer being hit by the Elements of Harmony, Sunset Shimmer finally understood just how evil she had been, and wishes for nothing more than to make up for it, and seek out forgiveness as Twilight told her.

The next morning she wakes up a week before she went through the portal to steal the crown, 10 days before the Fall Formal, and decides to try and right some wrongs she has committed among CHS before she leaves for Equestria.

Sunset Shimmer has just graduated from Canterlot High School, and while that would normally be cause for celebration, it fills her only with a nameless dread as her friends begin to scatter to the winds to pursue their futures. With the latent magic of the human world contained and categorized and the Rainboom's idyllic days of schoolwork over, she finds herself without aim and listless, as though something important is missing from her life.

Fortunately for her, Princess Twilight Sparkle might know what ails her.
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So. First time posting on the site after a VERY long period of lurking and reading and enjoying the tales this fandom can produce. To my surprise, I found a dearth of a certain subset of story that I wanted to read, and so I have done this, to put my thoughts to words. After all, it is said that one should write the story they want to read, yes? I've been inspired by a variety of stories like it that came before, and I hope to equal their quality.

I'll try to update roughly once every couple of weeks; please be patient with me and I hope you give this tale a once-over. Pre-emptively tagging with AU, that I might diverge freely from what may come if needed.

After being abandoned by her friends during christmas, Sunset Shimmer wanders the cold streets of town, alone, and with nowhere to go. After walking for hours, she eventually gives into the elements around her, only to be saved at the last second by the last ones she ever thought would help her.

Meanwhile, the truth about Anon-A-Miss has come out, and her five friends are desperately trying to find her so they can apologize for what they have done.

Well, I've had better days. I was just trying to practice a spell that may or may not have been forbidden... don't give me that look. You want a hoof to the face? Anyway, I underestimated my raw natural talent and the spell worked... too well.

Because I don't screw things up. Clearly, it worked like it was supposed to! I think.

Now there's me... and her. Stupid, upbeat, cheerful thing that thinks she's me. Ugh, she's worse than Cadence! I need to get her half of my magic back and get rid of her before anypony finds out about this!

I mean, it can't be too hard hiding a second Sunset Shimmer...right?

Thanks to Sholan, Zomg, Tchernobog and Noble Thought