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// An Ever After Tale 06: Hearts and Mirages 
// Story: The Many Destinies of Sunset Shimmer 
// by ratedoni 
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The landscape waiting for her every morning at the terrace was one that Sunset still found bizarre, refreshing and slightly nostalgic. It was so green, with beautiful forests, clouds and blue sky. Statues and well maintained bushes and plants dotted the school grounds and it made Sunset sigh due to how beautiful everything was. It was quite fitting that everything looked like out of a fairy tale considering the school she was in. It was also nostalgic as the gardens where she spend her youth looked similar to the grounds of Ever After High, just with more ponies statues around and instead of the emblem of the school, it was the cutiemark of Celestia that dominated the place. Sunset wondered if there was purple and black present on the flags now that Princess Luna was back.

She missed the Canterlot Castle, but in a way, she was glad she left, because she had the chance of learning of a place as magical as Equestria itself, the land of Fairy Tales and that on itself was wicked. Sunset chuckled to herself at how easy it was to start making those fairy tale puns, although it seemed she was the only student that used the Oz related ones, like the classic Kansas related one with Spike or making mention of the Good Fairy of the North among others.

Knowing that many more things will be introduced to her, Sunset went back into the room ready to start another day. So far life on Ever After High was great; she had met new people, had great food and could even work on both magic and fitness. As she put her bed on order, Sunset thought back on what she had learned so far on Ever After, mainly the reason why she had magic once more. She knew that the character she had been selected to play had no magical powers, not like Raven Queen who was the successor of the role of the Evil Queen or Faybella, who was the daughter of the Dark Fairy of Sleeping Beauty. Only witches and fairies on Oz had powers, so, why was she capable of using magic? But it was not like the magic she had grown with, studied with Celestia or by herself on Earth. This magic felt less peaceful like in Equestria and even less savage than the one found on Earth. Sunset’s magic felt… almost mischievous if that could be an explanation.

Leaving her bed once more pristine, Sunset remembered her roommate and the way she snored… or should that be, royally snoring? Considering that Lizzie Hearts was as noble as they came, just with the idiosyncrasies that most people attributed to being born on Wonderland, but for someone that had gotten used to the likes of Pinkie Pie -or at least as much one could-, those things were minor.

One thing Sunset had to give to the girl, she knew her style. Everything was boldly black and red as if someone had taken playing cards and splattered them on the walls. Even the vanity mirror on Lizzie’s side had the spades and hearts like many of the princess’ clothes.

At first it was a little weird to have to share her room with someone else, but at least she wouldn’t be alone on another dimension without any of her human and pony friends. Meeting Raven and Maddie was good and all, but having someone she could talk every morning and night was nice and helped her unwind or prepare for the day, as long as she didn’t speak in Riddlish, but beyond that, the girl was alright, beyond some strange moods, but alright.

“OFF WITH ITS HEAD!” at least until you annoyed her, which was too easy. Take for example the small clock that had been decapitated, or at least the top part of the clock had been cut. How Lizzie did it anyways? She just moved her fingers and most things were simply cut down. Cards, flowers, envelopes, pencils, she even saw her do it to a bag of chips just to open it. It seemed really useful but terrifying at the same time.

“I think that’s the third clock this week,” Sunset said, only getting a groan from the princess. Her red and black hair was mixed on an epic bedhead. Usually arranged on a very royal-looking bun, Lizzie’s hair was as long and luxurious as the many princesses living on Ever After. Looking at her own hair, Sunset still couldn’t fathom the fact that it had changed to blonde instead of red, but it worked with the clothes that had also mysteriously changed. Truly something to investigate, on a list of at least 20 different topics; she will have to do a lot of trips to the library. Awesome! She was already excited about it.

“They had it coming, how dare they scream on the face of a future queen,” Lizzie said finally getting up while moving her voluminous hair from her face. She blinked several times trying to fight back the drowziness as she began to move into the bathroom the two shared. Sadly, that was like most of the interactions between Sunset and Lizzie that they had so far. Since the two didn’t share many classes and the next Queen of Hearts spend most of her time either alone or with the company of Apple White and her friends, the two haven’t really talked much, but there was something with Lizzie that was worrying to Sunset. The girl seemed a little like Apple, just not the same kind of overly happy and sparkles type of girl. Lizzie just seemed like she was trying a little too much to get into character, at least that was just Sunset’s opinion.

Shrugging her shoulders, Sunset went to her own vanity to see if everything was alright with her attire. For some reason she just imagined Rarity gushing over her new attire. She was wearing a white and light red sundress with a light white jacket on top and her cutiemark on the back of it. It was also part of her research list the reason of the magical change on her clothes, but she wasn’t complaining, it even made her school transfer be smoother.

Then Sunset jumped back while gasping. She blinked several times and when she looked at the mirror again she saw herself wearing the attire. Weird, for a moment she thought she had been wearing a black dress and a witch’s hat.