//------------------------------// // 3. Sunday Part 1: Mornings // Story: Never Setting Sun // by Brony Parasite //------------------------------// Sunset panted as she galloped along the streets of Canterlot, a horrified look adorning her face. The filly was not having a good morning. Her training in the art of summoning had been an illuminating experience. She had, however, forgotten to go to sleep the night before, leaving her worn out come morning…     The day before the entry exam for Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, she’d trained far too hard, having been excited about giving the judges a show of power. This was her chance to set herself up for a life devoted to magic.     Sunset gasped as she came to a halt outside of a tall building. Her sudden stop didn’t save her from colliding with the front door. After shaking off the impact, Sunset pulled the door open with magic and rushed inside. A stallion with a grey coat and a black mane smiled as she entered.     “Five floors up, third door to the left.” He said in a soft, kind manner. Sunset nodded and thanked him before following his instructions. By the time she’d reached the room, there was only three foals in front of her in the line.     “What are you doing young filly? Sign up ended a half hour ago!” An elderly mare scolded. She seemed to have a sight problem since she was wearing glasses and constantly squinting as if she were struggling to identify a microscopic particle with her naked eye.     “I was running late. My alarm didn’t wake me up-” Sunset defended herself, but the mare simply snapped back.     “If you don’t have a name tag, then you don’t get in!” The filly glared daggers at the elder mare.     “That’s unfair! I deserve to go in, you hag!” Sunset seethed. The mare gasped at that. “Years from now ponies will know my name throughout Equestria! Sunset Shimmer!”     “What an arrogant child. Thank Celestia you didn’t arrive on time or you might have bothered the actual prodigies...” The elder mare replied, scowling.     Sunset was shaking in pure hatred. As soon as the mare left, Sunset looked at the pony in front of hers name tag and let her horn flare up with her magic. She’d show that pompous mare. The orange filly conjured a blank tag onto her chest, before trotting over to a table in the corner and pulled out a marker. A devilish grin forming on her face.     “Eventide Lustful” then returned to the line. She didn’t want the bat eyed mare to recognize when the judges called her by name.     She was going to shine… Saturday Night     Sunset blankly stared at her screen as she sat in her living room, watching a cutscene to a video game she was playing. Even though “playing” was a generous term.     “Sunset darling! Dinner’s ready!” Sunset heard her mother call from the kitchen. Sunset paused the game.     “Kay mom!” Sunset shouted in reply as she set her controller down and stood up. She made her way to the dining room and was met with her father who was seated in a chair at the end of the table. He was a tall man with light yellow skin, his hair a mixture of orange and brilliant tangelo, done up in a mohawk-like fashion, and had soft eyes of a greyish persian blue.     “How’s school been coming along, sweetheart?” Her father, Sunspot, asked. Unlike her mother, her father only got to see her on weekends. He was a busy man, often sacrificing personal time to run his company, and Sunset respected him for that.     “It’s been fine…” Sunset replied as she took her seat at Sunspot’s right.     “So I was thinking that tomorrow, your mother and I would treat you to a day that the three of us-” Sunspot excitedly began. Ember suddenly barked, interrupting him. “And Ember could go hiking on the Everfree trail.”     Sunset stared at him for a moment. ‘Oh no…’ She thought. She loved her family, but her parents could run three marathons before realizing that she was still collapsed at the starting line. Before she could freak out, she suddenly remembered. “Uh… Actually, I had plans.”     “What could be more important than spending time with your parents?” Sunset’s mother, a woman barely an inch taller than Sunset with brilliant orange skin, hair with two different shades of moderate vermilion, and lime greenish gray eyes piped in. She walked over to the table carrying a steaming pot of spaghetti. She set it down on a hot pad and went to take her own seat.     “I was invited to go to the mall...” Sunset grumbled. Before she realized it, her mother was crushing her in a bear hug.     “Yes! My baby girl has friends! Who are they, how many people are in their circle, what are they like? Are they nice? Are they your age? They better not do drugs or smoke. If they pressure you, you come to me, understand?”     “Mom… Stop… I can’t breath…” Sunset grunted, before her mother let her go. Sunswirl had a goofy grin, as did Sunspot as they waited for an answer.     If she didn’t know any better, she’d think the dog was smiling at her too.     “It’s not that big of a deal… Her name’s Fluttershy, just four or so, I don’t know, I’m sure, yes, pretty sure they don’t, and I know mom.” Sunset replied to her mom’s question.     “Ohh! I’m just so excited! These’ll be your first friends! I was so worried that you’d end up alone, but here you are making friends! This is such a big step!” Sunswirl squealed, her grin morphing into an ear splitting smile. Sunset just stared at her mother.     “Mom… They’re just people…”     Sunswirl glared at her daughter. “With that attitude that’ll be the case. Just to make sure you go, I’ll have your father drive you there tomorrow… Then I’ll pick you up and you can introduce me to your new friends… Okay?” There was an undertoning threat in her voice.     Sunswirl may not have had magic, but she could use the ‘mom voice’ just as well as Celestia. And Sunset had yet to find any sort of defense against it, magical or otherwise. “Okay, mom.”     “Wonderful! Now, let’s have dinner!” Sunswirl’s glare dissipated almost instantaneously, replaced by her normal motherly smile, if not a bit bigger due to her excitement. Needless to say, dinner was a time for Sunset to suffer from anxiety.     ‘Ugh, how am I going to hit the nightclub now?’ Sunset’s thoughts were, however, interrupted by a sudden noise on the other side of the room. Mounted on the wall across from her was a small TV her father had set up so he, and the rest of the family, could watch the news during meals. The noise in question being the jingle the channel plays every time it switches to a new topic, catching the attention of all three of them. “This week, the Mainfair Hotel was the epicenter of a large bloody massacre. Twenty-four dead, and three injured. It’s assumed that the Mainfair Motel was the headquarters of Changelings. One of the survivors is stated to have claimed that ‘the Blacksun was responsible’, but are currently in a coma and are unable to comment further. We’ll get back to this next week. Mayor Mare has stated that the attacks are barbaric and will be investigated further. Back to you, Bucker.” Sunspot turned the television off.     “If you ask me, they deserve what they got.” Sunset’s father grit his teeth in anger. Sunswirl gave him an understanding, sympathetic look. “They hurt our baby girl. This Blacksun deserves a medal!”     Sunset sunk in her seat as she began to sneak Ember little treats. ‘They did more than hurt her…’     After that, dinner was silent. It was as if there was no one living left.     Sunset stood at the side of her bed, staring at her new mask. A one sided silver mask with no way to see the wearers features if they wore a hood or something that’d hide ones hair. Sunset had cast an enchantment on the mask, giving it her own flair.     Whenever she came into contact with the mask, the silver would turn red, with two black circles where her eyes were. She wanted to weave more into the enchantment, but decided she’d add those features another time if she was up to it. Coupling the mask with the enchanted bandana that’d both change her voice and prevent condensation from stinking up and/or fogging over the mask itself. Three birds, two stones.     With her additions to her costume completed, Sunset felt more at ease. She may be tired from being dragged along with that Fluttershy girl, but she could easily handle a few armed guards even with sore feet. A smile creeped onto her face as her plan became realized.     “Maybe I’ll make my jacket bullet proof…” Sunset mused to herself as she looked at herself in the mirror on her dresser across her room. “Now… If only I could have convinced mom to not buy this sleeveless version of my old shirt…” Indeed, the shirt she was wearing was almost identical to her old one, minus the lack of a cutie mark… Sunset’s cutie mark from her time as a pony.     It felt wrong to not have it on her in some way or form, but her mother had been convinced that wearing something new would set a better impression. But without her cutie mark on her shirt, or even on her pants, she felt… Like she wasn’t herself.     ‘Am I losing myself? Have I already become disconnected with who I was? If I didn’t have magic… Would I have thought that my former life was fake…?’ Sunset mulled over her thoughts. It wasn’t even the first time she had questioned reality. She’d changed on the inside as well as the outside, and wasn’t sure if she was even the same pony.     “Sunset! It’s time to go!” She heard her mother call from the first story of the house. Sunset sighed and grabbed her leather jacket and walked towards where the voice had come from. The drive to the mall was uneventful, excluding Sunset’s mother muttering to herself in excitement. Sunset noted that she’d never seen her mother this excited since she first met her… The mall itself was obviously large, but a lot larger than she thought. It looked around five or six stories tall, and was probably the widest building Sunset had ever seen, excluding Equestrian buildings. She’d never gone to the mall, since she had no reason to do so in the years she lived in the human world. Why go to a store if you can get everything you need from the interweb.     “This brings back memories! Remember when we used to watch movies here?” Sunswirl asked. Sunset smiled slightly.     “Yeah.” Lies. She’d never even gone to the movies with them.     “Oh, we should do that again some time.” Sunswirl said wistfully. Sunset stared at her for a moment before nodding.     “Totally. But from what I hear, the movies this month all suck.” At that, Sunswirl sighed.     “Critics don’t know everything, sweetheart. Now go along and meet up with your friends!” Sunset nodded and opened the door to the volkswagen and stretched. “Have fun! Love you!”     Sunset turned around. “Love you too, mom.” It was almost like a reflex, saying that. There was some meaning in it, but the feeling of love was a dull sensation at the best of times. It’d been that way since before she arrived at the human world. Sunswirl then began to drive off, and Sunset turned to look at the mall. Fluttershy and her odd click were waving at her.     ‘These girls are the misfit crew… Or “Incomplete Token Club” from almost every buddy movie.’ Sunset thought. There was the popular, high society type. The jock. The quiet one. The loud one. And the… Sunset didn’t have a stereotype for Applejack, and didn’t give that much mind. She had an appearance to keep up. And a group of teens to repulse into never speaking to her again.     Walking up to them, Sunset was taken out of her thought process as she was tackled by a pink blur that didn’t need to be named.     “Oh my gosh! I can’t believe you’re coming with us!” Pinkie Pie squealed. “We can watch a movie, order smoothies, go on a slide, go swimming, shop for clothes, shop for games, shop for shoes-”     “Aren’t the last ones the same?” Sunset asked, but she mostly wanted to shut the pink menace up.     Rarity gasped at that. “Dear heavens! What kind of a lady doesn’t know the difference between clothes and shoes! Next you’ll be saying hats are the same as gloves!”     Kind of a random outburst, but Sunset knew that the most popular girl in school besides Rainbow Dash was a fashionista. Which only made Sunset was to hang herself.     “I honestly don’t need new clothes. My mom gets me my clothes-”     “Oh my- I think I’m going to faint…” Rarity said as she fell into Fluttershy’s arms. The latter struggled desperately to keep her friend from falling. Sunset looked on in annoyance as Pinkie stood back up.     “Where are the others? I know there are more than three of you.”     “Appejack’s just finishing some work at the farm, and Rainbow’s at the arcade!” Pinkie said enthusiastically. “Dashie can be impatient sometimes- let’s get going!” With that, Pinkie Pie vanished in an instant as the doors to the mall swung in and out at a speed that Sunset’s mind could hardly process. Rarity just smiled and shook her head.     “That’s our Pinkie Pie. I’ll get our table set up.” Rarity added before following Pinkie’s lead, vanishing without a trace.     That only left Sunset and Fluttershy standing at the entrance. Sunset stared at Fluttershy, unsure of what to do. It felt like forever until one of them spoke, and to anyone who didn’t know Sunset, they’d be surprised that Fluttershy was the first to speak up.     “U-um… I’m glad that you d-decided to come today.” Fluttershy twirled with her hair. Sunset just shrugged, which was followed by more silence. Fluttershy broke it again. “L-let’s go inside.”     The two entered the building, but as Sunset began to lag behind she noticed that something off. An alien tasting magic that drew her in, but not enough to direct her away. This presence made Sunset feel something she hadn’t felt in a long time.     Fear. For the alien magic she felt was far stronger than hers. The only thing that prevented her from flat out freezing was that the magic’s sources didn’t seem to be moving towards her, which meant it might not have sensed her as of yet. Or it was luring her into a false sense of security. No matter which way she flipped it, she was in over her head.     ‘I haven’t felt magic since… back in Equestria… is this even Equestrian magic? I’ve trained my magic senses and know what everything’s magic sources felt like, but this feeling… it’s older.’ Sunset was taken out of her thoughts as she felt Fluttershy’s hand in hers.     “It’s okay, I know what it’s like to be afraid. But my friends and I are here to help.” Fluttershy smiled, which made Sunset momentarily forget why she was afraid. She nodded in understanding, even though Fluttershy’s perception on why she was afraid were misplaced.     ‘Guess I should act casual, and try to locate the mage. If push comes to shove, I have my mask.’ That was until the two reached the food court, which was bigger than she imagined with way more people than she’d ever seen outside of school in one place. Though the magic Sunset felt began to grow closer. That was, until she felt someone bump into her.     “Oh, I’m sorry!” The former unicorn stiffened. That voice radiated with the magic like a conduit, and every word seemed to scramble Sunset’s mind into an incoherent mess, excluding her fear receptors. Sunset turned to the owner of the voice, a young woman no older than herself with yellow skin that was soft on the eyes, orange curly hair that reached her hips, and purple eyes that felt years older than her body gave off, narrowed into a knowing yet seductive stare that complimented her menacing smirk. Besides her fast food employee attire, Sunset noticed a red pendant around her neck that seemed to glow with the alien power. “Did I scare you~?”