The lunch bell rang indicating the start of lunch. Sunset did her best to ignore the angry glares thrown her way. She was at least grateful that they weren’t getting physical. She hoped that it would stay that way, but with the way things were going, she could only expect the worst.
Sunset entered the cafeteria and was instantly greeted with the same scornful looks that had been thrown at her throughout the entire day so far. She made it to the lunch line and stood behind some students who had their backs to her. She was hoping that she could get her lunch as quickly as possible without any confrontations of any kind.
“Scuse me, bitch!”
Of course that hope was shattered as she was shoved out of line and onto the floor. She immediately heard half the cafeteria laughing at her.
“Hey! What’s your problem?” Sunset yelled as she got back to her feet. She was so annoyed and upset that she didn’t realize who she’d just yelled at.
“You’re my problem demon!” the athlete known as Lightning Dust yelled back. “You had the whole school fooled with your stupid ‘changed my ways’ act, but not me. I knew that one day you would go back to your old ways.” she said with a smirk.
Sunset, having just about enough of these damn accusations, goes over to Lightning and gets in her face, anger flaring behind her eyes.
“I. Am. Not. ANON-A-MISS!!!” she screamed.
Before she could say more, she felt a sharp pain in her eye. She fell onto the ground, holding the spot where Lightning Dust punched her.
“Enough with your lies! I’m not having them anymore!” Lightning yelled as she stood above her.
After the anger resided, she turned around and went to go get her lunch. Now almost the entire cafeteria was laughing. Some students even started throwing food at Sunset.
She got to her feet and began to make her way out of the cafeteria. She tried shielding herself the best that she could from the apples and milk cartons being thrown her way. She was still feeling a bit dizzy from the punch.
“Sunset wait!” Sunset stopped running as she heard what sounded like Rainbow’s voice. What did she want? Did she want to hit her again? No she couldn’t still be that angry right? Maybe she wanted to apologize for what happened this morning! She turned around and instantly regretted it.
She saw Rainbow baseball pitch an apple right at her but was too slow to react. The apple got her right in the spot that Lightning punched her. The pain was now doubled and Sunset yelled in pain as she clutched her face.
“I hope that hurt you bitch!” Dash screamed.
Sunset just wanted this nightmare to end. But unfortunately it was all too real. With her eye still throbbing, she made it to the exit and ran through the doors. The students now cheering and resumed eating their lunches.
“Damn it Rainbow!” Applejack told Rainbow Dash as she sat back down. “I was gonna eat that apple. Ya can’t just go wasting my apples like that.”
“Hehe sorry Aj, but I just had to.” Dash said.
“I can’t believe she is still trying to say she’s innocent.” Rarity said with disgust. “Just who the hell does she think she is.”
“The same manipulative trash that ruined our friendship and is trying to humiliate us again.” Dash grumbled.
“Um, girls? Can we please drop the subject and forget about her right now.” Fluttershy said quietly from behind her hair. Pinkie Pie, wanting to comfort her, put a hand on her shoulder.
“Sorry Shy.” Dash apologized as she went back to eating.
******
The final bell rang, indicating the end of the school day. Sunset ran out of her class and headed straight for the exit. She didn’t even stop by her locker to put away her books. She just wanted to get away from everyone as quickly as possible.
She did her best to ignore the glares, laughs, and paper balls being thrown her way. She finally made it through the exits and ran straight home, not bothering to look back.
She arrive at her ‘home’ so to speak. It was an abandoned factory that she found when she first came through the portal. If a stranger were to enter it, they would’ve immediately started complaining and pointing out all the flaws and hazards of the place. Heck, even Sunset had to admit it was a pretty sucky place to live in. But she had been living there for years and had been surviving off of the money she collected in her Queen Bee days. Sunset was ashamed that she took kids’ lunch money, and if she still had some left she would give it back to the people she stole it from.
Sunset unlocked the door to the factory and entered. Once inside, she locked the door behind her, took off her jacket, and literally slammed her backpack down on the cold floor. She was lucky nothing fragile was inside.
She went to the bathroom to check out her eye. Sure enough her eye was swollen as all hell and was beginning to blacken. She let out a frustrated groan as she went to her bed and sat down on it, thinking about what had happened today.
“How did this happen?” she asked herself. “We were best friends. They stuck by me ever since the Fall Formal. They even told me that I was like family and invited me to their slumber parties.” Tears were now flowing as she sat on her bed, trembling and hugging her knees.
“So then why? Why don’t they believe me? Why doesn’t anybody believe me?! Has nothing that I’ve done since the Fall Formal meant anything to them?!” she yelled.
Staring at a spot on the wall, Sunset thought back to how this all started. She remembered the Fall Formal, the night Princess Twilight had stopped her from brainwashing the other students. She recalled hearing Princess Twilight ask her friends to take care of her. Was that all this had been? Had they only been doing this because of Princess Twilight? Did they drop her so quickly because they hadn’t cared at all?
“They never forgave me. I was just a charity case to them.”
At this point, Sunset was now sobbing. She didn’t care that her eye was throbbing. She couldn’t believe that her best friends weren’t her friends at all. They were just doing this because Princess Twilight asked them to.
No! She couldn't think like this. They were her friends, and there had to be something she can do to win them back.
She didn’t know how long she’d been crying and she didn’t care. This whole day had been so exhausting for her and this sobbing of hers has left her drained. She decided to get under her covers, not caring that she was still in her clothes, and went to sleep almost immediately. Hopefully tomorrow would be better.
******
Tomorrow did not get better. Sunset was immediately greeted with the same hatred from yesterday. On her way to her locker, she tried to think of a way to convince the girls that she’s innocent. She was shaken out of her thoughts when someone bumped into her as they walked by. She tried to ignore it but was bumped again. And again. And again. She was starting to worry that someone might go to a shove.
“Move!”
Of course. She was shoved to the ground by someone behind her. She tried getting up but was pushed to the ground again. She heard the laughter of the students. Before anyone could knock her back down for the tenth time, she got up quickly, stumbling a little, and ran for her locker. When she got there, she let out a sigh of relief and began putting in her combination. Suddenly she was grabbed from behind and was thrown to the lockers behind her with a thud as her head with the lockers.
Her head was spinning a little bit now. She felt a pair of hands grab her by her sweater collar and push her against the lockers. She opened her eyes to see that it was Hoops and Score that were the ones doing this.
“Hi Anon-A-Miss!” Hoops said in a cheery voice. “Still sharing secrets?”
“N-no!” Sunset yelled. “How many times do I have to say this? I am not Anon-” She was interrupted when she was slammed into the lockers again. She groaned in pain as her head was now completely spinning.
“Shut up! You’re not pleading your way out of this. We’re gonna make you pay, hehe.” Hoops said as he raised one a fist into the air and prepared to bring it down. Sunset closed her eyes, expecting her black eye to scream in pain again.
“HEY!”
A voice caused the bullies to pause and look at the direction of it. They saw the female badass of the school standing there with her arms crossed and a furious look in her eyes.
“G-Gilda?” Hoops and Score both stuttered with fear in their voices.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Gilda said through clenched teeth.
“W-we’re teaching this demon a lesson.” Score said with a sheepish grin, hoping that Gilda would join them.
Their fear increased as Gilda took a step forward, arms still crossed and still looking pissed.
“Let her go,” she growled. “Now.”
“B-but-” Hoops didn’t get to finish as Gilda’s fist connected to the side of his head, causing him to let go of Sunset. Without Hoops supporting her, Sunset slid down to the ground.
Sunset, unaware of what was going on, opened up her eyes when she felt herself on the ground again but with no extra pain. She was now confused when she saw Gilda in front of her looking at Hoops and Score, the former being held up and holding his head like he got punched. Did Gilda do that?
“Get the hell out of here. NOW!!” Gilda screamed, causing Hoops and Score to scurry on out, Hoops stumbling a bit.
Gilda turned back to Sunset and looked at her, the anger on her face replaced with a worried look. She held out her hand. Sunset, still confused, took it and Gilda helped her to her feet.
“You ok Sunset?” Gilda asked. She sounded genuinely concerned. She put her hands on Sunset’s shoulders as she looked at her face and noticed the swollen black eye, anger slowly coming back to her face. “Did those two idiots do this to you?”
“N-no. This was from yesterday,” she said, holding her head. “Um why did you save me?”
“What do you mean why?” Gilda said with a smile. “You were about to get punched in the face and from the look of that eye, you would’ve been in some serious pain.”
“Hehe. Yeah I guess so. But why didn’t you join them. I mean, don’t you also believe I’m Anon-A-Miss like the rest of the school?” she said with a hint of sadness.
“Hell no!” Gilda screamed a little bit causing Sunset to jump. “This is obviously a shitty frame job. Anyone who can’t see it is an idiot. You’ve changed Shimmer. You went from the most feared and hated person in the school to the most popular. After all the things you’ve done, I’m convinced that you are a good person now. Hell you’ve even helped me with my homework and studied with me because you saw me struggling. I couldn’t be more grateful.” She smiled at Sunset, causing her to blush and smile back.
“And besides, even if I didn’t believe you, I wouldn’t openly hurt you just because of some petty secrets. I may be a tough girl, but I’m not a psycho who beats people to a pulp.” she said with a laugh, causing Sunset to giggle slightly.
“Haha yeah I guess so. Um thank you, Gilda. I’m really glad that someone is on my side in all this.” Sunset said with a small smile.
“Hey no problem. It’s the least I could do.” She said as she picked up Sunset’s backpack and handed it to her. “Now come on. Let’s get to class.”
Sunset nodded and took her backpack and put it around her shoulders. She went to her locker and grabbed her books. She went back to with Gilda after closing her locker and together they went to their class
Sunset was now feeling a little bit better now, knowing that there was at least one person who didn’t hate her. And that one person just so happens to be Gilda of all people, the last person she’d expect. Maybe there’s more people who believe her.
Sunset looked at Gilda and smiled at her. Gilda noticed and returned the smile.
There may be some hope left after all, she thought to herself as they neared their class.