//------------------------------// // Awakened // Story: The Phoenix // by SilverWind14 //------------------------------// “Put her in the car,” Lightning Dust said to her schoolmates as they lifted an unconscious Sunset from the ground. Snips and Snail looked at each other with worried looks before her beaten body in the back of Lightning’s car. It was 9:00 PM, and it was a cold and snowy night. It was close to the holidays and people were excited, especially the students of CHS, who were to go on Winter Break next week. Since the holidays were coming up, everyone was in a jolly mood. Well they were in a good mood before the start of this week. Anon-A-Miss, a mysterious MyStable user, showed up and began posting embarrassing secrets. During the course of the week, Anon-A-Miss had turned the whole school upside down and the students were at each other's throats. And all fingers pointed at the former Queen Bee of the school, Sunset Shimmer. Because of that, the students made sure to make Sunset’s life a living hell for her. Whether it was glaring at her, ignoring her, shoving her around, or throwing things at her, they did their best to making her as downtrodden as possible, and it was working. Sunset was absolutely miserable. And the worst part of it was that she was completely alone. The only true friend she had left was Gilda, who, for some reason, didn’t join in on the ‘Blame Sunset’ bandwagon. Her six best friends--Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight Sparkle--had also believed Sunset to be guilty, and cut all ties with the former unicorn. This broke Sunset completely but she still held hope that it’ll be over someday and she could win them back. She had thought today was the day. Sunset had received a text from Rainbow Dash telling her to meet her at the school gym to talk. Although it seemed kind of shady, Sunset immediately thought the best and came rushing over to the gym, expecting Rainbow there to let her explain herself. What she didn’t expect, however, was to see a group of students, led by Lightning Dust, there, waiting for her. To jump her! Thankfully, she had been training in martial arts for a while and fought back against her attackers. Taking a few of them down before they all came at her at once and brought her down. Lightning Dust, now sporting a bruised eye, busted lip, and fractured nose, wanted to continue beating her down, so she came up with the idea to take her to an abandoned factory to continue her beatdown. “Anyone else wanna join me?” Lightning asked her school mates. The ones who weren’t either knocked out or on the ground groaning in pain gave her a worried look. “What are you planning to do to her, Dust?” asked Score as he wiped some blood from his nose. “I mean, we’ve already beaten the lights out of her. Don’t you think it’s time to go?” “No way! She needs to suffer more! She needs to learn never to mess with me!” Lightning yelled, her anger increasing as she recalled the latest secret posted by Anon-A-Miss. It was a picture of Lightning Dust and Rainbow Dash kissing. They were now the latest laughingstock of the school and both had been pissed. Dash came up with a plan to get ‘back a Sunset.’ She gave Lightning Dust her phone so that she could text Sunset (as Rainbow Dash) and tell her to meet her at the gym, where a group of students who also wanted revenge would be waiting to teach Sunset a lesson. Now that Sunset was beaten and unconscious the students were satisfied and were worried about what Lightning might do to her now. “I know you’re upset about that,” Score said. “But come on. She’s had enough. What are you gonna do kill her?” “AHHH!! Forget you guys then! I’ll go by myself!” Dust scream as her patience had run out. “Snips! Snails! You’re coming with me! Get your asses in the car!” Snips and Snail did as they were told, afraid that she was gonna beat them as well. Once they were all in the car, Lightning Dust sped down the street. The remaining students were left to worry about what might happen to Sunset now that she was at the mercy of Lightning Dust. ****** Once they arrived at the factory, Lightning got out of her car and headed for the entrance. “Hurry up you idiots! I don’t have all day!” she yelled as she entered the building. Snips and Snails reluctantly got Sunset out of the car. They both held the still unconscious girl up and looked at the old abandoned factory in front of them. “Snips, I’m scared,” Snails said as he looked at the building. “Me too buddy.” Snips said as fear began to take over. He looked at the girl he was holding up. “I really hope she goes easy on her.” After sharing one more worried look with each other, they entered the building. ****** Pain. That’s the first thing Sunset was feeling as she was slowly regaining consciousness. She remembered rushing over to CHS as soon as she saw the text from Rainbow Dash. She also remembered entering the gym and seeing Lightning Dust and a bunch of other students waiting there for her. Apparently, this had been an elaborate ruse thought up by Dash and Dust to get Sunset to come to the gym after hours to teach her a lesson. In a moment of sheer panic, she began fighting the students. Knowing some martial arts skills, she held her own against what appeared to be ten to fifteen students before their strength in numbers finally brought her to the ground. Before losing consciousness, she felt punches and kicks all over her. Now that she was waking up, the pain was now being registered and she wished she was still knocked out. Aside from that, Sunset also felt herself being carried. She tried to turn her head to the ones carrying her, but the pain in her head protested against movement. She groaned in pain and felt herself stop moving. “Ah, look who’s awake. I was hoping you’d wake up soon.” She heard a voice say. A voice that sounded a lot like… “Lightning Dust?” Sunset managed to say through the pain. “W-what’s going on? Where am I?” She finally managed to look around her. She saw that she was inside what appeared to be an old abandoned factory. Now she was feeling a mixture of confusion and fear. She turned to look at the ones carrying her. When she saw who it was, she let out a small gasp. “Snips? Snails?” “H-hi Sunset.” Snips managed to say with a sheepish grin, though the look in his eyes told Sunset that he was scared. She turned to Snails, who couldn’t bring himself to look at her. He had his eyes glued to the ground, a guilty look on his face. “W-what’s happening here? Why are-” She was interrupted when she felt a fist connect to her face. She yelped as the pain in her face and head doubled. “Shut your dumbass up, you demon!” yelled Lightning Dust. “Dust, please!” screamed Snips, tears running down his face. “She’s already had enough! Would you please just-” “You stay out of this unless you want to join her, fat boy!” Dust yelled back. Snips shut his mouth almost immediately. Lightning then began laughing softly. Fear was slowly building up in Sunset. What the hell was she planning to do? “As for why you’re here, I’m going to continue paying you back for that damn picture you posted. You just don’t know when to stop do you?” She said through gritted teeth. “How many times do I have to tell you this? I. Am. Not. An-” She felt another punch connect, this time in her stomach. She began coughing and wheezing. “There you go again with your stupid lies!” Dust growled “I’m gonna enjoy this.” She began chuckling as she got rope. “Hold her still while I tie the bitch up.” Snips and Snails shook as Lightning Dust began tying her left arm. They just wanted this to end. They didn’t care if Sunset was Anon-A-Miss or not, this was the person who they considered their friend. They didn’t want to see her suffer anymore than she already was. Sunset went limp as she felt the rope around her wrist. She felt Snips and Snails shaking. Sunset could only imagine what they were going through. She wanted to let them know that it was ok, that there was nothing to worry about, but that’d be a lie. She couldn’t do anything about this and she knew it. She thought back to how this all started.  With the first Anon-A-Miss post being Applejack’s family nickname and the second being pictures of the slumber party at Rarity’s. She then thought about her…’friends’. How they abandoned her and left her alone. Even Twilight Sparkle, this world’s version of the pony princess, who she had only known for a short time compared to the others. She thought about the one pony she failed the most. Princess Celestia. The princess of Equestria. The one pony she admired like a mother. In fact, Celestia was her mother, to her anyway. She had found Sunset on the streets of Canterlot and took her under her wing. She taught her many things like the use of magic and how to properly use it. Sunset, thinking she was being held back from her learning, deliberately disobeyed Celestia’s orders and went through the portal. That was years of love and care that Celestia gave to her, and Sunset threw it all back at her face like a spoiled brat. Oh, how she just wanted to go back and beg her for her forgiveness. But she couldn’t. She didn’t have the courage to. And now it was too late. I failed, she thought to herself. It’s over. I’m...I’m done for. Sunset Shimmer! She heard an all-too-familiar voice echo in her head. C-Celestia? Don’t you give up now, my sunshine. You still have so much to look forward to. So much to do and learn. You’re not one to give up so easily, you never have been. You’ve always pushed yourself to be the best. To show the world that you’re not weak. So don’t start giving up now. You have a great power inside of you, Sunset. Just look into your heart and bring that power out. The voice was now fading away. W-what do you mean? Celestia? Please don’t leave me! Keep fighting my sunshine. Never lose faith in yourself and others. Be strong. For me. M-mom! For yourself. Make me proud, my little pony… MOMMY!!! Sunset could no longer hear Celestia’s voice. She now began to cry, causing Lightning Dust to smile. “Yes, that it. Keep crying. I enjoy seeing you so vulnerable,” she said as she went to tie the other hand. As Sunset cried, she felt something in her heart. She felt...magic. Her unicorn magic that she always felt in Equestria. But she also felt another type of magic. She felt the magic that she had when she gathered her friend’s magic and defeated Twilight during the Friendship Games. She stopped crying. This must’ve been what Celestia was talking about. She let the magic run throughout her body until she could feel it everywhere. Snips and Snail  let her go, letting her limp body hang as one hand was to a pole and the other hanging by her side. Lightning grabbed her other hand, but felt it stop half way up. She saw that Sunset was resisting her. She became more confused as she tried pulling her arm, harder now, but found that she wasn’t budging. “What the hell?” Dust said. She didn’t understand why Sunset still had strength left after that beating. Sunset surprised everyone even further when she yanked her arm away from Lightning Dust. She then gave her a hard punch to the gut, all while still staring at the ground. Lightning staggered backwards in shock and pain as she gripped her stomach, gasping for air. Snips and Snails watched with disbelief as the girl they thought was doomed suddenly gained the upper hand, all while having one hand tied. Sunset suddenly began to glow as an orange aura of some sort surrounded her body. It looked like she was about to pony up, but no ears or ponytail appeared. She finally looked up and stared at Dust, who had dropped to knees, still wheezing. Dust looked up to see Sunset looking at her with a look of both determination and anger, and her confusion turned to fear. Sunset freed her other hand with a hard yank, causing the ropes to snap. She got to her feet as she continued to stare at Lightning Dust. Suddenly, the aura grew brighter, causing the others to shield their eyes. When the light died down, everyone looked at Sunset and were even more shocked at what they saw Sunset’s hair color was more vibrant than it usually was. She appeared to be a bit buffer than usual. But what surprised everyone was the pair of wings on her back. They weren’t like the ones that Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Twilight got when they ponied up. These were different. They looked nothing like pony wings. These looked like a birds wings. More specifically, phoenix wings. The spiky, fiery looking wings were enough to further their confusion and shock. “What the hell is this!?” Lightning shouted as she managed to get to her feet. “You were beaten and weak. Where did this come from?!” “What’s wrong, Dust? You were talking so big before,” Sunset mocked as her scowl changed to a smirk. “SHUT UP!!!” Dust shouted as she rushed at Sunset and threw a punch Sunset caught the punch with ease, her smirk dropping back down to a scowl. Dust tried to pull away, but found that she couldn’t. Before she could say anything, Sunset delivered a powerful knee to Lightning’s stomach, knocking the wind out of her. She then threw a left hook across her face, sending her flying back and crashing into the wall, knocking her out cold. Sunset stared at Lightning’s unconscious body for a bit before realizing what she did. “Holy crap.” she said. “Where did this come from?” She looked at her hands as they began to glow a bright red. She glanced at the rest of her body and noticed the increase in muscles. Finally she took notice of her new wings. She moved them around and flapped them a little as she let out a small chuckle. “This is so cool!” she said, giggling with joy. “U-um, Sunset?” Sunset stopped giggling and turned to face the two boys, who were still visibly shaking. She completely forgot that they were here! “Hey guys,” she said with a small smile “Are...are you ok, Sunset?” Snails asked with concern in his voice. “Well despite being lured into a trap set up by Lightning Dust and Rainbow Dash and getting pummeled to near death, AND THEN being brought out to an abandoned factory to potentially get tortured only to awaken this magic that I didn’t even know I had, I’m pretty ok,” she said with a grin. “I see,” Snips laughed sheepishly before getting quiet, looking guilty. “Look Sunset, we’re so sorry for doing this to you. We didn’t even want to be a part of this. Dust pretty much threatened us if we didn’t help her. And-” “Hey, it’s ok guys.” Sunset interrupted with a sad smile. “It wasn’t your fault. I know that you boneheads would never do anything like this of your own free will. I’m not mad at you, I promise.” She said with an large smile. Snips and Snails tackle-hugged her, tears running down their faces. “Thank you, Sunset! Thank you so much!” they yelled “No problem, guys.” Sunset giggled as she returned the hug. After a few minutes of hugs and tears, the two boys broke the hug and looked at Sunset in amazement. “You look sooo cooool!” Snips said. “You were all glowy and shimmery and then all of a sudden you grew wings and became all buff and stuff and knocked out Lightning like it was nothing. Where did this even come from?” “Still trying to figure that out,” Sunset replied before remembering something. “Holy shit! I didn’t realize how long we were in here. It must be getting really late. I’ll take you guys home before your parents get really worried and call the police.” “Good idea. My mom is probably gonna kill me for being out this late. But that’s ok, so long as she doesn’t know what happened.” Snips said. “Um, guys?” Snails called, getting their attention. “What do we do about her?” He pointed at Lightning Dust, who was still out cold. Sunset fluttered her new wings and tapped her chin before saying, “Hm. Actually, speaking of the police…”