//------------------------------//
// 5 - Revelations 
// Story: A Third Chance to Find a Family 
// by kitkataddel 
//------------------------------//

It was a peaceful thing to wait through, eating simple food. Sunset knew she'd come to this point, but she wasn't sure if she should actually tell them about herself quite yet. So, in a last minute decision of cowardice, she decided to lay off the fact that she was a unicorn from another universe. Instead, she was actually going to be completely honest about why she tried to end herself for good.

"Sunset? Are sure about this?" Velvet was staring at the girl who had just spoken her thoughts out loud, perhaps knowingly, perhaps not. Twilight Sparkle

"Yes. I trust you now, and I want to show that. You've cared for me, and I never saw a reason why until now." It was true. They had brought a great many things for her, and she always asked why. They had simply said that it was because they should. Even when they took her to the hospital to check on her progress, and it had gone nowhere, they were there to comfort her. It was nice. It was more than she felt she deserved. And even with the holidays coming up, they helped pick out gifts Sunset could give to them. It was amazing. If Sunset where to put them into a story, one chapter alone would have to be dedicated to their short trip to the mall to buy clothes. 'Heh, that would be a pain to write.'

"And I feel I should explain why I didn't feel I deserved it. I- have a troubled past, and honestly? I'd rather not talk about it now. Maybe another time. But let's skip to the part where I start to attend Canterlot High. It was about three years ago, where I started to become really popular there. I got a taste of it, and because of what happened before that, I really liked it. I became near addicted to it, and would do anything to keep it. All in all, I became a complete bully, even keeping blackmail on alot of people, causing popularity to turn into power. And while I'd say I regretted some of those actions, stealing lunch money probably kept me alive while I was homeless." She was interrupted by a raised lavender hand. Nodding at Twilight to convey that she could speak, Sunset waited.

"Why were you homeless in the first place?"

"No family in the city, and no way out of the city either. As for why? That's much more complicated, so let's stick to the topic at hand." Seeing Twilight was content, Sunset continued. "So I kept on being awful and such until someone decides to go against me. I naturally tried to stop them, and well... I went a bit too far. After an incident earned me the nickname of 'raging she-demon', I had a sort of an epiphany. I tried to turn my life around, and survive in different ways. I made friends, even helped them stop a group of people from doing the same thing I did. Then..."

This was the worst part of her story. She would regret saying this, but knew it would work out in the long term. "Something happened. There was a MyStable account. It started to post other people's secrets, my friends first. They blamed m-me. It got out of control. People were at each others throats. When my closest friends c-confronted me. I-I just couldn't take it anymore. I was g-going to t-try and sort it o-out the n-next day. b-but when I came to w-where I had b-been making a shelter for t-the b-blizzard, when, I-I saw it collapse... I just gave up." It was almost impossible how Sunset had become so serious at the end, and Velvet had clearly noticed this.

"Sunset, are you okay? This isn't exactly something you should be so... calm about."

"Well, yes. But I made a decision during my... reformation. Hell, I even sang a song about how 'my past is not today' on top of the roof on the school, all throughout the night, about how I had been reborn. Hm... I might have to sing it again..."





After this rather unexpected confession, the next few days passed rather peacefully, with Sunset fully building up relationships with the family who had cared for her, and with consistant conversations with Vinyl and her friends, now including Derpy ('Or was it Ditzy?'), since it appeared she had been 'away' during the start of the Anon-A-Miss, Sunset had been building back up her social life, even if it was with only half a dozen people over a phone.

Soon, it was Christmas Eve, and while Sunset had never properly celebrated Christmas before, if ever, it was shaping up to be that not bad at all. Velvet had instructed Sunset what she should get everyone, even after assuring Sunset that it wasn't needed. 

In Equestria, there were not such things as 'Hearth's Warming miracles', but it appeared that there really were Christmas miracles.

It was a typical afternoon for Sunset by this stage. Shining and Cadance had come over to prepare for the upcoming family dinner and Sunset had just returned from a hospital check up, which showed a bit of improvement, but unfortunately nothing noticable would appear for a while. Or at least that was what the doctors predicted.

Sunset had just returned to her room, before checking her journal. She was not expecting to see anything - she could understand that Twilight was already busy enough preparing for Hearth's Warming in her kingdom. She still found it strange that there wasn't any message from Spike though, since he said he would keep her updated. Assuming he was busy helping calm Twilight from one of her usual panic attacks, Sunset bent down with her hands to pick up the journal, putting it back in it's place. 'Wait, my hands?'

Experimentally, Sunset tried wriggling her fingers on each hand, and when that was successful, she tried grasping the door handle and opening it, as opposed to shoving it with her shoulder like before. When Sunset accomplised that, she let out a gleeful squeal, earning the attention of the passing Twilight Sparkle.

"Sunset? You okay?"

"Twilight!" Sunset continued to let out overjoyed, but also childish noises while rushing forward to grab Twilight with her newly functioning appendages. "I can use my hands! Yes!"

Twilight expression shifted from being slightly scared to complete excitement in an instant. "Oh my God! That's great! But how? I thought you said the check ups said nearly no improvement?" The young scientist started to frantically wave her hands about, motioning in every possible direction at once.

"Exactly! Hang on, let's be calm about this. We need to get this checked out. Let me tell Mrs. Velvet."

And that's exactly what they did, in a more frantic, overexcited, panicked and joyous manner than what they had intended. Regardless of how they stated what had happened, Sunset was on her way to the hospital once more, and after some very thorough checks and alot of head scratching, a number of things were declared:



Some of the bandages would come off, leaving a few to protect the cuts until they either became scars or started to properly heal.

Sunset would not need to come back to hospital for another two weeks.

Her hands were fully functioning, and she would not need any help with anything.

She still was not able to feel anything below the elbow, no matter how deep the feeling should be.

She would not be required to go to school, since mentions of it clearly held deep mental pains, and until they could be resolved the experience could prove damaging to Sunset's mind.

Her ability do to more technical things, like writing or playing guitar, she would need to relearn in a different way. Why Sunset could write with her mouth baffled the doctors.

She would be offered to be held under observation, to research this 'miracle'. Sunset hastily declined.



And then before she knew it, Sunset was out of the hospital, With the two Twilights who had accompanied her in tow. The trip felt like it had hardly been twelve minutes, but it was almost dinner by the time they came out.  Sunset didn't really care about that though. She was just glad she could use all her limbs again, and that she never had to go back into that putrid building for a while. She kicked out of her thoughts by a small argument occuring between her comrades.

"I told you not to bring Spike!"

"I didn't - he must've followed us here!"

"Well, either way, lets take him home."

In between the mother and daughter was a small purple and green dog with long, floppy ears Sunset had seen scampering round the house before. The younger Twilight scooped Spike into her arms and then deposited him onto the back seat, motioning Sunset to join him. Doing as asked, Sunset graciously slumped into the back seat next to the canine, who was humming a quiet tune. 'Wait, what?!'

Lowering her voice to to low whisper, Sunset hissed to the young pup. "Did you just..." She trailed off when 'Spike' gave her a sly smile and extended a claw so it pointed up over his mouth. "Right, right, of course Spike would suddenly grow exteremly intelligant when I regain use of my arms." Sunset uttered to no one imparticular. Seeing the canine's confused gaze, she just whispered "Later." and attempted to make sense of the situation.





Sunset arrived at the house, still completely and utterly baffled by the recent events, and just retired to her room, Spike following her all the way.

"So what do you want?"

"I'm worried about you, stupid!" Sunset's eyes widened in shock at the sudden vocal ability of the dog, before relaxing almost instantly. 

"How- oooh. You're Spike from Equestria aren't you?"

Spike the ex-dragon spread his arms wide, as if he was trying to glorify himself. "That's me! The one and- well, I guess not quite only, but still..."

"Could you keep it down? These people don't know that I'm actually a pony!" Sunset levelled a very stern look and the creature pacing below her. Spike was not going to be swayed, almost looking unimpressed. "Fine, fine, talk all you want. I'm going to eat."





"Twily, can you see what's taken Sunset so long?"

Jumping from her seat. Twilight nodded before hurrying towards her destination. Before reaching it, however, Sunset burst out the door, with a small look of defeat in her eye. "Sorry. got distracted. By that." Sticking a thumb behind her shoulder, Twilight followed it to see Spike, happily wagging his tail at the pair. "Come on. I'm hungry."

Glancing back at the dog as they left, Twilight called out to the 'pet'. "Food is ready Spike." The canine moved so fast he might as well of teleported.

Upon reaching the dining room, Sunset joined Twilight's parents as they eagerly chatted about Shining's and Cadance's upcoming baby. Upon hearing of Shining mentioning a disturbance at Canterlot High, Sunset cringed. When she heard a substantial amount of barking come from the doorway, she cringed even further. IF she could cringe anymore, she would at the next sentences she heard.

"AW COME ON! It was going so well!"

All but the former unicorn, swiveled in shock at the voice, which was eminating from one of two purple dogs from across the room. "SPIKE! You couldn't at least be a bit discreet?"

"What was I supposed to do? He started to bark at me and then sniff me!"

"Dogs do that!"

"It's weird!"

"You're still a dog! You look like a dog! You smell like a dog! Everything about you is like. A. Dog. That means, you act like a dog, even around another dog that so happen to be your... counter... part..." Sunset trailed off as she noticed everyone staring at the strange spectacle of a 18 year old girl getting into a heated argument at a talking dog, which an identical version of which was standing right next to the bewildered family, since the canine appeared to be just as confused as they were at this point.

"Well, I'm making all the confessions recently aren't I? Do you want to start Spike or should I?" An evil grin flashing across the canine's face, he simply barked. "Ha ha. Very funny. Funny dragon. Explain that."

"Good to see you still have your manipulation techniques in case of an emergency, little miss unicorn. You guys are okay with us just talking for a bit about stuff that probably won't make sense to you at all?" He got a general chorus of 'Uh-huh.' as a yes. "Good, let's begin."

"Hello, I am Sunset Shimmer, and this is Spike. We hail from another universe, specifically the country of Equestria."

"Equestria is mostly populated by magical creatures called ponies, and most of the beings that exist in that universe are mythical here, such as griffins and hydras."

"You'd think you've done this before."

"I have, thank you very much."

"Anyway, I am one of these ponies, specifically a unicorn. The other main types of ponies that exist are pegasi and earth ponies. Unicorns can freely use and manipulate magic using their horns, making them powerful spell casters compared to the other tribes. Pegasi have wings, and they can fly, rather obviously. They can control the weather and walk on clouds, as their two main features. Earth ponies have a strong connection with the bond, allowing them to grow crops and care for animals much better than most other ponies. They are also incredibly strong."

"I am a dragon (I know right?) and I faithfully serve Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship, as her number one assistant. I am currently here on mission of my own accord to check on Sunset, particularly since Princess Twilight is managing the Hearth's Warming -"

"Equestrian version of Christmas."

"- celebrations in her kingdom at the moment."

"Wait that's why you're here?"

"Stay on topic. That and she doesn't know yet."

"Anyway, I, Sunset Shimmer, am the ex-student of Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria and the alicorn (a mix of all three pony races) who controls the sun and moon."

"Just the sun now, Sunset."

"Oh yeah, I forgot Princess Luna returned. Anyway, I ran away to here from the Princess after she caught me trying to ascend to an alicorn. Long story short, I got arrogant and angry over the fact than Celestia made Princess Cadance into an alicorn so she could be the Princess of Love, and she kicked me out. Found this place, ran over here, stole a massive source of magic belonging to Princess Twilight a few years later, tried to take over Equestria with an army of teenagers. Stupid I know. Got consumed by dark magic, then saved from it. I reformed, helped stop a trio of brainwashing sirens that Equestria had dumped here a few centuries ago, and the rest is sort of history. Oh, and if the talking dog duplicate isn't enough proof..." 

Sunset quickly rushed off, returning with a bag of golden coins, dumping them on the table.

"There's the equestrian currency, bits. Princess Celestia's depicted on one side if you're wondering."

"So, any questions?" Spike was now casually lounging in a a nearby chair at this point, used to lectures from Twilight it seemed. "Or is this still too weird?"





"Stupid sister... can't say an entire sentence... who needs the sun anyway? Wait, what's that? A letter from Twilight? Hmmmm... Maybe that will work..."