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// An Ever After Tale 10: Night of Surprises 
// Story: The Many Destinies of Sunset Shimmer 
// by ratedoni 
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Well, the whole night have ended in a huge disaster, so big in fact that every single hero, princess and villain had been left in shock due to the actions of just one young girl that refused to become a sacrificial lamb, all just so one little girl could have a prince and crown. More power to her, probably?

Sunset Shimmer sighed as she stood in the middle of what had become ground zero to the most important night in the school life for all of them, just to end up so royally screwed to massive proportions.

Everyone was gone or at least the most important people, back to their dorm, talking somewhere or crying their eyes out in the case of one Apple White. As much as Sunset found the girl annoying, she found herself a little split between celebrating Raven’s desire to be free and sympathizing with Apple’s clear heart break. It kind of reminded her right after she had been rainbowfied back at the dance on CHS, what with having all of her expectations burned right in your face; the only difference was that instead of being a rainbow right into the face, it was one girl that had said enough and refused to play the villain.

“Well, this night was a complete carriagewreck, wait… ugh, this world and its dumb puns,” Sunset had spent a short time in this world, but the amount of magic floating around was enough to help her get acclimated to the fairy tale-themed universe, puns including.

While she quite understood the why the book was so important, beyond a clear way to keep everyone in their places on a forced determinism, she understood the clear desire to relive the past and keep those stories alive, but what was the practical use? Was it really a fact that they would disappear if they didn’t re-enact their stories? So far she haven’t found much information on that specific part of the history, maybe it existed, but Sunset had the small little suspicion that the Headmaster Grimm had those books somewhere secret just so the students wouldn’t find out the truth.

Sunset shook her head free of those ideas; yes, the Headmaster was very into tradition, but she couldn’t imagine him guarding information just to be malicious or trying to hurt someone, he was an old fool, one that annoyed the future Dorothy Gale, but she couldn’t see him as a mastermind as he wanted most villains to be. If it weren’t because most of those future villains saw their roles more as a play than a future work, then the school would have been turned upside down by a good villain.

Taking care of her own dress, Sunset Shimmer took a seat on the cheap looking folding chairs that the school had used for the day. Sunset snorted in a very unladylike fashion at the dichotomy of having true royalty in the school and for such an important day they used something that you would find at a High School dance.

The night had gone to hex and back, what with just one decision to be free and now, everything was alone; the banners were still up, the mirrors that had exploded were still raised and the book was… still there now that she thought about it. For such an important piece of history, the Headmaster had left it behind, although considering how he looked it was clear that he was about to get a conniption with how shocked and angry he was.

“I suppose he was thinking of how angry the monarchies would be in a couple of days,” at those words, Sunset looked backwards at someone else that had been left behind, someone that she did not recognize. He was tall, with blonde hair licked backwards, but unlike the other princes, he didn’t as confident or full of bravado, he just looked cocky, self-assured in what he could do, but at the same time calm and laid back. It was probably the British accent that the boy had, “sorry love, it wasn’t my intention to scare you.”

“Is okay, this is not a private party,” Sunset just shook her head, glad to have someone to talk with, after all, her thought were going round and round and she couldn’t quite find an answer to what would happen now. As the foreign student, Sunset didn’t have the years of cultural knowledge that the others had, in a way it was like when she first arrived at the human world; everything was new and incredible, and so it was because of that she still didn’t have the whole picture of this world, like how magic could affect everything or what was the purpose of maintaining the stories and re-enact them all the time.

“Well no, but for some it could be a pity party; you should see the dorms, most students look like a decapitated chicken, running around without knowing what to do,” the blond boy said with a grin on his face, as if the way in which others acted was enjoyment to him.

“You don’t sound that scared about Raven’s actions.”

“Because it has nothing to do with me after all, but mostly, because I’m not royal in anyway; David Robert Jones, at your service, future Jafar,” he said extending a hand to Sunset; as she shook his hand, Sunset took a look at his wardrobe and unlike most of the other students that were using their best suits and dresses, David was using a nice suit, but without a tie and with the last button open which gave him a very laidback look. Sunset took a look at her own dress and was definitely jealous due to the amount of layers that she will have to take off in her room; her dress was white with a high collar, obviously referencing the Good Fairy Glinda since Dorothy was a farmer back in Kansas so gowns and pretty dresses were not that related to her future destiny.

“No wonder you didn’t care that much, your job is basically take control of the crown,” Sunset said with a small smirk on her face, clear show that she was joking and the boy seemed to understand that with the way he laughed.

“I assure you, I have no desire to gain a crown any day soon, I do like my current job… now, if only I could find that job,” David began to look around, clearly looking for something, or maybe someone since not two seconds later two figure appeared, two girls with one of them dragging the other around; they were none other than Hannah Aleppo with Oolong using her as a pillow if her snores were any indication.

“Isn’t, like, keeping an eye on her your job?” the disgruntled Valley Girl/Future Thief said huffing due to the exertion of dragging the other girl around.

“I swear your highness finds new places to fall asleep every single day, I’ll bet you that she was asleep through the entire Legacy Day fiasco,” he said as he took the sleeping princess on his arms as Hannah began to massage her shoulder due to Oolong’s weight.

“Is every single villain and hero pair a friend in this school?” this was something that Sunset was curious about this world, because she was sure that enemies usually didn’t get along very well.

“Ah, I see you know our delightful Apple and Raven; believe me, due to me working for this lovely pair,” David said clearly referring to the sleeping Oolong and Hannah, who was looking at something on her mirror-phone “ you may think so, but most enemies don’t really spend much time together, what with us having a different curriculum.”

“Yeah, as if Briar and Faybelle will spend time together, like, can you imagine the spellfight between the two?”

“Or Ramona and Cerise, but I guess Apple and Raven are not your typical pair; those two have been inseparable since Nursery School, although that was mostly Apple who was constantly chasing after Raven,” jus the mental image of a mini Apple running after a scared Raven was enough to make her fight back laughter; the other two students realized that and smiled at her reaction “yeah, we think of that and now we laugh too.”

“They seem like good friends, now this night will probably break that friendship,” or whatever the hex their relationship was, but for only answer David and Hannah began to laugh.

“Oh my dear, you don’t know those two, come morning Apple will be hanging on Raven’s arm and everything will be back to normal with those two; is the rest of the school that you have to be careful of, since no one has ever rejected their destiny.”

“Yeah, like, have you seen the amount of comments and photos already on the Mirror-net, like, I swear everyone will be talking about tonight for a whole month, talking about that, spellfie time!” without another warning, Hannah got close to Sunset and took a picture of both of them “I think this photo will get, like, a thousand likes in MySpellbook tonight, as in, look at us, we survived Legacy Day,” as the Aladdin heirs continued their shenanigans, Sunset turned around at where she had seen the book, right at the podium.

It was maybe a bad idea, or probably a good one, she wasn’t quite sure yet, but if there was something Sunset had was curiosity and a thirst for knowledge and there was no better way to get knowledge that by getting to the root of things, the Storybook of Legends. It was clear that the Headmaster was busy trying to keep thing sunder control after such a night, so this was probably the only chance she will have to take a look at it, so she took the steps into the podium, one she wasn’t able to use due to Raven Queen’s words and actions, Sunset finally saw the book that caused all this drama and was awed by it.

It was a majestic looking book, clearly created for big things, but she could see it in detail later, right now she wanted answers, or at least hints to find the answers she was looking for; instead, what she and the others with her in the school grounds got was a surprise.

The mirrors, which had exploded due to Raven Queen’s rejection of her story, suddenly repaired themselves, with the pieces of the mirrors flowing back as if someone had pressed the rewind button, turning back into mirrors. The book in Sunset’s hands also opened up, flying pages as they came to one specific entry, something that was still being written, and something that made Sunset gasp in surprise.

Right there, in the mirrors, she could see herself, in one mirror using the silver shoes and long dress of Dorothy Gale, in the other, she was a wearing a dark dress with high collar and big hat, it was the attire of the Wicked Witch, but that was not all. Images flowed across the mirrors, images of Sunset Shimmer, but at the same time they weren’t. Some Sunsets had armor, others were suited like heroes out of a comic book, dozens of versions of Sunset Shimmer in different worlds and in bright, golden letters, there was only a phrase written in the book.

The Many Destinies of Sunset Shimmer