//------------------------------// // Wonderful // Story: Ashes // by corvipony //------------------------------// A filly with an orange coat and a mane of yellow and red sat on a grassy bank that rose up above the rather plain brick apartment complex that her mother and her had moved to earlier in the week . The filly was named Sunset Shimmer, she was 12 years old and she was now looking around the strange small town she now resided in. A month ago the filly lived with both of her parents in a nice house in Baltimare but that was what the outside world seen when they looked at the Shimmer family, inside the house though her parents were always so mad , screaming and fighting with each other . They would always tell her that everything will be wonderful some day, but promises mean everything when you're little and she would wonder how they could smile with tears in their eyes. Sunset went to school like she always did ,running and playing, telling the fellow foals everything was everything was all okay . When the bell rang at the end of the school day Sunset would always try to avoid going home . The orange filly would hurry to her room and close her eyes , making believe that she she had a new life where everything was wonderful. She hoped her mom and her would figure out why they got so mad, she instead heard bad words between her parents that made her want to cry. She would close her eyes and count to ten and hoped it would be over when she opened them Looking at the sun's last light hitting the skyline of the new town she lived in Sunset thought to herself . "Sometimes I hate everything..." Her parents had told her " You will understand someday, we've both grown in a different way ". A sullen look crossed her muzzle and the filly thought " I don't want to start over again, I just want my life to be the same, the way it used to be ". She kicked at a mound of red dirt with a hoof and huffed " Sometimes I wish I was stronger ,wish I could feel no pain.." Turning back to look down at the apartment where her mother was having a card game with her new friends that Sunset had no interest in meeting . Sunset mused "I wish I had power, I wish I could change the world " Sunset felt so mad , so angry, her tail jerked around in her anger as she looked down her muzzle at the buildings below . Being a new student in school was hard, but being a mid term transfer student was even harder. The students seemed happy to ignore her , the ones that did take notice of the filly were not nice at all. One had even broken into her locker and stole a comic book that she had got from one of her old friends before she had moved, and had torn it to bits . She sat back down as the reds and oranges of the sunset started to give way to the purples and blues of twilight, and set her face in a determined look. Speaking out loud the filly said "The only way to make sure things don't get taken away from me is to control everyone and everything". With that thought her course in life seemed to set itself. Over the few years that followed , the filly had gotten her cutie mark and while not giving in fully to her need to control everything, her mother never really understood how all the changes had affected her daughter . Sunset packed a pair of small leather small saddlebags with her most valued belongings and left a letter on her bed , at the top of the letter was Princess Celestia's personal seal . The letter only stated that Sunset Shimmer had been accepted into the most prestigious school in Canterlot. Brooding to herself the now 15 year old Sunset Shimmer took one last look at the ticket she had purchased with her last bits " I've made up my mind...better not waste anymore time ". The now somewhat lanky filly walked out of the brick apartment alone, she took one look back and handed down to the train station . She had never bothered trying to make friends at her new school after all what good where friends that could just be taken from her without her having any control over it . The unicorn just focused on her studies and to complete her plan of gaining control she had to have top marks so she did . She was smart , she knew that, her teachers knew it too, but did she enjoy learning just for the sake of learning? No , maybe at one point she did but no longer , now she learned to learn the tools she needed for control. She took sociology, psychology and other classes that were focused in areas where she could learn how ponies thought and acted . The unicorn aced her core classes as well and soon enough with her carefully planned show of power, one of the scouts for The School for Gifted Unicorns had took note of her. Sunset took her place on the train that would take her away from her mother, that apartment and the bad memories they both had held for the scarred filly. " Time for new memories , memories I control, memories where moving or divorce can't shatter " . She allowed herself a callous grin " Mother left Daddy without a word ...maybe this is her punishment, me leaving with no word..." The train shuddered as it started to pick up speed taking her back to Canterlot , she was finally coming back after 3 long years . It had felt longer to the unicorn but she couldn't help but feel nostalgic at seeing her old hometown come into view after a few hours of riding on the train. She shrugged it off though and readied herself to become the best unicorn that the city had seen. A unicorn that no one would make promises to and not keep..a unicorn that you had to be loyal to . The alternative would not be very nice at all, Sunset at first felt somewhat conflicted about this course but she had seen what trying to be friendly and open had gotten her . "Power is all I desire " She had deliberated her self and her ambition , her belief , was the only thing that set her free from scars of her rough fillyhood.