//------------------------------//
// Endless Suffering 
// Story: The Fabrication in The Shadows 
// by RainbowSparkle3 
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Sadly, the rumour didn’t “blow over.” In fact, it may have gotten worse. The rumour spread like wildfire, and all I could do was try to endure the constant whispers, stares and conversations about me behind my back. And that’s not even taking into account all the grief I had gotten on the internet during the few days after the start of the rumour. I almost decided to completely cut off my connection with society, but I felt like I needed to face my problems head on.
Me and Twilight were walking together, a bag filled with food and drinks in my right hand, while I held hands with Twilight using the other. It was Thursday in the late morning, a time when barely anyone was out and about, and we’d purposefully planned to do grocery shopping at that time.
Luckily for me, people found out where we lived, and gathered in large groups to wait for me so they could boo me on the streets.
We passed by one of these crowds when we headed to the grocery store, and we had to see them again when we walked back. There were no “scenic routes” between our house and the local grocery store, and the teleportation spell we  recently mastered wasn’t powerful enough to travel that far. Dozens of people were in the angry mob, some who I recognized, and some that I didn’t. Regardless of who they were, they were all shouting at me or holding up a hate sign.
I tried to hurry us along, but then Twilight released her grip on my hand and angrily marched toward the crowd that was continuously yelling, up until Twilight was right in front of them. I stopped and watched.
She took a deep breath, then bared her teeth and narrowed her eyes. “I can’t believe all of you!” she scolded with her arms high up in the sky. “Sunset has done nothing but try to better herself ever since the Summer prom, yet people like you keep taking every opportunity you can get to make her feel like dirt!” Twilight pointed in an accusatory manner at all the me-haters as she pressed on. “If you have problems with what she’s done in the past, or think she wasn’t punished enough by the school, then be a rational person and talk about it! You should all be ashamed of yourselves! How would you feel if everywhere you went, you were verbally attacked for something you didn’t do!? And, even if, and that’s a big if, Sunset did do what the rumour says she did, you can be more civilized about it!” Twilight huffed and puffed after finishing her rant.
One random guy in the middle of the crowd laughed and stepped forward as he said (with a stuffy and overconfident voice), “Obviously, Sunse's faking her “reformation.” Who would randomly turn good after being evil for years? She’s just trying to get on everyone’s good side and then do what she always does. The only difference is that she'll do it from the shadows. She doesn’t deserve respect.” I got a bit angry at the statement that I had randomly turned sides. There was so much more to it than that.
Twilight smacked her face. She looked like she was about to reply, but then I walked up to her and put a hand on her shoulder, telling her, “I can take care of this.” Twilight looked like she wanted to say something, but decided against it.
“So,” I said. “You think I’ve been faking everything and took off the element of magic myself because I was just tricking you? I easily could’ve taken over the world with the infinite power granted by the crown. Explain to me, how does it make sense for my reformation to be fake?”
The random man scoffed, and casually replied, “You’re Sunset Shimmer. Of course you’d want to go back to manipulating people.”
I was shocked by the open rudeness, and I sighed in frustration, pressing my hand to my forehead. I looked up and asked with annoyance, “Why the hell would I want to do that when the alternative was literally having everything I could want, maybe besides relationships?” I should’ve realized it was a mistake to say that, but it was too late.
The man smirked as if he had won the argument, and he spoke arrogantly. “That’s exactly it. Love is the only reason you decided not to keep your infinite power! If your precious Twilight didn’t exist, you’d be ruling the land with an iron fist! But the next best thing for you is to be just as nasty as before, just not in the open!”
I flinched at this point. It’s true that the thought of being alone forever had been the final nail in the coffin to convince me to turn good, but Twilight said a lot more than that. Twilight, I thought. He was right that Twilight was, in one way or the other, the only reason that I’d switched allegiances. I thought of how to put all my jumbled thoughts into words, then I finally responded, careful not to give this stubborn man the wrong impression. “It's true that originally Twilight was the reason I turned good, but it was because she had convinced me, not because I’d fallen in love in a few days! The thought of being alone helped, but now that I’ve seen all the benefits of not being everyone’s enemy, I could never go back to being that way again!”
At this, the man snorted, and confidently said, “Yeah, right. And I suppose that you feel bad about what you did too? The only honest part of what you said was when you agreed with me.” He started walking away, but I cried out for him to stop.
“Wait! I do feel bad about that!” The jerk didn’t even bother to turn around, and he just made puppet gestures with his hand as he continued walking. I slumped and turned back to Twilight, who was unintentionally creating magical fire around her hands from her fury at the utter disrespect I’d been shown. I couldn’t deal with this crowd any longer and sluggishly told Twilight, “It’s okay. You don’t have to defend me. They'll ever think differently of me no matter what you do.” As if to support this idea, the crowd kept shouting at me.
Twilight dispelled the fire and put a comforting hand on my back. “Alright, Sunset...If you say so. Let’s go home. I’m sure a nice meal will cheer you up!”
I nodded, but a frown remained on my face, and a slump in my back. The two of us walked away, the echoes of the jeering crowd growing more and more distant as I thought, What am I gonna do? I can’t deal with this anymore.