//------------------------------// // A New World part 1: Finding Friends // Story: Sunset's Story // by GeneralOs //------------------------------// It was the first day of school at Canterlot High, and freshman Rainbow Dash was late. She had never been late in her life; her athletic ability made sure of that but, she overslept this morning as she forgot to set her alarm. As she ran, she started to daydream about showing off her awesomeness to an entirely new group of people and how they would cheer her on as she single-handedly beat other sports teams. She was also looking forward to seeing her childhood friend Fluttershy again since they both moved from the city of Cloudsdale and she hadn't seen her since the end of school 2 months ago. As Rainbow approached the school, she saw a flash of light coming from the horse statue in front of the entrance. Moving closer to investigate she saw a girl with light orange skin and, red hair with yellow streaks in it making it look like bacon. The girl was lying on the ground in front of the statue and looked as if she was in pain. Next to her was a black backpack and she was wearing an orange skirt with a purple shirt and leather jacket. Rainbow called out "Hey bacon hair. You okay?" All she got in return was a grunt and a moan of "5 more minutes, let me sleep." Rainbow replied "What are you doing? I'm supposed to be the lazy one, and even I wouldn't sleep on the grass outside the school." Suddenly Sunset gasped as she realised that she was in another world. What the alien said to her made her think "I'm outside a school? That would make learning about this world a lot easier". Sunset quickly acknowledged the rainbow-haired person in front of her "What time is it? Am I late?" Rainbow answered "School starts in a couple minutes, but you want to head in now to be assigned your homeroom class. I'm sure a teacher or principal will tell us where we need to go". Rainbow held out her hand to help Sunset up. Sunset, having never stood on 2 legs before was quite shaky and almost fell over again. "Thank you, what's your name?" "I am the awesome Rainbow Dash but, you can call me Rainbow. What's yours?" "I'm Sunset Shimmer" "Speaking of shimmers did you see a strange light come out of the statue a minute ago?" "No, no I didn't. Let's go inside." "Hmm, okay" Rainbow responded, she was suspicious of the girl and decided that she would keep an eye on her. The two of them were the last to enter the school; they were directed to the theatre where the first assembly of the year is taking place. As they went into the theatre and sat down, a tall woman was walking up to the podium; she introduced herself as Principal Celestia. Sunset was shocked that this world had a counterpart to the princess; she was worried that she might run into her counterpart but, that seemed unlikely as she didn't know any of the other students or teachers. This Celestia also had a sister which the princess did not, so maybe it was just an unlikely coincidence. The principal continued to speak "Welcome to Canterlot High School; I wish you the best in your studies for the coming year. On the projector screen behind me are your names and the homeroom classes that you are assigned too. We will allow you to request changes to your homeroom for the first week. If your name doesn't appear then, please see me immediately after assembly. Your schedules will be given to you 1st period in your homeroom. Spend the rest of 1st period learning your homeroom and, getting lockers then, please head to the gym for the rest of the day for a welcoming party hosted by one of the students. You are dismissed once you find your name on the screen". Rainbow looked at the screen and saw she was in Mr Shadows homeroom; he was apparently the English teacher. She then looked for Sunset and Fluttershy's homeroom. Fluttershy was in Ms Cheerilee's homeroom; She was the librarian. Sunset's name, however, didn't appear on the screen; this raised Rainbows suspicion of her further. Rainbow had to leave for homeroom to get her schedule but she would keep an eye on this mystery student; Sunset went to see Principal Celestia, to try and get into the school as a student. There was a small queue of people waiting to see the principal. In the front of the line was a girl with green hair and green skin who introduced herself to the principal as Wallflower Blush, she had a striped sweater which made her appearance entirely forgettable. Behind her was a girl with blond hair and grey skin who was named Derpy Hooves; she had a condition with her eyes that Sunset would've taken advantage of if she was still the mean person she used to be. Finally, there was a boy with spiked blue hair and orange skin who was called Flash Sentry. He was wearing a leather jacket similar to Sunsets. Principal Celestia was astonished to see Sunset "I thought you were adopted yesterday by a family living in Neighway or was it Swedeer? Anyway, I wasn't expecting to see you here, Sunset." Sunset grew tense as she realised that she had a dimensional counterpart but realised that this could be used to her advantage. She responded with "They decided against it at the last moment but, a different family adopted me and they live here." "I understand, you will be assigned to Ms Cheerilee's homeroom it's to the left once you leave the theatre across from the library. Please head there now; I would like to continue this conversation with you later." Sunset left the theatre and headed to her homeroom class wondering what would happen to her if she was discovered to be an imposter. When she got to her homeroom class, Sunset saw a teacher leaving the room. She had dark purple hair with lighter purple mixed into it; she had pink skin and, she was wearing a green skirt with a sunflower pattern printed onto it. "Hello I'm Sunset Shimmer are you Cheerilee, my homeroom teacher? "Yes I am, but, I just have to leave for a moment to get the keys to the lockers. We will assign them when I get back until then Introduce yourself to the class and learn more about them." Cheerilee left, and Sunset entered the classroom. There were 21 orange chairs in 3 rows of 7 evenly spaced around the class, at the front of the room were a blackboard and a desk for the teacher. In the middle of the classroom were 3 people, the leader was a girl with white hair and light brown skin wearing a dark brown flight jacket, she was intimidating a girl with pink hair, yellow skin, a green skirt and white top. The other 2 were muscular guys with grey skin and diamond encrusted collars, one of them had a red jacket and white shirt while the other had a green shirt and dark grey jacket. "You dweeb, I asked you a question! Who are you going to give your lunch money too?" "you" "What did you say?" "you" "HEY" Sunset shouted "Stop". "Why you interrupt Gilda?" one of the cronies asked Sunset before both started to walk towards her. Gilda turned, held out her hand to stop them and, walked up to Sunset menacingly " Fido, Rover, let me handle this. What's your name punk?" "It's Sunset Shimmer, and you should leave her alone." Gilda laughed "You think you can take a 3 on 1?". The sudden appearance of Cheerilee stopped the situation from escalating. "Gilda, Fido, Rover how dare you 3 threaten students, report to Principal Celestia's office immediately for detention you can forget about attending the party today." Passing Sunset on the way to the exit Gilda whispered: "You will be punished for this later, loser." Sunset walked into the centre of the room to the girl that was previously cowering before the 3. "What's your name?" she asked her. "It's Fluttershy" "Sorry I didn't hear that" "It's Fluttershy "I didn't hear that" "It's Fluttershy, thank you for stopping Gilda." "No problem Fluttershy, I'm Sunset Shimmer nice to meet you." The only other notable people in the class were Vinyl Scratch and Lyra Heartstrings. Vinyl had blue and cyan hair and always had her headphones on and didn't speak whereas Lyra had mint coloured hair and an odd obsession with ponies, more specifically unicorns. Once the class had got over the excitement of Gilda getting detention and Sunset standing up to her, they went into the hallway to pick lockers. This was very important for Sunset as she still had a bag filled with gold and jewellery, not to mention the magical journal that would allow her to talk to Princess Celestia. Sunset decided on the locker at the end of the row to give her more space to access it. She found it difficult to open the lock on the locker using her fingers, and after a few moments of trying to get it open she saw the flash of a camera but saw nothing behind her so assumed it was a trick of the light. When she finally got the locker open she deposited her bag and walked with Fluttershy, Vinyl and Lyra to the Gym for the party. The gym was filled with students with baked goods, sweets and, drinks on 1 side of the room, a stage in the middle and a place to take photos on the other. The roof of the Gym had a banner saying "Welcome Canterlot Wondercolts", and the stage was decorated in a mix of pink and yellow. There were also a few balloons and streamers in multiple colours around the gym. There was a place to take group photos with a multitude of backgrounds including the beach and a beautiful view of the city from a hilly park overlooking it. The baked goods were cupcakes and other pastries that looked professionally made; they were decorated with yellow, blue and pink icing sugar. The students were in their separate cliques as the rockers, eco students, techies, fashionistas and sports students didn't talk to each other because they had less in common outside their respective groups than they did inside. The few exceptions were Sunset, Rainbow, Fluttershy and 2 other students Sunset didn't know. Rainbow and Fluttershy were talking to each other, and a few students along with Vinyl and Principal Celestia were next to the stage holding wearable ponytails and pony ear headbands. Derpy was at the baked good stand eating lots of muffins and Lyra was with the other eco-kids mostly talking to a girl with purple and dark blue hair. After a couple minutes of students talking a pink girl with slighter darker pink hair stood on the stage and shouted "Hi everybody. I'm Pinkie Pie, and I hope you're ready for the best party in the history of aaalllllll parties." she threw out a bunch of yellow pony ear headbands to the students. She continued to shout "Hit it Vinyl" Suddenly the lights got switched off, a disco ball appeared and, music started to play. Vinyl was in her element as she became visible in a DJ booth to the side of the stage. Students finally began to integrate as they moved to the dance floor and started to dance while Pinkie went around making introductions to students and learning everything about all of them. When Pinkie got to Sunset, she quickly fired off a bunch of questions "What's your name? When's your birthday? What's your favourite flavour? What is your favourite movie or story? Do you like parties big or small? What homeroom are you in?" Sunset could barely understand them all but answered them to the best of her ability "My name is Sunset Shimmer, My birthday is the 15th of October, I like Daring Do and the search for the golden key the best, I prefer my parties to be quite small, and I'm in Ms Cheerilee's homeroom." "Daring Do and the search for the Golden key hasn't been released yet," Pinkie said suspiciously "Are you some sort of alien that came here in a portal from a world where it already exists or, do you get an advanced copy because you're super rich?" "No neither of those" Sunset replied as she rubbed the back of her neck "I uh meant that Daring Do is my favourite series and I will probably enjoy the newest one the most." "Okie dokie," Pinkie said happily before bouncing away to meet more students. Sunset went over to the food table to talk to Lyra and grab something to eat. "Hey, Lyra who's your friend?" "Hey Drops this is who I was talking to you about, she stood up to Gilda, Fido and, Rover all by herself. Sunset this is Sweetie Drops she made some of the candy that you're eating." "These are great sweets. What should I call you?" "Thank you and thank you for asking unlike some people" Sweetie replied "Hey, you know you like it." Lyra blurted out Sweetie just rolled her eyes at this and answered: "Anyway you can call me Bon-Bon." "That's a much better name than I came up with" Lyra interjected. This bickering continued as the 3 of them made their way to the drink table. Sunset smiled at the pair's antics, but that smile soon turned into a frown as a blue-haired guy walked into her and spilt a drink on her. "Oh, I'm so sorry about that". Sunset again thought a camera went off but, yet there was nothing in the direction the flash came from. Suddenly out of nowhere a purple haired girl with white skin exclaimed "This is a fashion disaster, I need to fix this." before she dragged Sunset out of the gym and into a classroom in the drama wing of the school. The fashionista continued "It's a miracle that I had my fabrics delivered to the school a week ago so I could be prepared to make costumes for the drama club; you would be stuck in those awful wet clothes otherwise." The classroom they were in was filled with fabrics of all description; there were blue silk, red satin and even green wool just to name a few. In the corner was a sewing machine; next to it were racks filled with previously made clothes. The fashionista proceeded to drag Sunset onto the small podium in the adjacent corner. "Spread out your arms and stand up straight." The fashionista instructed "What are you doing?" Sunset asked "Oh my, I'm sorry about how rude I was. I'm Rarity, and I just couldn't let this fashion disaster plague the party. I'm trying to get your measurements so I can give you an outfit that fits correctly." Rarity answered her "I'm Sunset Shimmer, nice to meet you and thank you for doing that; it's very generous." Rarity laughed "Oh my dear, it's nothing, now stand still and let me measure you." Sunset did as she was told; after a couple of minutes, rarity finished and frowned. "It seems you have a very uncommon size as you are very tall and thin. A waist size of 50cm but 180cm tall" she muttered "This is a nightmare. I only have a couple dresses for that size." Sunset immediately objected "I don't need any dresses. Don't you have any normal clothes?" "Yes," Rarity answered "I have some that would fit you, and they would suit you but, I think you would look absolutely fabulous in a dress. It's also a party, and you can't just wear normal clothes, that would be drab when you could show off your natural beauty in a dress that compliments it." "Rarity it's a casual party that has already begun, could you just give me some normal clothes." "Well you do make some excellent points, I suppose I could do that" Rarity sighed. Rarity ended up giving Sunset a leather jacket with gold studs to replace the one with silver studs. She also gave her an orange shirt and a pink skirt to match with her hair colour. It took Sunset a while to change her clothes without the use of magic, but at least she was becoming more proficient at using her hands and fingers. Rarity asked multiple times if she needed help, but Sunset refused, so she stayed outside the changing room. Once that was finished Sunset went back with Rarity to the party. When Sunset entered the gym for the second time that day Rainbow, Fluttershy and Pinkie went up to her. Rainbow spoke first "I want to thank you for defending Fluttershy, that was awesome. I knew Gilda back in Cloudsdale, she wasn't as bad back then, but she's gotten worse according to Fluttershy." Sunset was confused why Gilda picking on Fluttershy would matter to Rainbow. Before she was able to ask her question Pinkie added: "You made people smile by stopping the meanies from hurting Fluttershy, thank you." Rarity was surprised as she heard that someone stood up to the Diamond Dogs, a group of 3 bullies she knew from Ponyville junior high, but she didn't know who this Gilda was. "Wait you are the person who stood up to the Diamond Dogs. Those rascals have oppressed me since I started my education, always ruining my work. Wonderful work in standing up to them." Sunset finally had a chance to respond; she sighed "Does everyone know that I stopped them now and Rainbow why do you care about Fluttershy?" "Oh I know Fluttershy from Cloudsdale, she was my friend there. By the way, you look awesome Sunset, where did you get those new clothes." Rainbow questioned "Rarity gave them to me as some punch spilt on my other ones. Rarity meet Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy, you should already know Pinkie Pie." Sunset answered "It's a pleasure to meet you two. But back to the matter on hand, it seems as if the bullies from Cloudsdale and Ponyville are working together if what you said is true Rainbow." Rarity remarked "Hopefully Gilda and the Diamond Dogs will be taught their lesson in detention." Sunset hypothesised Rainbow wanted to move the conversation along so she decided to challenge Sunset to a game on her DS "Sooo Sunset do you wanna play Mareio Kart on my DS? I'm the best at it so don't cry if you're slower than me, you can play against my ghost on time trials." "Hold on ah moment sugarcube." A girl with a country accent interrupted "Ah have to be honest with you and say that Ah'm the best at Mareio Kart." "Who are you?" Rainbow questioned Rarity answered, "That is Applejack, one of my friends from Ponyville junior high, like Pinkie, and someone else who had to deal with the Diamond Dogs". "Those varmints kept stealing from my families farm but, back to Mareio Kart, Ah brought my DS so we can play online if yah want to be beaten." "Beaten!?!" Rainbow exclaimed, "I'm gonna be the winner." Pinkie pulled 6 beanbags out of nowhere and said "If we're gonna have a tournament then we need a bracket. Rules are you have to support the person who beat you. First up is Me Vs. Fluttershy, the winner of that will face the winner of Sunset Vs. Rarity and, the winner of that will face the winner of AJ Vs. Rainbow." Sunset wanted to question how Pinkie got the bean bag chairs, but no one else did so she assumed it was a normal thing for humans or at least her to be able to do. The tournament got underway with an upset right at the end of the first race where Pinkie got hit by a blue shell allowing Fluttershy to finish the race in front of her. In the second race Sunset held back at the start to gain a powerful item which ended up being a bullet bill, the best item in the game. She then raced back into 6th place before using it and taking 1st place but, Rarity got a red shell and used it to take back 1st place winning the race. Another camera flash went off when Sunset had trouble with the game; it distracted her for a moment before she continued racing as no one else noticed it. In the third race, Rainbow had a lousy start and Applejack shot into the lead; Rainbow slowly started to regain positions until she was second place and had a blue shell. It was the final lap of the race Sunset and Fluttershy were cheering for Rainbow; Rarity and Pinkie were cheering for Applejack. With half a lap to go Rainbow used her blue shell, Applejack had no defence items left, only a mushroom, with the blue shell about to hit her she uses the mushroom and dodges the explosion, everyone is amazed, as the blue shell is almost unavoidable. Applejack is about to cross the finish line when the game ends in a tie due to a loss of connection. She looks over at Rainbow who shrugs "I'm out of power, so I guess it's a tie." Applejack scoffs "That's ah lie if ah every heard one." They are interrupted by Principal Celestia "I need to talk to Sunset about her place at this school and her involvement in a bullying incident, Fluttershy I will talk to you later about this same incident". "Oh Okay, Principal Celestia" Fluttershy squeaked. Sunset is then taken by Celestia to her office to meet with her and Vice-Principal Luna the disciplinary officer at the school just as the lunch bell sounds signalling the start of lunch. The 5 girls hope that Sunset won't be punished for defending Fluttershy and go to lunch to find out more about each other. In a detention class elsewhere in the school are 3 students plotting their revenge against the upstart that challenged their power. They leave the classroom for lunch and are joined by a fourth student named Spot who hands over a camera to Gilda, the leader of these students. "This is perfect" she announces to the group after looking over the footage. Their plan for revenge has begun.