//------------------------------// // A New World part 3: Justice // Story: Sunset's Story // by GeneralOs //------------------------------// Sunset woke up the next morning to the lovely smell of scrambled eggs and toast. She drifted down the stairs to follow the heavenly fragrance when she bumped into Luna in the corridor. She was half awake and didn't even acknowledge that anyone was there. She had bags under her eyes and looked as if she didn't get more than 5 hours of sleep the previous night. Sunset thought about her actions yesterday; they made her angry, but she decided to be the bigger person as Luna could kick her out of the house. "Good morning Luna." "Good morning Tia," Luna mumbled, still half asleep; not realising who she was talking to causing Sunset to snicker. They both entered the dining room where Luna sat and gulped down the cup of coffee by her seat. The caffeine took effect; Luna realised who was next to her; her mood considerably darkened; "Good morning Sunset" she said threateningly. The blatant disrespect made Sunset even angrier as she wasn't awake enough to have any form of patience. Luckily before Sunset could blow up at Luna, Celestia entered the room with a big plate of scrambled eggs for all of them and bacon for the two adults. "Good morning to the both of you," Celestia said purposely ignoring the tension between the two of them. "I hope you slept well". Celestia's timely intervention made Sunsets anger drain out of her as she could think about the situation; realise that Luna was acting how most people would, including her. Celestia put down the plate; Luna gave herself a healthy portion before giving the serving spoon to her sister; Sunset was inhaling the orange juice in her glass. All 3 of them were having a pleasant breakfast not considering the unease between the youngest 2. Suddenly, Celestia got a text from Pinkie Pie "how did she know my number?" Celestia thought out loud. "From what little I know of her, the general rule is not to question what she does or how she does it," Sunset replied. "Anyway, what does it say?" "It says that Micro finished the video and is meeting Gilda before school. They are going to spy on the meeting to find out Gildas plans." Rainbow was cycling as fast as she could to the school. She had, like Celestia, received notification last night which told her that Pinkie wanted to meet her and the rest of the girls before school started. They were to meet at this bakery called the Sugarcube Corner to discuss Gilda. Rainbow reached the patisserie and rushed inside to find the other 4 sitting at a table waiting for her. They had all ordered milkshakes, Fluttershy had vanilla, Applejack had chocolate, Rarity had strawberry, and Pinkie Pie had a mess of candy and cookie pieces that would likely result in diabetes for anyone else. "Heya Rainbow, I ordered vanilla flavour for you since I never got around to asking you some very important questions." Pinkie proceeded to rapid-fire questions at Rainbow. "When's your birthday? What's your favourite flavour? What is your favourite movie or story? Do you like parties big or small? What's your favourite sport?" Rainbow ignored her and sat down at the table. "What did you want to see us for Pinkie? Is it about Gilda?". "Ohh no, Applejack wanted to see us, and so she instructed me to tell you." "Well AJ we're waiting." "Ah wanted to see yall since ah got a message from that Micro Chips fella saying he finished the video and was going to give it to Gilda soon. Ah just wanted some time to plan our next move." "Do you know where they're meeting, we could spy on them." "Yeah, they're meeting in 20 minutes in the library." "Well, then what are we waiting for let's get a move on." "Rainbow Dash, finish the milkshakes first" Rarity objected. "Oh right." The girls finished their milkshakes and 10 minutes late they were on their way to the Library which opens 2 hours before the school does. They burst through the door of the library surprising Ms Cheerilee who had opened it less than 5 minutes before. The library was empty other than a couple of members of the public who wanted to get books before heading off to work. The 5 girls decided to wait upstairs so they could keep an eye on the door without Gilda seeing them as soon as she entered the building. After a couple of minutes, Micro entered the library and sat down with a book at one of the tables downstairs. A moment later Gilda came up to him and gestured for him to follow her upstairs where Cheerilee wouldn't hear what was said. The girls saw this and hid behind some bookshelves, pulling out some book so that they could see what was going on. They were able to do this and hide just before Gilda finished dragging Micro upstairs. "Do you have the video?" Gilda said as she circled him like a wolf circling their prey, intimidating him. Micro gulped audibly before answering "Yes, yes I do, it's on my laptop let me get it up for you." He pulled out his laptop from his bag and placed on the table before starting it up and opening a video player. Gilda looked over the video and was slightly disappointed "Surely you could have done better with the stuff I gave you." Micro was nervous as what Gilda said was right as he didn't want to be known as the guy who helped Gilda, so he tried to hinder her as much as possible. "Um I could have used some more of the still images, but then it would just be a compilation with music over the top. It wouldn't have the same impact." He hoped that would be good enough of an excuse to stop her questioning it. Behind the bookcases, the girls were watching the exchange with bated breath hoping that Gilda would reveal her plans. Luckily they didn't have to wait long and while they were distracted Rarity pulled out her phone and started to record what was happening. "Well, I suppose it's good enough. Now onto the second part of my plan, we're going to post this on the school website and Myspace. Myspace is easy enough, but I need you to hack into the school website." "That's Illegal, not to mention insane." "Would you prefer to deal with your life destroyed?" "No, fine I will do this for you, but you will leave me alone." Micro finally agreed with the threat of blackmail held against him. He opened the internet and asked Gilda "Do you have any of the login details of the staff? They are the only people with the power to put this video up." "No I don't, but that shouldn't be an issue for you right." Gilda threatened "Wonderful, now I'm going to break another law by phishing the information from them," Micro muttered as he started to create a new email address that was identical to the school. He spoke up "This might take a day or 2 for them to respond to it. Until then I can't do anything." "What did you do?" "I sent them an email that will ask them for their login details, once they enter them, I will get them, and I should be able to access the website with them." The girls decided to try and sneak away so they could tell teachers not to answer to the email they just got. That was the plan until Rainbow tripped over pinkie pie sending all of them onto the floor in a loud crash. Gilda immediately spotted them "Well what do we have here, some brats trying to save their friend maybe? The real question is how you knew I was going to be here" She looked menacingly at Micro who shrunk under Gilda's gaze "I don't suppose you had something to do with that." "Ya really think ya can take a 5 on 1 Gilda?" Applejack questioned. Wondering why she thought she had a position of superiority. "It's not a 5 vs 1, its 5 1 vs 1s and I've already won. Fluttershy what would happen if knowledge of your ancestry were released?" Fluttershy's eyes went wide at this. "I would become a target for bullies, please don't do that." "You wouldn't," Rainbow exclaimed. "You're right, I wouldn't release that information, unless of course, someone were to stand in my way. If that's not enough to stop you, I have similar information on all of you except for Sunset of course, but I won't have to deal with her for much longer." Gilda continued to threaten as she walked past them. "What's going on here," Cheerilee asked them as she came up the stairs. "Oh, nothing Miss, but I should get going now. I'll see you later." Gilda told them as she walked down the stairs to get her stuff for school. Suddenly Ms Cheerilee's phone started to ring. "Hello, Celestia how are you? Oh you want to me to look out for Gilda, she just left the library, is she in trouble? I understand, thank you for informing me." Outside Luna was driving herself, Sunset and Celestia to the school when Celestia in a moment of brilliance realised that since the school would still be closed the meeting between Micro and Gilda might have happened in the library. She quickly called Cheerilee who confirmed her suspicions, but by that time Gilda had finished the meeting, so there was no chance of her finding out what happened. They decided to wait until school started to catch Gilda when Celestia got another text from Pinkie, this time mentioning an email sent to all staff to try and phish their account details. "This gone too far. I'm dragging both of them into my office the second I see them." Luna stated "From what I heard Micro is already there." "What could possibly possess that boy to do something like this." "I don't know, but we'll find out when we talk to him." They both entered Luna's office to find Micro slumped down in his chair sniffling and trying not to cry. "Please explain WHAT you were thinking when you sent out that email to our members of staff." "Gilda said she would leave me alone if I did it, I didn't want to and I'm sorry that I did" He mumbled incoherently. Just then the bell went signalling the start of the school day. "Micro you will be in here until we figure out what happened. Luna go and see if Gilda showed up at her homeroom." "Wait" Micro interjected, "You should also get Sunsets friends, I don't know their names, but they saw what happened." Celestia facepalmed at this "Of course they would be involved, they sent me the message about this, to begin with. Luna could you collect all of them and Sunset as well." "I will do that sister, try and get his side of the story while I'm gone." Luna returned after all 7 of the girls had been excused from their morning classes. "Why am I here with the rest of these dorks?" Gilda asked irritated that her time was being wasted. "You are accused of blackmailing Micro to create a video slandering a student and getting him to hack into the school website." "Do you have any actual evidence that I did that." The administrators frowned at the error and Gilda smirked. "I didn't think so, so can I leave now." "Just hold on ah minute," Applejack said, "We all witnessed what you did to him." "That's not good enough for your accusations, dweeb." Gilda spat as she continued to get more and more irritated. "I also took the liberty of getting this." Rarity announced as she pulled out her phone. "That's your phone so what." "I'm not talking about my phone, I'm talking about what's on my phone." Rarity played the video of Gilda forcing Micro to hack into the school's website. Celestia finally had enough evidence to get Gilda suspended and possibly arrested, however, Micro would not go without punishment. "Micro since you were forced into taking actions that would normally not be allowed we will still have to inform your parents and punish you. I can, however, make sure that punishment is suitable, how does working for the IT department at the school sound?" "Great thank you, and again I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused by helping Gilda." Micro sounded very relieved that he wasn't being sent to juvenile detention. "That should be everything, now if Gilda and Micro would like to follow me to ISS where we will contact your parents," Luna announced. The 2 delinquents followed her out. "Alright everybody you should head back to class now that this has been wrapped up," Celestia instructed them. As everybody was leaving Celestia asked Sunset to talk with her for a minute. "Okay, but what do you want to talk about." "You should tell them Sunset." Sunsets expression saddened as she realised what Celestia was talking about "I don't want to lose them. They're my first friends, and I'm worried about how they will react to it." "Sunset, if you don't tell them now think about how betrayed, they will be once they find out on their own, and they will if you continue to hang around them." "Fine, I will tell them after school ends. I think we could all use a break after the events of this morning and I plan to return to Equestria for a day." Celestia nodded, and Sunset left the room. It was the end of the day, and Sunsets conversation with Celestia earlier weighed heavily on her mind. "Girls I have something important to tell you. Follow me outside to the statue" The girls stopped what they were doing and followed her closely as if they were protecting her before listening closely to what she had to say. "I come from another world and have to return." "WHAT!!! You're an alien; you can't just drop that on us without explaining," the girls all exclaimed "The base of this statue is an entrance to another world, the world I come from. It opens once a year" Sunset explained not mentioning the complicated issues such as the time dilation. "That's why Rainbow found me lying in front of it and why I've had trouble using these things," Sunset told them gesturing to her hands. "I didn't tell you because I thought you'd leave me." "It's okay Sunset. I would never do that." Fluttershy consoled. "That doesn't explain why you would just abandon us," Rainbow said, furious that her new friend was leaving them. "I have to go back to my world and inform the Princess what has occurred the last 2 days. I'll be back tomorrow at the latest." Sunset told them carefully avoiding the fact that she was a copy of the principal. "Ya can't just leave us like that; we're your friends" Applejack protested. "I'm sorry girls, but I have to debrief the Princess, and I promised her that I would visit before the portal closed for 4 years. I will most likely stay in Equestria overnight so I will be back tomorrow at the latest." Sunset restated trying to make them understand. "If you need to contact me then write in this book, it's enchanted to have the same words appear in a copy in Equestria." "We understand dear. Have a nice trip but please return to us soon". Sunset nodded in agreement and was about to go through the portal when Luna ran up to the 7 of them. "Sunset, I'm sorry for my atrocious behaviour towards you. I should have been nicer to you and known better than to judge you by your past especially as it wasn't your past it was this worlds Sunset." "It's fine Luna I'm just happy we stopped Gilda before she was able to target another student." "No, no it's not okay I better than anyone should know not to judge someone by their past actions, yet I have, and I have been proven wrong by your actions today." "Luna, your job is to punish people for their actions, you should be naturally suspicious of people." What Sunset said surprised Luna "What do you mean?" "What I mean is that I forgive you for your actions. It's as simple as that." "Surely you can't mean that." "Luna, if I couldn't forgive you for what you did to me then how could I ever except that treatment to be given to me? I will forgive you because it's wrong to judge people by their past actions, by all means, punish or educate people for them, but don't judge them. People are unpredictable which means that past actions can indicate future actions, but it's by no means a guarantee that if someone bullied someone in the past, that they will do so again in the future which is why forgiveness is so important." "Thank you for forgiving me. I would be happy to have you continue living in our house, so you don't have to get your own." "Thank you for the offer, I will think about it as I would like to own my place, but it would be nice to have some family for once." Sunset addressed the rest of the group "I have to go now I will see you tomorrow." Sunset stepped into the base of the statue, entering Equestria once again. Celestia was anxiously waiting for her student, suddenly the mirror started to glow, and a being fell out onto the floor in front of her. "Sunset" she called "are you okay?". "I'm fine" was the reply she got "I have news to share with you." "Oh really, is it good or bad news." "I think you will find it's excellent news". Celestia couldn't wait any longer to share it with her but needed to make sure it was an adequate surprise. "Let's go to the throne room." They entered the throne room; there was a group of nobles waiting for them, confused about why Celestia had called them here. Sunset was confused what news Celestia had to share with her. Ponies in the crowd started to whisper rumours about why Sunset was there thinking that maybe she would be punished for something. Celestia addressed the crowd, silencing them "As you know Sunset Shimmer has been my student for the past 8 years. As of today that ends, Sunset Shimmer would you please rise." Sunset did as she was told and approached the throne that the Princess sat on bowing as she stopped in front of it. "I would like to announce the graduation of my student." The crowd gasped as Celestia continued "and it is my pleasure to announce that due to her actions she has the honour of being Equestria newest noble. Please rise, Duchess Sunset Shimmer I give you the duchy of Ponyville and the Everfree." Sunsets surprise almost kept her frozen in a bow, but she was able to hide it and rose as Celestia had asked. Getting rewarded with land was the last thing she had expected to happen, and the nobility behind her was even more shocked as nobody had risen to high nobility since the defeat of Nightmare Moon. Celestia then ended the quick ceremony by exiting the room with Sunset. "Why did you make me a duchess, Princess?" "I can revoke that gift if you don't like it." "No it's fine, I won't be here to run Ponyville so, why give me the duchy?" "I gave you that Sunset because it's small enough that it doesn't need to be overseen and can be successful without you like it has in the past millennia. I'm proud of you; I know you will make a good leader if you ever decide to return so I figure why not allow you to make money while you're in the other world by way of a royal stipend and part of the taxes." "I don't want to earn money for a job I'm not doing so just allow the local government to use it for a disaster fund or something like that. I heard the Everfree was very dangerous, didn't a married couple go missing in there recently? "Yes, they were from the Apple family I think. Sunset the other reason I gave you the title is so that if the people discover the portal, you will have the diplomatic authority to negotiate with them. It's just a precaution, but with our increased presence there we might be noticed and need to explain ourselves. Other than that, I think I told you everything I wanted to." Sunset said goodbye to Celestia before leaving her to visit her old room for one last night before leaving for 4 years even if it would only feel like 1 to her. The following day After Sunsets graduation and rise to nobility, she was quite popular when looking around Canterlot. The city was still as radiant as when she had left it. She had to chase away at least 7 reporters who wanted an interview with Canterlots newest noble. In the castle, Sunset was meeting with Celestia, discussing the mirror world and the friends she had made the last 3 days. "It sounds like these girls are very nice, Sunset." "They're great to be around; I'm going to miss you in the next 4 years." "Sunset whenever you need to speak to me just write in the book, I will write as soon as possible." "I guess that's true Princess. I have a couple of questions though, why did it take 3 days here as well, with the portals time dilation it should have taken 12?" "Whenever the portal is open it seems that the time streams merge and time passes at the same rate in both worlds." "Ah that makes sense, how is my successor, Twilight I believe it was." "She's just as enthusiastic as you were at that age." "That's great to hear, just make sure she doesn't make the same mistakes as I did." "I will Sunset. Now I would like that you send me a report on technology and your friendships every 2 months or so." "I will try Princess, but I can't guarantee that. I will send you a message though, so you don't have to worry about me. The humans seem to value jewels more than I thought they would so I have all the money I need." "That's good to hear, but I can't help but worry for your health over the next 4 years." "It'll only be a year for me Princess; you seem to keep forgetting that." "It's only natural for me to worry about one of my little ponies." "I should leave now before the portal closes. I'm going to miss you, Celestia." Sunset surprised Celestia as she had never called her that without her title. "I will too Sunset, but you wouldn't want to keep your friends waiting now would you?" "Goodbye, see you in a year." Sunset hugged Celestia before entering the portal for the last time in a year just as she went through the gateway to the other world closed. Celestia felt hollow happiness knowing that Sunset would be happy with her new role, but that she wouldn't be able to watch her dear ex-student grow. Suddenly the book next to the mirror started to glow, Celestia opened it and smiled at the message. Dear Princess Celestia I have arrived safely on the other side of the portal. My friends want me to tell you that they promised to keep me safe in this world. Pinkie is being her funny, weird self. Applejack is already trying to get me to play some video games but respects that I have to write this. Rainbow is still trying to get me to join the sports clubs here. Rarity is already planning a trip to the mall to get me some human clothes that will, and I quote "Look fabulous for a person of my status". She passed out when I told her I was a duchess. Fluttershy is still her shy, quiet, but rather kind self. Lastly, I am excited to learn about this new world, but I miss you already. Your Ex-student, Sunset Shimmer P.S. Focus on your new student, don't make her feel forgotten like I was.