It was a quiet night at Canterlot High School. That was good for Sunset Shimmer: she could still feel her ears ringing from the blast a week earlier.
She was doing fine.
Okay, she wasn’t doing great. Pretty bad, actually.
Oh, who am I kidding?
Her whole body still ached from plummeting into a crater, her dignity destroyed right along with it. Just looking at the gaping hole in the front of the building set her mind ablaze in embarrassment and loathing.
She had avoided coming to school all week, up until earlier today, where they finally called her in for an expulsion trial.
It went fine.
Sunset may have lost everything, but she still had her wits about her, and after the expulsion trial, she saw the writing was on the wall. There was no chance for her to stay at Canterlot High School any longer.
So she decided to do the only thing she could think of. The thing she always did when life got too hard to handle. Pack my things and run away before anyone notices in time to catch me.
Caution had to be exercised, of course. Sauntering into CHS in the middle of the night would definitely not help her case with the law, so she needed to get in and out as quick as possible. She scanned all the exterior windows to see if any lights were on—it was one in the morning, so there really shouldn’t have been anyone there—and only saw one small meeting room on the first floor aglow. After creeping up underneath the window and peeking her head over the sill to glance inside, she found it empty. Looks as if the janitor forgot to turn off the light. Knowing that the coast was clear, she sprung into action.
Fortunately, the building was not too hard to enter. The front face of the school that she had destroyed was covered by a measly tarp flap which she snuck through easily. She quickly made her way inside and, with a spring in her step, headed in the direction of her locker.
Returning to Equestria’s not an option. And I’ll be a wanted woman in a couple weeks anyway, once the police investigation picks up. I guess I’ll just have to figure it out as I go.
She reached her locker and quietly spun the dial, opening it up to reveal her school supplies. She really only wanted one thing, that old communication journal. She picked it up and slipped it into her bag. I wonder if Twilight could track me with this? Well, that’s an issue for another day.
The other things she needed were her school records. It was good to keep them on hand, just to save herself the work of procuring all of her info again, and to keep her story straight. She slipped into the dark reception office and gently closed the door behind her with a light click. Down the hall was the principal’s office, and across from it an old storage room turned meeting area.
A small sliver of light bled underneath the door.
Sunsets breath caught in her throat in a panic, but she caught herself. Right, it’s the window from outside. No one’s in there.
She held herself still, even stopping her breathing, and slowly approached the door. Even though no one was inside, she still felt as if something was waiting in there. It couldn’t hurt to double check. She slowly placed her ear against the door.
The ringing in her ears, combined with the sound of her own heartbeat, made any chance of hearing someone inside futile. The only way she could know for certain is if she opened the door and peeked in.
Well, if there’s someone inside, I just hightail it out of here and start my papers from scratch. With a deep breath, Sunset pushed herself through the door and into the meeting room.
She let out a sigh of relief. It was empty, and the coast was clear. The only thing in the room was a small wooden pipe laid on the center table. She closed the door behind her.
Now that the coast was definitely clear, she turned to the principal’s office. Gently clicking the door open, she pulled out a flashlight and quickly scanned the room. Celestia kept all of the students’ personal files in a small storage closet somewhere in the office. It was all stored in a computer as well, but Principal Celestia was old-fashioned enough to still want physical backups. Lucky me.
She tiptoed over to what she thought was the storage room door, and gently grasped the handle, praying that it was unlocked. A gentle turn of her hand was met with no resistance. Yes!
She pulled open the door and peeked inside. It was the right door; the storage room was crammed with filing cabinets and manilla folders scattered across their tops. There was barely enough room for one person inside of the closet at a time. Sunset almost took a step inside, but something unexplainably unsettling caused her to halt. She paused, holding herself completely still and tried to listen over the ring in her ears.
Hold on . . . is that breathing?
Sunset lowered her flashlight toward the floor of the storage closet.
There was Principal Celestia, fast asleep and leaned against one of the filing cabinets. Her hands were ziptied together, although she appeared so deep in sleep that it held little effect on her. “The beach . . . sure is beautiful today . . .” she mumbled under her breath.
Sunset took a step back and ever-so-gently clicked the storage door shut.
And then promptly ran out of the school as fast as her legs could carry her.
She made it out to the courtyard and stopped, placing her hands on her knees to catch her breath. What’s going on in there? Part of Sunset wanted to wake up Celestia and find out more, but she knew that would only force Sunset to explain what she was doing there in the first place. No, Sunset needed to leave town, paperwork or no paperwork. She sprung back up and began making her way home to collect her final things.
She glanced up at the night sky, feeling the small specks of snowflakes tickle her face as they fell to the ground. First snowfall of the year, huh? I hope it doesn't stick. Sunset preferred the weather on this earth better than in Equestria: everything over there was preplanned, set in stone carefully by the pegasi months in advance. Here, anything could happen; the snow tonight could melt by tomorrow morning as if it were never there in the first place, or it could pile up high and stay frozen until the next spring. Ideally, though, Sunset will have already left town before she can find out the answer.
Bzzt. Bzzt. Something from her bag. Oh, the book! What could that possibly be buzzing for right now?
Opening it up to the most recent page, she found a small note written in the bottom right corner, in a chicken-scratch handwriting that she had never seen before.
Don’t be in such a hurry to leave town! Go home and get some rest. I expect to see you on Monday ~~~
Not believing her eyes, Sunset slowly closed the book and placed it back in her bag. She turned to head home, positively bewildered.
“I need some sleep,” she murmured to herself.
Yes you do, Sunset. Yes you do.