The alarm went off. Sunset turned it off. She then spent a couple minutes staring at the ceiling remembering her visitor last night.
“Was it all a dream?” she wondered before getting out of bed.
As she headed to the bathroom, her phone vibrated. She looked to see it say:
“Christmas shopping with Friends”
Sunset frowned at the reminder, knowing her ‘friends’ would never want her around now.
She then remembered the words that green ranger guy told her.
“Without their visits, you will never have the compassion to face your friends.”
Sunset sighed as she pressed ‘ignore’ on her phone before continuing her solitary day.
--------
Meanwhile, at the mall, Applejack was waiting for the others with Rarity. The cowgirl was
telling the fashionist her own problem.
“And she hasn’t spoken since she confessed to Principal Celestia.”
“Sweetie Belle is the same way.” Rarity sighed. “They must really feel guilty about Anon-a-miss.”
“I hope we can get the chance to talk to Sunset. Maybe if we can make amends, she could tell them it’s okay.”
Just then, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash arrived, while each of them looked sad, Rainbow looked the most dismal.
“How’s Scootaloo?” Applejack asked.
Rainbow sighed. “I just got off the phone with her aunts. She hasn’t spoken a single word.”
“Same with our sisters.” Rarity closed her eyes.
“This is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year! And yet everybody is sad!” Pinkie bawled.
“Because we keep hurting our friends.” Fluttershy whimpered.
“There. There.” Applejack coaxed. “its obvious Sunset isn’t coming. I was hoping she would so we could apologize. Look, let us just get our Christmas shopping done.”
And with that, The Rainbooms all went to get their shopping done.
--------
Meanwhile, Sunset decided to play some video games. After a while, she heard her stomach growl so she decided to break for lunch. She looked in her cupboards and refrigerator but didn’t find anything that sounded good. That meant she had to buy groceries, meaning she had to leave the building. Again.
“Well, I need to stretch my legs anyways.” She told herself before sighing. So, after putting her winter apparel on, including a hat and scarf to cover her head and face, she headed out.
-------
Before long, Sunset was buying groceries without any trouble at all. She kept her hood and scarf on so nobody would recognize her, especially from CHS. After she felt like she had enough, Sunset tried to hurry to the registers when she accidently hit a cart and some groceries fell to the floor.
“Oh! I’m terribly sorry! Here. Let me help you clean it up.” Sunset apologized as she bent down and started to pick up boxes.
“My apologizes. I’m afraid I was the one who was careless.” Said a familiar voice. Sunset looked up.
“Mr. Neezer?”
“Sunset Shimmer?” Sure enough, it was Mr. Neezer. Quickly, Sunset shushed the teacher.
“I’m trying to hide. So I can leave without any trouble.”
“Still feel hurt inside, huh?”
“’Fraid so. I didn’t even go Christmas shopping either.” Sunset sighed.
“With your friends?” Mr. Neezer asked.
“How did you-?”
“just a random guess. I’ve been noticing you’re avoiding them and not forgiving them.”
“Because they never forgiven me!” Sunset said trying not to yell and get people’s attention. “I tried to use my second chance, but I’m always bad no matter what I do.”
“And you wish you could take back every mistake you’ve done.” Finished Mr. Neezer.
Sunset looked in confusion. “Okay. You’re kinda creeping me out.”
“I wasn’t lying when I said you remind me of my self. I never really had a good relationship with my father. My sister was the only one who cared for me. When she died, I never got to hear her dying wish because I was drowned in grief.”
“What was her dying wish?” Sunset asked.
“That I would take care of her son. My nephew Fred. As life went on, I only cared about money. My avarice ways made me lose a lot of friends, business partners, even costing me the love of my life.”
“Oh. How do you cope with it?” Sunset asked.
“Let’s just say some visitors opened my eyes. And now, I do my best to be a better person.”
Mr. Neezer finished as the two walked to the registers and paid for their stuff.
“Did anyone ever mentioned your past?” Sunset raised her brow.
“Oh, every now and then, but that never stopped me from being a good person because doing good makes me feel good. I renewed my relationship with my nephew and became a second father to my new partner’s youngest.”
Soon, both Mr. Neezer and Sunset paid for their groceries and left the store. Before leaving, Mr. Neezer turned to Sunset.
“I hope what I told you helps you with your problem.”
“Well, it did give me a lot to think about.”
Mr. Neezer smiled as he took his leave. Sunset, though remembering everything the teacher told her, kept her face covered and ran home.
-------
Meanwhile, at the Sugercube corner, The Rainbooms had finished their Christmas shopping and went to get some hot cocoa. But despite finding good presents, the girls were anything but happy. They just couldn’t get Sunset Shimmer out of their heads. At last, Rainbow broke the silence.
“Girls. We stink.”
“Sunset needed us and we failed her.” Fluttershy bawled.
“we promised Twilight to take care of her. And now, she probably won’t trust us ever again!” Pinkie pouted.
“if she was here, she’d agree we were unworthy of the magic of friendship.” Rarity sighed.
Applejack got up. “Sorry. I gotta go. I’m running late.” She mumbled as she left.
Rainbow Dash raised her brow. “I guess Applejack feels the most guilty out of all of us.”
“Well, she told Sunset she was family, then accused her when Anon-a-miss striked, only to find out her sister was behind it.” Everyone shot a look at Pinkie, who sheepishly grinned. “Just saying.”
“She probably felt that she should’ve known Sunset was telling the truth and she’d still be with us. Her pride as an honest girl is probably shattered.” Rarity sighed. “Just as I should’ve been more generous.”
“And kind.”
“And loyal.”
“and made her smile, not frown.” Pinkie finished with a sigh.
--------
“I’m home.” Applejack entered the kitchen to find Big Mac and Granny Smith. “Any improvement on Applebloom?”
“Nope.” Big Mac sighed.
“she hasn’t spoken one world. She only comes down for chores then mopes in her room.”
Granny explained. “Any luck on Sunset?”
Applejack shook her head. “She never showed up.”
After dinner, and checking on Applebloom, Applejack went to her room and moped. She kept remembering her talk with Sunset to finding out about Anon-a-miss sharing her nickname to when they disowned Sunset because they thought it was her. Just thinking about it made her feel really guilty.
“Why didn’t I listen?” she asked herself. She then looked at her phone by her bed before deciding to try to talk to Sunset. Or at least try.
-------
At her place, Sunset put a frozen dinner in the microwave as her phone vibrated. She looked at the caller ID to see it was Applejack. She frowned as she debated on answering it so long that her phone put on voicemail. After a while, to Sunset’s surprise, Applejack did leave a voicemail. Sunset picked up her phone and, after debating with herself, deleted the message and tossed her phone in the garbage. After eating her dinner, she read more of the book Mr. Neezer before getting tired and went to sleep.
To be continued