"Come on Sunset, snap out of it!" Rainbow shouted as Sunset spasmed on the parking lot ground, the redhead didn't scream again but she looked like she was having a seizure. Rainbow started running back and forth as she panicked. "I should get help! But I can't just leave her."
Rainbow tried to remember her dad's emergency first aid lessons; she knew he had said something about seizures at least once. She banged her fist repeatedly against her head, why did she always ignore the first aid!? "Something about keep them safe, remain calm, and stay with them!"
Sunset let out a shuddering breath then went still. "Sunset?" Rainbow asked worried that she had just died, checked her vitals, to her relief Sunset was still breathing. "Okay, this is weird, why did she suddenly freak out like that."
After nearly ten minutes of Rainbow nervously tapping next to the unconscious girl, Sunset groaned and opened her eyes, slowly starting to rise. "Hey, you okay?" Rainbow asked helping her up.
"I'm... fine," Sunset said slowly, she looked a little more tired and there was less energy in her voice, though Rainbow guessed that was normal after she collapsed like that. "I just need to go."
"Woah, Woah, Woah, no way are you just driving away after you freaking collapsed like that!" Rainbow exclaimed holding Sunset's shoulders. "What was with that anyway?"
Sunset shook her head, trying to get around Rainbow Dash. "It's nothing, I am fine, I just need to go, get my work done, and get some rest before tomorrow."
"Maybe we should get you to a hospital or something, what if you have another episode while you are driving," Rainbow insisted.
"I can't go to a hospital," Sunset said flatly. "Remember, not from this world, I lied my way into the school, not going to work so well with a hospital."
"They take anonymous patients too, my dad told me."
"I'm not going to a hospital, I'm fine, I promise."
Rainbow let Sunset go, the redhead reached for her car. "We could at least tell Twilight about this, if it's something to do with magic then she probably has an idea on how to fix it."
Sunset paused; eyes down locked on her car as she answered. "Please, just let it go, I'm fine, I can take care of it myself. Don't tell Twilight, she has enough to worry about."
Rainbow groaned and stomped her foot before answering. "Fine! But if it happens again, you tell me!"
Sunset nodded slowly, opening the door to her car. "I will, just don't tell Twilight."
"Yeah yeah," Rainbow grumbled, eye rising as she caught a glimpse of the back of Sunset's car. She saw three pairs of dirty clothes, several empty water bottles, what looked like a painting under a canvas, and a set of thick books. "Wow, and Applejack says my room's a mess."
"Oh, I haven't gotten a chance to clean it recently, didn't think I would still be in this world this week you know," Sunset explained as she climbed into her car. "See you tomorrow."
"Yeah, see ya," Rainbow said as Sunset drove off. She thought it was a little odd that Sunset kept that many clothes in her car, but she just shrugged it off. Her bigger concern was the seizure, she didn't really believe Sunset would tell her if it happened again. But Rainbow had promised not to tell Twilight about it, and unless it got really bad, she would keep that promise. With a final sigh she took off running, she needed to get home before her parents freaked out and went on a search party for her, again.
***
The next day was more or less the same for Sunset when she arrived at school, pulling into the parking lot she was happy to see that High Wind and Spritzer were not around. She had been somewhat surprised by the apathetic response most of the school had given her when she had first come to school yesterday. She had expected a lot more outrage from the student body, but most were content to just ignore her existence, which she was quite okay with all things considered. Only a few students, the two from before included, gave her looks of what she could only say was pure hatred.
Rainbow Dash and Applejack continued to insist on helping her with her stuff as the stupid crutches still hindered her movements, and today she was further aided by Pinkie Pie. The teachers as well kept a professional attitude around her, though they did seem to be keeping a closer eye on her and checked their desks several times throughout class to make sure she hadn't somehow stolen her phone back.
As Sunset left her third class of the day, she found Vice Principal Luna waiting for her. "Ms. Shimmer I was looking for you."
"Did I do something wrong?" Sunset asked instinctively, seemed right to start with that.
"No, just a reminder that your first community service assignment starts today at the animal shelter after school," Luna reminded her.
Sunset flinched internally at the reminder that she would be spending at least two hours after school around the student that she had tormented worse than any other, and Fluttershy was still too scared to even look at her. "Right, I remember, I'll be there. Don't worry."
Luna nodded. "Good, my sister is taking a chance on you Sunset Shimmer, do not make her regret it."
"I won't," Sunset said as Luna walked away, then sighed once the Vice Principal walked away. "At least I'll be able to properly apologize to her if she doesn't faint when she sees me."
***
Sunset drove her car to the animal shelter, even though it wasn't too far away from the school she didn't think it was a good idea to leave the car sitting in the school any longer than she had to. Taking a final minute to prepare herself she entered the shelter. "Hello, I was told to come here for community service."
An older balding man was asleep behind the desk, with a snort he jolted awake in his chair. "What's that, I thought the girl scouts didn't come till December?"
"No, community service, my Principal told me to come here."
"Principal eh," The man said rubbing his short white beard. "Wouldn't happen to be that girl Little Celeste told me would be coming by?"
Little Celeste? Sunset thought. "Yes, I'm Sunset Shimmer."
"Ah I remember now," He said looking her over. "Don't seem like a troublemaker to me, don't see many bad girls wear fake leather."
"Well, it's true," She said looking away from the man.
"Name's Yeller Blonde, though most folks call me Old Yeller," Old Yeller said with a chuckle. "Fluttershy's in the back with the animals, you'll be helping her. She's the best with keeping them happy, I just look after the sick ones and man the desk."
"Thank you," Sunset said moving past Old Yeller into the shelter.
When entered the main area of the shelter she was greeted by the barking of many dogs and quite a few hissing cats within a line of kennels on the left, to the right was a hamster enclosure fishtanks, at the far end Sunset could see several reptile cages, and at the center of it all was Fluttershy. The quiet teen was petting a pair of beagles while nudging two food bowls into their kennel. "Now no roughhousing you two, there is plenty for both of you."
"Uh, Fluttershy," Sunset said trying to get her attention. Fluttershy made a mewl of surprise and fear and fell back, the two beagles turned and growled at Sunset as she moved back in case they attacked. "You okay?"
Fluttershy nodded getting to her feet, she kept her face down not meeting Sunset's eyes. "Sooo, what should I be doing exactly?" Sunset asked not sure what to do, having spent little time around animals. She took a step towards Fluttershy and Fluttershy took a step back. "You don't want me here, do you? I'll just go. I'm sure Principal Celestia can find something else for me to do."
She turned to leave, wondering what she would say to Principal Celestia when Fluttershy finally spoke. "Wait", She spoke in a whisper, Sunset almost didn't hear her over the animals. "I'm sorry I just got... scared."
Sunset pivoted to face Fluttershy. "No I get it, it's probably a bit uncomfortable being around me."
"It's... okay," Fluttershy said as her voice returned to a more normal volume and she raised her head, though she bit the bottom of her lip when she looked at Sunset. "I just felt safer around the others."
"I'm not going to hurt you, couldn't even if I wanted to," Sunset said nodding to the crutches. "Look, how about you just tell me what I can do, and I'll keep my distance."
"Um, first you could help feed the animals, you could try feeding the hamsters and fish, because of..." Fluttershy trailed off looking at her crutches.
Sunset looked at the barking dogs, they must be the most difficult to feed, the best way to show her I mean to help is with them. "I'll take care of them," She nodded at the dogs.
Fluttershy looked nervously at the dogs. "If you say so, be careful though, they can be a little excited.".
Sunset ran into her first problem with feeding almost immediately, once again her crutches and ankle hindered her movement and made picking up the bowls from the ground far more difficult than it should have been. When she tried to bend down, she felt a knife of pain shoot through her leg, but she almost reached the first bowls. That did give her an idea, a very painful idea but it seemed to be her only option.
"Come on, I can do this."
Looking to make sure Fluttershy was busy feeding the hamsters and would not try and stop her, Sunset took a deep breath, let the crutches fall, and grabbed the dog bowls. Her right leg felt like a thousand little needles were poking up through it, but she had done it! Before anything else, she leaned against the wall, breathing heavily. She looked down at her fallen crutches then back at the two dogs waiting in their kennel ten feet away. She checked again at Fluttershy, the taller girl was completely entranced with the hamsters to have noticed her, rubbing a brown and black hamster in her hand, letting the little furball rub against her cheek.
"No asking her for help, not after everything, just do it yourself," Sunset told herself bracing for the next round of pain. Each step felt like her leg was going to fall off and her vision started to swim before she made it halfway across, panting by the sixth foot she kept on going till finally when she was near ready to collapse, she reached the kennel and kneeled down before she opened it.
When her vision returned to normal there was a large black dog wagging her tail in the kennel, next to the black dog was a slightly smaller brown male. She shivered slightly at them, dogs normally made her a little uncomfortable, and being this close to one was not helping. "Okay, time for lunch."
She opened the kennel door and screamed in shock as the black dog threw herself at the teen, she flung her arms out trying to protect her face as the large dog's paws forced the kneeling girl onto the ground. She expected to feel the canine's jaws around her throat only for a warm tongue licking every part of her body.
"Stop! Stop!" She shouted then was forced to stop as the great beast started licking her face and hair, she was starting to gag when Fluttershy intervened.
"There's a good girl, there's a good girl, now come on give Sunset some space," Fluttershy said gently, rubbing the dog's head and neck. "How about some food for the good girl."
Sunset scrambled back on her hands while Fluttershy got the large dog back into the kennel, the brown male already eating his food. Sunset reached her crutches by the time the dogs' kennel door was closed. As she wrapped her arms around the metal supporters and tried to push herself back to her feet, she felt two arms wrap around her and help lift her back up. Fluttershy backed away as Sunset steadied herself. She felt a wave of familiar biting anger building up, beaten by a slobbering mutt, she felt like she was going to burst when suddenly she felt numb and the anger was gone, with a sigh she turned to face Fluttershy.
"Thanks."
Fluttershy tugged at a length of hair as she responded. "I hope she didn't scare you, she's just really friendly is all."
"It's fine, really, I'll just get back to feeding the other animals." Sunset moved to the next pair of food bowls and prepared to do the process all over again. Before she dropped the crutches, however, Fluttershy reached down and picked them up, handing one to Sunset.
"I can take care of this," Sunset said reaching for the other bowl. Fluttershy stepped back, shaking her head.
"It'll be better if we work together," She said gently, walking over to the next kennel, Sunset following behind her. This one held a couple of yipping Doxens, their behinds shaking with their tails, Fluttershy reached down and scratched the two behind their ears before opening the kennel. "Just give them a few pets and then give them their food."
One of the Doxens gave Sunset a panting smile and the redhead cringed slightly but did as instructed and gave the dog a few scratches behind the ear before setting down his food bowl. The little dog barked happily before eating while Fluttershy closed the kennel door.
"See, give them a little attention and they calm down, it also helps with the more aggressive animals," Fluttershy said, stroking one of the dogs. Sunset looked down at the other one who looked up at her with a panting smile. She still felt a little uncomfortable around him, but she guessed he was kind of cute.
"I guess so."
After the Doxens, at Fluttershy's polite but meek instruction, Sunset agreed to leave the dogs and cats to her while she took care of the fish and reptiles. The fish she found a little boring, they didn't do much except float there, but at least they didn't try to slobber her. The reptiles were easily her favorite of the animals in the shelter, she couldn't help but smile when she saw the lizards and snakes moving about in their cages. She enjoyed the vibrant colors of their scales, their relaxed personality, and the rough yet gentle feeling when one rubbed against her when she placed their food in the cages.
Fluttershy seemed to ease up a little during that time, though she still flinched whenever Sunset accidentally brushed against the timid girl while helping. And while Sunset found the experience to not be terrible, the little movements Fluttershy made, like she was preparing for something terrible was going to happen reminded her that there was something else she needed to do. She just wasn't sure if words would be enough.
As time ticked by and the sunlight coming through the window started to dim Sunset knew she had to say it now or wait until the next time they were alone. "Fluttershy, I wanted to tell you something, something that needs to be said."
"Yes?" Fluttershy stood up, a little puppy in her arms.
"When I was a bully, I did more to you than I did to anyone else," Sunset started. "More than I can even remember."
"You were pretty terrible," Fluttershy muttered then flinched when she realized she said it out loud. Sunset shrugged; it was true.
"And I wanted to apologize to you for everything I did, though I doubt that is nearly enough to make up for everything," Sunset said. "So, if you ever need anything or just want to, I don't know, slap me or something, I'll be there."
Fluttershy didn't say anything, she put the puppy down and started moving slowly and hesitantly towards Sunset, raising a hand as she got close. Huh did not think she would take up on that offer, Sunset thought, closing her eyes waiting for the slap to come. Instead of a slap though she felt a stroke on the side of her cheek, when she opened her eyes, she saw Fluttershy hesitantly petting her.
"Like I said, a few pets can help," She said. "I want to believe you Sunset Shimmer, I just need a little time, but I think you do want to be a better person, and I don't want to start anything by hurting you."
Sunset laughed slightly as Fluttershy continued to pet her. She really didn't understand how these girls could be so forgiving to her. "Thank you, Fluttershy, and I'll make you promise, no matter what I will never hurt you like I did before."
***
"Thank you again for coming Pinkie," Rarity said as the two pulled into Rarity's driveway. "She could use another friendly face right now."
Next to Rarity, Pinkie was bouncing in her seat. "Of course, give me a few minutes and I'll have her smiling and moving again, that's a Pinkie Promise."
"Well try not to be too forceful with her," Rarity advised. "We don't need to overwhelm the poor girl."
"Come on, do I ever do more than people can take?"
"Yes, indeed quite frequently in fact."
"And they were always smiling when I left," Pinkie said hopping out of the car.
"Well, that is true," Rarity said before following after her pink friend. "Just please try and tone it down, for her."
Pinkie didn't answer, stepping into the house. "Hey Spike! How's the best puppy from another world?" She asked petting Spike down his back.
"Oh, right there," Spike said stretching into her pet. "I never knew this felt soo good!"
Pinkie giggled, pulling the puppy into a hug before setting him back down. "Where's Twilight?"
Spike looked down at the ground. "Still in Rarity's room, she barely leaves the room."
"Not for long," Pinkie said with her usual cheerfulness.
Pinkie Pie burst into Twilight's borrowed room juggling a trio of bright pink balls, the lost Pony Princess was curled up on the bed rocking slightly looking up at the ceiling. "Hey, Twilight!" Pinkie beamed, closing the door with her foot.
"Hey Pinkie," Twilight said glancing at her friend. "What's with the juggling?"
"I heard from Rarity that you are feeling down, so I'm here to turn that frown upside down!"
"Uh thanks Pinkie, but I don't think juggling is going to help right now, I just need some time to think. I need to think of a plan, some way to move forward."
Pinkie tossed the three balls into the air, catching them in her hair, she jumped into the bed beside Twilight, laying down smiling up at her. "You have anything? Can I help?"
"I don't really have anything concrete yet, just really wondering if there was any way I could contact my friends back home or Princess Celestia, and if I can't do that, I need to figure out a way for me and Spike to well, live in this world."
"Maybe Sunset could help with that, she had a life here and she from Equestria," Pinkie said idly kicking her feet.
Twilight's gaze shot down at Pinkie Pie. "Wait you know about Sunset being from Equestria?"
"Well duh," Pinkie responded.
"How did you- wait let me guess, Pinkie Sense."
"Hmhm."
"I shouldn't even be surprised by what you know any more," Twilight said actually smiling for a second. "Speaking of Sunset Shimmer, how is she doing? I haven't really gotten a chance to talk to her since the Fall Formal. Is she adjusting or are there any problems?"
"Hmmm," Pinkie hummed tapping her finger over her mouth. "She's all moppy and she's hiding something, but she doesn't even know what it is, but no demon and she feels real now."
"Well, I guess that's pretty good really and she does still have a right to her secrets. I want to talk with her again soon, but I'm glad you and the girls are giving her a chance."
Pinkie turned on her side. "She's actually fun when she's not all Gloomy Sun."
"Well, if anyone can help her smile, I know it's you. Plus doing activities could really help her with making friends, it certainly helped me."
"I have ideas but I'm not sure which one is best."
"Maybe I could help you with that," Twilight suggested.
"You'd do that?"
"Of course, we could group them by interactivity with others or maybe by the number of lessons they can teach at once," Twilight said, Pinkie Pie could almost see the gears turning in her friend's head. "I need to ask Rarity if she has a notepad and some chart paper." Twilight looked down at her hands. "Pinkie, I'll need you to write everything down."
Pinkie smiled as Twilight left the bedroom, waiting a second before kicking her feet up and jumped off the bed. She knew that would work, give Twilight a task and it got her mind right off how to get home, at least for a little while, and that was all that was needed for a start. Looking over the little list of ideas she had she nodded before pocketing it. "Wait for me!" She called and ran out of the room.