It had already been a week since Solstice and Sunspot divorced, along with Human Sunset finally finishing up reinventing herself. Although her overall vision was still somewhat blurry, she had no choice but to roll with it, as getting new prescribed glasses was still currently too much for her mother's budget, and she didn't particularly NEED glasses anymore, now that she didn't have any classes to attend. Besides, wearing glasses contributed to how easily she was targeted and blackmailed by Indigo, and they would've felt out of place coupled with her new attire and look. Human Sunset dyed her hair an even darker shade of red and yellow, began using mascara, painted her nails black, and applied black eyeshadow to her eyelids. She also used what little money she had left to buy some new clothes, as she had already sold her Crystal Prep Academy uniform.
At the store, she picked out a pair of spiky black boots, a short-sleeved dark jacket with spikes on the collars, and a fiery skirt with a matching undershirt. With this new ensemble put together, she knew for certain that her previous life of being an introverted nerd was now forever gone. No longer going by 'Sunny S.' like she did at school, she wanted to make sure everyone around her would finally remember the name, 'Sunset Shimmer', for all the right reasons. She was not to be pushed around and messed with, and any who dared to do so would regret it heavily. In some ways, Human Sunset believed that this goth-girl theme with her new look was effective at showing what Crystal Prep Academy had done to her. It was an excellent way of symbolizing her grief after being bullied and abused at school, along with feeling heartbroken at her father abandoning her at such a young age. The world had seemingly been against her for so long, and this was the result, as a consequence from this entire series of unfortunate events.
Although her new visual identity was now solved, she was admittedly still weak as far as physical strength, making it clear that she needed to toughen herself up and prove she was truly a force to be reckoned with. No longer having to worry about school after dropping out, Human Sunset had far more time on her hands to become meaner and tougher, and she particularly wanted to take it all out on Sugarcoat, Indigo Zap, and Principal Cinch one day. Since she was currently still living with her mother, she at least had a place to live, along with plenty of food to eat, as Solstice managed to take half of Sunspot's money as alimony. Despite this, Human Sunset knew that at one point, she'd have to get a job herself to help her mother out with everything. It'd be her personal way to thank Solstice for still believing in her despite now ending up in this unfortunate life as a school dropout. That said, not even having graduated high school would make that goal incredibly challenging, so Human Sunset decided to currently focus on getting in shape.
She began working out at a local gym for months, growing her physical strength and taking all of her anger out on punching bags. This training not only helped her vent out frustration internally, but even practice potential fighting moves that could come in handy should she ever come across anyone who'd test her patience. Before long, Human Sunset had eventually built herself into a fighting machine, capable of blocking attacks, dodging, counterattacking, and even knocking out her opponents. As a final test for her new and improved body, she planned to sneak back to Crystal Prep Academy, looking specifically for the car parked in the faculty lot labeled 'Principal'. Since this was a personal act of revenge, it felt much more cathartic to use only her new skills to do the deed.
Human Sunset knew Principal Cinch would've been required to arrive much earlier than any other faculty, and decided to pull an all-nighter from a distance, waiting patiently until Cinch pulled up in her reserved spot. After arriving and keeping herself awake with coffee, Cinch eventually parked her car in the designated spot, before entering the school building. It was only 5:30 AM, and no other staff were expected to arrive until around another hour later. Seeing this perfect opportunity, Human Sunset snuck over and was ready to metaphorically show Cinch the consequences of her actions. Using only her fists, she managed to make several large dents all over the car, before punching out every glass window. The car alarm thankfully hadn't set off, making it so Human Sunset had another opportunity to vandalize further. She took notice of the sharp spikes on her boots, before kicking to slash all four tires, thus rendering the vehicle immobile.
Being able to damage a car severely with her own fists was enough to prove to herself that all the training had paid off, finally toughening herself up to become the perfect weapon against anyone else who'd wrong her. In fact, she was so satisfied that she became overconfident, thinking of doing the exact same deed upon Sugarcoat and Indigo Zap. Human Sunset would later on that week, do some heavy digging to find out where those two girls had lived, and committed the same acts of vandalism against those girls' family vehicles, which looked like expensive supercars. Satisfied with her cathartic act of revenge on her former school's enemies, Human Sunset simply left, thinking that karma had finally come back to bite Cinch and those girls.
As Human Sunset decided she was finally finished with her training, she quit stopping by the gym and was finally prepared to get a job. Looking for jobs without even having a high school diploma would've been challenging for sure, as most places would've expected that as the minimum qualification requirement. Human Sunset applied to Taco Tuesday, Burger Queen, and McRonald's, but every place ended up rejecting her when her resume stated that she never ended up finishing high school due to dropping out. No matter where she went, every business had deemed her as 'unqualified', especially when she wasn't even enrolled as a student anywhere currently. As a result, without being able to provide an extra source of income, Human Sunset began feeling incredibly sad for her poor mother.
During these past few months, she was still living with Solstice, who was still happy that her daughter was no longer trapped at in awful and corrupted school. At the same time, Human Sunset felt like a failure of a daughter, in the sense that bills would eventually add up, and Solstice might not be able to handle everything on her own, especially given they were already a poor family to begin with. Despite taking her ex-husband's alimony, Solstice eventually realized that over time, she wasn't able to keep up anymore, when she had unexpectedly gotten laid off from her job too. Now only living off of her savings, money had become even tighter than ever before, especially after Solstice was forced to write Indigo a check for a large sum of money for her goggles.
Solstice did her absolute best to find a new job so that she could still live happily with her daughter, but this act of kindness would unknowingly end up becoming her undoing. She stayed up all night long, barely got any sleep, did all the necessary tasks of a parent on her own, and barely fed herself in order to still provide for her daughter. Despite these efforts, no other place ended up hiring her, and money was going to inevitably become scarce at some point. Unfortunately, by neglecting her own health in favor of giving her daughter the best life possible despite the circumstances, it would eventually come back to bite Solstice in the worst way imaginable. She fell to the ground as a result of exhaustion and malnutrition, which prompted Human Sunset to rush her to the hospital.
In her hospital bed, the doctor told both Solstice and her daughter that their insurance wasn't going to be enough to cover the treatment, much like with the pony Applejack and Granny Smith one day. They were still short around $500, which was ironically how much Solstice was forced to pay Indigo Zap for her goggles and damages. Human Sunset then felt like an absolute failure of a daughter like never before, realizing that the indirect consequences of her actions in dropping out had lost these valuable opportunities. She could've gotten into the best university to ensure money would never be an issue for her family ever again. Now she was essentially a loser dropout who could never get a reliable source of income, which ended up having her own mother overwork herself to the point of becoming ill.
Crying over how cruel the entire world had been to both her and her mother, Human Sunset simply hugged Solstice tightly for many hours straight, with the two praying to each other and bonding over all the good memories they've made together over the years. Human Sunset had no idea what she was going to do to move forward if her mother ended up passing away, since her father was already gone, and the only person she truly had left was Solstice. She had no other friends or family members to turn to, meaning that she'd be forced to live out the rest of her life alone if she did nothing and let her mother pass. Despite the dire circumstances, Solstice told her daughter one last thing before Human Sunset had to leave, as visiting hours were nearly over.
"I'm so happy that you've stuck by my side for 7 hours straight today, Sunset." Solstice said, weakly.
"Anything for you, mom." Human Sunset was still crying emotionally, that it made her face rather messy from all her makeup. "If I hadn't dropped out and broken that bully's goggles, none of this would be happening... this is all my fault."
"Sunset, darling..." Solstice continued. "The only people we can point a finger at are your bullies, Principal Cinch, and your father. I refuse to let you believe that you were the one who ended up putting me in this hospital bed..."
"I know, but... I could've done things differently, even if the world ended up not working out in our favors..." Human Sunset sobbed. "I could've graduated at the top of my class and made sure we'd never have to worry about money ever again, yet this happens. I don't know how I'll ever go on to find a stable job, get my driver's license, or even live the rest of my life without you being around anymore. I love you, mom..."
"I love you too, Sunset... and please don't forget..." Solstice said, before coughing a bit from her condition. "Even if this ends up taking my life, I'll always be by your side and protect you, no matter how rough life becomes..."
Human Sunset's heart shattered upon hearing those words, but realized that this was simply going to be how life was going to play out, since every parent would have to eventually say goodbye to their child forever, one way or another. She hugged her mother tightly one last time, before the doctor broke them up, forcing Human Sunset to leave, as they had to close the hospital for the night.
Still aggravated over the circumstances and events that contributed to this very moment, Human Sunset felt disgust in herself too, knowing that breaking Indigo's goggles would've practically costed her mother's life. Although she had already committed revenge against her enemies by vandalizing their cars, it only felt right to enact further revenge against Indigo, since she had taken the money that was vital for her mother's sake. Remembering again where Indigo lived, Human Sunset went back over to Indigo's house and noticed that the family car was gone, likely because she and her family was now out getting a new ride. This gave Human Sunset the perfect opportunity to break into their home and steal some money. Upon shattering a window and entering to search for anything valuable, she initially noticed a moneybox in the closet, guarded by a lock. This would've been a pain to crack open by any typical burglar, but Human Sunset knew she had the strength to break it open.
After destroying the safe with her bare fists, money and coins scattered everywhere, as Human Sunset counted the money, realizing that she had found approximately $1,000. She might've only needed $500, but taking it all felt like proper compensation for all the pain and humiliation she went through back at Crystal Prep Academy. Upon stashing the cash into her pocket, it felt like bad timing, as she heard Indigo's family car pull up onto their driveway. Seeing that there wasn't much time to goof around and look for other valuables, Human Sunset fled the house, hoping they wouldn't catch her in the act. As she exited and hid in a nearby bush, she overheard Indigo exclaim horror upon entering her home.
"Mom, dad, look!" Indigo shrieked. "Somebody broke our window and... and they took my allowance stash!!! Call the police!!! And quick, let's check the security camera footage!"
Human Sunset's eyes widened, realizing that if they checked their cameras, they would know she was the culprit, since there was technically no evidence beforehand of her vandalizing Cinch's, Sugarcoats, and Indigo's cars. She then surmised they must've installed cameras after they saw somebody had smashed up their car. As a result, Human Sunset just fled the scene, hoping that even if she was now going to be a criminal who'd get locked up for the rest of her life, she could at least bring the money to the hospital the next day, making sure they could treat her mother. Human Sunset eventually returned home and stashed the money under her pillow, praying that it wasn't already too late to save her mother, before falling asleep.
The next day, Human Sunset rushed to the hospital as quickly as she could, ready to deliver the missing money needed to afford Solstice's treatment. But as she went to the receptionist desk and was asked to speak with the doctor, she got told some even worse news, on top of now being a criminal herself.
"Hi, Sunset." The doctor addressed his client's daughter. "I'm glad to see you went the extra mile to bring $500 for your mother's insurance to cover her treatment, but I'm afraid your efforts are a tad too late. Your mother unfortunately already passed away at around 6 AM this morning, as a result of her condition."
"No... please... TELL ME THIS ISN'T TRUE!!!!" Human Sunset began sobbing hysterically.
"I'm really sorry for your loss, but I'm afraid it already happened." The doctor sympathized. "If it helps, I can at least let you see her for a bit, before you decide on how you and your family will plan on moving forward."
Human Sunset nodded, though she felt somewhat insulted by the doctor claiming she had any family left, if what he told her was true. As she had dreaded, Human Sunset saw Solstice completely unconscious in her hospital bed, and her mother's eyes were closed, along with having pale skin. She brought her hand upon her mother's forehead and noticed it was pretty cold, making her realize the inevitable had already occurred.
"No, mom... please!!!" Human Sunset hugged her lifeless mother's body. "I risked everything to help save you, and I still couldn't do it! I'm so sorry, mom, I've failed both you and dad as a daughter! I know you didn't want me to ever believe this, but it's the truth, given how I've made dumb decisions myself!!!"
Despite her mother being long gone, Human Sunset still stood by her side, since it felt like the right thing to do, given how Solstice promised that she'd always be there for her daughter through thick and thin, even after she's gone. After staying around for what felt like an eternity, Human Sunset eventually knew she had to pick herself up and do the respectable thing after her mother's passing. She used what little money her family had left, along with the $1,000 she stole from Indigo to pay for the funeral, albeit a private one where she was the only one attending. Being by herself during this funeral, without her dad or any friends by her side, it seemed to symbolize how alone Human Sunset truly was now. She cremated her mother's body and arranged for a spot to bury her in the cemetery, something no child should ever have to experience, let alone on their own.
After which, with no job or reliable source of income from that point forward, Human Sunset just laid low and stayed in her mother's home, feeling completely depressed and lonely. She sacrificed everything in an attempt to become #1 for her father, and was willing to possibly go to jail for vandalism and theft for her mother, only to find out she ended up failing in both instances. For the rest of the upcoming week, Human Sunset just cried herself to sleep every night, whilst barely eating or taking care of herself, as the emotional pain over losing her mother prevented her from doing so. With so much going on in just a few days over her mother being hospitalized and passing away, Human Sunset would've never imagined the possibility of another version of herself coming here from another world.
Around this time, Pony Sunset had already made her way through the portal, before realizing she couldn't go back anymore after satisfying her curiosity. After which, a few days had already passed, and she mostly kept a low profile around CHS, where nobody would've recognized her as that 'Sunny S.' student from Crystal Prep. She never even bothered going into the city itself, as she felt the need to familiarize herself with her surroundings, now being forced to live in a different world, and all. As she didn't have the capabilities of making money just yet, she wasn't able to afford an apartment to rent, and mostly slept within storage closets in the school gym.
As Human Sunset was continuing her usual routine in mourning the loss of her mother, another thing eventually happened that would change everything. She heard a knock at the front door and went downstairs to look through the peephole. To her shock, two policemen were standing on her porch, looking rather stern and impatient. Since Human Sunset overheard Indigo and her family checking their cameras, it was reasonable to surmise that they had done an investigation to discover that she was the one behind the theft and acts of vandalism. Realizing that this would most likely mean she'd go to jail or face even harsher consequences, Human Sunset decided to not answer, and snuck out her home's back window before making a run for it.
Unknown to Human Sunset, Indigo and her family had checked their footage, only to find out that their camera wasn't working, meaning that they actually had no real evidence of her being the thief. As a result, the policemen were mostly there just to question the residents if they had any leads regarding this criminal, and since they saw that nobody was seemingly home, they simply left casually without doing anything else extreme. Regardless, Human Sunset basically knew she was a legitimate criminal at this point, and with no more friends and family to go to, she just mindlessly decided to hide.
As she ran down the streets frantically, something unusual happened, as a strange jolt of magic forced her to run down another street she wasn't familiar with, an occurrence that even the pony Sunset and Starlight noticed themselves. Not questioning this, Human Sunset continued on down the street until she noticed a pizza parlor. Desperate to the point of hiding from the cops for quite some time, she simply hid in the parlor's restroom and locked herself in one of the stalls, hoping that the police wouldn't end up finding and apprehending her.
Unfortunately, out of all odds, this pizza parlor had recently hired a new employee to cook the pizzas, and this particular newbie had a dangerous habit of leaving the ovens unattended as he grew bored waiting for the pizzas to cook. As a result, a few hours after Human Sunset barricaded herself in the restroom, the oven caught on fire. The employee attempted to use a fire extinguisher to put out the flames, but it was no use, as the fire then spread to a larger portion of the building. Desperate for their lives, the manager and employees fled the restaurant quickly, not even realizing there was a girl who remained behind in the restroom.
Human Sunset continued hiding in her stall, until she had suddenly smelled smoke. It didn't seem surprising given how she saw a few workers cooking pizza on her way in, but she soon realized that the smoke wasn't going away, and was actually getting worse and more toxic. Understanding that something was truly wrong, Human Sunset got up out of her stall and went outside the restroom, only to see the building was completely covered and surrounded by fire. Her initial instinct was to grab some water from the sink to potentially put the flames out, only to see that the fire started spreading inside the restroom too, shortly after she opened the door. The fire then began surrounding Human Sunset, as she soon realized there was truly no easy way out. Although prepared for the worst as far as potentially dying to these flames, it was primarily the toxic smoke fumes that weakened Human Sunset, to the point where she had trouble breathing and keeping consciousness.
Finally, after inhaling too many smoke fumes, it unfortunately became too much for her biological system, and Human Sunset was on the brink of passing out. She desperately tried her best to use what little energy she had left to save herself, but only slid a few inches across the coarse ground before blacking out completely. Shortly after, it wasn't particularly clear at the time, but her body began to fade in and out several times before disappearing, leaving behind nothing more than an empty building that was set to burn to the ground.
As Pony Sunset had already fallen asleep relatively early inside one of the CHS storage rooms, she began having a dream, where she was sitting in complete darkness and seemed to be by herself. She couldn't see any part of herself either, almost giving off the impression that her physical form had suddenly disappeared, and all that was left was her voice. Pony Sunset was able to mutter a few words and hear herself speaking, but out of nowhere, another sound began to make itself apparent over her own voice.
Although everything seemed invisible to Pony Sunset, Human Sunset meanwhile saw a white silhouette out of the corner of her eye, which looked like some kind of four-legged animal. It then suddenly hit her that she somehow escaped from the burning building and was now in some strange dimension where she could see nothing else but darkness, other than that strange animal. But before Human Sunset could even comprehend what was even going on, out of nowhere, something seemingly invisible in the area began to suck her up from the ground, pulling her toward it. Given how she once did a lot of research in astronomy during her school days, it seemed as if a void or black hole was attempting to suck her inside, almost as if she was within the void's proximity.
Pony Sunset meanwhile, was continuing on with this 'dream', still unsure of why her mind shifted to this unusual scenario. She almost had a potential theory that this place might've represented the consequences of her actions in still going through the mirror after disobeying Princess Celestia's orders, as she seemed to be trapped in some void of emptiness with only herself within it. Unknown to Pony Sunset, there really was an actual void in the darkness itself, which began engulfing Human Sunset, given how Pony Sunset was luckily far enough away from its reach.
As the void began taking hold of Human Sunset's body, she was only able to notice that she was getting sucked up, while the strange animal in the distance just remained behind. She began struggling and crying, realizing that something seemingly tragic was about to happen, especially knowing what happens to anything that gets trapped in a black hole's reach. Human Sunset kicked around and tried to grab ahold of anything in the darkness that could prevent the hole from pulling her all the way in, but to no avail. She then started screaming desperately for anyone who would somehow hear her, possibly able to save her from this dreaded nightmare.
"Mom, please be with me!" Human Sunset begged. "Don't just leave me here, please!"
She was genuinely desperate to the point of calling for her mother, Solstice, even though she knew internally that her mom was already gone. Despite her mother's passing, Human Sunset never forgot what Solstice said to her in her last breath, in that she'd always be with her, no matter how hard life became. In a final attempt of struggling to escape the void, Human Sunset was suddenly out of energy and was pulled all the way in, completely engulfed as the void closed itself up, erasing her from existence. From Pony Sunset's point of view, she only made out Human Sunset's voice and noises, as well as the few phrases she had briefly cried out before disappearing. As Pony Sunset had noted before, she was always creeped out at why there was a voice in this third night's dream that sounded just like hers, and she would unknowingly let this happen again when Starlight Glimmer joined her for an extended stay too.
Although still confused at what the dream was about, Pony Sunset didn't think much about it, before somehow waking up in the storage room. Looking over at a clock, she noticed it was already the next morning, despite how short that dream seemed to be. Not thinking much of the dream until she eventually had that conversation with Starlight, Pony Sunset carried on with her new life in the human world, believing it was simply a weird experience. But as for Human Sunset, the void trapped her the entire time Pony Sunset's physical presence manifested with the world's own magic. Although Pony Sunset had revisted Equestria several times during her human life, she had never actually left the human world for more than 24 hours, up until she had recently decided to take a longer extended stay, thus exceeding 72 hours.
When Pony Sunset's presence was no longer in the world anymore, the void finally opened back up, releasing Human Sunset from her seemingly eternal prison, which occurred nearly an hour ago as Human Sunset took all this time to recollect everything. That void was the very last thing she saw and remembered before being wiped from existence, only to one day, throw her back out in the same area she was initially at before being brought before the darkness. It was unknown to Human Sunset at the time, but the alleyway she ended up in used to be the exact same area where the old pizza parlor originally was, before it had eventually burned to the ground. With the space now being empty despite the firefighters' best efforts to save the building, Canterlot City's mayor decided to add a few more business buildings. These buildings were the same ones that surrounded Human Sunset, forming the alley she had just left after regaining consciousness.
Although she had been faded from existence rather than being in a coma from those smoke fumes, the effects of being in one were still the same, as Human Sunset was still alive and had aged in her time trapped within the void. Unknown to everything that had occurred when Pony Sunset made her way in, Human Sunset now purely wanted answers as to what had happened before she passed out. Did the smoke fumes do that to her, or did it have something to do with that faint, four-legged animal she briefly saw in the darkness? Whatever was the case, Human Sunset had already accepted being in a coma and missing several years of her life, but she still wanted to understand what truly happened, and why specifically to her.
While she continued to walk down the dark streets of Canterlot, everything seemed to be quiet. It was now around 9:30 PM, and most people were already home, or had closed shop. This was why when Human Sunset seemingly heard very subtle noises in the distance, it began to alert her to somebody else's presence. Although her eyesight admittedly wasn't that great, she had a great sense of hearing, which allowed her to pick up anything small. Since the noises seemed to be following her wherever she went, it almost gave off the impression that somebody was stalking her, but this didn't worry Human Sunset too terribly much. As long as she didn't have to deal with another void trapping her, she believed she was still well-prepared to fight anyone who would attempt to jump her, especially at night.
After hearing what sounded like less subtle noises in the form of footsteps, Human Sunset swiftly turned around, only to find that nobody was there. Something seemed very wrong, but it actually turned out that the person following her was rather sneaky, able to quickly hide without being noticed. After checking behind her thoroughly and realizing there really seemed to be nobody there, Human Sunset let her guard down slightly as she began making her way to a street that would then change everything. The same street where Pony Sunset's apartment was located, where Pinkie was still housesitting for her, and also prepared for the possibility of her friend returning back home early...