//------------------------------//
// Mad, Bad and Dangerous 
// Story: How the Sunset Sparkles 
// by Scipio Smith 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 9

Mad, Bad and Dangerous


It was not a siege, but it certainly felt like one at times. 

It was as if Prince Blueblood's return had blown the starting whistle on a race, or as though the other 'elite' ponies of Equestria had been deferring to him but, now that he had failed, they all felt free to pitch in. One would-be suitor had confessed that they were eager to beat the zebras and griffons to the prize, to which Twilight had yelled that she was not a prize so loudly that the windows had shattered. 

There were a dozen of them, four mares and eight stallions from Canterlot, Manehattan and Baltimare; the wealthiest and most well-born  (whatever that meant in practice, it certainly didn't make them polite in Twilight's estimation) ponies in Equestria's most sophisticated cities. And not one of them had come alone. The least of them had brought a valet, the grandest, an entire suite of servants, stylists and even a small band with which to disturb her sleep with serenades. 

And they had all camped out around the library. For a definition of camping that included large and luxurious pink multi-storey caravans at any rate. They had set up shop outside the library and they weren't leaving until she chose one of them. Prince Blueblood, for all his faults (and Celestia knew...) had at least accepted rejection and gone home. For these ponies, the word 'No' seemed to mean 'not yet'. She might have admired their tenacity if it hadn't been driving her crazy. 

Twilight groaned as the music started up outside, followed closely by the singing. She would have yelled at them to stop it, but showing herself only encouraged them further. If it wasn't singing it would have been poetry, or simple declarations of undying affection. 

"Oh, Spike, what am I going to do?" she moaned, resting her head on the library table as she felt a headache coming on. 

Spike shrugged. "I don't know, Twilight. Why don't you just give each one of them a date, tell them you're not interested, and hope that they'll go away."

"If me telling them I wasn't interested didn't work the first time, what makes you think that telling them no after a date would make any difference?" Twilight asked, her voice half muffled by the position of her head on the table. "They'd probably think I was playing hard to get."

"Or they're just waiting for you to give them a chance," Spike suggested.

"How am I supposed to give them a chance when they never let me go anywhere without flocking around me as a group?" Twilight responded, lifting her head up. That was the reason why she had been forced to put a shield around the library. It was ludicrous, that in the safety of Ponyville she should be forced to set a barrier around her home as though a horde of changelings or diamond dogs encircled her, and yet without the barrier there was no nook or cranny they would not squeeze through to get to her. "Can you imagine going on a date with one while the other eleven stand around trying to get me to pick them instead?"

"Maybe it wouldn't be that bad," Spike said optimistically.

Twilight looked at him.

"Yeah, okay, it would probably be that bad," Spike admitted. "But what else can you do? It's not as if you can wait them out."

"Can't I?" Twilight said. "They must have lives to go back to wherever they came from."

"Probably, but I wouldn't bet on them needing to go back before you go stir crazy in here alone," Spike said, sounding incredibly dubious of the prospect.

He had a very good point. After a few days trapped in here - the shield spell kept them from creeping in to try and get some alone time - the library was starting to feel very small and airless and Twilight herself was beginning to feel like an animal trapped in a cage. Even opening a whole in the shield for Spike to get out and go shopping led to somepony trying to squeeze in. She needed to get out of her, she needed her friends, she needed company apart from Spike. Her young assistant was trying his best, but they were beginning to run out of things to talk about. 

Twilight stood up. "Could you get me an aspirin please? I'm going down into the laboratory to try out the Delayed Messager."

"You really think it will work?"

"I certainly hope so, or you and I are going to run out of things to talk about," Twilight said. While Spike went to the bathroom to get her an aspirin and a glass of water, Twilight opened the laboratory door and padded down the brown steps. Partly out of worry that something like this might happen, and partly just to see if they could, Twilight and Sunset had bashed together a second computer, even more primitive than the first, but with the capacity - in theory - to link up to the first and send messages between them. It was no substitute for pony-to-pony conversation, but in this situation it was the best she could do. 

The machine was little more than a jumble of wires spilling out and around a monitor, there hadn't been time or desire to build a proper housing for it. They had built this for one reason only: to give Twilight a lifeline in the event of a scenario like this one. 

Twilight flicked the on switch, and waited for the humming and whirring device to complete it's cumbersome boot-up. While she waited Spike came back with her tablets and she swallowed them down eagerly. Another benefit about being in the laboratory was that she couldn't really hear the singing any more. 

"Anything happening?" Spike asked.

"Give it a second," Twilight replied, moments before the green letters began to appear on the black screen.

SSTS-00A  STANDING BY

SEARCHING

WOULD YOU LIKE TO USE DELAYED MESSAGER? Y/N

Twilight used her magic to press the button down, since the keyboard they had designed was a little too small for hooves to manipulate with ease.

Y

SEARCHING FOR CONNECTIONS

The computer began to make a noise that was halfway between a distressed cat and a circular saw - an uncomfortable image if ever there was one.

CONNECTION FOUND: SSTS-01. WOULD YOU LIKE TO CONNECT? Y/N

Y

The cat started screeching for a while, Twilight started to worry something had broken before more words appeared on the screen.

CONNECTED TO SSTS-01. ENTER YOUR MESSAGE AND IT WILL BE TRANSMITTED

"Now we'll see if it really works," Spike muttered.

Twilight's horn glowed as she pressed down on the keys.

SUNSET, ARE YOU THERE?

"What happens if she isn't there?" Spike asked.

"Well the computer must be on or we couldn't have connected," Twilight said. "So she should be around. Of course she could be in the bathroom, or doing something else. Or it might just take a while to communicate, Sunset said it wouldn't be very fast. She told me in the other world it's called 'Instant Messaging', but she thought that would be a little optimistic for our first attempt.

More green letters began to appear, one at a time as though a ghost or an invisible pony was in the laboratory with them, typing out unseen to either Twilight or Spike. It was really weird, so Twilight tried to focus on the image of Sunset on the other end, tapping away to make her words appear before Twilight.

>>HEY TWILIGHT, IT'S SUNSET. YEAH, I'M HERE. ARE YOU SEEING THIS?

"It works!" Twilight exclaimed. "Oh thank goodness."

"Woah," Spike muttered. "That's like, if you got a letter from Princess Celestia while she was writing it."

I CAN SEE IT. IT WORKS. THANK CELESTIA.

>>AWESOME. HOW ARE YOU HOLDING UP?

"How do I even start answering that?" Twilight murmured.

"Tell her you're not doing so great," Spike offered. "It's true."

"I don't want her to think I'm begging for sympathy."

"Why not? Isn't that exactly what you're doing?"

"No, I'm..." Twilight hesitated, while Spike waited expectantly. Twilight coughed. "I'm asking for understanding."

"The distinction is crucial," Spike said in a deadpan voice.

"Okay, okay," Twilight shook her head as she typed in her response.

NOT GREAT. I NEVER THOUGHT THAT I COULD HATE A LIBRARY BUT THAT'S HOW I'M STARTING TO FEEL. HOW DID MY HOME BECOME A PRISON?

>>DON'T ASK ME, I'M NOT RICH OR FAMOUS. MAYBE ALL CELEBRITIES GO THROUGH THIS?

THEN I'M SURPRISED THEY DON'T ALL QUIT. ONE WEEK AND I'M ALREADY SICK OF THIS. WHAT CAN I DO TO GET RID OF THEM?

There was a pause. Twilight could imagine Sunset considering her response. 

>>AGREE TO MARRY ONE, WAIT UNTIL THE OTHERS GO HOME, THEN LEAVE THE SAP AT THE ALTAR.

I'D RATHER NOT DO SOMETHING DISHONEST. BESIDES, WHAT IF I CAN'T LEAVE HIM?

>>GOOD POINT. WE WOULDN'T WANT YOU TO END UP MARRIED TO ANYPONY, WOULD WE? There was another pause, obviously Sunset was giving it more thought. DO YOU WANT ME TO CHASE THEM OFF FOR YOU?

Twilight chuckled. THAT'S KIND OF YOU, BUT I DON'T THINK PRINCESS CELESTIA WOULD APPROVE. IS ANYPONY WITH YOU?

>>NO

COULD YOU GET THEM, PLEASE? I NEED TO...SPEAK TO THEM. YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.

>>SURE, I'LL BB the typing abruptly stopped, leaving Twilight frowning at her end and wondering what had happened. Had something broken? Was that it? Did it not work any more?

"Do you think you should turn it off then on again?" Spike asked.

Twilight considered it, but before she do anything Sunset's typing returned. OKAY, PINKIE IS GOING TO GO AND ROUND UP EVERYPONY. I DIDN'T HEAR THE DOOR OPEN. OR CLOSE. SHE WAS JUST BEHIND ME. HOW DOES SHE DO THAT?

DON'T ASK. HOW ARE YOU?

>>OKAY. MISSING YOU. I WISH THERE WAS SOMETHING I COULD DO. COULD I TELEPORT THROUGH YOUR SHIELD?

I DOUBT IT, AND EVEN IF YOU COULD, I COULDN'T TALK TO ANYPONY ELSE WITHOUT YOU TO OPERATE THE MACHINE ON YOUR END.

>>I GUESS. SOMEPONY'S COMING. NO SHE CAN'T HEAR YOU SHOUT HELLO TWILIGHT AT THE SCREEN NO MATTER HOW LOUD YOU YELL, IT DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY.

Twilight laughed. TELL THEM I SAID HI. THAT MIGHT BE SOMETHING WE COULD WORK ON LATER. WHOSE THERE?

>>EVERYPONY EXCEPT PINKIE PIE.

"Hiya, Twilight!"

"Ah!" Twilight shot up into the air as Pinkie's cheery voice blasted into her ears. She flew up so fast she hit her head on the ceiling and rubbed it with one hoof as she looked down at Pinkie sitting on the floor just behind where Twilight had been. "Pinkie? How did you get in here?"

"Do you really wanna know?"

"Not really," Twilight muttered. "Can you just past me shield any time you want?"

Pinkie giggled. "Not any time, silly. Only when it will be funny!"

"Well, of course," Twilight said sarcastically. Still, she smiled as she descended back down to the floor. "I'm glad you're here. It's nice to talk to somepony instead of having to keep reading off a screen."

"Tell me about it, I’m sick of reading so much all-caps," Pinkie said. "That's why I'm here. I'll read out what's on the screen while you and Spike can rest your eyes, then you can tell me what you want to say back and I'll type it in for you. That way you can talk to me while I help you talk to everypony else! So scoot." Pinkie shoved Twilight aside. "Now, what do you want to say?"

"Tell them you're here with me," Twilight said.

Pinkie tapped away with astonishing dexterity. She waited. "I'm not even sure how to pronounce that! Oh wait: 'Hey, Twilight, Sunset here. I'm going to type in what everypony else says, because none of them can hit the right keys. We need a bigger board for earth ponies and pegasi."

"That's something we can work on later," Twilight murmured. "It's not as if we have the chance right now."

Pinkie's hooves flew as she typed away. Her voice slipped into an eerily accurate impression of Fluttershy. "Hello Twilight, this is Fluttershy. Are you sure there isn't we can do to help?"

"I don't know," Twilight said. "For now, just knowing that you're there is enough."

"Ooh, now it's Applejack." Pinkie put a twang into her voice. "Well of course we're here for you, sugarcube, where else would we be. Wait, I didn't say sugarcube. Well you normally do. Not all the time. Some of the time. That doesn't mean you can just throw it in whenever you want-"

"Is Sunset typing out the argument she's having with Applejack?" Twilight asked.

"I guess she doesn't want us to feel left out." Pinkie said. "Ooh, now it's Rarity: hello, dear, I've taken over the keyboard in order to give you an accurate representation of events. I'm so sorry this had to happen to you. Why don't you write to Princess Celestia and tell her how unhappy you are."

"Because I'm a grown mare and a princess," Twilight said. "I can't go running to Celestia just because things aren't going precisely the way I want them too."

"But you know she'd want to help if she could," Pinkie said.

"Was that Rarity again?"

"No, that was me, silly!"

"Oh, right. But the point is she shouldn't have to help me. I should be able to stand on my own. We've handled worse than this, haven't we?"

"Rainbow Dash is talking now," Pinkie said. "She says: but we can't turn your suitors to stone, can we?"

"Don't tempt me," Twilight said darkly. "At the moment I'd settle for just being able to stop them flocking all over me like vultures whenever I go outside."

"Rarity's back now." Pinkie modulated her voice again. "You need a chaperone, darling. Somepony to be your escort out and about and ensure proper behaviour from the gentlecolts. Unfortunately, I'm not sure any of us would be considered suitable, even me. What would we need is a pony with sufficient status to cow all of these suitors with their presence."

Twilight gasped. "That's it! I know just the pony, we all do! Thank you so much Rarity, thank you all. Spike, prepare a letter to the Crystal Empire."

"Spike prepare a letter to-" Pinkie murmured as she typed.

"You don't have to type that, Pinkie Pie," Twilight said.

"You don't have to type that, Pinkie Pie," Pinkie repeated, typing away.

"Stop that!"

"Stop that!"

"Now you're just doing it on purpose!"

"Well, of course!"





Sunset leaned back, folding her forehooves up behind her head as a slight frown disfigured her face. "So that's it? We're just going to wait for Twilight's sister-in-law to come and solve all our problems."

"You sound disappointed, darling," Rarity said. Her hooves hovered over the buttons on the computer. "Um, how does one turn this off?"

"Here, let me," Sunset said, using her magic to shut the machine down. "I wouldn't say I'm disappointed, just...okay, I'm a little disappointed. I expected something more proactive from the heroes of Ponyville. "

"I do wish you wouldn't call us that," Rarity replied. "We aren't warriors, after all, and it isn't as though we go out fighting monsters on a regular basis."

"As awesome as it would be if we did," Rainbow remarked from where she hovered near the ceiling. The floor of Sunset's living room had become quite cluttered with wiring and circuitboards, so anypony who could fly was encouraged to do so with so many guests. 

"Even you'd get bored with it after awhile," Applejack remarked softly. "Anyways, Cadance has a lot more experience of being a princess than Twilight, so I'm sure she'll be able to deal with all of these hoity-toity suitors."

"I hope she can make it," Fluttershy murmured.

"She'll come," Applejack said confidently. "Cadance won't let Twilight down when she really needs her, they mean too much to one another."

"Plus, Cadance kinda owes Twilight for all the times that Twilight's saved her," Rainbow said with a quiet chuckle. "This'll certainly make a change."

"And Sunset will finally get to meet Cadance!" Pinkie yelled, appearing with the sound of a party popper right next to Sunset, who recoiled with a squawk of alarm and ended up rolling backwards until she was practically standing on her head. Pinkie continued, oblivious to what she'd done. "I mean, I know you saw her in the Crystal Empire but then you were too busy being all 'Please, please don't throw me back through the mirror' to Princess Celestia to really notice. Cadance is really cool and she loves Twilight and I just know that you're going to be best friends."

"Yeah, sure," Sunset muttered, righting herself onto her hooves. "How do you keep getting in here like this?"

Pinkie giggled. "It wouldn't be funny if you knew how I was doing it, would it?"

"I guess not," Sunset said in a flat tone of voice.

"Pinkie is right about one thing, you should meet Cadance," Rarity said, walking past a pile of clutter to perch on a chair, her forehooves resting on the dining table. "It will be good for you to get to know Twilight's family and in-laws for when you..." Rarity looked as though she realised she had said too much, her eyes widening and a slight blush appearing on her cheeks. 

"When I what?" Sunset asked.

"When you, um," Rarity looked away. "When you start wanting to spend more time with her, that's what I was going to say."

"Right," Sunset murmured, feeling a nagging at the back of her mind that said that Rarity wasn't being honest with her, while at the same time being unable to think about what she could be hiding. 

"So, Sunset," Pinkie leaned in so close their faces were practically touching, her expression a little disturbing and her voice conspiratorial. "Hearts and Hooves day isn't that far away. Do you have a special somepony you'd like to celebrate with?"

Sunset shuffled away from her, shooting anxious glances at her all the while. "No, no I've never had a lot of luck that way. I'm not an easy pony to get on with." That had been true in the mirror-world as well. Flash had stuck it out with her for as long as he had mostly because she was the popular girl and he was the cool guy and it was expected that they would date. That, and she suspected that he'd been into her bad girl thing at the time. Although the fact that he had run screaming into the arms of Twilight, who was so far on the good girl side of the spectrum that she was practically the angel to Sunset's demon, showed how successfully she had put him off that.

But, he was only one who had lasted more than one date. The others all said she was too demanding, too aggressive, too much for them to handle. Not that it had bothered her, since she had never planned to make a life in that world to begin with. Now...it still didn't bother her. 

Though she was curious about something. She asked, "Why the sudden interest in my dating life, Pinkie?"

"Oh, no reason," Pinkie said, her face a picture of innocence. 

"Uh huh," Sunset said sceptically. "Anyway, I still think it would have been easier to just scare them or force them off rather than hoping that Princess Cadance can make everything better."

"This way is much more subtle, darling, and, I have to say, less brutal in execution," Rarity said.

Rainbow added, "Not to mention...well, no offence, but you're not exactly as scary as you seem to think you are."

Sunset was silent for a moment. She blinked. "You...don't think I'm scary?"

Rainbow shrugged. "Not really. I mean, I know you're supposed to have done some big bad stuff in some other world, but we never saw that. I mean, to us you're just another pony."

"Just another pony," Sunset repeated quietly. She looked around the room. "Is that what you all think? I'm not intimidating at all, I'm just another pony?"

Fluttershy looked uncomfortable, Pinkie looked blaise, Rarity frowned. Applejack said, "Sugarcube, why would you want us to be afraid of you?"

"I don't I just..." Sunset let her words trail off. She looked down at the ground. She had an idea, and looked up as her horn glowed with magic and her whole body seemed to erupt with fire reaching all the way up to the ceiling, a flaming aura such as she had used to frighten the Diamond Dogs. "HOW ABOUT NOW, RAINBOW DASH? ARE YOU FRIGHTENED YET?"

Rainbow shook her head. "Nah, I'm afraid not."

Pinkie had produced a marshmallow on a stick from Celestia knew where and was trying to toast it on Sunset's glamour, only to watch it remain stubbornly white due to the lack of any real flames. "Aww."

Sunset took a series of deep breaths as she let the spell go and felt a wave of weariness descend upon her. "It's not real fire, Pinkie, I don't have the juice for that. Or know anypony who does apart from Princess Celestia. But...none of you were just a little impressed by that?"

"Nah," Rainbow said.

"Rainbow Dash!" Rarity said scoldingly.

"Well it's true."

"We could say that we were intimidated, if you'd like?" Fluttershy offered tremulously.

"No, thanks, it's okay," Sunset said, plastering a false smile onto her face. "Can you girls let yourself out when you're through? I want to go for a walk. Alone. Great, thanks, see you around." She did not wait for their response before turning on her hooves and walking out the door, moving briskly over the grass to put as much distance between her home and herself as possible. 

They didn't think she was scary? At all? The knowledge ate at Sunset as she traversed the meadows around the outskirts of Ponyville, like a maggot burrowing its way into a worm. It shouldn't have bothered her - she wasn't, after all, trying to frighten anyone - but it did. It bothered her more than she wanted anypony to know. 

What had happened to her. She was Sunset Shimmer, the girl who had held Canterlot High in thrall for three years without anyone's help, who had terrorised the student body and who had, by the force of her malice, sundered all bonds of friendship. She had been a dark queen in that place, beautiful and terrible as the setting sun. And now...she was nothing? That stung more than just her pride. When had she gotten so soft? 

Not that she wanted to terrorise, but it would have been nice if ponies had still thought she could. If they didn't take her seriously, after all, then why should they pay her any mind? What was she otherwise?

As Sunset left Ponyville, she could see the library and the suitors camped around it. Just looking at them, their glittering carriages, their silk tents, their caravans, their suits and gowns, it made Sunset's hooves itch so badly she wanted to kick somepony. They thought they were so much better than her, didn't they? They thought they were entitled to just snap up Twilight just like they snapped up anything else that caught their fancy with a jingle of their purses. They thought that Sunset was so far beneath them that Twilight would never choose her over them.

Sunset chuckled mirthlessly. More likely they just didn't even known who Sunset was. After all, she wasn't scary any more. 

She was seized with a desire to march right over there and show them just why she had once struck fear into the hearts of children. But she resisted. Twilight wouldn't like it if she did something like that and neither would Princess Celestia. Besides, she was afraid that if she tried anything, Rainbow Dash would be proved right: not even strangers would find her threatening. 

Sunset stomped away, heading towards the Everfree Forest with no clear plan or firm intentions beyond a desire to remind herself that there had indeed been a time when she had been considered mad, bad and dangerous. 

She had not dressed before leaving the house, so she had no jacket to make her look tough or feel confident. Sunset told herself she didn't need it. And besides, she didn't want to ruin it getting caught on twigs or thorns. 

The eaves of the forest closed in around her as Sunset strayed off the path and into the woods. Their branches reached for her with spindly, grasping fingers. The knotted trunks scowled and leered at her. Sunset gave no visible reaction, she would not. She was here to spread fear, not to be afraid. 

She didn't know what she was looking for. Something, anything she could measure herself against, test her strength and courage against. 

Sunset knew she was not a pony of great virtues. She wasn't compassionate like Fluttershy, faithful like Rainbow Dash, dependable like Applejack. She did not, as Twilight did, display the elements so mixed in her that nature might cry out to all the world 'This is a mare!' She wasn't even particularly brave in the face of adversity. But there was one thing she could do and that was scare somepony's mane white, and nopony was going to take that away from her!

A sudden gust of wind blew through the forest, making the leaves rustle in such a way as they seemed to be whispering. 

Turn back, turn back, they said. The wind kept blowing. Do not trespass here.

Sunset looked around. When she had first crossed through the mirror, once she'd gotten over the fact that the weather happened without reference to human will, she had thought that it operated like it did in the Everfree, but it didn't. The weather in the other world happened according to maths, so long as you had the numbers you could predict what it would do. The Everfree behaved not according to the iron laws of mathematics, but according to its own invisible and incomprehensible intelligence. 

Even so, it seemed unusually eloquent today. 

But another voice seemed to be denying the whisper of the wind, calling to her, beckoning her on towards a small gap in the trees, where two intertwined branches made an archway leading to who knew what. 

Come, come, it said.

Go, go, said the wind. 

Sunset steeled herself, and passed beneath the arch of branches. Perhaps this was the challenge she had been seeking. 

Under the arch, she found herself in what was half clearing and half cavern. Clearing, because there was a clearly marked circle in which no trees grew, but cavern in the trees on the edges of the circle had grown their thickest branches out so far that they enmeshed, blocking out the sunlight except in very sparse patches falling on the grass. 

The smashed and shattered remains of colums in what humans would have called the ionian style formed a rough ring around the clearing, suggesting an artificial origin. A stone head lay upon the ground, all that visibly remained of what must once have been a proud statue. It was a unicorns' head, stern of face, crowned with a ring of white flowers that had grown around her forehead. The princess of this forest, Sunset thought. 

Unicorns, pegasi, chimeras, hydras, she had often thought that there must have been a time in distant history when travel between Equestria and the human world had been both commonplace and easy, for so many of their races and monsters to be mirrored so perfectly on the other side of the mirror as myths and legends. Sunset even thought it was possible that what the humans called centaurs had been inspired in the first place by garbled reports of talking ponies. She could have written a paper on it for the historical society, had Celestia allowed her to reveal the existence of the mirror to the public. 

Her gaze was drawn from the stone unicorn head to the back of the dark clearing, where what looked like a stone altar sat, almost completely covered by tangling vines of ivy. Behind her, the wind seemed to be growing stronger, while something else within the clearing tempted her forwards. Sunset advanced cautiously and when she reached the altar she raised one hoof to brush the weeds away. She did not use magic...it didn't seem right somehow. 

It was an altar, she could see that plainly as she clearly some of the ivy from it. An altar of grey stone, a square slab with a flat top and decorations around the sides. Decorations of...human women? No, Sunset realised that they were not once she revealed more. They looked liked humans at first, until one noticed the fraying, bat-like wings growing out behind them, the snakes they wore around thier waists like belts, the way that their flowing hair appeared to be on fire. Furies. 

Sunset's hoof snagged on a thorn, a cut opening up to drip a thin, minute trickle of blood onto the top of the altar. 

The wind began to howl outside the clearing and in, the sound of the wind and blowing of the leaves mingling with a fey, piercing cry like the hunting call of a bird of prey.

And all around her, laughter.

Sunset's mane whipped this way and that as she looked around. "Who's there? Come out, I'm not afraid of you!"

No answer but the mockery of the forest. 

The wind was cold, it chilled Sunset to the bone. She turned away, putting the altar behind her and left at a...brisk trot. Very brisk. She did not stop until the wind had died down. 

But she did not leave the forest. She couldn't, now. Sunset felt as though it would, in its way, confirm the very things she had come into the forest to disprove. Wasn't there a timberwolf here she could fight, a dragon she could face down?

The forest trembled to the tread of a manticore as it lumbered through one of the less densely forested parts of the Everfree. It's scorpion tail shook idly as the beast walked, swaying this way and that. The manticore had a scar on the left side of its face, a cracked tooth on the right side, it's red mane was turning to grey in streaks and patches. An ageing warrior, this.

Sunset growled. "Hey, you!"

The manticore ignored her. She was to him as was an ant to her. 

Sunset bared her teeth in a snarl. "I'm talking to you, buddy! Over here!"

The manticore continued on his way, presenting his back to her.

It was the last straw. Sunset picked up a rock and threw it at him. "Don't you dare turn your back on me! I'm Sunset Shimmer, no one turns their back on me!"

The rock hit the manticore on the back of the head. It turned towards her, roaring more in anger than in pain.

Sunset grinned in anticipation, pawing at the ground with one hoof while her horn glowed with a teal aura. "Yeah, that's right. Come and get it, you overgrown pussy-cat."

The manticore charged, and Sunset charged right back at it. She would have this brute running in terror from her in no time. 

She barely saw the swiping paw coming before it picked her up and slammed her into a nearby tree with jarring force. 

"Ugh," Sunset groaned, sliding down the tree-trunk onto the ground. The manticore roared into her face, then turned away with the air of one who wass letting somepony off more lightly than they deserve. 

"No!" Sunset bellowed, a beam of magic erupting from her horn to scrape along the manticore's side. The manticore howled in pain this time, turning back to stride purposefully towards her. Sunset gritted her teeth and fired again, striking the manticore in the face. It howled as a blue glow consumed its head, blocking it from Sunset's view. Sunset smirked. It would run howling from her now.

The manitcore's scorpion tail swept downwards over it's own head, the stinger piercing Sunset in the middle of her back.

Sunset screamed, her back arching as she reared up onto her hind legs as pain swept through her like fire in her blood, burning her from top to bottom. So much pain, so much weakness. Her hind legs wobbled and she toppled to the ground, her face in the dirt, the manticore looming above her like Twilight Sparkle after the battle in Canterlot High. Tears of pain pricked at Sunset's eyes. 

No! That was when it started, that was when I stopped being scary, that was when everypony - everyone - stopped being afraid of me. I don't want to rule all of Equestria. I don't want to Ponyville to be in terror of my merest glance, I don't even want to hold Canterlot High in my grasp. All I want is to scare one giant kitty, is that so much to ask?

Sunset rose up bellowing in rage, bolts of magic lancing from her horn as she charged the raging manticore. She pirouetted on her forehooves and kicked with her hind-legs with all the strength at her command.

Which wasn't much, as it turned out. The manticore barely seemed to feel it. It knocked her aside with a contemptuous swipe of its paw. 

"No," Sunset growled, struggling to rise. "I am Sunset Shimmer. I'm mad, bad and dangerous. You should be in awe."

Her legs shook, barely able to support her. She felt so weak, so weary. The poison sting was paralysing her, knocking her out. Sunset's eyelids felt heavy. She had to finish this while she still could. She mustered all of her magic, wielding it like a hammer for one crude blow that would send the old manticore running for its mother. 

It wasn't as strong as she'd intended. Apparently the poison was sapping her magic too. What came out was more a rap on the knuckles than a hammer blow. It seemed to more enrage the manticore than scare it. 

Sunset took a step forward...then collapsed, her brain clouding and her eyes drooping closed as the manticore advanced upon her. 

The last thing she heard was a high-pitched voice yelling, "Stop it!"





When Sunset woke up, she was in a house. A nice, cosy house, with a little fire in the fireplace and a grass-green carpet. Sunset was lying on a soft couch, a small coffee table nearby. There was a bird-house on the wall, and various woodland creatures scurrying around on the floor. A rather displeased looked white bunny rabbit thumped the ground with one foot impatiently, giving her stink-eye all the while. 

"Now, Angel, you know that isn't very nice," Fluttershy murmured, fluttering in from another room - the kitchen, maybe - with a pot of tea clutched in her hooves. She set it down on the table, to join the cup and saucer that were already there. "Let me apologise for Angel, it's just that, that's his couch normally and he doesn't like not being able to sit on it."

"I suppose I should feel privileged," Sunset murmured, shaking her head to clear away some of the grogginess away. She sat up, her back aching. "What happened?"

"One of my squirrel friends told me that he'd seen you go into the forest, so I followed you to make sure you were okay," Fluttershy said. "When I found you, I persuaded the manticore to let you go and brought you back here to administer an antidote to the poison." Fluttershy's face became very stern. "The manticore said that you started the fight. What were you thinking, attacking a poor, innocent creature like that? Ralph never did anything to you."

"His name is Ralph?" Sunset asked. She saw that Fluttershy was not about to be deflected by inane questions, so she said. "Right, not the point. I...don't tell Twilight about this, okay. I don't want a lecture."

"Well it sounds as though you need one!" Fluttershy was practically shouting now. "What did you want to go and attack another animal for, without any provocation at all! And a manticore! You could have been killed!"

"I was being an idiot, okay, it happens more often than you'd think," Sunset said sharply. She slid off the couch - her seat was taken by a happy looking Angel - and onto the floor, sitting with her hind legs hunched up and her forelegs resting on her knees. "So you saved my life, huh? Thanks." A few months ago she would have laughed at the idea of weak, pathetic Fluttershy, who could be frightened and made to cry so easily, saving her life. It was weird how quickly things changed, wasn't it?

Fluttershy looked concerned, but didn't say anything right away. Instead she poured some of the steaming hot tea into the blue china cup. "Drink up. It'll help you get your strength back."

Sunset found she had about enough magic to levitate the cup towards her. The tea was sweetened with honey, but there was another taste as well, one Sunset didn't recognise. "Herbal tea?"

Fluttershy nodded. "From my own garden. There are a lot of plants that can be very medicinal when boiled, but a lot of them don't taste very good so I use honey to mask the bitterness."

"Thanks," Sunset repeated, setting the cup down on the low table once again. 

There was silence between the two ponies, broken by the chirruping of happy birds and the squeaks of contented mice.

"Why?" Fluttershy asked.

Sunset bowed her head. "You wouldn't understand. I don't suppose anypony has ever been scared of you." She looked up, meeting Fluttershy's gaze. "You're strong, but I best most folks don't realise that, do they? So everypony writes you off for being weaker than you really are. I'm the opposite. I've always been thought as being stronger than I am. Until now. I wanted to prove I could still convince others that I was tough, that I was worth fearing."

"Why does that matter to you? Why in Equestria would you want to be intimidating?" Fluttershy's tone was one of incomprehension.

Sunset laughed darkly. "You've never needed to frighten anypony, have you? You've never been alone, there's always been somepony to stand up for you, to stand with you. Ponies want to help you out because you've got a warm heart. I'm cold."

"Shall I put some more wood on the fire?"

"I wasn't being literal," Sunset murmured. "Nopony stands up for a cold-hearted mare who can't love anypony but herself. When you have a warm heart, others will come to be warmed by you, and their hearts will keep you warm in turn. But nopony wants to spend their time thawing a frozen heart like mine. They just leave you alone instead. And the jackals will eat a pony who is all alone, unless you can convince you're actually a lioness."

Fluttershy placed one comforting leg around Sunset's shoulders. "You're not alone anymore, Sunset. You're Twilight's friend. You're our friend. You can be a pony now, it's okay."

"Really?" Sunset bowed her head, hiding her face from Fluttershy's view. "Don't tell Twilight about this, okay? I don't want her to worry."

"I won't," Fluttershy whispered.