As it turned out, running errands in Ponyville for Twilight Sparkle wasn’t nearly as excruciating an activity as Sunset Shimmer might have expected.
For the first few days of it Sunset ducked down back alleys and conducted her business as secretively as she could, trying to avoid contact with other ponies. But when she was discovered by the townsponies, none of them—barring the Elements of Harmony—seemed to know who she was, and most were willing to attribute her broken horn to a very unfortunate accident in the past.
Sunset wasn’t about to correct them.
So it was fairly easy, shopping at the market and delivering messages to some of Twilight’s more distant town acquaintances. It was a chance to get away from the constant fear and wariness Sunset felt in the library. Out here, in the town, there was at least some level of reassurance that no one was about to attack her. Sunset appreciated that.
At the end of the week Twilight called Sunset up to the library’s main floor and met with her in the kitchen.
“So I was thinking,” Twilight said, when Sunset stood before her. “You’ve—you’ve been really helpful this week, and, well—um—here.”
Stated with your usual eloquence, Mistress.
Something clinked against the table. Sunset looked up and saw a few coins—three bits, if she remembered the Equestrian currency system currently—sitting there in an innocent pile on the table.
Sunset looked to Twilight Sparkle, partly out of confusion and partly out of wariness.
“For me?”
“Yes,” Twilight said, nodding. “I know it isn’t that much, but—”
“No, it’s—it’s fine,” Sunset said hurriedly. It’s much more than I ever expected to get.
The two of them stood there in awkward silence for a moment before Twilight Sparkle bundled Sunset out of the library, saying something about a “day off” and “needing to study”. Before she knew what was happening, Sunset was standing outside the library, with three bits in her saddlebag and no definitive purpose.
Sunset tried the door. It was locked.
Sunset blew a loud sigh and looked down the dirt road to Ponyville’s center square.
A day off… that doesn’t sound so bad. Then again, Twilight Sparkle might punish her for it later. But the door is locked… Short of breaking and entering, Sunset didn’t see any way to get back into the library.
So she turned and trotted down the road to Ponyville.
Three bits didn’t go too far in Ponyville, but it was enough to buy a cupcake and a glass of milk from Sugarcube Corner. When it had been paid for Sunset took her snack outside, sat on a bench, and watched the other ponies going about their business.
In a way, she envied them.
A shadow fell over her, and Sunset looked up, her body instinctively tensing into a defensive position. A tall, muscular griffon was standing there in front of her, watching her with narrowed, hostile eyes.
Then the griffon sat down on the bench next to her and began watching the townsponies, just as Sunset had been doing a moment ago.
Sunset had to resist the urge to scoot to the other side of the bench.
“Be kinda nice not to have any problems, huh?” the griffon said. She pointed a talon at a tiny filly bouncing happily alongside her older sister.
“Yes, it—would,” Sunset answered, caught off guard. The griffon had voiced the very thought she herself had been thinking.
“So what’d you do?” the griffon asked. At Sunset’s questioning look the griffon flapped her wings lightly. “You know, to be enslaved.”
Sunset immediately stiffened, then felt herself wilting into a submissive position.
“No! Don’t do that.” The griffon tipped Sunset’s chin up with one talon. “I’m not gonna hurt you, I promise. I just wanted to know.”
Sunset paused, taking a moment to analyze what the griffon had said. Then she thought about the question, and laughed bitterly.
“What did I do?” Again she laughed, mirthlessly. “Well. I tried to take over Equestria. I stole the Element of Magic. I tried to kill Celestia’s precious pet student.”
The griffon whistled. “So, you’re in for a while, then.”
“Try for life.”
The griffon flared her wings. “I got lucky. I was only in for three months.”
Sunset looked up at the griffon curiously. “What’d you do?”
The griffon shrugged. “It’s a long story.”
“I don’t have anything else to do.”
The griffon sighed deeply, relaxing against the bench. “Alright, fine. Once upon a time there was a jerk, named me. And I had a friend, who was a lot less of a jerk and had some other friends besides me. And I’ll admit, I was kinda jealous. Then she dumped me, because I was a jerk to her other friends, and I got really jealous. So I, being the nuthead that I was back then, tried to steal something from her.”
“What was it?”
“I dunno. Something valuable, I don’t really remember. But I got caught, and my friend pressed charges. I ended up with three months of slavery.”
“What was that like?”
The griffon grimaced. “It was painful, I can tell ya that. My ‘friend’ doesn’t do forgive-and-forget.”
Sunset thought of Rainbow Dash. “I know the type.”
“Yeah.”
They sat for a while, watching the marketplace bustle. After a while the griffon spoke up again.
“So you got it for life, huh?”
“I did.”
“To who? Twilight Sparkle?”
Sunset started. “How did you know?”
“You mentioned trying to kill Celestia’s student. Everypony knows that’s Twilight.” The griffon paused. “You probably got it easy, y’know.”
“How do you figure that?”
“Twilight—she’s a softie. ‘Forgive and forget’, and all that. If she doesn’t hurt ya when she’s mad she won’t do it when she’s not.”
Sunset shook her head.
“You don’t know all the things I did to her.”
“True.” The griffon shrugged. “I’m just telling you what I’ve seen.”
They were quiet for another several minutes. Finally the griffon stood up and asked, “So what’s your name?”
“Sunset Shimmer.”
“Cool. I’m Gilda.”
Then the griffon turned and walked away.