Sunset Shimmer cried on her bed into a soft, white pillow, alone in her apartment as a brightly colored sunset poured through her window. After so much, she was exhausted both mentally and physically to the point where she couldn't contain any emotions she had left. With leaving a sizable spot on the pillow damp with her tears, she turned her head to lay on the pillow and think.
The plan had been so simple in her head; Go back to Equestria, take the Element of Magic from Equestria and replace it with the fake, return home with the crown, use the crown to make her own army, then finally return again to take her revenge on Equestria, or more specifically, Celestia, for thinking her weak and refusing to teach her anymore, and rule Equestria herself. Easy enough, but of course things didn't go her way.
Sunset Shimmer's plan had gone wrong in so many ways she couldn't count. She had accidentally woken up the whole castle when retrieving the Element of Magic. The fake crown she had spent a 2 weeks finding and gathering realistic "gold" to make obviously didn't end up doing anything. The quiet animal girl had grabbed the crown and took it to her universe's Celestia, who locked up the crown and announced it as a prize for the Fall Formal. Not that that was really a problem, considering she could get the votes to win, easily. Well, she COULD have, until SHE had to show up and make everything complicated.
Ms. Goody Two-Shoes had to come through the portal and make everything so much harder. Sunset should've known that Celestia would send her, but for one reason or another she hadn't thought of it. Of course, when she first saw how out of touch Twilight was in her new surroundings, Sunset regarded her as much of a threat as anyone else in the school. Just make sure she's unlikable, and everything's fine, she had thought.
She had thought right, but had underestimated her rival's resourcefulness in retrospect. She didn't think Twilight would make any friends here, much less get the whole school behind her, reunite those 5 annoying sophomores she had broken up last year, and caught the attention of her ex-boyfriend. By the time she had realized how much she was in trouble, it was too late; she couldn't stop her from winning the vote.
With no other plans, she had to go for the nuclear option; use force. She had to get Twilight outside, so she used her love for her pet to get her outside with Snips and Snails. With her outside, she threatened to "break" the portal, which she knew wouldn't work. You can't break a portal with a physical object; it just isn't possible. She was hoping in the moment Twilight wouldn't think of that. She didn't, but still made the other choice, further infuriating her. But all of the resistance finally came to an end when she got her hands on the crown, securing the power as hers and making her all-powerful, seemingly untouchable by Celestia's student and her friends, and allowing her plan to continue and work.
But then, SHE HAD TO GO AND RUIN IT AGAIN. Just when everything was going to plan, Twilight Sparkle and her friends transformed into... she didn't know what to call them*, but they used the Elements of Harmony against her, somehow, and completely destroyed her in front of everybody. Her plans all ruined by one annoying, persistent student of her former, hated mentor.
Now she had to deal with the aftermath. Twilight Sparkle was gone, so at least she didn't have to deal with her anymore, but before she left she told those 5 to "show her friendship" which they said they would, but Sunset couldn't believe that for a second. How could they? How could anyone be her friend after what she's done?
Sunset turned around to bury her face in the pillow once again, with fresh trail of tears pouring down her face being removed by the fabric. She hated her life so much. No, not her life; herself. She hated herself with a passion, for being such a failure her whole life.
She was a failure to her family, who loved her so much. They had always supported her through her life, and were ecstatic when she was chosen by Princess Celestia to be her private student. They were so proud, so happy, and she let them down. She ran away, into another universe, and never even said goodbye. Her mother, father, even her little sister, just... nothing.
Memories were now flooding her thoughts, all the times she yelled at them in anger that was for Celestia that was instead directed at them, all the happy afternoons with picnics at the park, her magic kindergarten graduation party with her complete family, including her grandparents who showered her with gifts and hugs that she loved... every memory brought a new emotion to her, some making her cry even harder, others lifting her spirits, causing a small smile to form on her face before disappearing with the appearance of another memory.
Even though the occasional happy memory would bring her temporary joy, overall the overwhelming memories were wearing away at her emotions, causing constant tears to pour out of her eyes and an enlarging ring of damp material on the pillow. She noticed this and flipped the pillow over, continuing to sob into the dry backside.
With her mind running with so many thoughts, she continued dampening the pillow until she became dehydrated from her crying. When she felt her throat getting dry, she finally got up to get something to drink, the first time she had moved from her bed in an hour. Arriving at the kitchen, she walked up to her refrigerator. On sight of the refrigerator, she started to break down again.
The front of the refrigerator was decorated with pictures of her, some from previous dances like the Fall Formal, with her smiling devilishly into the camera in each one. There were some of landscaping that she thought was beautiful. Oh, how she loved the snow. It was so soft, so fun to play in, so... malleable. Anything could be created with snow, and she loved it.
But those did nothing to her emotions compared to the few pictures located in the dead center of the refrigerator door; the few pictures she had grabbed on her way out of leaving her house for the last time. Each one held a dear memory to her. The pictures were the most important things she had; they were the only things she had to remind herself of her previous happy life.
There was a picture of Sunset and Celestia shortly after her becoming Celestia's private student, one she loved even though she hated Celestia. Another one with her and two of her personal friends on a vacation to Manehatten was located below. It had been winter, and she loved the way the white snow and the city lights blended as a background. To the right of that was a picture of her and her baby sister unwrapping Hearth's Warming presents when she was just a foal, made obvious with her lack of a cutie mark.
The most important picture was located in the middle of everything, though. The picture that meant the most was a family picture taken not long before her departure. It had Sunset, her sister, her mother and father, and her grandmother. Sadly, her grandfather had died from old age a couple months before, a sad thought that reoccurred every time she looked at the picture. Her grandmother had been deeply depressed afterward. Now looking back, she was surprised her grandmother had even been willing to do a family picture.
It was the only picture she had with everyone in her family, and it was also the most recent of her pictures. Her other pictures were much older, some a decade or more. This however was only taken four years ago, and the closest thing to helping her imagine what her family looks like now. She imagined her father and mother still looking as pleasant as ever, not letting their emotions show.
She wondered how much her sister changed. She would be a full-grown mare now, taking care of herself. She would have the stallions chasing after her if she took after Sunset. Sunset giggled to herself, the tears starting to dry up. With her tough outer-shell personality, it would definitely take a special stallion to get her. Sunset wished that bastard good luck, and finally opened the refrigerator door.
She took a bottle of orange soda out and closed the refrigerator door, heading back towards her bedroom when she stopped halfway through the doorway. She leaned on the wall, not finding the motivation to continue walking to her destination. She took off the bottle cap and took a large swig of the soda, the cold liquid feeling great on her parched throat. She took a large gulp, then continued to drink the orange soda until the noise of contracting plastic replaced the sound of soda entering her mouth.
Now refreshed and rehydrated, her thoughts returned to the original problem she had encountered in her problem. What to do now? No one liked her, and she was just a burden to others. She had caused the destruction of half her high school, she had no friends, no family, barely made enough to pay for her apartment and food, and she was hated by everyone for everything she had done in the past few years in this world. She was useless. She should just drop dead.
She stopped, and thought about that idea. Committing suicide. Was it that simple?
She had always been taught that suicide was the coward's way out. Never commit suicide. If it really got to that point where she started considering it, talk to someone. Get help. Just don't commit suicide.
But who would help her? Who would listen? They would probably just support her decision. Maybe they would even help her do it. Maybe make it quicker. But she didn't want to burden anyone anyway. She had already done enough, caused enough trouble. She was tired of being a nuisance; it's the whole reason she was considering suicide in the first place.
But, how would I do it? She thought. She didn't want any help, eliminating some choices of suicide she had already considered or making them considerably harder. She didn't think she had the will to cut herself, and she didn't have a gun to shoot herself.
Thinking about those options, she decided to also go for a not-so-messy option without so much blood. More blood=more cleaning, more cleaning=more of a burdensome death. But what could she do that would fit all of that criteria. She sat for a moment in deep thought, but it quickly dawned on her.
Instead of getting on her feet and walking the small distance to the sink's cabinets, she decided to simply crawl on all fours to the cabinet, and opened the cabinet's handles with little force. With the cabinet now open, she feasted her eyes on her suicide weapon.
One large container of bleach.
the next afternoon
As Fluttershy walked out of school after a long day of boring tests, she said goodbye to her friends and set off for her part-time job at the local pet store. She took a moment to go through her backpack and allow her animal friends to run around in the open air, but while taking out her Algebra II binder for readjustment, she remembered who wasn't in algebra class today.
"I almost forgot! I need to go check on Sunset Shimmer! She didn't come to school today and everyone's worried, but I don't remember anyone saying they were gonna check up on her. I better make sure she's alright." Fluttershy talked to herself while packing her animals in her backpack and making sure they were comfortable.
"I better call my boss and tell her I'll be a little late, though. I'm sure she'll understand if I tell her why." Fluttershy said while taking out her cell phone. With a quick dial, she had her boss on the phone in no time, walking while talking. After a quick explanation and a good estimate on when she would be there, her boss dismissed her with no problem. By the time she said goodbye and put her phone back in her pocket, she was just a few blocks away from her destination.
After another few minutes of walking, she arrived at the apartment complex and walked up the stairs to the second floor towards Sunset's apartment. She knocked on the door to show her arrival. No reply came.
"Sunset, it's me, Fluttershy. You weren't at school today, and we were all really worried about you. Please answer the door." Fluttershy explained after knocking again, but again got no answer. She was worried now, and tried to open the door. It opened to a dark living room.
"Sunset, hello?" Fluttershy called out. Nothing stirred inside the house. Fluttershy entered the house and closed the door behind her. "Sunset, are you there?" Fluttershy said while cutting on the light, bringing color to the living room and revealing a table she hadn't seen before in front of a leather chair. On top of the table was a TV remote, a couple magazines, and a pair of scissors. Seeing nothing really out of place, she started to walk towards a hallway at the end of the living room, but before she got there, a doorway to the left of the hallway appeared that she hadn't seen beforehand.
"Sunset!" She called out again as she walked through the doorway, but as before, no one called back. As she entered, she could make out the dark outline of a sink and a refrigerator, but nothing else. With a little difficulty, she found and flipped on the light switch to get a better look. As light filled the room, a blood-curdling scream soon also filled the room and the rest of the apartment complex.
The Equestrian Tablet
Yesterday afternoon, the body of Sunset Shimmer was discovered by one of her friends who visited her home to check on her. She was found dead in her kitchen with an open container of bleach on the counter, face-down on the kitchen floor. Her death is presumed to be suicide by intoxication by drinking the aforementioned bleach, but tests are being run to confirm this.
The friend, who has chosen to remain anonymous in the public reports, was worried after Ms. Shimmer did not go to Canterlot High School and feared the worst, driving her to going to Sunset Shimmer's home at 4 in the afternoon. After knocking and receiving no answer, she entered Ms. Shimmer's home. Upon entering the house and continuing to call out for Ms. Shimmer, she ventured into the kitchen and turning on the lights in the kitchen. Upon doing so, she discovered the dead body of Sunset Shimmer and screamed, alerting multiple neighbors who called the police immediately.
Very little information has been given out by officials, and no family members have been found connected to her. When more information is given by police officials, we will continue the story on the tragic death of this young teenager.