//------------------------------// // Chapter 11: Second Chances // Story: All That Shimmers // by Justice3442 //------------------------------// All That Shimmers Chapter 11: Second Chances -ooooooo- I quickly open the backseat door to Rarity’s purple hybrid and hop out. My leather boots tap against the concrete below as I rush to the other side of the car. Fluttershy gives me a slightly perplexed look as I open the door for her, but gives me a small smile as I offer her my hand and help her out. “Thank you, Sunset Shimmer…” she says in an almost whisper quiet voice. Used to be she’d talk to me like that when she was making her best attempt to defend herself against a verbal assault of some sort. It’s actually surprisingly nice to hear it in a very different context. I shut the door for her and gently grasp her arm. “Now are you sure you’re feeling up to this?” I ask. “I’m fine,” Fluttershy assures.  “Alright, but let me know if you start getting dizzy. We’ll make sure to get you sat down right away.” Friends take extra care to make sure their friends are alright when they’ve been injured, right, right? Fluttershy gives me a meek smile and a nod.  “Uh, Sunset?” Rainbow Dash says as she steps out of the passenger side seat. “She just got hit in the head earlier today, she’s not crippled.” Rarity steps out from the driver’s side and titters to herself. Okay… so maybe I’m trying a little too hard. Guess I’m not sure where the line falls for being a good friend and being a little too clingy. I let go of Fluttershy’s arm and give her a little more space as Pinkie’s little pink compact car pulls up. For whatever reason… Scratch that, the reason is that it’s Pinkie’s car... anyhow, balloons drift out and as the door is opened, stopping as their strings pull taut from somewhere inside the car. Applejack steps out, looking a little paler than usual and a little less sure on her feet. Pinkie steps out and she’s giggling to herself. “Alright, maybe that many balloons in the car is a bit much…” “You think?!” Applejack snaps back in an irritated tone. Pinkie giggles and puts her hands up in front of her. “Alright! No more balloons while driving! I…” she suddenly trails off as she sees me and looks at me almost as if she’s never seen me before. She gasps. “Sunset Shimmer!” “Uh… Hi… Pinkie? What’s with the—Oh God!” I manage to exclaim in alarm as Pinkie gets a running start and glomps me, nearly taking me to the ground. “I missed you so, so much!” Pinkie cries. “We just saw each other fifteen minutes ago!” I reply as Pinkie holds me in a vise-like grip, pinning my arms to my sides “Remember? When we picked up Fluttershy and you squeezed the heck out of her while you cried about hitting her in the head?” Pinkie gives me another wide-eyed look. “Has it really been that long?!” I turn and give her fellow… our fellow friends a somewhat pleading look. Though, they seem too busy giggling at my plight to help. “Yeah, Pinkie does that sometimes,” Rainbow says. Rarity nodded. “Heaven help you if you ever end up going a few days without seeing her.” “Goodness!” Fluttershy says. “I was lucky it was just a few hours since I saw her last… Last time I didn’t see her for a few days, she hugged me so hard I had bruises for a week afterwards!” “I’ll keep that in mind,” I say. “Now uh… can somebody please get her to let go of me?” Applejack walks up and puts a hand on one of Pinkie’s shoulder. “Uh, Pinkie? Ah think you can let go now. Sunset’s certainly feelin’ yer love at this point.” “Ain’t that the truth…” I grunt out. “Oops!” Pinkie says as she loosens her grip allowing me to slip out. “Hehehe… Sorry!” I can breathe normally again. Well, as normal as I can knowing we’re going to meet Twilight Sparkle… this world’s Twilight anyhow. I take a look at Twilight’s school… The building is not quite the size of Canterlot High, but it’s still big and looks more like a mansion than a school. ‘Heavenly’s School for Gifted Youngsters’ to be exact.    “Now to ask someone about Twilight,” Rarity says as she starts picking out kids that are milling around, no doubt desperate to find someone who might help before Pinkie gets up to them and scares them away. “AAAAAAHHHH!” … You know… someone besides the hapless person Pinkie’s scaring away now. A girl with light purple skin and light orange hair that’s tied up in a massive braid runs screaming past us. She’s wearing the school’s uniform, a black blazer over a white shirt and tie and gray plaid skirt.   “WAIT!” Pinkie cries after the girl. “We’re just looking for someone who’s probably destined to be our best friend forever and ever, and ever!” “Uh, Pinkie?” I say. “You might want to qualify we’re looking for a particular someone.” “Oops…” Pinkie says with a sheepish smile. Applejack shakes her head. “Why don’t you let Rarity do the talkin’?” She suggests. “Looks like she’s more suited to talkin’ to these highfalutin private school types.” I raise an eyebrow. “Aren’t we sort of ‘highfalutin private school types’, too?” Applejack gives me a wry grin. “Well shoot, I guess so… But these kids have fancy uniforms and stuff!” She’s got a point… As incredibly nice as Canterlot High is, this place seems even more exclusive. Figures Miss Purple Perfect would go to a private school that’s even more prestigious than Canterlot High.  Anyhow, as luck would have it Rarity starts walking back up to us while carrying on a conversation with a couple more girls in uniform: a girl with light green skin and long fiery-red hair and a girl with yellow skin and brown hair with a white streak in front. Rarity is chatting them up, no doubt trying to track down the whereabouts of Miss Flawle… … Man, do I have a chip on my shoulder… Rarity says something to them and the girls exchange a somewhat knowing glance as they giggle to each other. “Try the library,” one of them says, still grinning. “Oh, the school library?” Rarity asks hopefully. Guess we’ll be seeing little Mi—Twilight Sparkle soon. Well… My heart is pounding at my ribcage like it’s trying to escape, and I feel like my digestive system might just give out at a moment’s notice. But at least it will all be over soon. The girls shake their heads. “Central.” …Mother Fu— -oooooo- “Well, that was a bust…” Rainbow Dash utters from the front passenger’s seat of Rarity’s car. Applejack was nice enough to continue riding with Pinkie… After Pinkie agreed to remove all balloons from the cabin of the car. “Now, now,” Rarity replies, “we have a lead, so it wasn’t a complete waste!” “Yeah!” Rainbow Dash, you can basically hear the eye roll in her tone. “The Central Library! It’s only one of the biggest libraries in the entire country!” “Twenty-fifth,” I say casually as I quietly stare out my window. “See!” Rainbow Dash says as she motions to me. I simply continue to stare out at the city as building after building passes by. I’m a bit preoccupied on account of not having had a chance to look over my books, digital or otherwise. Breaking out my tablet still seems like a bad idea. No doubt I’d get the odd question regarding what I was reading. I could come up with any number of harmless responses, but who knows when Pinkie will suddenly pop up from behind me and see who knows what… Hopefully there’s still time tonight to do some research.  I’ve barely gotten a chance to look at my books as it is. I really want to stick with the girls since they’re sort of cutting me a lot of slack for Friday night, but I could have possibly killed someone today. I need to nip this in the bud before I become any more of a danger to everyone around me than I already am. “Hey, wait a minute…” Rainbow Dash says in a slightly suspicious tone. “How did you know that?” “Hmmm…?” I reply as I turn towards the front of the car. Rainbow Dash is leaning to her left to get a good look at me.   “I… uh… like to read…?” That’s not some sort of friendship crime is it? Is it?! Rainbow Dash smirks at me. “Why Sunset Shimmer, are you an egghead?” I feel my cheeks go a bit warm as respond with a very intelligent sounding “Errr…” “That’s hardly surprising, dearie,” Rarity says. “Sunset has one of the highest GPAs out of the entire school.” “She does?” Dash asks in a surprised tone. “Uh… Surprise?” I say with a nervous smile. I guess Dash not knowing that I have a high grade point average isn’t that surprising, though I’m not sure how she’ll take it. I mean… she certainly values physical prowess over mental… … I’d feel a lot better if she’d just stop staring at me. “Hey, is everything all right?” Dash asks me. “You’ve barely said a word since we left Canterlot High.” “Uhhh…” Think of something plausible… Think of something plausible. Fluttershy of all people comes to my rescue. “She’s probably just nervous about meeting Twilight.” I smile at Fluttershy and nod. “Yeah, that’s it… I mean… I barely talked to the other Twilight Sparkle, and it’s not like most of our exchanges went that well…” “Hey, no biggie!” Rainbow Dash assures. “I mean… It’s not like you stole from this Twilight.” I wince. Also… Is it hot in here, or is it just my overwhelming sense of shame attempting to make me internally combust? Thankfully both Rarity and Fluttershy are quick to leap to my defense. “Rainbow Dash!” they chastise. “What?” Rainbow asks as she looks back and forth between the two girls. “She hasn’t!” Rarity continued to give Rainbow a somewhat stern look. “Be that as it may, that’s no reason to throw the whole Element of Harmony debacle in her face!” Fluttershy nods. “Huh?” Rainbow says with a confused expression to match. “But I wasn’t…” Dash takes a look at me and seems to notice my face is turning a shade to match one of the colors of my hair (guess which one!). “Uh… Sorry, Sunset…” Rainbow says. “I wasn’t trying to get on your case, or nothin’…” I sigh and shake my head. “It’s cool… And I know I haven’t wronged this Twilight… It’s just…” Am I going to have a moment of brutal honesty where I open myself to my new friends and hope I’m not ridiculed for it? “It’s just that Twilight Sparkle is kind of everything I wanted to be…” Yes I am. “Well whatever do you mean, darling?” Rarity asks. So far so good… “Well… She’s a princess for starters.” Fluttershy smiles at me. “Well you can’t help that she was a princess and you’re not…” “Yeah!” Rainbow Dash agrees. “Who cares if she was born into royalty?” I shake my head. “She wasn’t. She earned her position through completing an ancient spell from our Starswirl the Bearded… Something I might have had the opportunity to do if I hadn’t decided I already deserved to be a princess…” “Oh…” Fluttershy says in a somewhat flustered tone. I power on. “… Not to mention the whole barging into an off limits part of the castle library when Celestia wouldn’t tell me about the mirror portal… Nope! I just had to know, and look up some forbidden spells while I was at it.” “Uh… Sunset?” Dash says. Oh, am I on a self-hating roll at the moment! “… And when Celestia caught me, I threw a tantrum! She… hic… she even told me I needed to ‘step back and reflect’… Like she… hhehh… hhehh…  Like she still would have given me another chance… And I… I… hhehheeehhh… I practically demanded she make me a princess…” Rarity speaks up, “I’m sure it’s not as bad as you remember…” I can feel the increasingly familiar sensation of hot tears streaming down my face, but I’ve gathered too much momentum to stop now. “I literally threw a book at her! I practically demanded she make me a princess! I… hic… I said I deserved to be her equal… if not her better…  hheeehh… I actually said that! Her better! Like… hic… like… Like being really good at magic and being her shadow for a dozen years somehow made me qualified to rule an entire race!” The girls remain silent. No doubt stunned as they realize just how twisted and awful I really am. Might as well let it all out at this point. My heart already feels like someone impaled it on a burning spear. “I had everything! More than anypony could have possibly asked for, and it wasn’t enough! Hhhehhh... I THREW IT ALL AWAY BECAUSE I CONVINCED MYSELF I WAS SPECIAL! THAT I WAS BETTER THAN EVERYPONY! WELL I WASN’T! AND I’M NOT ANY BETTER NOW THAT I’M A HUMAN EITHER! I’M JUST A SELFISH BRAT WHO THINKS EVERYONE OWES ME THE WORLD JUST BECAUSE MY LIFE WAS HARD FOR THE FIRST FEW YEARS! GOD... I’M JUST… hhheeehhhh… I’M JUST… WORTHLESS! WUOAAAAAAAAAAAHUOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHUOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA…!” Who needs to be ridiculed for anything? I’m perfectly capable of reminding myself that I’m absolutely horrible. Maybe it’s better this way. The girls deserve to know what a horrible pony… person… uh… pony-person I am, and… and… … I think Fluttershy is hugging me. She whispers to me in a voice so quiet I’m not sure how I hear it over my own hysterical cries, but I do. “You’re not worthless, Sunset Shimmer. You just made a mistake… That doesn’t mean you don’t deserve to be forgiven…” Just those barely audible sentences at least remind me that there’s at least a handful of people who think I still deserve to be loved. The agonizing sensation in my heart starts to leave almost immediately and suddenly things don’t seem as bleak. “…HUOAAAAAAAAAAAHUOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHUOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA…!” I mean… I’m still sobbing uncontrollably, but now it’s relieved, joy filled sobbing! “…HUOAAAAAAAAAAAHUOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHUOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA…!” … Kind of hard to tell the difference, admittedly… “… Girls?” Fluttershy says as she continues to lean across the backseat and hold me. “Maybe this isn’t such a great idea after all…” “…HUOAAAAAAAAAAAAAHEEEEHHHEEEHHhhhehh… hic… Na… No… hic…” I manage to reel in my hysterically sad girl routine enough to speak semi-coherent sentences again. “I… hhehh… I can do this…” I probably can’t do this, but I need to try… Rarity glances behind me. “There’s no sense forcing yourself if you’re feeling out of sorts, dear.” “Yeah,” Rainbow agrees. “We can track down Twilight anytime. If you’re not feeling up to it then just say the word! There’s plenty of other stuff we can do to kill a Monday night.” I shake my head.  “No… Pinkie was crestfallen when she found out we had to keep looking…” “She’d understand,” Fluttershy assures. She’s right of course, but if we don’t find Twilight tonight it’s just going to be another day of me agonizing over our first meeting. “It’s alright…” I say. “I feel much better now.” This is sort of true. I mean… I’ve shelved the whole self-loathing thing for now, but I’m still not so keen on running into Twilight. Oh well.  I put on my best enthusiastic look. “Let’s find Twilight and befriend the heck out of her!” The other girls giggle, chuckle, and titter. “Now you’re talking!” Rainbow Dash says. … Kind of wish I wasn’t so good at faking enthusiasm… A little bit later and we’ve stopped at the library. This time Fluttershy rushes around to open the car door for me and holds out her hand. I stare up with a slightly embarrassed smile. I suddenly understand very well how she must have felt earlier. “I’m not crippled, you know…” Fluttershy just smiles and nods at me, leaving her hand in place. “I know, but we can all use a helping hand sometime.” As embarrassed as I am, I take Fluttershy’s hand and she helps me out of the car. Something comes over me and I suddenly have the urge to hug Fluttershy, an urge I act on. Oddly enough, she doesn’t even seemed surprised when I wrap my arms around her. “Thank you…” I whisper. “For…for what you said back there…” “It’s okay, Sunset… I know you just want a second chance.” I think… I think I’m going to cry again. “Uhg! Stop the mushy stuff!” Rainbow Dash cries. “We’ve got a job to do.” Fluttershy’s face flushes as we part and I turn and I smile deviously at Rainbow Dash. “Why Dashie-Washie—” Rainbow Dash looks at me as if I just denounced sports as a concept. “What?! Dashie-Washie?!” “— I don’t remember you complaining when we were in front of Mr. Donkey’s class, or in the CHS parking lot.” Now Rainbow Dash’s face turns red. “What?! But that was… I mean…” “Why, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity exclaims in an aghast tone, though her smile betrays she’s not serious. “How dare you take advantage of poor Sunset so soon after the Fall Formal?! The poor dear is still recovering!” Rainbow Dash actually looks guilty. “I wouldn’t… I mean I didn’t…” Fluttershy starts giggling causing me to break character and start laughing. Rarity joins in almost immediately. Dash’s shoulders slump and she gives us all an embarrassed smile. “Ha ha, very funny.” “Oh, darling!” Rarity says. “You should have seen the look on your face! Priceless!” “Yeah, yeah…” Rainbow says. She looks up at me and grins. “You know this means I have to get you back at some point.” I just smile. “Bring it.” “Bring what, sugar cube?” “Awww! Did we miss all the fun stuff?” Applejack moseys up to us while Pinkie bounds up… I’m not sure Pinkie is capable of just walking anywhere at this point… “Don’t worry,” I say with an enthusiastic smile. “I’m sure there’ll be plenty of time for fun stuff after we find Twilight!” WHY AM I SO GOOD AT FAKING THIS STUFF?! “Well look at you!” Pinkie says as she throws an arm around my shoulders and points at me with her other hand. “All ready to make more friends and everything!” I nod. “Absolutely.”  As am I’m absolutely not ready, but the sooner I start dealing with my issues with Twilight the sooner… uh… Well, it will at least be one less thing I’ll have to worry about. Pinkie Pie turns towards the massive, multi-story library that occupies a city block. “Quest for finding Twilight Sparkle and making her our best friend forever and ever, take two!” It’s going to be a miracle if Twilight doesn’t run screaming from us when we meet her. … Is it bad that that thought makes me feel a little better?