Phase IV
As the Sun Sets On the Third Day
Act I
“You’ll look out for her, won’t you?”
"Of course we will!” the elegant adolescent known as Rarity assured the princess with a smile.
From the corner of her sapphire eyes, she spotted a certain unfavorable someone with fiery hair looking on from afar, and curled her smile the other way.
“Although,” Rarity huffed, folding her arms in slight disdain towards the voyeur. “I do expect some sort of apology for last spring’s debacle.”
“I have a feeling she’ll be giving out a lot of apologies,” the young princess added.
Just then, a dragon in dog’s clothing pawed at one of the princess’ legs and whimpered a soft warning. With a nod, the little highness acknowledged her currently-canine companion, then turned to face her newfound friends for what, in her mind, would be the last time.
When she first stepped into that strange world of arcane machinery and two-legged creatures, Princess Twilight Sparkle was determined to accomplish one goal: recover her stolen tiara from Sunset Shimmer - Her Majesty Princess Celestia’s former protégé - and return to the kingdom of Equestria in tact. After all, how long was a magical equine such as herself expected to endure such a place, let alone the physical and metaphysical confines of a human body?
Though her new form made adjusting to that peculiar world a challenge, the unforgiving hands of time pushed Twilight onward, for the way back to Equestria was only temporary. Thus, the entrance connecting the two dimensions would seal itself and separate her from home for thirty moons.
With merely three days to recover her precious diadem, the princess made haste. But as the last grain of sand trickled near the pit of the hourglass, Twilight Sparkle began to lose all hope. Without magic or knowledge of that alternate world, she seemed to have met her match in the cunning Sunset Shimmer, for the latter had been accustomed to its laws long before Twilight, having endured a self-exile after abandoning her studies to pursue interests of a darker nature.
Despite the fearsome influence she had upon those two-legged beings, there was still one source of power the cold-hearted Sunset refused to embrace.
Back in Equestria, the warm light of friendship illuminated Princess Twilight’s path on countless occasions, leading her to encounter many kindred spirits while learning valuable lessons unlike any found in her vast collection of spell books.
Hoping that companionship was not a force exclusive to her homeland, the little sovereign extended her hands out to the peculiar beings of that world. Through her leadership and shining spirit, Twilight united a populace once divided by fear and gained precious allies, five of whom were happily willing to aid the princess on her quest.
Grim was the battle and for a moment, all seemed lost. In her most desperate hour, the royal denizen of Equestria unwittingly conjured enchanted forces from her world, the likes of which found their way into the hearts of five very special girls.
Hardworking Applejack, whose sense of Honesty was strong and true; gentle-hearted Fluttershy, who nurtured the gift of Kindness; Pinkie Pie, in her fun and carefree nature, spread the power of Laughter; lovely Rarity, never too proud to share the wealth of Generosity; and finally, Rainbow Dash, who could always be counted on for her unwavering Loyalty.
Their spirits aligned with the desire to protect the princess, the quintuplet was blessed with special attributes of their own and together, created a power unlike anything the diadem-thieving tyrant had ever witnessed. With the Magic of Friendship on her side, the princess recovered her tiara from the clutches of evil and toppled the dreaded Sunset Shimmer from her throne!
Thus, the journey of Princess Twilight Sparkle had ended, yet while she was victorious, a part of her desperately wished to remain behind. Quietly she yearned to see the rest of that dimension, to explore more of its secrets alongside the wonderful friends she grew so fond of.
But the young princess knew better. After all, the magical relic embedded in her tiara did not belong in that world and for the sake of its denizens as well as her own anxiously waiting back home in Equestria, Twilight’s decision was as clear as the crystalline towers of her capitol.
“I know we’ve only been friends for a short time,” she quivered, absorbing the melancholy of her company’s waning smiles one by one. “But I’m going to miss all of you so much.”
Despite her best efforts, the princess could not bring herself to bid her friends farewell. Instead, she hoped the collected tears of her violet eyes would suffice. Still, was it enough? Would it ever be enough? She fought to say more, to tell those five spirits exactly how much their kindness meant to her, to give eternal gratitude for their aid, to assure them that she will never forget the memories they shared for as long as she lived.
Before the strings of her heart could tug her away any further, Twilight, with her furry friend in tow, relieved her sorrow with a sigh and turned.
As the princess and her pup approached the portal’s base, the marbled wall that displaced them days before began to shift. Upon the young highness’ touch, the hard surface then melted away and like an enchanted curtain, parted to reveal a doorway of bright color and light. With one last smile, Princess Twilight Sparkle and her collared guardian passed through the glowing passage and departed that strange world for what they, as well as their human friends, hoped would not be forever.
Meanwhile, the humbled tyrant emerged from the ashes of her destruction and writhed in grief, rejected by the bipeds she wronged yet never to gallop Equestria’s meadows again until the next biennium descended upon her.
Little did she realize that the stars would set her on a different course…
…for the true journey of Sunset Shimmer had yet to unfold…
Act I
A wild mustang, a dazzling chariot drawn by imperial steeds, a flock of starlings, an unidentified flying object, a hot-air balloon. Such were the things that juggled through the minds of five familiar onlookers, for neither had ever seen a magical princess off before, let alone a winged, pony-eared one heralding from another world, or any figure of royalty for that matter. Just as they were able to ascertain by what means their regal companion would take her leave,
Sssshhhhoooooooooommm!
From what was deemed by all to be naught but a stallion of stone emitted a bright light. Caught unawares, the quintuplet of adolescents who bared witness to that wondrous miracle shielded themselves from its blinding glow. So as to experience every step of their friend’s exodus, they struggled to keep their sights unpeeled. The moment was brief and as the portal exhaled its final glimmering breath, whispers from the beyond had ceased and calm again was the air.
Dazed by what they had just seen, the girls barely had a moment to gather themselves when an odd tingle suddenly rippled through their bodies. Up to the night sky the group gazed and yet, from its bejeweled majesty, not a single drop of rain bespeckled the ground or graced their skin. No clouds, save for the slivers of soft silver, hung beneath the canopy of stars and midnight overhead.
The sensation left the adolescents quite puzzled. But before they could question the meteorological mystery, the multicolor-haired teenager hovering in their midst toppled to the ground with a thud!
“Ow!” she cried, massaging her pained rump. “Hey! What the—“
“Rainbow Dash, your wings…”
“Huh? Oh, no!”
Wild with disbelief, the youth known as Rainbow Dash - who reveled in the winged side effect of the young highness’ magic just moments before her departure - reeled her head around to inspect her feathered appendages and was stunned to find that they were no longer present.
Stricken by the sight of their grounded friend, the rest of the High Five looked each other over and discovered the enchanted features formerly bestowed upon them had too disappeared. Wings, equine ears, elongated ponytails of flashing color – all had vanished, leaving behind the bewildered figures of five very ordinary teenage girls.
Hoping the chance of following her royal friend to whatever enchanted kingdom she hailed from had not passed her by, the fuchsia-curled adolescent by the name of Pinkie Pie leapt toward the statue in wild pursuit. Not until her body had pancaked into the marbled base did she and the others finally succumb to the same sad conclusion.
Princess Twilight Sparkle, along with the metamorphosing magic that accompanied her, was gone.
“Aww,” Pinkie moaned, oblivious to the bump already surfacing on her forehead. “Bummer!”
The others were shocked to see their tickle-me-pink-haired companion in such blue spirits. As the bubbliest student in all of Canterlot High School, Pinkie was usually filled to the brim with smiles and laughter. That is, until that moment.
“Pinkie Pie, darling!”
A lovely blur of ivory and violet signaled the dramatic entrance of Rarity as she rushed over to heave the felled friend to her feet. Upon doing so, she gasped and in a frantic frenzy, brushed the debris from Pinkie’s gown.
“Oh, I do wish you’d be a little more careful with the wardrobe I lend you,” she sighed.
When she noticed the fresh, scarlet lump on Pinkie’s cranium, she flinched.
“And with your face, too, of course.”
Shaking her stetson-topped head, Applejack meandered her way past the two and with a few firm knocks from her knuckles, inspected the once-enchanted equestrian landmark of their school curiously.
“Who’d a thunk,” twanged the golden-haired southern belle as she tilted the lip of her hat for a more unobstructed view. “That this hunk o’ rock is actually some kinda doorway to another world?”
“It was a doorway,” whispered a voice nearby as soft as a cloud in spring. “But…now it’s closed and—“
A belied sob escaped the utterer’s quivering lips and heartbreak was felt by all. Struggling to compose herself, Fluttershy drew a deep breath to ask,
“W-will we ever see her again?”
“Now, y’know we can’t answer that, Sugar Cube,” Applejack replied as she consoled her sniffling comrade. “But what I can say is that Princess Twilight left somethin’ special inside each n’ every one o’ us. Somethin’ we will always remember her by.”
“Precisely!” added Rarity.
From the crease of her dress, she removed a decorated handkerchief and with it, ever so gently dabbed a stray tear away from Fluttershy’s cheek.
“In fact, I’m more than certain that wherever she is, a part of us will always be with her, too.”
“Wish she could’ve taken something else with her…” the wingless Rainbow Dash sneered.
One by one, the rest of the High Five turned until their sights found the bulls-eye of that unpleasant remark.
Sunset Shimmer, the surest thing to evil the students of Canterlot High had ever known, served as the underlying weed of the High Five’s problems ever since she trod a black boot onto their campus. For what seemed like an eternity of torment for the unfortunate souls who crossed her path, Sunset ruled the academy with an iron fist and at the painful expense of others, always had her way.
As punishment for her recent misdeeds involving a certain princess of Equestria, Luna - Canterlot High’s Vice Principal and head disciplinarian - bestowed the harsh task of repairing the school’s damages upon the ex-tyrant and her entourage of followers. And although the supernatural circumstances surrounding the incidents were most peculiar, it was no secret that Sunset Shimmer was behind them nevertheless.
“Now, Rainbow, sweetie,” Rarity confronted her sour friend. “I know how you feel. We all do. But just because Sunset treated us poorly in the past and turned into a big---“
“Ugly…,“ interrupted Applejack.
Rarity pondered for a moment, then coughed,
“Ahem. Well, I suppose so, yes, Applejack. A big, ugly—“
“Scary…,” Fluttershy peeped.
“…scary…,“ repeated Rarity, or as well as she could behind clenched teeth.
“Not-so-fun!” chirped Pinkie Pie.
“But maybe just a little cool…,” Rainbow Dash chimed.
“—a big-ugly-scary-not-so-fun-but-maybe-just-a-little-cool-fireball-throwing-demon-with-ghastly-wings-and-NO-sense-of-fashion-whatsoever---!”
All eyes fell on the violet-coiffed teenager. Though highly revered for her charm and beauty, Rarity’s flair for overly dramatic outbursts matched in infamy.
“Ahem,” she coughed again, gracefully dismissing her embarrassment with a flick of her dark bangs. “Despite all…that, Sunset isn’t a monster anymore and besides, it’s quite rude of you to call her a ‘something’.”
Rainbow Dash was incredulous.
“I’m rude?! Ugh,” she gagged. “You’ve got to be kidding me.
“Let’s go down the list,” and so she did, tallying her fingers as she went along. “First, Sunset Shimmer made everyone’s lives, including ours, a total nightmare here at Canterlot High!
“You all remember, don’t you?” she asked, huddling her company together. “Like how she pretended to be interested in our friendship just so she can turn us against each other?”
“Hmm,” the others hummed and soon enough, the freshly calmed oceans of their recollections began to stir.
Rainbow Dash’s next barrage of reminders did little to ease the minds of her friends either. With arms raised, fingers curled and fangs bared, she reenacted the night’s events in the most frightening manner possible for a normal teenager.
“Then tonight,” the bitter youth resumed, whose temper only seemed to pepper her already menacing story. “Sunset transformed into a demon and brainwashed everyone into mindless zombies (except her cronies Snips and Snails, who she also turned into demons by using her creepy powers)!
“And just in case you all missed it,” Rainbow added cooly before jabbing a thumb at the chaotic aftermath of their battle. “She destroyed half of the school and nearly burnt us to toast after hurling a huge fireball at us!”
Another shiver rippled through the High Five. Only this time, the group had a name for it - Fear.
They recalled the heat of their tussle for Princess Twilight’s tiara and what happened when Sunset, in her desperation for supremacy, seized the treasure upon her own head in deranged victory. To everyone’s horror, a torrent of cursed light consumed the unsuspecting adolescent and like a ragdoll carelessly handled by its owner, lifted and ravaged her helpless body towards the heavens. When the phenomenon’s glow melted away, what emerged was not a human girl, but a hellish monstrosity brandishing terrible power!
Like wild tides in a storm, memoirs of the awful winged beast and her unearthly cackle crashed against the banks of the High Five’s recollections. Willing to withstand the nightmare no more, Fluttershy wept.
“That’s enough, Rainbow Dash!” Rarity scolded as she tried to comfort her shaken friend.
“Yeah,” followed Applejack. “Yer scarin’ Fluttershy!”
“Hey, I’m just sayin’,” Rainbow defended herself. “And not to mention all the other things Sunset did. I would keep going, but I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count them all out.”
“Tee hee hee!” Pinkie rolled in giddy applause. “That was fun! Do it again, do it again!”
“Eek!”
The very thought of reliving the events of that terrible evening again filled Fluttershy with such dread, that she barricaded herself behind the bars of her friends’ legs. Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie continued to chortle at the rainbow-haired teen’s previous antics, until a pair of angry glares struck her silent for it.
“Well, I suppose when you put it that way…,” Rarity whispered. “Sunset was pretty dreadful.”
“See?” smirked Rainbow Dash, looking quite proud of herself as she savored the tiny victory. A silly victory, but a victory nonetheless, and for one who prided herself on winning, that was all that mattered.
Finally, Applejack put her green-booted foot down.
“Quit stirrin’ the pot, Rainbow,” she protested. “We promised we’d watch over Sunset, after all, and—“
“I didn’t promise anyone anything!” snapped the stubborn teen. “Besides, don’t you remember, Applejack? She’s the reason why you and I stopped talking to each other in the first place!”
A knot formed in Applejack’s throat. What her friend said was true. She could go on about second chances for former enemies until her face turned as blue as Rainbow Dash’s. Yet in spite of her best intentions, she secretly harbored a grudge toward the bully for driving her apart from her closest comrade.
“You’re my Battle Buddy, AJ,” Rainbow went on, acknowledging the southern blonde with a playful punch to her shoulder. “Do you know how hard that was for me, ignoring you and wanting to talk to you at the same time?
“I can’t just let that go, pretending like everything’s all sunshine and rainbows. It’s not. That’s almost a whole year of potential awesomeness I’m never gonna get back! And it’s all Sunset Shimmer’s fault…”
On the last breath of that confession, Rainbow Dash buried her hands in her pockets and kicked the ground. Though seemingly superior at practically everything else, the multicolor-banged athlete always had trouble with expressing sentiments. Everyone, especially Applejack, knew this and to them, the revelation was more than they could have ever asked for.
“Aw, shucks, Dashie,” Applejack blushed, suddenly remembering to veil the redness of her cheeks from her rival. “Believe you me, that whole mess wasn’t easy fer me t’ deal with either. Fer any of us, I reckon.”
Everyone nodded.
“We were all burned by Sunset Shimmer. But we gotta try n’ work things out. ‘member what it was like b’fore Twilight came ‘round? We were at each other’s throats!”
“Exactly! And who was the one pulling the strings that whole time?” Rainbow Dash probed without waiting for an answer. “That’s right! Sunset Shimmer! It just gets my blood boiling to know that she just sat back and enjoyed our fighting like it was nothing, like some kinda show!”
“Ooh! Ooh!” Pinkie Pie raised her hand like an eager teacher’s pet. “Then Princess Twilight saved the day by bringing us together again and we all lived happily ever after!”
Suddenly, Rarity gasped in the revelation.
“That’s just it.”
Once again, all eyes turned to her.
“Ahem, if I may so kindly interject,” as she did, quite gracefully. “I believe what dear Applejack is trying to say is that we at least owe it to Princess Twilight to look after one of her own by embracing Sunset as one of our own.
“Isn’t that right, Applejack?”
“Darn tootin’!” the southern belle agreed. “What’s in the past is in the past, n’ right now, Sunset looks an awful lot like someone who could use a lil’ help.”
“And a bi-i-i-ig smile!”
Beaming with delight, Pinkie Pie grabbed the corners of Rainbow’s frown, then stretched them out like blueberry taffy into a painful grin. Massaging her now purple cheeks in annoyance, Rainbow watched as Applejack stepped aside.
“Al’right, gang!” the latter announced. “All in favor of helping Sunset Shimmer?”
Without an ounce of hesitation, Applejack proudly laid her arm out first. An enthusiastic Pinkie Pie joined in, followed by Rarity. Then Pinkie, then Rarity again. Pinky. Rarity. The giggling twosome made a game out of it, until a firm squeeze from Applejack encouraged them to take the matter more seriously. Together, the trio then looked over at the remaining duo of their posse in bright anticipation.
While Rainbow Dash harrumphed in her own pigheadedness, Fluttershy, suddenly feeling isolated, uncurled herself from the ball of her cowardice onto her feet. As she glanced at the divide of her friends, her knees quaked beneath the dilemma. On one hand, she had a chance to befriend someone who had none; on the other, she could refuse kindness to the bully whose cruelty, more often than not, left her in a pool of her own tears.
Never one to want to disappoint the majority that ruled, Fluttershy slowly inched her hand towards the incomplete star formed by the trio, until…
“Don’t do it, Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “Someone as nasty as Sunset Shimmer just isn’t worth it. Have you forgotten how she treated you? And what about the time she had Spike dognapped? She could’ve hurt him!”
A small, green-eared, lavender-furred creature held captive by three menacing shadows flickered in Fluttershy’s mind. Gazing at her with round, puppy dog eyes, the pooch howled a sorrowful cry and shook the teen from her stupor.
“Oh, gosh,” she whimpered, quickly withdrawing her hand into a fidgeting fit. “Yes. Oh, that was so awful. The poor puppy…”
“Dag’nabbit, RD! Can’t you let Fluttershy make a decision on her own?”
“Sorry if I choose to be honest, Applejack!”
Soon, an argument erupted between the two dogged teenagers, neither one willing to yield to the other as they barked and wielded fiery words of right versus wrong in turn. Though Rarity tried to calm the fight, Pinkie Pie took turns joining both sides of the quarrel for her own entertainment, which only worsened the matter.
As the battle raged on, Fluttershy thought it best to take a step back, for she was hardly one to spectate, let alone partake in such bickering. Eventually, her attention wandered back to the academy and while she expected to find the broken form of an ex-tyrant, the modest teenager was met with an even more startling sight.
Lingering upon the very spot Sunset Shimmer once suffered was what Fluttershy dared to believe to be a young golden unicorn.
As if sustained only by her own despair, the creature hung her head low to the ground, swaying it softly in the cold wind that withered her. Imbued with the hue of a dying flame, her mane dangled in matted tresses over her once majestic form while her tail, having suffered the same fate, was tucked close to her body in shame. Glistening with regret was a pair of viridian eyes and between them, a solitary, humble horn. Unlike the proud unicorns of Fluttershy’s storybooks, the spiraled antler on this particular animal was pale, as if all the magic within it had vanished. Despite the sorrow that weighed heavily upon her, the beast lifted her muzzle to the cruel heavens and whinnied a soft cry.
Fluttershy’s chest ached and her eyes watered. Still, she refused to move or even blink, for fear that the majestic quadruped would fade away. The beast’s pitiful state aside, she truly was the most beautiful creature Fluttershy had ever beheld.
So enamored was she by the illusion that the adolescent failed to notice the nearby quarrel had ceased on her behalf. Following her gaze, the rest of the High Five looked to see who or what had their friend so bewitched. Alas, much to their confusion, they saw only Sunset Shimmer.
“Fluttershy, dear, what’s wrong?”
With a start, she acknowledged her compatriots, then desperately turned back toward the site of the unicorn. But when the creature failed to reappear, the dismayed maiden merely closed her eyes and lowered her own head.
“You’re right, Rainbow Dash,” sighed the pastel-pink-haired teenager in surrender.
Gasp!
“Say what now?”
“Fluttershy! Darling, I’m surprised at you.”
As was everyone else, for they had always known the compassionate Fluttershy to be just that. Confused and mildly disappointed, the rest of the High Five shook their heads. Everyone, that is, except Rainbow Dash.
“Finally!” she shouted, patting Fluttershy on the back. “At least someone here gets what I’m trying to say.”
Though it pained her ever so much to do so, Fluttershy stepped away from Rainbow Dash, much to the latter’s bewilderment as she scratched her head.
“Sunset could’ve hurt Spike,” Fluttershy added. “But she didn’t.”
“Huh?”
Had it been something tangible, the burst of Rainbow Dash’s bubble would have been deafening. Even the others were stunned by Fluttershy’s sudden confidence, something she very seldom revealed.
“Didn’t you see the look on Sunset’s face?” the soft-spoken adolescent asked. “I did, and she didn’t seem like she wanted to do that at all.”
Long and hard, the girls pondered the look Fluttershy claimed to have seen with great difficulty. Perhaps due to the heat of the moment in which the crime took place, or the daunting weapon the ex-tyrant wielded in her bluff to destroy the portal lest Twilight divvy up her tiara, or that they could not imagine anything other than a scowl when struck with the name Sunset Shimmer.
Alas, the others failed to conjure the expression their soft-spoken friend witnessed. Nevertheless, they, with the exception of Rainbow Dash, were glad she did.
“I think we should give her a chance,” proposed the kind-hearted youth. “I mean, if there’s anyone who could try and show Sunset how to appreciate the beauty of nature, why, I’d be more than happy to volunteer.”
Smiles erupted from all around, save Rainbow Dash. Feeling the sudden loss of control, she made a final effort to win Fluttershy’s support.
“But…she was so…mean! Are you really just going to forget that?”
Fluttershy bit her lip and for a moment, it seemed like the aide-memoire of Sunset’s cruelty would do her in, until a sudden surge of courage lifted her heart, leading her to reply,
“Well, she did say she was sorry, and I choose to believe her.”
With that, Fluttershy ever so modestly scurried past the floored jaw of Rainbow Dash and over to the group of grins.
“I’m in!” she said with a smile of her own, sheepishly putting her hand in with her friends’ as they celebrated her insight.
“B-But—She—You—I—ARGH!!” Rainbow Dash growled, flinging her arms up in frustration.
“Give it up, Dashie! Y’know we can’t do this without you.”
“Forget it!”
Once again, the cheeky Rainbow Dash crossed her arms over her puffing chest and turned away from the others. Exhausted with her defiance, the others contemplated withdrawing from their efforts to win her favor, until a spark ignited in Applejack’s attic.
“Well, all right, then,” sighed the golden-haired teen in feigned surrender. “If that’s the way you wanna be.”
“Huh?” the oblivious Pinkie Pie squeaked. “Wait a minute! I thought we were going to—!“
Suddenly, Pinkie was not so clueless.
“Ooohhh!” she whispered. “I gotcha!”
“Such a shame,” Rarity winked. “It truly is an absolute crime for anyone not to have a chance to get to know the real Rainbow Dash.”
Rarity’s words tugged on the ears of the versicolor-haired teen. Still, she refused to pay them any mind and only tightened the cross of her arms even more.
“You know,” Fluttershy cooed, trying hard not to giggle. “The awesome and cool Rainbow Dash.”
“Hmm!” chuckled Rainbow, lowering her guard slightly as her head swelled. “Well, I guess I am pretty cool....”
“…and could be twenty-percent cooler!” sing-song’d Pinky Pie, nudging Rainbow with her elbow before zipping back to the other three.
Over her icy shoulder, Rainbow peered at the four faces beaming back at her, their eyes glittering with such hope. Beyond them she could see was the shadow of one other, only instead of hope, was caked with quite the opposite. For the first time that evening, Rainbow Dash tried, to the best of her ability, to conjure even the slightest iota of pity for the defeated tyrant, and failed.
She curled her lip and looked to her comrades again. Had she her way, Rainbow would have already abandoned them to their futile cause. Though she was an athlete, it did not take the skills of a field goalie to recognize that the odds against her were staggering. And yet, the star formed by the arms of her friends looked so incomplete without her.
The thought of them befriending such a monster, former or no, tolled in her mind. Why did they insist on breaking bread with Sunset Shimmer, the very person who drove them apart? She caused so much grief by dividing them with her lies, and now that they were finally back together, threatened to separate them once more.
There was only one way to ensure such a travesty would never happen again.
“So, whaddya say, Rainbow Dash?” nudged Applejack. “You in?”
“Oohhh,” the colorfully-banged teen groaned, accented by a rolling of the eyes. “Oookaaaayy…”
And on that defeated note, Rainbow Dash placed her hand on top of the others’ in agreement.
At last, the High Five’s star was complete!
“Yeehaw!” Applejack cheered as she tossed her hat into the air. “Atta girl!”
“Oh, how lovely!”
“Whee!”
“Yaaay…!”
Armed with the magic of friendship, the High Five turned toward the site of their former nemesis and marched forward to commence Project: Help Sunset Shimmer.
From her grief, the humbled tyrant lifted her tangled head to the sound of distant laughter. Across the school grounds, her tear-swollen sights traveled until they fell upon the group known as the High Five. Taking in the echo of squeals and joy, she pondered over what elated the girls so, then shrunk at the most logical possibility.
‘No doubt celebrating the downfall of the monster Sunset Shimmer,’ she thought. ‘Must be nice.
Sunset looked about and for one fleeting moment, imagined everything in sight to be naught but remnants of a strange dream she had yet to wake from. She took comfort in the fantasy that the destruction surrounding her was not by her own hand, but mere creations of a dreamscape brought on by an undigested bit of cabbage.
Amidst that world of visions drawn at random were fragments of rock and stone, which she attributed to the remains of the academy’s damaged entryway looming over her humbled form. Just a stone’s throw from that ruined site lied yet another in the form of a massive crater. Then beyond that celebrated a group of acquaintances, who managed to seep into Sunset’s thoughts through sheer familiarity alone. Lastly, hail.
'Hail? In autumn?' she thought as she looked up to the night sky, shielding her eyes with a hand to prevent anything from falling in.
Curious, she held out the other hand, yet came up empty.
'No, impossible.'
Such was the nature of a dream and to that false truth she succumbed, until a second volley of earth struck the ground beside her and started the teenager from her stupor. This time, she caught the direction from whence the brief barrage came and discovered it was not from above, but behind. When she turned to investigate, a pair of muddied expressions met her own.
“Hey, Sunset,” yawned a tall, lanky youth with messy green hair and freckles. “You gonna come help us or what, eh?”
“Yeah!” the partner in crime squawked, wiping the sweat from his orange bangs. “We ain’t got all night, y’know.”
Sunset Shimmer was stunned. There was a time when that foolish twosome of raging hormones never would have even raised an eyebrow to her. They made that mistake once and regretted it ever since. From tiresome homework assignments to acts of sabotage, Snips and Snails were at the former bully’s every behest. In exchange for their services, should the satisfaction of basking in the presence of one as beautiful and powerful as she not suffice, Sunset subjected them to nothing more than ridicule and the constant threat of pain.
Now that she had been reduced to nothing, Sunset wondered what hold, if any, she still had over those two boys. She thought back, trying to conjure even the smallest act of kindness she might have shown them, something that may have slipped her mind over the course of time spent in that alternate dimension. Aside from transforming them into a demonic duo against their will, regrettably, nothing came to mind and that worried her.
Using the tattered sleeve of her dark jacket, Sunset wiped the grimy moisture from her cheek. Then after arming herself with the strange tool bequeathed by Vice Principal Luna, trudged over to the spot where the perturbed pair labored.
She took a gander at the thingamabobs and whatchamacallits strewn about, studying each object at a distance. Among them was a bucketful of a wet, grayish substance that looked and smelled as thick as the earth, along with a wild assortment of stained instruments. The fiery-haired girl was tickled with curiosity. After all, a unicorn still dwelled inside that human body and what was a unicorn to know of the foundations of men or their crude tools, even after living among them for over a biennium?
Despite the moment of peace that accompanied her naiveté, the former bully’s prolonged interest triggered an annoyed glance between the boys.
“Um, yeah,” Snails coughed. “So, we already mixed the mortar and we brought over the bricks. So, uh, now, we just gotta build the wall, eh.”
Sunset Shimmer arched around to the gaping maw of Canterlot High School, still in disbelief that she was responsible for it. As she tried to comprehend the sheer magnitude of the task yawning before her, she nodded, but her mind failed to follow. Though she caught most of what the boy had said, there was a word or two she did not understand. Silently, she stared at them and waited for more instructions. When none came, she probed the boys again,
“That’s it?”
The humbled tyrant thought she heard Snips utter something beneath his breath, but could not tell for sure. Such was the curse of human ears.
“You’re gonna use that to take some of this stuff and spread it over there,” the agitated boy instructed, indicating specific tools of the trade as he went along. “Then we’ll start laying down the bricks.”
Sunset half-expected the fellows to demonstrate the chore for her at least once. Sensing their impatience and taking her past treatment of them into account, she decided not to press them any further. Trowel in hand, she knelt over the bucket of paste, and after scooping up a helping of its contents, cocked an eyebrow as a droplet fell to the ground.
“You just…spread it?”
“Yeah,” Snips rolled his eyes. ”Like jelly.”
“Mmmm…,” Snails drooled from afar. “Jelly…”
Sunset’s mouth also watered upon hearing the sugary word and before long, her taste buds overflowed with a palate of strawberries, currants, grapes, apricots and oranges. As she swirled the trowel into the bucket of paste, she envisioned it as sandwich spread and her stomach gurgled in response. She then reminisced the old Sunset, who certainly would have demanded an oatmeal and strawberry shake be brought to her if her appetite called for it, once upon a time.
For now, the ex-tyrant would set aside her hunger for a helping of mortar and the hard work that lay ahead.
Ssssccccccrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaappe!
Sunset wished she had just taken a bite out of a pebble instead, for the noise was unlike anything she had ever heard or felt before. With a start, she dropped the mud-caked trowel and massaged the tickling pain from her ears. She wriggled at the relief until a pair of glares prompted her to pick the tool up again. On that cue, the former bully retrieved another pile of glop from the bucket and thus, her labor commenced.
Being the perfectionist that she was, Sunset took her time with the task, spreading the mud evenly while ensuring that no nook or cranny went unfilled. There was something oddly satisfying to be had in the labor, as the teenager found the stabbing sway of left and right quite relaxing. Her ears still ringing from the first attempt, she eased up on the pressure to try and alleviate the bone-shattering noise. It slowed the process down significantly, but Sunset reminded herself of the one thing she still had left, and that was time.
Meanwhile, Snips writhed with impatience as he watched his ex-tormenter level out the first layer of plaster. He recalled that same irritating feeling back when Sunset asked – no, demanded - that he and Snails show her how to construct a computer from scratch. Only this was not a lovely piece of technology they were building. This was an entire wall…a wall she herself, albeit a bestial form of herself, destroyed.
When Sunset finally felt satisfied with her work, her hand had barely moved an inch before the bucktoothed boy nudged past her. After crudely slamming a brick down upon the fresh coat, he stormed off to retrieve yet another block. Unbeknownst to him, the force caused a splatter of the gunk to strike Sunset’s cheek, and her face flared as crimson as the solar emblem upon her shirt. A savage instinct to scream suddenly rose to her gullet. The incensed adolescent wanted nothing more than to scold the one responsible for the new, unwanted blemish on her face.
But she could not, for that side of her had been forfeited to shame. At least, for the time being.
“You’re kidding me, right?” the round boy whispered as he approached his friend. “At this rate, we’ll be here ‘til we’re seniors…the gray-haired kind!”
“Yeah…that’s a long time.” Snails yawned. “Maybe we oughta’ just switch places with her, eh.”
“Good idea," agreed the orange-haired boy before facing the former mean girl once more.
“Hey, uh, Sunset?”
She looked up from her work with the best tempered smile she could manage.
“We were thinkin’, and, uh, maybe you should, y’know, ‘hit the bricks’.”
“Ha ha!” Snails honked quietly. “Good one!”
Sunset Shimmer, on the other hand, was not the least bit amused.
“Excuse me?”
“Well, we just thought if we switched places, it might, y’know, make things a little easier - for you, I mean.”
Sunset felt her temper rise once more. If there was one thing she did not take kindly to, it was the assumption that she could not complete an assignment for its level of difficulty. After all, she was a former apprentice of magic, and as such, was subjected to some of the most severe challenges, the likes of which no student of the bipedal world could ever overcome, let alone comprehend.
Solving fatal riddles. Taming ill-tempered dragons. Growing gardens as thick as jungles from nothing but a tiny seed in the blink of an eye. Had she her magic, a feat like repairing a massive wall of rock and stone would have easily been accomplished in six-point-nine seconds, a world record amongst unicorn-folk.
Her extraordinary accolades aside, none of it mattered in the human realm, where magic was dubbed as nothing more than an act of fraud, smoke and mirrors. In a world that did not believe, all enchantments linked to her unicorn self were useless.
In spite of this handicap, Sunset toiled on. To her, that wall - in all of its shambled glory - was all she had left in either world. Though she twice failed as a student, she still had that wall and the ordained punishment to repair the damage she brought upon it. At any cost, she silently vowed to succeed in fixing it to perfection, no matter who or what may stand in her way.
“It’s fine,” Sunset grumbled, scooping up another glob of cement and lime before slapping it down with violent force. “Anyway, I already started.”
“Y’sure? ‘cause it’s takin’ you forever to do that and it’s gettin’ kinda late and uh—“
Sunset then pointed the trowel at the orange-haired skeptic as if she had every ill intention to use it.
“I said,” her voice dripped with threat and she struck a glare that sent more than shivers down the boy’s legs. “’It’s fine.’”
Though he was none too happy to do so, the shamed Snips took the hint and headed back to the wheelbarrow in disgust. Just then, a morale-shattering sound erupted nearby and when they turned to investigate, the boys’ fears were realized. Brick by freshly-set brick, Sunset was taking the foundation apart!
“Hey!” Snails cried, flailing his arms. “What are you doin’, eh?!”
“It looks sloppy,” the vandal replied as she continued dismantling their handiwork. “We’re starting over.”
“B-but you just said it was fine!”
“I changed my mind.”
“Cheese and crackers, Sunset!” Snips wailed, kicking aside a nearby block and painfully regretting it. “We’ve already been here for half an hour and haven’t even laid out the bottom row yet!”
“And we’ll be here for half a century, if I want.”
“At the speed you’re goin’, you ain’t kiddin’!”
“Ha ha! Yeah!” Snails guffawed goofily. “It’s like she’s never watched her dad build something before.”
Sunset bit her bottom lip until it bled.
“Go.”
“Huh?” the clueless pair questioned in unison.
“JUST GO! GET OUT OF HERE!” Sunset roared, brandishing her trowel wildly at the frightened goons, forcing them to trip over a pail of water.
Like rodents fleeing an alley cat, the drenched boys scurried off into the night as the rage of Sunset Shimmer bellowed after them.