“What do you think she was talking about?”
“Do you think she was really protecting someone?”
“I don’t know, but does it justify everything that she’s done?”
“I don’t know, maybe.”
“Like hell it does, I hope the bitch never wakes up!”
“Yeah, let the freak rot in hell for all I care!”
“Hey, isn’t that a little extreme?”
“NO!”
“YES!”
The growing crowd of students surrounding the downed teen seemed to be torn between feeling sympathy for her and feeling an anger that could turn bad if it continued. Something that Shining Armor refused to let happen, though with how dense the crowd was getting, he doubted he could get her out of there easily. Not that he believed a pissed off aunt would let him.
“Listen up people! You can either go back to the dance and try to enjoy the rest of the night or you can go home!” Luna called out, once again proving she didn’t need a microphone or bullhorn to project her voice as it brooked no argument and took a stern tone of voice. “Whichever you pick matters little to me, but you will vacate the courtyard immediately! Failure to do so will land you in detention with me for the next month! NOW MOVE!”
“Thanks Auntie Luna.” Shining sighed, stroking the girl’s hair as her head rested in his lap.
“Don’t thank me; you still have to deal with her.” Luna said, giving a small grin as she thumbed towards her sister making Shining swallow.
“I played along when Twilight showed up playing whatever little game she was playing wanting to observe classes for a couple days since I couldn’t get a hold of your parents.” Celestia said, her voice even showing just how truly pissed off she was. Something the woman rarely ever was, but when she was it was best to run. “However, it has become apparent that this is not some little game! What the hell is going on? Students could have been seriously injured tonight and what the hell am I supposed to do with a crater?”
“You could make a pond!” Pinkie Pie suggested getting an angry glare from Celestia making her back up with a whimper. “I was just saying.”
“Shouldn’t you be going back to the dance to?” Luna asked as Derpy Hooves stepped forward nervously, offering Shining a muffin.
“She seemed really sad, didn’t she?” Derpy asked softly, thrusting the muffin out into the officer’s hands. “Please give that to her, muffins always cheer me up, maybe it will help her to.”
“Thank you miss.” Shining replied, taking the muffin a little awkwardly from the strange girl. She seemed really nice though, and he couldn’t help wondering just what Sunset had done here. “I’ll make sure she gets it.”
“Tell her that there’s better ways to protect those you love and if she ever wants to talk, I’ll be there for her.” Derpy said, smiling bright before turning to walk away. Shining was about to raise his voice, but it was too late as the girl let out an ‘EEP!’ before tripping into the newly made crater. A moment later her hand could be seen sticking up as she said, “I’m okay!”
“I want an explanation, NOW!” Celestia seethed, the woman looking like she was about to explode. The closer he looked though, Shining could see there was a great amount of fear etched into her face as well. Not that he blamed her as he was scared shitless himself before he realized that demon thing was Sunset.
“I’m sorry, I guess I should start off my saying I’m not the Twilight Sparkle you might know.” Twilight said sheepishly, holding one arm, rubbing her elbow. “I’m from another world.”
“Uhuh, another world?” Shining asked.
“Yeah, both of us came from there and so did Sunset Shimmer.” Spike said, stepping forward as several sets of eyes locked onto him with looks of disbelief and shock.
“Okay, that’s something you don’t see everyday.” Shining chuckled humorlessly as he turned back to Sunset who began to stir.
“Hey Shiny, what happened?” Sunset asked, her head hammering as she stared straight up at Shining Armor.
“You kind of turned into some demon thing and terrorized the school, kid. Care to let me in on just how the hell you managed that?” Shining armor asked, though he didn’t look as if he was mad at her. It took a few moments for her thoughts to settle and memories to finally come back making her sit up and hug him tightly.
“I don’t hate you, I love you! I’m so sorry!” Sunset sobbed as she dove into Shining’s arms, the man looking worried down at her with a sad look.
“What’s going on here, Armor?” Luna demanded, glaring at the pair. “If you are cheating on my niece I swear you will pay for it!”
“Darling, that is so uncouth.” Rarity said, glaring at the pair kneeling on the ground.
“BBBFF?” Twilight asked, her voice a little shaky.
“Is isn’t cheating on Cadie!” Sunset snapped as she pulled free, turning to glare at the ones making assumptions. “It’s none of your business, but they adopted me!”
“Wha?” Celestia asked, shaking her head. “You know what, I don’t care! This was a gas leak!”
“Principal Celestia! That freak caused this!” Rainbow Dash called out as Celestia stormed away.
“GAS LEAK!” Celestia snapped out, not bothering to turn back towards them.
“Auntie?” Shining asked, looking up at Luna.
“She’ll be okay, you know she’s always been the more level headed of us sisters. She also never believed real magic was possible so this is probably very hard on her.” Luna sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. “I do want to know exactly what is going on. Everyone meet me at the McDonald’s down the road in thirty minutes. If any of you girls aren’t there, consider yourself expelled.”
“You can’t do that!” Applejack gasped out.
“Yeah, we didn’t do anything wrong!” Pinkie gasped out, looking on the verge of tears.
“Destruction of school property isn’t nothing. I need to make sure the rest of the faculty will handle the rest of the night and make sure my sister is okay. I’ll be there shortly.” Luna demanded, leaving no room for argument.
“We will meet you all there, I have some things to discuss with Sunset Shimmer here first.” Shining Armor said, crossing his arms and giving a strange look.
“I can’t just leave you here with her.” Twilight gasped out, Rainbow Dash agreeing as she punched her hand.
“Look, I’m not entirely certain of what is going on, but you aren’t really my sister no matter how much we may look alike. On top of that, I know Sunset Shimmer a lot better than you, and truthfully I’d trust her a lot more than I’d trust you.” Shining Armor said, narrowing his eyes at the girl wearing his little sister’s face. He didn’t really have any reasons to not like her, but he couldn’t bring himself to think of her as his sister right now. To him she was a fake even if she was a Twilight Sparkle.
“Come on, sugarcube. Ahm sure the officer here can take care of himself.” Applejack said, putting a hand on Twilight’s shoulder.
“Wait!” Sunset called out, cursing herself. Why was she feeling the urge to play nice with them now of all times. If anything she should be pissed at them, not rewarding them for beating her. Even if beating her had saved her from whatever that was that possessed her. True she had a theory that it was all her hate and anger which suspiciously seemed absent making her question just what the elements had done to her.
“What do you want?” Rainbow Dash snarled.
“Don’t make me regret this.” Sunset sighed as she pulled a wallet out of her jacket and pulled to fifty dollar bills from it before shakily standing and handing it to Fluttershy who barely managed to take it. “I doubt any of you have money in those dresses. Buy you all something to eat and save us a place.”
“Okie dokie lokie!” Pinkie Pie cheered with a salute making Sunset roll her eyes.
“Thank you darling, that was very generous of you.” Rarity said giving Sunset a slight smile.
“Yeah, probably the cops money.” Rainbow Dash scoffed getting a glare from Shining Armor.
“Sunset doesn’t need my money, she makes more money a year than I do.” Shining growled, defending Sunset.
“It’s okay.” Sunset said, putting a hand on his arm to calm him down and smiled a little. Ever since Shining and his wife moved in across from her and found her living there, the two had wormed their way into the teen’s heart. Two of the extremely few humans who have been able to. “If she doesn’t want some food, I’m sure the others could use it at least.”
“Come on, let them talk.” Twilight sighed, as the group slowly left Shining alone with Sunset, their transformations slowly dissolving as they left.
“Sunset, I love you and you know I’d never force you to anything, but after seeing what you did tonight I have to insist.” Shining said, taking a deep breath as he steeled himself for another argument over the subject he was about to broach.
“Don’t bother, I know I need help.” Sunset sighed, hugging herself as she looked towards the muffin he still seemed to hold onto with one hand and raised an eyebrow. “What is that?”
“A student gave that to me for you, said it might cheer you up.” Shining said as he handed the muffin over. It wasn’t hard to figure out who it came from as only one girl in the school was muffin obsessed and crazy enough to reach out an olive branch, or muffin in this case as an offer of something other than hate and scorn.
“It’s really good.” Sunset said as she took a bite of it, feeling a little better as she looked up at Shining. “Want a bite?”
“I’m fine.” Shining chuckled as he put an arm around her shoulders. “You know I love you, right?”
“I do, and I do love you guys to. I’m really sorry for what I said, I didn’t mean it.” Sunset sighed, wondering if that was even true anymore as she realized that somewhere deep inside her she still felt a little anger though it was nowhere near as bad as it once was.
“You did, Sunset, but I don’t blame you. I know you love us, but there’s a part of you that blames me for what happened to you.” Shining sighed, as Sunset swallowed the last of the muffin. “I blame myself for it to. If I could have adopted you sooner, I would have. I tried several times, but until I married Cadence they wouldn’t even bother looking at my application to.”
“It wasn’t your fault, I know that now. And I wouldn’t change things if I could, even if I had to go through all of that.” Sunset said, wiping the tears from her eyes that she just realized was there again.
“Star?” Shining asked softly.
“Star.” Sunset agreed, nodding her head. “Come on, we better get going before moonbutt gets there.”
“Moonbutt?” Shining asked making Sunset giggle a little through her tears.
“Here’s your change, darling.” Rarity said, pushing the change and receipt across the table to Sunset. The place was surprisingly quiet, but with most of the students at the dance and being well past the dinner rush, it was no surprise.
“Thanks, Rarity. And thanks for making sure to get Twilight a salad. She’d probably flip if you bought her one of these.” Sunset said, waving a hand at her Big Mac and having to hold back a bit of a blush as the blonde of the group was trying to do the same. Applejack hadn’t eaten a Big Mac since Sunset caught her one time and was teasing her like crazy over it about it eating practice for the other Big Mac that the country hicks were likely to do.
“What’s wrong with you two?” Rainbow Dash asked, seeing the tension between Applejack and Sunset Shimmer.
“NOTHING!” Applejack blurted out, a little too fast for Twilight’s liking.
“It’s something stupid that I said to Applejack and for what it’s worth, I’m very sorry.” Sunset said giving the most sincere look she could to the blonde who nodded in thanks. The strange thing was Sunset really did feel guilty over it now that she thought about it. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t bring herself to feel the hate and anger that filled her with strength for so long. She felt kind of empty right now, more running on autopilot than anything.
“Good, you are all here.” Luna said as Celestia and Luna took the last seats of the two tables pushed together.
“I’m sorry about earlier, this is just all very hard to take in.” Celestia sighed. She knew something was wrong with Twilight, though a part of her refused to accept it. She tried getting hold of Night and Velvet, but they hadn’t returned her calls yet seeing how both were out of town for a few days. She knew Twilight was thinking about transferring out of the private school to a regular school for her senior year as she was getting tired of the competition and hate from all the others she constantly beat out for the top student of the school. She had tried to convince herself that Twilight was just pretending not to know her so the students wouldn’t think she was her mole or spy among the students and played along.
“It’s okay, Auntie.” Shining replied, “I think it would be best to go with that story as official if you don’t mind. I don’t think reporting it as magic would go over very well with the general public.”
“No way! You can’t let her off the hook that easy!” Rainbow Dash protested, only to get a glare from Luna.
“Go ahead and spread the word that you used magic to defeat a demon. If you don’t mind starting a witch hunt and being burned at the stake, then by all means go ahead.” Luna snapped out at Rainbow Dash, cowing the girl. While Salem was one of the most known among locations for the witch trials hundreds of years ago, Canterlot was home to the most brutal ones even if it wasn’t as widely known.
“Yeah, I think I’ll pass.” Rainbow Dash said as she lost all color.
“I thought so.” Luna said as she glared at the teen.
“Witch hunt? Burned at the stake?” Twilight asked in horror.
“Drop it Sparkle, you really don’t want to know.” Sunset said, dipping her fries in the side order of mac sauce she ordered.
“I’m ready though, I want to know the truth of what happened.” Celestia said, though her shaky demeanor told otherwise.
“Where I come from, the world is filled with talking ponies that are ruled by two princesses who control the sun and the moon.” Twilight explained, getting a few curious glances yet no interruptions much to Sunset’s shock. She was sure that somebody would question sun and moon thing if not he pony thing itself. “There are unicorns that have magic and both Sunset and I are. Then there is earth ponies that are very strong and live longer lives than the others while usually do a lot of the farming. And finally pegasi who have wings and some live in the clouds and control the weather.”
“I don’t understand, it sounds like all of nature is controlled by ponies.” Rainbow Dash scoffed making Sunset role her eyes.
“It sounds like My Little Pony!” Pinkie Pie gasped out as everyone looked back and forth making Sunset pray that they didn’t figure it out. Only a very few people knew she wrote those ebooks on Amazon that had only recently been turned into a cartoon series. She even has several offers to publish a new set of books in hardback for kids though her email account publishing everything so far under Anon.
“It does, darling. Tell me, Sunset dear, you say you are a unicorn from this other world?” Rarity asked, arching an eyebrow in curiosity as she turned her attention to Sunset. “Does the names Sunbutt and Moonbutt mean anything to you?”
“I don’t know what you are talking about!” Sunset snapped out, crossing her arms and refused to meet anyone’s looks.
“Don’t worry none, sugarcube. Ahm sure we call can keep a secret. Right gals?” Applejack asked, giving all of the girls a stern look, the only one refusing to budge at first being Rainbow Dash, but she eventually agreed to.
“Thank you.” Sunset sighed, getting a shocked look from the principal.
“You wrote those books?” Celestia asked with a hint of pride.
“They aren’t anything special, just stories I remember from home plus ideas I get from looking through the mirror.” Sunset explained, “I had to do something for an income and I honestly didn’t expect it to become so popular.”
“Oh wow, I love those stories!” Fluttershy exclaimed, more excited than Sunset had ever seen the shy, meek girl.
“As much as I’m proud of your accomplishments, Sunset Shimmer, I would like to know how things got to tonight.” Celestia said cutting off any further discussion on Sunset’s literary accomplishments.
“Well, I don’t know a whole lot other than Sunset came back and stole my crown which houses the element of magic in my world. One of six elements that together protect our world from some of the worst evils there are.” Twilight explained, “All I know was that she used to be the princess’s personal student like I am now.”
“Aren’t you the same age?” Luna asked.
“We likely are, or very close. The princess took Sunset in long before I ever started school since I was a late starter anyways.” Twilight admitted, “My parents were busy a lot though they home schooled me. They always had time to make sure that I knew they loved me, but they believed it was best to take care of my education. They could personally make sure I was getting the best if they took care of it themselves and not have to deal with all those parent teacher conferences.”
Shining couldn’t help looking at the girl in shock as it was partly what his own parents did with his little sister. Though for them it was more because they traveled a lot and Velvet always took Twilight with her and tutoring her until she was old enough to take care of herself. Only times Twilight didn’t tag along was on short trips which either he or his now wife took care of her. It sounded so similar to this supposedly pony turned human.
“I was an orphan that that bitch took in.” Sunset said, finally feeling the familiar feeling of hate as it didn’t seem to fade when it came to the princess while for any of the others it seemed to be mostly gone, if not completely.
“Don’t talk that way about the princess!” Twilight snapped, for the first time showing real anger.
“Don’t tell me how I can talk about her! I was a fucking filly! I wasn’t even twelve years old when she kicked me out of the castle not even caring that I had nowhere to go!” Sunset cried, as Shining put an arm around her. “I wanted a mother, not a strict teacher that treated me like nothing I ever did was good enough!”
“What?” Twilight asked, shaken as she stared at Sunset in horror. She had to be telling lies, because if she wasn’t then that mean Celestia had thrown a defenseless child out on the streets with no place to go.
“Darling, that’s horrible!” Rarity gasped out, though she had a curious looking expression. “It might explain why you might hate her, but you said you hated humans. Why?”
“I have my reasons, but after tonight I think, no I KNOW I was wrong. Not all humans are bad.” Sunset said as she smiled up at Shining Armor, then glared at Rainbow Dash. “Then some of you are egotistical and full of themselves, yet you aren’t cruel of evil. Just because,” Sunset swallowed, trying to muster the courage to try and explain it without revealing too much. “Just because some humans does bad things, it doesn’t mean all humans are bad. I kind of always knew that, but I didn’t want to believe it.”
“What happened to ya, sugarcube?” Applejack asked, though she had a look of sympathy.
“Something bad, but she can’t talk about it right now.” Shining replied, rubbing Sunset’s shoulder in support as the girl smiled up at her.
“How did you turn into that demon if you were a unicorn though?” Luna asked softly, trying to figure out how that fit in.
“I didn’t want to change into that and I can’t really say for sure. All I can say is that I wasn’t in control then, I kept begging for whatever was to stop as I didn’t want to kill anyone but it wanted everything destroyed.” Sunset explained, shivering at the memory of being helpless that forced her to struggle to stay in control as it dredged up even more memories that she didn’t want to deal with right now. “I think it may have been my hate and anger though, all of my negative feelings given form and life. Every little thing that I would never do despite at one point or another thinking about it.”
“Did it hurt?” Pinkie Pie asked sadly, her hair flattening a little.
“Very badly, the whole time I felt as if I was being burned alive while that thing enjoyed it. It felt like that thing was ripping my soul to pieces to, trying to make sure it kept control.” Sunset said softly, her eyes becoming kind of glassy looking. “You girls may have saved me, but I feel violated at the same time. You forcibly stripped me of my hate and anger but it saved me. I don’t know how to feel about it right now. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, because I am, but I never wanted to feel this way again.”
“What? What do you mean feel that way again?” Rarity asked with suspicion.
“Sugarcube, ya can tell us. We won’t tell anyone else and it might help sort out ya feelings.” Applejack said.
“Look, I can’t right now.” Sunset said as she stood up, “I’m sorry, but I have to go.”
“Look, I’d like to talk to you some more Twilight. You might not be my real sister, but you seem to be a lot like her. If you have time come to come by I’d love to talk more, but don’t show anyone else this. Not until Sunset is ready to let others know.” Shining said as he pulled a pen and small notepad and scribbled something on it before ripping it off and handing it to Twilight.
“I won’t tell anybody, thanks Shiny.” Twilight said with a smile before he turned to follow Sunset out with worried expression.
“Do you think she will be okay?” Fluttershy asked softly.
“Like I care.” Rainbow Dash huffed, yet her friends knew her better than to take those words to heart. They could see that the girl was worried about Sunset Shimmer just as much as the rest of them. There seemed to be much more to Sunset Shimmer than they thought, a lot more than any of them had thought.
After saying a tearful goodbye to her friends, she kept the address in her backpack that she knew would become a saddlebag once she crossed the portal. She knew she had another day, but she was worried about getting stuck here with the element of magic since Equestria needed it so much. She intended to study the mirror upon returning and find a way to change the way it only opened every thirty moons. She would find a way!
“Princess.” Twilight said stiffly upon finding Celestia the only one in the mirror room when she stepped through.
“Twilight, your safe!” Celestia cried in relief, “And you brought back the element of magic!”
“Of course I have!” Twilight huffed, feeling anger at the alicorn before her.
“Tell me, is Sunset Shimmer safe. Is she okay?” Celestia asked as hope and fear both filled her voice.
“Why does it matter? You kicked her out of the castle with nowhere to go when she was still basically a filly!” Twilight snapped out taking Celestia aback, the alicorn starting to cry a little.
“So she told you about that?” Celestia asked softly, regret filling her expression. “It was one of my three biggest regrets in all of my hundreds of years of life my faithful student.”
“So it’s true?” Twilight demanded as she stomped a hoof.
“Yes, and no, Twilight.” Celestia sighed, “I did, but I never meant it. It was to be a scare tactic to get her to rethink things. I teleported to the gates to wait for her, but instead a guard came and informed me that she went through the portal and I never go the chance to meet her and have her come back inside.”
“So you wasn’t going to throw her out?” Twilight asked with relief.
“Of course not, I’d never leave a filly with no place to go! I did fail Sunset though, I never realized how much I meant to her more as a parental figure than a teacher. I read the journals she left behind and they were full of hopes and wishes that I’d just drop the schooling and take her as my daughter. I failed to see that she was pushing away others to get me to acknowledge her by excelling at her school work. I failed to see that she wanted a mother first and foremost.” Celestia sniffled, tears running like twin rivers. “I loved her like a daughter and I chased her away!”