A few years after the fiasco, Sunset Shimmer was finally truly happy to be back home. She had gone and seen her family who lived over in Manehatten. They had been told about what happened after Sunset had escaped through the portal. Her parents cried when they saw their little filly all grown up. Sunset’s little sister, Dawn, was so glad to see Sunset again. She hadn’t completely understood what had happened all those years ago.
Sunset was able to get a small house in Ponyville. When she would go up to Canterlot to study under Princess Celestia, she would stay in one of the rooms in the Castle Tower.
“Do you ever miss the other world?” Twilight asked one day.
“Sometimes I do. I would like to know how my friends are doing over there, but I think it would be better if I stayed here. I don’t even know what they are doing. Rarity probably has a shop somewhere in town, but Canterlot is a huge city. Rainbow Dash is probably off racing somewhere. We stopped talking after high school. That seems to be a common thing with humans. Losing all your friends after high school, that is. Everyone goes off to a college, and then they never talk again. You’ll talk for maybe a few months, but you won’t see each other and you just naturally drift apart,” Sunset said.
“You could go back if you wanted to,” Twilight responded.
“No. I don’t think that would do me any good. I wouldn’t be able to find anyone, and here, they are all here in Ponyville. Sometimes I leave to go to our Canterlot, but it’s not hard to come back here if it’s needed. And the structure of the Canterlot here is different than the structure in the other world’s Canterlot.”
“I understand,” Twilight said.
Princess Celestia was glad that her old student was back. Since Twilight was no longer her student, Celestia’s life had been very boring. She would always worry about Sunset’s safety. Now that Sunset was back, she was glad to see how safe she actually was.
Sunset once more prided herself in her studies. She was at the top of the class over at Canterlot High, although some speculated she bribed the teachers into giving her good grades. This wasn’t true at all. Although she was busy running the school, and scaring students into submission, school was always her top priority. She wasn’t going to let some students get in the way of that.
Back in Equestria, she was able to immerse herself completely into her studies, and once more, she was top of the classes. She began to take classes at a prestigious school up in Canterlot along with her studies under Princess Celestia. She knew that although she was Celestia’s student, that wouldn’t get her far if she wanted a real job. It was obvious she wasn’t going to become a Princess, but that didn’t bother her anymore. Being a student under Princess Celestia was good enough for her.
Sunset was happy that she was able to essentially restart her life. The first time that she did that, she ended up bullying people to attain what she wanted. This time, however, it was another lease on life. She was able to make ponies like her for who she is now.
And for that, she was grateful.