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// 1 Sunset's To-Do List 
// Story: Blue Giant Pony 
// by Brass Polish 
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	Not all of the dogs in the Canterlot Animal Shelter liked going for walks in cold weather. And with the met office calling for the first snowfall of the season that night, not every dog was happy to be going out for walks with Sunset and AltFluttershy. Truth be told, Sunset wasn’t in much of a mood for this herself. It seemed the cold weather was getting to her, and she was also upset that one of the dogs she had a particular interest in had been sold and she was unable to find out who bought her. Volunteers weren’t permitted to get that sort of information from staff, and Sunset had too much to do to commit to a job at the time. The Rainbooms were preparing for a gig, which AltRainbow Dash was utterly stoked about. Sunset had been considering dropping out to make room in her schedule, as knowing the whereabouts of this particular dog was rather important. But she had quite a lot of additional things on her plate as it was, and being under the weather was not helping.

“You seem a bit… um… sluggish, Sunset,” AltFluttershy said tentatively as a large dog practically dragged her into the enclosure.
“I’ll be alright,” said Sunset. “There’s only one dog left to walk, right?”
“That’s right,” smiled AltFluttershy. “Cage #55. It’s almost time to lock up. You’ve got your key, right?”
“Why do they let volunteers have keys, but won’t tell them who bought which animal?” Sunset griped.
“I guess it’s in case volunteers get too attached to specific animals,” said AltFluttershy. “I could tell you about a pair of kitties I let slip through my fingers, but I don’t want to upset you. If you like, I could walk the last dog.”
Sunset looked over at cage 55 and perked up a bit.
“Uh, no, I’ll take this one,” she said.
“OK. Have a good night,” AltFluttershy waved as she left the shelter.

Sunset removed the leash from the dog she’d just walked, returned him to his cage, and staggered over to #55.
“Alright, it’s your turn,” she said, kneeling down and opening the cage door. “Come on out. Come on.”
Wrecks took one step out.
“Couldn’t I just run around the backyard or something?” he whispered.
“Nope. Every dog gets one walk a day minimum, and you’ve been relaxing in your cage all day,” sad Sunset, with some envy.
Wrecks glanced around. Dirty looks were coming at him from most of the cages in the enclosure.
“I haven’t been relaxing,” he said.
“Come on. It’s your turn,” Sunset attached the leash to Wrecks and walked towards the door.
Wrecks sighed and followed on, trying not to look around.

The snow began to fall as Sunset and Wrecks plodded along the sidewalk. The odd passers-by who strolled along thought they both looked rather uncomfortable. Wrecks might have been, but Sunset was just feeling worse than earlier.
What’s the matter with me? she wondered. I haven’t got a sore throat, so I don’t have a cold. Not like Sweetie Belle. I don’t have an upset stomach, so it’s not flew. No headache, so it’s not cat-scratch fever. So why do I feel so lethargic?
Wrecks glanced up and saw Sunset looking ill and pensive, taking it for something else.
She’s gonna ask me about that green gem isn’t she? I know she is. She’s been hoping for a chance to walk me ever since we got back from the Crystal Empire.
This was true, and Sunset had initially intended to seize this opportunity, but she was rather distracted by her present condition. Wrecks looked around. There was no one about; most likely because the temperature was dropping. He was fooled for a second by a bus stop add for the Rainbooms’ gig, but realised his mistake when he saw the graffiti on it. He didn’t think Rainbow Dash would be wearing a necklace that said “OVERRATED” in huge, yellow letters. Wrecks decided he couldn’t stand Sunset looking at him like that any longer (even though she wasn’t really looking at him).
“Look, I don’t know what Sinomen did with that gemstone!” he burst out.
Sunset was at last distracted from her sluggish feeling.
“She must’ve taken it with her when she was sold,” the large dog went on. “I’m sorry, I didn’t see who bought her. They didn’t come into the enclosure. One of the employees came in and took her out into the interactivity room, and she never came back.”
“If only I’d skipped that ceremony,” Sunset groaned. “How am I supposed to uphold my knighthood if I can’t make good on my vow?”
“I thought about asking the other dogs if the gem might be in any of their cages,” Wrecks jabbered on, “but… they won’t talk to me.”
Sunset stopped and looked down at Wrecks. “So that’s why you’re telling me this. With Sinomen gone and the other dogs mad at you for tricking them, you’ve settled for me.”
“I just don’t like having no one to talk to, that’s all,” Wrecks moped. “And since you’re the only human who knows that dogs can talk, you’re all I’ve got left, I guess.”
Sunset was about to mention that the beans had more or less been spilt at the recent Friendship Games, but her inexplicable symptoms started kicking in again.

Neither of them talked for the rest of the walk. By the time they returned to the shelter, Sunset was leaving boot prints and Wrecks paw prints. And Sunset’s boot prints were a lot closer together than Wreck’s paw prints. She turned the key and entered the shelter, and went no further.
“Uh… you know your way, right?” she grunted.
“Are you OK?” Wrecks asked.
“Don’t worry about me,” Sunset waved her hand. “I’m just gonna go to bed. You do the same, alright?”
“OK,” said Wrecks as he watched Sunset trudge away, closing the door without locking it.
He looked towards the dog enclosure and shuddered.
“I don’t know why they’re mad at me. All the pets went back to their homes. None of these guys ever had owners,” he groaned.
He looked back at the door.
“I could just run away, but then Sunset might get in trouble… if she’s not already. She didn’t seem right.”
He contemplated his next move.

Sunset’s pace was getting slower and slower as she made her way towards Canterlot High. The bus didn’t run past 5:15PM for some reason, so her journey was a long and painful one.
“I miss being able to learn magic,” she groaned. “I  probably could’ve found that green gem in no time.”
She’d been trying to think of a way to track down Sinomen for months, and she began to ponder the issue again until her head began to hurt… a lot. Now she did have headache. And sore throat and upset stomach. And then some. Her chest began to tickle and her joints began to ache, she was shivering and sweating, and her vision began to wane.
“Gotta… get to… school…” she huffed. “Hope… they didn’t… lock the doors…”
She didn’t even make it that far. She waddled past the Wondercolt statue, climbed one stair, and then collapsed on the front steps to the school.

A few minutes after she passed out, Wrecks arrived.
“Sunset? Sunset?!”
He ran up to the stairs and pawed at Sunset’s back. She groaned, but didn’t move or open her eyes. Wrecks ran to the front doors of the school and tried to shove them open. They wouldn’t move. He grabbed a handle and tried pulling the door open.
“Locked!” he growled.
He looked around at the snow and wind, and when he saw no one around, he barked as loud as he could.
“What the…?! Oh, it’s you.”
Wrecks jerked his head to the right. Sinomen was standing next to a hedge beneath a window, her licence tag glaring in the moonlight.
“What did you do to her, Sinomen?!” he demanded.
“I didn’t do anything to her,” insisted Sinomen.
“Well then, help me get her up,” said Wrecks.
Sinomen looked at Sunset’s unconscious form and grinned.
“Nah.”
And she took off at top speed in the direction of the animal shelter and Crystal Prep.
“You did do this to her!” Wrecks shouted as he began to give chase.
He hadn’t left the yard before realising it’d be a mistake to leave Sunset Shimmer lying on the steps. He ran back to her and tried again to rouse her. Her cellphone fell out of her pocket and plonked down the stairs.
“I don’t have a clue how this thing works,” Wrecks said after a few minutes of pawing at the buttons.
He gave up and returned to Sunset’s side. Her backpack was beginning to collect snow.
“A-ha! She might have her book that she talks to Princess Twilight with,” guessed Wrecks.
Like Sunset, Wrecks couldn’t help but miss the abilities he had in Equestria as a different species. Unzipping was difficult to do with paws, but he managed it in about a minute. He sniffed around inside and found Sunset’s correspondence book and a pen.
“Now, how do I write a message?”

“Twilight, you’ve shown me this already. I’ve seen it every day since I moved in here.”
“Yes, but I’ve made some additions.”
Twilight flew Nyx up to the chandelier her friends made for her castle throne room and showed her two of the ornaments.
“Oh! That’s me!”
One ornament contained a photo of Nyx wearing her headband, vest, and jinxed glasses, and the other was of her looking natural. Both were taken inside the Golden Oak Library.
“Since you are a treasured memory from my old Ponyville home,” Twilight smiled, “I thought it was appropriate to dedicate a few ornaments on this chandelier to you.”
“Thank you,” Nyx beamed.
The moment was spoiled by Spike, who burst into the room holding a glowing and vibrating book.
“A message from Sunset?!” Twilight brought Nyx back down to the floor.
She magiced the book from Spike and opened it. The penmanship wasn’t too legible.
“Oh. No.”
“It’s not from Sunset?” asked Spike. “Who’s it from?”
“It might be your dad.”
“Oh. Wrecks.”
Spike left the room. Nyx looked at the page. A black paw print sat at the bottom of the message.

As Wrecks had been writing the end of his message, then pen had exploded in his mouth. He got ink all over his front. He’d left his signature, shook the ink from his fur, and tried again to wake Sunset. Her skin was turning blue. This time, when Wrecks poked her, she stirred and opened her eyes.
“How do ya feel?” asked Wrecks.
Sunset’s eyes weren’t focused. “C-could ya t-turn the heat up-p a b-bit?”
“Can you move?” asked Wrecks.
Sunset made a feeble attempt to lift her right arm.
“OK, don’t go asleep now,” Wrecks kept a paw on her back and glanced at the Wondercolt statue. Before long, the base rippled and out came Twilight in human form. She saw Sunset and Wrecks and ran towards them, stumbling a little.
“Wrecks, thank you for writing!” she called as she made her way. “Does this mean you’re on our side now?”
“Sure,” sighed Wrecks.
Twilight sat on the steps and lifted Sunset up as best she could.
“Are you alright?”
“H-hey… uh… hey… um-m…”
“Can you not remember my name?” Twilight asked alarmed.
“It’s T-Twilek or s-something, r-right?”
“Can you remember your own name?” asked Twilight.
“Uh… S-Sun…”
“Yes?”
“S-Sun…”
“Yes?”
“S-sunburn Slapper? Or, n-no… uh… Somewhat S-Slimmer?”
“We gotta get her inside,” groaned Twilight.
“I tried the door,” Wrecks indicated the entrance behind him. “It’s locked.”
“Oh. I think Sunset has a key on her,” Twilight fished around in Sunset’s bag and pockets, and found the keys at last.
“I guess it’s better than breaking the entrance down,” chuckled Wrecks.

Sunset became less and less responsive as Twilight carried her through Canterlot High’s hallways. It wasn’t easy opening the infirmary door with one hand, but Wrecks couldn’t manage a key with his mouth or paws. Twilight was just happy he was there to help if he could, as Spike was in no mood to see him, and not having him there made Twilight slightly uncomfortable. There was no staff about, so Twilight simply set Sunset down on one of the vacant beds, and she and Wrecks just sat and watched Sunset for a while. The only time she reacted to them was when Wrecks told Twilight that he saw Sinomen in the front yard when he found Sunset. Her expression turned bitter, and then she passed out again and didn’t stir for the rest of the night. At first, Twilight was as sure as Wrecks that Sinomen was somehow responsible for Sunset’s illness. But when Sunset was still a slight shade of blue after two hours under a blanket, Twilight suspected a different culprit.
“Blue giants? What are those?”
“Vegetables that boost a unicorn’s magic,” Twilight explained.
“Huh. So that’s how you, her, and Trixie planned to fight us off,” Wrecks nodded.
“But Trixie didn’t tell us that there’s a one in three chance of getting a disease from Blue Giants,” Twilight continued. “She’d gotten the disease when she first started eating them and it was nearly fatal. But she recovered and carried on eating Blue Giants until she learned that they were outlawed.”
“So you assumed that because there was a one/third risk and one of you three had it, there was no chance of you or her getting sick?” Wrecks couldn’t help but grin.
“I guess we were being presumptuous,” sighed Twilight. “You know, Trixie said she got sick about four days after she ate her first Blue Giant. It’s been months and now Sunset’s sick. I wonder if it affects her differently because she’s human in this world.”
“Should we take her to Equestria?” asked Wrecks.
Twilight looked down at Sunset, who looked peaceful, yet pained.
“She’s in no state to be moved anymore,” Twilight decided. “Let’s let her sleep for now. From what I researched on Blue Giants, and what Trixie told me about her first hoof experience, bed rest is the best cure.”
“Let’s just hope the symptoms don’t get worse in her human form,” said Wrecks.