Rainbow Dash leaned against a wall in the lobby. She brushed a few stray multi colored hairs away from her face as she waited for Sunset Shimmer. The impatient athlete tapped her fingers against the wall behind her, unable to sit still. Her head turned at every entrance to the floor. The ding of the elevator doors caused her to glance hopefully towards it again. Fortunately, this time, it was her friend.
“Good morning, ready to walk?” Rainbow Dash said, already energetic despite the morning’s earliness.
“’Morning, ready as I’ll ever be,” Sunset managed a smile.
Noticing her friend’s drowsiness Dash asked, “Everything alright?”
“Yeah, I just didn’t sleep very well last night,” She replied.
They exited the apartment building and walked over the cracked sidewalk towards CHS.
Eager to change the subject, Sunset asked, “So, did you have a good weekend?”
“Yeah it was pretty awesome. Scootaloo and I went to this skate park and hung out there for a while,” she replied.
“That sounds like fun. I’m sure Scootaloo loved it,” Sunset Shimmer said.
“She did. How was your weekend?” Rainbow questioned.
Sunset thought back, the only thing worth noting were the nightmares, but she didn’t want to share that. Bringing it up would only frustrate her and cause her friend to worry.
“Nothing really, just homework,” She lied.
Rainbow Dash observed her friend skeptically, “If you say so.”
Sunset rubbed the back of her neck nervously. The last thing she felt like talking about were the awful dreams that had been keeping her from sleeping for the past three nights. Internally, her brain argued with itself.
“What am I going to do?” she thought, “These nightmares don’t show any signs of stopping, but I don’t know who to talk to about them. The principals are out of the question. I trust my friends, but I just don’t think they would understand. That leaves Princess Twilight, but I just don’t want to bother her if it’s just my unconscious imagination messing with me.”
She shoved her hands into the pockets of her leather jacket. They were beginning to grow cold in the early winter weather. A chill inducing gust of wind blew on her face. She noticed that the grass that grew between the cracks in the concrete was now dead from the cold. As she shuffled her feet down the sidewalk, she continued to contemplate her course of action.
“I could write her about them in the book. Though, I don’t know how well I’ll be able to explain them in writing. Maybe she can visit just long enough for me to explain them in person, but she’s nearly always busy. I’d like to believe these nightmares are just my mind but something feels off. It feels almost like a warning,” she thought.
A waving cyan hand then interrupted her thoughts, “Uh, Sunset, you still with me?”
“Oh, sorry Rainbow, I was just deep in thought,” she admitted.
“Well, we’re almost there,” Rainbow Dash pointed at the newly visible high school. “Are you sure you’re alright?” Dash questioned.
“I’m fine,” she fibbed yet again.
As Canterlot high school came closer into view, the duo noticed the rest of their band of friends standing at their usual spot near the wondercolt statue. They approached the group.
Everyone greeted one another and sat in the grass in front of the statue.
Sunset couldn’t help herself as her eyes were drawn to the statue’s base, the portal to Equestria.
“Whatcha thinking about?” Pinkie Pie asked seemingly appearing out of nowhere.
Sunset jumped backwards a few inches in shock, “Ah! Oh, nothing in particular, Pinkie.”
The pink, curly haired teen squinted her eyes at her friend, then her usual bright smile returned to her face.
“Heard anything from Twilight lately?” Pinkie Pie inquired.
“I’m over here,” the Twilight Sparkle from their world said.
“Not you silly,” Pinkie Pie poked Twilight’s nose, “Princess Twilight.”
“Oh, sorry, it gets a little confusing sometimes, with the whole alternate world thing,” the lavender girl admitted sheepishly as a blush formed on her face.
“I know what you mean,” Sunset agreed, “and no I haven’t. But you know Twilight, she’s probably busy with her royal duties.”
“That, or she’s got her nose too far in a book to remember to write us,” Rainbow Dash added, nudging a now blushing Twilight Sparkle.
“That’s a possibility,” Twilight said.
“More like ‘ah probability,” Apple Jack added.
Sunset Shimmer laughed at her friends, “Yeah, I’m sure we’ll hear from her sometime soon.”
“I can’t wait for her to visit again,” Fluttershy said.
“I agree,” Rarity added, “I believe we are all beginning to miss her terribly.”
The group made sounds of concurrence.
The bell then rang, interrupting the group’s conversation. They broke apart, Rarity approached Sunset.
“Would you like to walk together to first period?” Rarity proposed.
“Actually,” Sunset confessed, “I need to get a few things from my locker first. I think I’ll just meet you there if that’s okay.”
“That’s quite alright, dear. See you in class,” Rarity said understandingly.
Sunset let out an internal sigh of relief. She didn’t believe that she could hide the truth from Rarity. Though she was very generous, she was also very stubborn and very good at discovering the truth.
“Besides,” she thought, “I’d rather be alone to think right now anyways.”
Sunset weaved her way through the crowded halls to her locker. She spun the lock to the last number of the combination. Pulling her pack off her shoulders, she exchanged the text and notebooks inside for the ones she needed on the locker shelf. Her eyes then found the leather bound book with the sun emblem, the book she used to communicate with Princess Twilight. Shaking her head, she zipped the book bag closed and made her way to class.
Sunset Shimmer managed to dissuade her friends concerns during lunch, but only by the skin of her teeth. She found herself eager to get back to her apartment not only in attempts to catch up on much needed sleep, but also to avoid her friends calculating stares.
“They can tell something is wrong, but I’m just not ready to tell them about everything yet. At least not until I talk to Twilight about it first,” she told herself.
Seemingly endless classes went by, but finally it was the last class of the day. However, it was Sunset Shimmer’s least favorite class, biology. Somewhere in the middle of the theory of evolution, her eyes began to droop. Despite her efforts to stay awake, the lack of sleep took hold as Sunset sat in the middle of Biology.
Once again, glowing green eyes greeted her in the darkness. Taking on the shape of upside down crescents as the shrieking laughter started. Sunset hated it, she willed with every fiber of her being for it to stop. She slapped her hands over her ears once more as the laughing grew too much to bear. The screams that emitted were lost in the swarm of noise. She sank to her knees, pressing her forehead against the cold, solid mirror-like floor, refusing to open her eyes. Her ears felt as if they had gone numb from all the noise. Yet, a single loud yell reached her deadened ears.
“Miss Shimmer!” it yelled.
Sunset’s face turned to one of confusion at this. Never in the retellings of these nightmares had this happened.
“Miss Shimmer!” the protruding yell repeated yet again.
Something then stung at the base of her neck as she snapped back to reality. The biology teacher, Mrs. Harshwhinny appeared before her, looking quite displeased.
“Miss Shimmer, is my teaching interrupting you nap time?” the teacher interrogated sarcastically.
“I’m very sorry, Mrs. Harshwhinny. It won’t happen again, I promise,” Sunset apologized.
“Indeed it won’t, because I assure you that if it does you will find yourself in after-school detention,” Mrs. Harshwhinny threatened.
The teacher then returned to her lesson. Sunset rubbed her eyes. She then remembered what initially woke her, a stinging sensation from behind. She searched around for the culprit, a small purple eraser laid on the floor beside her chair.
She craned her neck searching for the eraser’s source. In the row next to her’s two seats back, Twilight adjusted her glasses and gave a small guilty wave. Sunset returned a small smile of appreciation.
“I guess even in this world Twilight is saving my butt,” she thought.
Sunset did her best to pay attention to the rest of the biology lesson, but even she couldn’t stifle a sigh of relief when the final bell rang.
She gathered her belongings and exited the classroom hastily, heading to her locker. A hand reached out, grabbing her shoulder and startling her. She quickly turned to face its owner to find Twilight, her Biology savior.
“Sunset,” Twilight’s voice carried an earnest, concerned tone, “what happened back there?”
Sunset searched her brain for an excuse, “I just fell asleep, haven’t been getting much lately and I guess it decided to catch up with me in class.”
The lavender girl’s eyes narrowed behind her black framed glasses, “I’m worried about you, you’ve never fallen asleep in class before. If I had not have thrown that eraser, I’m not sure you would have ever woken up, even with Mrs. Harshwhinny’s yelling.”
“Thanks for that and your concern, really, but I’ll be fine. I’m going to go home and get some rest before school tomorrow. I’ll be as good as new, you’ll see,” Sunset rushed to get away from her suspicious friend.
She finally reached her locker, unloading miscellaneous items into it before letting her eyes drift to the leather book.
“I’ll go to the library to write the letter to the princess and wait for her to reply before going back home. At least that way I can avoid rising anymore suspicion out of the girls,” Sunset formulated a plan.
She made her way down the halls to the CHS library. Picking out a seat far enough out of anyone’s view, Sunset began writing the letter.
Dear Princess Twilight,
Haven’t heard from you in a while. The girls and I were hoping you have been doing okay, though I’m sure you’re wings deep in royal responsibilities. We’re starting to miss you again. I, in particular, have been hoping you would come back for a visit soon. In fact, I’m beginning to wonder if it might be necessary. You see, I’ve been having these dreams, well nightmares rather, lately and I have no idea what to make of them. I’m hoping you might be able to help me figure out why they keep returning and how to stop them. I’d be really grateful if you could write back as soon as you can.
Love,
Sunset Shimmer
Sunset sighed, happy to be finished with the letter.
“Now all there is to do is wait,” she thought.
She felt a pang of relief, as if half of the battle was already over. It felt good to let someone else know of the nightmares that had been troubling her in the recent nights, especially someone who might have an idea as to how to solve the problem.
Yawning, Sunset stretched her arms leaning back in the wooden chair. Her aqua eyes scanned the library’s contents.
Only a few other student’s occupied the room. None of which would question her for answers as to her drowsy behavior lately, she thankfully noted. Her mind swarmed from the lack of sleep.
She waited a few moments more before searching her backpack for her phone. Finally locating it, she frowned. Two missed calls, both from Apple Jack.
“Probably calling because Twilight must have told the girls by now,” she thought. “I’ll call her back later, and tell her I didn’t answer because I was taking a nap.”
Sunset didn’t enjoy lying to her friends, but she didn’t want to share anything with them until she had heard back from Twilight. Yawning once again, she wished she wasn’t actually lying when she would tell AJ she had taken a nap.
She used her phone to check the time. She had been in the library for two hours now, and was getting restless.
Glancing at the tome yet again, it showed no signs of a reply. In a split moment of clarity, Sunset grabbed the book and threw her backpack onto one shoulder, leaving the library.
“I think I can afford a coffee to keep me going,” she thought.
Exiting the school building, Sunset walked down the sidewalk to Sugarcube café.