Her Student
Five girls stood around the entrance to one of the rooms at an apartment complex, each of them talking quietly as they awaited their final member. They had arrived at the entrance in the early morning, but the sun was practically sinking below the horizon before their final member showed.
"Sorry I'm late girls, something really serious happened," Twilight apologized as she came running up the stairs, doubling over at the top and taking in a few deep breaths.
"Yeah, something serious happened. What happened is that Sunset has been in there for nearly two days now and hasn't once said anything to anyone!" Rainbow Dash criticized as Twilight pushed her glasses back up her nose. "I should be at soccer practice right now, but instead I'm here waiting for you to show."
"Sorry...so, she hasn't said or done anything in nearly two days?" Twilight asked as she approached the door to Sunset's apartment. "Have any of you tried talking to her?"
"That's what we spent most of this morning doing, but she simply refuses to open the door or talk to us," Rarity said with a shake of her head. "Every once in a while we hear her sobbing to herself, but other than that...nothing."
"I see. That really does sound bad," Twilight agreed before losing herself in thought for a moment. "What about force? I don't want to disturb her privacy, but if it's serious enough..."
"Don't bother. Sunset used her magical power to seal that door shut. Rainbow and I both tried kicking it down and it didn't budge. And that was after we ponied up," Applejack explained.
"Yeah. Even I can't get in there. And I can get into anywhere!" Pinkie exclaimed with disbelief.
"So...what do we do?" Twilight asked her friends, each of whom shook their heads when she looked at them.
"Not much we can do at this point. She clearly wants to be alone, so I say we let her and let me get back to practice," Rainbow Dash suggested with a shrug, which gained her numerous nasty looks. "Hey, I didn't go to Diana's tutoring for weeks just to get benched at the biggest game of the year! I earned my spot on that team!"
"I agree with Rainbow Dash," Fluttershy spoke up in a soft whisper. "Not about the whole team thing, but about leaving her alone. If she wants to talk to us, she will. But for now, we can't do anything for her."
"I see. Then how about I try." All six of the girls yelped before spinning around to see Diana standing beside them, a look of concern upon her face.
"Diana? Where the heck did you come from?" Twilight asked as she glanced at the stairs, knowing that Diana didn't use those.
"I came here because I thought by now Sunset would have been able to snap out of whatever funk she was in. But if she skips school because of it and even ignores me, then it's clear that whatever is affecting her is worse than I believed," Diana explained as she walked to the door, the girls moving out of her way so that she could. Diana then knocked twice upon the door. "Sunset? It's me. Can I come in?"
"Seems she doesn't want to talk to you. Ah wonder why?" Applejack said in a cold tone that turned every head towards her. "Oh, don't act so surprised, Diana. She's upset that she failed to beat the Crystal Prep student in the obstacle course."
"Why would that bother her so much? It was just an event?" Rarity asked.
"Yer mah star pupil. Ah know ya won't fail me. Yer guaranteed to win. Ya won't let me down," Applejack said in a tone that was clearly mocking Diana, but the teacher's face remained unmoved by Applejack's words. "With all that pressure on her, it's no wonder that she-"
"Be quiet." The arrogance was struck from the face of Applejack by Diana's words, and though her face didn't change in the least, all six of the girls became very aware of the fury that was bubbling beneath Diana's calm exterior. "And do not act like you know what she has had to go through...why she hates herself so. There is more here than you can clearly see. Leave. I wish to speak to her in private," Diana instructed as she grabbed the door itself.
"Good luck getting past that. Even with our power we-" Diana pressed against the door in one swift strike and a moment later the door was obliterated into splinters, silencing the girls once more. Diana then glanced over her shoulder at the girls, looking from them to the stairs. Catching the hint, the now very concerned girls walked away from what remained of Sunset's front door. Diana waited until the six of them were far enough away before she walked into Sunset's apartment, which was cast in shadows.
"Sunset," Diana said with a softening tone as she spied the red-headed girl laying on her bed, curled up into a small ball. "Sunset, please talk to me." Sunset said nothing to show that she had heard Diana's words, leaving the teacher to sigh as she sat down on the edge of the girl's bed. "Sunset, I know that you are upset right now, but I want you to know that I am not angry with you. How could I be?"
"How?" Sunset replied in a voice that was hoarse from the sobbing and lack of use. "Because I'm the biggest failure that this world has ever seen. All your training. All the advice and help that you gave me. And I still lost. I still couldn't win, even when I had victory right in front of me. I let you down."
"Sunset-"
"And that's all I seem to be able to do! Whenever a teacher or friend puts their faith in me, all I do is screw things up!" Sunset screamed into her bed, her whole body shaking with fury and sorrow. "Celestia told me that one day I would be greater than her, but I succumbed to the desire for power and let her down! Twilight told me that I would be able to take care of this world in her place, but I keep messing up again and again! And even the other day, when you had no doubt that I would win, when you told Cinch to her face that I, your "star pupil" would triumph...I failed." Diana said nothing in reply as Sunset began to sob once more.
"Maybe that nightmare was right. Maybe I am the reason all the bad things are happening at Canterlot High. Maybe if Twilight was here, she would be able to stop the vortexes and actually be of use to you in the fight against Hades. Maybe...I would be better off dead."
Diana felt a pang of pain in her heart at Sunset's words, but it wasn't until she gazed down at what Sunset held clutched in her hands that Diana's heart truly did break. For Sunset was gripping onto the lasso of truth as if its magic would have the power to fix what had been done.
'And that means everything she just said was the complete truth,' Diana realized as she shook her head sadly. 'Oh Sunset, you poor girl. I never wished for you to put so much pressure on yourself. All I wished to do was help you find your confidence again. To be...she needs to hear this from me. And she needs to hear all of it.'
"Sunset...I know how badly you wanted to win that race. To feel that all the training you put in wasn't wasted. To prove to everyone that you weren't the failure that they, and you, saw in yourself," Diana said to the still unmoving Sunset. "And then something happened that you couldn't expect. The harness of your opponent broke and she lost her footing. Now whether it was on purpose or foul play, at that time it didn't matter. You were given a choice. Win the race. Or save your opponent. You chose the latter. And because of it, your opponent won the race."
Diana saw a slight movement in Sunset's body as she curled even tighter into a ball and Diana was certain that she heard a faint sniffle. But then Diana let the kindest and most true smile she had cross her face, before she gently reached out and placed her hand upon Sunset's shoulder.
"Sunset...I am so proud of you." In an instant Sunset sat up and spun to face Diana, her puffy, red eyes filled with absolute disbelief as she looked at the smile on Diana's face.
"Why?" Sunset croaked out. "I didn't win. I let you and all the other students down. Everything you trained me for...Cinch will always-"
"Do you think I truly care what that idiot of a teacher has to say about me?" Diana asked with a smirk before regaining her composure. "And yes, I truly did believe that you would win that race. That was, until Agatha found herself in jeopardy. That's when I became concerned for you."
"That I would lose?"
"No. That you would choose to win." Sunset gave Diana a look of pure confusion at Diana's words. "Sunset, the entire time I have been here, beings have been attacking you. Not your intelligence, not your looks, and not your physical or magical abilities. They have been attacking you, the kindest, caring--and one of the strongest-willed people I have met. And none of them managed to break you, no matter how hard they tried. But I was afraid that the race would be the one thing to do so. That you would go against who you are...to make me proud."
Sunset found that she couldn't say anything in reply. All she did was blink weakly as Diana took in a deep breath and continued on.
"I know how badly you wanted to win. But it wasn't about winning--not completely. It was about showing me that you did learn from me. That you truly were my star pupil. You knew how much I believed in you...and for a moment, you were willing to risk Agatha's life just so you could win and prove me right. So that I'd be proud of you," Diana explained. "And that's what all of this has been about, isn't it?" Sunset's eyes answered for her as she gazed down at the bed, unable to face her teacher.
"I had failed Celestia. I had disappointed her. And ever since that day, I wish I could go back and fix what I had done. That if given a second chance, I would make her proud," Sunset admitted weakly. "And then one day, when I was at my weakest, you appeared. You saved me, you helped me...you saw potential in me and took me under your wing. You saved me, in more ways that one. So, I promised that I would not fail you the same way I had failed Celestia. That I would be a student...worth being proud of."
"And you are," Diana said once more, and once again Sunset gazed up at her teacher with disbelief and doubt. "You chose to save Agatha. You chose to sacrifice what you had been after for so long to save the life of another. Even with victory before you, you didn't allow that kindness of yours, that inner...goodness, to be sacrificed. You chose to do the right thing, even though you believed that it had cost you everything. And in that moment, you showed me the true spirit of the girl that I have been training. The girl who would not sacrifice another to get what she wanted. You showed me that she is someone I can be proud of."
Tears were beginning to fall from Sunset's face once again as she stared up at Diana's smiling face with both confusion and happiness filling up her heart, unable to decide which emotion she should go with. Diana then removed her hand from Sunset's shoulder and extended it to Sunset, with Diana's eyes blazing with both pride and kindness.
"I don't give a damn about wins or losses. I don't care about a stupid competition between schools to see which is better. But I do care about you and the person that you are. And you are a good girl with a good heart," Diana said. "You are my star pupil. You are my prized student. You are Sunset Shimmer...and I couldn't be prouder."
Sunset glanced from Diana's face to her extended hand, knowing that Diana wished to shake hands with her. But then the floodgates holding back Sunset's emotions were blasted open and she hurled herself around Diana's midsection with a hug, wrapping her arms around tightly as she began to sob uncontrollably with sheer relief. For a moment Diana was shocked at the sudden bear hug, but then a small smile spread upon her face once more and she gently held Sunset close.
The two stayed like that until Sunset finally calmed down to the point where she released Diana and started to wipe the tears away from her eyes. It was then that she noticed that she no longer had a front door. "Um, Diana? What happened to my door?"
"I destroyed it. You had a magical shield around it and I didn't want to waste time trying to get rid of the magic," Diana explained with a laugh. Sunset beamed up at her teacher before she started to laugh as well. But the laughter was cut short when Diana's senses went on alert and she spun her head in the direction of the school. "For a brief moment...I thought I felt Hades' magic. But none of the girls are at the school and you're...Sunset, is there anything at the school that would make Hades send a minion?"
"Um, I don't really know?" Sunset replied. Diana thought long and hard for a moment before her eyes widened and she glanced at Sunset with concern.
"Sunset, did you bring your school bag home with you after the game?" Diana asked with fear.
"No, I left it in my locker before we left for Crystal Prep. Why?"
"Dammit all, that's what Hades was after. He's probably after that book that allows you to communicate with your friends in Equestria," Diana realized as she rose to her feet and headed for the hole in the wall. "If he destroys that, then we won't be able to create the barrier to-"
"Let him have my bag." Diana spun around with confusion at Sunset's words, but the confusion was replaced by a devious smile when she saw what Sunset had in her hands. "After you voiced your concerns about Hades going after the source of our communication, I had Rarity make me a few fakes that I've stashed in places his forces might look. I might have been an emotional wreck the past couple of days, but I held onto enough sense to keep this with me."
"Sunset, you continue to impress," Diana said with a laugh, before her face fell again. "But your decoys won't last long. And once he finds out that his minion failed to destroy the real one, he won't be happy."
"Good. Him happy is what we're trying to avoid."
Despite the thought of what was to come, Diana couldn't help but smile at her student's tone. She then turned her full gaze towards Sunset once more, and, upon seeing the look of confidence and strength that had replaced the features of suffering a few minutes prior, she found that she couldn't bring herself to worry.
"Well, despite not winning the race, I believe that a reward is in order for what you did. Is there anywhere that you want to go or something that you want? I'm buying." Diana felt a fear for her wallet when she saw a smile of pure evil cross Sunset's face.
"Oh, I've got a few things that I wouldn't mind having. But at the front of the list is a new door. My other one is scattered across the floor in pieces."
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At this point, I'm beginning to think Diana is doing Sunset's friends a REAL disservice. They are JUST as much at risk as Sunset, and she not only doesn't do a damn thing to help THEM get better to protect themselves, she drives them away when they're trying to help their friend. This is NOT something conducive to protexting all SIX ELEMENTS.
"Hades wants six sources of magic from this world. We can't let him have any of them, so I'll teach and protect and nurture this one and only this one, and pretty much ignore the other five. Well, except for soccer. I'll teach the blue one a lesson by kicking her off the team, but not by actually teaching her anything outside of class, the way I am THIS one, and ONLY this one."
KO awesome chapter, hope to see Diana and Sunset will be ready for whatever Hades throw at them.
Yup, this story started off looking good, but it's turned into "friendship is nothing, OP imported superhero is everything." Not sure if I'll bother to continue following it.
7130921 I was going to argue at first but.. now I'm just confused.
7130894 Diana is, I think, falling into the same issue that Princess Celestia did, becoming too attached to sunset. And while I think she can handle it better then the princess did, it's definitely impairing her judgement. And I'm really expecting this to come back and bite her in the ass for it. Hopefully she can fix things while dealing with and emotionally unstable teenage nascent demigoddess (I'm really expecting to see Sunset become a full alicorn in the next movie), without accidentally recreating the same events that originally lead to Sunsets first fall from grace.
Yeah I know, I'm using a lot of my own headcannon here.
7130894 Overall, I agree with you, but there are a few things to mention. First of all, 1) Diana offered to help Sunset and Sunset accepted that offer before Diana even knew Hades was after the elements, 2) Diana originally began training Sunset to fight the metal thing that wanted to kill Sunset, which wasn't targeting any other Elements, and 3) Diana has offered to help the other Elements (though they don't realize how much Diana knows about what they do) and Sunset has talked to the other Elements about including Diana, but the other Elements didn't know her well enough to trust her with the knowledge of whats happening. As I mentioned, I do agree that Diana could do more for the Elements, but that's as much the Element's fault as Diana's. Also, I think this story is more focusing on Sunset's and Diana's student and mentor relationship, at least at this part, than anything else, though that may change later.
I think Diana owes Applejack an apology what she said was actually right in a sense, sunset did feel the pressure of needing to win to make Diana proud and even said as much when asked why
I kind of think Diana is doing good for Sunset, and I'm kind of hoping that Sunset might actually become like Wondergirl or something.
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Unfortunately I kind of agree with these comments... Diana is just coming off as irresponsible at best and leaving the other five girls pretty much entirely exposed (like, WHY has no one warned them what is after them exactly...?) plus the girls are being completely swept aside in favour of the Diana show. At best they are not even present in the story, at worst they are being treated OOC I'm guessing to justify why Diana is better than they are at being Sunset's friend (RD is immature but not to the point that she'd prioritize soccer practice over a friend that has locked herself in her room alone crying for two days, that's about as far from loyalty and friendship as you can possibly get, and since when is AJ a cold arrogant bitch as described here? Especially when she's actually got a point?)
Diana says they can't possibly know Sunset or what she's going through but they're just the people to know -- they were there for her from her rise and fall, after all. Plus if a friend was acting the way Sunset was here and then a teacher came up and splintered her door I'm pretty sure walking away is the last thing these girls would do.
Long-winded way of saying I think the girls both individually and as a group aren't getting treated well in this story and it's kind of disappointing because the story started off so strong, and it seems like the reason for it is just to prop Diana up as the hero friend/mentor.
Well, that was deep. Nice touch with the decoy books by the way.
7131088 I don't know, I can actually see Rainbow wanting to help Sunset and upon trying for awhile and seeing that she refuses to even answer give her some space and come back later to try again after practice or school or something. As for AJ's claim, I can see both sides pretty easy. For AJ, she sees someone who is pushing her friend too hard. For Diana, I see her trying to help Sunset with her confidence after her nightmares have pretty much shattered it. And when it comes to knowledge of Sunset's past and what is bothering her, she seems to not be too sure with her position with them after her dreams with something keeping her from going into too much detail about her dreams with her friends. I also doubt she ever told her friends the whole truth, which includes her feelings about her past as they likely wouldn't understand some of it according to her mind. Diana coming from another world gives her more the same standing as being an alien and someone who would, in Sunset's subconscious, understand her more and open up to her more. Also the mentor/mother relationship that seems to be forming between them seems to be getting Sunset to open up to her more. As for the others being pushes to the side, I can kind of see that too, especially when it comes to Rainbow who is pissed that Sunset is sticking up for the woman who got her removed from the team in the first place. Diana seems to be able to sense Hades when he shows up, so she can take care of the problems before it gets out of hand. Diana probably doesn't want any more people knowing about her than absolutely necessary, but that is only my take away from the story so far. I could be seriously wrong on all accounts though, only time will tell. Now where the hell is my TARDIS, I want to go finish reading the rest of this story now.
7130921 agreed wonder woman is so far and beyond better than every one and is allways right in this story
the rest of sunsets friends are written OOC just to make wonder woman look even better
wonder woman is the person sunset trusts not the people who lifted her from her lowest points
wonder woman is the one making sunset strong now now how friendship games show casing how strong she has become no its wonder woman in this story
this story is becoming all about wonder woman being better than the MLP cast and that is a major sin for a cross over story
So now we know that Diana was not upset with Sunset, but I have the feeling the girls aren't out of the woods yet...
I don't really feel like the other girls are being portrayed as OOC, just because they're friends doesn't mean they're perfect. After all, Sunset broke their friendship herself before Princess Twilight "fixed" them. And even the Pony Main Six act like jerks to each other on occasion.
Though I will agree that Diana (and Sunset) are acting a little odd in not telling the other girls the whole story about who's after them.
As for this chapter, nice heart to heart between teacher and student. And after that little showing by Diana, I'm expecting the other girls to FINALLY ask Sunset for some information on just what exactly is going on.
I'm really proud of how Diana handled that. She knew exactly what to tell Sunset, and it was all completely true.
As for people who are saying she should've been watching the other girls...dude, she might be Wonder Woman, but she's not omnipresent or omniscient. ;)
I don't even particularly care for Wonder Woman {not big on Superheroes in general} and you have engrossed me. Well done sir.
7132451 Perhaps - but she not only didn't even TELL them anything, she actively SENT THEM AWAY, when their friend was in need. NOT a good idea.
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I think the problem with that is that's from prior to EG even starting -- this is supposed to take place after Friendship Games, three whole movies later. The whole ~friendship lesson~ in RR is that they need to stop being selfish jerks who let petty grievances split them up, that's pretty much the point of the understage argument/make-up scene. Yeah no one's perfect but this is so imperfect it looks like it's disregarding any and all character development they've ever gotten which is why it looks OOC to some people here. You don't seem them act this badly in FG because by then they've grown and learned.
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Yup, unfortunately I have to agree with your points, which is kinda sad, since this is a pretty good story.
One thing i'm kinda concerned about though, is that diana seems a bit ... bitchy i guess?
I don't know if it’s just me, but quite a few times she seems to be rather... self-absorbed. I mean in this chapter, the scene with cranky's classroom and a few other scenes i can't point to from the top of my head right now, she basically uses intimidation tatics to get her way, despite her being in the wrong, and she never appologises for it. I mean she just barges into another teachers classroom and instead of explaining things, she just threatens him (albeit nonverbal) until she gets what she wants and the same happens here again. instead of explaining herself to the girls and giving them a reason to trust her, she just uses brute force to intimidate them and then threatens thems (again nonverbally) until she gets her way and they leave.
...ok, maybe i'm a bit overdramatic in my wordchoices here, but my point is clear right? I know that wonder woman is infailable, but she seems a bit too ...self centered. As if she thinks everything she does is automatically right and she doesn't have to justify her acts to anybody.
7135558 another thing to point out is that sunset and the girls are a team yet lately since she started training with Diana she has been becoming more and more like a lone wolf
I think you should put some of Wonder Women's old enemies in this story like Cheetah or Giganta.
7135602 Well, one thing we have to keep in mind; She is essentially a god. That kind of breeds arrogance, especially when confronted with teenagers.
Not to mention the fact that there is some real shit going down. Another god is trying to fuck shit up, we can avoid formalities for now.
As far as not keeping the humane five in the loop, ok that makes no sense. But still what could they really do to help with the situation?
Well damn, Applejack. Never knew you had that.
Fuck you Applejack for demonizing Diana's words of confidence! You should be the respectable one...
She was trying to drive sunset to Suicide